TENTATIVE AND PRELIMINARY COURSE DESCRIPTION & SCHEDULE PHIL 7145: Phenomenology and Religious Experience Spring 2018; Thursdays, 2:30-4:30 PM C.M. Gschwandtner

Course Description: This course will undertake philosophical investigations into major traditional and contemporary forms of religious life and experience, such as ritual/liturgy, asceticism, monasticism, mysticism, spirituality, and fundamentalism. The course will examine these forms as practices and lifestyles, drawing on phenomenology as the primary methodology for analyzing their manifestations in various cultures and traditions. The course will treat and explore religion as fundamental human experience (i.e. it does not constitute an investigation into the divine). Although the primary focus will be on concrete phenomenological investigation of the practices and forms of life under consideration, the course will also expose students to some of the significant ways in which such phenomena have been approached by contemporary philosophers (such as Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Yves Lacoste, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Richard Kearney, Julia Kristeva, Anthony Steinbock, Emmanuel Falque, and others). The course will generally spend a session on primary sources in which religious phenomena are manifested or described, followed by a session evaluating contemporary secondary sources reflecting on the phenomena under investigation.

Note #1: The goal of the course is to do phenomenology, not merely to read about it...

Tentative Course Schedule (with potential texts/figures to be considered, usually in excerpts):

Session #1: Introduction: What is phenomenology of religious life/experience? Session #2: Ritual Practices/Liturgy: liturgical texts/practices from a variety of religious traditions Session #3: Ritual Practices/Liturgy: Lacoste, Marion Session #4: Asceticism: Apophthegmata of the Desert Ascetics, Evagrius of Pontus, Way of the Pilgrim Session #5: Asceticism: Hadot, Foucault Session #6: Mysticism: Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Gertrude of Helfta Session #7: Mysticism: Steinbock, Kristeva, Critchley Session #8: Methodological Interlude Session #9: Monasticism: Basil of Caesarea, John Climacus, Benedict of Nursia, Diadochus of Photike Session #10: Monasticism: Agamben, Falque Session #11: Fundamentalism: various contemporary documents Session #12: Fundamentalism: Ricoeur, Staudigl Session #13: Spirituality: Thomas Merton, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Jean Vanier Session #14: Spirituality: Chrétien, Kearney Session #15: Conclusion: How is religion productively examined philosophically?

Note #2: Although the primary focus will still be Christianity—the only area in which I have any sort of expertise—we will try to bring in expressions of religious life in other traditions as much as possible (such as Jain asceticism, Hasidic and Sufi mysticism, Buddhist monasticism, various forms of ritual behavior, expressions of spirituality & fundamentalism across several religious traditions).

Note #3: If you plan on taking the course and have strong interest in a particular topic or text that you would like included, please let me know (the list above is tentative). I’m happy to chat about the course in advance with anyone who would like to do so.