Nov 22, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
CARS 2610 - Buddhism
While many Buddhists deny any kind of a transcendent reality, including that of a Supreme Being or God, many of the things we associate with religions are very much present in the Buddhist traditions, including gods, demons, rituals, priests, monks, nuns, festivals, prayers, shrines and sacred relics. This course examines Buddhism as a religion, paying close attention to the teachings of its founder, the historical Buddha, and its development as a religious tradition throughout Asia and around the world. It begins with the “three jewels” of Buddhism (the historical Buddha, his teachings, and the monastic community he founded), then moves on to the forms of Buddhism that developed in India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, and the United States.
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Foundations: Intercultural Explorations
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to critically analyze contexts and contents of Buddhist teachings about ecology, violence, and women’s rights, and in so doing, evaluate their own core beliefs and ethical thinking.
- Students will be able to identify the ways in which Buddhist texts and practices have influenced issues of ecology, sexual morality, and women’s rights throughout the Buddhist world.
- Students will be able to identify and compare ways that different global Buddhist communities understand their tradition’s role in social issues like LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and animal rights.
- Students will be able to identify and evaluate how Buddhist traditions and practices inform a variety of ethical positions and debates in modern religious and political discourse throughout the Buddhist world.
- Students will be able to connect and evaluate contemporary ethical issues and modern cultural frameworks related to Buddhist traditions and their history of interpretation.
- Students will be able to apply interpretive methods to contemporary debates about what it means to be a Buddhist in today’s world, especially regarding questions of cultural appropriation.
- Students will be able to evaluate relative strengths of approaches to and interpretations of Buddhist practices like non-violence in light of modern ethical commitments and perspectives.
- Students will be able to engage in productive and empathetic conversations with those holding diverse perspectives on the implications of Buddhist traditions and practices for contemporary intercultural politics, while suspending their own judgments.
- Students will be able to recognize and evaluate diverse modern strategies of invoking Buddhist traditions and practices in public discourse about issues like warfare, women’s rights, and animal rights.
- Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of cultural differences within Buddhism and between Buddhism and their own culture in verbal and non-verbal communication, and also to negotiate a shared understanding based on those differences.
Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)