| 1 | (Beyond) Bioethics | THM-BBT5 |
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| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. C. Jedan | | Onderwijsvorm | lectures and seminars | | Toetsvorm | paper/presentation | | ECTS | 5 |
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| 2 | Conducting Research on RHW | THM-RMRHW |
In deze module treffen de studenten voorbereidingen voor het onderzoek voor hun scriptie. Deze cursus wordt samen gegeven met de cursus 'Research Methods and skills in Heritage'.
In de eerste helft van de module maak je kennis met de onderzoekscyclus en je richt je op de deelcyclus van het onderzoeksontwerp. Je ontwerpt stap-voor-stap je eigen onderzoek, samen met de docent en mede-studenten.
In de tweede helft van de module leer je verschillende sociaal wetenschappelijke en/of geesteswetenschappelijke onderzoeksbenaderingen kennen die kunnen passen bij je onderzoeksvraag. Daarbij wordt in het bijzonder aandacht besteed aan ethische implicaties van je onderzoek.
Je moet deze module succesvol afsluiten om het scriptieonderzoek te mogen uitvoeren. |
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| 3 | Forced Migration | THM-FM5 |
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| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Coordinator | dr. E.K. Wilson | | Docent(en) | dr. E.K. Wilson | | Onderwijsvorm | lectures and seminars | | Toetsvorm | opdracht(en), presentatie(s), werkstuk | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students have a different course code:THRM-FM5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. |
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| 4 | Gender, Religion and Sexual Nationalism | THM-GRSN5 |
| Gender and sexuality are highly politicized in today’s globalized world. Across the world, we see nation states linking their national identity to a particular position in religion to homosexuality, often strongly opposing LGBTQI rights as in the case of Uganda, Russia and many other countries or, as in the case of the Netherlands, linking their national identity to a championing of gay rights to the extent that it is used to support xenophobic positions. Religious actors and transnational religious networks (e.g. evangelical, Catholic) are very influential in these processes. How can we understand processes such as these? How are these processes related to local understandings of gender and sexuality? These are the kinds of question central to this course. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | dr. B.E. Bartelink | | Onderwijsvorm | group discussion | | Toetsvorm | assignments | | ECTS | 5 |
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| 5 | Global Dynamics | THM-GDLC5 |
The course intends to give insight into the processes that are involved in the interaction between local cultural and religious systems and global economic, political and ideological forces like capitalism and colonialism. In contrast to the widespread assumption that indigenous local cultures just give way to overpowering global forces there are many examples of local cultures dealing very creatively with aspects of globalization on their own terms.
We will deal initially with the concepts of society and culture in order to have a firm basis to discuss the dynamics between local and global patterns and cultural change. We will then discuss in some detail the theoretical approaches of Louis Dumont and Marshall Sahlins (perhaps others) in relation to specific cases. At the end of the course students will write a reflection essay in which they are asked to bring into dialogue a concrete ethnographic case with selected theories (or aspects thereof) discussed in the course. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Coordinator | dr. P. Berger | | Docent(en) | dr. P. Berger | | Onderwijsvorm | lectures and seminars | | Toetsvorm | | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | - Workload: sessions 21h, readings 80h (ca. 480 pages), written assignments 12h, presentation(s) 6h, reflection essay 21h.
- Research master students, have a different course code:THRM-GDLC5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment.
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| 6 | Healing, Possession and Illness | THM-HPI |
| This course focuses on the phenomena of possession, healing and illness as the sites where culture and embodiment become entangled. Most societies are characterized by medical pluralism: people have different ideas of what constitutes illness, and what may cause or heal it. Moreover, illness manifests itself differently cross-culturally. How can we understand this variety? On the basis of theoretical insights from medical anthropology, the sociology of health and illness, and cultural psychology and psychiatry, we critically discuss medical and religious discourses and practices. Moreover, we analyze the functional differentiation between the medical (the secular) and the religious to unpick controversies around healing and illness. During the course, students will select one monograph that provides an in depth study related to the themes of possession, healing and illness, present on this to the other students and write a critical review of the monograph. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | dr. B.M.H.P. Mathijssen | | Onderwijsvorm | lectures and seminars | | Toetsvorm | assignments, final paper, presentation(s) | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRM-HPI. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. For exact assessment components please consult the study guide. |
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| 7 | Heritage, Identity, Religion | THM-HIR5 |
"Omdat het Notre Dame is!"
Dit is de slogan van een reusachtige nationale en internationale fondsenwervingscampagne voor de wederopbouw van de Notre Dame te Parijs na een brand in april 2019. Voor de verwoesting was dit gotisch erfgoedmonument een van de best bezochte attracties in Frankrijk. De selfies op de verschillende fondsenwervingssite getuigen van de betrokkenheid van mensen van allerlei pluimage: Parijzenaars, toeristen, pelgrims.
Wat betekent het om een religieus monument, een gebruik, een persoon of een concept als 'erfgoed' te claimen? Wie heeft er baat bij, en wie niet? Hoe wordt 'erfgoed' gebruikt in debatten en conflicten over nationale, etnische en religieuze identiteiten? Wat is de relatie tussen erfgoed en veranderingen in sociale, culturele en religieuze identiteiten?
In dit werkcollege verkennen we de oorsprong en ontwikkeling van het begrip 'erfgoed'.
Samen zullen we cruciale theoretici en wetenschappers lezen en bespreken, die het vakgebied van erfgoedstudies gevormd hebben, en leren hoe deze benaderingen in eigen onderzoek toe te passen. |
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| 8 | Heritage of Death | THM-HOD |
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| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. C. Jedan | | Onderwijsvorm | varied | | Toetsvorm | assignments | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | You need not buy literature for this course unless explicitly requested!
Research master students, have a different course code:THRM-HOD. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. |
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| 9 | Heritage of Nature | THM-HN5 |
| How do ideas of nature reflect cultural decisions about the more-than-human world? Through the centuries, concepts of nature have strongly influenced religious, philosophical, and scientific positions. Environmental issues play a crucial role in today's global developments. In this course, we will reconstruct some of the major lines of thought and discuss the various possibilities of addressing nature in philosophy, science, literature, the arts, as well as in mystical tradition. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. C.K.M. von Stuckrad | | Onderwijsvorm | | | Toetsvorm | Presentations and assignments (40%), final paper (60%) | | ECTS | 5 |
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| 10 | Historical Methods in Early Christianity | THMHRME5 |
| ‘Method’ has two standard meanings: the philosophy and rationale of a discipline (as in the scientific method, historical method) and the specific procedures, techniques, and skills used to study certain materials like texts, but also archaeological sites, pottery, coins, or inscriptions. This module provides a foundation for graduate study by surveying the methodological landscape for the study of early Christianity, its changing questions and perspectives and evolving techniques. Two central problems—‘What is History?’ and ‘What does it mean to interpret evidence (e.g., texts)?’— provide unifying threads as we follow the development of idealist, positivist, historicist, social-scientific, social-historical, structuralist, post-modern, deconstructive, rhetorical, and other approaches to the past and its representation. The main goal of the seminar is to foster critical self-awareness about the methods we use in our research and to furnish advanced students with a basic map of the key thinkers, disciplinary labels, and technical terms they are likely to encounter. In this module students are prepared for their individual projects in the second semester, i.e. the thesis and the internship. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | dr. habil. S.K. Luther | | Onderwijsvorm | werkgroepen | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRMHRME5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. |
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| 11 | Jews, Christians and Others | THMJCOE10 |
| This foundational seminar explores the root belonging-categories of ethnos (notional kin-group) and polis from the classical period through the conquests of Alexander and the Romans. How diverse was this constantly changing world and what criteria permitted or constrained what we might call pluralism: tolerance or even support of difference? How did such tolerated variety manifest itself in areas connected with ‘religion’, such as polis calendars, deities, and holy days, translocal sacrificial cults, philosophical schools, and voluntary associations? What limits did the Hellenistic kingdoms and Roman Empire impose on diversity? Why did Antiochus IV move against Jerusalem, or the Roman senate against the Bacchants? What did Hasmonean expansion mean for Judaea’s neighbours? How did Jews/ Judaeans fare in their homeland under foreign rule and as minorities abroad, before and after Jerusalem’s destruction (70 CE)? How did Christianity relate to polis life and to expatriate Jewish communities, in its first generations and as it gained strength in the third and fourth centuries? Through the period of Christianity’s expansion, what possibilities for pluralism existed among Roman leaders (Constantine, Julian, Theodosius I and II), philosophers (Celsus, Porphyry), Jews, and Christian leaders? |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. S.N. Mason | | Onderwijsvorm | werkcollege | | ECTS | 10 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRMJCOE10. These students submit an extra assignment. |
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| 12 | Materiële Religie | THMMRE5 |
“Materiality mediates belief … material objects and practices both enable it and enact it.” (Morgan 2010)
Wat kunnen dingen en hun gebruik ons leren over religie? Dit vak richt zich op religieuze voorwerpen – en dan niet slechts als ‘rekwisieten van een religieuze levenswijze’ maar als belangwekkende voorwerpen op zich. De module stelt de Westerse aanname ter discussie dat geloof (beschouwd als een innerlijke instemming met bepaalde fundamentele stellingen) voorafgaat aan de voorwerpen, ruimten en gebruiken die gelovigen maken, gebruiken en aanpassen. In dit vak wordt de vraag gesteld hoe gelovigen en hun objecten verwikkeld zijn in dialectische afhankelijkheidsrelaties en wordt onderzocht wat deze verstrengeling betekent voor het begrip van religie en de huidige stand van zaken van religieus erfgoed.
Dit vak bestaat uit 1) het kritisch lezen van diverse theoretische uiteenzettingen over de relatie tussen mensen en dingen, 2) grondige bestudering tijdens de colleges en in individuele onderzoeksprojecten van een aantal illustratieve religieuze voorwerpen, ruimten en gebruiken, 4) grondige lezing van en reflectie op illustratieve middeleeuwse theologische teksten waarin religieuze voorwerpen, gebaren en ruimten geïnterpreteerd worden en waarin getracht wordt de rol van materie bij de verlossing van de mens te begrijpen, 5) een excursie en 6) de voorbereiding van een gezamenlijke virtuele tentoonstelling. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | dr. A.J.M. Irving | | Onderwijsvorm | field trips, lectures, workshops | | Toetsvorm | presentation(s), projectopdracht | | ECTS | 5 | | Entreevoorwaarden | Bachelor's Degree in Theology and Religious Studies, or Humanities (Arts), or Social Sciences. | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRMMRE5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment |
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| 13 | Museums and Religion | THM-MR5 |
Musea en religie hebben een complexe relatie. Aan de ene kant werden enkele van 's werelds belangrijkste museumcollecties gecreëerd door de revolutionaire vernietiging of koloniale plundering van heilige plaatsen en religieuze gemeenschappen. Aan de andere kant zijn religieuze groepen zelf zowel in het verleden als vandaag actief in het tonen van hun heilige, historische en artistieke schatten om aspecten van hun identiteit uit te drukken en om bezoekers aan te trekken. Musea zijn opzettelijk gebouwt als "tempels" van lokale, nationale of wereldculturen; tegelijkertijd zijn tempels gemusealiseerd.
Deze cursus biedt een inleiding tot de geschiedenis van de ambigue relatie tussen musea en religie. We zullen fundamentele concepten en benaderingen leren op het gebied van museumstudies, in het bijzonder voor zover deze van toepassing zijn op religieuze objecten, ruimtes en praktijken. In een groepproject zullen we deze theorieën creatief toepassen op een concrete lokale casestudy, waarvoor we een displayvoorstel zullen doen. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | dr. A.J.M. Irving | | Onderwijsvorm | group discussion, gastcollege(s), lectures and seminars, readings, self-study, zelfstudie, seminar | | Toetsvorm | paper/presentation | | ECTS | 5 |
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| 14 | Muslims and non-Muslims | THMMNME5 |
| A common explanation for the rise of Islam is that it filled the vacuum left by the decaying Roman and Sasanian empires. But, in addition to allusions to the Byzantines (Rūm), the Qur'ān also knows of the Christological controversies of the 5th century that shaped the Christian groups that, in the 7th century, would come under Arab/Muslim rule. It also mentions various religious officials and structures (monks - rabbis - churches - synagogues - etc.), and comments on distinctions between settled and nomadic lifestyles.Assuming the first core seminar and building upon it, this course explores the rise of Islam in the context of late antiquity and examines the ways in which Islam adopted, challenged, and changed pre-existing political-religious structures and discourses. Topics to be covered include the formative moments in the shaping of the nascent ‘Islamic’ identity, the shift from emperor to caliph (including the significance of his various titles: imam, amir al-mu’minin, etc.), including administrative details (such as taxation), the protection (dhimma) afforded the Peoples of the Book, the nature of asabiyya (group-feeling) in cities, country and desert, the discourse surrounding ‘Arabness’ and tribal identity, the tension between mu’min and muslim. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | C.E. Wilde, PhD. | | Onderwijsvorm | werkgroepen | | Toetsvorm | paper/presentation and/or written examination | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRMMNME5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. |
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| 15 | National Socialism and Religion | THM-NSR5 |
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| 16 | Perspectives on RHW | THM-PRHW |
| In deze module werken we toe naar theoretische en interdisciplinaire sensitiviteit, die een basishouding vormt voor de rest van het masterprogramma Religion, Health and Wellbeing. Door middel van literatuur en groepsdiscussies onderzoeken we diverse perspectieven op vragen gerelateerd aan religie, gezondheid en welzijn en hun consequenties voor gezondheid- en welzijnsgerelateerde praktijken en beleid. We oefenen onze reflectieve en onderzoeksvaardigheden door een onderzoeksvraag te ontwikkelen op basis van een casus uit de media. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Coordinator | dr. A. Visser-Nieraeth | | Docent(en) | dr. K.E. Knibbedr. J.K. Muthertdr. A. Visser-Nieraeth | | Onderwijsvorm | group discussion, lectures, self-study | | Toetsvorm | assignments | | ECTS | 5 | | Entreevoorwaarden | geen | | Opmerkingen | Voor Research master studenten geldt een andere cursuscode:THRM-PRHW. Zij krijgen een extra opdracht, te vinden in de studiehandleiding. |
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| 17 | Popular Culture, Politics, and Heritage | THM-PCPH5 |
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| 18 | Reception and Re-Use of Aut. Texts | THMRRATE5 |
This module explores the reception history of the Bible and other authoritative texts. Major themes include the processes through which ancient stories and concepts were incorporated into scripture, as well as their interpretations in varying historical, political, and sociocultural conditions.
In the introductory sessions we reflect on basic questions regarding reception history. Then we look at the reception and interpretation of texts and traditions in a range of sources, especially in the Bible itself, and in early Jewish literature of the Second Temple period. Using specific examples drawn from themes (e.g. creation, the flood, eschatology) and figures (e.g. Abraham, Joseph) found in these sources, we compare interpretations of authoritative texts in these individual traditions. How have religious or political authorities used these authoritative texts? What challenges arise when a narrative found in one source is re-used in another source, or by another tradition? The sessions conclude with a general hermeneutical reflection on the reception of authoritative texts in ancient times, preparing students for critical engagement with the contemporary use of authoritative texts in religious or political circles. Assessment: Self-study, assignments, presentations, paper. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. J.T.A.G.M. van Ruiten | | Onderwijsvorm | lectures and seminars | | Toetsvorm | assignments | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRMRRATE5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. |
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| 19 | Regional Heritage | THM-RH5 |
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| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. T.H. Weir | | Onderwijsvorm | begeleide zelfstudy | | Toetsvorm | onderzoeksverslag | | ECTS | 5 |
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| 20 | Religion & the Politics of Human Rights | THM-RPHR5 |
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| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Coordinator | dr. M.B. McIvor | | Docent(en) | dr. M.B. McIvor | | Onderwijsvorm | hoor-/werkcollege | | Toetsvorm | paper, participation | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code:THRM-RPHR5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment. |
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| 21 | Religion, Conflict and Globalization | THM-RCGI10 |
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| 22 | Religion, Gender and Sexuality | THM-RGS5 |
Many conflicts in which religion is involved focus on gender and sexuality. Religious traditions often work on the body, through gendered practices of dressing, gesture, posture, ritual and more materially, such as cutting (e.g. male and female circumcision), scarring, and tattooing. So how can we conceptualize the relationship between religion, gender and sexuality both on the level of politicized societal debates and the level of individual subjectivities?
This course will focus on learning to recognize and conceptualize the links between religion, gender and sexuality. We will first discuss some of the classic authors on these topics. The second part of the course is focused on discussing ethnographic research detailing how sexuality and gender are shaped culturally and religiously. Students will be asked to go deeply into one ethnographic context and communicate their insights to their fellow students and via an essay.
This course will make use of literature from anthropology, gender studies, critical theory and philosophy. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | dr. K.E. Knibbe | | Onderwijsvorm | presentatie(s), seminar | | Toetsvorm | assignments | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | Research master students, have a different course code: THRM-RGS5. For these students an extra assignment in the form of a mini-proposal is required. |
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| 23 | Religion, Violence and Conflict Transf. | THM-RVCT5 |
| This course deals with fundamental questions at the intersection of the discourse and practice of religion, violence and conflict transformation. It will examine how these concepts interrelate and will investigate assumptions that lie behind their use, as well as how they are put into practice. The following elements will be interrogated: the discourse and practice of peacebuilding and conflict transformation; the history and development of religious violence and religious peacebuilding/conflict transformation; religion and reconciliation; transitional justice and religion; religion and conflict; fundamentalism and religious violence; women, religion and peacebuilding; religion, ritual and peacebuilding. The course shall be interdisciplinary, that is using analytical tools from disciplines such as religious studies, sociology, history, theology, anthropology, politics, law, peacebuilding and reconciliation studies etc. Students are invited to participate actively by going beyond describing issues to critically analyzing and interrogating theoretical underpinnings of religion, violence and conflict transformation. Case studies such as South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Zimbabwe, and Northern Ireland inter alia against the backdrop of globalization shall be deployed to facilitate analysis. Various religious traditions including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and African Religions shall be referred to whenever relevant. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Coordinator | dr. J. Tarusarira | | Docent(en) | dr. J. Tarusarira | | Onderwijsvorm | varied | | Toetsvorm | final paper | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | 5 EC’s = 140 hours
Sessions: 7 x 2 hrs = 14 hrs
Study of assigned literature:571 à 6pp per hour = 96 hours and 149 à 8 pp per hour (18 hrs) = in total: 118 hours
Research literature for your paper: 200 pp à 6 p. per hour = 33 hours
Assignments: 13 x 2,5 hours = 33
- The course unit will have the format of a seminar in which the lecturers will supervise discussions of the literature by students on the basis of reaction sheets written in preparation for each session.
- Assessment of this course unit will be based on attendance and active participation in the discussions (Class attendance, participation and Reaction sheets - 20% of the final grade, Presentations - 20% of final grade and a final paper of 4000 words - 60% of final grade.
- Compulsory literature will be announced in the course unit manual.
- Students of the PThU Master’s programme can enrol in this course unit.
- Compulsory attendance in accordance with the Teaching & Examination Regulations applies to this module.
- Research master students, have a different course code: THRM-RVC5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment.
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| 24 | Social Scientific Research Methods | THM-SSRM5 |
| This course will prepare students for researching and writing their thesis. It will introduce the notion of the research cycle, and will focus on the sub-cycle of the research design. The course is designed in such a way that it will take students through the steps of designing their own research, in consultation with their supervisors. Furthermore, the course will include training in specific social scientific research methods for data gathering and analysis, such as interviewing, discourse analysis, ethnographic research and mixed methods. Finally, research ethics will be discussed and students will have to write an ethical statement before their research design can be graded and approved. Students have to pass this course in order to qualify for the final phase of research and writing for their thesis. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Coordinator | dr. J. Martínez - Ariño | | Docent(en) | dr. J. Martínez - Ariño | | Onderwijsvorm | groepsdiscussie, lectures and seminars, peer review, readings | | Toetsvorm | opdracht(en), participation, projectopdracht | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | - This course depends very much on your own initiative in reading, networking and writing a research proposal.
- If you do not pass this course, you will not be allowed to start your research. If students do not pass the resit, they will have to retake this course the following year.
- Assessment of this course will be based on attendance and participation in class (30%), the preparatory assignment (20%) and the final research proposal (50%).
- Research master students, have a different course code:THRM-SSRM5. For these students there will be formulated an extra assignment.
- Workload: lectures and seminars 7x3 hours= 21 hours, individual work (reading literature, preparing assignments) 50 hours, preparing research proposal 70 hours.
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| 25 | Texts of Terror | THMTTE5 |
Religiously motivated fanaticism and violence constitute a threat to human civilization. All religious traditions seem to have a violent potential. Often, however, the monotheism of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religion is particularly suspected of an aggressive and intolerant potential. Leading figures in all three traditions have turned, at various times, to the exclusion and even violent persecution of people and ideas deemed alien. Sacred texts and ideas drawn from them can play a major role in motivating and justifying the actions of group members. Violent or intolerant behaviour can, from both insider and outside-observer perspectives, reduce the great tradition to a single essence, for which a few selected elements of the tradition are brought forward while many others are ignored.
In this course we study selected texts from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and contexts in which violence, power, and politics have exploited them. We focus on texts that have been used to justify violent actions in order to understand them better in their original contexts, as a basis for tracking later interpretations and exploring how appeals to these texts functioned in relation to political aims. Ultimately we ask whether monotheism necessarily has violent consequences, and how adherents handle the dangerous potentialities of claims to revealed truth. Historical and cultural factors other than monotheistic thought are given their full weight in this investigation. |
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| 26 | Theological Heritages | THMTHPMCE5 |
What is truth? Throughout the history of Christianity, theological traditions have understood ‘truth’ in different ways. The traditional understandings of ‘truth’ – both conceptually and with regard to content – are highly contested since early modernity. This contest has been the object of much academic reflection, for instance in the work of Jonathan Israel on the Radical Enlightenment. Some authors, such as Brad Gregory, trace the roots of the crisis in the understanding of ‘truth’ to the Reformation itself. In the 19th century Christian theology developed two responses to this threat. On the one hand, Liberal Theology based its theology on the universal epistemological idea of Schleiermachers Schlechthinniges Abhängigkeitsgefühl, thereby accepting the results of the modern sciences. On the other hand, confessional theology strengthened its own theological truths and challenged atheistic truth claims.
In postmodernism both these approaches are considered troublesome. Universal truth claims have largely been rejected in the collapse of Grand Narratives. The predicted disappearance of religion however has not taken place. This course unit explores how critical thought on the nature of truth became a part of theological heritage, how the discussions and the different results were embraced as markers of the identities of specified groups of others and denounced by others. |
| Faculteit | Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap | | Voertaal | Engels | | Docent(en) | prof. dr. W.H. Slob | | Onderwijsvorm | lectures | | Toetsvorm | exam, paper, participation, presentation(s) | | ECTS | 5 | | Opmerkingen | - Literature and a calculation of the study load will be announced in the course manual
- Research master students, have a different course code:THRMTHPME5. For these students an extra assignment will be formulated.
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