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This course/examination is part of the module(s) listed below. Please check the relevant examination regulations to determine whether a module is classed as a compulsory, elective compulsory, or elective module in your degree program. The learning objectives are given in the module description, which can be viewed by clicking on the module number.

Module number (link to module description) Module title Module coordinator ECTS credits for module
Show details 88-127-PHIL110-H-0916
Religionsphilosophie
Zöpfl, Katharina
5


Course no.: Exam no.:
88-127-PHIL110-S-HS-0916.20182.001
Course title: Exam title:
Philosophy of Religion: Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion: Religion from Tolstoy to Camus
Kategorie:
Seminar
Language of lesson:
Englisch
Date:
10/25/2018 - 2/9/2019
Organizer:
Philosophisch-Pädagogische Fakultät
Lecturer: Examiner:
O´Donnell Neil
Exam type:
in-semester examination
Exam mode:
Hausarbeit
Max. number of participants:
30 unlimited
Type of studies:
‘As from one man’s face many likenesses are reflected in a mirror, so many truths are reflected from the one divine truth’, writes Thomas Aquinas in his Summa. This course, an Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion: Religion from Tolstoy to Camus, will consider the major truths that proceed from the reflection upon the divine and its concrete instantiation in the religious literature of modernity. This course will proceed not chronologically through the history of the philosophy of religion, but thematically on the basis of selections taken from the work of the great existentialist Dichter and Denker of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; amongst them Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Camus. The preface of the reader which is to serve as the basis for this course is included below in order to give interested students a sense of the fundamental orientation of our reflections:
‘The story of religion, whether in Biblical times or in the last three quarters of a century, is not reducible to the superficialities of the masses and the subtleties of priests and theologians. There are also poets and prophets, critics and martyrs.
It is widely recognised that one can discuss religious ideas in connection with works of literature, but exceedingly few poets and novelists have been movers and shakers of religion. Leo Tolstoy, who was just that, has not been given the attention he deserves from students of religion. With all due respect to twentieth-century poets and novelists who are more fashionable, it is doubtful that any of their works have the stature of Tolstoy’s Resurrection. This novel does not merely illustrate ideas one might like to discuss anyway but aims rather to revise our thinking about morals and religion. To say that Tolstoy was a very great writer, or even that his stature surpassed that of any twentieth-century theologian, may be very safe and trite. But a much bolder claim is worth considering: perhaps he is more important for the history of religion during the century covered in this volume than any theologian; perhaps he has contributed more of real importance and originality and issues a great challenge to us. That is why his name appears in the title of this book, and why he has been given more space than anyone else.
Those who follow are a heterogenous group, selected not to work toward some predetermined conclusion but to give a fair idea of the complexity of our story. The work of the theologians has been placed in perspective, no less than that of the literary figures, philosophers, and others who are not so easy to classify.
Almost all the men included were “for” religion, though not the popular religion which scarcely any great religious figure has ever admired. Like the prophets and Jesus, like the Buddha and Luther, these men were critical of much that was and is fashionable; but their point was for the most part to purify religion. Only three of the twenty-three represented here wrote as critics of religion without being motivated by an underlying sympathy: Nietzsche, Freud, and Morris Cohen.
No effort has been made to give proportional representation to various denominations. As it happens, Roman Catholicism and the Greek Orthodox church, Judaism, atheism, and various forms of Protestantism are all represented by at least one adherent, but with the exception of the popes, these are not spokesmen. This point is not to appease everybody but to provoke thought.
The men included disagree with one another on fundamental issues. Hence one cannot help disagreeing with most of them unless one refuses to think. These men did not aim to please but to make us better human beings. By wresting with them we stand some chance of becoming more humane’.
Learning objectives:
Content/topics:
‘As from one man’s face many likenesses are reflected in a mirror, so many truths are reflected from the one divine truth’, writes Thomas Aquinas in his Summa. This course, an Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion: Religion from Tolstoy to Camus, will consider the major truths that proceed from the reflection upon the divine and its concrete instantiation in the religious literature of modernity. This course will proceed not chronologically through the history of the philosophy of religion, but thematically on the basis of selections taken from the work of the great existentialist Dichter and Denker of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; amongst them Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Camus. The preface of the reader which is to serve as the basis for this course is included below in order to give interested students a sense of the fundamental orientation of our reflections:
‘The story of religion, whether in Biblical times or in the last three quarters of a century, is not reducible to the superficialities of the masses and the subtleties of priests and theologians. There are also poets and prophets, critics and martyrs.
It is widely recognised that one can discuss religious ideas in connection with works of literature, but exceedingly few poets and novelists have been movers and shakers of religion. Leo Tolstoy, who was just that, has not been given the attention he deserves from students of religion. With all due respect to twentieth-century poets and novelists who are more fashionable, it is doubtful that any of their works have the stature of Tolstoy’s Resurrection. This novel does not merely illustrate ideas one might like to discuss anyway but aims rather to revise our thinking about morals and religion. To say that Tolstoy was a very great writer, or even that his stature surpassed that of any twentieth-century theologian, may be very safe and trite. But a much bolder claim is worth considering: perhaps he is more important for the history of religion during the century covered in this volume than any theologian; perhaps he has contributed more of real importance and originality and issues a great challenge to us. That is why his name appears in the title of this book, and why he has been given more space than anyone else.
Those who follow are a heterogenous group, selected not to work toward some predetermined conclusion but to give a fair idea of the complexity of our story. The work of the theologians has been placed in perspective, no less than that of the literary figures, philosophers, and others who are not so easy to classify.
Almost all the men included were “for” religion, though not the popular religion which scarcely any great religious figure has ever admired. Like the prophets and Jesus, like the Buddha and Luther, these men were critical of much that was and is fashionable; but their point was for the most part to purify religion. Only three of the twenty-three represented here wrote as critics of religion without being motivated by an underlying sympathy: Nietzsche, Freud, and Morris Cohen.
No effort has been made to give proportional representation to various denominations. As it happens, Roman Catholicism and the Greek Orthodox church, Judaism, atheism, and various forms of Protestantism are all represented by at least one adherent, but with the exception of the popes, these are not spokesmen. This point is not to appease everybody but to provoke thought.
The men included disagree with one another on fundamental issues. Hence one cannot help disagreeing with most of them unless one refuses to think. These men did not aim to please but to make us better human beings. By wresting with them we stand some chance of becoming more humane’.
Recommended prerequisites:
E-learning offer (URL):
Literature:
Religion from Tolstoy to Camus, ed. by Walter Kaufmann (New York, NY and Evanston, IL: Harper & Row, 1964)
Teaching and learning formats/course types:
Registration from… to:
9/26/2018 -
Last possible date of deregistration:
Status:
Closed
Comments:
Room:
Scheduled event/examination dates 
Date / Time Room Lecturer Comment
Thu 25.10.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 08.11.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 15.11.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 22.11.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 29.11.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 06.12.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 13.12.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 20.12.2018 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 10.01.2019 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 17.01.2019 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 24.01.2019 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 31.01.2019 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
Thu 07.02.2019 10:00 - 11:30 AM KGE-006 O'Donnell, Neil
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