Philosophy of ReligionDr Tom Kerns
Philosophy of Religion
Please do not respond to these till Sunday
(I’m posting them now only so you’ll have a little while to think about them.)
Your discussions up until Saturday evening or Sunday morning should focus on Underhill’s Mysticism. After that, for the remainder of the week, discussions should focus around the "Key Themes" and "Synthesis" questions.
These two sets of DQs are in lieu of a final exam, so you’ll want to make them very good.
Please do the "Themes" DQs first, and these "Synthesis" DQs second.
Discussion Questions:
Synthesizing1. Write a short commentary to the class (try to make it less than three screens long) attempting to synthesize some of what, if anything, you have learned in this course.
I hope that in doing this you’ll be able to draw on ideas from a variety of different parts of the course.
2. Write a short response to the synthesis that at least one (or maybe two) of your classmates has written.
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In a previous quarter one student asked me this question:
Perhaps you could clarify to the class what you mean by "to synthesize." This is obviously an important assignment, and everyone should be clear on exactly what is expected here.
I responded:
You're right, this is an important assignment. "To synthesize" (at least as used in this DQ) would mean to review some of the central things you have learned in this course -- that was your "themes" DQ was about -- and then to organize and explain them in a meaningful and understandable way for others to see. This means that you will do more than just list what we studied this quarter; you'll instead put these things together in a way that is meaningful to you, perhaps showing patterns, or similarities, or differnces between different aspects of the course.
So synthesizing will require more than just listing a few things you've learned, though it would certainly include that. That part was done more completely in your "themes DQ." This synthesizing DQ will instead require somehow putting together in your mind (and then in your posted essay) what you have learned, seeing if there are any unifying themes that have been meaningful for you personally, and/or seeing if the significant ideas you have learned this quarter have all gone mostly in a certain direction or directions.
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