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This year
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Prerequisites
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Language of instruction
Duration
Identical coursesPerspectives on Religion and Meaning (B-KUL-A08C0A)
Aims
- The critical, ‘mature’ reflection on faith and religion in general and Christianity in particular.
- Demonstrate that current, fundamentally existential, human questions come up throughout the ancient texts of biblical literature.
- Stimulate a process of reflection against the background of and in dialogue with the age-old biblical tradition.
These aims are situated within the context of the more general aims within the options taken by KU Leuven:
The student is able to
1. explain the role lifestances and religions, in particular the Christian faith tradition, play in culture and society.
2. analyse the world views and perspectives on the human person present in certain social and cultural phenomena, such as media, healthcare, economy, technology, education... and to critically reflect on these.
3. demonstrate the uniqueness of lifestances and religions, in particular the Christian faith tradition, on the basis of concrete examples.
4. apply theoretical visions from theology and the religious sciences to current social themes.
5. recognise the religious and lifestance themes associated with one’s own discipline and critically interact with them.
6. develop and express a personal and substantiated vision concerning lifestance questions in dialogue with the Christian faith.
7. specify the value of religions and lifestances in relation to aspects of one’s own life (‘lifestance mindfulness’).
8. explain how insight into lifestance questions and visions can contribute to the development of one’s professional identity as a service to society, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable. see: https://www.kuleuven.be/onderwijs/visie-en-beleid/bestanden/beleidsplan & http://www.kuleuven.be/overons/opdrachtverklaring).
Previous knowledge
No specific prerequisites
Is included in these courses of study
Activities
3 ects. Perspectives on Religion and Meaning (B-KUL-A08C0a)
Content
This course consists of three components.
The first component concisely presents the starting point of each reflection on religion, faith and ideology in a Christian context. In the current western society one can observe a crisis concerning this matter. Two chapters therefore refer to the twofold cause of this: on the one hand, the cultural-historical evolution of premodernity via modernity to postmodernity and on the other hand, the ‘strange’ character of the biblical tradition itself, which functions as foundation for the Jewish-Christian tradition.
In the second component, possible answers to this crisis are discussed. The first chapter deals with some ‘negative’ reactions’, in which the historicization of biblical stories and fundamentalism are the main subjects. The second chapter sketches in what way the ‘positive’ response can exceed this tarnishing crisis in an enrichening, critical contact. In this connection, the matter of the Bible and historicity are discussed, then there is attention for the rise of the historical-critical exegesis. Finally we zoom in on the shift from a diachronic to a synchronic approach of the text of the Bible.
Against the background of the discussion of negative and positive answers to the crises with which the western Jewish-Christian tradition has had to deal since the beginning of the 20th century, the third and last component will focus on some fundamental, existential human questions that are dealt with in the biblical tradition. After the discussion of the relation between the Old and the New Testament, in which the Old Testament has to receive the appropriate attention (chapter 1), we deal with the question of the way in which the biblical and/or Old Testament literature deals with, thinks about and answers essential questions in three chapters. The second chapter of the third component deals with the origin and the purpose of human life against the background of song of creation in Genesis 1,1–2,4. The third chapter deals with the realisation of human living together, on the one hand from respect for life in the Decalogue in Exodus 20,1-17, and on the other hand from the matter of social justice in the Old Testament concept of the Holy Year. Finally, the fourth and last chapter pays attention to the relation of God with human fortune. From three fundamental topics, that determine and occupy man and society to this very day, in particular violence, suffering and love, it is demonstrated how the Old Testament literature is essentially and lifelike connected to the human existence in al its efforts to give meaning.
Erasmus students can study the course Perspectives on religion and meaning by self-study and take an exam in January, June or September. The handbook is H. AUSLOOS & B. LEMMELIJN, De bijbel: een (g)oude(n) gids. Bijbelse antwoorden op menselijke vragen, Leuven: Acco, 2005, 2nd ed 2006 (ISBN 90-334-5955-8).
For sale at the bookstore or via http://www.acco.be.
Course material
Handbook:
H. AUSLOOS - B. LEMMELIJN, De bijbel: een (g)oude(n) gids. Bijbelse antwoorden op menselijke vragen, Leuven: Acco, 6th edition, 2017.
Recommended background literature:
H. AUSLOOS, Oud maar niet verouderd. Een inleiding tot de studie van het Oude Testament, Leuven: Acco, 2nd edition 2010 or 3rd edition 2014.
Format: more information
Asynchronous online learning