IDS 225: Religious and Spiritual Diversity

Course Description

This course invites students to explore the nature of religion and spirituality in contemporary society. As our world becomes more interconnected, it is vital that citizens and workers become familiar with various religious and spiritual traditions and develop skills for navigating and respecting diversity, equity, and inclusion around religion. The course identifies reasons why religious and spiritual diversity has arisen in the world today and why it is important to cultivate it. The course introduces students to the academic study of religion and spirituality and familiarizes them with concepts and categories for thinking about religion and spirituality both as students and as practitioners. The course provides a general introduction to global religions and spiritual traditions so that students will gain a basic literacy about them. The course invites students to develop critical thinking skills about their own religious and spiritual beliefs. Finally, it invites them to identify ways that religions can advance inclusive, diverse, and equitable societies around religion and how such initiatives support pluralistic democracy, more just economies, and cultures that respect racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual diversity. (3 credits)

Prerequisite

None

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Define key concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion
Identify reasons why religious and spiritual diversity exists in contemporary society.
Identify instances where, historically, religion has created conditions of inequity or non-inclusion both in reference to other religions and in reference to gender, sexual identity, race, and ethnicity.
Demonstrate a basic literacy about world religions and spiritual traditions.
Recall key concepts and categories around the academic study of religion.
Recognize and describe resources within various religious traditions for embracing and celebrating religious and spiritual diversity in the world.
Recognize and describe strategies in the workplace and in society for creating equity and inclusion around religion.
Identify models proposed for a religiously and spiritually diverse, equitable, and inclusive world.
Demonstrate critical thinking skills around one’s own religious or spiritual heritage in relation to contemporary culture.

Course Activities and Grading

Assignments	Weight
3 Quizzes @ 10% of final grade each	30%
8 graded Discussion posts @ 5% each of final grade	40%
3 short Essays @ 5% each of final grade	15%
Collaborative Project Assignment	5%
1 Final essay	10%
Total	100%

Required Textbooks

Available through Charter Oak State College's Book Bundle

Kurtz, L. R. (2016). Gods in the Global Village. (4^th ed.) Sage Publications. ISBN-13: 978-1-4833-7412-3

Additional Resources

McKinsey and Company. (2022, August 17). What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-diversity-equity-and-inclusion
Pew Research Center. (2021, December 14). About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/
Pew Research Center. (2023, May 17). Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/05/17/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/
Tanenbaum Center. Combating Religious Prejudice. Resources for the Workplace. https://tanenbaum.org/about-us/what-we-do/workplace/workplace-resources/
Interfaith Alliance: Achieving Democracy Together. https://interfaithalliance.org/
Professor’s lecture notes will be substantial and included in each week.

Course Schedule

Week	SLOs	Readings and Exercises	Assignments
1	1,2,3,6	Topic: Religious and Spiritual Diversity in the Contemporary World Read Parts of Chapter One from course text: Religious Life in the Global Village, Religion and the Globalization of Social life, and Religion and the Sociological Tradition. Read Lecture Notes on Themes: Why is contemporary life more religiously diverse than previous epochs? What are the concepts – diversity, inclusion, and equity? How are they related to religion? What is secularization? Why is religious diversity a challenge to traditional religions (notion of religious absolutes and religious relativism)? Read: McKinsey and Company. (2022, August 17). What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-diversity-equity-and-inclusion Read: Pew Research Center. (2021, December 14). About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/	Review Getting Started information Review course syllabus Read assigned content Review the lecture material Introduce yourself in discussion forum Participate in discussions - Self-Introduction (ungraded) State of religious diversity (graded) Take Quiz
2	4,5,9	Topic: Eastern Religious Traditions Finish Chapter one and read Chapter Two in Gods in the Global Village: “A Sociological Tour: Turning East” Read Lecture Notes on Themes: Elements of religion. Highlights of Eastern traditions. Why are beliefs and practices of eastern religious traditions increasingly appealing to western people Scholars of religion (such as Marx) have often criticized Hindu religion (and other Eastern religious traditions) as reinforcing social inequity through the concept of caste.	Read assigned content Review the lecture material Participate in discussions Search: Do a search on the Internet for information about Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist funerary rituals, beliefs, and language. Take Quiz on Eastern religious traditions and sociological study of religion.
3	3,4,5,6,9	Topic: Western Religious Traditions Read Chapter Three in Gods in the Global Village: “The Tour: Western Religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” Read Lecture Notes on Themes: Why the emphasis on orthodoxy (particularly in Christianity and Islam)? What is orthopraxy? How does the universal scope of these religions challenge their exclusivist tendencies? How have the exclusivist tendencies in these religions created societies where religious minorities were excluded or disempowered? What beliefs exist within these traditions to embrace diversity?	Read assigned content Review the lecture material Participate in discussions Quiz on Western religious traditions
4	3,4,5,6,9	Topic: Religion and Cultural Paradigms Read Chapter Four in Gods in the Global Village: “Indigenous Religions” Read Lecture Notes on Themes: The role of religion in giving shape and form to cultural paradigms. What shifts are taking place today that will influence future religious paradigms? Make reference to gender, sexual identity, and race and how our world is challenging traditional religious paradigms and their impact on these. What do those shifts suggest about religious and spiritual diversity in the future?	Read assigned content Review the lecture material Participate in discussions Short Essay
5	2,3,4,5,8,9	Topic: Secularization and the Privatization of Religion and Spirituality Read Chapter Six in Gods in the Global Village: Modernism and Multiculturalism Read Tanenbaum Center. Combating Religious Prejudice. Resources for the Workplace.https://tanenbaum.org/about-us/what-we-do/workplace/workplace-resources/ Read Lecture Notes on Themes: Protestant origin of secularization Separation of church/state Privatization of religion Religion and public spaces – work, school, shops. Explain the search in the workplace for diversity, equity, and inclusion around religion. Reform Judaism and Protestant Christianity have embraced a separation of church/state. Explore efforts in Catholicism and Islam to do the same. How does the embrace of religious diversity also reinforce diversity, equity, and inclusion around other categories – gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity?	Read assigned content Review the lecture material Participate in discussions
6	8	Topic: New Forms of Spirituality Read Chapter Seven in Gods in the Global Village: Religious Movements for a New Century Read Lecture Notes on Themes: What does spiritual but not religious mean? What forms of spirituality are emerging? What elements of religious life are being incorporated into new spiritual movements. Introduce Magic/Wicca, Reiki/Energy Healing, Yoga/Mindfulness Make connection between gender inequity in past times and the cultivation of alternative spiritualities.	Read assigned content Review the lecture material Participate in discussions Short Essay
7	3,4,6,7,8,9	Topic: Religion as a Source of Conflict or a Resource for Peace and Social Justice Read Chapters Five in Gods in the Global Village: “The Religious Ethos” Read Chapter Eight (pp. 290-313) in Gods in the Global Village: “Religion and Social Conflict” Read Lecture Notes on Themes: What are historical examples of religious war/conflict. What are historical examples of how religion reinforced inequity and non-inclusion around gender, sexual identity, race, and ethnicity. What beliefs in major world religions support environmental justice and what beliefs that don’t? What are beliefs within major world religions that might foster cooperation around a sustainable world?	Read assigned content Review the lecture material Participate in discussions Short essay
8	1,2,3,5,8,9	Topic: Giving Personal Expression to One’s Religious or Spiritual Values No assigned reading this week.	Participate in discussions Essay on Elements of One’s Religious or Spiritual World View Complete Course Evaluation

COSC Accessibility Statement

Charter Oak State College encourages students with disabilities, including non-visible disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, head injury, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, or psychiatric disabilities, to discuss appropriate accommodations with the Office of Accessibility Services at OAS@charteroak.edu.

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