Difficult Dialogues: Religious Beliefs

Catalog description

Introduction to serious, informed discussion of basic intellectual issues in religious belief. One of two Difficult Dialogues courses offered by the Department of Classics and Religious Studies to encourage thoughtful and productive discussion of historically contentious topics. Discussions concerning religious beliefs are notoriously difficult. They have often devolved into disputes, which have divided families, sundered friendships, and even fueled wars. Experience in navigating difficult dialogues concerning, we believe, transfer into the more generalized skill of productive discussion concerning virtually any difficult topic. So, this class is concerned specifically with learning to think through difficult religious topics and more generally with learning to think through any difficult and contentious topic.