Approaches To The Study of Religion (Seminar Papers)

Approaches To The Study of Religion (Seminar Papers)

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Book Specification

Item Code: NAE653
Author: Harbans Singh
Publisher: Publication Bureau Punjabi University, Patiala
Language: English
Edition: 1999
ISBN: 8173805938
Pages: 188
Cover: Hardcover
Other Details 8.5 inch x 5.5 inch
Weight 320 gm

Book Description

Preface

The study of religion has yet to secure in the Indian university the status which legitimately belongs to it. However, academic opinion has lately been consolidating in favour of making this aspect of human experience the subject of serious intellectual and scholarly enquiry. The Kothari Commission report came out decisively in support of this idea. In 1967, a seminar was held at Bangalore on the Study of Religion in Indian Universities. Participants included the distinguished comparatives thinker Professor Wilfred Cantwell, Smith, Director, Centre for the Study of World Religious, Harvard University, and representatives from Indian universities such as Visva-Bharati, Banaras, Osmania, Delhi, Madras and Mysore. The Punjabi University, Patiala, had, by then, worked out a scheme for starting a department of religion. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Sardar Kirpal Singh Narang, took part in the Bangalore seminar. The Pubjabi University's plans firmed up and a Department of Religious Studies-perhaps the first under this name in an Indian University-Materialized.

A set-up embracing five major religious traditions-Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Sikh, was developed. In 1969, came the quincentennial of Guru Nanak's birth and the Department undertook to hold on that occasion an international seminar on the life and teachings of the founder of the Sikh faith. The Department, which had started out as a research complex, was not without ambition to break into teaching. In this context, a seminar was planned to help define the scope and methodological and curricular procedures for the study of religion as a scholarly discipline. The papers given at the seminar are being presented in the form of this book. These papers cover a wide range of topics. More than presenting any orthodox or definitive viewpoints, the papers raise some very basic and pertinent points. This is important, especially at this stage of the growth of religious studies in our country. We have continued reflecting on these questions and trying to find answers and solutions. One concrete outcome is that our scheme for the introduction of a teaching-cum-research course for the degree of M. Litt, has been finalized. This will be a two-year course after a Master's degree in a subject like Religious Studies, Philosophy, Linguistics Literature or History. Field work and comparative study will be encouraged A student in this programmed will have to acquaint himself with at least one religious tradition besides his own. He will also have to take up a course in the canonical language of his area of specialization.

I must here acknowledge our sincerest gratitude to the President, Professor Niharranjan Ray, who chaired the different sessions of the seminar with his characteristic intellectual finesse and address and provided direction and focus to the discussions. We must similarly thank all other scholarly friends who accepted our invitation and participated in the seminar. Thanks are also due to Shri Sardar Singh Bhatia, Senior research Fellow in the Encyclopedia of Sikhism section, who helped with checking proofs, and Shri Anand Spencer, Research Scholar in Christian Studies, who prepared the index.

Contents

1 Welcome address 1
2 Inaugural address 8
3 Study of religion as academic discipline 14
4 The historian looks at religion 24
5 The traditional and the transcendental religion 38
6 Studying religion the religious way 45
7 Religious approach to the study of religion 53
8 Towards an objective study of religion: A theological approach 59
9 How to teach religion 63
10 The teaching of religion in catholic seminaries and Universities: history and present position 69
11 Though an ethical system jainism is a religion 87
12 The concept of seva- a preliminary exploration 89
13 Study of religion and social reality 97
14 Experiential approach to the study of religion 102
15 Behaviouralapproachtothe study of religion 103
16 A psychological approach to the study of religion 113
17 Prolegomena on reugious geography 118
18 On the understanding of otiier reugion 125
19 Reugious education in the modern age 132
20 How can we study and teach reugion in our universities 139
21 Anoteontheapproaches to the study of reugion 159
22 Truth in reugion 162
Participants 169
Index 173

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