At 7:30 PM -0400 9/10/2001, Rick Adams wrote:
> Why is it necessary for them to perform some religious
>practice in order to
>write about it? Would you ask students in, for example, a psychopharmacology
>class to take methamphetamine for a period of time, keep a journal, and
>write about the psychological effects of the drug on them?
>
> Sorry, but if an instructor ever required me to practice a religion, I
>would feel pretty uncomfortable in that class.
Well, it is surely not _necessary_, but by that test, most
pedagogical approaches fail. Since we are a private school that is
affiliated with a church (the evangelical lutheran church) about 80%
or so of my students are Christian. Others are religious &
non-religious of various stripes.
When we do the class, I introduce them to a variety of "religious"
practices, including zen meditation, transcendental meditation, yoga,
centering prayer, sufi practices, etc. A student can choose any of
these or suggest additional ones. So, by their choice, I have
lutherans doing yoga and atheists doing zen, wiccans doing wiccan
ritual, and pentacostals doing a modified version of centering prayer
(these are some of the combinations I have seen--there are many more).
I have had one student say she was too uncomfortable with the idea to
do any practice, and we worked out an alternative. I think it worked
less well for her, but that may have been an individual issue.
In addition to this, we visit Benedictine monks and nuns, a Cambodian
Buddhist temple (there are lots of Hmong in Minnesota), and a black
pentacostal church. I am hoping soon to add a Muslim mosque and a
Hindu temple visit. If you are going to study religion, it is best
to see its wide variety "in situ." When students sit through the
Buddhist monk's Dharma talk and realize he came to the US to spread
the light of Buddha they see evangelism and conversion in a different
light.
Most students who come to St. Olaf realize it has a church connection
and are at least willing to tolerate that to get a good education.
Self-selection works even more closely for students who decide to
take a course in psychology of religion.
I hope this answers your objection. I have had long talks with folks
in our religion department (several Christians, a Buddhist, a Hindu,
and an atheist) about the ethics of the assignment. Some of them
agree with you about its dangers. I would be open to any other advice
folks have to give me.
-Chuck
