REL 288 Religion and the Production of Knowledge (Not offered 1998-99)

This course examines the education of religious elites as a support for the formation of the person and the production of knowledge. That such an education is used to form persons morally is usually assumed, though not well understood. But the association between knowledge and religion may surprise, since religion is often seen as quintessentially non-cognitive. Historically, however, great educational traditions have often been associated with religious institutions. This course does not examine this link historically, but focuses on the nature of the intellectual practices through which religious traditions have contributed to the production of knowledge. It also examines the ways in which education is a formation of the person, both at the personal and collective levels. We start by examining relevant works of Weber, Foucault and Bourdieu, focusing on the social location of the production of knowledge, the status of the literate elites that participate in it, and the ways in which knowledge is an intrinsic part of the exercise of power. We then move to more specific intellectual practices, starting with the debates that the theses of Ong and Goody on the implications of literacy have raised. We also consider the role of memory in education and the differences between traditional forms of education, which are based on the cultivation of memory, and more modern approaches, which are more documentary than memorial. Finally, we focus on the hermeneutical and rhetorical dimensions of education in Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist traditions. We examine the commentarial practices that these traditions use for the appropriation of scriptures as well as the development of authority. Reading list: Weber, Sociology of Religion; Bourdieu and Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture; Ong, Orality and Literacy; Goody, The Domestication of the Savage Mind; Finnegan, Literacy and Orality; Carruthers, The Book of Memory; Graham, Beyond the Written Word; Eickelman, Knowledge and Power in Morocco. Requirements: full attendance and participation, two papers.

DREYFUS