Reading for Tuesday's class
Dear RELS-328 students -- for Tuesday, try to get through p. 79 (including the Preface, pp. xiii-xx) of Diana Eck's A New Relgious America. We will be talking about her ideas for understanding how religious difference can function in society and how that fits with what we've seen so far. Be ready to discuss the ideas of "exclusivism," "inclusivism," and "pluralism." I'm especially interested in knowing whether you think there are problems with this framework (personally, I think there are a few, but I don't want to tell you what I think they are until you've had a chance to mull it over a bit for yourself). I know this is a big chunk of reading, and I'm sorry for dumping it on you, but I think you'll find her writing goes pretty quickly.
Also: we have confirmation now for our next field trip, which is going to be on Nov. 15. We'll meet at 9 a.m. I'll see if I can get a College van for the trip, which can carry either eight or twelve people, but we'll still need at least one or two other drivers. The place we're going is the Bharatiya Temple in Montgomeryville. Their website is at http://b-temple.org . Their November calendar, to give you a sense of what goes on there, is here: http://b-temple.org/PDF/Nov2009.pdf . And through the magic of Google Maps, you can see where it is here: http://j.mp/1UhZIu .
Nathan
