Full Description
For more than thirty years, Jonathan Z. Smith was among the most important voices of critical reflection within the academic study of religion. Smith had also produced a significant corpus of essays and lectures on teaching and on the essential role of academic scholarship on religion in matters of education and public policy. Education was not a side issue for Smith, and his essays continually shed light on fundamental questions. What differentiates college from high school? What are the proper functions of an introductory course? What functions should a department serve in undergraduate and graduate education? How should a major or concentration be conceived-if at all? What roles should the academic guilds play in public discourse on education and on religion? Most importantly, what does it mean to say that one is both a scholar and a teacher, and what responsibilities does this entail?
Smith's writings on these crucial issues for education have been largely inaccessible until now. Some pieces in this book appeared in education journals, while others were collected in specialist volumes of conference proceedings. Many were originally delivered as keynote speeches to the American Academy of Religion and other major scholarly organizations, and although scholars reminisce about hearing Smith deliver them, the works themselves are not readily available. On Teaching Religion collects the best of these essays and lectures into one volume.
Contents
A Prefatory Note
Introduction: Approaching the College Classroom
Part One: RELIGION IN THE ACADEMY
Chapter 1: The Introductory Course: Less Is Better
Chapter 2: Basic Problems In the Study of Religion
Chapter 3: Scriptures and Histories
Chapter 4: Here and Now: Prospects for Graduate Education
Chapter 5: Connections
Chapter 6: Religious Studies: Whither (Wither) and Why?
Chapter 7: Are Theological and Religious Studies Compatible?
Chapter 8: 'Religion' and 'Religious Studies': No Difference at All
Part Two: THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION
Chapter 9: Re-Forming the Undergraduate Curriculum: A Retrospective
Chapter 10: Why the College Major?: Questioning the Great Unexplained Aspect of Undergraduate Education
Chapter 11: Puzzlement
Chapter 12: Towards Imagining New Frontiers
Chapter 13: To Double Business Bound
Editorial Remarks - Christopher I. Lehrich
Index
