Christianity and Eastern religions

Our knowledge and comprehension of God are necessarily imperfect and always incomplete. But also any concrete intellectual definition and verbal description of the content of our faith is always made with certain analytic and hermeneutical instruments which in truth do not take part of the divine mystery itself, or his own acts of self-revelation in world and time, but come from our own cultural background, its tradition and its philosophy. So, this course aims to investigate which are the cultural, rational and exegetical tools to understand the divine and which are the differences between the Eastern and the Western methods and attitudes. The course will give the opportunity to deepen some of the main figures, who have deeply influenced the traditions and the mindset of Eastern culture, like Confuzius, know also as the Socrates of the East, and Gotama Buddha. Furthermore, the lectures will give some space to theologians and thinkers, from East and from Western, who laid the foundations for dialogue and mutual understanding between different cultures, Raimon Panikkar, but also, the three great Japanese Christian theologians of 20th century, Kosuke Koyama, Kazoh Kitamori and Teruo Kuribayashi.

• Define the differences and similarities between Christianism and Eastern philosophies
• Know some of the main spiritual and philosophical figures of the Eastern Culture
• Know the main elements of doctrine and history of the Eastern spirituality
• Know the inner differences between Eastern attitudes and shapes of mind
• Know the principles theologians and thinkers who established the basis for a dialogue and mutual understanding between different cultures

Online

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At the end of each term of the course, the student must take a written exam. It focuses on the topics covered during the course as well as on the texts listed in the recommended bibliography.
The exam consists of 5 open questions. Each answer must be 3000 characters long, including spaces.
The exam paper must be uploaded onto the dedicated area on the eLearning platform, during the one-week long exam session. 

Dates can be consulted in the academic calendar.