TRACK D: Religions and Ethics in a Pluralist World

Track D contains 4 core modules

Translating God(s):  Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies   (Dr. Norbert Hintersteiner)

The module offers students a comprehensive introduction to the fields of Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies in Europe. Taking its departure from Europe’s increasing crosscultural and interreligious identity, students will explore the ecumenical, crosscultural and interreligious challenge in Europe for theology and religion today, including the following areas: (1)  ecumenism as a source for Intercultural Theology vis-à-vis the divergent cultures of faith, and cultural as well as conceptual religious boundaries between Eastern and Western Europe; (2) the impact of interreligious encounters and tensions on European theology and religion, in particular the challenges between Islam and Christianity as well as Asian religions and Christianity; (3) phenomena of fluid religions vis-à-vis traditions’ search for integrity and authenticity, with special attention to the Eastern  Orthodox traditions; (4) the impact of the above areas for naming and thinking God in Europe today.

The exploration of these areas will prepare students for the new academic disciplines of intercultural theology, comparative theology, and the various fields of interreligious studies. The module will be carried out as a European Intensive Programme.

Research and Methods (Dr. Andrew Pierce)

This module equips students to pursue their coursework and research with due reference to required competences in a range of theological and interdisciplinary methods. Attention will be paid to the role of hermeneutics in relation to substantive religious traditions in their texts, contexts and cultures, acknowledging their uniqueness and interaction with other belief systems. Various types of research methods – deductive, inductive, analytic, action-based, social, participative, for example, will be investigated as to their usefulness in research development, with particular attention to the challenges raised by research activity in the interests of peace.  Students will also be helped to conduct a needs-analysis towards the fruitful pursuit of their studies. This will include choosing appropriate modular pathways; research writing (essays and thesis), seminar presentation, fieldwork, library resources, study skills, peer interaction and supervision.

Comparative Theology:  Meaning and Practice (Dr Norbert Hintersteiner)

This module outlines the fundamentals, approaches, core texts, and methods of the emerging discipline of Comparative Theology as a new field of interreligious learning in the 21st century. It situates the discipline within both, the academic study of religion and theology, and elaborates its relationship to the fields of interreligious dialogue and the theology of religions. Students learn further to employ various historical and systematic models as hermeneutical tools by which to reconstruct and interpret historical and systematic interreligious case studies. These will be explored also as the arena within which students learn to appreciate the importance of the larger world religious scene and as the context in which theologians and religious studies scholars from various faith traditions seek to do their work in this century. The module consists of lecture and seminar. The seminar offers an advanced reading of core texts and recent studies with emphasis on comparative projects arising from the encounter of Indic, Islamic and Christian theological traditions. Comparative focus varies on such topics and motifs as God(s)/ultimate reality, tradition, revelation, scripture, nature, human condition, gender, sacred life, love, religious truth, etc.

Religions and Ethics in a Pluralist World (Prof Linda Hogan)

Religion has re-emerged as a significant force in the public square bringing with it a host of challenges to the manner in which social, political and cultural issues are debated and decided.  This module examines the changing role of religion in contemporary society by drawing on historical and recent debates in theology, philosophy, sociology and politics.  It explores the relationship between religion and ethics in societies that are at once secular and multi-religious, and considers how political deliberation on issues of critical moral global concern can be pursued.  Having analysed the key points of reference in historical and contemporary debates this module will then focus on the concept of justice as it has been understood, theorised and debated in different religious and philosophical contexts with the objective of identifying the prospect of shared values in a globalised world.

Optional modules

Three optional modules are selected from the following concentrations

Concentration 1. Peace and International Development

Conflict Resolution and Nonviolence (Dr Iain Atack)

This module investigates theories of nonviolence; nonviolence and political action; official and unofficial mediation processes; culture and conflict resolution.

The Politics of Development (Dr Iain Atack)

This module explores the evolution of development theory; gender and development; the impact of militarism on developing countries; the debt crisis; sustainable development; development ethics.

Gender, War and Peace (Dr Gillian Wylie)

This module explores gender as biological or as socially constructed; masculinity; analysis of war and peace through gendered lenses; religion and the gender order; challenging the gender order.

Creation, Cosmology and Ecotheology (Dr Geraldine Smyth)

This course takes its entry point in the current drama of the ecological crisis, and the challenge to churches and theologians to re-evaluate the religious and ethical dimensions of climate change, over-consumption, and sustainability of the fragile earth in its diverse and vulnerable ecosystems. This reappraisal will take account of changing epistemological paradigms, dialogue between religion and the new science, and of the rupture and potential reclamation of revelatory discourse and deep symbols of creation in the wake of modernity. Deconstructive, narrative, creative and practical interpretations of key topics – creation ex nihilo, chaos, goodness, embodiment, sin, covenant and holiness will be elucidated, and the contested anthropological hegemony in prevailing models of human-earth relationship probed (e.g., care-taker? servant? companion? poet? homo sacer? inhabitation?). A one-day study visit to An Tairseach (The Threshold) Ecological Learning Centre and Organic Farm in Wicklow will ground and expand the analytic parameters of the course.

Northern Ireland:  Conflict, Religion and the Politics of Peace (Dr Geraldine Smyth)

This module analyses the causes and changing modes of conflict and peace in Ireland through a series of hermeneutical frameworks – historical, colonial, religious, cultural, political-constitutional and conflict analysis. It focuses critically on the zero-sum politics of antagonistic identities in mutual deterrence and cyclical reiterations of violence, and on politico-theological justifications and churchly institutionalization of sectarianism. The Belfast Agreement (1998), its background, gradual impact and status of power-sharing, and the ambivalence, North and South towards Irish unity, will be interrogated, together with the influence of political, civic and religious leadership in working through cruxes and modes of “dealing with the past” and building peace. Comparative lessons will be drawn vis à vis the interplay of formal political and civic processes of post-conflict reconciliation, and sources and models for an integrated framework of peace building will be evaluated.

Concentration 2. Religion, Ethics and International Relations

Religions and International Relations (Dr Bill McSweeney)

In recent years religion has re-entered the field of international relations in ways previously unimagined.  However, scholars working in the field are struggling to construct models that give an appropriate place to religion in such settings. Drawing on the major authors and experiences in this emerging field, the module explores the evolving role religions in international politics, and focuses particularly on its potential in the creation of more humane models of governance on the international scene. Special attention is given to how international relations can adhere to the mobilizing potential of religion and its resonance with the deep roots of a society; to the ethos of solidarity religion can provide, when showing its inclusivist face; to the normative horizons that affirm humanity even in the midst of fragmentation and diversity; to the transformative nature of faith and ideals, particularly as they are related to struggle and self-sacrifice; to religion’s sense of limits, growing out of an awareness of finitude and the capacity of human beings for evil; to religion’s sense of identity that is not achieved through affinity to the state, but rather in reference to a spiritual journey; to religion’s concern for reconciliation and the need for forgiveness.

Ethics in International Affairs (Prof Linda Hogan)

Although the issue of ethics in international affairs has become more prominent in recent years, nonetheless ethical questions continue to be dealt with piecemeal, as and when problems arise.  The aim of this module is to provide a sustained analysis of the diverse and intricate nature of ethical conflicts as they arise in the international context.  In the first instance a number of the major theoretical perspectives that have a bearing on the possibilities for ethics in political contexts will be examined.  Following from these theoretical investigations the module will consider a number of key problematic in the contemporary context including historical injustices and the ethics of restitution; atrocities and the ethics of accountability; the ethics of humanitarian intervention; just war reasoning and the ‘war on terror’; globalisation and the ethical imperative; media ethics and international affairs.

Comparative/Interreligious Ethics (Dr Norbert Hintersteiner)

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of an interdisciplinary literature revolving around the question of how to assess the similarities and differences among the world’s religio-moral traditions and systems. The goal of comparative/interreligious ethics is to help provide a basis for both scholarly understanding and conflict resolution by investigating 1) what common ground unites diverse traditions, 2) what differences separate them, and 3) what is at stake in their disagreements.  Some of the central questions encountered in this field are:  How are “religion” and “morality” related to one another?  In what ways do ethical systems aspire to universality, and in what ways are they particularistic?  Is there a common morality?  What methodological approaches best lend themselves to the task of cross-cultural and interreligious comparisons in ethics?  In exploring these questions, the module will proceed at two levels.  At one level, it will seek to gain a sense of the world’s moral diversity by acquainting ourselves with the central moral beliefs of a range of communities and traditions of world religions.  At another level, it will survey and critique a number of different media, methods and critical perspectives for comparing the ethical systems of different groups.  The primary writing requirement will be a final essay defending and applying a methodology for the comparison of two or more ethical traditions.

Further information:

• Introduction
• What is Intercultural & Interreligious Studies?
• Course Details
• Why apply?
• Who should apply?
• How to apply
• Course Assessment

Prospective student handbook, PDF posters, frequently asked questions, alumnae profiles and other information at our additional resource site: Ecumenics.ie

Other degree programmes www.tcd.ie/ise

Trinity College Dublin is recognised internationally as Ireland's premier university and is ranked in 52nd position in the top 100 world universities and 14th position in the top 200 European universities by the QS World University Rankings 2010. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2010, TCD is ranked 76th in the top 200 world universities and 15th in the top European universities.