Class 15

 Mentors:

Anne Klaeysen and Anthony Pinn (2007-2010)

Anne Klaeysen has held a variety of lay leadership positions.  She is currently a Leader at New York Society for Ethical Culture, Leader at Queens Ethical Society and Humanist Chaplain at Aldephi University. Anne holds Masters degrees in German from the State University of New York at Albany and in Business Administration from New York University. She is a graduate of the Humanist Institute and the Pastoral Counseling Program at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health. In May 2005, Anne received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hebrew Union College. 

Anthony Pinn is a contemporary professor and writer whose work focuses on liberation theology, Black religion, and Black humanism.  Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University.  He earned his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard University in 1994. His dissertation was entitled “I Wonder as I Wonder: An Examination of the Problem of Evil in African-American Religious Thought.”

Curriculum and Readings

Session One: Essential Humanism (December 7-9, 2007)

Required Readings

  • Humanist Manifesto I-III
  • Paul Kurtz, editor, The Humanist Alternative
  • Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism
  • Gerald Larue, Freethought Across the Centuries

Readings for the Paper Assignments (select three)

  • Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
  • John Dewey, A Common Faith
  • Edward Ericson, The Humanist Way
  • Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom
  • Susan Jacoby, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
  • Mitchell Silver, The Plausible God
  • Mason Olds, American Religious Humanism
  • Anthony Pinn, African American Humanist Principles (2004)

Session Two: Being Human (April 11-13, 2008)

Required Readings (bold)

A) Perspectives on Roots of Religion

  • Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
  • Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy – Sociology of Religion
  • Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth
  • Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
  • Ninian Smart, Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World's Beliefs
  • Jeanette Winterson, Weight (fiction)

B) Moral Development

  • Robert Kegan, The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development
  • James Fowler, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
  • Jonathan Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century
  • Stephen Jay Gloud, The Mismeasure of Man
  • Carol Travis, The Mismeasure of Woman

C) Ethical Theories and Problems

  • Simon Blackburn, Being Good, A Short Introduction to Ethics
  • Adam Morton, On Evil
  • Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics, and Moral Education
  • Philip Zimbardo, The Stanford Prison Experiment (website)
  • Arthur Dobrin, Ethics for Everyone: How to Increase Your Moral Intelligence
  • Avishai Margalit, The Ethics of Memory
  • James Rachels, The Right Thing to Do: Basic Readings in Moral Philosophy
  • Amartya Sen, Ethics and Economics
  • Sharon Welch, A Feminist Ethic of Risk
  • Emilie townes, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil

D) Family Values, Human Sexuality, and Gender Identity

  • Kwame Anthony Appia, The Ethics of Identity
  • Jared Diamond, Why is Sex Fun?
  • Robert Coles, The Moral Life of Children
  • Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions
  • Toni Morrison, The Color Purple (fiction)
  • Lillian B. Rubin, Intimate Strangers
  • Richard Wright, Black Boy or The Outsider

E) Theories of Counseling and Ethical Practices

  • Edwin Friedman, Friedman's Fables
  • The IHEU Cos of Ethics for Counselors
  • Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communications, A Language of Life
  • The Erik Erikson Reader
  • Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person

Session Three: Humanist Ideas in World Religions (August 13-17, 2008)

Required Readings (bold)

Overview

  • Arvind Sharma, ed., Our Religions
  • John Miller and Aaron Kendi, eds., God's Breath: Scred Scriptures of the World
  • Miguel A. de la Torre, The Hope of Liberation in World Religions
  • Regina Wentzel Wolfe and Christine E. Gudorf, Ethics and World Religions: Cross-Cultural Case Studies

A) Early Religions – Myth and Nature Religions

  • Joseph Campbell, Hero with a Thousand Faces
  • Karen McCarthy Brown, A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)
  •  Vine Deloria, Jr., Leslie Marmon Silko and George E. Tinker, God is Red: A Native View of Religion
  • River Higginbotham and Joyce Higginbotham, Paganism
  • Dennis Tedlock (author) and Barbara Tedlock (ed.), Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy

B) Hinduism – Epistemology and Reality

  • Sue Hamilton, Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
  • Diana L. Darson Eck, Seeing the Divine Image in India

C) Buddhism – Ethics and Non-Violence

  • Richard Hughes Seager, Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism
  • Ananda W.P. Guruge, Humanistic Buddhism for Social Well-Being
  • Yun Hsing and Xingyun, Humanistic Buddhism: A Blueprint for Life

D) Confucianism – Society Based on Ethics (see required readings in overview)

E) Taoism – Harmony with the Natural World (see required readings in overview)

F) Judaism – Practice and Covenant

  • Sherwin T. Wine, Humanistic Judaism
  • Carol Ochs, Women and Spirituality
  • Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion

G) Islam – Tolerance

  • Vartan Gregorian, Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith
  • Ayaan, Hirsi Ali, Infidel

H) Christianity

  • Anthony Freeman, God in Us: A Case for Christian Humanism
  • Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
  • Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian
  • Gary Willis, What Jesus Meant

Session Four: Leadership (December 5-7, 2008)

Assignments

  • One sermon, based on the required readings and discussions in our December session
  • Three reflection papers, using the optional books
  • Oral presentation of "elevator" speech on Humanism

Required Readings (bold)

A) Media Awareness and Marketing

  • George Lakoff, Don't Think of an Elephant

  • Deirdre Breakenridge, Thomas Deloughry, The New PR Toolkit: Strategies for Successful Media Relations
  • Stuart Ewen, PR! – A Social History of Spin

B) Public Speaking: Humanism As Good News and "Elevator" Speeches

  • Hal Hart, Successful Spokespersons Are Made, Not Born: How to Control the Direction of Media Interviews & Deliver Winning Presentations
  • Rev. Scott W. Alexander, The Relational Church: Closing the Gap Between Preacher and Pew

C) Leadership Theory and Practice

  • James MacGregor Burns, Transforming Leadership

  • Edgar Stoesz and Chester Raber, Doing Good Better: How To Be an Effective Board Member of a Nonprofit
  • John Gardner, On Leadership
  • Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
  • Ronald A Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers
  • Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard, The Leader of the Future
  • Harvey Seifter, Executive Director, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Peter Economy, Leadership Ensemble: Lessons in Collaborative Management from the World's Only Conductorless Orchestra

D) Systems Theory

  • Edwin Friedman, Generation to Generation

  • Harriet Lerner, The Dance of Anger
  • George Parsons and Speed B. Leas, Understanding Your Congregation As a System: The Manual
  • Other books from the Alban Institute @ www.alban.org

E) Administration: Human Intention and Moral Enterprise, Professional Ethics and Personal Integrity

  • John Carver, Boards That Make A Difference

  • Roger Risher and William Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
  • Geoffrey Bellman, Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge
  • Craig Johnson, Meeting the Ehtical Challenge of Leadership
  • Lyle Schaller, The Change Agent

Session Five: Critical Thinking and Creative Dialogue (April 17-19, 2009)

Assignments

  • One sermon, based on the required readings and discussions in our April session
  • Three reflection papers, using optional books

Note: You will receive relevant articles and poetry by email.  These may be used for your reflection papers.

Required Readings (bold)

A) Cognition and Language

  • Simon Blackburn, Think: A Guide to Philosophy

  • David Crystal, How Language Works

  • Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness
  • Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
  • Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained
  • Terrence Deacon, The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain

B) Truth and Meaning

  • Simon Blckburn, Truth: A Guide

  • Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are
  • Thomas Nagel, What Does it All Mean?: A Short Introduction to Philosophy
  • A.C. Grayling, Truth, Meaning and Realism (Essays in the Philsophy of Thought)

C) Dialogue

  • David Bohm, On Dialogue

  • Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitainism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
  • William Isaacs, Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
  • Juanita Brown and William Isaacs, The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

Session Six: Science, Methods and Uses (August 12-16, 2009)

 Assignments

  • One sermon, based on the required readings and discussions in our August session
  • Three reflection papers, using the optional books and/or articles

Required Readings (bold)

A) Historical and Conceptual Interrelations of Science, Religion, Humanism and Ethics

  • Ian G. Barbour, Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues

  • Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science

  • Howard Radest, ed., Biomedical Ethics: Humanist Perspectives

  • Peter Singer, A Darwinian Left

  • E.O. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
  • John Brockman, The New Humanist
  • Thomas S. Kuln, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

B) Observation, Description, Classification, Explanation

  • John Gribben, Almost Everyone's Guide to Science

  • Elizabeth Kolbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

  • Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
  • Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
  • John Gribben, In Search of Schroedinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality

C) Scientific Methods – What Scientists Do and Why and How They Do It

  • Paul R. Cross and Norman Levitt, The Higher Supersition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science

  • Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion adn the Appetite for Wonder
  • Noretta Koertge, A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science
  • E.O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge and the Diversity of Life

D) Science and Technology of the Inanimate and Living Worlds

  • Joel L. Davis, Mapping the Code: The Human Genome Project and the Choices of Modern Science

  • Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life

  • David Lindley, Uncertainity: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
  • James D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
  • Richard Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
  • Alan Weisman, The World Without Us

E) Science in Literature – Poetry, Plays, Essays and Fiction

  • Phillip Appleman, Charles Darwin Ark

  • Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen

  • Allegra Goodman, Intuition

  • Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

  • Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Inherit the Wind

  • Levi Primo, The Periodic Table

  • Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughter

  • Barbar Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion
  • Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
  • Michael Frayn, Copenhagen

Session Seven: Contemporary Culture (December 4-6, 2009)

Assignments

  • One sermon, based on the required readings and discussions in our December session
  • Three reflection papers, using the optional books and/or articles

Required Readings (bold)

A) Postmodernism, Ethics in Discourse and Leadership

  • Christopher Butler, Postmoderism: A Very Short Introduction
  • Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, Patrick H. Hutton, eds., Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault

B) Civil Liberties and Religious Freedom

  • Barry W. Lynn, Piety and Politics: The Right Wing Assualt on Religious Freedom
  • Toni Morrison, Paradise

C) Philosophies of Government, Democracy

  • Jeffrey Stout, Democracy and Tradition
  • Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

D) War and Peace, The Problem of Non-violence

  • Mark Kurlansky, Nonviolence: 25 Lessions from the History of a Dangerous Idea
  • Marshall Rosenberg, Speak Peace in a World of Conflict:  What You Say Next Will Change Your World

E) Cultures of Privilege and Oppression: Feminism

  • Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Wester Culture, and the Body
  • Bell Hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
  • Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color

F) Cultures of Privilege and Oppression: Racism

  • Anthony Pinn, Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion
  • Derrick Bell, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permaence of Racism

G) Environmental Issues

  • Carolyn Merchant, Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture
  • Robert Bullard, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality
  • Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It

H) Just Economics and Effective Politics

  • Jeffrey Sachs, Commonwealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
  • Cornel West, Democracy Matters: Wining the Fight Against Imperialism

I) Prophesy as Leadership

  • Walter Fluker, Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility, and Community
  • Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse

Session Eight: Aesthetics (April 16-18, 2010)

Structure

  • Group discussions
  • Guest lecture
  • Outing and/or brainstorming graduation ceremony

Assignments

  • One sermon based on the required readings and discussions
  • Three reflection papers using the optional readings

Required Readings (bold)

A) Creativity and Being Human

  • Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
  • Mark Anthony Neal, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic
  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
  • Mark Anthony Neal, Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation

B) Drama and Social Structure, Art as Protest

  • Stephen Davies, The Philosophy of Art (Foundations of the Philsophy of the Arts)
  • Michael D. Harries, Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation
  • Albert Hofstadter and Richard Kuhns, Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger
  • Vincent B. Leitch, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

C) Philsophy of Art in the Humanist Tradition

  • John Dewey, Art as Experience
  • Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just
  • Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art

Students will present to the class an example of some form of artistic expression -music, film, poem, play, sculpture, painting -which for them evokes humanist values or world view.

D) Personal Aesthetic Practices

  • Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice
  • Carol Lloyd, Creating a Life Worth Living

Students will share with the class examples of their personal aesthectic resources and practices

F) Ritual as Art Form, Theory and Practice

  • Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions
  • Algernon Black, Without Burnt Offerings
  • Sherwin Wine, Celebration: A Ceremonial and Philosophical Guide for Humanists and Humanistic Jews
  • Jamake Highwater, Dance: Rituals of Experience

Session Nine: Celebration (August 18-23, 2010)

Required Readings (Bold)

A) Humanist Interpretations of Spirituality

  • Robert Solomon, Spirituality for the Skeptic

B) Ritual Authority and Community Gatherings

  • Scott Alexander, The Relational Pulpit

C) Life Cycle Celebrations

  • Sarah York, Remembering Well: Rituals for Celebrating Life and Mourning Death
  • Khorian Arisian, The New Wedding: Creating your own marriage ceremony