Are science and religion compatible with one another? Are they inherent antagonists? This cluster will consider all these options and include a segment on “Oceans and the End Times.” Here we will consider: How will the world end? What is the impact of Climate Change? What threats exist for nuclear war and economic collapse?
Contrary to popular belief, religion is not a taboo topic at Duke. From an academic perspective, the return of religion to the public sphere in politics and the academy is one of the great surprises of the twenty-first century. It has given rise to new local, national and global politics, and interacts with rapidly advancing science that expands knowledge and human life. This leads to rethinking of the boundaries of science and religion and their possible collaboration. In this FOCUS cluster, we inquire how the biblical tradition, and the great books of the Abrahamic religions, inspire, challenge, and shape political and scientific institutions. At the same time, we look at pioneering lab experiments and new scientific evidence to fully understand addiction as a treatable brain disease and its treatment. A field trip to a therapeutic community will enhance and support our understanding of the nature of drug addiction. Using historical, literary and scientific approaches, students gain familiarity with both religious traditions and experimental science and explore their psychological and social impact. How do the sacred texts of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity relate to each other and shape the social and political world of religious communities? How do religious traditions respond to scientific challenges and help science accomplish it social mission? Answering these questions personally and professionally, students will get a head start toward a richly diverse career. Whether you are part of a particular religion or are already convinced that religion shapes perceptions of science in public life, this focus program is for you!
Peter Casarella, Professor of Theology
Recent decades have seen radical reshaping of the relationships of the three Abrahamic religions. We have witnessed new conflicts among their proponents, but also renewed efforts at interreligious dialogue and unprecedented solidarity. Yet, do Christians, Jews and Muslims really know each other? The Abrahamic religions are all based in sacred texts, containing revealed truth, and have legal and interpretive traditions elucidating them. Do we know these texts? Do we know how they each read them? This team-taught course brings together scholars with expertise in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic texts and traditions to explore each other’s intellectual universe. We will seek to understand the texts on their own terms, within their contexts of origin and transmission, and explore their social and political working throughout history. By the end of the semester, participants will have acquired basic literacy in the three religions and habits of reflection that will prepare them for engagement with the religious world of the other.
Amy Laura Hall, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics; Associate Professor in the Program of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
This course examines assumptions and language of Global Health in the US and ethical challenges of cross-cultural engagement. The title comes from Roddenberry's Star Trek (1966); course uses the series to think about technology, exploration, and encounter. We will use texts that examine how culture and power in the US have framed interactions with and control of people inside the US and in other countries, from people carrying contagious disease to women whose bodies represent a threat to a proposed social order. Students will analyze historical documents and images from popular culture and write close analyses identifying the underlying ethical and cultural frameworks in these documents.
Amir H. Rezvani, Professor Emeritus in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The major goal of the course is to develop scientific, clinical as well as social perspectives on the issue of addiction as a treatable brain disease and substance abuse. Furthermore, students will be able to develop a scientific perspective on the etiology of addiction.
We will cover neuropharmacology and genetic aspects of addiction particularly alcohol abuse and alcoholism. We will also cover the co-morbidity of addiction with mental disorders. Students will be presented with the disease concept of addiction, and appropriate intervention and treatment strategies. Students will also visit a unique therapeutic community, which is based on principles of self-help and will get the chance to interact with recovering drug addicts. Furthermore, students will be given the opportunity to hear from several recovering drug addicts coming from different socio-economic and genetic backgrounds. Students will also get involved in self-designed individual and group projects to better understand the nature of drug addiction and the process of behavioral changes.
Overall, this course will help students to better understand the problem of drug abuse and addiction and choose more efficient approaches for prevention, diagnosis, intervention and treatment as well as policy making.
Classes will be comprised of lectures, debates, discussion, a field trip, projects presentations, guest speakers and patient presentations. Students are required and strongly encouraged to play an active role in all activities. Students are strongly encouraged and should feel totally safe and comfortable to share their observations and personal experiences as they relate to substance abuse and any form of addiction. I consider my classroom, as a learning place, the most sacred place in the world. Confidentiality and absolutely total respect from all students for all students are demanded and required when personal issues are shared and discussed for learning.
