Religious Studies 200: Introduction to Religious Ethics

Essay Topics

*Proposal Due: Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Essay Due: Tuesday, March 27, 2012

*Format: MLA or Chicago

Length: 3000 words

*Further information about the requirements will be given in class and on the course website.

1. The role of happiness in the ethics of two religious traditions. The pursuit of happiness is a central theme in several religious traditions, but the meaning of “happiness” varies according to the context of different traditions. This paper will compare and contrast the meaning of happiness in two religions and explain the similarities and differences in these religions’ understanding of ethics.
2. The “Golden Rule” in two religious traditions. Love is a central theme in many traditions of religious ethics. As with the first topic, this paper will set the discussions of love within their respective contexts and explain how the centrality of love shapes ethical theory.
3. Religion and Ecology. How do the distinctive doctrines and themes in two religious traditions influence their members’ attitudes to the preservation of the environment?
4. Pacifism and Just War Theory. Arguing from within each tradition, explain the arguments for and against pacifism, on the hand, and just war theory, on the other. The paper must include a discussion of the similarities and differences in the different religions’ approaches to these arguments.
5. Confluence of Religious Ethics: One Example. Choose a major figure in religious ethics (for example, Mohandas Gandhi or Thich Nhat Hanh or Rosemary Ruether or Martin Luther King Jr.) and explain both how this person represents his or her own tradition and how she or he has borrowed vocabulary and ideas from other traditions.
6. A topic of your choice.