This course examines the ways in which religious problems of meaning have been encountered in the context of the eclipse of religion in Western culture from the Enlightenment to the present. The class emphasizes challenges presented to traditional belief systems by modern thought in areas such as the sciences, psychology, textual criticism, and historical events, as well as some religious responses to those challenges. How do religions respond to the limits of human intellectual capacity, limits of human endurance, and limits of moral comprehension?
This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.