1. A GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS 1

2. ORAL PRESENTATION TIPS USE A DATA STICK— EMAIL TAKES TOO LONG! PREPARE, ORGANIZE LIMIT SLIDE INFO— FONT READABLE IN BACK OF ROOM SPEAK CLEARLY, LOUDLY, SO ALL CAN HEAR MONITOR TIME- STAY ON SCHEDULE 2

3. RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST Governing Themes: cosmos, human destiny, society, individual, suffering and evil The Human Being: What is human nature (the human condition)? What does it mean to be a human being? What is the social meaning of human beings? The Cosmos: What is the (nature of the) cosmos? Relationship to “natural world”? Relationship to the other beings. Human Life? How do humans find and sustain life? (How relate to Holy?) What is holy/Holy power? What goes wrong in human life, and how is it to be remedied? (The problem of evil and suffering) Human destiny? What is the outcome, purpose, meaning of human existence The Human Quest and Human Experience: What can we learn from the great traditions of human experience? (What constitutes an adequate sample 3

4. WHAT’S THIS? 4

5. WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? ASK 25 PEOPLE TO COMPOSE 25 TRUTHFUL, ACCURATE, GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT, ENGLISH SENTENCES THAT DESCRIBE WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE PICTURE 5

6. WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? USING JUST THE WORDS IN THE SENTENCES, HOW MANY TRUTHFUL, ACCURATE, GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT, ENGLISH SENTENCES COULD YOU COMPOSE? 6

7. HOW MANY? 19.8 BILLION 7

8. WORDS ARE TOOLS for thinking, communicating, storing, retrieving HUMAN EXPERIENCE WORDS ARE REALLY SOUNDS LANGUAGES ARE SYSTEMS OF SOUNDS WE USE THESE SOUNDS TO CAPTURE EXPERIENCE TO STORE AND RE-MEMBER IT BY SHARING THESE SOUNDS, WE CAN SHARE OUR EXPERIENCE 8

9. LET ME COUNT THE WAYS! THERE ARE LOTS OF WAYS TO SAY ANYTHING! WORDS CALL FOR MORE WORDS? 9

10. WORDS ARE TOOLS for thinking, communicating, storing, retrieving human experience DIFFERENT CULTURES EXPRESS THEIR EXPERIENCE DIFFERENTLY, IN THEIR OWN DISTINCTIVE WAYS 10

11. METAPHOR Meta-pharein (Greek) Meta- “after,” “beyond” Pharein- “to carry” “Meta-pharein” has the sense two people carrying something over a distance Hence, shared experience Qunitillian: “Nearly everything we say is metaphor.” 11

12. METAPHOR SHARING EXPERIENCE OR TRANSLATING ONE KIND OF EXPERIENCE INTO ANOTHER KIND OF EXPERIENCE: “What does it taste like?” “Kumquats?” 12

13. AN EXPERIMENT IN THINKING HAVE YOU HEARD THE WORD “TRADITION”? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? 13

14. “TRADITION” GREEK SIMILARS: – Para-dosis/ para-didomi : “to put, hand over, allow, grant, offer, share” (Mt 11.27, 25.14,20,22; Rom 5.15, 6.17; 2 Th 2.15, 3.6) – para-theke/ para-tithemi: “to put, lay (upon, up, in), entrust, commit (maintain, preserve)” (1 Tim 1.18, 6.20; 2 Tim 1.12, 14, 2.2) 14

15. “TRADITION” LATIN: trans-dare, tradere, traditio trans: prefix “across” dare: verb “to give” “To give over or across” (time or space) 15

16. “TRADITION AS --” A VARIETY OF WAYS THE WORD IS USED OR UNDERSTOOD TRADITION AS— 1. LORE- – Vestigial relics of a disappearing past as opposed to the contemporary or modern; the enemy of progress 16

17. “TRADITION AS--” 2. CONTENT (MATTER) – Accumulated material inherited from the past, usually accompanied by an attitude (+ or -); – What has been passed on in fixed form (birthday cake; Christmas tree; Thanksgiving turkey) 3. PROCESS OF INHERITING/RECEIVING (ACT) – The act (or acts) of inheriting, cultivating, transferring, practicing, performing (baking the cake, buying the tree, cooking the turkey) 17

18. “TRADITION” 4. THE MEANS OF PASSING ON (FORM) – The techniques by which one passes on or receives (using Grandma’s recipe, putting the decorations up in a certain way) 5. CANON (A COLLECTION OF…) – Recognized, authorized, normative, official content to be passed on or received – Guaranteed by history, long practice – Resists to innovation, fashion, idiosyncrasy 18

19. “TRADITION AS BODY” 6. EMBODIMENT (MODE OF PRESENCE IN) The Universe: 16 Billion Years – If 1” = 1 million years: 1331 feet The Earth: 4.5 Billion Years – If 1” = 1 million years: 375 feet 19

20. “TRADITION AS BODY” The material in our bodies is – 16 billion years old – The elements developed almost instantly – This matter has been evolving ever since – The are billions of galaxies – The Universe continues to expand – Completely replaced every 7 years 20

21. “TRADITION AS BODY” Genetically speaking— Each of us embodies the unbroken chain of DNA of our ancestors Yet each of us is unique: – I am not my grandfather – This is not my grandfather's body 21

22. LET’S STRETCH OUR MIND A BIT! HOW MANY ANCESTORS DO YOU HAVE? 22

23. “TRADITION AS--” 7. EXPERIENCE: - Gives us the ability to retain, to retrieve, to enter into the experience of our ancestors - Experience is embodied in language, culture, art, history, institutions 23

24. “TRADITION AS--” AN-AMNESIS – “not-forgetting” RE-MEMBERING – “putting together again” RE-CALLING- …to mind RE-COLLECTING – assembling the pieces anew RE-CORDING - literally, “re-heart-ing” RE-TELLING – recomposing the story RE-PEATING -“going somewhere again” 24

25. Greek: Soter/ soteria / sozo (“cure,” “make healthy” (hagios= “holy” power-ful) Latin: Salus / Salvus (“salve,” German: Heil, Heilige Anglo-Saxon: Hal, Halig [Hosanna! (Aram.) = “save now”] Salvation, save, salud, salutary Health, healthy, holy, whole, hale Wealth, wealthy, (common-)weal 25

26. LATIN SALUS, SALVUS, SALVARE: – “save,” “salvation,” “safety,” “salutation,” “salute,” “salve” – Spanish: “salud” 26

27. GERMAN HEIL, HEILIGE : “hail,” “health, “holy ” ANGLO-SAXON HAL, HALIG “health, hale, holy, wealth, weal, whole” 27

28. RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST Governing Themes: cosmos, human destiny, society, individuality, being a person (WHO vs. WHAT), suffering and evil The Human Being: What is human nature/ What is the human condition? What does it mean to be a human being? What does it mean to be a WHO? What is the social meaning of human beings? How is our way of being something shared? The Cosmos: What is the (nature of the) cosmos? What is humans’ relationship to the “natural world”? Relationship to the other beings that are not human? Human Life? How do humans find and sustain life? How do they relate to what is Holy? What is holy/Holy power? What goes wrong in human life, and how is it to be remedied? Must humans consider the problem/mystery of evil, suffering and death? How? Human destiny? What is the outcome, purpose, meaning of human existence The Human Quest and Human Experience: What can we learn from the great traditions of human experience? (What constitutes an adequate sample?) 28

29. PERSPECTIVES/ATTITUDES Experience: awareness, consciousness, Quest-ion-ing/seek-ing/search-ing—purpose What do we (you) want as humans being? Why do we desire? What do we desire? Spirituality: How does it all fit together? Does it? An it? How? Framing questions 29

30. Mystery vs. problem/puzzle(?) PROBLEM: pro-blema: Greek.: “something thrown forward”, from pro-, “before, forward, forth,” + ballein, “to throw.” MYSTERY: mysterion: Greek.: “an event of disclosure that both reveals and leads toward something that gets deeper the more it is pursued”. WHERE HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED “MYSTERY”? 30

31. MYSTERY VS. PROBLEM/PUZZLE Friendship? Love? Birth? Death? Curiosity? ????????? 31