COURSES
CVSP 110
Syllabus
Gods and Creation
1. Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will have grown in their ability to:
1. Describe mankind's attempt to investigate, explain and understand the origin of the world, its
creators, and the components of creation: stimulus, raw material, tools, process, and final product.
2. Analyze critically and cross-culturally the various concepts of gods-creators and their relationship with
their creation.
3. Discover the similarities and the differences, the common and peculiar patterns of thought which
characterize these concepts, and the distinctive conditions of the cultures which produced them.
4. Present their interpretation and critical evaluation adequately, consistently, relevantly and coherently.
5. Demonstrate awareness of the other as different-neither superior nor inferior.
2. Resources Available to Students
1. Mimeographed Selections.
2. Library References:
- Encyclopedia of Religion & Mythology
- Encyclopedia of Creation Myths. (Leeming David A. & Margaret A. Leeming)
- Myths of the World: A Thematic Encyclopedia (Micheal Jordan).
- Primal Myths: Creation Myths around the World (Barbara Sproul).
3. Grading Criteria
Written Homework:
Class Presentations:
Participation in class discussion:
MIDTERM interpretation:
Final interpretation:
TOTAL
10%
10%
5%
25%
50%
100
5. Course Policy
Academic integrity and honesty are central components of a student's education. Ethical conduct
maintained in an academic context will be taken eventually into a student's professional career.
Academic honesty is essential to a community of scholars searching for and learning to seek the truth.
Anything less than total commitment to honesty undermines the efforts of the entire academic
community. Both students and faculty are responsible for ensuring the academic integrity of the
University. (AUB Student Handbook, p. 33)
For definitions of cheating and plagiarism as well as the consequences for such, see the AUB "Student
Code of Conduct" as found in the Student Handbook (esp. pp. 85-86 and 88) and on the AUB website.
http://pnp.aub.edu.lb/general/conductcode/158010081.html
Reading Schedule
READING SCHEDULE
Topic
Activities
Assignment
Introduction
Lecture & Discussion :
History,Fiction,Myth,Legend
Familiarity with the sources
Philippino creation myth
The Sources/Library
The oral tradition;
Jafet Library
Group-report : selection of topic &
team
Indian & South Pacific
Analysis & Interpretation
Prajapati & the Chief
Egypt
Analysis & Interpretation
Geb & Nut; Isis,Osiris
Mesopotamia
Analysis & Interpretation
Sumer: Nammu, Enki
Ishtar
Greece
Analysis & Interpretation
Gaia & Uranus
Hesiod: The myth of the golden age
The Sources/Museum
AUB & National Museum
Presentations: selected gods
exhibited in museums, researched
& presented
Midterm Interpretation
Research presentations
-
-
Maori & Australia
Analysis & Interpretation
Papa, Tangaroa, Eingana
Latin America: Columbia
Africa
Analysis & Interpretation
Nainema
Death & the Creator
China
Analysis & Interpretation
Tea, Phan-Ku
The Old Testament & the
Koran
Analysis & Interpretation
Genesis, Koran
General Revision
Previous Final Questions
Discussion of possible answers