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+--- Thread: College course and text on Hinduism (/showthread.php?tid=27)
College course and text on Hinduism - oldnarayanan - 03-16-2014
Serious topic (as are all here).
"We" find ourselves usually "on the back foot" reacting to atrocious attacks on our culture, beliefs, and everything else, by increasingly sophisticated and malicious entities. Nowadays there are enough lakhs of cretins rushing to put in "disclaimers" that they are themselves "non-denominational", "atheist", "secular", etc just to avoid saying "I was born a Hindu, I believe in Hinduism, and I know why I believe in it".
OK, this is a losing strategy unless one can educate the upcoming generations clearly and in terms that they can understand and accept, yet are completely consistent with the lasting wisdom of Sanatana Dharma and the Vedas and Puranas. The purpose of this thread is to pick your minds and steal your ideas without any apology, to construct
a) a brief textbook
b ) a 3-credit, senior undergrad/ first year grad level textbook, suitable for ALL disciplines in college, be it astrophysics or anthrolopgy.
c) a MOOC version of the course (implying much focus on streamlining, show, etc and wide dissemination).
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Question 1: Course structure. Please list the topics that you would propose for a 3-credit semester course. This means typically notes that can be delivered at a leisurely pace with some discussion in 50 minutes times 3 times 14 weeks = 2100 minutes = 35 hours of lecture notes.
Please keep it brief. The detailed bloodletting can be done elsewhere, but brief points in defense/opposition to specific items and structure are always welcome.
Question 2: Textbook: A course like that must have ONE core textbook. It need not pack ALL details, and should have an extensive list of references (the toughest job!) But it has to have a structure, a flow, and enough meaninfgul, well-researched content to be a useful and reliable reference, and and an excellent guide. So what should be the list of chapter headings of this book?
Question 3: What are the Absolutely Tops references on Hinduism/ SD whatever u call it?
Thanks