Beginning with the contemporary debates regarding creationism, alternative medicine, and witchcraft (Wicca), the paper examines the relation between the modern sciences and the worlds of Kabbalah, alchemy, and apocalyptic religion from which they emerged.
In our own day, science enjoys enormous prestige and is clearly distinguished from
both religion and magic. But it was not always so. The great founder of modern science,
Isaac Newton, dabbled in alchemy and wrote commentaries on the Bible of a kind we
would now regard as crazy. So how did science emerge from a world of mysticism and
magic?
The paper tries to answer this question by examining two early modern
thinkers: Giordano Bruno, who was put to death by the Roman Inquisition, and Galileo
Galilei, who escaped the same fate by renouncing his scientific views.
| Paper title | Religion, Science, and Magic |
|---|---|
| Paper code | RELS217 |
| Subject | Religious Studies |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2023 (Distance learning) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD) | $955.05 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 36 points
- Restriction
- RELS 317
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music, Theology
- Contact
- Professor Greg Dawes greg.dawes@otago.ac.nz
- More information link
View more information on the Religion website: www.otago.ac.nz/religion
- Teaching staff
- Lecturer: Professor Greg Dawes
- Paper Structure
This paper is worth 18 points, which is equivalent to 12 hours of work each week. Outside of classes, 9 hours a week should be devoted to your own study and assignment preparation.
Assessment:
- Weekly Exercises in Class: 15%
- Essay Outline 5%
- Essay: 25%
- Final Examination: 55%
- Teaching Arrangements
On campus there will be two lectures and one tutorial each week.
Distance students will have access to recorded lectures and an online discussion forum.- Textbooks
There is a coursebook for the paper. PDF copies of the coursebook and associated readings will be made available on Blackboard. There is no other textbook required.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship,
Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Information literacy,
Self-motivation.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
- Students who successfully complete this paper will be able to
- Understand the premodern distinction between religion, science and magic
- Understand the emergence of our modern conceptions of religion and science and our modern attitudes towards magic
- Understand the echoes of these historical changes in our contemporary popular culture
