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ERIC Number: EJ822107
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Jul
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1536-3759
EISSN: N/A
Cosmogonies and Culture: Teaching Genesis and the Popol Vuh in an Interdisciplinary Course at a Christian University
Parsons, Mikeal C.; Cook, Garrett
Christian Higher Education, v3 n3 p185-205 Jul 2004
This paper explores the possibilities of teaching Genesis and the Popol Vuh, the Mayan creation account, in an interdisciplinary course at a church-related institution. The course is part of an alternative, interdisciplinary core curriculum typically taken by two hundred students a year at the university. A comparison of the Popol Vuh with Genesis in a large group lecture has certain advantages over the usual Genesis/Enuma Elish comparison. This large group lecture is followed by a small group discussion over a wide variety of "cosmogonic" texts ranging from Genesis to Stephen Hawking. The results have been intellectually satisfying and quite appropriate for this interdisciplinary program that has the goal of introducing students to the great civilizations, Western and non-Western, ancient and modern. Further, the confessional nature of the institution has provided a liberated and liberating space for conversations that might be inappropriate at other institutions of higher learning.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A