Opening Lecture

01/13/2026 · Tue/Thu 12:00-1:15 PM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

In the opening session of THEO 1432, Instructor Brad Bannon introduces the course's comparative framework between Hindu and Christian traditions. The class begins with a communal recitation and line-by-line analysis of a mantra from the Taittiriya Upanishad, emphasizing themes of mutual protection, spiritual nourishment, and heroic transformation for the benefit of others. Bannon establishes the course's primary goal: helping students identify an 'anchor' for stability in an uncertain world and a 'North Star' for existential direction. A significant portion of the lecture is dedicated to the philosophical method of postmodern phenomenology, derived from Edmund Husserl. Using a playing die as a concrete example, Bannon illustrates the distinction between the 'noumena' (the thing itself) and the 'phenomena' (the mental image constructed by the brain). Finally, the instructor bridges these philosophical concepts to theology, defining it as a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a canon of sacred texts.

⚡ Key Takeaways

Theology is defined as a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a particular canon of sacred texts.
The mantra from the Taittiriya Upanishad emphasizes that learning should be a collective effort (saha) aimed at protection, nourishment, and heroic action.
A central goal of the course is to help students identify an 'anchor' to ground them during times of uncertainty and a 'North Star' to provide existential purpose.
Postmodern phenomenology serves as the course's primary method for distinguishing between mental phenomena and the 'noumena' or things themselves.
Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know, which is increasingly difficult in a world of rapid change and artificial intelligence.
Anthropology in this context refers to the philosophy of the person and the question of identity across different social environments.
The 'cut' in epistemology refers to the transition point where physical light waves enter the eye and are converted into signals for the visual cortex.
Theology must speak to the present moment to be meaningful, helping individuals reorient themselves in their current reality.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Meditation and Shanti Mantra Chant

Brad

Howdy y'all.

Brad

I like to start with the meditation, so let's take a moment to just be still, be quiet, kind of clear our heads, and just kind of bring your mind and attention and everything to where your body is.

Student

sahana vavatu, sahana bhunaktu, sahaviryam karavavahe, tejasvinam adhitam astu. ⚠

Student

ma vidvishavahe. Om shanti, shanti, shanti.

2:04

Instructor Introduction and Course Welcome

Brad

Howdy y'all, welcome to Calculus 2.

Brad

Thank you for shuffling. Hindu and Christian Theology and Dialogue. My name is Brad. I'll be your professor or guide for this course this semester.

Brad

You can call me Brad, you can call me whatever you want, low-key, but like Professor Bannon, Dr.

Brad

Bannon, or just Brad. And if you're not comfortable calling your professor by their first name, it's cool. Brad's my middle name, so You can call me whatever you want, I'm pretty chill, but I prefer Brad because it's my name. So I have been teaching this course in various forms for over decades now, and I have begun every single instance of the course with this mantra. So this mantra comes from the Taittiriya Upanishad. The Taittiriya Upanishad The Rigveda is about 2,500, 2,600 years old, and this mantra is at least that old, maybe a bit older, passed down as an oral tradition. But this mantra in particular, it's one of quite a few that are intended to be chanted or recited together, teacher and student. In fact, the word "saha," which you see up there 3 times, "saha" means together. And 'na' means 'the two of us,' and the two of us in this case is teacher and student, right? ⚠

3:33

Exegesis of the Shanti Mantra and Shankara's Commentary

Brad

So together, let the two of us 'vavatu.' 'vavatu' means 'be protected,' right?

Brad

So the idea is that knowledge is power, right? And so if people have more knowledge and wisdom than you, they kind of have some power over you, right?

Brad

We're learning not just to get some bullshit grade at the end of the semester or something like that, right?

Brad

But we're learning because we want to protect ourselves and those that we care about, those we love, and that sort of stuff, right? So let this learning, the idea is together, let the two of us, teacher and student, be protected by this wisdom that we're gaining together this semester, right? sahana bhunaktu. bhunaktu comes from the root word pu, which means to eat, right? ⚠

Student

So to eat foods, right?

Brad

To nourish the body.

Brad

But in this case, it's together, let the two of us be nourished by the things that we're learning.

Brad

Right?

Brad

So, not nourishing your body, but nourishing your heart, nourishing your soul, nourishing your mind, that sort of stuff.

Brad

Right? So, let us be nourished intellectually, spiritually, otherwise, by the things that we're learning.

Brad

Again, we're not just doing this as some sort of empty exercise.

Brad

Right?

Brad

But we're learning this for a particular purpose. And that purpose is to protect ourselves and those we love and also to nourish our minds, our souls, our spirit, that sort of thing. So virya, virya means, and normally means hero. ⚠

Brad

Here it's used as an adverb, so heroically, right?

Brad

So I always think about this, this like power pose, right? Like Hanuman or Wonder Woman, or— so I just watched Stranger Things, you know, and Linda Hamilton's in it, and she's the bad guy, but she's actually Wonder Woman. So anyway, Wonder Woman. But this power pose, right? So let us together, let the two of us use this knowledge and wisdom that we're gaining this semester to viriam karavavahe. ⚠

Brad

Kara means like use your hands.

Brad

It's a very hands-on sort of word, right? In fact, it's where we get the English word carve, to carve something with your hands, you know. So karavavahe really means to make something, but really, you know, root word coming from to make with your hands, right? So, and here it's in the dative plural. So dative plural means for the benefit of others, right? So let's use this knowledge and wisdom that we're learning together, studying these ancient wisdom traditions from Hindu and Christian traditions, and let's use that knowledge and wisdom to heroically transform the world for the benefit of others, which is a very nice meaning, isn't it? Right, so viryam karavave, heroically transform the world for the sake of others. tejasvinam adhitam astu. So, tejas. Tejas means light, right? Light, not just like the light that's shining in my eyes, but light like goodness, positivity, all those sort of things, right? Light in this sort of more abstract sense. And so let the things that we're accomplishing together be filled with light and goodness and positivity, right? Ma vidvi shaiva he. Kind of my favorite translation of this line is just "no smoke," right? ⚠

Brad

"Ma" means never, at all, in any way, and "vid" means like bad, like mean words, hostile words, you know, bad just in the most generic sense, like bad words, right? And so when we're studying these ancient wisdom traditions and this ancient wisdom, these ancient texts, We're asking questions about meaning and purpose of life, questions of ultimacy, the nature of God, and why are we here, ethics, you know, all sorts of things. And those— we're going to disagree with one another, right? ⚠

Brad

You're going to disagree with one another.

Brad

We're going to disagree with one another. In fact, that's kind of built into the nature of a comparative course, right? We're studying things because they're different.

Brad

Right?

Brad

So we're trying to get multiple perspectives.

Brad

We're trying.

Brad

The differences aren't something that we should be scared of. They're not something we should be afraid of. If you disagree with me, if you disagree with one another, it's okay.

Brad

Right?

Brad

Share those things.

Brad

That's why—

Brad

that's the whole point of dialogue is to learn from one another.

Brad

And we learn from those differences.

Brad

But never— ma vidvishavahe— those differences shouldn't become hostile. ⚠

Student

Right?

Brad

We shouldn't have animosity towards one another.

Brad

Disagrees, fine.

Brad

Disagree.

Brad

Talk about those disagreements. Don't avoid them or run away from them. But also don't let them turn into, like, you know, what our world is in 2026, right? Which is hotly divided and ignoring one another because of our differing perspectives. So let's not be afraid of the differing perspectives. Let's not let it turn into tension and animosity.

Student

You got it, right?

Brad

Om shanti shanti shanti. Om. I didn't talk about Om. So Om is a sacred syllable. We could talk about it, we probably will talk about it quite a bit more later in the semester, but for now the shorthand is Om is a sacred syllable with a lot of rich meaning, one of which is it's supposed to, when you pronounce it properly, not that I can do that, but when you pronounce it properly you're supposed to pronounce all of the vowels. ⚠

Brad

Aum.

Brad

And so the idea is you can't pronounce any word without a vowel. So in one sort of sense, the word Aum contains all words. Anytime you're uttering any word, you're uttering a part of Aum.

Brad

Does that make sense? So Aum is the sacred syllable that kind of represents the totality of knowledge, the totality of everything. So that sacred syllable.

Brad

And then shanti.

Brad

Shanti means peace, and so it's repeated 3 times: shanti, shanti, shanti.

Brad

Technically speaking, this is the shanti mantra. It's like a separate mantra, but it's a mantra that gets kind of tacked on to a lot of mantras, right?

Brad

So you chant the mantra and then you chant the shanti mantra at the end. And this kid that I wrote my dissertation on, Shankaracharya, this 8th century Hindu theologian, wrote a commentary on the—

Brad

or wrote some comments on the shanti mantra.

Brad

And in there he explains that no word, not a single word in all of the scriptures, meaning the Vedas, not a single word in any of the Vedas is superfluous.

Student

Nothing's extra.

Brad

Nothing's repeated. Everything's in there for some purpose. So the fact that this word, shanti, shanti, shanti, is the same word repeated 3 times. His point is each one of the meanings has to be a little bit different. ⚠

Brad

Not light and day different, but they have different subtleties of meaning. As Shankara explains, like a human person—

Brad

all of us are human persons—

Brad

human persons are complex.

Brad

We have bodies, we have minds, and we have heart or spirit or something like that.

Brad

So Shankara explains that each one of these refers to the peace that we need to have in each one of those domains. Physical peace, peace in our minds, and a peace in our hearts, basically. And so he says, you know, I mean, in order to discuss questions of ultimacy, you know, meaning of life and purpose and all that kind of stuff, you've got to be in a safe space.

Brad

You can't be worried about bombs dropping.

Brad

You can't be worried about, is my neighbor going to hit me over the head?

Brad

Something, you know, you can't be in any danger. If you're in physical danger, you can't focus properly, right?

Brad

Obviously.

Brad

But not just that. Also, like, if you're very hungry, you know, then if you're super hungry, all you can think about is food, right? If you're very thirsty, all you can think about is water, right?

Student

If you're super stoned, then all you can think about is, well, food, I guess.

Brad

But, right?

Brad

So like, let our bodies be chill, right?

Brad

Let our bodies be calm and peaceful.

Brad

So that's one condition. So physical peace.

Brad

But maybe even more important, or as important for what we're doing, let's have a peaceful mind, right? And I want to take a moment to give you an image that Shankara takes some time to spell out. Because I feel it's really, you know, we could just say, oh yeah, peaceful mind, yeah. But he had something a little bit more in mind. So I want you to picture in your head like a peaceful mountain pond or lake, right? So like a lake or a pond up in the mountains. It's like after the sun has gone down, you know, like early nighttime, early evening, late evening, early night, something like that, right? The moon is out, there's a full moon and that kind of stuff. And you come across this lake or this pond, there's no wind, and all you see is just clear, calm, peaceful, tranquil waters, right? ⚠

Brad

If you were to look into the pond, what would you see?

Brad

Water?

Brad

Yes.

Brad

You see water, but what else would you see?

Student

Reflection.

Brad

So you see a reflection of yourself, right?

Brad

So if the water is calm and it's dark and that kind of stuff, then you'll see a clear reflection of yourself, right?

Brad

What else might you see?

Brad

Fish.

Brad

Okay, maybe.

Brad

But if it's nighttime and it's dark, then probably it's going to be more like a mirror, right? So you're not going to see through the water, you're going to see what?

Student

Everything that's around us?

Brad

So you see the trees and all that kind of stuff, right?

Brad

But Shankara says you also see the moon and the stars, right? And so the moon and the stars for him in this metaphor represents those sort of transcendental learning, right? Transcendental knowledge. The idea of God, the idea of goodness, the idea of beauty, the idea of justice. The sort of transcendental ideas. The wisdom that's being passed down through the scriptures and that sort of thing. But so our study or our minds is attempting to reflect that wisdom, to receive that wisdom the same way that the pond receives that. But what if some asshole comes along and throws a rock in there? Then what will happen to that image of yourself and the image of those transcendental ideas? ⚠

Brad

You still be able to see them?

Brad

You still be able to see them, but it'll be like distorted, right? It'll be like—

Brad

wait, it's not going to be a clear picture. It's going to be like a distorted image, right? So a distorted image of yourself or distorted image of those transcendental ideas.

Brad

So the idea is that we have to clear our minds.

Brad

This is why I do a meditation.

Brad

I won't do the mantra.

Student

At the beginning of every class.

Brad

I only do that the first day. But we will have a little quiet, silent meditation at the beginning of every class, probably a minute or two.

Brad

And part of that is just to clear your head, right? Allow your mind to be calm.

Brad

Sort of just leave whatever's outside outside, right?

Brad

If you're— you can't focus on philosophy and theology and these sort of transcendental ideas if your mind is somewhere else, right?

Brad

You may get enough to kind of skate by on a test or a quiz or something, but you're going to get a distorted idea, right? If you're not kind of fully present, then you're going to— if you're thinking about, why'd she leave me unopened? ⚠

Brad

Or I don't know, is Palantír catching a bid?

Brad

Or something like that.

Brad

Then like you're not— you see what I'm saying? You're going to get something, but you're going to get a distorted view, right? So Shankara says we have to have this peaceful bodies and a peaceful mind, and also a peaceful spirit or heart. So I think in this case, when we say open-minded, that's kind of closer to what Shankara means about a peaceful spirit or peaceful heart, right? So having an open mind about what we're learning. ⚠

Brad

It's kind of a nice little mantra.

Brad

Yeah?

Brad

All right. So what I'd like to do then, because as I just told you, saha means together, teacher and student.

Brad

This is traditionally recited together, teacher and student.

Brad

So I'm not going to pressure anybody, but I'll invite everyone to chant it. I'll chant it one more time. On my own, and then I invite you to chant it along with me together, right? All right, so, um, Om Sahana Bhavatu sahana bhunaktu Sahavirya Karavavahe Om Shanti Shanti Shanti. Sahana bhavatu, sahanam bhunaktu, sahavir yam karavavahe, tejasvinam adhitam astu. ⚠

Brad

Perfect.

Student

Māfit vishavahe, Om shanti, shanti, shanti.

Brad

Word. Nice.

Brad

Perfect.

Brad

Good.

Brad

Thank you.

18:20

Lecture Introduction and Classroom Technology Policies

Brad

So like I said, I'm Brad Bannon. Let's skip down all this.

Brad

So I do not typically lecture like this.

Brad

This is a super atypical approach, but You didn't have any reading assignments for today or anything like that, right?

Brad

And a lot of times, at least last semester, a bunch of people dropped my class after the first day of class. So this way I can just have all the, you know, if anybody drops their ads or whatever, then they can come and read the lecture notes.

Brad

So I'm going to read the lecture notes for you today.

Brad

And I ran out of class, ran out of time a little bit in the previous section. I'm going to try to motor. This would be a good time to start taking notes if you haven't already started taking notes.

Brad

And no devices.

Brad

So take notes on paper, please. You can if you have a tablet with a stylus. You know, that's OK. But nothing with a keyboard. ⚠

Brad

Alright, so I've been teaching this course, as I said, in various forms for nearly a decade now.

Brad

I always start with that mantra from the Taittiriya Upanishad, and I hope that students will take it far more seriously than they usually do.

Brad

A handful of students do, but most sleep on it, to be honest. So I'm going to try and do something different this time.

Brad

Normally I start with that particular mantra to set the tone and highlight what I think your motivation should be, namely to protect yourself, to nourish your soul, and to heroically transform the world around you for the benefit of others. After that, I normally tell my life story, how I became a self-made millionaire by the age of 24 and left a career in finance to become a professor of philosophy, theology, and ethics.

Brad

Today, however, I want to try something a little bit different, a few things different that I don't usually do, like giving a quiz at the end of the class on the First day. So I want to spend some time today answering the following questions, right?

Brad

Sort of the ecology of questions.

Brad

Why take this course?

Brad

Why do—

Brad

what do I hope you're going to take away from it? Why did I select the text that I selected?

Brad

How do the pieces fit together? And maybe most importantly, why should you take this course?

Brad

Like, legit, what should you personally take away from this theological quest? Through Hindu and Christian sacred texts. Alright, so those are the questions that I'm going to try and answer now.

Brad

So as I answer these questions, I'm simultaneously going to teach you some of the most important themes and methods and ideas that I want you to take away from this course.

Brad

This way, even if you drop the course after today, you'll still take away some of the key ideas like the idea of an anchor to periodically ground yourself, the idea of a North Star to guide you through the tides of life, the beautiful scientific method of epistemology called postmodern phenomenology, and the theological method of anchoring our phenomenological discourse in a canon of sacred texts.

Brad

After that, we'll have a quiz at the end of the class.

Brad

It'll be open notes, so you can take notes. But no screens, obviously. And if there's time after that, then I can chat. So anchor, point number 1.

21:56

Theology as Anchor and North Star in the Present Moment

Brad

So as a reminder, the question I'm trying to answer is this, right?

Brad

Why should you take this class? Obviously, I don't mean in order to meet some core requirement. That's obviously why most of you are here.

Brad

But what should you want?

Brad

What should you— what should be your motivation, right? How are the things that Brad specifically selected to teach me this semester, how are they going to be useful and important to me after this class is finished?

Brad

So my first answer is I will help you to identify, use, and for some of you, construct your anchor.

Brad

What the hell does that mean?

Brad

I ain't even got a boat. I really want a boat.

Brad

An anchor will just weigh me down, brah.

Brad

Let me explain what I mean by an anchor.

Brad

So I've always thought of this course as an intellectual journey.

Brad

I kind of low-key think of all my classes like that, like a hero's journey or like a quest. So I ask you to indulge me a little bit here. Use your imagination.

Brad

Imagine yourself in a little boat, you know, kind of like Moana before Maui got in. You know, remember she was like in that little boat with the chicken?

Brad

So it's not totally alone, but little boat with the chicken trying to get out of the—

Brad

get past the reef, right? So you're alone in your little boat here in this little corner of the safe harbor that we call Boston College.

Brad

You're surrounded by other little solo boats bumping around in Stokes Hall.

Brad

And outside of the gates, there's like an entire world, right? And your boat's eventually going to be pushed out of the harbor.

Brad

And when that happens, trust me, you will one day be glad that you have an anchor that can ground you when you're feeling adrift.

Brad

Feel me? As I will remind you any day in any class that I teach, which means listen up, get your pencils ready, because here's a key point. It's in bold and italics and on its own line and preceded by, here's a key point. ⚠

Brad

Theology must speak to the present moment. That doesn't mean all theology does that, but at least good theology must speak to the present moment. If it doesn't talk to— it doesn't say something about here and now, then what's the point, right?

Brad

So our present moment today, January 13th, 2026, is extraordinary.

Brad

There has never been a moment like this one in my entire 50 years.

Brad

No reservation saying that.

Brad

The amount of change, the scope of change, the rapidity of change, the potentials and the dangers, it all is disorienting for all of us. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to discern the difference between fact and fiction.

Brad

Am I right? This is a field we call epistemology.

Brad

Epistemology means, you know, how do you know what you know.

Brad

How do we know what we know? Including, how do we know what we— how do we know it's true or not, right?

Brad

Personally, I'm feeling unmoored.

Brad

Lots of Nietzsche references in here if you've had any experience with Nietzsche.

Brad

So I feel like the chain that was holding my little boat to the stable shore has become untethered from the dock and the firm lands. Some days when I hear the latest crazy news about this madman—

Brad

mad, mad world. Sorry, Nietzsche wrote this Parable of the Madman. Freudian slip that came in there.

Brad

This mad, mad world feels like someone has unchained the earth from its sun.

Brad

Everything that seemed certain just a few years ago, like getting a job after college, seems less certain now. Even the images that we see in the videos that we watch are now sus thanks to artificial intelligence.

Brad

Sometimes as a professor you don't even know if somebody wrote the thing that they turned in. Like that kind of stuff, right? Everything's uncertain.

Brad

It's difficult to say what's true and what's not true.

Brad

Hashtag epistemology.

Brad

Even about myself, right?

Brad

All this paragraph is anthropology. Anthropology is basically all these questions.

Brad

Am I the person—

Brad

anthropology means what does it mean to be a human person, right?

Brad

Philosophy of person.

Brad

Am I the person that I was when I'm with my family at home?

Brad

Am I the person that I am when I'm in my dorm chilling with my suitemates? Am I the person that I am when I'm locked in sync with my teammates on the volleyball court or the other violists playing Brahms in the orchestra, right?

Brad

Am I the person that I am when I'm sitting in the classroom?

Brad

Am I the person that I am when I'm standing in front of students like you? Am I the person that you think that I am, right? Or am I the person that I tell myself I am?

Brad

All good questions that we'll kind of tackle.

Brad

In a world where everything seems uncertain—

Brad

imagine that in a Trailer voice, right? In a world where everything seems uncertain, even your own identity, in that world we long for something stable. ⚠

Brad

We long for something reliable.

Brad

We long for something that doesn't change. We long for something that we can always count on, right?

Brad

A home base, or home, just the idea of home, right?

Brad

For most of us, that's what our family is to us, right?

Brad

So sure, right now You're in the safe harbor that is Boston College, but it's not New Jersey, right? It's not home.

Brad

It's not wherever you're from.

Brad

It's not where your family is, right?

Brad

So when your world seems out of joint, to quote Shakespeare, you turn to your family.

Brad

You call home and help you.

Brad

You call home in order to help them, right? Because you want them to help you make sense of the world, right?

Brad

When an adult like you moves out of the house or moves out of the home and leaves mom and dad and leaves brother and sister and dog and cats— brother and sister, dog and cat, horse behind, maybe even a cow—

Brad

that too is like becoming unmoored for some more than others.

Brad

Personally, I low-key love that feeling.

Brad

I love the feeling that I'm a little bit out on the edge, right?

Brad

You can't have an adventure without being adventurous. But that requires courage to venture forth into the great blue sea away from the safe shores of home. And I dig it.

Brad

I dig it hard, actually. But here's the thing.

Brad

Sometimes the world is way, way, way harsher than you expected it to be. Sometimes unfair things happen.

Brad

Sometimes you just come up short.

Brad

And if you're not coming up short, you're probably playing it too safe.

Brad

Sometimes everything just gets too effing much and it gets hard to drag yourself out of bed.

Brad

At least that's been my experience at times.

Brad

But it gets hard to know yourself, to know who you are and why you're here.

Brad

In times like those, nothing can replace family. However, When you're adventuring, when we are adventuring our way through life, sometimes we need some kind of an anchor, right?

Brad

Metaphorical anchor.

Brad

Something that we can carry with us, like you carry an anchor in your boat, right? Something that you can pick up, take with you, and then drop down when you need it, right?

Brad

It's kind of there when you need it. Something we carry with us and use when we need it, like an anchor in a boat. So an anchor There's a little functional ontology in this paragraph.

Brad

So an anchor does the things that we want it to do.

Student

Right?

Brad

So an anchor is what it does.

Brad

And what does an anchor do?

Brad

Well, in a sea of change, an anchor can give us something to grasp onto.

Brad

It's something that helps us to ground us even when we're feeling lost at sea. An anchor can give us respites and help us figure out where the storm has blown.

Brad

Our little boat in this ocean of life.

Brad

The anchor definitely does not take us to our destination.

Brad

It's kind of the opposite of its point.

Brad

That's not its function.

Brad

Its function is to help us find our place here and now, right?

Brad

Theology must speak to the present moment here and now. And it does that by helping to ground us here and now so that we can reorient ourselves and know where we've been and can figure out where we're going, to quote the Phaedrus. So with that in mind, let's roll back to the question that I'm trying to answer: why should you take this course? ⚠

Brad

I feel like that should be a quiz question.

Brad

My answer is because this— how to use it. Um, has anybody seen this TV show on Netflix called Kipo and the Age of the Wonder Beasts?

Brad

That's 0 out of 64. I thought it would land.

Brad

My son and I watched it together, so maybe it's a little younger than—

Brad

it skews a little younger. He's 14.

Brad

So we used to watch this show called Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts, and similar to the goddess named Kali, Kipo was able to turn into a powerfully fierce giant beast, but like Kali, Kipo sometimes lost track of her gentle, sweet side.

Brad

Or maybe like Eleven in Stranger Things, right?

Brad

She's got like her normal, like, hey, I'm just chilling, and then she's got like the, oh, I gotta kill the bad guys kind of thing, right? So, but switching back and forth isn't always easy.

Brad

So like Kali or Eleven, Kipo sometimes lost track of that side and needed an anchor to bring her back to her default self.

Brad

Actually, Collie in Stranger Things too.

Brad

But at first, her anchor was a photo album of her family, right?

Brad

Pictures of her when she was a child living in the safe harbor of home. But as she matures throughout the show, her friends—

Brad

and her friends become her anchor, and she becomes theirs.

Brad

So side quest complete.

Brad

Bonus vocabulary lesson.

Brad

I feel like this is worth writing down.

Brad

Theology is a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a canon. So normally I say anchored in a canon of texts, which definitely fits this course more.

Brad

We are focused on texts and the canon of texts.

Brad

But, you know, there are a lot of indigenous traditions, a lot of traditions around the world that are more oral, oral traditions that pass down things, wisdom orally.

Brad

So, you know, it doesn't have to be a canon of texts, but it doesn't have to be a canon. Something that helps us decide, you know, something that functions in this way.

Brad

So theology is not the anchor. The canon is the anchor. So theology is a method that helps us to anchor, that helps us—

Brad

sorry, theology is a method that enables that anchor to speak to the present moment so that you can reorient yourself, right, towards your North Star and remind yourself, like Kipo or 11, who you are and where you're going when this cruel world becomes overwhelming.

Brad

Kind of makes sense?

Brad

Maybe I'm over-explaining. The North Star.

Brad

So let's go back to the image of you and your little boat, right? You're out there far from Chestnut Hill.

Brad

You're far from wherever you call home, and you've had a setback, and you're feeling lost, right?

Brad

An anchor will help you to find your bearings, but it's not all you need.

Brad

You also need a reference point, right?

Brad

As you know, while the Earth spins on its axis around the Sun, it looks to us like the stars are moving across the sky at night, right? But it's just like it looks like the Sun rises and the Sun sets, but we know neither of those things are the case, right?

Brad

The Sun is there and we're spinning on our axis.

Brad

And so as the Earth spins on its axis, it looks like the stars are moving across the sky.

Brad

Except for that one small patch near the North Pole.

Brad

And that patch doesn't move or appear to move.

Brad

Because, you know, geometry.

Brad

Right?

Brad

It's the center of the circle.

Student

It's like the center of the clock.

Brad

The second hand spins around the center.

Brad

But the center doesn't move.

Brad

Now for most of human existence, the North Star, the metaphorical North Star, was actually the North Star.

Brad

As we'll talk about in Chapter 7. It's the one thing that doesn't change in the sea of change that is existence.

Brad

But I mean it a little bit more existentially, right?

Brad

When life stops making sense, we need to stop and return to something that does make sense.

Brad

And in those times, we need a metaphorical or psychological or existential North Star.

Brad

Something that can help us figure out where we want to go so that we can make sure that we're on the right path.

Brad

This might seem a little abstract right now. What is a metaphorical North Star? What the hell are you talking about, Brad? It can be different things for different people. It can even be different things for the same person at different periods in their life.

Brad

Right? Something that acts as your North Star when you're 10 may not act as your North Star when you're 25.

Brad

To be perfectly honest, it is absolutely up to you to decide what it is. My job is not to tell you what your North Star is.

Brad

I literally don't know. So for right now, I just want you to understand that what I mean by North Star is that functional, ontological, existential idea, right?

Brad

The North Star is something that functions.

Brad

You at least got the function, right?

Brad

You understand the function to help you find meaning and purpose in your life.

Brad

When it's functioning poorly, it can be hard to get out of bed in the morning. When it's functioning well, you make decisions decisively and with purpose, right? So just to recap, why should you take this course?

Brad

What should you expect to get out of your time and efforts this semester? Well, the course helps you to identify or even create something that will function as an anchor in a sea of uncertainty. And something that will help you identify something that can function as a north star so that you can live your life with meaning, purpose, and direction.

Student

Word?

Brad

Thank you, Jaroslava.

Brad

So if I say "word" in the form of a question, then the answer is?

Brad

Word?

Brad

Nice. We're getting there.

Brad

Phenomenology and epistemology.

37:12

Postmodern Phenomenology and the Epistemology of the 'Cut'

Brad

So let me ask the question again. Why take this course?

Brad

What should you take away from it? My next answer to the question is by far the most important thing that you will learn all semester from me, and I think that's true in every class that I've ever taught. Namely phenomenology and epistemology.

Brad

But phenomenology is a method within the field of epistemology.

Brad

So postmodern phenomenology is a scientific method of inquiry that helps us to distinguish between the phenomena, which are things created by your mind, and the noumena, or the things themselves, which are not created by your mind. Right?

Brad

Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy called epistemology. Which asks questions like, how do we know what we know?

Brad

So some of you have had me before and already know this, but let's go through it again anyway.

Brad

In the early 20th century, human scientists—

Brad

I don't know about non-human scientists. I don't know what they were doing in the early 20th century.

Brad

But human scientists made enormous leaps in understanding how the human brain works.

Brad

As a result, this brilliant philosopher named Edmund Husserl basically said, "Yo, the way we've been doing philosophy is whack. Shit's got to change." Right?

Brad

So we got to be way more scientific and logical.

Brad

We've got to start from scratch and think very carefully and scientifically about how our brains construct what we see, what we think, what we believe, etc. Sometimes I get students take my class, they're like, I'm not really— I'm like really science, math oriented, science, math brain. I don't know how to do all this humanities stuff. ⚠

Brad

Well, fine.

Brad

This class, we're doing things scientifically, methodologically, right?

Brad

So we're going to do abstract philosophical humanities kind of things, but we're going to do it grounded in a very scientific method, namely what I'm explaining to you right now.

Brad

Right?

Brad

To illustrate what he meant, Husserl used an example that has become very famous. And if I've learned anything over the last decade as a professor, it's that this is an example that most students find incredibly helpful.

Brad

So I figured, why not teach you—

Brad

teach it to you now on day 1? Typically, I teach it on the 4th class of the semester, right before your first podcast is due.

Brad

But I figured, let's just roll it up on day 1.

Brad

So Husserl used the example of a 6-sided playing die, right, like this one. Kind of like this purple one. The purple one's over there, but I brought 2. So kind of like this one, right, that I usually carry in my pocket. I'm going to put it here on the lectern. ⚠

Brad

That was supposed to be funny.

Brad

And I hope everyone can see it.

Brad

At least you can kind of see that one.

Brad

I want you to clear your mind, right, and follow me closely here.

Brad

This may seem pedantic, but it's, in my experience, good to be a little meticulous when going through phenomenology.

Brad

I'm going to walk you through the process whereby the thing itself— I want you to point—

Brad

this is the thing itself, right?

Brad

Can everybody point to the thing itself?

Brad

Okay, that's the thing itself.

Brad

So the thing itself becomes a phenomenon in your heads, right?

Brad

So let's point to the thing itself and the phenomenon.

Student

Got it?

Brad

You know, you know, postmodernism. So let's start with light, right?

Brad

If there were no light in this room, obviously you wouldn't be able to see the die, right?

Brad

Gotta have light in order to see. It's how seeing works.

Brad

But white light is invisible, right? Between Samuela and I, there's light, but we don't see the light that's between us.

Brad

We only see the light when it like hits something, and then some of that visible spectrum is absorbed by the thing itself.

Brad

Unless it's a black hole. And then that's why a black hole is a black hole, right? Because nothing comes, nothing bounces off.

Brad

But everything that's not a black hole, some of the visible light bounces back.

Brad

And so whatever.

Brad

So the light only becomes visible when it bounces off something which absorbs a portion of the visible spectrum.

Brad

Whenever light isn't absorbed by the thing itself.

Brad

—and bounces off of it.

Brad

I'm sorry, whatever light isn't absorbed by the thing itself bounces off of it.

Brad

When you direct your pupil at the thing itself, some of the light goes into your eyeballs. Right?

Brad

So here's where students get lost. Right? When you look at this particular playing die, that particular playing die, right, you see the color purple. That's because that entity, the thing itself right there, absorbs a portion of the visible light spectrum. Right? Let's see who thinks carefully and scientifically. What portion of the visible light spectrum is absorbed by the thing itself? Red ahead, right? Everything except for the color purple. ⚠

Brad

So if you were asked like an optics professor, right?

Brad

What color is this? They'd probably like, wait, is this a trick question? Right? Because they understand the difference between light, light color, light. ⚠

Brad

Versus light pigment color. So the pigment on that is purple, right?

Brad

But so therefore we could say that playing die is actually every color except purple. How do we know?

Brad

Because it's absorbing all of the visible spectrum except purple. And the purple light is rejected by the thing itself. And the purple is what bounces off of the thing and goes into your pupil.

Brad

Following?

Brad

So what happens next is even more important.

Brad

Definitely another quiz question here.

Brad

So the light waves go into your eyeball, but they do not go into your brain, right?

Brad

They don't go through your head either.

Brad

As after the light waves enter your pupil, right? Hole in your eye. The light waves go back there and then they stop.

Brad

Light waves don't go through your head.

Brad

So if you're sitting behind somebody in a movie, you can't see the movie because the light waves don't go through their head.

Brad

So the light waves hit the back of their eye. And then here's something really important happens, right? You've got rods and cones back here.

Brad

And most of us have RGN, B cones, but some folks don't.

Brad

And regardless of whether you have them or not, we all have them in different quantities because genetics, right?

Brad

So some of the cones couldn't care less.

Brad

They'd just be like, it ain't green.

Brad

But some of them, the red cones and the blue cones, get excited and are like, red and blue, right?

Brad

When they get excited, they release neurotransmitters that basically send a signal through the optic nerve to your visual cortex, which is at the back of your skull back here, right?

Brad

So this is actually a really huge deal in epistemology. This moment right here is called the cut, right? If you were to point to it, it'd like be right there, right?

Brad

Sort of the—

Brad

where the light, the light which is analog becomes binary, right?

Brad

The neurotransmitters are either emitted or not. Probably a bunch of y'all are like neuroscience majors and could explain this stuff way better than I am.

Brad

Finally, this brings us to the phenomenon, right? So when you say, "I see the purple playing die," what you're actually seeing is the phenomenon.

Brad

This is where a lot of students get confused, so listen carefully. Your eye is receiving light waves that are bouncing off of the thing itself.

Brad

The playing die, and your visual cortex is converting the signal received through your optic nerve to create the phenomenon, which in this case is a visual mental image of the playing die.

Brad

So we can understand from that, right, hallucinations and delusions and schizophrenia and all those sort of things, right? Just that alone is sufficient to explain those sort of disorders. So if you've understood what I'm saying, you should be able to understand the problem that Husserl was trying to address, right?

Brad

When you say, I see a playing die, what you are actually seeing is the visual image that's created by your brain. And in most cases, practically speaking, it like literally doesn't matter, right? But as Husserl pointed out, your brain does not have all of the information that it needs to properly create the phenomenon in your head, and it never will.

Brad

Right? So there's an epistemic deficiency there.

Brad

Your brain creates the phenomenon, but it doesn't have enough information.

Brad

Right?

Brad

It creates the phenomenon with deficient information.

Brad

It does this in a couple of ways.

Brad

First, by filling in the gaps, and also by ignoring information that it deems irrelevant.

Brad

Right?

Brad

So if I ask you, you know, like, to describe the playing die, then you're going to look at the square and count the dots, right? You're going to ignore things like my fingers and the background and everything else, right?

Brad

Anything that's extraneous, your brain filters out, right? Immanuel Kant referred that as the regulative idea, right? You're trying to see something, you're going to ignore everything that's not the thing itself, right? The noumenon. Is what Kant called it.

Brad

So your brain creates the phenomenon with deficient information, fills in the gaps, and ignores some other things.

Brad

That means that your brain is actually making a lot of decisions. So a decision—

Brad

the word decision actually means to make a cut, right? Like scissors or incision, or— right? So we've got to make a cut.

Brad

So your brain is making cuts.

Brad

It's making decisions.

Brad

In order to create this phenomenon in your visual cortex, I don't know if in or above or whatever is the right term, your brain is deciding to fill in the missing info with information that it invents and is deciding to ignore some of the visual data coming in from the retina like the color of the podium or the background behind the die or whatever. So the problem is that you, the perceiver, you don't know what information is coming in through your retina and what information is being supplied or filled in the gaps by your brain.

Brad

See that as an enormous, huge fundamental problem of being a human?

Brad

Hopefully you do. This is a really significant thing. Really, really, really significant.

Brad

So you don't know what's coming in from your sense organs and what's being added or ignored by your brain.

Brad

So Husserl wants us to think about—

Brad

Husserl, by the way, wrote his big book Ideas for all this, you know, the fundamentals of phenomenology.

Brad

Most of this that I'm explaining he wrote in that book.

Brad

And that's right around the turn of the last century.

Brad

So I think 1905. It's around—

Brad

it's in that range, right? Around the time that Einstein published his relativity.

Brad

So Husserl wants us to think about how the brain makes these decisions about what to add and ignore.

Brad

And as he points out, your brain makes these decisions based on what it intends to perceive. Right?

Brad

Key term there. Basically, it takes a little bit of the data and it decides, oh, this is a purple 6-sided playing die. I've seen that before.

Brad

Then it fills in any missing info based on your previous knowledge of a playing die and it ignores the rest. Right?

Brad

Which brings us to another important vocabulary term, intentionality. Basically, if you intend to see something, then your intention is going to be significantly— is going to significantly impact how your brain makes decisions about what it does or does not see.

Brad

So I'm just deconstructing all these words as I'm lecturing. So that brings us to the phenomenological method, the central method of this course.

50:07

The Phenomenological Method and Discourse in Comparative Theology

Brad

So you might be thinking, like, so what, right? Why does any of this What does any of this have to do with this course on Hindu theologies and Christian theologies in dialogue? I'm guessing none of you expected this particular lecture today, right?

Brad

It's quite different than what you would have expected for an opening lecture on Hindu and Christian theologies.

Brad

So why is Brad spending so much of this opening lecture of this course talking about light waves and neuroscience and playing die? Which are all fair questions, and I've got wicked good answers to them. In fact, I'm going to use that particular playing—

Brad

purple playing die—

Brad

particular purple playing die—

Brad

fun with alliteration—

Brad

to help me drive these answers home.

Brad

I assume all of you have had some experience with a playing die. It's not the first time you've heard of a playing die or seen a playing die, right? So you probably know, if you have any experience with the playing die, that opposite sides of a regular 6-sided playing die total 7, right? So you can look at this, right, and you see what? ⚠

Brad

5 dots.

Brad

So then you can infer, right, logically infer or deduce using logical deduction, how many dots are on this side, right? ⚠

Brad

The answer would be 2. Good. Sorry, I'm so unprofessional.

Brad

So those are all— wait, so if you use logic, then you don't actually have to see all the sides, right? If you see a side with 2 dots, then you can infer logically to do the opposite side, which you cannot see, has 5 dots. Obviously, this is going to be— this is similar to the idea of intentionality. That I just taught, but it's actually a step beyond it because you're consciously aware that you're making a logical deduction. Which brings us to the phenomenological method of investigation. It will be the method that I expect you to use all semester, right? ⚠

Brad

Particularly in your podcasts, etc.

Brad

So you begin by vaguely identifying the thing itself, right?

Brad

And this we already said. In this case, the thing itself is the playing die, right?

Brad

Right?

Brad

This playing die, that playing die.

Brad

So in this particular example, the thing itself is that particular purple playing die.

Brad

The next step is to do what Husserl calls bracketing or epoche. I don't know why he uses the Greek, but epoche in Greek, which sort of means taking all of your assumptions about that thing and setting them aside for a while, right? In other words, check your biases and your expectations. Try to what you see without intention.

Brad

Right?

Brad

As much as possible, try not to fill in the gaps in your information, but pay attention to what you perceive while bracketing your intentions. Right?

Brad

Try to see what's there, not what you expect to be there.

Student

That, yeah.

Brad

So the next step in the phenomenological method is to acknowledge, at least to yourself, that you are perceiving the thing itself from a particular vantage point, right?

Brad

So we're going to have differing—

Brad

ideally, that would be in the center of the room, right?

Brad

Rather than we all have a similar vantage on it.

Brad

You're either sitting on this side of the classroom or that side of the classroom, right?

Brad

So Husserl wants you to bracket your assumptions, right?

Brad

So, sorry, what's your name? Devin. Devin?

Brad

And?

Brad

Boris.

Brad

Boris.

Brad

All right, so Devin, what do you see? A 5.

Brad

All right, so you know already, so what's on the other side?

Brad

A 2.

Brad

A 2.

Brad

So you could logically deduce, you don't even need Boris, right?

Brad

Boris is so extra, right? So you've got, Davin's got her eyes and the number 5, and then you can deduce that Boris is seeing 2.

Student

Or you could ask him, right? Ask him.

Student

What do you see? A 2.

Brad

Ah, see, now we're doing phenomenological discourse, right? So this is phenomenological discourse, is you describe the phenomenon, which is the thing in your head, and then you ask someone else to describe it.

Brad

Now here, I don't know, we have kind of a problem, right?

Student

Because Devin said that there's a 5, right? And Boris says that there are 2, but they're both looking at the same thing, right?

Brad

So then who's right?

Brad

They can't both be right, can they?

Student

What is it? Is it 5 or is it 2?

Brad

Obviously it's 5.

Student

2 because 5 is odd.

Brad

A little chuckle there. That's great.

Brad

So you see different things not because you're seeing a different thing itself, but you have different phenomena because of your vantage point.

Brad

Makes sense, right?

Brad

A little obvious so far. So Lusserand wants you to bracket that assumption, right? He doesn't want Devin to assume what Boris is seeing, but instead of just ask Boris, what are you seeing? ⚠

Brad

Right? So just ask them. Right?

Brad

Look at that, two dots.

Brad

So phenomenological discourse.

Brad

In phenomenological discourse, you're carefully describing the phenomenon that you perceive, and you're describing that to your neighbor who perceives the thing itself from a different vantage.

Brad

So I could ask just the people over here, Right? Devin could just say, you know, ask all the people around you, what do you see? And if you all say 5, then it's like, oh yeah, we're convinced that it's 5, right? So Boris is obviously smoking something if he says it's anything other than 5, right? ⚠

Brad

Not obviously smoking something.

Brad

You could be ingesting in other ways.

Brad

Smoking is bad for you.

Brad

So hopefully you can already understand, right?

Brad

The phenomenological discourse will be the most fruitful if you're engaging in discourse with people who perceive the thing itself from a very different vantage than you.

Brad

If you only talk to people that are sitting around you, that's actually going to increase your confirmation bias, right?

Brad

Hopefully you understand already how this is connected to Hindu-Christian comparative theology, right?

Brad

This is the entire logic and logical basis behind this course.

Brad

So, too much lecture.

Brad

I'm not gonna— I'm not gonna— all right, let's skip it.

Brad

All right, so the idea is that you get more epistemic confidence, right?

Brad

Are more convinced that there's a correlation between the phenomenon and the thing itself if you ask other people around you, right?

Brad

So the more perspectives you get, right?

Brad

So if you ask Jaden and Brian and Jaroslava and they all, you know, agree, then you get more confidence that the phenomenon in Jaden's head and the phenomenon in Brian's head and the phenomenon in Jaroslava's head all correspond to the thing itself. Right? ⚠

Brad

But there's also an issue if they disagree.

Brad

Let me see. All right. So let's just do it one more time.

Brad

I don't know.

Brad

You can't really see it here. It would be better if I could like stand in the middle of the—

Brad

Let's just have a couple of different folks. Would you mind telling me your name? Gina. Gina, Gina, describe what you see.

Student

I see a 3 and a 2.

Student

Okay, all right. Yep, so you see a 3, yep, good.

Brad

And then Max, and what do you see? 3.

Brad

Okay, so they agree, right? So you both see a 3, so therefore we know that they're both looking at the thing itself, right?

Student

Because they see the same thing. Right, but what's wrong? Supposed to be a 4 on the other side.

Brad

Ah, so then what does that mean?

Student

That somebody's lying? Huh? Maybe.

Brad

Maybe, or maybe somebody's delusional, or somebody's again ingested something super fun this morning, right?

Brad

I also teach at Fitchburg State. That's Fitchburg State on Mondays and Wednesdays and Boston College on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So the smoking thing's more of an issue there than here. ⚠

Student

But you get the point, right?

Brad

So then, so what's going on here where you expect the answer to be something different, right?

Brad

Using your skills of logical deduction.

Brad

So then, so what's going on? You saw 3 dots, but so did the person on the other side of the room.

Brad

But they should have seen 4 dots, right?

Brad

Because opposite sides total 7.

Brad

So the possibility is that they're lying to you for some reason, right? Or it could be that they're delusional, or it could be they have really poor vision, or maybe the light on their side of the room is poor, or maybe they've been smoking some herb, or something.

Brad

So maybe they are in a different political party than you, and they've been brainwashed by social media to think that all sides of the die are 3 or something, right?

Brad

Or maybe they don't know how to count to 4. There's so many other possibilities.

Brad

Other possibility is that Brad's full of shit, right?

Brad

And punking you, and that this is not a regular playing die, right?

Brad

This is not a regular playing die.

Brad

This is, but this one is not, right?

Brad

Opposite sides on this one are the same.

Brad

2 on both sides, 3 on both sides, 1, right?

Brad

Because you can't really roll a d3. Yeah, can't even make a d3, right? If you need to roll a d3, you can roll a d6 with 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, right?

Brad

So probably had all these assumptions. ⚠

Brad

All right, I know you probably already figured out the point, but let me spell it out, right?

Brad

So way back, like way back a long time, a lot of minutes ago, I started talking about the light waves and retinas before you understood the critically important difference between the thing itself and the phenomenon, right?

Brad

And I told you I was going to answer a question, which is? What question am I trying to answer? Why should you take this course?

Brad

What are you trying to get out of it, right?

Brad

What should you expect to take away? And my answers so far have been so that you can identify and use an anchor.

Brad

So that you can identify and learn to use your north star.

Brad

And now third, so that you can learn to practice the phenomenological method of discourse. And I spent a lot of time talking about this particular purple playing die, which turned out to be quite different than you expected it to be, but you only knew that once you started listening to the people around you in the room, right? So once you listen to each other, that's the moment that you figured out something's off, right? Because the person on the other side of the room is not saying what I expect them to say, right? So like if you were to ask the person on the other side of the world their perspective on things, then they might not say what you expect them to say, right?

Brad

So I want you to be attentive to what they say rather than attentive to your intentions, right? What you intend for them to say.

Brad

So I went all of that trouble because I want to teach you the methodology of phenomenological discourse and wanted you to learn the key vocabulary terms that'll be on the quiz, like the thing itself or the noumenon and the phenomenon that your brain creates and perceives.

Brad

We go to 115, right?

Brad

Phenomena that your brain creates and perceives, the biases that come from intentionality and the epistemic confidence that comes from listening attentively to the people with very different vantage points from you. Now, what do you think would happen if we replaced that purple playing die with something more abstract like the idea of God. ⚠

Student

What are some of the issues here? Right, let's scroll down. What are some of the issues? Yeah, you can't really see an abstract idea, so you can't have evidence to prove your— ⚠

Brad

so I can't put it in between us and say, hey, you know, like, I can't come where you are, right?

Student

It's not a physical thing, right?

Brad

So a physical thing— that gave you this method that works really well for a physical thing, right? But then when we're doing an abstract thing like the idea of God, you can't set it up there on the table.

Brad

Right?

Brad

So that's not very scientific, right?

Brad

What would be an alternative? What could we do?

Brad

Putting the pieces together that you've learned so far today.

Student

We could look at physical things we have that could explain that idea of God.

Brad

And what might those be? Scripture.

Brad

Yeah, nice!

Brad

Awesome!

Brad

Yes, absolutely.

Brad

That's the correct answer.

Brad

So we could put— I can't put the idea of God up here, but I can put the scriptures. So then scriptures are something that we could all— something tangible.

Brad

So what if I replace—

Brad

all right, I am really running short on time. So let me rush through this so we can have time for the quiz.

Brad

I told you that Husserl wanted to be very careful, scientific, and meticulous, thinking concretely about how we know what we know.

Brad

Epistemology.

Brad

So I put that purple playing die on the lectern and started talking about the light waves going into your retina, then asked the idea of God, right?

Brad

So we can't do that.

Brad

This is a funny joke.

Brad

Way back like 45 minutes ago, I gave you that definition of theology, right? Theology is a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a canon of texts.

Brad

Now let me add some more specifics, right? Hindu theology is a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a canon of texts written in Sanskrit called the veda.

Brad

Christian theology is a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a canon of ancient texts written in Hebrew and Greek called the Bible.

Brad

Right?

Brad

Well, it's obviously true that I cannot put the idea of God up there on the lectern. It's obviously true that I could put the canon of ancient texts up there for everyone to see and create copies of those, like in this document that I'm reading from, which is on the—

Brad

which you have access to.

Brad

And create copies of those texts and give everyone a copy so you can read it, study it, and attempt to interpret the text while bracketing your intentions, your biases, and your assumptions.

Brad

Feel me?

Brad

So hopefully you're getting the point, but let me spell it out, right?

Brad

Theological method that we're using all semester in this course is basically just the phenomenological method that I taught you, but instead of anchoring our discourse around a purple playing die, we're going to anchor our discourse around the particular text from the veda and from the Bible, right? So then if You know, if Dylan sees something and I see something different, right, then I actually gain more information from the discourse because now I can understand the thing itself from multiple perspectives, right?

Brad

And we're going to anchor our discourse this semester around a particular text from the veda and from the Bible. My hope and expectation is that you will attempt to set aside your assumptions Set aside your biases.

Brad

Set aside your intentions. Set aside your preconceived ideas about God, self, and personhood. And about the meaning of life and the purpose of existence and all that stuff.

Brad

Just leave it at the door.

Brad

That's part of why I start with silent meditation. Let's just bracket as much as we can and focus attentively on the thing itself. Right?

Brad

Namely, whatever text I have assigned for you to read and discuss that day.

Brad

So over the last decade that I've been teaching this course, I've always had a bunch of students come and say, I'm worried about this course because I'm not religious at all and I don't know anything about the Bible or Hindu texts, and I feel like I'm going to be behind. But in my experience, honestly, those students tend to do extremely well, right?

Brad

Because they don't bring as many assumptions, they don't bring as many biases to the text.

Brad

So when we read the Gospel of Mark later, if you have never read the Gospel of Mark, then you just read the Gospel of Mark without intention. Right? ⚠

Brad

You just read it and attend to the notes on the page.

Brad

Right?

Brad

If you never read the Chhattapada Brahmana or something, if you never read the Bhagavad Gita, then you bring nothing, no baggage to it. Right? You can just read it without those intentions.

Brad

But don't get me wrong, many religious students do extremely well.

Brad

As well.

Brad

So our goal in this class, which meets your core sacred texts requirement— I think I was supposed to say that today— is to anchor our discussions in the Hindu and Christian sacred texts that I've selected, but allow the text to speak on their own terms.

Brad

Don't—

Brad

try not to make assumptions about them.

Brad

Simply try to read the text carefully, thoughtfully, contemplatively, and I will do my best to give you some historical and broader context for each of the texts. But the goal is to keep themselves at the text themselves at the center, just like we did with the purple playing die. ⚠

Brad

Listen attentively to your neighbors because your neighbors are approaching the text from a different vantage point. That's the entire point, right? So it's inevitable that they are going to see something that you cannot see from your vantage, like the other side of the playing die.

Brad

Hence, the methods of this course are as important as the content. Now, the methods of this course are way more important than the content.

Brad

So it's not just the text that matters, but the phenomenological discourse anchored in the text matters at least as much. Word?

Brad

Word.

Brad

Word.

Brad

Word.

Student

Cool.

Brad

Awesome. All right.

Brad

Let's—

Student

we got 6 minutes.

1:08:56

Syllabus Review, Canvas Navigation, and Closing Announcements

Brad

At least get the first question right, which is, what was your name? So we only have 60 seconds left, so let me just say one thing before you head out. ⚠

Brad

So the syllabus is on the, on Canvas, and if you open it up, you'll see over here on the left side there's some tabs and you can actually just, yeah, you can click and like jump down to class agenda. ⚠

Brad

I also put a shortcut to that.

Brad

Here, if you click on these, it will open up in other documents. So, yeah, so if you click, so for Thursday, I would like you to read chapter 1, Doing Theology Comparatively.

Brad

So you just click on that. And open it up and it'll take you right to that tab. ⚠

Brad

It's actually everything, all the readings for the, all of the readings for the entire course are going to be in this document, right?

Brad

They're not all there yet, but they will be. They'll be there as we go. And so, you know, you can bookmark this document or whatever, but I'll, you can also links to it in the syllabus. So feel, so please read that. I don't allow any devices in the class. I do record the class. I'll give you auto, you know, you'll have access to the recording and transcript. I encourage you to print out the chapter. ⚠

Brad

You'll be able to use, you know, sometimes be able to use notes and the text on the quizzes at the beginning of class and sometimes not.

Brad

And yeah, the last thing is I have office hours now. So if anybody wants to get that first assignment, if you've read the syllabus, you know about the first assignment, which is just to meet with me. If you don't have time and you want to do that now, you can do that now. For Brian, Samuela, Jaden, and Yaroslava have taken me before, you've got a third option. So for the rest of you, for everybody, you've got, you can either come to my office hours in the next couple of months to do the initial meeting or schedule an online meeting with me on Fridays. ⚠

Brad

And for those 4 people, you can also meet that 5% of your grade by playing a game of Fortnite with me if you want to run squads or something like that.

Brad

I'll see you all on Thursday. I will not usually lecture like this. This is atypical, but first day, kind of lecture.

Student

Alright, word, peace, see you then.

Brad

And, uh, yeah, you can set them there or on your—

Brad

on the way out the door, either one.

Student

Just want to let you know, on Thursday I have physical therapy, like 10:30. Okay. Um, it's off campus, so EOS is going to take me. There have been times where I've waited an hour for them before, so I shouldn't be an issue, hopefully. Okay. But there's a chance that they're really behind. ⚠

Brad

I mean, yeah, sure. I mean, no problem if you come late. Feel free.

Brad

Late's not a problem.

Brad

Yeah, and chapter 1 is actually an edited version of the theology chapter from last semester, so you already know how I define theology.

Student

Sir Brad, can I ask you a question? Do you remember your time on Friday? Is it really like there was a ⚠