TFF4006 ¨C Interreligious Child Ethics: Care for Children in an Adult World

Course content

This course considers the moral lives of children, our responsibilities towards children, and what children reveal about the human moral life from an interreligious perspective. In contemporary society, children, viewed as amoral or premoral, even as innocents, have consistently been excluded from what is commonly considered the moral realm. Seen as lacking the capabilities to have a voice in the public square, they are nonetheless impacted by the ¡®adult¡¯ world. Children are the silenced victims of war, environmental degradation, sexual violence, and oppression. But children act morally in the world if we only care to notice, and their agency shapes human society. This course will address the following questions:

• Who is a child and what constitutes childhood? What role do religious views play in our definitions of child and childhood?
• Can children choose? Are they moral agents? How do theological and religious understandings of childhood affect how we understand their moral agency?
• What should be our ethical response to issues facing children? What obligations do we owe to children?
• How does the moral agency of children affect how we understand our own moral agency?
• In what way do the goods of childhood - the ability for children to make meaning, to act, to imitate, to use language creatively, to grasp a plurality of meaning, to reach judgments, to contribute to the meaning of others, and to shape our understanding - inform our own moral deliberations and perspectives?

The goal of this course is to give students a foundation in theological and interreligious ethics from which to form a faithful response to issues facing children. It will introduce principles and perspectives for child ethics from theological viewpoints. Special attention will be given to the resources of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions.

Learning outcome

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Recognize, compare, and synthesize diverse perspectives related to interreligious child ethics to develop innovative viewpoints, and express these viewpoints in oral and written work.
• Understand the relationship between theological and religious views of children and child ethics, distinguish various theological approaches to ethics of children from alternative approaches, and justify an ethical obligation for care of children.
• Inspect their own relationship to children and their own childhood, analyze their own understanding of moral agency, and cultivate respect for the goods of childhood.
• Develop the skills to evaluate diverse perspectives on child ethics and examine church and public practices in order to engage with church leaders, political leaders, laypersons, and the public square on issues involving children.

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

Students enrolled in other Master`s Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Students on the six year study programme in Theology must have completed the first three years of study in the study programme.

Students studying at master¡¯s level on the Teacher Education Programme may apply to the course by sending an email to TF Information Centre by the same deadlines as for course registration for bachelor courses at TF.

Recommended previous knowledge

TFF1003 ¨C Etikk og religion or an equivalent introduction to ethics.

Teaching

The main teaching activities in this course are lecture, and class discussion. The language of this course is English.

Mandatory activities:

1. Reading Responses¡ªStudents are expected to submit reading responses prior to the beginning of each class. Students must complete a response for two of the required texts. There are two components to the reading summaries: 1) Summary of the main argument (i.e., thesis statement) in 1-2 sentences maximum; 2) 2 questions about or arising from the reading. Students are entitled to one excused absence for the semester.

2. Podcast Recording¡ªStudents must pair up (or group of 3 if uneven) and record a podcast (20-30 minutes) related to a particular issue in child ethics. Students have two options: 1) Compare, contrast, and critically evaluate two articles/chapters pertaining to ethics from the course reading list, with the option of choosing their own readings instead (subject to instructor approval). 2) Students may choose to respond to a case study from a set of case studies made available on the course website. These responses should include a clear and concise summary of the central ethical issue(s), an evaluation of possible actions that could be taken in the case, and the student¡¯s recommendation for resolution. Students may choose focus on a particular religious tradition, but are encouraged to take a comparative or interreligious approach.

3. Annotated Bibliography¡ªStudents are required to prepare and submit a written document outlining their essay topic, research question(s), and an annotated bibliography of 10-20 sources (depending on whether the sources are majority books or articles).

Examination

Term paper, 3000-4000 words.

Language of examination

You may write your term paper in Norwegian or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.