The CTNS has chosen Professor Lubin's course, "Magic, Science, and Religion," for a $10,000 award. The course traces the history of how the categories of "religion," "magic," and "science" have been defined and distinguished from one another since antiquity, and then examines a number of traditions, Western and non-Western, that appear (or claim) to challenge those distinctions. The course proposes a framework for comparing the assumptions, sources of authority, modes of argumentation, and criteria of truth of different "systems of knowledge." Students then apply this framework in a case study. The students' research projects are then mounted on a web site called "Touchstone." The aim is not to reconcile religion and science, nor is it to debunk or defend any particular system, but rather to provide students with the tools to analyze and compare the perspective and arguments of divergent traditions in a complex world.

The course was first taught in fall 2000, drawing 63 students in two sections; it will be offered again next winter. The CTNS, founded in 1981, is based in Berkeley, California. The CTNS's Science & Religion Course Program is funded by the Templeton Foundation.

The title of the course is taken from that of a 1925 essay by the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, and Lubin's perspective on the subject was influenced by a course he took at Harvard with the anthropologist Stanley Tambiah (the substance of which is reflected in Tambiah's book, _Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality_, 1990), but the range of topics, readings, and pedagogical approach are his own.

Links:
"Magic, Science, and Religion"  http://home.wlu.edu/~lubint/Rel195.htm

"Touchstone"  http://home.wlu.edu/~lubint/Touchstone

CTNS   http://www.ctns.org

Science & Religion Course Program  http://srcourse.ctns.org/