Department of Religious Studies
Undergraduate
Courses
The Department of Religious Studies offers a wide and varying number of courses open to undergraduates. Not all of these courses are taught annually. Click on a course number for a description of the course and the general education requirements it fulfills.
See also Current Course Offerings (RELGST).
Regularly Taught Courses
- 0025 Major Biblical Themes
- 0083 Mythology in the Ancient World
- 0090 Myth in the Ancient Near East
- 0105 Religions of the West
- 0115 Bible as Literature
- 0135 Christian Bible
- 0205 Introduction to Judaism
- 0283 United States and the Holocaust
- 0305 Classics of Christian Thought
- 0405 Religion in Early America
- 0415 Religion in Modern America
- 0417 The Black Church
- 0455 Introduction to Islamic Civilization
- 0505 Religion in Asia
- 0525 Religion and Culture in East Asia
- 0601 Varieties of Religious Tradition
- 0625 Death, Dying, and Immortality
- 0705 Approaches to the Study of Religion
- 0710 Sociology of Religion
- 0715 Philosophy of Religion
- 0735 Wisdom
- 0805 Professions and the Dying Patient
- 1100 Israel in the Biblical Age
- 1110 Special Topics—Ancient
- 1112 Bible as Literature 2
- 1120 Origins of Christianity
- 1130 Varieties of Early Christianity
- 1132 Paul
- 1135 Orthodox Christianity
- 1140 Dualism in the Ancient World
- 1142 Construction of Evil
- 1143 Death in the Name of God—Martyrs and Martyrdom
- 1144 Classical Mythology, and Literature
- 1145 Greco-Roman Religions
- 1148 Religions of Ancient Egypt
- 1150 Body and Society in Late Antiquity
- 1210 Classical Judaism
- 1214 Rabbinic Texts and Traditions
- 1220 Medieval Jewish Civilization
- 1222 Jewish Mysticism
- 1225 Jewish Culture in Medieval Spain
- 1232 Modern Eastern European Jewry
- 1250 Modern Jewry
- 1252 History of the Holocaust
- 1254 After the Holocaust
- 1256 Modern Israel
- 1257 Russian Jewry
- 1260 Jews in the United States
- 1266 Israel—State and Society
- 1320 Medieval History 1
- 1330 Medieval History 2
- 1360 Introduction to the Renaissance
- 1372 Catholicism in the New World
- 1425 Popular Religion in America
- 1438 Religion and Politics
- 1466 Sociology of Islam
- 1500 Religion in India 1
- 1510 Religion in India 2
- 1512 Sanskrit 1
- 1514 Sanskrit 2
- 1516 Temple, Icon, and Deity in India
- 1540 Saints East and West
- 1545 Mysticism East and East
- 1550 East Asian Buddhism
- 1552 East Asian Meditative Traditions—Chan/Zen Buddhism
- 1554 Death and Beyond in Buddhist Cultures
- 1557 Buddhist Lives
- 1560 Chinese Religious Traditions
- 1562 Confucianism—Basic Texts
- 1570 Japanese Religious Traditions
- 1572 Popular Religion in a Changing Japan
- 1610 Myth, Symbol, and Ritual
- 1620 Women in Religion
- 1624 Women in Judaism
- 1630 Ritual Process
- 1640 Jews in the Islamic World
- 1642 History of Christian-Muslim Relations
- 1644 Jewish-Christian Relations
- 1650 Approaches to Antisemitism
- 1675 Reading the Hebrew Bible
- 1680 Readings in Jewish Historiography
- 1720 Religion and Culture
- 1730 Problems in the Philosophy of Religion
- 1740 Meaning, Mystery, and Paradox
- 1760 Religion and Rationality
- 1770 Science and Religion
- 1800 Special Topics in Religion
- 1900 Internship
- 1901 Independent Study
- 1902 Directed Study—Undergraduate
- 1903 Directed Research—Capstone
Descriptions of Regularly Taught Courses
RELGST 0025: Major Biblical Themes
Eli Reich
This course introduces students to some of the dominant themes we see in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Some of these themes include creation, covenant, revelation, prophecy, wisdom, exile, and kingship. We consider the development and function of each theme in its social and historical context across the biblical canon, comparing and contrasting how these ideas reiterate basic biblical concepts. The primary text is the Bible itself with secondary readings providing background and context.
RELGST 0083: Mythology in the Ancient World
Cross-listed with CLASS 0030
Meets requirements: REG
Nicholas Jones, Staff
Our subject is the traditional stories—myths, legends, and folktales—of the Greeks and Romans. Traditional stories are ones that, by virtue of some compelling attraction, manage to survive from generation to generation, so our main task is to discover just what that "compelling attraction" was. The creation of the universe, the first woman Pandora, the Twelve Gods and Goddesses, the theft of fire by Prometheus, Helen and the Trojan War, the foundation of Rome by Aeneas, and Ovid's fanciful metamorphoses are examples of the stories from our modern illustrated reader Classical Myth by Barry B. Powell. By way of providing a context for our stories, the instructor also devotes much attention to such topics as popular belief and superstition, cult rituals, sanctuaries of the gods, oracles and prophets, the conceptualization of male and female, sexuality, and the social and cultural basis of myth in general. Throughout, we examine the many theories about the meaning of traditional stories from antiquity down to our own day.
RELGST 0090: Myth in the Ancient Near East
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Eli Reich
The myths of the ancient Near East are among the earliest written interpretations of the world and human existence. They are also among the most enduring, although they have only been unearthed in the last 200 years. In this course, we read myths from ancient Mesopotamia, Ugarit, and Israel. We study the myths as literary works, representative of the ideas and issues of the original cultural context in which they were shaped. These myths offer insight into the religious mentality of the ancient Near East, as well as societal and political issues. We examine themes such as the presentation of the life of the gods, the relationship between the human and divine worlds, the issues of mortality and immortality, existence, fertility, kingship, and ethics. The primary goal of this course is to better understand these myths as they existed and developed in their ancient settings. Of course, because the myths are expressions of human thought, we may find that in studying them we also come to better understand ourselves.
RELGST 0105: Religions of the West
Cross-listed with HIST 0125
Meets requirements: COM
Adam Shear, Staff
This course is a historical introduction to the religious traditions that developed in ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. Our major emphasis is on the history of the religious traditions that emerged in late antiquity in this area and which continue to be major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. We focus on key concepts, historical developments, and contemporary issues. Throughout the course, we also examine interactions among these religious traditions. In the last part of the course we examine the issue of globalization and the spread of these religions around the world as well as the presence of "non-Western" religion in the "West." The course also serves as an introduction to the academic study of religion and provides a foundation for further coursework in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. No prior knowledge of any of the religions studied is expected or assumed.
RELGST 0115: Bible as Literature
Cross-listed with ENGLIT 0597
Meets requirements: LIT
H. David Brumble
We read the Bible as literature. This is to say that we discuss, for example, the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Noah and the flood, and the story of the crucifixion of Jesus as stories. We try to understand these wonderful stories in their historical contexts, and so we discuss a wide range of background materials—arts, anthropology, history, and more.
RELGST 0135: Christian Bible
Meets requirements: HS
Rebecca Denova
This course introduces the text, history, and interpretations of the Christian Bible.
RELGST 0205: Introduction to Judaism
Cross-listed with JS 0205
Alexander Orbach, Adam Shear, Staff
This course offers students a broad overview of the major beliefs and practices of Judaism from ancient Israel to the modern period. Emphasis is on the historical development of Jewish religion and culture in relation to the social, intellectual, and political experiences of Jews in different contexts. No previous background in Jewish studies is required. This course provides a basic framework for further academic study in Jewish texts and Jewish history.
RELGST 0283: United States and the Holocaust
Cross-listed with HIST 0678 and JS 0283
Meets requirements: HS
Barbara Burstin
In recent years, more and more attention has been focused on the Nazis and their policy of mass murder. Along with that interest, there has come a spate of questions regarding the perception and response of the Allies to Hitler. This course is an attempt to look at the situation on this side of the Atlantic before, during and after WWII. We explore the Holocaust in Europe, but focus on American policy and American policy makers such as F.D.R. in the 1930s and 1940s and look at those factors that influenced our reaction. There is an opportunity to explore some of the issues and questions that the Holocaust raises for Americans today. In addition to selected films, there is an opportunity to meet survivors and liberators of the camps.
RELGST 0305: Classics of Christian Thought
Tony Edwards
In this course we read and discuss several of the most important works of Christian thought: Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians, Augustine’s Confessions, Anselm’s Why God Became Man and Proslogion, Aquinas’s Summa Thelogiae (selections), The Cloud of Unknowing (anonymous), Luther’s Christian Liberty, Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (selections), Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, and Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. Our discussions cover such topics as justice and righteousness, conversion, reason and revelation, Jesus, the existence of God, analogy and metaphor, sin, grace, free will, faith, love, compassion, and predestination.
RELGST 0405: Religion in Early America
Cross-listed with HIST 0675
Meets requirements: HS
Paula M. Kane
This course is the first half of a two-part survey of American religious history. We focus on the colonial era of Spanish, French, and English colonization of America through the Civil War. While following the Puritan "mainstream" of New England, we also study Afro-American and immigrant traditions, religious reformers and radicals, highlighting how religious and social beliefs from 1600 to 1865 both reflected and shaped gender, racial, economic, and political change.
RELGST 0415: Religion in Modern America
Cross-listed with HIST 0676
Meets requirements: HS
Paula M. Kane
The course examines the impact of religion as a moral, intellectual, and institutional force in America from 1865 to the present. We seek to understand how religions have both shaped and reflected economic, social, and cultural conditions in the United States. The course format combines lecture with student discussion of religious conflicts and critical moments of cultural change. Documentary films, slides, and local sites are also used. Major emphases include religious responses to intellectual, scientific, and economic change, including Biblical criticism, evolutionary theory, immigration, urbanization, industrialization, Marxism, fascism, racism, feminism, and globalization.
RELGST 0417: The Black Church
Cross-listed with AFRCNA 0013
Wilbert Austin
This course examines the Black Church within the broader context of the African American religious experience in the United States. We survey and analyze the development of the Black Church from its historical roots and earliest manifestations through its development into contemporary institutional forms. We study its historical and theological development by examining the variety of its distinctions, praxis, experience, outlook, and historical personages through critical consideration of various readings, lecture, and class discussion. The role of black churches in establishing and providing connectivity and community in Black life will be examined as well as the trends toward new expanded roles for the church in an increasingly technological and non-religious-oriented age. A critical reading of texts, class discussion and written reflection and analysis are fundamental to our approach.
RELGST 0455: Introduction to Islamic Civilization
Cross-listed with HIST 0756
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
M. Pinar Emiralioglu
This course aims to introduce students to the Islamic and Middle Eastern history from the time of the Prophet (ca. 600 CE) to the first Gulf War in 1991. We proceed chronologically, focusing on political events. Special emphasis however is given to the formation of the Islamic tradition, its evolution across different regions and cultures in time, and its interaction with the other traditions. In the modern era, we particularly explore Islamic societies' political, cultural, and military encounters with the rising power of the West in the Middle East. In addition to several historical processes and developments such as modernization, nation-building, Islamic fundamentalism and globalization, which have shaped the history of the Middle East in the last two centuries, class discussions touch on the main theoretical perspectives that have stamped the studies of Islam and the Middle East. Here, concepts such as orientalism and modernity constitute our main focus.
RELGST 0505: Religion in Asia
Cross-listed with HIST 0755
Meets requirements: IFN, COM
Clark Chilson, Linda Penkower
This class serves as an introduction to the major religious traditions of China and Japan (and sometimes India). During the course of the semester, we encounter the native Confucian, Daoist (Taoist), and popular traditions of China, and the Shintō, folk and new religions of Japan. Buddhism, which originated in India but later spread to East Asia, is examined in its relation to the history of both Chinese and Japanese religions. We approach these traditions through lectures and discussion based on Chinese classical and popular literature, secondary scholarship, and films, which inform us about cultural and historical context, beliefs, practices, and personal experience. In the process we expect to learn something about the ways in which non-Western religious traditions see themselves and their world on their own terms, and to see how/if they can complement our own worldviews.
RELGST 0525: Religion and Culture in East Asia
Cross-listed with HIST 0475
Meets requirements: IFN, COM
Clark Chilson, Linda Penkower
As East Asia becomes more and more central to the world’s modern commodity culture, some have predicted a decline in traditional religious values and practices. In fact, the reverse is true: from Taiwan and Hong Kong through mainland China to Korea and Japan, increasing prosperity is resulting in an increased "investment" in religion. This course presents a thematic survey of popular religion in contemporary East Asia, informed by religious, cultural, and political history, and takes a look at how religion participates in shaping the respective worldviews, behaviors, and practices of modern East Asian societies. It further reviews the various responses to the dilemma of self-identity and self-representation suggested by the changing role religion sees for itself in contemporary East Asia and explores the relationship between religion and politics, class, and gender. The course treats the changes we see within East Asian cultures not so much as breaks with tradition but as responses to older themes and behaviors that have been reinterpreted to make themselves relevant to the needs of modern society. We approach this course through lectures, discussions, readings, and films.
RELGST 0601: Varieties of Religious Tradition
Staff
This course surveys the diverse forms of religious experience and expression in both European and Asian contexts. Traditions and themes vary with the instructor.
RELGST 0625: Death, Dying, and Immortality
Staff
This course examines the ways in which humanity has dealt with the reality of death.
RELGST 0705: Approaches to the Study of Religion
Staff
This course introduces students to a wide range of theories and methods applied in the academic study of religion and explores broad themes in religious thought. It examines recent religious theories and their role in providing an understanding of the psychological, social, cultural, and ecological processes in our lives. Readings are drawn from several disciplines.
RELGST 0710: Sociology of Religion
Cross-listed with SOC 0339
Staff
Religion has always been one of the most important elements of human society. Why? Sociologists have long turned their attention to religion—from classic sociologists like Durkheim and Weber struggling to understand the importance of religion, to the predictions of the coming death of religion in the 1960s. Along with these analyses we consider how political and economic structures both shape and are shaped by religion, examine the impact of secularization and fundamentalism on the world, the impact of mass media, fringe movements, and consumer culture. Students read a number of classic and contemporary works on religion.
RELGST 0715: Philosophy of Religion
Cross-listed with PHIL 0473
Meets requirements: PH
Tony Edwards
Are there good reasons for thinking that God exists? Are there good reasons for thinking that he doesn’t? In this course we examine the chief arguments for and against the existence of God, as well as other topics central to the philosophy of religion: the nature of religious language, the relation of faith to reason, and the use of religious experience as evidence. Members of the class develop a working knowledge of the issues by reading and discussing both traditional and contemporary authors. Lectures are used to initiate and focus discussion.
RELGST 0735: Wisdom
Tony Edwards
We live in a time when there is no single tradition of wisdom that all Americans hold in common. As a result, many of us are searching to find—or reclaim—a wisdom to live by. Fortunately, the resources of the world’s traditions are now available as never before, and there has also been an outpouring of wisdom literature in our own culture. Of course, not all of this "wisdom" is really wise, but some of it is—hence the need to think critically about it. This course, then, is a consumer guide to wisdom. Using examples from several traditions, we talk about how to evaluate sayings, stories, and practices that present themselves as "wise." Some of our readings come from the western tradition, some from other traditions, and some from contemporary spiritual and self-help literature. Readings also include theoretical writings on religious language, metaphor, and ritual. The principal readings are drawn from the following works: Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings (Chuang Tzu), Tao te ching (Lao Tzu), Metaphors We Live By (George Lakoff and Mark Johnson), “Betwixt and Between” (Victor Turner), The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous), The Road Less Traveled (M. Scott Peck), Protagoras (Plato), Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle), Ecclesiastes (in the Bible), Enchiridion (Epictetus), Mencius (Mencius), The Guide of the Perplexed (Maimonides), Philoctetes (Sophocles), and The Heidi Chronicles (Wasserstein).
RELGST 0805: Professions and the Dying Patient
Cross-listed with SOC 0441
Staff
Perceptions of death across the life cycle and across cultures and religions provide a framework for this course while contemporary times create a host of complex issues to examine in the classroom such as euthanasia, organ transplantation, advanced directives, suicide, and the business aspects of dying and death. The topics of bereavement, grief, and mourning are examined. Students become aware of their own personal attitudes and beliefs about death and simultaneously begin to identity and appreciate differences that individuals may have. Teaching methods include lecture, discussion, videos, experiential exercises, guest presenters, and case example.
RELGST 1100: Israel in the Biblical Age
Cross-listed with HIST 1765 and JS 1100
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Eli Reich
This course covers the history and development of Biblical Israel from its ancient Near Eastern origins up through the advent of Hellenism, a period roughly covering the entire first millennium BCE. Students read both biblical and extra-biblical materials in order to assess their value as historical sources.
RELGST 1110: Special Topics—Ancient
Cross-listed with HAA 1100 and JS 1110
Rebecca Denova
This course takes up different topics and themes in the ancient world. Recent topics include Religion in Ancient Egypt; Death in the Name of God: Martyrdom and Spectacle in Ancient Rome and Beyond; Apocalypse Then and Now; and Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Roman Empire.
RELGST 1112: Bible as Literature 2
Cross-listed with ENGLIT 1797
H. David Brumble
This course is a continuation of RELGST 0115: Bible as Literature and provides an opportunity to consider more carefully some of the books considered in Bible as Literature. But for the most part, we read books such as Daniel, Job, and Judith B that were not covered in Bible as Literature. This second semester also allows us to consider more carefully the following fascinating problems: What happens to narratives as they pass out of the oral tradition and into written form? How did the formation of the canon come about? What is the nature of prophecy? Our approach is historical. We try to understand the books of the Bible in their historical context. We try to imagine ourselves in another time and culture.
RELGST 1120: Origins of Christianity
Cross-listed with CLASS 1430 and HIST 1775
Meets requirements: HS, REG
Rebecca Denova
This course is a historical-critical investigation of Christian origins. Special attention is paid to varieties of 1st-century Hellenistic and Palestinian Judaism within the Greco-Roman world. Primary readings include selected Biblical passages and apocrypha, 1st-century historians and philosophers (Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Philo), the New Testament corpus (including Paul and the Pastorals), and selected readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition there are assignments from various modern New Testament critics, historians, and theologians.
RELGST 1130: Varieties of Early Christianity
Cross-listed with CLASS 1432 and HIST 1776
Meets requirements: HS, REG
Rebecca Denova
This course examines the many different and often competing forms of Christianity that existed during the first five centuries of our Common Era. We include a historical survey of Mediterranean culture and society in the historical Roman Empire to help us understand the ways in which Christianity developed in relation to the philosophical, sociological, theological, and political environment of this period. We also focus on the contribution of the early varieties of Christianity to modern Western views of the relationship between the individual body and society. Specifically, we begin with an examination of Greco-Roman "religiousness" and attitudes toward the body as part of the natural order comprising one's duty as a "citizen." Such views are then compared to the emerging Christian view that denied civic duty to an inferior, material world, by emphasizing individual identification with "a commonwealth in heaven."
RELGST 1132: Paul
Tony Edwards
The apostle Paul wasn’t the first Christian thinker, but he was the first theologian. That is, he was the first to try to answer explicitly the questions raised by the beliefs and values of the young movement. Indeed, in the years since, Paul’s example has been the model for later theologians such as Marcion, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Kierkegaard, and Rahner. He addresses issues of justice and righteousness, Jesus' death, resurrection, and return, spirit and flesh, law, sin, freedom, faith, love, and predestination. This course is an examination of these questions by reading both Paul’s own letters and the writings of theologians and scholars who have been influenced by him.
RELGST 1135: Orthodox Christianity
Meets requirements: IFN, COM
Milica Bakić-Hayden
This course is designed as an overview of the history, teachings, and rituals of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in its multinational context. Geographically, this context refers primarily to Russia, southeastern Europe, and the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean, but there is also a large Orthodox Diaspora in the western hemisphere. Understanding Orthodox Christianity—its specific historical experience (from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires to the life under communism, and beyond), theological doctrines and spiritual practices, rich artistic, musical, and ritual expressions—has become increasingly relevant in the post-communist era with the emergence of religion as an important aspect of cultural identity and national self-definition. Through lectures, readings, discussions, visual presentations (films on rituals, monastic life, and art), and visits to local Orthodox churches, students gain an insight into the multifaceted world of Orthodox Christianity.
RELGST 1140: Dualism in the Ancient World
Cross-listed with CLASS 1434
Rebecca Denova
Dualism is a theory or system or thought that recognizes two independent and mutually irreducible principles, which are sometimes complementary and sometimes in conflict. We begin our survey with the monism of Hebrew Scriptures, then move to the changes brought on by Persian culture and the Hellenization of the Mediterranean basin after the conquests of Alexander. The focus is on the polarities of "good" and "evil," specifically highlighting the rise of Gnosticism in early Christianity and its legacy in the Western tradition. In addition, we analyze the role of "asceticism," or the idea of not indulging the body, in most Gnostic systems, and the influence of this asceticism in Christian society.
RELGST 1142: Construction of Evil
Rebecca Denova
Why is there evil in the world and who or what is responsible for it? How can we reconcile a belief in a good God with the existence of evil? Even without the theological underpinning, in secular terms, evil poses a problem about the world¹s intelligibility. This course undertakes a historical analysis of the various ways in which ancient and medieval minds pondered these questions and their solutions to the problem. We begin our survey with the monism of Hebrew Scriptures then move to the changes brought on by Persian culture and the Hellenization of the Mediterranean basin after the conquests of Alexander with the introduction of Dualism. Dualism is a theory or system of thought that recognizes two independent and mutually irreducible principles, which are sometimes complementary and sometimes in conflict. The course focuses on the polarities of "good" and "evil" (and the methods by which "evil" is defined), specifically highlighting the evolution of the emergence of the Devil in Judaism and Christianity and the social construction of good and evil in the Western tradition. At the same time, we consider the rationalization of "our" good against the evil of "others," or the issue of religious intolerance.
RELGST 1143: Death in the Name of God—Martyrs and Martyrdom
Rebecca Denova
The Roman Empire understood Christianity to be an illegal and superstitious movement, and a threat to the traditions of their ancestors. Subsequently, many Christians were charged with the crime of “atheism,” and put to death, as atheism was equivalent to treason. Who were these people who voluntarily embraced their own deaths as a vindication of their faith, and how did Rome justify their extinction? How were they understood by their pagan and Jewish neighbors? This course explores the cultural, political and religious context of Christian martyrs, beginning in Second Temple Judaism. We then analyze their stories (martyrologies), imperial transcripts and legislation, and examine the later (Christian) Imperial legislation against “heretics.” This background helps motivate discussions of contemporary “martyrs,” such as “suicide bombers,” the political ramifications of such behavior, who gets to decide if someone is a martyr, and reactions to the public spectacle of dying as the ultimate religious act.
RELGST 1144: Classical Mythology and Literature
Cross-listed with CLASS 1130
Meets requirements: EX, REG
Staff
This course examines how authors of classical antiquity used the traditional figures and stories of their culture's mythology as material for works of literature.
RELGST 1145: Greco-Roman Religions
Cross-listed with CLASS 1402
Meets requirements: REG
Rebecca Denova
This course introduces students to religious texts and traditions in a formative era of western civilization and culture. Our focus is on the variety of religious expressions in Greco-Roman culture, which flourished in the geographical area of the Mediterranean Basin during the first five centuries of the Common Era. We consider debates about nature of the gods and access to them (through oracles, rituals, and magic), the emergence of the idea of the holy person, and a variety of religious traditions as expressed in prayer, ritual, and art, and religion and politics.
RELGST 1148: Religions of Ancient Egypt
Meets requirements: REG
Rebecca Denova
This course introduces students to ancient Egyptian religious thought and practice with its massive temples, multitude of gods and goddesses, and fascinating funeral rites. We explore the mythic cycle of Creation and Osirian cycle of betrayal, revenge, death and rebirth, as well as the place of myriad local and minor deities within Egyptian mythology. We also consider the dynamics of the "monotheistic" revolution of Akhenaton. In the historical and cultural context of ancient Egypt, students encounter the interaction of sacred and secular, and the relationship between state cults and private worship by nobles and commoners alike. A special feature of the course includes a group project to design a hypothetical “Egyptian Exhibit” for a museum. To that end, the course includes some sessions at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and a field trip to the archaeological museums at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
RELGST 1150: Body and Society in Late Antiquity
CLASS 1436
Rebecca Denova
In the development of western Christianity, the body became the focus of both evil and salvation. Within the multiple religious elements of late Mediterranean society, we explore how and why the body came to bear such a burden. We examine attitudes toward the body in ancient society, and then the Christian transformation of such attitudes, and consider the various degrees of "body" choices (life-styles) such as virginity, sex and marriage, celibacy, martyrdom, and the rise of institutional monasticism. Important for this exploration is the ancient/medieval knowledge of medicine, and the way in which philosophy and medicine were integrated in an attempt to understand human behavior. We also consider the relationship between "body" and "society," and the various ways in which the ancient conceptions of the body provided the template for human relationships, social hierarchy, and physical space (cities), where the human circulation system was at times the literal icon for city planning.
RELGST 1210: Classical Judaism
Cross-listed with CLASS 1450 and JS 1210
Meets requirements: HS
Eli Reich
This course covers the development of classical Judaism from the Second Temple period—beginning with the end of the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE—and continues up through the emergence of rabbinic Judaism, culminating with the redaction of the Babylonian Talmud in the 6th century CE. We cover both major historical trends and religious developments. The course also introduces students to the major Jewish texts of both the Second Temple and the Rabbinic periods, emphasizing close readings of primary texts.
RELGST 1214: Rabbinic Texts and Traditions
Cross-listed with JS 1214
Staff
This course introduces students to the various genres of rabbinic literature (2nd through 6th centuries CE). Through close textual study of rabbinic writings (Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud and Midrash), students enter into the world of the rabbis in order to examine the parameters of that world, and the systems of belief that came to shape Diaspora Jewish life. All readings are drawn from English-language translations. Class discussion and written exercises are based on assigned texts.
RELGST 1220: Medieval Jewish Civilization
Cross-listed with HIST 1760 and JS 1220
Meets requirements: HS
Adam Shear
This course surveys the Jewish historical experience from the 7th through the 18th centuries. Political, social, economic, cultural, and religious dimensions of a variety of Jewish communities are explored within the contexts of the larger societies in which the Jewish minority lived. Through study of primary texts in translation and secondary sources, we explore the different dimensions of medieval and early modern Judaism: rabbinic literature, Jewish philosophy, mysticism, biblical commentary, folklore and popular religion. We also discuss periodization: how should the "medieval" period of Jewish history be defined?
RELGST 1222: Jewish Mysticism
Cross-listed with HIST 1710 and JS 1222
Adam Shear
This course is an introductory survey of Jewish mystical thought and its cultural role from the prophet Ezekiel to the pop star Madonna, focusing mainly on the form of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah. Topics include non-Kabbalistic forms of Jewish mysticism, the emergence of the Kabbalah, the Zohar, 16th-century developments in Safed, the popularization of Kabbalah, the mystical messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi, 19th-century Hasidism, Christian uses of the Kabbalah, and contemporary developments.
RELGST 1225: Jewish Culture in Medieval Spain
Cross-listed with HIST 1791 and JS 1225
Meets requirements: HS
Adam Shear
A survey of major topics related to the cultural, intellectual, and religious life of Jews in medieval Muslim and Christian Spain from the early Middle Ages through 1492. Topics include the culture of al-Andalus, Hebrew poetry, Jewish philosophy, biblical exegesis, the impact of the Reconquista, Jewish mysticism, "convivencia," Jewish-Christian disputation, the conversos, and Jewish thought in the 15th century.
RELGST 1232: Modern Eastern European Jewry
Cross-listed with HIST 1270 and JS 1232
Meets requirements: COM, HS
Irina Livezeanu
Most European Jews until Hitler dwelled in the Eastern part of the continent. This course deals with the history of eastern European Jews from the Middle Ages until the present. The main focus of the course is on the 18th-20th centuries. Both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewry are examined, with a stress on the latter. The course analyzes the reactions of Jews to the Enlightenment, and to modern nationalism, socialism, and other ideologies.
RELGST 1250: Modern Jewry
Cross-listed with HIST 1767 and JS 1250
Meets requirements: HS
Alexander Orbach, Adam Shear
This course is an introduction to the major themes and the basic narrative of modern Jewish religious, social, and intellectual history, from the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century. We examine the specific challenges posed by the Enlightenment, modern liberalism, nation-state citizenship, modern antisemitism and modern socialism, and the responses offered by Jews in Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
RELGST 1252: History of the Holocaust
Cross-listed with HIST 1769 and JS 1252
Meets requirements: HS, REG
Alexander Orbach
This course examines the Jewish Holocaust within the contexts of both European and Jewish history. We begin our study by paying close attention to the evolution of the Jewish stereotype within European letters and arts. We focus on European political developments in the modern period as we trace the growth of modern nationalism and racism in the second half of the 19th century. As we study the rise of Nazism in Germany, we concentrate on the place of the Jew within the ideology of the movement. We conclude our investigation with an analysis of Nazi policies and actions in the period 1933-45 together with the responses to those actions by Jews in Germany and the rest of occupied Europe.
RELGST 1254: After the Holocaust
Cross-listed with HIST 1770 and JS 1254
Alexander Orbach
This course surveys the impact of the Holocaust on Jewish life in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States in the period 1945-2000.
RELGST 1256: Modern Israel
Cross-listed with HIST 1766 and JS 1256
Meets requirements: REG
Alexander Orbach
The idea of a Jewish-initiated return to the ancient biblical homeland in the last quarter of the 19th century marked a significant break with traditional Jewish thinking on the theme of Return and Redemption. The subsequent migration to Palestine and the building of institutional Jewish life there culminating in the independent state of Israel (1948) has not only been a watershed in modern Jewish history, it has also had a major impact on Judaism and global affairs. In this course, we trace the history of modern Israel from the idea of the return through the state of Israel today.
RELGST 1257: Russian Jewry
Cross-listed with HIST 1378 and JS 1257
Alexander Orbach
In this course we focus on the experience of Russian Jewry in the period 1772-1917. We treat internal developments focusing especially on Jewish modernization as well as on the relationships between the Jewish people and the general society in this critical period of Russian history. Finally, we pay close attention to the emergence of secular forms of Jewish cultural life as they came to be expressed in the Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian languages.
RELGST 1260: Jews in the United States
Cross-listed with HIST 1677 and JS 1260
Meets requirements: HS
Barbara Burstin
This course is designed to look at the history of the Jewish community in America up to the present time. While that history is more than 350 years old, we focus primarily on the 20th and 21st centuries. We explore not just historical themes and developments, but also contemporary issues and perspectives. In our discussion, we touch on aspects of American, European, and world Jewish history. There are a variety of classroom activities including lecture-discussion, oral reports, films, and guest speakers. The aim of this course is to make each class provocative, lively, and informative by raising issues and questions regarding the past, present, and future of the American Jewish community.
RELGST 1266: Israel—State and Society
Cross-listed with HIST 1764 and JS 1266
Meets requirements: HS, REG
Alexander Orbach
This course focuses on the impact of immigration and its role in the shaping of the state, the interaction between religion and politics (state), and the experiences of the Arab citizens of the Jewish state.
RELGST 1320: Medieval History 1
Cross-listed with HIST 1110
Meets requirements: HS, REG
Bruce Venarde, Staff
Exactly how "medieval" were the European Middle Ages? What is the prehistory of European domination of so much of the globe starting in the early modern era? This course considers the evolving societies of he Mediterranean and Europe from the late Roman Empire to approximately 1150 CE, with special attention to political organization, social life, religion, and the environment. Reading assignments and discussions focus on development of critical reading in historical sources. Writing assignments include frequent short quizzes and a research paper.
RELGST 1330: Medieval History 2
Cross-listed with HIST 1111
Meets requirements: HS, REG
Staff
This course is about the later Middle Ages in Western Europe. It focuses on the interconnected political histories of England and France from the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 to the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII of France in 1494. Its principal theme is the origin of the modern Western state in France and England in the five centuries after the year 1000 and the relationship of these emerging institutions of government to law-making, war-making, and their own societies. Starting with the Norman Conquest, the course traces the long rivalry between the rulers of England and France culminating in the Hundred Years War. It also considers the expansion of English and French royal power within their kingdoms and against their neighbors. It concludes by considering why, in the last 150 years of the period, both English and French monarchies suffered serious crises in the form of popular rebellions, such as the Jacquerie or Cade's Revolt, and aristocratic resistance such as the War of the League of Public Good and the Wars of the Roses.
RELGST 1360: Introduction to the Renaissance
Cross-listed with HIST 1116 and MRST 1002
Meets requirements: REG, HS
Staff
This course is about Western Europe in the period of the Renaissance. Though it is intended to provide a broad introduction to the history of the Renaissance as a whole, it focuses on histories of the two centers of Renaissance high culture in this period, northern Italy, and the Burgundian Low Countries. The principal theme of the course is the emergence of the modern Western state in the 250 years that marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern era. In addition to studying the political development of the Italian city-states and the northern European dynastic monarchies of the era, we examine the political thought of the period, culminating in the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli.
RELGST 1372: Catholicism in the New World
Cross-listed with HIST 1051
Paula M. Kane
This course examines the history of the Roman Catholic Church since 1492 in the Americas using various moments of internal crisis or external conflict as focal points for study. Topics include: missionary and military contact with New World indigenous populations after 1492, the minority situation of Catholics in the new United States, the Irish Famine and its consequences, conflicts between Catholic ethnics, the impact of Catholic support for fascist regimes in the 1930s and 1940s, counter-cultural forms of Catholicism (conscientious objectors, civil rights activists, pacifists), Vatican II and its impact, liberation theology, Marxism and structural reform in Latin America, shifting theological positions on social and moral issues, and the current sexual abuse crisis. While the emphasis rests upon the social, economic and political dimensions of Catholic history, the course also addresses the aesthetic and cultural legacy of Catholicism including sacred architecture, music, and the arts, in elite and vernacular forms.
RELGST 1425: Popular Religion in America
Cross-listed with HIST 1676
Paula M. Kane
Popular religions emerge from the struggle of a group, tribe, or nation to maintain unity against socioeconomic change, such as the effects of colonization, industrialization, and competitive capitalism. This course examines some popular religions that have formed in North America since the 18th century among various populations: Native Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Roman Catholics, and Protestant Pentecostals. Topics include peyote cults, Santería, voodoo, saint's cults, miracles, pilgrimages, speaking in tongues, and snake handling. The course method is interdisciplinary, drawing upon anthropology, documentary film, history, religious studies, psychology, and sociology.
RELGST 1438: Religion and Politics
Cross-listed with PS 1375
Meets requirements: COM, SS
Staff
In recent years religious groups and religious values have played an increasingly prominent role in politics in many countries, including the United States. The purpose of this course is to consider the public and political aspects of religion in the United States. Religious beliefs and institutions have wide–ranging implications for civic norms, public policy, political leadership, international relations, and the treatment of various social groups. After a historical survey of the role of religion in American politics, the second part of the course focuses on the contemporary impact of American religious groups and values on public opinion, lobbying, and electoral choice. We also discuss the implications of the doctrine of "separation of church and state" for law, education, and civil liberties.
RELGST 1466: Sociology of Islam
Cross-listed with SOC 1366
Meets requirements: REG
Staff
The course offers analyses of contemporary evolutions of Islam by means of a Weberian approach. Elements of divine principles, mysticism and Sufism, ethnic, state, and regional "power plays," the status of women, the treatment of Islam in Western mass media, and patterns of community-building in Muslim immigrant populations are examined for a better understanding of major issues in the sociology of Islam. Students acquire and expand through lectures, readings, practical exercises, and class discussions, preparatory skills pertinent to the analysis of selected socio-cultural expressions and phenomena in various communities of the Muslim world and develop a considerate and critical attitude towards their own and other belief systems.
RELGST 1500: Religion in India 1
Cross-listed with HIST 1757
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Milica Bakić-Hayden
Few countries can boast such an extensive and diverse religious heritage as can India. It is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, home to a large Muslim community, as well as to small, but ancient, communities of Syrian Christians, Parsis, and Jews. The course gives a brief historical overview of these religious traditions, introduces students to basic concepts related to each of them, and illustrates their rich practices through primary and secondary readings, films, art, and music.
RELGST 1510: Religion in India 2
Cross-listed with HIST 1758
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Staff
This course focuses on special topics about the religious life of India. It may trace the development of devotional religious sects within Hinduism, the infusion of Islamic movements in Indian society, the formation of new religious movements such as Sikhism, the impact of the British colonial period beginning with the 18th century and the Indian responses carrying forward into the 20th century, and/or the religious expressions of Indians living outside the subcontinent, especially in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. The course not only explores the ideas of intellectuals but also various folk and religious expressions, sectarian movements and the mushrooming of such activity as festival life, pilgrimage, temple rituals, etc. We are also sensitive to the role of religion in politics, ethnicity, and identity-formation on the subcontinent.
RELGST 1512: Sanskrit 1
Cross-listed with CLASS 1710
Staff
This course introduces the basic structure and vocabulary of Sanskrit. Approximately half of the course is devoted to an intensive survey of Sanskrit grammar and half to the reading of a selection from the Mahabharata.
RELGST 1514: Sanskrit 2
Cross-listed with CLASS 1720
Meets requirements: L
Staff
A continuation of Sanskrit 1, this course is devoted to the reading of selected Sanskrit texts. Grammar presented in Sanskrit 1 is reviewed as necessary and some additional grammatical material is introduced.
RELGST 1516: Temple, Icon, and Deity in India
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Staff
In this course we examine aspects of religious expression in South Asia through the study of Indian temples, icons, and deities in their historical, social, and religious context. We apply a multi-faceted approach (including visual and textual) to begin to understand and interpret the philosophical and religious expressions of Hinduism and Buddhism through art, architecture, sacred texts, and epic literature. Regular class participation and weekly writing assignments are required.
RELGST 1540: Saints East and West
Meets requirements: IFN, COM
Milica Bakić-Hayden
A Russian monk once observed that "each saint is a unique event." Indeed, in various religious traditions we encounter men and women who are recognized and venerated as particularly holy and unique witnesses to the divine. Just as each saint is unique within his or her tradition so is each tradition of saints unique in its articulation and expression of the overall religious culture. By looking cross-culturally at the materials on saints selected for this course and discussing (problematizing) the notion of sainthood itself, we examine religious themes, ideas and symbols found in them. These diverse writings are often marked by a very personal tone, a deeply felt relation with the divine (sometimes reflecting a saint’s inner struggles, sometimes his/her mystical experience of union), but also by pleas and calls for social and/or religious reforms. Our examples of devotional literature include Hindu, Muslim, and Christian sources, medieval as well as modern. Even though originating in specific religious contexts, many of these narratives raise issues which have wider human appeal and hence relevance for us today, too.
RELGST 1545: Mysticism East and East
Meets requirements: IFN, COM
Milica Bakić-Hayden
Mysticism, understood as a living experience of theological doctrines, constitutes an unexpected point of convergence between such different religious traditions as Hinduism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. We look into how this spiritual kinship is forged from distinct practices in India and in the traditions of Orthodox Christianity by examining the selected mystical writings of the Hindu sages and holy men and women of the Orthodox Church, past and present. The course is structured around three central themes: God as Mystery: negative theology (Hindu and Orthodox ways of unknowing the divine), God as Person: the Hindu notion of avatar and Orthodox understanding of incarnation, and God as Prayer: two selected methods of contemplation (Hindu yoga and Orthodox hesychast prayer). In addition to introducing students to the mystical writings from the two religious traditions, the objective of this course is to get students to think philosophically and in comparative terms about such writings. The course is based largely on reading and discussion of primary sources (in English translation) supplemented with selected secondary sources to help enhance students' understanding of the symbolic, often enigmatic and sometimes "upside-down" language of the mystical texts.
RELGST 1550: East Asian Buddhism
Cross-listed with HIST 1475
Meets requirements: IFN, COM
Linda Penkower
The transmission of Buddhism to East Asia was a momentous development in the history of world cultures and religions. Not only did it precipitate major changes in the cultures of China, Korea, and Japan, it also was attended by a transformation within Buddhism itself. Beginning with an introduction to the basic concepts of Buddhism, this course examines the major doctrinal, meditative, devotional, and institutional traditions and themes within Chinese and Japanese Buddhism in historical perspective. Particular attention is paid to the problems of transmission of thought from one culture to another and to the ways in which Buddhism changed to meet those challenges and make itself relevant to the members of East Asian traditions. We strive to develop an awareness of how Chinese and Japanese Buddhism interacted with and helped to shape East Asian history as well as to cultivate sensitivity to and appreciation of East Asian Buddhism as a contribution to our understanding of the human experience.
RELGST 1552: East Asian Meditative Traditions—Chan/Zen Buddhism
Cross-listed with HIST 1740
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Linda Penkower
Zen is perhaps the best-known of all religious traditions indigenous to East Asia. In both the East and West today, it has been popularized through such diverse channels as kongfu films and comic book heroes, how-to business manuals and weekend meditative retreats, tea ceremony and the visual arts, and such trick questions as "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" But what is Chan/Zen? What is its relationship to both East Asian Buddhism and culture? What is the connection between "popular" and "monastic" Zen, between self-reliance/freedom of spirit and strict master-disciple discipline? What does the transmission of Chan/Zen from China to Korea to Japan to the West tell us about issues relating to continuity and change, and to appropriation, expropriation, and synthesis within religious traditions? Beginning by placing Chan/Zen within the general context of East Asian Buddhism, this seminar examines the relationships between doctrine, practice, and institution and the culture(s) in which they grew by looking at three themes or sources of authority in Chan/Zen, approached historically: (a) mythology, genealogy, and ideology, (b) meditative techniques, soteriological stratagems, and the enlightenment experience, and (c) monastery organization, operation, and rituals. The seminar concludes by exploring the relationship between Zen and nationalism or "Orientalism" as Zen moves out of the monasteries and out of East Asia and into the West. This course is conducted as a seminar, and is approached historically through representative Chan/Zen texts in translation, supplemented by secondary studies, testimonials, films, and a session with a contemporary practitioner. We strive to develop an awareness of how Chan/Zen interacts with and helps to shape East Asian history as well as to cultivate a sensitivity to and appreciation of Chan/Zen as a contributor to our understanding of the human experience.
RELGST 1554: Death and Beyond in Buddhist Cultures
Meets requirements: COM
Linda Penkower
Mortality is the human condition. How religious systems deal with death, dying, and the afterlife tells us as much about how we live our lives as it does about what lies beyond. This seminar focuses on the philosophical discourse, religious beliefs, and ritual practices relating to death in Buddhist cultures (China, Japan, South Asia, Tibet) both traditionally and in modern times and offers a useful focus for studying Buddhism as a lived tradition. We explore Buddhist cosmology and the idea of karma, death tales, postmortem journeys, ancestral rites and the family, funerary and mortuary practices, placation of ghosts, and contemporary changes in funeral customs. We look at Buddhist doctrinal teachings and social roles and interactions between Buddhism and local religious cultures. We read from diverse genres of Buddhist primary texts in translation and a range of secondary scholarship from the fields of Buddhist studies, history, philosophy, anthropology, art history, ritual studies, and sociology. Conducted as a seminar, class discussions are supplemented by films.
RELGST 1557: Buddhist Lives
Meets requirements: W
Clark Chilson
This course explores how life narratives give meaning to lives by studying and writing about the lives of Buddhists. Students intellectually engage with lectures, discuss readings, write informally, and examine models of life writing. Preparation for class includes reading accounts of the lives of Buddhists and studies on life writing, formulating and answering analytical questions about biographical texts, helping your classmates become better writers by editing and commenting on their work, doing library research on a particular Buddhist, and writing a biographical research paper. Throughout the course students learn about Buddhism not through doctrinal abstractions but by seeing how Buddhists have lived and constructed meaningful lives.
RELGST 1560: Chinese Religious Traditions
Cross-listed with HIST 1476
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Linda Penkower
This course examines the major traditions and themes that constitute religion in China. The origins and development of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, popular and family religion, and religion and the state are presented within an overall historical framework. In addition to the study of religious ideas, practices, and institutions in premodern China, contemporary beliefs and practices and issues of politics, class, and gender are also briefly examined in relationship to, and as reinterpretations of, older themes. Our purpose is to gain some exposure to Chinese religious thought and practice, to identify dominant themes underlying Chinese values and behavior, and to explore the syncretic nature of religion in China as each tradition finds expression in and comes to influence other aspects of Chinese religion and culture. In this way, we hope to come to understand the critical role played by religion in the unfolding of Chinese history and in the formation of the Chinese view of the world. We do this through lectures and discussion based upon Chinese classical and popular literature, secondary scholarship, and films.
RELGST 1562: Confucianism—Basic Texts
Cross-listed with CHIN 1562 and HIST 1478
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Katherine N. Carlitz
The 8th through the 2nd centuries BCE were an era of extraordinary creativity worldwide (the “axial age”). In China, the seminal texts that would later be labeled "Confucian" and "Daoist" played the formative role that the Greek philosophical classics played in Western societies. Often at odds with each other, these early Chinese texts offer a striking range of ideas about human society and its place in the cosmos. In this course, we concentrate on the works attributed to Confucius and his most creative follower Mencius, since both texts played an influential role throughout East Asia right down through the early 20th century. We study both texts in their entirety, supplementing them with relevant works of scholarship and excerpts from Daoist and other philosophical texts. We seek to understand the foundational role of these texts by analyzing their assumptions and rhetorical strategies, and examining their philosophical, political and religious dimensions. Chinese tradition has treated both the Confucian Analects and the Mencius as single-author works, but we see how the Analects, in particular, evolved over more than two centuries, reflecting engagement with other currents of early Chinese thought. The course is conducted primarily through class discussion of the readings.
RELGST 1570: Japanese Religious Traditions
Cross-listed with HIST 1477
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Clark Chilson
This course provides an historical overview of religion in Japan from the 3rd century BCE up to the present. It introduces many of the fascinating events, texts, doctrines, institutions, personalities, and practices in the history of religion in Japan. It also examines issues related to myth, shamanism, ritual, art, and politics. During the course, questions such as the following are addressed: How did religious institutions both condemn and condone violence? What are the different paths to enlightenment in Japanese Buddhism? What made a person "holy"? Why did the government make people step on pictures of Jesus?
RELGST 1572: Popular Religion in a Changing Japan
Cross-listed with HIST 1741
Meets requirements: IFN, REG
Clark Chilson
The majority of Japanese today claim not to have any religious faith, but most participate in religious activities. Why is this? Those Japanese who do espouse religious faith often pray at both Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines without feeling conflicted. How is this possible? To answer these and other questions, religion in contemporary Japan is examined primarily on the basis of ethnographic studies. In addition to learning about the different ways the Japanese are religious, the course is designed to help students improve their ability to analyze texts, evaluate claims and evidence, and articulate different points of view.
RELGST 1610: Myth, Symbol, and Ritual
Cross-listed with ANTH 1776
Meets requirements: COM
Staff
Myths, symbols, and rituals of different cultures are explored comparatively as to their significance and role and their relationship to each other. Special attention is given to myths on the origin of the world, humanity, and the gods, and to such rituals as rites of passage, festivals, and pilgrimages. Observations and reflections on the role of myth, symbol, and ritual (or quasi- and crypto-ritual) in contemporary life and their relation to such forms of human expression as literature, dream, and drama conclude the course.
RELGST 1620: Women in Religion
Rebecca Denova
This course surveys the role of women in various religious systems throughout the world, both ancient and modern, emphasizing the function of gender in religious expressions of meaning. In addition, the course examines multi-cultural voices of women as they find expression both within and without their traditional religious systems. We explore functional and distinct roles of "goddess," "prophetess," "priestess," "mother," "wife," "lover," and "sacred vehicle." While discovering the ancient roots of gender identity and social status, we also discuss contemporary viability of such views in various societies throughout the world.
In spring 2009, Women in Religion focuses on Islamic feminism and women and religion in Islam (Zilka Spahic-Siljak).
RELGST 1624: Women in Judaism
Cross-listed with JS 1624
Staff
This course explores the construction of gender in various Jewish sources from differing time periods. We examine questions of what it means to be a "woman" or a "man" in these texts, what relationship the authors of the texts see between sex, gender and sexuality, how the categories of female and male come to be constructed, and what the texts do with cases of sexual ambiguity. The assumptions behind constructions of gender are considered throughout the course. Primary texts in translation and secondary sources are utilized.
RELGST 1630: Ritual Process
Staff
This course is designed to explore and reflect upon the nature and role of ritualizing as a form of human expression. Ritual and ritual-like activities are fundamental in many societies as expressed in such activities as rites of passage, festivals, power struggles, political rallies, athletic events, ethics, and other venues. This course takes an interdisciplinary look at ritual from its most visible religious manifestations to its subtler role in shaping our daily actions and considers the work of important theorists in the field of ritual studies such as Ball, Grimes, Humphrey and Landlaw, Bloch, Driver, d’Aquili, J. Z. Smith, and Turner.
RELGST 1640: Jews in the Islamic World
Cross-listed with HIST 1759 and JS 1640
Meets requirements: REG
M. Pinar Emiralioglu
This course surveys Jewish life in Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East in medieval and early modern times.
RELGST 1642: History of Christian-Muslim Relations
Meets requirements: HS
Rebecca Denova
This course surveys the historical interaction between Christian and Muslim communities over the past 1,400 years and focuses on the art of polemic as an important tool in the human construction of religious concepts. We begin by understanding the evolution of Islam in the 7th century, and continue with the encounters between Islam and the Byzantine Empire, and the medieval Caliphate¹s encounters with the West, including the Crusades. We then consider specific elements of the interaction between Christian and Muslim communities, drawing from a variety of Muslim communities in Europe and the United States. Polemical language functions first and foremost to identify an "opponent" to the directed audience, where such descriptions become standard topoi, and often have little relation to reality. In addition, we come to understand that polemic is directed inward—used for the benefit of the group—and functions as a tool in defining oneself over and against others.
RELGST 1644: Jewish-Christian Relations
Cross-listed with HIST 1768 and JS 1644
Adam Shear
This course surveys the relationships between Jews and Christians from the time of Jesus through the early modern era, as viewed by both Jews and Christians. Topics include the position of Jews in the Roman Empire before and after the rise of the early Church, Rabbinic views of Christianity and Church Fathers' views of Judaism, Jews, and Jewish communities in early medieval Europe, the Crusades, accusations of ritual murder and host desecration, Papal-Jewish relations, money-lending and usury debates, Jewish-Christian scholarly interchange, late medieval disputations and polemics, expulsions, the impact of the Reformation, early modern Christian Hebraism, and the beginnings of toleration and early Enlightenment views.
RELGST 1650: Approaches to Antisemitism
Cross-listed with HIST 1169 and JS 1650
Meets requirements: HS
Seymour Drescher, Alexander Orbach
This course surveys historical, sociological, psychological, religious, and political approaches to expressions of antisemitism as we study scholarly treatment of the phenomenon from the end of the 19th century to the present.
RELGST 1675: Reading the Hebrew Bible
Cross-listed with JS 1675
Staff
This class surveys the methods used in the modern academic study of the Hebrew Bible. Rather than approaching the Bible as “revealed scripture,” scholars over the last two centuries have developed a variety of literary strategies that seek to reconstruct the world and the circumstances that produced the Hebrew Bible. In addition, we consider how the immense contributions of archaeology during the last two centuries have enriched our understanding of the Hebrew Bible. Finally, we look at how modern literary-critical techniques have been applied to the text of the Hebrew Bible.
RELGST 1680: Readings in Jewish Historiography
Cross-listed with HIST 1173 and JS 1680
Meets requirements: HS
Adam Shear
This course studies the history of writing history. It offers an introduction to the various ways in which the history of Jews and Judaism has been written in both the premodern and modern periods. In different semesters, the course focuses on different topics, for example, a survey of Jewish historiographical writing from antiquity to the present or a series of case studies on the representation and commemoration of tragic events in pre-Holocaust Jewish history.
RELGST 1720: Religion and Culture
Cross-listed with ANTH 1771
Staff
Religion is thought, felt, and acted out in social and cultural contexts. The relationship between religion and culture is the focus of the course. The objectives are to understand religion wherever and whenever found and to understand the anthropological approach in the cross-cultural study of religion. Religious belief, ritual, myth, dogma, and religious specialists in industrial and non-industrial societies are compared.
RELGST 1730: Problems in the Philosophy of Religion
Nathan S. Hilberg
The belief that the various religions of the world hold competing claims to truth is not uncommon. But what does this mean? Could it be the case that one contains the truth and the others are false? That some contain more truths than others? That none contain the truth? Could it be the case that different religions express the same truth(s), just in different ways? We can begin to make sense of these questions only if we can clarify what we mean by "truth." One prominent, contemporary philosopher, William Alston, argues 1) for a realist conception of truth, i.e., that p is true if and only if it is the case that p, and 2) that only a realist conception of truth can accommodate theistic language. However, one of the implications of a realist conception of truth is that for conflicting accounts of p, at most only one can be correct. If, for example, we substitute for p "only a Buddhist account of truth is correct," then we can see how a realist conception of truth raises a problem given the many, and often conflicting, claims to religious truth there are. In this course we explore such religious and philosophical issues raised by religious diversity.
RELGST 1740: Meaning, Mystery, and Paradox
Tony Edwards, Nathan S. Hilberg
Meanings for life's events are often derived from customs and beliefs we typically associate with religion. We consider such matters in light of the following questions: Are reason and religion compatible? Does religion transcend reason? Do reason and religion have anything to do with each other? What does it mean to regard particular phenomena as religious? Through the study of scholarly works on religion, first-hand accounts of religious life, fiction, and film we explore interactions between what we typically consider to be sacred and secular approaches to that which is mysterious and mundane. Students are expected to write short papers and to participate regularly in class discussions. Both of these expectations presume that students have carefully read assignments, which at times are extensive.
RELGST 1760: Religion and Rationality
Meets requirements: PH
Tony Edwards
This is a course that is both an introduction to philosophy of religion and a brief introduction to four major philosophers: Moses Maimonides, a 12th-century Jewish thinker, Thomas Aquinas, a 13th-century Catholic theologian, Immanuel Kant, an 18th-century Protestant philosopher, and Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th-century Protestant writer. We study their answers to the following questions: Can we conceive of God at all? Can we say anything truthful about him? If so, what? If not, should we be silent about him? Can we prove that he exists? Are there ways other than reason to achieve knowledge of him (e.g., faith, love, religious experience)? Should the Bible sometimes be taken literally? If so, when? If not, is there a literal sense that underlies its figures of speech? Is happiness possible without knowledge of God? Can a perfect and unchanging God be offended by what we do? Did Jesus accomplish something by his death? What, exactly? Is there life after death? If so, what form does it take?
RELGST 1770: Science and Religion
Cross-listed with PHIL 1840
Staff
In this course, we examine the relations between reason and faith, science and religion, evolution and intelligent design. Are science and religion compatible, addressing fundamentally different questions, or do they lead to incompatible worldviews? Is Darwinism a threat to religion? What happens when we attempt to understand religion scientifically? Does morality require a religious foundation? Does science erode this foundation or contribute to moral progress? Discussions are frank, open, and respectful, but students must be prepared to have their beliefs challenged.
RELGST 1800: Special Topics in Religion
This course takes up different topics and themes in the study of religion or religious traditions.
In spring 2009, the special topic is Marriage and Sexual Ethics in Islam (Zilka Spahic-Siljak).
RELGST 1900: Internship
Students may undertake a variety of projects under the close supervision of a senior faculty member.
RELGST 1901: Independent Study
Students may undertake a variety of individual reading and research projects under the close supervision of a senior faculty member.
RELGST 1902: Directed Study—Undergraduate
Students may undertake a variety of individual reading or research projects under the close supervision of a senior faculty member. Regular meetings are required.
RELGST 1903: Directed Research
Meets requirements: W
The senior thesis capstone seminar required of all graduating majors is offered annually in the fall term and is taught by rotating faculty with a different theme each year.