Religious Studies Courses
Sort by course instructor, number or title by clicking the appropriate column heading below.
| Instructor | Number | Title | Description | UG/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bond | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Asian Religion in Literature | The aim of this course is to enable students to read and discuss some of the classical and modern literature of Asian Religions. We will read selections from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, including important works such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching. In addition to the classical works, the class will read some modern novels that also explore key Asian themes. Reading these works will introduce the class to some of the fundamental ideas and questions of the Asian religious traditions. The class will also discuss the influence that these writings and ideas have had on Western culture. | UG |
| Bond | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Founders, Messiahs, and Teachers | This course examines and compares the lives and teachings of three of the central figures in the world's religions: Gotama in Buddhism, Jesus in Christianity and Krishna in Hinduism. The reading for the course focuses on scriptural accounts of these figures as well as later descriptions of their roles. The goals of the course are (1) to understand the meaning of each teacher for his own religion, and (2) to draw comparisons and to analyze common themes in their lives and teachings. Another key question will be to ask about possible influences between these religious traditions. | UG |
| Kieckhefer | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Stories of God | God rarely appears as an overt character in fiction, but in some particularly interesting cases God nonetheless figures as an agent in fictional narrative. From a literary viewpoint, one interesting question is what it can mean for a narrative to be moved forward by an agent who is not in a conventional sense a character. From a theological point of view, the interesting question is how conceptions of God become articulated, critiqued, and defended in narrative rather than conceptual terms. | UG |
| Kieckhefer | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Representations of Christ | Rich as they are in certain kinds of material, the four canonical gospels of the New Testament leave gaps in the story and provide considerable room for speculation about Jesus' life-and from early centuries up to our time novelists, short story writers, playwrights, and poets have busied themselves with filling the gaps. We will examine various kinds of fictional life of Christ and discuss the various ways they transform the image of Jesus to support their own ideological and artistic programs. | UG |
| Wimpfheimer | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Introduction to Kabbalah | Any reader of contemporary celebrity magazines knows Kabbalah as one of the latest celebrity religious fads. Thanks to the efforts of The Kabbalah Center, Kabbalah has many recent adherents and practitioners. What celeb-watchers do not necessarily know, though, is that Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, is an esoteric tradition which, from its origins, was designed to keep its study and practice limited to a select group of pious rabbinic Jews. In this course we will explore the genesis and evolution of Kabbalah from its origins to the present and discuss the reasons for the shift from secrecy to openness and the ramifications of this shift for the future of Kabbalah (and celebrities). | UG |
| Ziporyn | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Nietzsche - Zarathustra & the Mahayana, Two Responses to "Buddhistic Nihilism" | What do you do after you become convinced that life is meaningless? That there is no God? That every possible action is doomed to ultimate pointlessness? That all traditional values are baseless? It was on the basis of some such realization that early Buddhism adopted an attitude of world-denial, a critique of all desire and the ambition to transcend the conditional world. In the early 19th Century, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer also adopted such a view, which he called pessimism, and similarly taught that the highest goal of human life is an ascetic denial of the will and escape from the world. Friedrich Nietzsche, later in the same century, came to see both these positions as examples of nihilism, and although he accepted many of their premises about the meaninglessness of the world, endeavored to create a different response to them, embodied most forcefully in his quasi-scriptural book, Thus Spake Zarathustra. In India, a later Buddhist movement known as the Mahayana ("Great Vehicle") also accepted the nihilistic premises of basic Buddhism, but similarly tried to create a different, world-affirming response to them, embodied in many Mahayana scriptures, notably the Lotus Sutra and the Vimalakirti Sutra. In this course we will examine the similarities and differences between these two attempts to simultaneously accept and build beyond nihilism. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Athiest Spirituality - Western Philosophy | The current culture wars tend to
pit religion against atheism, in line with a tendency with a long history in
European culture, where for many centuries religion was equated with theism,
or monotheism, to which the only compelling alternative was a materialist or
scientific secularism. Some Asian traditions that can be characterized as
both atheist and religious-for example, Jainism, Buddhism and Daoism-suggest
that this dichotomy is far from universal. This class will examine another
eruption of exceptions to this atheist/religious dichotomy, in the
intellectual history of monotheist Europe itself, in the works of Baruch
Spinoza and Arthur Schopenhauer. Both of these thinkers deny the existence of
a creator God ordering nature in accordance with a conscious rational plan,
but also propose a vision of metaphysics and ethics that, in addition to its
rigorous philosophical reasoning, would be described by most as
"spiritual" in the broad sense: providing a vision of the universe
which transcends the empirical and the personal, answering to ultimate
ethical concerns, and proposing a state of awe, transcendence or liberation
available through personal cultivation of a particular attitude or
orientation toward ultimate reality. We will examine, through the readings of
the original works of these two thinkers in translation, how their atheist
premises not only do not obstruct these conclusions, but actually are used to
support them, in the hopes of undermining the unexamined assumption that belief
in God and scientific empiricism are the only alternatives available to human
beings in search of an understanding of their place in the universe. |
UG |
| Ziporyn | 101 | Freshman Seminar: Reading the Tao | Taoism is one of the three major religious and philosophical traditions of classical Chinese civilization. In this course we will be doing a close, careful reading of the English translations of the two classics of the philosophical Taoism, the Lao-tzu (Laozi, Tao-te-ching) and the Chuang-tzu (Zhuangzi), in their entirety. In comparing various translations of these two hugely influential, exquisite and highly unique works, we will attempt to understand both the disntincitve outlook and rhetorical stance of Taoism, but also some of the difficulties and challenges entailed in the process of translation. | UG |
| Orsi | 173 | Religion, Medicine, and Suffering in the West | Physical suffering--pain in the body--is an unavoidable fact of life. All humans must encounter the dreadful reality of pain in their own bodies and in the bodies of people they love. And whatever else religions are and do, all religions offer humans ways of understanding and coping with--and sometimes even healing--the body in pain. Religions are also responsible for causing pain in bodies. This course examines religion and pain in modern Western culture. In sequence we take up the questions: What is culture? What is pain? What is religion? Then we will turn to the question of how humans have used religious idioms to heal themselves as well we what it means to "heal." Readings include early Christian martyr accounts, autobiographies of people in pain, and stories of religious healing. | UG |
| Terrone | 200 | Introduction to Hinduism | With a pantheon of hundreds of gods and goddesses, a vast array of practices and rituals, and hundreds of millions of adherents, the distinct yet interrelated religious traditions of South Asia often labeled "Hinduism" form one of the major religious traditions in the world. We will examine the historical foundations of the three Hindu paths or m¿rgas¿ritual, contemplative renunciation, and devotion¿as they have been lived and practiced down to the present day. Focusing on the key concepts of dharma or duty, karma, and bhakti or love for the lord, we will consider the ways in which Hindus from a variety of historical time periods, local traditions, and social backgrounds have attempted to make sense of their world and their lives within it. This course intends to make the student familiar with the multifaceted corpus of this religious system by looking into the rich spectrum of its manifestations in particular among the Hindus of India and Nepal. The aim is to introduce the students to the Hindu beliefs, rituals, practices, and scriptures from both a historical and religious studies point of view. | UG |
| Bond | 210 | Introduction to Buddhism | Having begun in India some 2500 years ago, Buddism now exists in almost all parts of the world. The Buddist religion has shaped the thought and culture of Asia and has also influenced Western thought and culture in significant ways. To comprehend this diverse religion, this course approaches it from several perspectives: the historical, cultral, philosophical and religious. In the short time that we have in this quarter, our primary emphasis will be on investigating the philosophical and religious systems in the teachings of the Buddha in India as well as the thought of the later Buddhists in other parts of Asia. In looking at both the history and the philosophy, we see Buddhism as a religion that established a system of values, an interpretation of existence and a pattern of cultural practices and rituals that the Buddhists have interpreted in various ways to find meaning in life. | UG |
| Jacoby | 210 | Introduction to Buddhism | This course provides an introduction to the Buddhist religious traditions of Asia and North America. Through careful examination of a variety of literature, we will consider the many ways in which Buddhists have understood human suffering, life after death, karma, the nature of the world and human's place within it, and the path to enlightenment. Our emphasis will be on attempting to understand the moral values, philosophical insights, ritual practices, and social concerns that have shaped Buddhism over centuries of dynamic change in diverse cultural contexts. We will examine not only the history of Buddhism and its three-fold division into Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, but also facets of the contemporary practice of Buddhism around the globe. | UG |
| Wickremeratne | 210 | Introduction to Buddhism | More than an introductory course, we will probe the core essence shared by a variety of Buddhist traditions starting with Theravada. Also included are studies of the biography of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, Nirvana, rebirth and Karma. We will address wider issues of Buddhism in society, the state and political order, and women in Buddhism. The course will be framed by epistemological assumptions governing the study of religion, as well as by sociological and anthropological insights and tools of access. | UG |
| Kieckhefer | 211 | New Testament Origins | This course will examine a range of themes, including these: (1) the historical background to the New Testament (the land of Palestine, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Romans); (2) the gospels; (3) Christology (in Paul and the Synoptics, John, and Deutero-Paul, in the Passion narratives, and in the infancy narratives); (4) the miracles and the moral teachings of Christ and his disciples; (5) major theological themes (apocalyptic and the coming of the Kingdom, the parables and the Kingdom, demons versus the Kingdom, the Holy Spirit and charismata among Christ's disciples, baptism and Eucharist, and Church); (6) Christians' reactions to their social and cultural context (role and treatment of women, Christians versus Jews, Christians versus Romans); and (7) the development of early Christianity and the formation of the New Testament canon. | UG |
| Wimpfheimer | 220 | Introduction to the Hebrew Bible | There is no overstating the significance of the Hebrew Bible in Western Culture. The Bible is a text that has been repeatedly turned to for spiritual guidance, for explanations of mankind's origins and as the basis of both classical art and contemporary cinema. English idiom is peppered with phrases that originate in the Hebrew Bible and many a modern political clash can be understood as a conflict over what the Bible's messages and their implications. This course introduces students to the Hebrew Bible by reading sections of most of the Bible's books. But reading is itself a complicated enterprise. The Bible has been put to many different uses; even within the world of academic scholarship, the Bible is sometimes a source of history, sometimes a religious manual, sometimes a primitive legal code and sometimes a work of classical literature. This course will introduce students to the various challenges that present themselves within the study of the Hebrew Bible and the varied approaches scholars take when reading the Hebrew Bible. This course is a critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Because the Hebrew Bible is a text important to various religious practices, it is important to emphasize that the course does not expect students to have a particular religious perspective on the Hebrew Bible. Students who have such a perspective are encouraged to bring their own experiences into the classroom while respecting the opinions (and individuals) that may challenge those views. | UG |
| Kieckhefer | 221 | Introduction to the New Testament | This course is a systematic exploration of the New Testament, beginning with the Synoptic gospels and working through the book of Revelation. Particular attention is devoted to the intellectual content of the New Testament writings, as seen within their cultural context. | UG |
| Umar | 228 | Introduction to Islam | Introduction to Islam provides an overview of basic Islamic beliefs and practices through examination of Islamic theology, law and mysticism as articulated in Islamic classical traditions and reinterpreted in modern times. Beginning with the Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, and the life of Prophet Muhammad as the model for Muslim behavior, the course moves on to examine the basic five pillars of Islam and the fundamental Islamic beliefs and practices. The course will relate contemporary manifestations of the religion's long historical development, thereby exposing students to understand the realities of religious change. It will analyze the impact of Islamic beliefs and values on social and cultural practices, and on the formation of institutions, communities, and identities. Finally, the course will examine issues confronting Muslims in the present day as they try to remain true to an ancient faith, and struggle with the challenges of modernity, including religious pluralism and tolerance. | UG |
| Wimpfheimer | 230 | Introduction to Judaism | This course attempts to answer the questions, "What is Judaism?" and "Who is a Jew?" by surveying the broad arc of Jewish history, reviewing the practices and beliefs that have defined and continue to define Judaism as a religion, sampling the vast treasure of Jewish literatures and analyzing the unique social conditions that have made the cultural experience of Jewishness so significant. The class will employ an historical structure to trace the evolutions of Jewish literature, religion and culture through the ages. | UG |
| Traina | 240 | Introduction to Christianity | In the first part of this course we will explore the history of Christian beliefs, institutions and practices, with an eye to tracing the roots of the contemporary variety of North American expressions of Christianity. Next we will explore the religious practices of each branch and its connection with religious spaces. Finally, we will discuss the ways in which American Christianity has been shaped by colonization, immigration, assimilation and other forces. Through historical study and discussions with other guest speakers, we will learn how historical traditions combine with contemporary pressures to produce the dynamism and tension in contemporary Eastern Orthodoxy, Anabaptism, Roman Catholicism and Black Protestantism. How do differences in belief, class, race and cultural background correspond with styles of worship and architecture? How have communities adapted their beliefs and practices in new eras and cultural settings? | UG |
| Seesemann | 250 | Introduction to Islam | The objective of this course is to convey a thorough understanding of Islam by looking at how Muslims have perceived and practiced their religion over the last 1400 years. We will begin with an examination of the formative period of Islam (the revelation of the Qur'ân, the career of the Prophet Muhammad) and then pass on to explore the rich traditions of Islamic theology, law and mysticism. Drawing on texts written by Muslim authors, we will illuminate the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic religious experience, with particular emphasis on Islamic beliefs and practices. The course will also give an overview of the historical development of Islam, highlighting its remarkable expansion since the 7th century up to the present day. Last but not least, the course will address the so-called Islamic revival since the 1970s, and provide some answers to the questions many people in the West now ask about Islam. | UG |
| Taylor | 260 | Introduction to Native American Religions | This course provides an introduction to native religious traditions, exploring both the diversity and commonalities of North American native peoples. Clearly we cannot study all of the more than 550 different native American cultures in such a short time, so we will focus historical and critical examination on phenomena related to selected traditions (Navajo, Hopi, Lakota, Koyukon, etc.). Course content will cover major belief systems, including theories of balance, harmony, knowledge, power, ritual and ceremony. Throughout we will address issues of contact, colonization, exchange of native American women's experiences, and movements toward revitalization, resistance, and contemporary struggles surrounding issues of spiritual exploitation and/or "cultural theft" of native religious traditions. Diverse use of media resources within the Evanston and Chicago area. | UG |
| Taylor | 261 | American Religion, Ecology, and Culture | This course will explore contemporary currents in religion and ecology, focusing on how the rise of environmentalism in American culture and the increasing give-and-take between ecological awareness and spiritual experience have become powerful forces in shaping the religious landscape. Particular attention will be paid to "greening" trends within religious institutions in light of tensions between philosophies of anthropocentrism and biocentrism, stewardship and deep ecology, bioregionalism and globalism. We will also examine the spiritual dimensions of ecofeminism, eco-kosher foodways, back-to-the-land movements, sacred agriculture, voluntary simplicity, and ecopsychology. Finally, we will analyze contemporary "ecotopian" and "eco-apocalyptic" visions for what broader insight they may afford us into American religion and culture. This course also counts toward the Environmental Policy and Culture minor at Northwestern. | UG |
| Orsi | 264 | American Religious History: 1865-The Great Depression | This course examines major developments, movements, controversies, and figures in American religious history from the end of the Civil War, as the nation struggled to make sense of the carnage of war and to apportion responsibility, to the 1930s, when economic crisis strained social bonds and intimate relations and challenged Americans to rethink the nature of public responsibility. US religion from the Civil War to the economic crisis of the 1930; topics include urban religion; religion and changing technologies; African American religion; religion and politics; the religion of immigrants and migrants. | UG |
| Orsi | 265 | American Religious History: WWII-Present | This course examines major developments, movements, controversies, and figures in American religious history from the end of the Civil War, as the nation struggled to make sense of the carnage of war and to apportion responsibility, to the 1930s, when economic crisis strained social bonds and intimate relations and challenged Americans to rethink the nature of public responsibility. US religion from the Civil War to the economic crisis of the 1930; topics include urban religion; religion and changing technologies; African American religion; religion and politics; the religion of immigrants and migrants. | UG |
| Helmer | 271 | Theology of Love | The course uses theology as a critical resource in order to explore the philosophical, cultural, and religious aspects of love. Themes treated include intersubjective love, love as duty, love as virtue, love of God, and love of animals. | UG |
| Helmer | 272 | Luther and the West | An examination of the impact of Martin Luther, the German sixteenth-century religious reformer, on five hundred years of Western history and culture. Areas of Luther's influence include: German studies, philosophy, psychology, music and art history, and theories of religion. | UG |
| Bond | 311 | Theravada Buddhism and Culture | A study of the Theravada school of Buddhism that began in India and exists today in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The course examines the history of Theravada, the core ideas of Theravada's philosophy of Buddhism, and the central practices for the four-fold Sangha. Special attention will be given to the Theravada meditation tradition. The course will examine some of the most important studies of the contemporary practice of Theravada in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 312 | Zen Buddhism | This course will consist of
extensive readings and discussions of translations of the primary texts
depicting the doctrine and practice of Zen (Chan) Buddhism in classical
Chinese and Japanese culture, with a focus on the philosophical and religious
dimensions of these texts. These will include classical Indian Buddhist
materials, an introduction to the rise of the Mahayana movement, of which Zen
is a part, and close analysis of the Surangama Sutra, the Platform Sutra of
the Sixth Patriarch, the Recorded Sayings of eminent Chan and Zen masters,
Koan literature, and meditation manuals. |
UG |
| Bond | 314 | Buddhism in the Modern World | This course explores the ways that Buddhism has addressed the challenges of the modern and post-modern world. Concentrating primarily on Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, this course examines topics that include Buddhism and the nation-state in contexts such as Sri Lanka and Thailand. It will examine the evolution of the roles of monastic and lay Buddhists during this period. One key issue here is the role of women in Buddhism, and the question of the restoration of monastic ordination for women. The engagement of Buddhism with social concerns will also represent a particular focus of this course. We will study socially engaged Buddhist movements in Sri Lanka, Thailand and elsewhere. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 315 | Contemporary Buddhist Philosophy | In this course we will investigate several works, written over the past fifty or so years, which have attempted to deploy resources from the Buddhist tradition to engage in dialogue with Western philosophical thought, and the ways in which this encounter comes to call into question and modify the assumptions and consequences of both traditions. The approaches range from dialogue, apologetics and exposition to creative synthesis and innovation. Our stress here will be not on works that merely attempt to explain traditional Buddhist ideas in Western philosophical language, nor ones that try to "Buddhify" Western thought, but on works that attempt not only to extract Buddhist thinking from the terminology and religious context in which it had traditionally appeared, but also to expand its range of concerns, the scope of its implications, and even its basic tenets, as a result of a creative interaction with Western thought. | UG |
| Terrone | 318 | Topics in East Asian Religions: Religions of Tibet | The primary aim of this seminar is to provide students with an overview of religion in Tibet from a number of approaches in the study of religion: historical, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, and in terms of doctrine, canon, iconography, pilgrimage, ritual, gender, global context, etc. Considering Tibetan religious life from these various orientations fosters a fuller understanding of the complex and overlapping worlds of meaning evoked by religious texts, institutions, and practice. Course Requirements: 1. Regular attendance, ready participation in discussing assigned readings. 2. Mid-term examination (quizzes, definitions, one short essay question). 3. Term-paper. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 318 | Topics in East Asian Religions: Ancient Daoist Thought and Practices | Daoism is traditionally considered, with Confucianism and Buddhism, one of the "Three Teachings" of China. Daoism presents some highly distinctive and seemingly bizarre ideas, speaking of an all-pervading "Dao" which is at once "non-being" and "all beings; rejecting the very idea of morality and purposive action, of constructive deeds or ideals of any kind in favor of something called "Non-doing," ridiculing all deliberate attempts at improvement of the world or the self as counterproductive. In this class we will explore classical Daoist philosophy, as presented in the Daodejing (Tao-Te-Ching) of Laozi (Lao-tzu) and the Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu), and later commentarial works, as well as Daoist religious and spiritual practices developed in later Chinese tradition, in an attempt to make sense of these unique Daoist approaches to knowledge, ethics, epistemology and religion. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 318 | Topics in East Asian Religions: Comparative Idealisms | This course will examine several doctrines of philosophical idealism, i.e., theories holding that mind, in some sense, is the only reality. These will include the Transcendental Idealism of Kant, the Absolute Idealism of Hegel, the Consciousness-only theory of Yogacara Buddhism, the Mind-Only doctrine of Chan/Zen, and the Mind-Only as Matter-Only concept of Chinese Tiantai Buddhism. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 318 | Topics in East Asian Religions: Confucianism | This course will examine the development of the premises and developments of the Confucian tradition in China from the 6th century B.C.E. to the 16th century C.E., through close readings of translations of the original writings of the key Confucian philosophers of the classical period (Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi), the Confucian commentaries on the Book of Changes (Yi Ching) and Neo-Confucianism (Chu Hsi, Wang Yang-ming. Modern secondary interpretative sources (Fingarette, Hall and Ames, Wing-tsit Chan) will also be required reading. We will seek to develop an understanding of the philosophical and religious dimensions of the ethics, metaphysics, epistemology and social practice of the tradition, as expressed in the concepts of humaneness, rightness, ritual, filial piety, and the relation of human beings to their natural and social environments. | UG |
| Ziporyn | 318 | Topics in East Asian Religions: Comparative Trinitarianisms | This course will consist of a cross-cultural comparison of the uses to which triplicity has been put in a variety of philosophical and religious traditions. These will range from the Neo-Platonic works of Plotinus and Proclus, the doctrine of the Christian trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) as developed by Augustine and other early Christian patriarchs, the Hindu trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), the Buddhist trikaya (three bodies of the Buddha), the Tiantai Buddhist doctrine of the Three Truths (Provisional Positing, Emptiness and the Mean), and the Neo-Taoist concept of the Triple Gem (Vitality, Energy, Spirit). Some secondary materials will also be assigned. | UG |
| Jacoby | 319 | Topics in Buddhism: Buddhism and Gender | This course will explore historical, textual, and social questions relevant to gender and the status of women in the Buddhist worlds of India, Tibet, and the West from the time of Buddhism's origins to the present day. Course topics include the role of women in early Indian Buddhism, gender and the body in Mahayana Buddhism, the status of Buddhist nuns, the role of women and the feminine in Vajrayana Buddhism, Buddhism and sexuality, Buddhist women's autobiography, and feminist theory and Tibetan Buddhism in the West. | UG |
| Wickremeratne | 324 | Buddhism in the Contemporary World: Traditional and Reform | What is the relationship of Buddhism (a religion which is over two thousand five hundred yeas old) to the world we live in? This course will demonstrate that the question itself is flawed since it implies that there is somehow a dissonance between Buddhism and the contemporary world. By providing an exposition of the doctrines, the ideologies, the world view of Buddhism together with its idealized view of the social order, this course will show that at all periods of its long history, the strength of Buddhsim was precisely its relevance to the contemporary. While the course will deal with the sweep of ideas rather than with a chronologically presented history of buddhism, the course in a more pragmatic sense will focus on what are conventionally regarded as the burning issues of our time, such as violence, crime, sectarian tensions and strife, gender issues, abortion, genetic manipulation, and the social malaisse. The course will view all such issues within the framework of Buddhist thought. | UG |
| Wimpfheimer | 339 | Topics in Judaism: Art of Rabbinic Narrative | Rabbinic literature contains a large corpus of stories. In this course we will explore different methods of reading such stories. These range from naïve historiography to sophisticated historiography, from reading these stories as fables with didactic morals to reading them as windows onto a class-stratified and gender-divided rabbinic culture. Our analysis of these methods of reading rabbinic stories will be conducted in conversation with different twentieth century literary theorists. | UG |
| Wimpfheimer | 339 | Topics in Judaism: Reading the Talmud | In this seminar, we will study a tractate of Talmud-tractate Makkot-in its original form (not in English translation). Our class discussion will be conducted in English, but we will spend considerable time discussing texts written in Hebrew. The seminar is limited to students who either are enrolled in second year Hebrew or have background Hebrew reading and comprehension skills that have been certified by the instructor. This course will introduce students to Talmud Criticism by reading the Talmudic discussion of the laws of false testimony in light of prior and contemporaneous Jewish literature on this topic, the historical realities of Rabbinic Culture and questions raised within the lengthy history of Talmudic commentary. Students need not have a background in Talmud to take this class, though students with such background are also encouraged to attend. | UG |
| Zoloth | 339 | Topics in Judaism: Good and Evil - Readings in the Ethics of Levinas and Arendt | UG | |
| Kieckhefer | 340 | Foundations of Christian Thought | This course will examine the central issues in early and medieval Christian thought. We will begin with two works that show Christian thinkers struggling with theological issues that arise largely from their own experience: St. Augustine's Confessions and Julian of Norwich's Showings. Then we will examine the teachings on God, Christ, and justification. We will also to some extent ask how modern and contemporary Christian theology has criticized and reinterpreted traditional notions. | UG / GRAD |
| Kieckhefer | 342 | Christian Mystical Theology | This course will examine some of the classic writings of the medieval Christian mystical tradition, in both its orthodox and its "heretical" forms, focusing mainly on three themes: (1) the use of erotic imagery derived from the Song of Songs to portray mystical relationship as a spiritual love-affair, (2) disciplined attention to the divine through contemplation and the contemplative life, and (3) theological speculation about the relationship between the soul and God. | UG |
| Newman | 342 | Christian Mystical Theology | The word "mysticism" is one of the most slippery terms in religious studies, but within the Christian tradition it can be defined as the experiential knowledge of God, together with the practices that prepare for such experience and the transformations that flow from it. Christian mystical theology answers such questions as: What does "mystical experience" reveal about the nature of God? How does it transform the devotee? How does it relate to the ordinary Christian practices of prayer, worship, and Bible study? What are its ethical consequences? How can genuine mystical experience be distinguished from delusion? In this course we will approach such questions by reading a wide variety of mystics, but we will concentrate on four figures from the golden age of Christian mysticism: St. Bernard of Clairvaux (twelfth century), Mechthild of Magdeburg (thirteenth), Henry Suso (fourteenth), and St. John of the Cross (sixteenth). We will pay special attention to mystical texts that represent a convergence of the ascetic and the erotic elements in religion. | UG |
| Traina | 344 | Christian Ethics | This is a course on contemporary
issues in western Christian ethics and their connections to basic Christian
theological convictions. We will examine a variety of Christian positions on
contemporary moral questions and through this examination learn about current
and traditional connections between theology (knowledge of God and God's
relationship to humanity) and ethics and morality (arguments and conclusions
about what one is to be and do). We will begin with an overview of
contemporary approaches to Christian ethics, with some attention to their
historical background, and then move to discussions of guidelines for ethical
analysis and action that have been proposed by representative Roman Catholic,
mainline Protestant, and conservative evangelical moralists. Topics to be
discussed often include war, capital punishment, sexuality, and the
environment but change slightly from year to year. |
UG |
| Kieckhefer | 345 | The Idea of Sainthood in Christianity | The phenomenon of sainthood opens a range of issues: a saint is an exemplar of heroic virtue, and ideas of sainthood reflect the ethical norms of a particular Christian society; a saint is the focus of veneration, and the ways people behave toward saints (going on pilgrimage to venerate their relics, showing reverence to their images, etc.) tells a great deal about official and unofficial Christian piety; a saint is a figurehead for some interest group such as a religious order or a city, and in churches that have a process of canonization this becomes a mirror of ecclesiastical politics. The course will focus on the classic era of sainthood, from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, in which conceptions that have remained influential were first articulated and developed. Toward the end of the term, however, we will look at recent development in canonization. | UG |
| Molina | 349 | Topics in Christianity: Living and Dying in Colonial Latin America | This course looks at the history of colonial Latin America. We will examine the themes of religion, ethnicity, gender, science and medicine. The goal of the class is to explore colonial Latin America through the lens of everyday practices that were geared toward managing daily life with death and salvation in mind. | UG |
| Newman | 349 | Topics in Christianity: The Cult of the Virgin Mary | No aspect of the Catholic faith has been so deeply shaped by popular piety-"the will of the people"-as the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Official Catholic teaching holds that devotion directed toward Mary is a way of worshipping Christ, while Protestant polemics have blasted the Virgin's cult as non-biblical and a form of idolatry. Yet during the Renaissance, much of the mythology and pageantry surrounding Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen" of Protestant England, was based on the cult of Mary. Today, some feminists and religionists see Mariology as Goddess-worship by another name. In the first part of this class we will explore the many manifestations of the Virgin's cult at the height of its popularity in the Middle Ages. We will investigate not only texts (legends of Mary's life, miracle stories, visions, poems, prayers, and plays), but also liturgical celebrations, pilgrimages, hymns, icons, altarpieces, rose windows, and statues of the Virgin. In the second portion we will look at the widely varying modern interpretations of Mary, including the conservative piety surrounding the apparitions of Fatima and Medjugorje, the appropriation of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a symbol of Mexican nationalism, and the place of Mary in liberation theology, feminist spirituality, and archetypal psychology. The course will include art-historical lectures, musical performances, and showings of two very different films: the Catholic devotional classic, Song of Bernadette (1943), and Jean-Luc Godard's postmodern masterpiece, Hail Mary (1985). | UG |
| Newman | 349 | Topics in Christianity: Major Christian Poets | This class will offer an intensive study of five major Christian poets writing in Great Britain between the early 17th century and the mid-20th. Their lives and works could scarcely be more different. The flamboyant John Donne was famed for his erotic poems and dissolute life before he became a celebrated preacher and Dean of St. Paul's. George Herbert, the saintliest of English poets, gave up a promising academic career to toil in an obscure country church, where he wrote magnificent poetry and died young. William Blake, Romantic rebel and visionary artist, lived up to his famous aphorism that "I must create my own System, or be enslaved by another Man's." The Victorian Gerard Manley Hopkins, a convert to Roman Catholicism, burned his early poems after becoming a Jesuit priest, but fortunately took up the craft again and became a major innovator in English prosody. Finally, T. S. Eliot followed the 1922 triumph of his Waste Land, one of the foundation charters of high modernism, by converting to Anglican Christianity and producing the Four Quartets, perhaps the greatest English religious poems of the 20th century. This course is offered through the Religion Dept. because we will devote serious attention to issues of theology and religious sensibility; but we will also do the same kind of close reading and analysis expected in other poetry courses. Students should therefore have some previous experience in the interpretation of poetry. | UG |
| Traina | 349 | Topics in Christianity: The Child in Christian Thought | Who and what are children, according to Christian theologians? The answers are surprisingly difficult to discover. This course will explore childhood in Christian theology with special attention to western thought. We will discuss the conections between the theology of childhood in any given period and the treatment and social standing of children; we will also discuss how both affect religious instruction. We will investigate the image of childhood as an ideal or antitype for Christian discipleship. Finally, we will attend carefully to ways in which basic Christian doctrines like the doctrine of original sin cause theological and practical problems for both the Christian concept of childhood generally and sacramental life in particular. Throughout, we'll ask about ways in which theologians' own adult experience or non-experience of children affects their views and what theological and practical difficulties arise when children's religious subjectivity is ignored or misrepresented. | UG |
| Helmer | 349 | Topics in Christianity: Theology of Sport | The course addresses the intersection between sport and religion. The theological perspective frames themes, such as the history of sport, ritual and sport, sports psychology, the body, and competition. | UG |
| Kieckhefer | 350 | Topics in Religion: Church Architecture | We will examine the history of church architecture, its liturgical uses, and recent developments and controversies. | UG |
| Lowe | 350 | Topics in Religion: Reformations - Protestant and Catholic | This course is to provide a general background for understanding the sixteenth-century religious debates and upheaval constituting the Protestant Reformation and the response of the Roman Catholic Church to these developments. The readings include classic primary texts and interpretive secondary material and are chosen to give an understanding of the topic in addition to promoting class examination of religious controversies and the social and cultural contexts in which they occurred. | UG |
| Newman | 350 | Topics in Religion: Women in Contemporary World Religions | This class will explore the changing roles and activities of women, as well as beliefs about gender, in three global religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and one new religious movement popular in North America and Britain (Wicca or Neo-Paganism). We will look at such issues as the exclusion or inclusion of women in traditional religious practices; the historical roots of misogyny and contemporary resistance; leadership roles available to women; attitudes and behaviors related to female sexuality; feminine expressions of the sacred (Goddess, Shekinah, Virgin Mary, etc.); and the goals and ideologies of feminists working within each of these traditions today. | UG |
| Seesemann | 350 | The Qur'an | The Qur'an, considered by Muslims to be the speech of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel between the years 610 and 632 C.E., is the basic textual source of Islam. Moreover, it is the greatest literary product in Arabic. As such, the Qur'an had a tremendous impact on the formation of Islam as a religion and the development of Arabic literature. This course is designed to introduce the Qur'an both as revelation and as text. After an overview of the historical background, we will approach the event of the revelation by reading selected chapters from the Qur'an. Particular attention will be paid to the compilation of the Qur'anic text, the exegesis of the Qur'an, and other Islamic Sciences related to Islam's Holy Book, such as the art of reciting the Qur'an. The course will elucidate the crucial role the Qur'an plays in Islamic education and in the spiritual life of Muslims. Finally, the course will juxtapose Muslim views of the Koran with the theories developed by Western scholars, including recent debates about the origins of the Qur'anic text. | UG |
| Taylor | 350 | Topics in Religion: Women, Ecology and the Sacred | In an intensive seminar format, this course explores themes of environmental prophecy, nature mysticism, ecospiritual transformation, and "green eschatology" as expressed through a selection of contemporary American women authors, artists, and activists. Focusing on women from a variety of religious backgrounds, we analyze personal narratives, artistic productions, and protest actions, considering how (through these forms) women address and negotiate issues related to religious tradition, social change, environmental concerns, and the "greening" of American religions. We also discuss and evaluate ecofeminist theoretical perspectives on the relationships among human beings, the natural environment, and nonhuman animals, problematizing nature/culture and women/culture dualisms. | UG |
| Taylor | 350 | Topics in Religion: Women and Religion in America | This course offers an introduction to women's historical and contemporary roles in American religious life. Focusing on women's creative productions and experiences, we will examine how women have contributed to the formation and transformation of religious culture in this country. We will also explore the importance of gender roles, issues of sexuality, leadership, women's religious meanings and motivations, experiences and identities. Much of the readings will be drawn from primary source documents that students will consider and evaluate in view of the course's thematic questions and concerns. Among the questions we will address are: How have women's experiences been expressed both within and in opposition to American religious traditions? What factors are involved in women becoming religious leaders or entrepreneurs? How have women responded to traditions in which they do not have access to formal authority? In what ways might some religions make sacred women's traditional roles? How might others extend women's roles beyond existing social constraints? How have women's religious experiences and narratives shaped and in turn been shaped by American culture? | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Film | Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" famously intertwines the thriller with the drama of the spiritual quest. In this course, we will analyze the ways in which a select group of movies similarly activates multiple levels of reference, as each seeks to probe the nature of justice, mercy, and moral ambiguity in the public and private domains. Films will include Bresson's "Pickpocket" and "L'Argent;" Eastwood's "Mystic River;" Kieslowski's "Dekalog;" the Dardennes' "The Son;" Melville's "Le Cercle Rouge" and Clouzot's "Quai des Orfevres." | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Film - Crime and Punishment, Quest and Inquest | Carl-Theo. Dreyer and Andrei Tarkovsky marked cinematic history with distinctive visions about the way the world runs. No survey of "religion and film" could omit Dreyer's "Day of Wrath" or "Ordet," or Tarkovksy's "Stalker," "Andrei Rublev," or "Sacrifice." Yet those who maintain that Dreyer was a "pious" filmmaker fail to note his skepticism of received political and religious doctrine, and it might be argued that Tarkovsky's films reflect as great a devotion to art as to religion. In this course we will examine Dreyer and Tarkovsky's greatest movies with an eye to uncovering what makes them disturb, yet delight, viewers--how their ideas and representations stimulate profound reflection about human experience. | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Film - "Dekalog," Krzysztof Kieslowski and the Moral Life | In this course we will examine the re-imaging of the moral life in Kieslowski's magisterial film series, Dekalog. In Kieslowski's one-hour dramas (made for Polish TV) and in the films by models such as Bergman and Dreyer, might the human anguish portrayed arise not simply from broken single commandments but rather from a larger breach such as covetousness? To probe Kieslowski's artistic and ethical vision, we will study additional films that share his intense concern with such questions: e.g., Cries & Whispers; Ali, Fear Eats the Soul; Day of Wrath; Vertigo; La Promesse; Hamsun; and My Name is Ivan. | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: 13 Conversations About Religion and Film 2003 | In this course I propose to open a series of conversations on religion & film, using movies from a variety of international film cultures. While the films differ vastly in cinematic style, the substance of each raises the question: "How shall we live?" It's the question raised by the great Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, whose Dekalog constitutes the heart of this course; it's the question underlying the biblical decalogue itself, as well as its missing ethical prescriptions about caring for the poor and forgotten. Films to be studied will include A City of Sadness (Taiwan), The Wind Will Carry Us (Iran), Anna (Russia), All or Nothing (UK), Ordet (Denmark), and Au Hazard Balthazar (France). The "conversations" will address such issues as violence, ethnic hatreds, the weight of historical memory, and redemption (of people, not pudding coupons). | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Film - The Films of Robert Bresson | Robert Bresson, one of the world's greatest directors, consistently made films that challenge easy assumptions both about religion and about the cinema. His early films juxtaposed easily recognizable Christian themes and symbols against a severe aesthetic that favored narrative ellipsis, sharply sculpted images, and the use of both professional and non-professional actors, whom he called "models." In the middle and later films "grace" and "redemption" became less recognizable as he grappled with the many faces of the problem of evil. He turned to the novels and short stories of Bernanos, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy as he sought to present human behavior in the harsh light of reality but with the possibility of transcendence. Films to be studied: Diary of a Country Priest; Pickpocket; A Man Escaped; Au Hazard, Balthazar; La Femme Douce; Mouchette; Lancelot du Lac; L'Argent, among others. | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Film | Film and Religion are topics that few people yoke together--unless the "subject" of the film is a pastor (usually flawed--think Winter Light or The Apostle) or religious practices (think Kundun). In this course we seek rather to examine films that incorporate the Fool, whose ancient literary pedigree makes him at once the most religious and the most subversive of characters no matter his/her (dis)guise. Films to be considered include Gladiator (US), Topsy-Turvy (Britain), City of Sadness (Taiwan), The Wind Will Carry (Iran), Rosetta (Belgium), Beau Travail (France). | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Deliver us from the Evil One - Religion and Values in Film | In this course we will examine a number of movies in which the mysteries of the problem of evil are actively explored. The Blair Witch phenomenon provides yet one more marker of the fascination that evil (particularly that which is unknown, unseen) has traditionally exerted on the imagination of the spectator. The early Passion play representations were followed by the delights of evil in Fantomas and Irma Vep, for instance. The caper films of the thirties were no less seductive; so, too, were the films noir of the forties and early fifties. Gangsters, ghouls, and their kin come and go as the market dictates. The films in this course follow a different pattern: their creators have identified specific social problems or ethical behaviors and, through complex visual texts, attempt to unravel the causative agent or agents, human or otherwise. Careful attention will be given to the strategies by which this detective work is accomplished as well as to the ways in which each film exposes its creators' own underlying value systems. Do not expect easily identifiable "religious" figures or religious practices in these films. The agenda of each film, however, is arguably intensely spiritual in nature, as the director and his/her team create a world in which human desire may clash with harsh social, political, or natural reality. | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Film and the Religious Conscience - The Fool as Scapegoat and Catalyst | From the opening sequences in "Forrest Gump" the savvy cinephile recognizes that s/he is being "fooled" by the skilled director of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Unfortunately, not every viewer of "Gump" realizes that the Fool, a character with a prodigiously long shelf life, should rarely be taken at face value. In this course we will NOT study "Forrest Gump" but will venture into darker territory in Fool literature with "Sling Blade," "Breaking the Waves," "La Strada," "Ordet," "Children of Paradise," "Stalker," "The Apostle," and "Henry Fool." Rossellini's "Little Flowers of Saint Francis" and Chaplin's "City Lights" further remind us of the complex tradition in which the Fool stands - foolish or wise, "constructed' or innocent, sacrifice or catalyst for action, the Fool unsettles our comfortable notions about how success, happiness, and wisdom might be defined, much less achieved. | UG |
| Vaux | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Film - The Mystery of the Human Person | The films to be analyzed in "Religion and Film: the Mystery of the Human Person" defeat all attempts to be slotted into categories of Good and Evil, Angel and Devil, Divine and Human. The transcendent, the spiritual, the divine-concepts that not only intrigue but recently obsess movie marketers-gather more power in "The Sweet Hereafter," "L.A. Confidential," or "Unforgiven," where ultimate answers are notably absent yet achingly desired, than in any film that attempts to "represent" the divine through the intervention of angelic agents or mighty beings. The encounter with mystery may as frequently take place on the dark streets of Warsaw ("Dekalog") or Taipei ("A City of Sadness") or Brussels ("La Promesse") as in space usually termed sacred; the liturgies that bind and uplift may be twisted ("Touch of Evil," "Day of Wrath") or transformed in startling ways ("Stalker"). The one overt representation of religious belief and practice, "The Apostle," shares with the above films a commitment not to convert spectators but to disturb and challenge them to confront the violence, racism, greed, and abuse of power that lie at the center of most human transactions. In this course we will examine each movie as a unique work of film art that opens the imagination, engages us in ethical dialogue, and fulfills the twin functions of great poetry, to delight and to instruct. | UG |
| Zoloth | 350 | Topics in Religion: Religion and Bioethics | This is a seminar that will explore the topic of how a variety of religions approach the issues in the field of Bioethics. We will examine the issue of epistemic stance, of truth claims, of the relationship between religion and public policy, and of the normative claims of religion in bioethics, reform and issues in reproductive medicine. This seminar will look at both classic dilemmas in modern medicine and how the discipline of bioethics has emerged to reflect upon such dilemmas with particular attention to the role that theology and religious studies has played in such reflection. We will look both at how the practice of theologians historically has shaped the field of bioethics and at how religion's claims, methodology, and praxis have continued to shape and inflect bioethics. We will use a case based method to study how different faith traditions describe and defend differences in moral choices in contemporary bioethics and how such different traditions both collide and cohere over such topics as embryo research, health care allocation and rationing, how to treat the terminally ill, and issues in genetic research. | UG |
| Lassner | 351 | Muhammad, the Jews, and the Origins of Islam | This course traces the origins of the Islamic community (Ummah) in its Arabian environment; i.e., the tension between a religious community that theoretically transcends the limits of geography, ethnicity, and tribalism and the realities of identity politics. It focuses in detail on the ideological and political conflict between the prophet Muhammad and the Jewish tribes of the region, and also raises questions about the relationship between Jewish and Christian) tradition and the development of Islam in Arabia. | UG |
| Lassner | 352 | Topics in Judaism: Biblical Themes in Muslim Tradition | The focus of this course is the use of biblical history and personae in post-biblical tradition. Various themes will be traced from their biblical origins through their reshaping in post-biblical times. The purpose of this enterprise is to illustrate how historical consciousness changed in accordance with new realities among Jews seeking to give explanation to the events that make up their past, present and anticipated future. Particular emphasis will be placed on the history of King Solomon's reign, especially the visit of the Queen of Sheba. The discussion will focus on changing political realities in relation to the issues of gender, attitudes towards family, procreation and the defense of Judaism against assimilation to foreign influence. | UG |
| Lassner | 352 | Topics in Judaism: Biblical Themes in Post-Biblican Jewish Thought | We will examine the central issues in traditional (pre-Enlightenment) Christian thought: ideas about the Trinity, the Incarnation, Atonement, Fall and Original Sin, God, and Revelation. We will begin with two books that show Christian thinkers struggling deeply with theological issues that impinge on their own lives; Augustine's "Confessions" and Julian of Norwich's "Showings". Then we will examine excerpts from other writers, Eastern and Western, from the first through the sixteenth centuries. To some extent we will ask how modern and even contemporary Christian theology has criticized and reinterpreted traditional notions, but we will attend mainly to primary sources from Christian tradition. | UG |
| Lowe | 353 | Studies in American Religion: Evolution of American Religious Pluralism | A historical and ethnographic examination of the ways in which religion in the United States both reflects and challenges values of diversity and pluralism. Historical exploration on church-state debate, impact of immigration on religion, the civil rights movements, and regional patterns of religious difference. Ethnographic analysis will focus the impact of these developments on the religions and the religious communities of Chicago. Important themes in the course include the role of the frontier and the city, exile and diaspora, and the idea of "promised land" in diverse religious traditions, including Puritanism, Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, African-American Protestantism, Judaism and Islam. | UG |
| Seesemann | 353 | Trends in Islamic Thought: Theories and Practices of Knowledge in Islam | In the study of Islam it has become commonplace to distinguish between various contemporary Islamic traditions according to their different ideological orientations. Phenomena like the Sunni-Shi'a divide, the rise of political Islam, the alleged decline of Sufism, and the vogue of militant Islam all seem to be explicable through ideological differences, to the extent that ideology has become the paramount pattern in the interpretation of modern Islam. This course proposes an alternative perspective by exploring the different approaches Muslims have taken and continue to take to knowledge. By taking a close look at epistemology (i.e., the question what knowledge is, how it is generated, transmitted, and put into practice), this class opens up new windows on the understanding of Muslim cultures, both past and present. Examples will be draw from the historical development of the Islamic sciences, the history of the transmission of knowledge and institutions of learning, and from diverse geographical areas, including the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. | UG |
| Seesemann | 353 | Trends in Islamic Thought: Sufism - Doctrines, Beliefs, Practices | Sufism is the major, though not the only, mystical strand within Islam. Gradually emerging from the ninth century CE onwards, Sufi spirituality and Sufi institutions have exercised enormous, if controversial influence over the course of Islam. This class starts with an exploration of Sufism's formative period and highlights the contribution of several individual Sufi thinkers, including al-Ghazali, Ibn 'Arabi, and others, to the formulation of Sufi doctrines. Subsequently the course will focus on the development of beliefs and practices associated with Sufism as they spread widely among Muslim peoples from the fourteenth century onwards. Finally, the course will introduce a few case studies from various historical and geographical contexts to convey a deeper understanding of the interplay between Sufi doctrine, religious practice, and the wider social and political background. | UG |
| Seesemann | 353 | Trends in Islamic Thought: Evolution of Islamic Political Thought | "Political Islam" is often said to have developed as a response to Western hegemony over the Muslim world from the 19th century onwards. However, a closer look at the ideas of contemporary Muslim scholars and intellectuals reveals that Islamic political thought does in fact have a long and dynamic history. This seminar follows the central threads of Islamic political theory through different historical periods. Particular attention will be paid to the career of the Prophet Muhammad as a statesman, since it is the example of the Prophet that has usually been evoked by later scholars. Other topics include the ideological basis of political authority in the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, as well as the rise of "classical" Muslim political thought. Finally, the course will examine the evolution of radical political thought within Islam with particular reference to Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 AD), Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966 AD) and other Muslim scholars of the 20th century. | UG |
| Taylor | 353 | Topics in American Religion: African American Religions | This course explores the diversity of religious forms within African American religious communities. We will study mainstream churches, Black Muslims, conversionist sects, and Spiritual Churches, as well as the rise of black nationalism, civil rights, and black liberation theology. Of special interest will be dynamics of contact, combination, and exchange as they relate to faith, race, identity, violence, accommodation, and protest. Students will be introduced to the strength, power, and creativity of African American religious life, while coming to a better understanding of social struggle and cultural resistance. | UG |
| Bond | 355 | Studies in Buddhism | UG | |
| Ziporyn | 355 | Studies in Buddhism: Readings in Mahayana Buddhist Texts | The Mahayana or "Great
Vehicle" of Buddhism arose in India several hundred years after the
Buddha's death and came to form the mainstream of Buddhist thought and
practice in China, Korea and Japan, standing as the basis for all the
distinctive forms of Sinitic Buddhism, including Zen. The movement produced a
vast body of powerful and distinctive philosophical and religious literature
expounding its central doctrines of Emptiness, the Bodhisattva Ideal and
Universal Buddhahood. |
UG |
| Ziporyn | 355 | Studies in Buddhism: Buddhist Omnicentrism - Huayan and Tiantai Religion | This course will investigate two schools of Chinese Buddhism: the Huayan School and the Tiantai School. These two schools are characterized by their commitment to "omnicentrism," an elaboration of the Mahayana idea of "Emptiness" (sunyata) taken to imply the interpenetration and mutual pervasion of all existences, such that "each is all and all are each." The further implication is that each and every moment of experience is itself the source, goal and defining center of all other experience. We will try to understand the scriptural sources and philosophical undergirdings of this doctrine, as well as the subtle but important difference in the way it is developed in the two schools and the diverse implications derived therefrom. | UG |
| Lassner | 357 | Topics in Islam: Muslim Perspectives on Ancient Jewish Traditions | This course describes how biblical and postbiblical themes are reshaped by Muslim religious tradition to accommodate contemporary values in newly defined concerns. These concerns reflect on matters of group identification, boundaries vis a vis other religions, and gender related boundaries - that is changing world views. The comparison of Jewish and Muslim sources also indicates the manner in which cultural artifacts are transferred back and forth in two religious civilizations that share a common monotheist history but nevertheless compete for sacred space. The material thus serves to explain how a shared past history (the biblical world) gives rise to conflict as well as mutual respect. | UG |
| Lassner | 357 | Topics in Islam: Jewish Themes in Muslim Tradition | This course describes how biblical and postbiblical themes are reshaped by Muslim religious tradition to accommodate contemporary values in newly defined concerns. These concerns reflect on matters of group identification, boundaries vis a vis other religions, and gender related boundaries - That is changing world views. The comparison of Jewish and Muslim sources also indicates the manner in which cultural artifacts are transferred back and forth in two religious civilizations that share a common monotheist history but nevertheless compete for sacred space. The material thus serves to explain how a shared past history (the biblical world) gives rise to conflict as well as mutual respect. | UG |
| Umar | 357 | Topics in Islam: Islam and Modernity | The course starts with a brief overview of historical development of Islamic traditions and their interface with the basic dynamics of modern world history. A survey of religious reforms in the Islamic world before the encounter with Western European powers in the nineteenth century will set the background for analyzing Muslims' responses to the global rise of European colonial empires. Specific case studies of selected number of Muslim countries will be examined for understanding the religious dimensions of modernization of Islamic societies in the twentieth century. Do Islamic discourses on "modernity" lead to reconceptualization of different modernities? Can "Islamic liberalism" be both Islamic and Liberal? Close examination of Islamic discourses on Islamic state, democracy, relations with non-Muslims, gender equality, freedom of thought, and cultural and religious changes will help to answer the questions of religion and multiple modernities. | UG |
| Seesemann | 359 | Topics in Islam: Sufi Orders in Sub-Saharan Africa | It is generally acknowledged that the Sufi orders-i.e., the organizational expression of Islamic mysticism-have played a crucial role in the spread of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960s, however, many observers, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have claimed that the influence of the Sufis is bound to decline, as they are ill prepared to meet the challenges of modernity. The course will examine these and other assessments of the role of Sufism in Africa. After giving an overview of the history and the basic teachings of Sufism in general, the course will deal with the rise of the Sufi orders in sub-Saharan Africa from the 18th century onwards, paying particular attention to their doctrines and modes of organization. Case studies from East and West Africa will guide our inquiry into the social, political and economic background to the success story of the Sufi orders. Finally, the course will explore the encounter between Sufism and modernity, highlighting the relationship between Sufis and reformist Muslims, the alleged decline of the Sufi orders, and the question of whether Sufism is simply an expression of "popular" Islam. | UG |
| Seesemann | 359 | Topics in Islam: Converts and Apostates | Over the last few decades, the religion of Islam has become the subject of intense controversies. Public debates about Islam seem to be characterized by increasing polarization and radicalization on both sides. This course approaches these controversies by exploring the apologetic positions of Muslims, and converts in particular, on the one hand and the polemical approaches of (former) Muslims critical of Islam on the other. What do converts find attractive about Islam? How do they describe their religious experience as Muslims? On the other hand, what are the reasons why others criticize Islam and occasionally publicly renounce it? Apart from shedding light on some of the recent controversies, the objective of the class is to convey a thorough understanding of conversion and apostasy in Islamic contexts, mainly of the twentieth century. We will look at individual cases of converts and apostates, reading conversion accounts and engaging with the arguments against Islam as articulated by critics. We will also address cases of Muslims who became the target of accusations of blasphemy and apostasy, sometimes with severe consequences. | UG |
| Seesemann | 359 | Topics in Islam: Muslim Saints | The goal of this seminar is to provide a deeper understanding of Islam and Muslim religious practices, taking the case of Muslim saints and their veneration in popular Islamic piety as a point of departure. The beliefs and practices related to saintly persons have appeared a few centuries after the revelation of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, to the Prophet Muhammad, between 610 and 632 CE. Accordingly, these beliefs and practices have been contested among Muslims throughout Islamic history, to the extent that some Muslims even dismiss the idea of "sainthood" within Islam completely. We will begin with a brief overview of the basics of Islam and then give an outline of the development of Islamic mysticism (or Sufism), which provided the milieu in which the phenomenon of saint veneration emerged and developed. We will then pass on to explore the biographies of selected Muslim saints, with case studies covering the period between the 9th and the 20th centuries. Drawing on texts written by Muslim authors, we will examine the process of how these persons were able to reach saintly status in the eyes of their followers, and analyze the practices through which the followers express their veneration. Finally, the seminar will address the controversies and polemics that have accompanied the veneration of saints since its emergence and up to the present day. | UG |
| Umar | 359 | Topics in Islam: Islam in Modernity | This course examines the worldwide transformation of Islamic cultures and societies in the modern period, starting with a brief historical development of Islamic traditions and their interface with the basic dynamics of modern world history. The challenges of modernity to Islamic traditions will be examined in the context of Muslims' encounters with Western European Powers during the nineteenth century. A survey of religious reforms in the Islamic world before and during the encounters with modern Europe will provide the background for understanding Muslims' responses to the challenges of modernity. Specific case-studies of selected number of Muslim countries will shed light on the religious dimensions of modernization of Islamic societies in the twentieth century. Close examination of contemporary Islamic discourses will help to answer theoretical questions on the relationships between religion and modernity. | UG |
| Taylor | 369 | Topics in American Religion: American Religion and Popular Culture | This seminar is geared to students in Religious Studies and American Studies but will also appeal to film majors and those interested in various areas of cultural study. In this course, we will examine religion and popular culture in theoretical perspective, self-reflexively considering what counts as "religion" and what counts as "popular culture" in America and why. How might these definitions change over time, and who has the authority to decide what kind of phenonmena falls into which category? What is the purpose of studying popular culture and what methodologies might be most useful and appropriate for doing so? What might the study of popular culture contribute to our understanding of how Americans experience the "religious"? Students will be asked to problematize "high culture" versus "low culture" distinctions, theoretical divisions between what is labeled "religious" and "secular," and classifications of "religion" and "culture." Examining a series of case studies drawn from film, television, popular music and art, consumer items, kitsch, and other sources, we will explore different scholarly approaches to the study of religion and popular culture. Students then compare and evaluate these approaches, choosing their own approach as they conduct original research for the final seminar project. | UG |
| Taylor | 369 | Topics in American Religion: Jezebels, Witches, Hussies, and Heretics | This course is an introduction to the "bad girls" of American religious history. Some of these "misbehaving" women you may already recognize. Others we will retrieve from historical obscurity. Were these women prophetic in some way? Villainous? Both? Something in between? We will focus our analysis on the dynamics and meanings of boundary transgression as they relate to norms of both gender and religion. Nonconformist, unorthodox, heretical, and thoroughly fascinating, America's "Jezebels" provide us critical insights into the history of American religions and the women who have boldly questioned their authority. | UG |
| Lassner | 371 | Muhammad, the Jews, and the Origins of Islam | This course traces the origins of the Islamic community (Ummah) in its Arabian environment; i.e., the tension between a religious community that theoretically transcends the limits of geography, ethnicity, and tribalism and the realities of identity politics. It focuses in detail on the ideological and political conflict between the prophet Muhammad and the Jewish tribes of the region, and also raises questions about the relationship between Jewish and Christian) tradition and the development of Islam in Arabia. | UG /GRAD |
| Vaux | 371 | Religion and Filmi: Films of Clint Eastwood and J. Melville | Recent Westerns such as The Proposition (2005), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), and Eastern Promises (2007) have revived recognition of the form's potential to explore long-simmering or ignored problems in past and contemporary society. They also foreground violence as cinematic seduction and trigger for intense social analysis. In this course, we will explore the Westerns of French director Jean-Pierre Melville and American legend Clint Eastwood. | UG /GRAD |
| Vaux | 371 | Religion and Film: Eternal War or the Dawn of Peace? | Full topic title: "Eternal War or the Dawn of Peace? The unmasking of texts in Eastwood, Bresson, the Dardennes, and Audiard." Clint Eastwood, often linked in the public imaginary with the Angel of Death and redemptive bloodshed, constructs layered film texts where peacemaking, reconciliation, and redemption trump violence. We will study his career-long struggle to privilege the marginalized in American society-the power of weakness-over "Hobbes on horseback"-the triumph of power-in the context of select filmmakers who also explore religious themes under cover of realism. His early films show an awareness of Bresson, Melville, and Kurosawa in theme and technique; the later films parallel Varda, the Dardennes, and Audiard with their interlacing of gritty realism and transcendence. His iconic films since Unforgiven, furthermore, disguise meditations on human suffering beneath a painterly surface, culminating in his recent war triptych and its thematic coda, Invictus (2009). | UG /GRAD |
| Vaux | 371 | Religion and Film: Films of Clint Eastwood | In 1971, Clint Eastwood directed his first movie, Play Misty for Me, setting into motion a 35-year tension between his iconic identity-rugged American masculinity-and his relentless questioning of the deployment of images of power and destiny to obscure America's history of violence, poverty, and racism. Beneath the media-driven image of a man of violence lies a director who stimulates debates on justice, mysticism, ethical choice, love, forgiveness, and redemption-ingredients of "a perfect world"-through movies that embrace a wide variety of genres and bridge the divide between commerce and art. In this course, we will seek to discover the ethical system that underlies Eastwood's films through a close examination of his use of narrative structure, genre conventions, mise-en-scène, sound design, and technical devices. Eastwood's iconic films (e.g., Unforgiven, Mystic River, Letters From Iwo Jima), comprise the heart of the course. The depth of his accomplishment will be enhanced by studying selected European and American films that influenced his artistic growth (e.g., The Spaghetti Westerns, The Seven Samourai, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Steel Helmet, films of Robert Bresson and Carl-Theo. Dreyer). Prospective students should view Changeling and Gran Torino, Eastwood's latest offerings, before classes begin. | UG /GRAD |
| Vaux | 371 | Religion and Filmi: Robert Bresson | In this course, we will explore the apparent shift in Robert Bresson's religious/spiritual orientation from his earliest films (Les Anges du Peche through Pickpocket) to his later ones (Mouchette through L'Argent). Do Bresson's later films reveal an artist past his prime, prey to depression and despair? Did Bresson lose his faith along with his creative powers? We will consider these questions in tandem with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, source for many of his works. We will analyze his cinematic strategies alongside Iranian, Asian, and recent French films that may draw upon his unusual form for inspiration. | UG /GRAD |
| Vaux | 371 | Religion and Film: The Decalogue | Kieslowski's great films about the moral life, Dekalog, will be analyzed with an eye to scriptural antecedents, formal elements, and thematic analogs within world cinema. Films to be studies in addition to Dekalog include A City of Sadness (Taiwan); Amores Perros (Mexico); The Son's Room (Italy); Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Germany); Days of Heaven (US); The Wind Will Carry Us (Iran); Talk To Her (Spain); Le Goût des Autres (France); Day of Wrath (Denmark). | UG /GRAD |
| Bond | 372 | Asian Religions in Literature and Film | Since the age when the maritime explorers searched for a passage to India and a shorter route to the East, Asia has held a fascination for the West. While the West may have influenced Asia overtly through colonization and commerce, Asia has also influenced the West more subtly through art, literature and religion. This course explores Asian Religions- specifically, Hinduism and Buddhism-by examining their expression in literature and film. The two main goals of the course are: First, to examine some of the central themes of Hinduism and Buddhism and the ways that they are depicted in classical Asian texts and in some contemporary Asian films. Second, by studying Western literature and films dealing with Asia, the course seeks to understand some of the ways that Asia and its religions have been imagined and interpreted in the West and the influences that they have had on Western thought and culture. | UG |
| Zoloth | 373 | Religion and Bioethics | This class will explore the topic of how a variety of religions approach contemporary dilemmas in medicine, global health, science and public policy. We will examine the bioethical issues created and debated amidst serious controversy and how controversies emerge within the political process (with special attention to the 2008 races). We will explore the nature of the relationship between religion and public policy and study how religious traditions and moral philosophy shape our view of issues as "bioethics controversies" in the first place. We will look at both classic dilemmas in modern medicine and how the discipline of bioethics has emerged to reflect upon such dilemmas with particular attention to the role that theology and religious studies has played in such reflection. We will look both at how the practice of theologians historically has shaped the field of bioethics and at how religion's claims, methodology, and praxis have continued to shape and inflect bioethics. We will use a case based method to study how different faith traditions describe and defend differences in moral choices in contemporary bioethics and see how such different traditions both collide and cohere over such topics as embryo research, health care reform, how to treat the terminally ill, and issues in genomic research. We will ask: what is the role of religion in both personal decisions and in public life? | UG |
| Traina | 379 | Topics in Comparative Religion: Feminism and Fertility | In this course we will explore some of the complex questions that feminists have raised about human fertility over the past century, with a special focus both on religious contexts and on feminist religious writing. We will investigate a number of questions, including the significance of fertility for women's welfare in particular religious and cultural settings; fertility control; the effect of infertility, male or female, on gender relations; the multiple meanings of fertility therapies. We will make use of both anthropology and ethical approaches. | UG |
| Molina | 382 | Catholicism and Making of the Modern World: Christianity and Colonialism - Becoming Sinners, Christianity and Colonialism | What is "conversion" and how does it function in colonial contexts? What does it mean to try to convince someone that he or she is a sinner in need of redemption? This course is built upon the premise that often Europeans -- both missionaries and the governments that sponsored them -- sought to effect a fundamental change in consciousness beyond merely coercing natives to claim a belief in the Christian god. We will explore the myriad ways in which European colonizers enticed, cajoled and sometimes demanded an alteration in native consciousness through an examination of transformations in cultural practices, from formal ritual to one's everyday practices, culinary habits, expression of emotion, etc. We will evaluate the "successes" and "failures" of such ventures. Chronologically, the first half of the course will explore the interactions between missionaries, governments, and colonized, beginning with the first European overseas empires (Spain and Portugal in the 15th through 18th centuries). The second half of the course will draw from case studies from the era of modern colonialism (19th and 20th centuries), particularly regarding India, Africa, and with one example from Micronesia. The purpose of the course is not only to understand the narrative history of European attempts at "spiritual conquest" over time, but to explore various approaches to the concept of "culture" -- what it meant to Europeans and colonial "others" in particular locations and historical contexts. The course will explore Christian concepts of "self" and "other" that were operative in each time period. Drawing upon anthropological theories pertaining to culture, communication, and ritual, we will keep an eye trained to the unique historical experiences of actors in each context, but also aim to understand more generalized patterns of conversion in colonial contexts across time. | UG |
| Traina | 383 | Catholic Social Ethics | Beginning in the 1890s with the papal encyclical Rerum novarum but stretching roots back to the medieval period, modern and contemporary Roman Catholic ecclesiastical teaching and academic reflection have self-consciously and systematically engaged important domestic and international issues. This course will follow the trajectory of official ecclesiastical, academic, and popular Catholic social ethics from the late 19th century to the present in their social and political contexts. Among the trends and topics studied are the living wage movement, the Catholic Worker movement, peace and justice initiatives, liberation ethics, race, immigration, and environment. The transformation of sexuality and gender from "private" to "social" ethics will also be discussed. This is one of the core courses for the Catholic Studies minor. | UG |
| Traina | 384 | Soundings in the Catholic Tradition: Theology after Vatican II | Although the changes of Vatican Council II were largely the products of the work of avant-garde "modern" Catholic theologians, the post-Council period saw a flourishing of theological diversity. In this course we will sample some of the trends of that thought. We will read authors from around the globe who represent different methodological perspectives. Among the authors to be read are Tissa Balasuriya, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Susan A. Ross, James Alison, Cynthia S.W. Crysdale, Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, Ivone Gebara, Elizabeth Johnson, and Edward Schillebeeckx. | UG |
| Bond | 390 | Comparative Study of Religions: Religion in Global Perspectives | The religious landscape of America has changed radically in the past several decades, and continues to change. This course explores the theological and religious issues emerging in the interaction of the majority Christian communities with Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities in an increasingly pluralistic American culture. The scope of the course moves from introduction to the religions, and identification of some issues in their interaction, to experience of and reflection upon the dialogue between religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. We shall explore the meanings of this new religious pluralism for a culture that has been predominantly Christian and for the witness and praxis of its churches in relation with its mosques and temples. | UG |
| Taylor | 395 | Theories of Religion | What is "theory"? What does it mean to have a theory about something? How are theories helpful? What do theories do? What is "religion"? How do things get excluded or included in this category? What counts as "religious" and why? Who gets to decide? This course is an introduction to foundational theories of religion and to the history of the construction of the category of "religion" over time. Throughout the term, you will be working on formulating your own theory of religion, which you will articulate and defend in your final seminar paper. In this course, you will gain (as ritual theorist Catherine Bell says) "the skills and tools to make sure that very complicated situations and ideas can be put into words, thereby making it possible to have discussions about issues that can only be discussed if there is language for reflexivity, nuance, counter-evidence, and doubt." In the process, you will be asked to make theory translatable to your peers by actively engaging theoretical concept in creative ways. Professor Taylor is out to prove in this course that not only is theory indispensable to our work as religion scholars but it's also fun! | UG / GRAD |
| Traina | 395 | Theories of Religion | This course examines both the
phenomenon of religion and the academic study of religion. We shall read and
discuss some of the classic theories from scholars who have sought to explain
and account for religion from an academic standpoint. These scholars have
approached religion from many different angles and have arrived at differing
views of the meaning of the phenomenon of religion. Their views have shaped
both the field of religious studies and the way that our culture in general
thinks about religion. We shall attempt to understand and critique these
analyses of religion and, in this process, to arrive at our own understanding
of 1) the phenomenon of religion, and 2) various approaches to the study of
religion. |
UG / GRAD |
| Bond | 432 | Themes in Comparative Religion: Teaching Comparative Religion | Teaching World Religions: One of the most popular undergraduate courses in departments of religious studies is the World Religions course. This seminar will focus on the questions: What are the "world religions" and how should we go about teaching them in our time? Since the study of the world religions is closely tied up the development of European thought, this seminar will study the background issues as well as the practical issues of how to frame a study of the living world religions. The course also examines various models for studying and teaching these religions. The aim of the course is to help graduate students prepare themselves to teach this popular undergraduate class. | GRAD |
| Taylor | 460 | Seminar: Topics in American Religions - Greening of Faith | This graduate seminar examines the rise of religious environmentalism, its historical precedents, and its future prospects. Course analysis will focus on the "greening" of prayer, liturgy, and other forms of diverse religious practice as they bring to light fusions of religious, social, and political responses to environmental crisis. | GRAD |
| Helmer | 470 | Theology and the Study of Religion | An historical exploration of the study of religion, from the nineteenth century to the present, in relation to theological themes. Also addressed are constructive issues concerning the contemporary relation between theology and religious studies. | GRAD |
| Molina | 471 | Studies in History of Religions: Gender and Embodiment | Focusing on the particular historical circumstances that gendered the manner in which historical actors experienced their bodies, we will explore how Christians structured their narratives of self. Case studies will draw on a variety of historical contexts from late-antiquity, through the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, up through the eighteenth century, although the bulk of the materials will be drawn from early modern Europe and colonial Latin America. In all cases, we will engage creatively with Bourdieu, Foucault and Merleau-Ponty, experimenting with how and when the tools offered by the above theorists offer us means to hone our ability to analyze and understand the role of the body in the creation of "selves." | GRAD |
| Molina | 471 | Studies in History of Religions: Religion and Colonialism | This course will look at the role of religion (Christianity) in the expansion of Europe and the development of the colonial and postcolonial worlds from the 16th through the 20th centuries. The goals of the course are 1) to convey a sense of the history of various moments of European expansion; 2) to look at particular case studies from both a historical and ethnographic point of view; and, 3) to interrogate how colonial/postcolonial studies has dealt with (failed to deal with?) religion/religious practice. Throughout the course we will draw upon theories of social/cultural formation as well as literature on conversion, social transformation, and the possibilities of intersubjective experience. | GRAD |
| Taylor | 471 | Studies in History of Religions: Landscapes of the Sacred | This course explores the multifaceted connections between place and the construction of spiritual identities in American culture. What is the idea of "place"? What are the tensions between American notions of "space" and "place"? How are certain places deemed "sacred" in America, and how are these places contested over time, by whom, and to what ends? How are mythical landscapes recreated in physical landscapes, and what drives such recreations? How are "sacred places" symbolically represented over time? What is the relationship between sacred narratives and the "storied landscape" for a number of native peoples in North America? How are certain religious experiences understood "through place" in diverse communities (urban, suburban, rural, etc.)? And how do displacement, alienation from place, and the fragmentation of place affect spiritual understandings of self, nature, and nationhood? Theoretical perspectives for this course will be drawn from religious studies, geography, and cultural studies. We will analyze a series of case studies (derived from primary and secondary sources). | GRAD |
| Zoloth | 474 | Studies in Judaism: Reading Levinas and Talmud-Levinas' Jewish Writing | This seminar will study a particular textual project, that of Emmanuel Levinas and his readings of Talmud through his particular post-modern philosophic lens. Each week, we will closely read a section, with attention to both his classic reclamation of, and his remarkable innovation within the texts. Levinas's work is now widely used in philosophy, theology, literature, and cultural studies, and his attention to the relationship between the self and the other is a grounding concept in all of this work. In these texts, we will find some of the sources of that attention. We will compare the texts with their classic interpretations, and reflect on the history of commentary as it shaped Levinas's intellectual and theological project. *Limited to sixteen, graduate students and majors get first choice. | GRAD |
| Kieckhefer | 475 | Studies in Christianity: Late Medieval Religious Culture | This seminar will examine issues and controversies in recent literature about late medieval religion. We will enter into some of the most important current conversations about religious culture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. During the first three weeks discussion will be structured largely around the seminal work of three important medievalists: Eamon Duffy's interpretation of late medieval religion in The Stripping of the Altars (1992), Caroline Walker Bynum's view of late medieval piety in Holy Feast and Holy Fast (1987), and Nicholas Watson's various articles on "vernacular theology" and repression. In each case, we will ask how well the interpretations have held up in the light of more recent work. We will read and discuss critiques of the writers in question: David Aers' response to Duffy, Kathleen Biddick's to Caroline Bynum, Virginia Reinburg contributions to the ongoing conversations. We will look at the work of other medievalists who in various ways complement these three: Bernd Moeller on "churchliness" in pre-Reformation Germany, Virginia Reinburg on liturgy and prayer in France, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton on censorship and tolerance, etc. We will then turn to further themes in the religious culture of the late Middle Ages: religion in the local community; saints, shrines, and pilgrimage; preaching and penance; devotions and indulgences; confraternities and parish life; death and memory. For these themes we will rely on the work of Katherine L. French and other recent writers. | GRAD |
| Seesemann | 476 | Studies in Islam | This class explores the rich
diversity of and the interaction between contemporary Islamic movements in
Africa. These include Wahhabism, Salafism, Islamism, Shiism, and also several
Sufi organizations. Case studies will be drawn from various areas of Africa,
and particular attention will be paid to theoretical and methodological
questions. |
GRAD |
| Umar | 476 | Studies in Islam: Islamic Scriptures | This course is a graduate seminar that explores the diverse bodies of texts that constitute Islamic scriptures. Beginning with theoretical examination of scripture as a category in the field of comparative religion, the seminar will focus on selected readings from the Qur'an and Hadith in English translations, together with the exegetical literature as well as selected texts from the related fields of Qur'nic sciences (ulum al-Qur'an) and the science of Hadith (mustalah al-Hadith). By the end of the seminar, participants are expected to have acquired thorough understanding of the multiple forms of scripture in the Islamic tradition and the complex relationships (intellectual, devotional, artistic etc) that Muslims have evolved historically towards their scriptures. Participants should also gain theoretical appreciation of the various historical, social, political, literary, and cultural ways in which scriptures have historically functioned in different religious contexts. | GRAD |
| Taylor | 481 | Classical Theories of Religion | What is "theory?" What does it mean to have a theory about something? How are theories helpful? What is "religion?" How do things get excluded or included in this category? What counts as "religious" and why? And how do we make this judgment? How might we think about "religion" and "culture?" And how might our theorizing of these categories be influenced by the very history and politics of their "invention?" These questions and more in an animated seminar designed to prepare graduate students to work within the intellectual discipline of religious studies. | GRAD |
| Orsi | 482 | Contemporary Conversations in the Study of Religion | An examination of the making of "religion" as the object of critical inquiry, beginning in early modernity with soundings in present day religious theory. What is the past of religious studies and how does this past inform (perhaps constrain) the present? Readings include classic texts in the study of religion as well as decidedly non-classical texts to trace the fate of "religion" in popular and political as well as scholarly languages and fantasies. | GRAD |
| Kieckhefer | 485 | Studies in Christianity: Historiography of Medieval Christianity | This course will examine the development of theology in Western Christianity from the eleventh through the fourteenth century. It will focus on themes such as the relationship between reason and revelation, knowledge of God, the Trinity, conceptions of salvation, and modes of scriptural exegesis. | GRAD |
| Lassner | 105 (English) | Expository Writing | UG | |
| Zoloth | 273 (Philosophy) | The Brady Scholars Program: The Good Neighbor | UG | |
| Terrone | 290 (Asian and Middle East Studies) | Special Topics in Asian and Middle East Studies | UG | |
| Helmer | 340-2 | Foundations of Christian Thought II | The course studies themes in Christianity and major thinkers from the sixteenth-century religious reformations in Europe to the nineteenth century. | UG |
| Traina | 340-3 | Foundations of Christian Thought III | This course deals with the particular ways in which historical events and cultural transformations of the 19th and 20th century affected both the content and the method of Christian theology. Among these are the development of historical criticism; democratization; world war; and justice movements organized around race, culture, class, and gender. Sin and salvation, incarnation and redemption, and knowledge of God figure very differently in this period than the preceding ones. The purpose of the course is twofold: 1) to teach students how to think theologically--how modern and contemporary have dealt with these issues and argued with each other over their differing viewpoints and 2) to help students understand how representative theologians have responded to the pressures of intellectual, political, and cultural movements on theology. Students are not required to accept any particular position, or even to accept the premises inherent in the questions theologians ask. They are expected, however, to learn how theological inquiry is carried out. This is the last in a series of three units. Relg 340-1 (Fall 2007, with Professor Kieckhefer) dealt with Christian theology of the fourth through the fifteenth centuries. Relg 340-2 (Winter 2008, with Professor Helmer) dealt with the Protestant Reformation, Pietism, and the Enlightenment. The first two units are not prerequisites for the third, but students who have taken the other two will find their themes continuing in it. | UG |
| Lassner | 350 (Jewish Studies) | Representing the Holocaust in Literature and Film | UG | |
| Lassner | 372 (History) | Historical Background of Jewish-Muslim Relations | UG | |
| Lassner | 391 (History) | Special Lectures: The Emergence of the Modern State of Israel | UG | |
| Lassner | 392 (History) | Topics in History: The Six Days War | UG | |
| Lassner | 392 (History) | Topics in History: Political Islam in the Contemporary Middle East | UG | |
| Lassner | 395 (History) | Trailer Seminar: The Six Day war (1967) - Its Influence on Arab-Israel Relations | UG | |
| Lassner | 395 (History) | Trailer Seminar: Political Islam in the Contemporary Middle East | UG | |
| Bond | 396-1 | Senior Seminar | A seminar on the application of scholarly research in religious studies. Each student will spend the quarter in deep critical analysis of one major text, capping off the quarter with a substantial paper that incorporates the term's work. Students will learn the elements of a scholarly approach to religious texts and texts in religion and will also be introduced to specialized research tools in religion. This course is a prerequisite for the one-quarter senior thesis in the Department of Religion, but may be taken by a junior or senior with instructor's permission. | UG |
| Traina | 396-1 | Senior Seminar | In this seminar we will learn and apply methods for scholarly research in religious studies. Each student will spend the quarter in deep, critical analysis of one major text, capping off the quarter with a substantial paper that incorporates the term's work. Students will learn the elements of a scholarly approach to religious texts and texts in religion and will also be introduced to specializedresearch tools in religion. This course is a prerequisite for the one-quarter senior thesis in the Department of Religion but may be taken by an junior or senior with instructor's permission. | UG |
| Traina | 396-2 | Senior Seminar | This course is open only to students who have completed 396-1. | UG |
| Zoloth | 405 (Liberal Studies) | Topics in Liberal Studies: Religion, Bioethics and Public Life | GRAD | |
| Kieckhefer | 410 (Medieval Studies) | Medieval Latin Workshop | GRAD | |
| Wimpfheimer | 614 (Constitutional and Public Law) | Legal Interpretation in Jewish Law |
