Introductory Courses
The course descriptions below are from past and present course catalogues. This section gives students an opportunity to read the brief outline of course content and see if the course would be of interest to them. To see the CURRENT semester classes offered by the Religion Dept. please return to the home page of Religion and browse the supplement or link to the Registrar's home page for catalogue and recent releases of updates to courses.
101. Introduction to Religion: Religion as a World Phenomenon
3 hours, 3HU, CD, WR*This course explores the nature of religion as mirrored in a number of traditions, which may include Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. After a brief survey of them, various theories are taken up to help identify common structures and functions that cut across religions. These structures, rather than specific beliefs, will be the points of comparison. Enrollment Limit: 35
102. Introduction to Religion: Roots of the Western Traditions
3 hours, 3HU, CDThis course introduces students to the academic study of religion, and provides an historical framework for understanding the development and central ideas of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We survey religion in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Persia, and Greece before considering the early development of Christianity and Islam. We will examine both the complex world-views of these religious traditions, and the role they played in everyday life, dealing directly with the texts, rituals, and religious symbols that have engaged people across the millennia. Enrollment Limit: 35.
103. Introduction to Religion: Material Religion
3 hours, 3HU, CD, WRHighlighting foundational approaches, the course introduces study of religious systems of Southern Asian Hinduism and Buddhism, North American Christianity, and Oceania by considering the circulation, veneration, and manufacture of material culture such as relics, icons and amulets. Accumulation, transaction and disappearance of religious objects reveal how origins of traditions are imagined, how these materials comprise a basis for religious thought and practice, and how substance and symbolism, ritual and exchange, and history and politics of production affect an aura of sacrality. Enrollment Limit: 30.
104. Perspectives on Religious Narratives
3 hours, 3HU, CD, WRThis course uses fictional narratives -- primarily modern novels, but also premodern poetry and scripture -- as an introduction to some fundamental questions about religion. How is religious meaning interpreted and expressed through cultural traditions? What is the meaning of religion in the face of modern skepticism and historical catastrophe? How do religious narratives shape individual and communal lives? Works demonstrating the encounter of diverse traditions in the modern period will be emphasized, including novels by Forster, Wiesel, Roy, DeLillo and Endo. Enrollment limit: 35
105. Introduction to Religion: African Religions and Their Thought Systems
3 hours, 3HU, CDAn introduction to the philosophical basis of African society through a study of various African Religions: Traditional Religions; and Islam and Christianity, especially in their indigenized forms. This study will also examine the underlying nature of African religious thought the function of myth and ritual, and the complex and profoundly sophisticated African concepts of the spiritual universe. Consideration will be given to the relationship between religion and culture in various societies. Questions will be raised regarding the different ways religion is conceived in various cultures; African and "non-African," Western and "non-Western." Enrollment Limit: 35.
106.Introduction to Religion: The Development of Western Traditions
3 hours, 3HU, CD
107. Introduction to Religion: Cosmogony and Ethics
3 hours, 3HU, CDThis course will examine a variety of ways in which people have attempted to find meaning by connecting their actions to their understanding of the creation of the world/universe. The course will proceed by examining first religion as a phenomenon itself, and then religious traditions and creation stories from Indian mythology, Greek mythology, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and a modern scientific/sociological perspective for their religious/ethical significance. Enrollment Limit: 35.
108. Introduction to Religion: Women and the Western Traditions
3 hours, 3 HU, CDAn introduction to Judaism, Christianity and Islam that focuses on women's experiences and gender roles. This course will examine representations of women in sacred texts; primary sources by and about women from various historical periods and contemporary feminist voices within each religious tradition. Enrollment Limit: 40.
109. Introduction to Religion: Magic and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean
3 Hours, 3HU, CDTwo central questions structure this introductory course to the religions of the ancient Mediterranean (Judaism, Christianity and Greek and Roman polytheism): how, if at all, did ancient Mediterraneans articulate the difference between religion and magic and how have modern Western scholars attempted to conceptualize this difference? Students will analyze a variety of ancient sources including texts, inscriptions, and archaeological artifacts as well as assess modern scholarly works on these issues. Enrollment Limit: 35
131. How Early Jews and Christians Rewrote the Bible
3 hours, 3HU, CD, WRiThe first Jewish interpreters of the Bible (including the first Christians) did not just passively read the biblical text, they rewrote it, filling in its narrative gaps with fanciful subplots and using difficult passages as jumping-off points for leaps of poetic and philosophical fancy. We will study these interpretations in early Rabbinic and Christian writings, the Talmud, the New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Apocrypha, Josephus, and elsewhere, together with the underlying principles of such creative close reading (called midrash in the Jewish tradition). Enrollment Limit: 14.
156. Biological Advances and Ethical Questions
3 hours, 1.5 HU, 1.5 NS, WRiThis seminar seeks to develop an appreciation for and understanding of recent discoveries and developments in biology and their attendant ethical issues for religious and secular traditions of thought. It will consist of class discussions, presentation and writing projects focused on understanding the technology behind and ethical implications of, for example, cloning, genomic sequencing, stem cell research, gene therapy, genetically manipulated crops, globalization, land use, etc. Enrollment Limit: 14.
158. Taoism
3 hours, 3HU, WRi, CDAn exploration of Taoist themes and motifs based on its philosophical classics and religious traditions. The philosophical texts include the Tao-te ching (Lao Tzu), the Chuang Tzu, and the Lieh Tzu. In addition, Taoism's extensive mythology, complex pantheon, ideal of personal transformation, array of physical and religious practices, and distinctive life-style will be explored in their cultural and historical context. Enrollment Limit: 14.
First Year Seminar Program Courses
FYSP 164. To Hell and Back: Religious Views of the Underworld
3 hours, 3HU, WRi, CDCalled the land of the dead, Sheol, Hades, the abode of sorrows, or simply hell the underworld is a repeated theme in Western and Eastern religions. This course studies views of hell in Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious texts and art, in ancient Sumerian myth, and classical Roman epic poetry. Texts include: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Virgil's The Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, Al-Ghazali's The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife, and The Three Worlds According to King Ruang. Enrollment Limit: 14.
FYSP 167. Who Was a Jew: Boundaries of Identity
3 hours, 3SS, WRi, CD"Jew" is a far more ambiguous term than many assume. This course explores cases from antiquity to contemporary times where the boundaries of identity were unclear or contested. These include: early followers of Jesus who also considered themselves Jews; crypto-Jews ("marranos") of the Iberian Peninsula and New World who, while outwardly Catholic, preserved Jewish practices in secret for generations; Jews of China, India, Africa; radical Jews of late Tsarist Russia who adamantly asserted a secular form of Jewish behavior and belief. Enrollment Limit: 14.
FYSP 172. The Religious Thought of Mohandas Gandhi
3 hours, 3HU, CD, WRiMohandas Gandhi was among the most radical religious and social thinkers in the twentieth century. His non-violent resistance to colonial rule, as well as his commitment to asceticism, truth, and self-reliant egalitarian communities won him many admirers and many critics. The course begins with a close look at his own writings from his autobiography and his newspaper articles. The second part of the course assesses his intellectual frameworks and strategies for non-violent non-cooperation from religious, historical, psychological, and political perspectives. Enrollment Limit: 14.
FYSP 178. Religion and the Environment
3 hours, 3HU, WRiThis seminar examines how religions (primarily Christianity and Judaism) have shaped Western attitudes and conduct towards the natural world for better and for worse. Voices outside of and within these religious traditions have charged them with complicity in the devastating environmental effects of modern civilization. We will evaluate these charges and investigate how contemporary religious thinkers and institutions (from ecofeminists to the papacy) are developing more ecologically friendly views of the created order. Enrollment Limit: 14.
FYSP 186. What is Justice? Reflections through Western Literature, Philosophy and Religion
3 hours, 3HU, WRiThis course investigates interpretations of justice as developed in Western culture from its origins in the philosophy and drama of ancient Greece, through its theological interpretation in the medieval period, to its manifestation in modern political and cultural forms. A dominant theme will be the relationship between political justice and the special claims of religious traditions. We will look at the ways various literary genres have addressed these questions from antiquity to the current day. Readings will include Plato, Sophocles, Augustine, Dante, Iris Murdoch and John Rawls, among others. Enrollment Limit: 14.
FYSP 194. Hidden Treasures of the West
3 hours, 3HU, WRiThrough the study of historical case studies such as Renaissance magical practice, the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, and the "spiritual craze" in nineteenth-century America, this seminar will seek to uncover what so-called "hidden traditions" offer to those who participate in them. In addition to pursuing each case study in its own historical context, we will ask broader questions regarding the very plausibility of speaking of a "hidden tradition" in the West. Enrollment Limit: 14.
