Undergraduate Program - Courses
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Undergraduate Catalog
101 World Religions in History (3)
Lecturer 6:30-9:10 T (#001)
Lecturer 5:45-8:35 W (#002)
ntroduction to religion in culture and society, including examination of religious traditions from China, India, and the Mediterranean world. Writing-emphasis course. (CC)
101 World Religions in History (3) (#010)
Schmidt 9:05-9:55 MWF
In this course, we will approach the religious experience globally, assuming that religious life, being human, is both profoundly diverse and at the same time a single ongoing spectrum of possible experiences. According to Native American beliefs, “we are all relatives.” For the purpose of this course, all religions are equal. We will study Native American and African rituals, analyze Buddhist and Hindu practices, and consider Feminist and Womanist interpretations of Christianity and Judaism. We will also discuss the relationship between religion and culture and religion and social justice. Readings, lectures, and discussions will be enhanced through short in-class videos and a choice of feature-length films. Thee will be two short essay tests and an essay final. Writing-emphasis course. (CC)
101 World Religions in History (3) (#011)
Goodding 2:10-3:25 TR
This course will survey the major religious traditions of South and East Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto. During the second half, we will survey the three major monotheistic traditions originating in the Middle East: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and then also touch on new religious movements and the future of religion. We will explore each tradition in some depth historically and thematically, paying particular attention to historical development, scripture, doctrine, and practices of each tradition. The format will be lectures, discussion, video presentations, and guest speakers (when available). Writing-emphasis course. (CC)
102 The Comparison of World Religions (3)
Hepner 3:40-4:55 TR
This course provides a systematic introduction to the social scientific study of religion. Drawing upon sociological, anthropological, historical, and comparative religious studies approaches, the course critically investigates the role of religion and religious institutions in processes of cultural creation, contestation, and social change in a variety of historical and social contexts. Special attention will be paid to the role of religious actors and movements in North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Students will come away from this course with a firm grasp of the basic methods that social scientists employ in the analysis and interpretation of religion and the socio-cultural order, as well as a substantive introduction to the religious beliefs, practices, values, norms, and world-views of a number of different traditions in the Americas. Writing-emphasis course. (CC)
225 Introduction to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (3) (#002)
Lecturer 9:40-10:55 TR
This course will introduce the history of Christianity, including its historical ties and complex relation to Judaism and its historically significant encounters with Islam. This course will trace changing definitions of Christianity in different times and places, and provide some of the social, political, and theological contexts for these shifting religious practices and beliefs. May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
232 Varieties of Religious Community (3) (#001)
Hepner 2:10-3:25 TR
This course will critically investigate from a social scientific perspective a variety of strategies for organizing religious life and institutions. Churches, denominations, congregations, temples, shrines, synagogues, cults, sects, covens, monasteries, religious communes, terrorist cells, mega churches, revivals, pilgrimage, and new religious movements are all examples of some of the ways that religious life and commitment have institutionalized themselves over time and across societies. In this course we will examine conventional and unconventional forms of religious association. Drawing upon classical and contemporary modes of sociological and comparative religious studies scholarship, we will survey old and new religious traditions, western and non-western, conservative, liberal, and radical expressions of religious conviction as it is practiced in a variety of religious communities throughout the world today. (Same as Sociology 232.)
233 Religion and Society in North America (3) (#003)
Hulsether 2:10-3:25 TR
This course is a broad introduction to the intersections among religion, culture, and society in the history of North America. It highlights religious diversity and conflict, not by attempting to touch on every important issue, but by studying the interactions among a few representative groups. We will work through a survey text and a set of articles and films that touch on many dimensions of religious thought and practice, including community ritual, personal spirituality, intellectual teachings, institutional organization, socio-political commitments, and religion in the media. This course differs from RS. 351 (offered in Spring 2010) in being somewhat broader and ‘thinner’ in coverage, with less opportunity to focus on group work and individual research projects. Both courses will highlight how religious people and movements in North America relate to socio-historical changes and power conflicts. Our goal is to gather the basic knowledge and critical skills that we can use to map the religious landscape and explore how this landscape has changed over time.
305 Modern Religious Thought (3) (#001)
Hackett 3:40-4:55 TR
Topic is: Place, Space, and Movement in the Study of Religion
In the spirit of the cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary orientation of this course, the focus will be on the concepts of place, space, and movement within religions and the study of religion. The course will examine how religions create, imagine, memorialize, transform, and transcend location in relation to their systems of meaning and ritual practice, and how religion scholars theorize newer spatial developments and flows such as cyber-religion and diasporic and transnational religious movements. Case materials will include the River Ganges, Jerusalem, Mecca, Ayers Rock, Yoruba shrines, native American ritual sites, Auschwitz, Caribbean and Hispanic migratory religions, global Pentecostalism, and neo-paganism online. May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
311 Ancient Hebraic Religious Traditions (3) (#001)
Lecturer 11:15-12:05 MWF
Development of ancient Israelite and early Jewish traditions with emphasis on those concerning the Exodus, Davidic kingship, and Zion in historical, prophetic, and apocalyptic material. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Judaic Studies 311.)
312 Religious Aspects of Biblical and Classical Literature (3)
Lecturer 9:05-9:55 MWF
Ways in which contemporary modes of literary study enhance appreciation of biblical and classical material. Ways in which the western literary tradition has appropriated and recast the biblical and classical heritage. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Judaic Studies 312.)
321 New Testament and Early Christian Origins (3) (#001)
Lecturer 2:10-3:25 TR
This course will provide an introduction to the texts found in the New Testament, and to the context in which those texts were written. This course will be taught from a historical and not a theological perspective. We shall examine first-century Palestinian Judaism as well as the broader culture of the Greco-Roman world of Jesus’ time in order to gain a historical perspective on early Christian traditions and texts. Using a variety of scholarly methods of interpretation, we shall discuss the books of the New Testament as well as other early Christian writings. When were these texts written? What problems and situations did they address? Why does the New Testament contain certain writings but not others? What can these writings tell us about the historical Jesus? about the beginnings of Christianity and its relation to Judaism? about the roles of women in these early communities? Writing-emphasis course.
(Same as History 321.)
332 Classical Islam (3) (#001)
Lecturer 3:35-4:25 MWF
Content limited to events prior to 1773 CE, focusing on the Qur’an the prophetic tradition, Islamic Law, Sunnism, Shi’ism, and Sufism. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Asian Studies 332.)
333 Islam in the Modern World (3) (#001)
Lecturer 1:25-2:15 MWF
Beginning with the Wahhabi revolution (c. 1773 CE), this course examines movements of revival and reform in modern Islam, as well as worldwide missionary activity and the growth of the Islamic community in the U.S. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Asian Studies 333.)
355 Religion and Culture in the United States (3) (#001)
Hulsether 11:10-12:25 TR
Topic: The Political Culture of Postwar Protestantism
This course explores how people who fall within the US Protestant majority—across a wide spectrum from fundamentalists allied with political movements on the right to so-called ‘liberationist” religious positions allied with coalitions on the left—have interacted with US society and politics since World War II. We will study both how religious ideas and practices shaped society and how socio-historical forces shaped religion. This course is not an overview of religious diversity and conflict in US history; for that you should take RS 233 (also offered this term) or RS 351 (offered in Spring 2010). Rather it focuses on internal complexities and conflicts within recent generations in the Protestant majority. We will analyze representative debates involving the so-called “Protestant establishment,” the New Christian Right, and the religious wings of the civil rights, feminist, and antiwar movements. Using sociological and historical studies, theological documents, novels, and videos, we will explore how Protestantism evolved over time, and we will chart its bitter disagreements over such issues as Biblical authority, secularism, racial justice, sex and gender equality, the media, empire, and war. Whether you are liberal or conservative, Protestant or not, this course will make you a more skillful participant in ongoing debates about politics and religion in this country. Also, by studying the internal complexity of one tradition in detail, you will improve your skills for analyzing conflict and change within other cultural traditions. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as American Studies 355.) May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
373 African Religions (3) (#001)
Hackett 12:40-1:55 TR
The aim of the course is to investigate the rich and complex spectrum of African religious belief, practice and expression, as well as the religious, social and political changes generated by the interaction of the various traditions of Africa (indigenous, Christian and Islamic). The first part of the course is devoted to the study of African indigenous or “traditional” religions. The methodological and theoretical problems posed by the nature of African religion - its diversity, its orality and materiality, its integrated role in society and absence of written sources--are discussed. Earlier perspectives on African traditional religions (accounts by explorers, missionaries and colonialists) are examined in the light of more recent studies by African and non-African anthropologists, historians of religion, art historians, and theologians. The perduring and unifying themes of African religion (divination, ancestors, witchcraft, myth, ritual, symbol, community) will be studied often via African artistic expression. The latter part of the course will focus on the transformations of African religions in new contexts. There will be case studies of the Yoruba, and the war in Northern Uganda. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Africana Studies 373 and Anthropology 373.)
374 Philosophy and Religion in India (3)
Goodding 2:10-3:25 MWF (#001)
11:15-12:05 MWF (#003)
This course examines the principal themes, institutions, doctrines, practices, myths, and symbols of Hinduism, the dominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. It gives special attention to the historical development of the tradition and its relation to social and cultural life of South Asia. “Hinduism” is not one religion, but many diverse strands of religious traditions that originated on the Indian subcontinent over roughly the last 3000 years. While tracing the various manifestations of the Hindu traditions: the Vedic, Brahmanical, ascetic, devotional, tantric, and the modern, we will question what “religion” means in the Hindu context. Due to the scope of Hinduism, we will make only a selection of this vast cultural heritage through lectures, readings, and videos. No prior knowledge of South Asia or Hinduism is required. Writing -emphasis course. (Same as Philosophy 374.)
376 Buddhist Philosophy and Religion (3) (#001)
Scott 9:40-10:55 TR
Buddhism emerged more than 2500 years ago in northeast India during a time of immense social, political, and economic change. While the Buddha’s message of religious liberation grew out of this context, it has flourished in a variety of different cultures and historical periods. This course will explore the rich history of the Buddhist tradition through an examination of its central teachings, practices, myths, and rituals in various cultural and historical contexts. We will begin with the life and teachings of the Buddha and the structure and growth of his community in India. We will trace philosophical and ritual developments within the tradition in
its South Asian context before turning our attention to the spread and development of Buddhist thought and practice in Southeast and East Asia, as well as in Europe and America. As we examine the philosophical and religious dimensions of the tradition, we will also address questions concerning the relationship between Buddhism and society such as the emergence of Buddhist nationalism and the political activism of Buddhist monks and nuns. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Philosophy 376.)
379 Religion and Philosophy in China (3) (#002)
Levering 2:30-3:20 MWF
This course will focus on religious and intellectual discoveries in traditional China in two particularly creative periods. The first is the period of the early philosophers, including Confucius and Mencius and the great Taoist thinkers Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. This is the first and most formative time of intense seeking of the Way toward individual fulfilment and the
realization of a good society. The second period is that of the T’ang and Sung dynasties (from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries). In this period Buddhists and Taoists seek enlightenment and immortality through extraordinary means, making great contributions to both cosmology and psychology; a spiritually profound relationship to literature and the arts is developed; and new disciples of Confucius and Mencius seek to revive the “Sagely Way” to
address the age-old dilemma of finding individual autonomy and freedom (“the ruler within”) while being fully and responsibly involved in the institutions and concerns of “the real world.” Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Philosophy 379.)
380 East Asian Buddhism in Asia and North America (3) (#001)
Levering 11:15-12:05 MWF
Like many other things, religion has been globalized. In this course we will look at Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan, and in the U.S.A. Zen is a Buddhist tradition that focuses on meditation and monastic practice, while Pure Land is a tremendously popular and widespread Buddhism of devotion, family and community. In this course we focus on how both traditions have adapted to the needs and interests of Asian immigrants and Euro-American converts in the U.S.A. In other words, we will look at how their self-understandings and representations changed in Asia due both to social and political change in their home countries and to contact with the powerful and prestigious West. And we will also look at what new forms these traditions have taken as they have taken root in the U.S.A. and other Western countries. Topics will include Zen and the samurai warrior class in Japan; the propagation of Japanese Zen as reverse Orientalism; how Zen and Pure Land Buddhism combine in the Chinese Buddhism of Asia and America; how both were important to Chinese, Japanese and Korean immigrants to the U.S.; and how and why Japanese Pure Land organizations changed from temples to churches in America.
381 Introduction to Judaism (3) (#001)
Schmidt 10:10-11:00 MWF
Judaism is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It consists of rich traditions of literature and philosophy, of intriguing religious rituals and folk customs, of a powerful bond between the people and their Creator, and a history of martyrdom as well as efforts at redemption reaching back to ancient Egypt. This is an introductory course. No previous knowledge of Judaism is assumed, only an open mind. We will study milestones in Jewish history (both male and female),. And Jewish culture, customs, and religion through a look at the major holidays and life cycle events. Reading materials will be supplemented by videos, lectures, and observance of Jewish traditions in the community. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Judaic Studies 381.)
Special Course : Schusterman Visiting Israel Professor
385 Contemporary Jewish Thinkers (3) (#001)
Bursztyn 11:10-12:25 TR
Topic: Israel's Self-image through Film
Images filmed by Jewish and Israeli filmmakers from the end of the 19th Century till the beginnings of the 21st reflect a variety of issues and ideologies which have dominated the Israeli cultural discourse. From attempts of early pioneers to create the "New" Jew (as opposed the "Diaspora" or "Ghetto" type) and to construct a national identity; through traumas of Holocaust and Mid-East wars and the growing multi-ethnicity and multi-cultural character of Israel; till the outspoken individualism and materialism of the recent decades conflicting with radical national and religious aspirations - films offer a variety of insights into cultural and moral dilemmas of the Israeli society. (Same as Judaic Studies 385.) May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
Special Course : Schusterman Visiting Israel Professor
405 Modern Jewish Thought (3) (#001)
Bursztyn 3:40-6:20 T
Topic: Film-thinking in Israel
Starting with the premise that films "think" - create and express meaning - what are the thoughts of the most outstanding Israeli films of this decade? How do they define and express their thoughts? The seminar will study in depth feature films, documentaries, short dramas and video-works containing a variety of reflections on the Israeli society and its culture(s). The seminar will emphasize issues in Israeli film aesthetics and its relation to social contexts. Writing-emphasis course. (Same as Judaic Studies 405.)
474 Modern and Contemporary South Asia Religion (3) (#002)
Scott 12:40-1:55 TR
This course will examine religious expression, identity, and authority in South Asia in the modern and contemporary (post-modern and post-colonial) periods. We will examine how various practitioners of South Asian religious traditions (in particular, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam) have responded to the processes of modernization, colonialism, and more recently, global capitalism. Some of the topics that will be covered in this class include: colonialism in South Asia, the rise of Hindu and Buddhist modernist movements, religious nationalism in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, new guru-saint movements, and South Asian religions in the West. Writing-emphasis course.