Religion Course Descriptions
Religion 152
- Introduction to Judaism
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the
self-definition of Judaism. The course will analyze Judaism’s
understanding of itself by examining such central concepts as God,
Torah, and Israel. This central self-definition will then be tested
by close readings of selected representative texts and
investigation of the varieties of Jewish history, as manifested in
such phenomena as mysticism, sectarianism, and messianism.
Lecture-conference.
Religion 153
- Introduction to the Worlds of Ancient Christianity
Full course for one semester. This course is a chronological survey
of the varieties of Christianity from their origins to the sixth
century. It requires extensive reading of the Greek, Latin, Syriac,
and Coptic sources in English translation. Intended to provide both
an introduction to the materials and a narrative context in which
to pursue more advanced studies, the course is open to freshmen.
Lecture-conference.
Religion 155
- An Introduction to Islam
Full course for one semester. This course offers an introduction to
Islam as a prophetic religious tradition. It explores the different
ways in which Muslims have interpreted and put into practice the
prophetic message of Muhammad through historical and
phenomenological analyses of varying theological, philosophical,
legal, political, mystical, and literary writings. These analyses
aim for course participants to develop a framework for explaining
the sources and symbols through which historically specific
experiences and understandings have been signified as Islamic. The
course focuses in particular on the early and modern periods of
Islamic history. Lecture-conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 157
- The Idea Systems of Chinese Religions
Full course for one semester. This course is a survey of the idea
systems in the development of China's three main institutional
faiths: Daoism, Buddhism, and Classicist lineage ritual. Known as
the "Three Teachings," these faiths flowered in the second and
third centuries and gradually permeated every aspect of Chinese
life, from family structure to foreign trade, from cosmological
speculation to court politics, from liturgy to landscape painting.
We will examine how the three teachings borrowed from one another
and yet still delineated their own identities. Lectures will place
these religions within a historical and political context and will
draw upon surviving religious art to provide a visual component to
this course. Conference discussions and readings will focus on
translations of sacred texts such as Buddhism’s famous
Vimalakirti Sutra and Daoism's Scripture of the inner
explanation of the three heavens. This course complements
Religion 158, although it is not a prerequisite.
Lecture-conference.
Religion 159
- African American Religion
Full course for one semester. This course is a historical survey of
African-American religious beliefs and practices. In The Souls
of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois remarked, "All in all, we
black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a
dusty desert of dollars and smartness." While the caricature of the
spiritual African-American has dominated American political and
popular culture, it is necessary to historicize and complicate Du
Bois’s description. In this course, we will analyze the history of
the African-American religious experience from the colonial era to
the present using primary documents and select critical essays.
Included in our survey will be the study of slave religions,
African-American masonry, Catholicism in Haiti, the theology of the
civil rights movement, and black Pentecostalism. Among the many
figures we will encounter will be Sojourner Truth, Prince Hall,
Anna Julia Cooper, Elijah Muhammad, Zora Neale Hurston, and T.D.
Jakes. The course includes individual site visits to a local
congregation. Conference.
Religion 160
- Religion and Philosophy in Pre-imperial China
Full course for one semester. This course is a study of religion
and philosophy in pre-imperial China (i.e. before 221 BCE)
alongside their literary and artistic manifestations. While a
billion people can today claim an intellectual inheritance from
Greece, more than two billion recognize ancient China as their
foundation. Beginning with the oracle bones and sacrificial bronze
vessels, this course will progress to the Confucian classics and
the blossoming of Chinese philosophy. Analyses will include
bronze-age material culture (including the new discoveries of
Sanxingdui), The book of songs from the Confucian tradition,
The Zhuangzi from the Daoist tradition and the pre-imperial
narrative histories of the Zuo commentary. Conference.
Religion 201
- Theories and Methods in Religious Studies
Full course for one semester. In its attempt to explain "religion,"
academia looks at religion through lenses supplied by several
disciplines, from anthropology to sociology, from psychology to
linguistics. Each lens gives students of religion different tools
to define religion, to understand its mechanics, and to scrutinize
its role in society. This course thus analyzes twentieth century
approaches to the critical study of religious traditions. Texts to
be studied will include Max Weber, The Sociology of
Religion; Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy; Emile
Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life;
Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion; William James,
The Varieties of Religious Experience; Clifford Geertz,
The Interpretation of Cultures; Mircea Eliade, The Sacred
and the Profane; and Roy Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in
the Making of Humanity. Prerequisites: Humanities 110 and at
least one 100-level course in religion. Lecture-conference.
Religion 257
- Biblical Narrative: Genesis and After
See English 357 for description. Not offered 2005-06.
English 357 Description
Religion 301
- History of Religions
Full course for one semester. This course is best understood as
motivated by one question: what might it mean to say that one is
doing history of religions? It presumes that work in the history of
religions requires some preliminary reflection on the relationships
among the human experience of time, the practices of the historian,
and religion construed as an object of historical inquiry. Although
the reading is intended to provide an introduction to
historiography for the religion major, the course is open to
non-majors who have met the prerequisites. Prerequisites: at least
one 100-level course in religion and Religion 201. Conference.
Religion 307
- Early Chinese Cosmology and its Ritual Response
Full course for one semester. This course is an examination of the
diverse cosmological traditions that underpin later institutional
faiths. This course will explore early Chinese attempts to locate
the human being within a larger natural order. Early Chinese
scholars wrestled with ideas of a pervasive yin and
yang as well as other forms of correlative interaction, and
in their application of these ideas they formulated systems that
explained everything from the inner workings of the body to the
greater astronomical order. This course examines their broader
concepts such as time and space as well as specific topics such as
astronomy, alchemy, and afterlife. It also considers the ritual
response to this cosmology--that is, the means whereby humans
accessed the larger natural order. Rituals mimicked cosmological
hierarchies, and they also interacted with that cosmology through
sacrifice, divination, shamanism, and seasonal festivals. Students
will explore the archeological evidence, and their readings will
focus upon primary texts in translation. Prerequisite: Religion 157
or 158. Lecture-conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 308
- Chinese Religious Texts
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the
syntax and particles of classical Chinese with an emphasis on
translating early religious prose. This course will assist the
student in learning classical Chinese by sampling religious texts
that are often cited throughout Chinese history. These texts will
derive from the three institutional faiths of Daoism, Buddhism, and
Confucian lineage ritual. The introduction of classical Chinese
will help the student gain direct access to a vast realm of texts,
religious and otherwise. Prerequisites: Chinese 110 and Religion
157, 158 or 160, or consent of the instructor. Conference. Not
offered 2005-06.
Religion 310
- Death and Remembrance in Chinese History
Full course for one semester. This course is a historical survey of
Chinese attitudes toward dying, death, and the non-empirical realm.
From Buddhist hells to Daoist immortals, Chinese religions are
preoccupied with rationalizing and resisting human extinction. This
course will examine death through the lenses of literature, art,
medicine, and philosophy, beginning with the earliest forms of the
Shang Dynasty ancestral cult to the medieval period. Prerequisites:
Religion 157, 158 or 160 and either Religion 201, Humanities 230,
or consent of the instructor. Conference.
Religion 313
- Chinese Mahayana Texts
Full course for one semester. This course provides a structured
familiarization with the doctrinal foundations of Mahayana
Buddhism. After examining the transmission process of texts from
India to China, this course will focus upon close reading of sutras
in translation from four major schools of Chinese Buddhism. These
sutras will include the Lotus sutra from Tiantai Buddhism,
the Flower ornament sutra from Huayan Buddhism, the Pure
land sutra from Jingtu Buddhism, and the Diamond,
Vimalakirti, Lankavatara, and Platform sutras
from Chan (Zen) Buddhism. Students will then read early
interpretations of these sutras in medieval literature,
intellectual discourse, and art. Prerequisite: Religion 157, 158 or
160, and 201 or consent of the instructor. Lecture-conference.
Religion 314
- The History of Chinese Religions
Full course for one semester. This course is a survey of the
history of Daoism, Buddhism, the ancestral cult, and popular
religions in China from its beginnings through the Tang Dynasty.
Using a combination of recent secondary scholarship and
representative primary sources, this course will trace the
development of religion against the background of Chinese cultural
growth. It will pay special attention to how religious doctrine and
art influenced, and was influenced by, secular history, including
economics, politics, and foreign relations. Prerequisite: Religion
157, 158 or 160, and 201 or consent of the instructor.
Lecture-conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 321
- Islamic Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Full course for one semester. This course is a chronological survey
of Islamic thought during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Focusing on conceptions of God and of the ideal human relationship
with God in selected Muslim religious writings, the course will
analyze the interrelation between socio-historical and theological
developments in the Islamic tradition during this period. The
geographical focus of the course will be primarily on the Middle
East and South Asia. Among the authors whose theologies we will
examine in depth are Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Iqbal, Abu’l-A’la
Mawdudi, Jamal ad-Din Afghani, Muhammad ’Abduh, Sayyid Qutb, ’Ali
Shari‘ati, and Ruhallah Khomeini. Prerequisites: Religion 155 and
201. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 332
- Semantics of Love in Sufism
Full course for one semester. Sufism broadly refers to a complex of
devotional, literary, ethical, theological, and mystical traditions
within Islam. More specifically, it refers to the activities
associated with institutionalized master-disciple relationships,
which define the paths (turuq) through which Muslims have
sought experiential knowledge of God. In both the broad and narrow
sense of Sufism, love has been a prominent means of Sufi
self-representation. In this course, we will explore the ideas and
practices semantically associated with love in the Sufi tradition
and analyze the ways in which these ideas and practices have both
shaped and been shaped by individual lives, religious institutions,
and socio-cultural contexts. Prerequisite: Religion 155. Not
offered 2005-06.
Religion 340
- Introduction to Sanskrit Texts
Full course for one year. The course will introduce the structure
of Sanskrit, with comparative reference to other Indo-European
languages. Sanskrit texts will be translated and studied in their
religious and cultural context. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 341
- Christian Asceticism: The Regulation of the Christian Body
Full course for one semester. By investigating ancient literatures
of askesis, the course will explore early Christian
conceptions of the body and its regulation. Readings will include
material drawn from among the apocryphal acts, sermons, monastic
regulations, Biblical commentaries, homilies, and encomia.
Prerequisite: Religion 153. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 343
- Women in Ancient Christianity
Full course for one semester. Taking advantage of recent
scholarship, the course will explore a variety of ancient sources
in order to come to some understanding of the representations of
women and their social roles in ancient Christianity. Rigorously
anchored by primary sources, discussion topics will include female
leadership in the early church, power and female askesis,
the Christian matron, the Christian empress, and the female saint.
Prerequisite: Religion 153. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 347
- Christian Texts of the Early Empire
Full course for one semester. In this survey of canonical and
noncanonical Christian Greek literature to the Embassy of
Athenagoras the Athenian, primary texts will be read in the
original Greek. Prerequisite: Greek 110. Lecture-conference.
Cross-listed as Greek 247.
Religion 349
- Late Antique and Byzantine Theological Texts
Full course for one semester. This course will investigate Hellenic
and Christian philosophical theology in late antiquity and
Byzantium. Primary focus will be upon the theological works of the
philosopher Proclus, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, St. Maximus
the Confessor, and St. Gregory Palamas. Secondary studies will
include works by Armstrong, Losski, Gersh, Siorvanes, Meyendorff,
and Louth. Primary texts will be examined in the original Greek and
in translation. Prerequisite: Greek 110. Lecture-conference.
Cross-listed as Greek 249. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 350
- Modernisms and Fundamentalisms
Full course for one semester. Students will undertake comparative
analysis of twentieth century religious thought. Any religious
history of the twentieth century would necessarily focus on the
sociological and theological predominance of two concepts:
modernism and fundamentalism. But what do these terms mean? Do they
have any intellectual utility? What sort of worldviews do they
describe? This course offers a comparative look at purportedly
modernist and fundamentalist religious movements. Following a set
of theoretical readings on the chronological and philosophical
dilemmas of modernity, we will turn to documents and historical
reflections on specific twentieth century movements, including
Buddhist and Catholic modernisms and Protestant and Islamic
fundamentalisms. Prerequisite: Religion 201. Conference.
Religion 358
- Hinduism: Practice and Belief
Full course for one semester. This "religion"--which has been
coextensive with Indian social reality for nearly four
millennia--has become recently the single most fertile ground for
comparativists and historians of religion. An incredible array of
practices, belief structures, and theological and philosophical
positions continue to enliven contemporary Indian behavior and
force us to confront and redefine our notions of what constitutes a
religion. Hinduism has spawned several other major religious
traditions, among them Buddhism, and has itself been enriched and
in part defined by its dialectic with its various rivals, both
internal and external. Prerequisite: Religion 201.
Lecture-conference.
Religion 373
- Special Topics in Jewish History
Full course for one semester. This course is a research seminar
devoted to the investigation of a particular topic in Jewish
history. Conference.
Religion 383
- Reading Pseudo-Dionysius
Full course for one semester. This course provides an introduction
to a major writer in the Christian mystical tradition, the course
situates the thought of the Pseudo-Dionysius within the
social-historical environment and the main intellectual currents of
the Mediterranean world of the fifth century of the Common Era.
Prerequisites: Religion 153 and 201, or consent of the instructor.
Conference.
Religion 384
- Special Topics in the History of Christianity
Full course for one semester. A research seminar devoted to the
investigation of a particular topic in the history of Christianity.
Prerequisite: Religion 153. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Religion 399
- Junior Seminar
Full course for one semester. This course offers intensive study of
a particular topic, drawing on various methodologies in the study
of religion. Members of the religion faculty will attend and
participate. While the course is intended to prepare department
majors for the senior program, it is open to all qualified
students. Prerequisites: junior standing, Religion 201, and three
other religion courses. This course may be repeated with
departmental approval. Conference.
Religion 470
- Thesis
Full course for one year.
Religion 481
- Individual Work in Special Fields
One-half or full course for one semester. Prerequisite: approval of
instructor and division.
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