Reed College Catalog
Kenneth Brashier
Chinese religions.
Michael Foat
Christianity.
Kambiz GhaneaBassiri
Islam.
Christopher Roberts
Modern Western religious thought.
Steven M. Wasserstrom
Judaism.
The academic study of religion is an integral part of the liberal arts. The aims of the curriculum are two: to introduce students to the various religious traditions of the world—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, for example—and to acquaint students with a variety of recognized methodologies employed in the study of religion—philosophical, social scientific, and historical. The department’s courses serve both to develop in students the capacity for critical assessment of religious thought and action, and to provide an adequate grounding for independent, analytic inquiry into the history of religious traditions.
The curriculum of the department reflects the staff’s commitment to a diversity of approaches in religious studies. Majors in religion are expected to be familiar with this methodological and theoretical spectrum, and to concentrate upon particular approaches in their research.
While the study of religion is an independent academic field, the department encourages the pursuit of interdisciplinary work in philosophy, classics, literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and other fields.
Besides providing the foundation for a liberal education, a major in religion can prepare students for advanced study in the field, for the ministry, or for other vocations.
Requirements for the Major
- One 100-level introduction in religion.
- Religion 201 (theories and methods).
- At least five additional units in religion, three of which must be at the 300 level or above.
- Religion 399 (junior seminar).
- Religion 470 (senior thesis).
- Completion of two units in a foreign language of at least the second-year level or demonstration, by means acceptable to the department, of equivalent proficiency. To satisfy this requirement a student must do one of the following: pass a second-year language course at Reed, pass a second-year language course that has been approved by the department at another accredited college or university, or pass a language placement examination at the second-year or higher level. A number of placement examinations are offered at Reed every year during orientation. Students desiring to meet the language requirement by any means other than second-year coursework at Reed should consult with their adviser in advance. The department recommends students study the sacred language of a religion in which they are especially interested.
Recommended but not required: Humanities 210, 220, or 230.
Requirements for the Interdisciplinary Major
- One 100-level introduction in religion.
- Religion 201 (theories and methods).
- Four other units in religion.
- Course requirements as specified by the related discipline.
- Completion of two units in a foreign language of at least the second-year level or demonstration, by means acceptable to the department, of equivalent proficiency. To satisfy this requirement a student must do one of the following: pass a second-year language course at Reed, pass a second-year language course that has been approved by the department at another accredited college or university, or pass a language placement examination at the second-year or higher level. A number of placement examinations are offered at Reed every year during orientation. Students desiring to meet the language requirement by any means other than second-year coursework at Reed should consult with their adviser in advance.
- Religion 399 (junior seminar).
- Religion 470 (senior thesis).
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 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.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 the 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. Lecture-conference. Not offered 2009-10.Religion 160 - Religion and Philosophy in Preimperial China
Full course for one semester. This course is a study of religion and philosophy in preimperial 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, the 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 preimperial narrative histories of the Zuo commentary. Conference.Religion 163 - Introduction to Post-Reformation Christianities
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the most influential figures and texts in the history of modern Christianity. It will demonstrate how one cannot understand such figures and texts in isolation, for each must be situated as a creative but conditioned response to a specific historical context. The course will explore many instances of thought responding to the stimulus of changing historical conditions. The course tracks the contentious fragmentation of the medieval catholic church in the post-Reformation era. From the unity symbolized by the reign of Charlemagne, when one could plausibly speak of Christendom as a single entity, and thus as one religion, this course will track the way that prominent Christians slowly created and embraced a religiously plural world. It is as if by an internal dynamic, through great tension and distress, the primary irritant propelling Christians through this process was the repeated confrontation with the religious otherness of their own neighbors, friends, and family. The course will examine the way that people make history: with obstructed vision and limited resources, driven by motivations of which they are only dimly aware, leading to consequences that rarely match their intentions. Lecture-conference.Religion 164 - Introduction to Christian Origins
Full course for one semester. This course introduces themes and problems in the historical reconstruction of Christianity from the early “Jesus Movement” to circa 250 CE. These include ritual practices, art and architecture, social organization, literary production, and early canon formation, as well as issues relating to gnosis and Hellenistic philosophy. It requires extensive reading of the Greek, Latin, and Syriac 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 first-year students. Lecture-conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 165 - An Introduction to Imperial Orthodoxy
Full course for one semester. An introduction to the history, theology, and religious practices associated with the establishment of Catholic Orthodoxy in the Roman Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries CE. The course investigates the variety of ways in which Christians framed their identities and their experiences of empire in ritual, ascetic practices, theology, art and architecture. Special attention will be paid to the network of social relations that undergirded a Christianizing empire. Primary sources originally written in Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac will be read in translation. Lecture-conference.Religion 166 - An Introduction to Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Full course for one semester. An introduction to Eastern Orthodox Christianity as an incarnational religious tradition, this course investigates the various ways that Eastern Orthodox Christians have understood and recapitulated the person and work of Jesus Christ. Historical and phenomenological analyses of Eastern Orthodox art and architecture, ritual practices, and a wide array of liturgical, theological, canonical, and historical texts will provide interpetive strategies for further exploration of the tradition and bases for comparative understanding. The course focuses on 19th- and 20th-century Eastern Orthodoxy with special attention to the diaspora experience. Lecture-conference.Religion 201 - Introduction to Theories and Methods in Religious Studies
Full course for one semester. An introduction to various interpretive frameworks and methodological issues that inform religion as a critical, reflexive, academic discipline. Texts pertaining to the definition and scope of the inquiry and methods of investigation will be critically engaged and their applicability tested with an eye toward their utility for understanding religion and religious phenomena. Prerequisites: Humanities 110 and at least one 100-level course in religion. Lecture-conference.
Religion 254 - Sacrifice, Gift, and Exchange in Religious, Gift, and Market Economies
Full course for one semester. This course will explore the religious significance of three different types of social transactions—exchanges, gifts, and sacrifices—in relation to different social contexts, such as families, communities, and congregations. How do religions variously construe these transactions, and, specifically, how do they relate individual motivations to complex systemic effects and unintended consequences? The readings in this course will cover a cross-section of the most influential writing on these topics, including texts by Adam Smith, Marx, Simmel, Hubert and Mauss, Lévi-Strauss, Bourdieu, and Appadurai. In addition, we will have frequent recourse to detailed ethnographic case studies in order to test the explanatory power of different theories. Prerequisite: one 100-level course in religion. Lecture-conference.Religion 257 - Biblical Narrative: Genesis and After
See English 357 for description.Religion 305 - History, Hermeneutics, and Religion
Full course for one semester. This course frames a series of critical inquiries into the varieties of rules and practices that affect the historical understanding of religions. It 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 reflection on the relationships among the human experience of time, the interpretive practices of the historian, and religions construed as an object of social-historical inquiry. The course is open to nonmajors who have met the prerequisites. Prerequisites: at least one 100-level course in religion and Religion 201. Conference.Religion 306 - The Origins of Religion
Full course for one semester. Why are humans religious? This course will evaluate the answers put forward by the greats of sociology (such as Weber and Durkheim), anthropology (Rappaport and Geertz), psychology (James and Freud), and even evolutionary biology (Dawkins and Boyer). Each disciplinary lens gives us different tools to define religion, to understand its mechanics, and to scrutinize its role in society. Prerequisites: Religion 201 or the consent of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.