RELI 101-01 10698 |
Islam in America |
Days: M W F
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Time: 02:20 pm-03:20 pm
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Room: ARTCOM 202
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Instructor: Brittany Landorf
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Details
This course examines the diversity of Muslims in America from a historical and lived religion perspective. We will examine how race, ethnic, class, gender, and theological differences matter in the construction of Muslim American identities. We will pay particular attention to issues of representation as they relate to Orientalist discourses and the phenomenon of Islamophobia. The class will begin with the history of Muslims in the United States, discussing such figures as Omar ibn Said and early Black American Muslim movements like the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam. The latter half of the course turns to the lived experiences of American Muslims, including how American Muslims engage in sacred texts and rituals today. The final project will use oral histories to explore geographies of Islam in the Twin Cities through a digital humanities story mapping project.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 111-F1 10699 |
Introduction to Buddhism |
Days: M W F
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Time: 10:50 am-11:50 am
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Room: MAIN 111
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Instructor: Erik Davis
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*First-Year Course Only; first day attendance required; cross-listed with ASIA 113-F1 (10700)*
Details
Buddhism is increasingly well-known in the USA, but what is it, and how does Buddhism encourage people to organize and think about their lives? Organized on the basis of the Eightfold Noble Path, with a focus of 'morals, the Buddhist psychology of mind, and meditation,' this course offers an introduction to the personalities, teachings, and institutions of Buddhism. Beginning in India at the time of the Buddha, this course focuses on Theravada Buddhism, asking students to think historically, philosophically, and anthropologically. Many Friday sessions will be dedicated to an exploration of the variety of Buddhist meditative techniques.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 124-01 10701 |
Dharma and Dao: Big Ideas in India and China |
Days: M W F
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Time: 10:50 am-11:50 am
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Room: MAIN 002
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Instructor: James Laine
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*Cross-listed with ASIA 124-01 (10702)*
Details
An introduction to the study of Asian religious traditions in South and East Asia (India, China and Japan). Open to everyone but especially appropriate for first and second year students.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 135-01 10703 |
India and Rome |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: OLRI 100
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Instructor: Laine, Overman
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*Cross-listed with CLAS 135-01 (10704)*
Details
This course is taught jointly between the department of Religious Studies and the department of Classics, by a specialist in the Roman East and a specialist in classical India. We will start on either side of this world, with Alexander the Great and Ashoka, exploring the relationship between empire and religion from Rome to India in the world's crossroads for the thousand years between Alexander and the rise of Islam.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 136-01 10705 |
World Religions and World Religions Discourse |
Days: M W F
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Time: 02:20 pm-03:20 pm
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Room: MAIN 002
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Instructor: James Laine
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Details
Our goal will be to make an effort to comprehend just what cultural literacy would mean when studying the major religious traditions of the world, while at the same time developing an appreciation of some of the blind spots and problems in this enterprise. To a large extent, we will do some serious construction before we feel ready for de-construction. Every couple of weeks, we will cover one of five major areas (South Asia, East Asia, Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and each student will read a different author's treatment of this material.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 194-01 10707 |
Gender Relations in Islam |
Days: M W F
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Time: 01:10 pm-02:10 pm
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Room: MAIN 111
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Instructor: Ahoo Najafian
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*Cross-listed with WGSS 194-01 (10708)*
Details
This course investigates the ways in which gender identities and relationships between “men” and “women” have been articulated, constructed, and refashioned throughout the Muslim World. Starting with problematizing fixed notions of gender and sexuality, we map prominent attitudes through visiting a diverse array of sources from the Qur’an, Sunna, and legal documents to historical and anthropological case studies, literature, and film from across the region. Exploring notions of femininity and masculinity, as well as attitudes towards same-sex relations and transgendered populations, we witness their implications in case studies and stories, from a divorce court in Iran to a matriarchal utopia in India.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 194-02 10709 |
Life After Death in Jewish Texts and Traditions |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: MAIN 001
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Instructor: Nicholas Schaser
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Details
Many religious texts and traditions have attempted to tackle the question of life after death. In Judaism, views of post-mortem existence develop gradually over centuries, and they include phenomena like heaven, hell, resurrection, messianism, apocalypticism, and more. This course provides an overview of the varied presentations of the afterlife throughout Jewish history. Students will explore the Jewish Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient apocalyptic visions, and rabbinic discussions as avenues for understanding these concepts and their impact in Judaism. We will also dedicate time to comparative study of the afterlife and eschatology in Judaism and Christianity, as well as the reception of these ideas in popular culture, cinema, podcasts, and contemporary theological discourses.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 194-F1 10706 |
Virginity from Mary to Millennials |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: MAIN 001
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Instructor: Susanna Drake
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*First-Year Course Only*
Details
In this course you will explore the diverse understandings of Christian sexual renunciation from the first century, C.E. to today. From the veneration of the Virgin Mary in early and medieval Christianity to the more recent celebration of virgins and born-again virgins in U.S. pop culture, many Christians have understood the practice of virginity as a mark of spiritual progress or perfection. You will examine the rise of Christian sexual renunciation in the first through fourth centuries, C.E., the veneration of virgin saints in the Middle Ages, the shifting attitudes toward virginity in the Reformation era, the recent development of Christian chastity movements in the U.S. (True Love Waits, Silver Ring Thing), and the proliferation of Christian chastity advice literature. In written assignments and class discussions, you will explore how Christian practices of renunciation draw upon and contribute to cultural understandings of gender, sexuality, race, and the body. In three short reflection papers and one final project, you will use your own writing as an occasion to come to terms with the cultures of virginity and how they relate to the history of Christianity. In-class writing workshops will provide you an opportunity to discuss your and your peers’ writing and hone skills in argumentation, organization, style, and revision.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 223-01 10710 |
Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christianity |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: MAIN 001
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Instructor: Susanna Drake
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Details
The critical study of ancient Christian texts involves making strange texts familiar and familiar texts strange. In this course, we will consider non-canonical texts alongside canonical texts in order to develop insight into the formation of Christian identity in the first through fourth centuries. Special emphasis will be given to the development of the discourses of orthodoxy and heresy, the diversity of Christian beliefs and practices, and the examination of early Christian writings within their social and political contexts. Instead of investigating the material in strict chronological order, we will consider how different people (Jesus, Mary Magdalene, James, Paul, etc) serve as authorizing figures for the texts. Using this organization, we will investigate issues at stake in the development of Christian "canon," including theology, Christology, apostolic authority, women's roles, and the relation of Christianity to the state and to other religious traditions.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 225-01 10711 |
Women and the Bible |
Days: T R
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Time: 01:20 pm-02:50 pm
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Room: MAIN 111
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Instructor: Susanna Drake
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*Cross-listed with WGSS 225-01 (10712)*
Details
In this course we will examine the roles, identities, and representations of women in the Tanakh/ Old Testament, New Testament, and Jewish and Christian apocrypha. We will explore how biblical writers used women "to think with," and we will consider how gender is co-constructed alongside religious, social, and sexual identities. We will ask the following sorts of questions: What opportunities for social advancement and leadership were open to women in ancient Israelite, early Jewish, and early Christian communities, and how did these opportunities differ from those open to women in other religious formations in the ancient Mediterranean? How did biblical regulations of bodies, sexuality, marriage, and family life shape women's lives? What are the social and material effects of biblical representations of women? And how might current feminist theories inform our interpretation of biblical texts about women?
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 235-01 10713 |
Theorizing Religion |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: MAIN 003
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Instructor: Erik Davis
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Details
The course is an introduction to some of the important theoretical and methodological work conducted by scholars in various disciplines who hope to better define and understand religious phenomena. This seminar begins with some of the early twentieth century texts that are often cited and discussed by contemporary scholars of religion (e.g., Durkheim, Weber, Freud) and then turns to a number of investigations stemming from engagement with earlier theorists or refracting new concerns. The course inquires into the problems of defining and analyzing religious cultures, and the researcher's position or positions in this analysis, as this has been approached from anthropological, sociological, and religious studies perspectives.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WC
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 277-01 10409 |
Metaphysics in Secular Thought |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 212
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Instructor: Kiarina Kordela
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*Cross-listed with GERM 277-01 (10407), POLI 277-01 (10408)*
Details
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. A widespread tendency in contemporary Western societies is to associate metaphysics with religion, if not with what is often dismissively called the "irrational." This course will dismantle this myth by reading closely European philosophy and political theory, mostly since the seventeenth century, in their relation to theology and their reception by twentieth-century critical theory. This will allow us to examine the ways in which secular thought emerges not as an alternative to metaphysics-something which thought cannot supersede anyway-but rather as a different way of dealing with the very same metaphysical questions and issues that concern religion, from the meaning of life to the imminence of death, and from (actual or imagined) guilt to the hope for redemption. We shall endeavor to identify the similarities and differences between the 'secular' and the 'religious' ways, including their respective relations to rationality and their functions in ideology. Readings may include: Aristotle, Talal Asad, George Bataille, Walter Benjamin, Kenneth Burke, Richard Dienst, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Peter Harrison, Jacques Lacan, Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss, Carl Schmitt, Baruch Spinoza, Alberto Toscano, Max Weber, Slavoj Zizek.
General Education Requirements:
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 294-01 10714 |
Second Temple Judaism: Jews in the Ancient Mediterranean World |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: HUM 314
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Instructor: Nicholas Schaser
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Details
This course explores the ancient history and sacred texts of Judaism’s Second Temple period (6th century BCE to 70 CE). After Jews return home from exile in Babylon, they rebuild the Jerusalem Temple (the "Second Temple") and spend centuries living under the empires of Persia, Greece, and Rome. In this class, students will encounter Jewish military records in the books of the Maccabees and Josephus; approach ancient views of women and gender in the books of Esther and Judith; ponder Jewish philosophy in the books of Sirach and Wisdom; and decode the apocalyptic imagery of Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Our study of these texts will provide political and socio-cultural insight into how Second Temple Jews expressed identity, engaged in worship, and negotiated conflict amidst uncertain times in the ancient Mediterranean world.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 294-02 10715 |
Love in the Persian World |
Days: M W F
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Time: 03:30 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: MAIN 111
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Instructor: Ahoo Najafian
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Details
This course engages with the pleasures and pains of love, for the Divine and human, as imagined by authors under the influence of “Persianate” culture. We will start by defining the “Persianate” and its sphere as well as conceptualizations of “love.” We will look at an array of sources in different poetic genres and forms, produced in Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent from the 10th century to present day. We will read the texts in English translation and will focus on themes such as forbidden love, celebration of carnal pleasures of love and lust, homo-eroticism, mystical love, as well as love for the Divine, religious figures, and the nation. When possible, we will juxtapose the poems to their visual representations or musical renditions. The texts are accompanied by secondary sources that expand on some theoretical, historiographical, literary, and philosophical issues related to the concept of love.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 294-03 10716 |
Faith and Fascism |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: CARN 305
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Instructor: STAFF
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Details
This course will examine the relationship between fascism and religion in a variety of historical settings. We will read and analyze primary and secondary source texts to identify how and to what extent fascist movements root themselves in traditions of faith. We will explore the formal relationship between fascist leaders and clergy as well as how religious and fascist practices inform one another. By comparing how fascism and faith relate in different historical contexts, students will be challenged to determine what makes religious beliefs and institutions predisposed to authoritarianism and violence.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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RELI 294-04 10855 |
Conversion and Inquisition: Religious Change |
Days: M W
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Time: 08:00 am-09:30 am
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Room: MAIN 009
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Instructor: Karin Vélez
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*Cross-listed with HIST 252-01 (10436)*
Details
What causes people to change their religious beliefs? How have societies handled those who do alter their spiritual attitudes? This course focuses on several dramatic case studies of men and women who self-consciously changed their religion during the turbulent period of imperial encounters between the mid-1500s and the 1700s. Among others, we will examine and interrogate reports of converts to Christianity including Jewish and Muslim prisoners of the Inquisition, captives of Mediterranean pirates, and the nearly canonized Mohawk convert Catherine Tekakwitha. We will consider how violence, national loyalties, gender, charisma, local power dynamics, environmental upheaval, and serendipity affected the choices and fates of these converts. This course fulfills both the global/comparative and pre-1800 requirements for the major. Meets the pre-1800, and the global and/or comparative history requirements, and can count towards "Law and Social Justice," or "Global/Comparative" fields.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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