Class Schedules

This course charts the formation of Islam and the expansion of Muslim peoples, from the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad. It will examine Muslim institutions, beliefs, and ritual practices in their historical contexts. In addition to the basics of Muslim practice and belief, the class will introduce students to mystic traditions (Sufism), Islamicate statecraft, and intellectual/legal traditions as well as cultural trends including art, architecture, and literature.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What is religion? Why are people religious? What are the broad similarities and differences among various religions across culture and time? Some people describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. What does that mean? These are the basic questions that we consider in this introductory course. We shall explore religion as a practice of constructing similarities and differences that recruits virtually every issue that humans find important. Birth, puberty, and death; sex, money, and power; ethics and politics; humanity, divinity, and animality, earth and sky are all part of the religious imagination. We shall approach religion as a comparative practice, both intercultural and cross-cultural, through which people understand themselves and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Buddhism is increasing 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 WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course, we will study the Jewish Bible (also called the Tanakh or Old Testament) in its original cultural and literary contexts. Alongside an analysis of the biblical texts, students will also encounter related literature from the Ancient Near East to compare with the Bible. Through this comparative approach, we will gain insight into ancient history, as well as the political and theological views of the Israelites and their neighbors. We will also see how the Jewish Bible contributes to various topics of discourse that remain relevant today, including issues around ethnicity, feminism, LGBTQ concerns, God and science, ethics, and collective memory. As such, students will have the opportunity to put the Bible into dialogue with their own understandings of identity, society, and religiosity.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course we 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. Students in this course 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, we will explore how Christian practices of renunciation draw upon and contribute to cultural understandings of gender, sexuality, and the body.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class explores the construction of race as connected with and applied to Islam and Muslims. The racialization connected with Islam and Muslim identities will be explored primarily though not exclusively through American examples. We will consider “blackness,” “brownness,” and “whiteness” as experienced through Muslim life in the United States and the political ramifications of these identities. We ask questions about Islam, race, and politics that are situated in the contemporary study of religion and of race. In addition to traditional readings, materials for the course from a variety of media, such as longform journalism, memoirs, and ethnography as well assigned listening (music) and film.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

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

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 WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

For nearly a thousand years, the religious lives of the ancient Israelites revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 CE, Jewish scribes needed to find new ways to carry on the worship and traditions of Judaism. This course introduces students to the rabbis and the literature they produced in the first several centuries of the common era. In our study of rabbinic texts such as the Mishnah, Midrash, and Talmud, we will see how the rabbis conceived Jewish thought and practice in Late Antiquity. In order to locate the rabbis in their historical context, we will also compare the classical rabbinic corpus with other Jewish texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judeo-Hellenistic philosophy, and the New Testament. Since rabbinic Judaism stands as the foundation for Jewish praxis today, this course maintains a focus on how rabbis’ words and deeds continue to influence modern notions of Scripture, ethics, and theology.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Hebrew prose selections from the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic parables. Translation of texts will be supplemented with grammar review. Students will gain facility with such tools as the lexicon, commentary and critical apparatus and will become familiar with critical trends in contemporary research.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Though sacrifice is often viewed as the exclusive property of religion, this course is organized around the claim that religion and statecraft (the art of governing a nation well) are connected through practices of human sacrifice. Thus, in this course, we use "human sacrifice" as a comparative category to understand aspects of religion and statecraft, especially in war, capital punishment, torture, terrorism, and genocide. Though torture, terrorism, and genocide are important, our special focus is warfare and capital punishment, which encompass the other sites of human sacrifice. The central questions are the following: Why do gods and states demand blood; whence the impulse to human sacrifice? What are the relations between divine sovereignty, political sovereignty, and sacrifice? What are the modalities of human sacrifice? Is human sacrifice inevitable?

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Buddhism is increasing 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

This course will introduce students to some of the philosophical and religious thinkers in classical India and China. We will read primary and secondary texts to understand ideas like the Buddha’s four noble truths, Nagarjuna’s emptiness (śunyatā, “zero-ness”), Śankara’s non-dualism (advaita), Confucius’s understanding of ritual (li), Zhuangzi and Hui Neng on the “mirror mind.” We will try and see the ways these ideas either parallel or challenge dominant patterns of European and American thought.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

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:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Gender and sexuality are frequently the subjects of religious and political rhetoric in the United States, and perhaps the most uniquely American way religious and political rhetoric overlap is in how the United States interprets and protects religious liberty. In this course, we will examine how the concept of religious liberty has been used to defend a narrow understanding of gender and sexual identity and expression. From employers denying insurance coverage for birth control to county clerks refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-gender couples, the concept of religious liberty has been used in recent years in ways that amount to the unjust regulation of people’s gender and sexuality. This course is an interdisciplinary examination of contemporary appeals to religious liberty, exploring how they have shaped American politics and culture by mobilizing the religious right and defining in many ways how we talk about gender and sexuality in America today.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

For over two thousand years, Jews and Christians have read and interpreted the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in a variety of ways. This course explores the many historical and religious contexts in which ancient and modern readers have understood Scripture. Students will survey methods for interpretation, as well as specific biblical passages that have yielded various meanings throughout the centuries. We will analyze ancient texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and rabbinic literature, in order to see how different religious groups utilized the Bible for their respective communities. The course will also compare these early interpretations with modern scholarly approaches to highlight Scripture’s role in theological, socio-political, and intellectual discourse today.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A study of the religious tradition of Roman Catholicism. Some attention will be given to the theology and historical development of the Roman Catholic Church, but major emphasis will fall on the relationship of the Catholic religion to various Catholic cultures, including Ireland, Mexico, Poland and the United States.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WC
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course we examine the diverse relations between Jews and Christians from the ancient world to today. We explore the complex theological and social history between the two "religions," tracing the repercussions into the twenty-first century. We give special emphasis to writings and artifacts of the late ancient Mediterranean world, which witnessed the simultaneous development of rabbinic Judaism and orthodox Christianity in dynamic relation with each other. This course also examines the rise of Christian anti-Judaism, Jewish responses to the rise of Christianity, and Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class will introduce the issues in the social study of death generally, from the point of view of the living/survivors, and offer comparative examples and case studies to explore the general themes, rooting these discussions in concrete cases. The class approach is broadly anthropological. The class will be broadly comparative, held together by the evolving direction of class discussions (guided by the instructor). While the course as a whole is comparative, we will focusing on one particular case study in depth.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course will explore the art and architecture of the medieval Christian world from the time of Constantine the Great (306-337 CE) to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The lectures and class discussions will focus on the role of images and relics in Christianity as well as the developments in sacred and secular architecture across Europe and the Byzantine empire. Special emphasis will be given to certain trends such as the foundation of monasteries, pilgrimage, icon and relic worship, and the emergence of Romanesque and Gothic styles in architecture, which changed the urban and rural topography of the continent.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An advanced seminar required for religious studies majors, open to minors. Both classic and contemporary theories on the nature of religion and critical methods for the study of religion will be considered. Prerequisite(s): Two courses in Religious Studies and permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course charts the formation of Islam and the expansion of Muslim peoples, from the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad. It will examine Muslim institutions, beliefs, and ritual practices in their historical contexts. In addition to the basics of Muslim practice and belief, the class will introduce students to mystic traditions (Sufism), Islamicate statecraft, and intellectual/legal traditions as well as cultural trends including art, architecture, and literature.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Buddhism is increasing 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

This course examines the diverse literature of the New Testament along with some other early Christian texts that did not become part of the Christian "canon." We will employ historical-critical approaches in order to situate New Testament texts in their social, political, and historical contexts. We will pay special attention to how the various authors of the New Testament produced Jewish-Christian difference and how they understood the role of women within their communities. Contemporary modes of interpretation will be employed to explore the formation of identity in the first and second centuries of Christianity.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

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:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course studies the interaction of Jewish, Christian, and pagan cultures, and the protracted struggle for self-definition and multi-cultural exchange this encounter provoked. The course draws attention to how the other and cultural and religious difference are construed, resisted, and apprehended. Readings include Acts, Philo, Revelation, I Clement, pagan charges against Christianity, Adversus Ioudaios writers, the Goyim in the Mishna, and apologetic literature.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

For the past century, film has been a conduit for religious imagery and ideology. This course focuses on the role of Jews and Judaism in the creation and content of cinema. Alongside films by Jewish directors such as Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, and the Coen Brothers, we will also see how non-Jewish filmmakers portray Jewish ethnicity and history. We will view comedies, musicals, and dramas, with a focus on how Judaic considerations shape the cinematic message. Readings from the Bible and later Jewish literature will supplement analyses of religious themes in movies from the United States, Europe, and Israel. Students will engage films as critical texts in order to assess the degree to which popular media express contemporary religious concerns.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class will be a reflection on the long history of co-existence of people in South Asia thought to belong to two very different religions Hinduism and Islam. We will begin by looking at the formation of classical Islam in the Middle East, and looking at the classical Hindu epic, the Ramayana. From there we will move to a survey of the history of encounter and exchange, from the early period (al Biruni), to the establishment of the great Muslim sultanates. We will critically examine the evidence of religious conflict, alongside the evidence of rich cultural exchange, and interrogate the competing historigrahic narratives, according to which South Asia either become a single Indo-Islamic civilization or a place of two cultures destined to become different modern nation states (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Finally, we will consider colonial and post colonial South Asia and conclude with a reflection on the Babri Masjid crisis and India's debates about secularism.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

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 WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course we explore the complicated lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. - the convergences and divergences. We analyze the intersections of racial identity, religious affiliation, and political orientation and their relations to the prevailing notions of manhood. How did Malcolm and Martin enter the black freedom movement? How did their religious affiliation facilitate or hinder entry? How did their participation in the movement inform their understanding of religion? Within their respective imaginations, what kind of "religio-political and ethical figure" is America - Egypt, or Promised Land, Zion or Babylon; messianic nation or apocalyptic, dystopian nightmare? How do Martin and Malcolm perform, enact, and embody the notion that "black lives matter?"

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

America is incomprehensible without reference to black Americans. In this course we explore the complicated lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X: how their lives converged and diverged. We analyze the intersections of racial identity, religious affiliation, and political orientation and their relations to the prevailing notions of manhood and American identity. How did Martin Luther King and Malcolm X enter the black freedom movement? How did their religious affiliations facilitate or hinder entry? How did their participation in the movement transform their understanding of religion? In what ways do MLK and X make theological critiques of antiblackness and white supremacy? How do they understand the relations among race, religion, and politics? Is religion central to their respective self-understanding? How do Martin and Malcolm enact—before the fact—the ideas expressed by the Twitter hashtags “#BlackLivesMatter” (created by the activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi) and “#SayHerName” (by the poet Aja Monet)?

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course, we explore ancient and modern understandings of atheism. The course is organized around ten questions. 1. What basic claims does atheism make about the "nature of things,” about what is and what is not (ontology), how things came to be (cosmology), and about their value? 2. Is atheism the “negation” of religion or merely the "other" of god(s)? 3. Can one be atheistic and religious too? 4. Are atheism and theism radically different or, in fact, "kissing cousins?" 5. Is deifying human being the inevitable consequence of rejecting god(s)? 6. What is the relationship between atheism and humanism? 7. Are atheists more reasonable, more evidence-based than theists? 8. Are atheists less virtuous and moral than theists? 9. Does atheism imply a specific ethics and politics? 10. What are the “existential” (life and death, anxiety-producing and management) implications of atheism; is humanism a more sustainable philosophy of life than theism?

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course, we will examine the role of the veil in societies from the ancient Near East to the present. We will pay special attention to veiling as a cultural and religious practice that reflects ideas about piety, gender, and status. Along with learning about the history of the veil and its use in some of the major religious traditions, we will consider the function of the veil in contemporary political debates, and we will explore women's veiling as a topic in feminist discourse.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The word "ritual" is used in many contexts to refer to types of practice that are considered centrally important, as well as formalistic and repetitive. This seminar-style course concentrates on the concept of ritual as a central component of social practice, within and without religious groupings. Focusing on developing the concept of ritual, we will focus on ritual across traditions. This requires students to 'work with' concepts - forming a conception of what they mean by ritual, and be willing to change that conception when faced with contradictory evidence. As a First Year Course, this class offers an intensive introduction to theories of culture and social thought, and provides persistent and explicit practice in named academic skills.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials