Religion

 

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The following descriptions of courses being offered by the Department of Religion in Spring 2023 were submitted by the course instructors.

Specific information regarding the dates, times, and locations of these courses may be found in the Registrar’s official webpage: Schedule of Courses for Spring 2023.

If you are looking for a complete syllabus for a course, check the Syllabi page or click on the course title below for availability.

 

IDS 2935 –Quest – Self in Asian philosophy– Jonathan Edelmann

How have Asian philosophy and religion conceptualized selfhood? The course explores this essential question by analyzing a range of conceptions of selfhood and their impacts on the constructions of personal and group identities, as articulated by major philosophical and religious traditions in Asia. There is an equal emphasis on classical Indian and Chinese notions of self—covering orthodox Hindu views about an essentialized self, and Buddhist critiques of essentialism—as articulated by major thinkers such as Confucius, Zhuangzi, Nagarjuna, Zhiyi, Shankara, Abhinava, and Jiva.  Through reading of primary and secondary sources, critical reflection, classroom discussion, and written assignments students learn about major models of selfhood and the classical traditions that produced them, which remain immensely influential in the modern world. Additionally, they have opportunities to examine the contemporary relevance of such conceptual constructs, especially in relation to understanding the implicit assumptions and cultural conditionings that shape prevalent constructions of personal and communal identities, and their impacts on the world of everyday reality. The course adopts a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating perspectives and methodologies from several academic disciplines: religious studies, philosophy, history, Asian studies, anthropology, and sociology. Students learn to provide analysis and connection on these and other related issues by critically engaging with select readings, lectures, discussions, experiential learning, research, and writing.

IDS 2935 – Quest – Religious Extremism – Terje Ostebo

Religious extremism, and similar words like radicalism, fanaticism, or fundamentalism, is frequently used in the media and the policy world. These concepts are usually meant to depict violent behavior based on ideological outlooks, wherein exclusivist positions categorize humans as either insiders or as opposite “others”. But what is religious extremism? How do we define extremism? Who are the extremists? Is religious extremism meaningful and useful as a concept? And, what should it be understood in relation to its assumed opposite – the moderate. This course digs into these questions and provides students with critical knowledge about what is called extremism within major religious traditions. However, rather than examining extremism according to Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, or Buddhism, it investigates it in relation to broader topics such as nationalism, race(ism), and gender and sexuality. Moreover, it explores extremism in relation to processes of radicalization, and to violence/non-violence, and points to efforts made to counter violent forms of extremism. While rooted in the discipline of religious studies and the humanities more broadly, the course is inter-disciplinary in nature, drawing on perspectives from the social science, such as political science, anthropology, and security studies. It focuses mostly on the contemporary period, and analyzes particular representations of extremism in different contexts across the globe.

REL 2104 – Environmental Ethics – Erin Prophet

Exploration of competing secular and religious views regarding human impacts on and moral responsibilities toward nature and of the key thinkers and social movements in contention over them.

REL 2121 – American Religious History (online) – Rachel Gordan

This course offers an introductory overview of the American religious experience from an historical and cultural perspective. The interaction of American religions and cultures is examined in three chronological periods: 1) Colonial America 1500-1800 2) Nineteenth Century, and 3) Twentieth Century.

REL 2315 – Religions of Asia – Jonathan Edelmann

This course gives students an introduction to the history of ideas, cultures, and politics in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Other religions in India, Japan, and Korea will be studied as well. The civilizations of Asia are among the largest and the oldest in the world today, so this is no easy task. Today there is a lot of discussion about Asia’s considerable economic and political power. No one doubts that Asia will play an increasingly greater role in world stage throughout the twenty-first century and beyond. Asia is also a bountiful sources of philosophy, theology, meditative and ritual practice, mythology, narrative, art, and music. These are some of the many reasons Asia has captured the interest of the West for millennia. This course explores the ancient religious and philosophical roots of contemporary life in Asia. It provides insight into the way the religions of Asia influence contemporary culture, religion, language, and philosophy. Special attention is given to the sacred texts and mythologies that have guided life in Asia for thousands of years. This highly diverse area of the globe, with a wide range of languages, is part of the evolution and development of the world as a whole. This course encourages students to be part of that evolution by thinking creatively about their own beliefs and practices in relation to Asian thought, and it encourages students to connect the course content to their academic specializations.

REL 2362 – Intro to Islam – Brahim Afrit/Michael Schuster

This introductory course is designed for students without prior knowledge of Islam. This course will provide students with a critical survey of Muslim belief, practice, and culture in historical perspective covering the rise of Islam hitherto. In addition, this course will explore the worldview and moral system of Islam through its doctrinal, ritual, philosophical, ethical, and spiritual dimensions. Furthermore, students will read and discuss the themes of community, law, gender, race, secularism, and globalization in relation to Islam while critically engaging with classical sources.

REL 2502 – Intro to Christianity – Todd Best

The Christian tradition is one of the most prominent, sometimes dominant, religions that has endured 2000+ years of history. In many ways it seems ubiquitous in the West. It is what many consider the religion they are most familiar with. And yet what most people are familiar with probably does not put them in touch with the breadth of this tradition. This class seeks to offer an introduction to this vast religious tradition and the contours of some of its many facets. We will seek to understand the somewhat cohesive structure of the whole fabric of Christianity, and also we will consider its plurality. While the religion has a core sense about it, it also has many streams and sub-traditions within. An eye toward this plurality will help to elucidate the reality that, for many, the Christianity they know or have heard about is not all there is to the tradition, nor does it singularly define it. To explore both the core realities and the nuanced streams, we will look at:

• origin story and basic sacred text/documents
• the big ideas, movements, and actions
• the plurality of the tradition(s)
• Christianity as intellectual and artistic tradition
• Contemporary issues and curious questions

REL 2930/JST2930 Introduction to Jewish Thought – Yaniv Feller

Ever wondered if humans can experience God’s revelation? Or what is the meaning of religious law in the modern world? We will examine these and other philosophical questions by reading canonical Jewish thinkers from the medieval philosopher Maimonides to contemporary feminist theology. Special attention will be given to Jewish minority status and the conversation between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim philosophy.

REL 3076 – Cults and New Religious Movements – Erin Prophet

This course examines the “cult” and “new religious movement” in the context of modernity. Students will explore common typologies of religious groups, the dynamics of charismatic leadership, the sociology of small-group behavior, millennialism and apocalypticism, schism, violence, and government response, and models of conversion— including “brainwashing.” They will investigate how new religious groups push the boundaries of social norms concerning family, work and community, and trace the dynamics of tension and accommodation as groups change over time. Specific groups to be reviewed include the Shakers, Mormons, Peoples Temple (Jonestown), Rajneeshies, Branch Davidians, and Wicca. Methodological approaches include sociology, anthropology, and religious studies. Students will perform case studies or engage in comparative work on two or more groups as they learn to use the tools of social science research.

REL 3082 – Global Ethics – Anna Peterson

This course will explore the ethical dimensions of global social, political, and environmental issues. Students will learn about diverse theoretical approaches in philosophical and religious ethics and then use those approaches to understand and evaluate the moral issues involved in contemporary global issues, including human rights, war and peace, climate change, and public health. In examining these case studies, students will learn to “do ethics” in a rigorous way, identifying the moral aspects of a social, political, economic, or environmental problem; defining and analyzing the issues clearly; and evaluating the ways different theoretical and methodological approaches help clarify and address the problems. We will pay particular attention to the roles of religion and cultural traditions in the emergence of problems, in people’s interpretations of and responses to them, and in the development of solutions. We will also address the relationship between different scales – e.g., local, regional, and national – in both the emergence of these issues and the efforts to understand and address them.

REL 3098 – Religion, Medicine, and Healing: Contemporary Perspectives (online) – Robin Wright

The focus of this course is on traditional healers and healing practices in religious traditions around the globe. The most important themes we shall discuss are: the efficacy of religious symbols for the healing process; cross-cultural notions of the body, pain, and healing; embodiment of healing powers by religious specialists; ritual performances and their meanings; the importance of sound, sonic imagery, and music to healing processes; the relations of healing practices to cosmology, metaphysics, and sacred narratives; and, the transformations of self and meaning that emerge during or from a cure.

REL 3191 – Death and Afterlife in World Religions (online)– Carol Rodriguez\Zheyuan Deng

This course explores notions of death and the afterlife in many religious traditions as well as in popular culture. It is divided into two major sections. In the first (and larger section, we will look at several topics including: conceptions of a soul (if any), what happens to a person at death, funerary rites, various conceptions of a/the ultimate reality (theistic, monistic, and so forth), notions of salvation and/or liberation, judgment, and various conceptions of time (e.g., linear or cyclical). The second section will explore how some of these religious perspectives are reflected in popular culture and spiritual movements. This section will focus on views of reincarnation and debates over the topic of near-death experiences, and briefly look at what is “death?”

REL 3931 – Junior Seminar – Robert Kawashima

 Intensive introduction to the study of religion.

REL 3938 – Islam in South Asia – Ali Mian

The study of Muslims in South Asia—in India, but also in Bangladesh and Pakistan—is crucial for understanding contemporary Islam in our global world. South Asian Muslims are also active in the Arabian Gulf region and in Western Europe and North America, especially in the UK. In this course, we take “Islam in South Asia” as a case study for studying both Global Islam and religion and modernity more broadly. Our key questions include: How have Muslims in South Asia grappled with colonialism, the rise of science and technology, secular liberalism and globalization, and environmental as well as planetary issues? How have Muslims navigated the question of religious pluralism? What are the specific challenges facing South Asian Muslims in terms of gender equality and sexual libreration? The course readings shed ample light on these questions and will also facilitate discussions of numerous Muslim spaces and institutions in South Asia. The course also highlights cultural and aesthetic dimensions of South Asian Islam in addition to theology, jurisprudence, and Sufism. ​

REL 3938 – Buddhist Philosophy – Mario Poceski

The course is a survey of the main concepts and traditions of Buddhist philosophy. It focuses on the classical systems of Buddhist philosophy that developed in India, covering both the early schools and the Mahāyāna movement. Additionally, it explores the growth and transformation of Buddhist philosophy outside of India, especially in China. While Buddhist philosophy tends to be shaped by soteriological concerns, centered about a quest for spiritual liberation or insight into reality, the course examines the creative ways in which major Buddhist thinkers have addressed central philosophical concerns with metaphysical, hermeneutical, epistemological, and ethical implications.

REL 3938 – Indigenous Religions of the World – Robin Wright

This course seeks to understand comparatively the religious traditions of indigenous peoples from selected areas of the globe: the cultures of the Pacific, including Polynesia and Melanesia. The central objectives of our studies of these religious traditions are to comprehend the principles by which cosmogonies (the creation) are founded, cosmologies (worldviews) are constructed, the variety of beings that populate the cosmos are inter-related, and eschatologies (views on the end-of-times) are envisaged. The course will begin with readings on the ways in which scholars have approached the study of traditional religions. Then, we will discuss the ways in which native peoples understand the cosmos, their place in it and the moral responsibilities humans have in relation to each other and to all other living entities. We will also discuss how religious traditions have actively shaped their histories of relations with non-indigenous peoples (the West), which can often be seen in religious movements, for example, prophetism.

Following this introduction, the course enters into a reading and discussion of ethnographies and comparisons among the religious traditions of native Hawaiians; native peoples of Fiji; the Maori of New Zealand; peoples of Papua New Guinea.

A series of central themes and questions will guide our readings, discussions and paper-writing:

Cosmogony, or, the beginning of the cosmos;

– Systems and properties of inter-related temporal and spatial structures of the cosmos;

– Sacred geography (and especially, sacred sites) and astronomy in traditional cosmologies;

– How do indigenous religious traditions actively incorporate notions of history and change into their spiritualities ?

– How do different peoples understand their “place” and moral responsibilities in the cosmos and relations to other beings ?

– Understandings of illness and health, the process of healing, within the wider context of beliefs about spiritual power in the cosmos;

– The influences of Christianity and the nature of conversion from the perspectives of native peoples;

– Ideas of an imminent end-time, both in the traditional and the post-Christian context;

– How Western views of indigenous religious traditions have denigrated and misrepresented them in the history of colonialism. How has the Christian understanding of history prevented the West from respecting indigenous religious traditions ?

Besides the Readings, an important part of this course will be a series of films mixed of ethnography, history, and issues related to sacred lands and indigenous spiritualities.

REL 3938/JST 3930 – Political Fantasies of Zion – Yaniv Feller

Zion is the name of a biblical place. It is also an idea of a return to the Promised Land from which the Jewish national movement known as Zionism derived its name. This class provides the history of Zionist thinking, as well as of alternative ideas to the state such as a Jewish-Arab federation or the rejection of a Jewish state as heresy. Imagining Zion is not limited to Jews, and in this class, we will also examine how other cultures and thinkers conceived of Zion, including Bob Marley and Native Americans theologians.

Rel 3938/JST 3930/EUH 3931 – Katalin Rac

REL 4141 – Religion and Social Change – Anna Peterson

This course explores religion’s role in both intentional social change (e.g., social movements) and other forms of cultural, economic, and political transformation. We will focus on some key questions such as the following: Is religion an anaesthetizing or motivating force in struggles for social change? What can religion contribute to modernization and democratization? What conditions help determine the social character and function of religion? What elements vvithin a religious tradition help determine its social character and function? How do both weaker and more powerful members of society make use of religion? How does religion relate to other forces for or against social change?

Specific readings will be divided into three broad categories, although there is substantial overlap among the categories. The three themes are first, the roles of religion in societies undergoing rapid social change, particularly in colonial and post-colonial settings; second, religious dimensions of movements for social and political change; and third, the intersections among religion, race, gender, personal identity, and radical politics.

RLG 5397 – Religion and Politics Contemporary Perspectives – Patricia Sohn