The following descriptions of courses being offered by the Department of Religion in Spring 2024 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 2024.
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 – The Problem of Evil – Yaniv Feller
The problem of evil has been a focus of intense reflection by philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and novelists. Students will address this key theme in the human condition in this Quest 1 course. Questions that will be asked include: What is evil? How have monotheistic traditions attempted to grapple with God’s goodness and the problem of evil? Can natural disasters be considered evil? What turns ordinary people into perpetrators? The class will enable students to analyze this question in a written form and orally by drawing on a variety of methodologies from different fields in the humanities including philosophy, religion, history, and art (H). Students will not only read and analyze classical texts such as the biblical book of Job, as well modern interpretation of classical themes in TV shows such as The Sandman. Outside the classroom, students will also experience artefacts in museums and the library’s special collections. Among the skills acquired in the process are close reading, critical thinking, and effective communication of ideas (H). These will be developed through class discussions, in-class exercises, personal reflection pieces, artistic projects, as well as a final analytical paper. The case studies examined, historical and contemporary alike, including Egypt in antiquity, Italy of the Middle Ages, and twentieth century Germany and France (N).
REL 1144 – 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 2121 – American Religious History – 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 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 3098 – Religion Medicine and Healing – Erin Prophet
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 3136 – Global Religions in the United States – Jeyoul Choi
Investigates the religious lives of post-1965 Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Global Christian immigrants from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa and their interactions with American society.
REL 3171 – Ethics in America – Anna Peterson
Examines ethical issues facing contemporary US society, with a focus on cultural and religious diversity. Introduces major religious and philosophical frameworks as ways of understanding and addressing these issues.
REL 3191 – Death and the Afterlife in World Religions – Vasudha Narayanan
This course is divided into two sections. Both sections examine conceptions of death and the afterlife. The first (and longer) section examines conceptions of death and the afterlife from the perspective of various religious traditions from around the
world. Topics that will be explored in this section include conceptions of a soul, what happens to a person at death, funerary rites, various conceptions of ultimate reality/realities (theistic, monistic, and so forth), notions of salvation and liberation, judgment, and various conceptions time (e.g., linear or cyclical). The second section will explore how some religious perspectives are reflected in popular culture and spiritual movements. This section will focus on views of reincarnation and debates on near-death experiences.
REL 3291 – Gender and the Hebrew Bible – Robert Kawashima
Critical examination of the literary representation and historical realities of gender and sexuality in ancient Israel through close readings of selected texts from the Hebrew Bible.
REL 3318 – Chinese Religions – Yuan Zhang
The course is a comprehensive philosophical and historical survey of the main religious traditions in China, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and popular religion. Through lectures, discussions, and reading of select primary and secondary sources, we explore the formulations and subsequent transformations of key beliefs, doctrines, practices, and institutions that characterized specific religious traditions. We also examine the patterns of interaction among different traditions, as well as the general character and tenor of religious life in both traditional and modern China.
REL 3381 / RLG 6387 – Religions in Latin America – Jeyoul Choi
Main religious traditions in Latin America: native religions, Catholicism in its various forms, Protestantism, and African-based religions
REL 3931 – Junior Seminar – Robert Kawashima
Introduction to the academic study of religion.
REL 3938 – Global Christianity – Jeyoul Choi
Presents Christianity as an agent of globalization, contributing to the homogeneity and heterogeneity of contemporary society and creating the doctrinal and ritualistic diversity of Christianity in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Analyzes the patterns in which Christianity continues and changes in different geographical regions.
REL 3938 – Muslims in Europe Today – Armin Langer
This course invites you to delve into the experiences, challenges, and contributions of Muslim communities across Europe. It offers a critical examination of Islamophobia, delving into its profound effects on Muslim communities, while also shedding light on the transformative influence of migration from Muslim-majority countries on both migrants and the evolving dynamics of European societies. For students interested in Europe, a continent undergoing cultural and demographic shifts, grasping the many facets of Muslim communities is downright essential.
REL 3938 – Arguing Jewish Law – Howard Lidsky
The course is designed to improve the students’ persuasive skills through reading the Talmud, other Rabbinic Texts and Aristotle’s Rhetoric. The course covers the Rabbinic system of persuasion and Aristotle’s theory of Logos.
REL 3939 – Religion & the Paranormal – Erin Prophet
As many as three-quarters of Americans hold at least one paranormal belief. What does this tell us about the future of religion? We will examine the paranormal as an “other” category for both religion and science. Organized religion uses it to distinguish the miraculous from unsanctioned activities like witchcraft and the occult. Science frames itself as the opposite of superstition. And yet in a “disenchanted” world, it’s important to ask why we continue to be fascinated with the paranormal, as seen in the explosion of the topic in film (horror, superheroes), television, gaming and manga. This course takes a multi-methodological approach that includes critical theory, folklore studies, laboratory research, and cognitive science. It also examines the role of the paranormal in human experience of healing and psychological transformation. Topics include telepathy, precognition, UFOs, government-sponsored research (US and Soviet), cryptozoology (Bigfoot, etc.), hauntings, curses and taboos, near-death experiences, possession (including erotic encounters), mediums, and channeling. Students will learn to look critically at both the phenomena and attempts to explain them. (WR 4)
REL 4188 – Environmental Values and Practice – Anna Peterson
Examines the ethical, religious, and political dimensions of the relationship between ideas and practices, including the divergence between expressed values and actual practices, and some possible reasons for this divergence.
REL 4368 / RLG 5361 – Global Islam – Ali Mian
Addresses the need for a deeper understanding of the diversity of Muslim cultures/societies in the contemporary global context; combines topical and geographical approach and studies Islam as it intersects with broader social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics.
REL 4400 / RLG 5937 – Religion and Psychology – Ali Mian
Covers theoretical and empirical approaches to religion and psychology as well as psychoanalysis. Are psychology and psychoanalysis helpful for analyzing religious traditions and texts? What alternatives to psychology and psychoanalysis do religious traditions elaborate? Specific themes to be studied include the unconscious, dream interpretation, trauma and PTSD, anxiety, mourning and melancholia, dissociation, narcissism, and humor and its relation to psychic experience.
RLG 6036 – Method and Theory II – Benjamin Soares
Study of religion in light of recent challenges in the humanities and social sciences. Special attention to the concept of religion and its origins in Christian culture of Western Europe; and to the engagement of religion in colonial culture.
RLG 6183 – Religion and Environmental Ethics – Anna Peterson
Examines diverse philosophical and religious perspectives on environmental values, with particular attention to the relationship between ideas and practices.