6 courses with the subject RE, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
RE 2721Religion and Culture1/3
The purpose of this course is to examine how the two institutions of religion and culture interact and mutually influence one another. To do this a variety of definitions of religion and culture will be presented as well as an analysis of how religion interacts with such cultural phenomena as economics, politics, the state, war and the basic problem of social change. The purpose of this is to obtain a variety of perspectives on both religion and culture so that one can begin to articulate more clearly the different influences that occur in the development of one’s own personal history and the culture in which one lives.
This course examines the ways in which religious problems of meaning have been encountered in the context of the eclipse of religion in Western culture from the Enlightenment to the present. The class emphasizes challenges presented to traditional belief systems by modern thought in areas such as the sciences, psychology, textual criticism, and historical events, as well as some religious responses to those challenges. How do religions respond to the limits of human intellectual capacity, limits of human endurance, and limits of moral comprehension?This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
This topics course explores religious beliefs and practices through the lens of narrative, including sacred texts, hagiographies, folk tales, epic poems, graphic novels, popular songs, and film. Key questions may include: How do these narratives produce and/or influence gender roles, personal and political identities, power structures, and aesthetic norms? How do they function as pedagogical tools and sources of enjoyment? How are they adapted to fit different times, places, and cultural contexts? Through close readings of primary sources in a variety of genres, students will view religious narratives not as literal historical accounts but as media for conveying and propagating values, ethics, and beliefs. The focus will vary across course offerings to cover different religious traditions, geographic areas, identities, and genres. This course may be repeated for different topics. No prior background is required.
Patriarchal religious traditions are often characterized by masculine images of the Divine, cisgendered male religious authority, male-authored scriptures and a heteronormative gendered division of religious practices. As a result, men and cultural masculinity are differently valued than women and cultural femininity; this male-female binary leaves little room for practitioners who identify as nonbinary. In this discussion-focused course, we will engage representations of gender and sexuality in different traditions and their impact on larger social contexts from philosophical, theological and ethnographic perspectives. Among the questions we will explore: Why does the idea of a female or feminine YHWH, God or Allah bother us? Can feminine representations (such as the Devi, Shakti or Shekhinah) or nonbinary representations (such as two-spirit people in indigenous communities) facilitate gender equity? Do mystical traditions (such as the Zohar or Sufism) encourage gender fluidity? How do religions influence sexuality; how does sexuality intersect with creation myths and cosmogonies? Why is a Buddhist nun expected to bow to a Buddhist monk; why does the Catholic Church not recognize women, nonbinary and / or queer priests? This combination of theoretical and methodological conversations will offer students a forum in which to recast assumptions about individual and collective identity that permeate our cultural systems and structures.
