56 courses with the subject RELG, 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.
RELG 101The World's Religions1.00
An introduction to the variety of the world's religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the indigenous faiths of Africa and America. The course explores and compares religious beliefs, values, practices, rituals, texts, images, and stories, in their historical, cultural, and political contexts. It examines diversity and concordance within each tradition, encouraging students to reflect thoughtfully on the nature of religion and the ways it shapes communities and individuals through the world. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Explores the intersection between religion, power, and politics in our world today. Students study several major religious communities and examine how scholars wrestle with some of the following contemporary
In the desert landscape of 7th century Arabia, a middle-aged Arab tribesman and caravan trader named Muhammad began to hear the word of God and declared himself a prophet. Within decades, Muhammad's message sparked a religious and social revolution that changed the course of human history. Students examine the rise of Islam, its emergence as a diverse global religion, and its multi-faceted encounters with Western-style modernity. Students begin by studying the Qur'an, the life of Muhammad, and the stories of his immediate successors. Who exactly was Muhammad, and what was the nature of his message? What challenges did the early Muslim community face? Following our exploration of the earliest phases of Islamic history, students then delve into the formation of two major streams of Islamic thought: shari'a (Islamic law) and Sufism (Islamic mysticism). The final third of the semester focuses on Muslim responses to European colonialism and Western-style modernity. Specifically, students examine colonial-era changes to shari'a, Muslim debates over how to build a modern Islamic state, and the experiences of individual Muslims in our contemporary world. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Introduces students to the variety of American Indian traditional religions and historical religious movements. After an evaluation of the methods used in understanding Indian religions and a survey of their culture areas, students look at American Indian worldviews, concepts of the supernatural, mythology, ceremonialism, dreams and visions, medicine, witchcraft, shamanism, nature-relations, and conceptions of the soul. In a given semester, examples from Navajo, Lakota, Skagit, Inuit, Hopi, and Ojibwa religions are described in some detail, in order to show how the individual characteristics are integrated; then students examine the effects of Christian missions and the most important religious movements among American Indians since white contact, e.g., the Ghost Dance, the Peyote Religion, and others.
An exploration of the Hindu gods and goddesses of India through their myths. For centuries Indians have been telling stories about the gods through sacred scripture, folklore, and pilgrimage traditions, and more recently in comic books, television series, and films. Through close readings of India's mythic and epic texts communicated through diverse media, students gain an introduction to Hinduism as a dynamic, living religious tradition. Anyone attempting to understand the complexities of Indian culture, politics, and society soon encounters the gods and goddesses of the Hindu tradition. Besides introducing student to these fascinating figures and their stories, the course seeks to explore broader questions in the study of religion including the politics of gendered visions of the divine, and the effects of the medium on the transmission of religious messages. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
As a minority culture, throughout history, Jews and Judaism have always been subject to the influence of the majority cultures in which Jews have found themselves. In response to the shocks of modernity, ruptures, scientific advancements, and philosophical ideas and challenges, Jewish thinkers, culture, and individuals formulated responses—religious and otherwise. Students explore how Judaism has responded to modernity, the "age of secularism." To wit, students focus on distinctively modern expressions of Judaism: the range of denominations, their historical origins, ideologies, and attitudes to Jewish law and its development, secularism, religious and secular Zionism. Students explore these developments through primary texts within their historical contexts to better understand contemporary Judaism as it is expressed and practiced, mainly in North America and Israel, as a religion and also as a culture. Crosslisted: JWST 283 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Central to this study is the understanding of Roman Catholicism as a living, dynamic, multi-faceted set of religious traditions. The focus may change each term. The time frame is usually from the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) to the present, although the full panoply of Catholic history, doctrine, and liturgy is under review. Topics may include the Church's self-understanding, the historical context of American Catholicism, cultural pluralism within global Catholicism, and contemporary issues such as war and peace, social and economic justice, sexuality and reproduction, grassroots liberation efforts, and environmental concerns. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Explores the many faces of Buddhism across time and space, from the "pre-lives" of the Buddha to modern Buddhists and Buddhist modernists today. Through the close reading of mythical narratives, hagiography, philosophical tracts, canonical sermons and legal codes as well historical and ethnographic accounts, students seek to understand what Buddhism is and what it has meant and continues to mean for Buddhists around the world. Topics that are regularly featured include the motif of renunciation, meditation, the importance of scripture in orienting devotion, the economy of merit, the monastic ideal and the social realities of monastic life, Buddhist kingship, Buddhist philosophical deconstruction, the bodhisattva ideal, and Buddhism's confrontation with modernity, the West, and science. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
What accounts for the popularity of Tibetan Buddhism among certain Hollywood elite as well as a growing number of Chinese in the world today? Why did Tibet give rise to the unique institution of the reincarnating lama, best known in the West through the figure of the Dalai Lama? What goes on in Tibetan monasteries, the largest monasteries in world history? Understanding the answers to these questions requires that one examine the place and privilege of religion and Buddhism in particular in Tibetan culture. Through the close reading of the autobiography of a Tibetan saint, Buddhist myth, ethnographic descriptions, and philosophical treatises, as well as Buddhist art and other media, students come to understand the centrality of religion to many aspects of life in Tibet, and gain a basic understanding of Buddhist philosophy, ritual/contemplative practices, pilgrimage, popular practices, monastic life, and other facets of religion and life in Tibet. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
An introduction to the complex, expansive religious landscape of African American life from the transatlantic slave trade to the contemporary moment. Through an examination of specific traditions, including conjure and other folk religious practices, Black churches, the Nation of Islam, and the emergence of Black, Womanist, and Black Feminist theologies, students gain an understanding of the historical, theological, and aesthetic dimensions that make African American religions distinct. Students also consider how these traditions define broader concepts, such as death, the body, and the natural environment. Crosslisted: ALST 244 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
On the types of religions in Africa, the Caribbean, Central, North and South Americas. Issues examined include worldviews, concepts of divinity, ancestors, personhood, the meaning of sacrifice, symbols, and rituals, and the relationship between art and religion. Students learn the ways political and social change, Christianity, and Islam impact African religions and African-based religions such as Candomble, Umbanda, and Macumba in Brazil, Orisha in Trinidad and Tobago, Rastafari in Jamaica, Santeria in Cuba, and Voodoo in Haiti and the United States. Students take a closer look at Roman Catholic teachings, spiritual, and ritual practices enable African-based religions to thrive in spite of aggressive Christian missionary enterprise. The
RELG 221Religion, Identity, and Politics in Indonesia1.00
What does it mean to be Hindu or Muslim? How do these religious identities intersect with being a nationalist, a communist, or a capitalist in our world today? Coursework positions Indonesia, the world's 4th most populous country, as a valuable starting point to answer important questions about religion, identity, and politics. Students begin with an in-depth introduction to Hinduism and Islam, paying particular attention to how Indonesians practice these two religions. Next, students examine a series of Hindu and Muslim encounters/collisions with Western colonialism. Students conclude by studying how both communism and capitalism have reshaped Hinduism and Islam in contemporary Indonesia in surprising ways. Coursework does not assume any previous study of Hinduism, Islam, or Indonesia. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Based on comparative scriptural analysis or what is now called "Scriptural Reasoning." The focus will be on close readings of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur'an with an eye to common themes and differences. Students will engage in a comparison of interpretive traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam to see how particular scriptural passages are understood in the religious traditions. The course will also spend time studying the ways in which scriptural reasoning has been used as a form of religious conflict resolution and peace-building in situations of conflict in the UK and Middle East. Crosslisted: JWST 222 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
How does religion interplay with visual and material culture? Students examine how religious ideas and concepts take the form of visual art, material objects, film, and architecture. Topics of study include depictions of themes such as creation, ritual, salvation, ancestral veneration, and ecstatic feeling that are associated with a range of traditions, such as Christianity, Islam, Vodou, and Santeria. In addition to an introduction to tools of visual and object analysis, students also gain an understanding of how sensory engagement is central to religious belief and practice as well as how religious questions and ideas often animate artistic and creative expression. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
RELG 230Feasting and Fasting: Religion and Food1.00
Examines a range of religious and cultural attitudes about food. What foods are celebrated? What foods forbidden? Who can eat what and when? Through a comparative approach to food restrictions and injunctions, feasts and fasts, and food-based rituals and liturgies in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, students investigate the role food plays in defining religious boundaries and identities. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
RELG 232Health and Healing in Ancient Mediterranean Religions1.00
A look at how illness, health, and healing are understood and experienced in parts of the ancient Mediterranean world, between 500 BCE and 600 CE, where illness is not defined merely as a physiological problem, but is also seen to have important spiritual, aesthetic, social, and political causes and effects. Similarly, while biomedicine defines health as the absence of disease, in ancient medicine, health is about achieving balance between different elements in the body, such as wind, water, and fire. Students develop an appreciation for the culturally and historically patterned ways in which people come to identify and treat bodily, psychological, and social distress. For instance, students examine curses and spirit possession in a variety of contexts as both a form of affliction and as a mode of healing. Students look at the role of traditional healers; how cultures vary in what they consider to be the causes of illness; who gets sick; what forms illness takes; and how the social, political, and aesthetic dimensions of health and healing affect treatment outcomes. Readings are drawn from the fields of ancient medical texts, medical humanities, ethnomedicine, and the anthropology of religion, to explore how illness and health are conceptualized and experienced in different cultures and across different sites of healing. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
RELG 235Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation1.00
On mediation and conflict resolution, focusing on the role and function of religion toward peace and reconciliation, but also religion as a factor in the cause(s) of a conflict and war. In 2024, there are wars and conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Sudan, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Armenia-Azerbaijan, the Sahel Region (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso), and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Religion is a moral force that can influence politicians and rally people toward war or peace as observed on both sides of the Israel-Gaza war. Religion can also be a tool in diplomacy towards conflict resolution and restoration of political order, e.g., Mozambique, Northern Ireland. Students examine the scriptural, theological, and ethical teachings of various religions on justice, conflict resolution, peace, and reconciliation. Students also examine the theological writings on justice, war, and peace by Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Schleiermacher. Students explore the possibility of non-violence ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
In the 17th century, religion lost its claim to the cosmos; the religious knowledge of the order of nature ceased to possess any legitimacy in the new paradigm of science that came to dominate the West. Until the 1960s, Christian thinkers considered it the great glory of Christianity that it alone among the world's religions had permitted purely secular science to develop in a civilization in which it was dominant. After several centuries of an ever-increasing eclipse of the religious significance of nature in the West and neglect of the
Terrorists are often driven by extremist beliefs staunchly rooted in religious, racial, and ethical rationales for torture, violence, and genocide. The course provides a theoretical and empirical understanding, and explanation of terrorism. While tracing the history of terrorism to the ancient West, students will also identify various analytical approaches to the study of terrorism, recognize terrorist groups, and review terrorist tactics. Students will examine the ways that states counter terror, and the choices and the tradeoffs states face when confronting terrorism. Students will examine terrorist individuals and groups in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism such as the Ku Klux Klan, Timothy Mc Veigh, Republican Army in Ireland, Orthodox Rabbi Meir Kahane, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, Osama bin Laden, Boko Haram, Islamic State, and Shoko Asahara in Japan. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Studies selected significant religious questions, themes and texts from American religious history. While the specific issues and topics vary, the course is typically organized around an investigation into the challenges and opportunities presented by America's extraordinary religious pluralism. Issues examined may include: inter-religious encounter from Columbus to the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, religion on the American "frontier," the counter-cultural appropriation of Asian religions, the experience of migration, church- state relations, religion and media, and religion and social justice movements in America. Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Religion continues to exert major influences upon the shape of American life in the 21st century. Students study themes and controversies in American religious life during the decades since the end of the Second World War, and especially since the pivotal event of 9/11/2001 and its aftershocks, focusing upon the study of religious diversity and the changing religious landscape of America; issues of church and state; religion and politics; and religious ideas and values as they have shaped, and been expressed in, popular culture. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
RELG 246Race, Ethnicity, Religion in the Ancient World1.0
Examines the concepts of race, ethnicity, and the social construction of religion and religious identities in the Roman Mediterranean world during the Imperial period from 27BCE-476CE, including the changing definitions and resonances of these three categories within their discrete ancient contexts. Students probe the various ways ancient authors expressed and articulated identity, difference and Otherness, and negotiated cultural and religious self-definitions and boundaries within the cosmopolitan and multicultural world of the dynamic and fluid Roman Empire. How were conceptual formations of race, ethnicity, or religion used to diminish or elevate status, legitimate practices of oppression and marginality, or compel resistance? Claims and assumptions of "ethnic superiority" by some, and the social entrenchment of marginalized persons (the enslaved, prostitutes, the disabled, etc.) by others, invite close analyses and assessment. Most notably, students examine how contemporary discussions of race, ethnicity, inequality, religious pluralism, imperialism, and power and gender disparities in modernity have been shaped by ancient ideas. Primary and secondary source readings include archaeological records, medical texts, and artistic and ethnographical records. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
Examines various ways humans have attempted to anticipate, accept, deny, defeat, or transcend death. What survives death? What stories and techniques have people shared to imagine immortality? Our approach is comparative, with emphasis on sacred stories and practices of Buddhists, Hindus, ancient Greeks and Egyptians, Jews, Christians, and Muslims and their legacies for our current debates over
RELG 248Christianity, Islam, and Political Change in Africa1.00
The course explores how Christianity and Islam have caused or influenced conflict and division or greater political and social freedoms in Africa. Select countries are examined as case studies: Nigeria and Sudan for conflict and division; South Africa and Malawi for democratization of society. The course covers the spread of Christianity and Islam, colonial (British, French, and German) policy and Christian missionaries' attitude toward Islam, separation of religion and state (the debate over Islamic Law, Shar'ia), and religion and politics. Movements within Islam (Islamic brotherhoods, Madhist movement) and Christianity (liberation, black, womanist/feminist theologies) are also studied. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
The death of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War represents a radical challenge to faith in Judaism, in Christianity, and in humanism. Study begins with a historical overview of the Holocaust and uses accounts of Holocaust survivors to articulate the challenge of the Holocaust to faith. Then students review philosophical and theological responses to this challenge by a variety of Jewish, Christian, and secular authors. Crosslisted: JWST 251 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Plagues, pandemics, and epidemics have visited fear, chaos, and death upon global communities and nations for millennia. Catastrophes like the Bubonic Plague of 14th century Europe (1348-50), plagues in the
A cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary approach to the questions of how notions of sex and gender have been shaped by religious discourse, myth, doctrine, and ritual. How have various forms of sexual expression come to be seen as normal, while others are seen as deviant? How has passionate love served as a metaphor for the expression of religious experiences, such as the union of the soul with God? How have people thought to "channel" sexual energy to pursue spiritual projects, as in tantra and religious celibacy? Topics of study may include queer spirituality, virginity, celibacy, sacred prostitution, ecstasy and mysticism, and the role of gender queer and third-gender people in religious myth and ritual in contexts such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
RELG 254AI and God: Reconciling Science, Religion, Artificial Intelligence1
The rapid development and use of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter AI) technologies across the globe promises to transform every aspect of human life as we know it. AI's integration and aspiration for inclusion in global cultures within public and private domains and industries (digital medicine, biomedicine, criminal justice, cybersecurity, robotics) is endless. Will clones be a viable medical resource for organ procurement, and virtual friends, digital lovers, and sex robots fulfill the human social need for intimacy? What are the practical and ethical implications of advances in robotics for religious conceptions of the world, and religious conceptions of the uniqueness of human life and consciousness? Students explore the nexus between Science, Religion and AI, including the theistic implications of thinking machines in Transhumanism, the portrayals of AI technologies as gods in literature and film, and AI's episodic complicity in nurturing racial, gender, religious, and colonialist bias. Major/Minor Restrictions: None
What do we mean when we talk about "the separation of church and state"? Where does this principle originate? Are there exceptions? This course explores the relationship between religion and law in the United States. Students consider the question of what Americans mean when they speak of the separation of church and state and explore the ways in which the U.S. Supreme Court has attempted to implement this principle within American law. Students examine a variety of influential theories of church-state separation, and read some of the most important First Amendment cases of the 20th and early 21st centuries. This course does not assume any prior knowledge of U.S. religion or U.S. law. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
The September 11th attacks left an indelible mark on both American political discourse and the experiences of Muslim communities across the globe. This course asks: how should we conceptualize the relationship between Islam and the West in our post-9/11 world? Together, we will explore the history and ideas behind contemporary headlines in an effort to understand the roots of Islamist violence, American foreign policy towards Muslim-majority countries, Muslim debates over the future of their faith, and popular discourse on Islam in the West. We will look at a wide range of sources and perspectives in order to tackle these difficult but exceedingly relevant issues. Crosslisted: MIST 262 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
RELG 265Global Public Health Ethics, Bioethics and Religion
The revolution in biotechnology has given humanity powers unimaginable a few decades ago. Students examine moral and ethical dilemmas arising from the interface of human experience and advances in biology, medicine, and technology (human embryonic stem cell applications, cloning, genetic engineering, euthanasia, etc.). Global inquiry arising from public health and bioethcis topics places these deliberations on the international stage, with a focused exploration of diverse and competing transnational theoretical debates. Assessments of public health and bioethics issues within Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism,
RELG 271Religion and Politcs in Chinese Thought1.00
Political power in China has always been inextricably tied to religion or claims of cosmic righteousness. Students look at the foundational political and ethical writings for premodern and modern China. Classical Chinese thought was defined by the violence of the times and was therefore directed toward the question of how to establish social order and harmony. Later Neo-Confucian writers describe a universe in which all things are one body, and good governance is seen as a natural outgrowth of a ruler who is attuned to this fact. The 20th and 21st centuries bring about radical change but also continuities with the past, and students examine these by reading important speeches by Mao Zedong and essays by 21st-century political theorists. Throughout, students learn to appreciate the ardor and sophistication that Chinese intellectuals and statesmen have directed toward the pursuit of the good, and students gain an understanding of why Chinese considerations of what is good and right sometimes differ drastically from those in the West. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
The Bible is not only the best-selling book in America, but is arguably the book that has most profoundly shaped the United States. This course is an introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its American contexts, particularly American public life. In reading the Hebrew Bible, students ask themselves how these scriptures have shaped American politics, culture, history, and literature. Who has used the Bible and how? To whom does the Bible now speak, and what does it say? In what sense is the Bible understood to be an American text? This course presumes no knowledge of the Christian or Jewish Bibles. Crosslisted: JWST 208 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None
What role does literary art play in the shaping of biblical narrative? How does the construction of the sacred text reflect its theological meaning? The religious vision of the Bible is given depth and subtlety precisely by being conveyed literarily; thus, the primary concern in this course is with the literature and literary influence of the received text of the Bible rather than with the history of the text's creation. As students read through the canon they establish the boundaries of the texts studied, distinguish the type(s) of literature found in them, examine their prose and poetic qualities, and identify their surface structures. Students also consider the literary legacy of the Bible and the many ways that subsequent writers have revisited its stories. Crosslisted: JWST 213 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None
RELG 279). Our more advanced 300- and 400-level courses emphasize theoretical approaches to the study
of religion. The study of religion is necessarily interdisciplinary, making reflective use of the full variety of liberal arts methods. It engages related issues in philosophy, ethics, society, spirituality, science, gender, sexuality, arts, and politics. Thus, a major or minor in religion may serve as a natural complement to other majors. Students in the arts and humanities, for instance, will find that the study of religious texts and worlds affords them greater insight into literature and visual art. Students in political science, history, environmental studies, and other social science fields will find that our courses enable them to explore significant religious approaches to law and politics and to think deeply about the role of ethics and morality in public life. Students interested in careers in medicine and the health sciences will find that courses in religion equip them to cultivate greater cross-cultural sensitivity and to evaluate the moral complexity of current scientific advances. The success of our graduates indicates that a major in religion provides excellent preparation for a number of careers, including education, government, journalism, medicine, finance, law, social work, and professional service in non-profit organizations and religious institutions.
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Explores the interaction of indigenous religions and secular law in the United States. What does the U.S. Constitution say about Indigenous religious beliefs and practices? Why have Indigenous beliefs and practices been historically marginalized within U.S. law, and what does this history tell us about the separation of church and state? Students address these questions through an exploration of key U.S. Supreme Court cases from the 20th and 21st centuries. No prior knowledge of U.S. religion or U.S. law is assumed. Crosslisted: NAST 320 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Over the past two centuries, Islam - like many other religions - has experienced a series of radical challenges and transformations. This course untangles the nature of these changes by focusing on the two most significant streams of modern Islamic thought: Islamism and Islamic modernism. Students explore questions like: how did various Muslims respond to European colonialism? How do Islamist thinkers envision justice, relations with other religious groups, and the role of violence in constructing an Islamic state, and what are the differences among them? How have Muslim modernists in turn worked to fuse Western-style modernity and the Islamic tradition? In order to answer these questions, students read a variety of primary sources from influential Muslim thinkers as well as contemporary scholarship on the Islamist and modernist movements. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does a benevolent, all-powerful God permit evil? Students explore some of the historical, philosophical, and religious perspectives on the etiology, manifestations, and functions of human suffering and evil within global human communities. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Selected historical perspectives on the connections among religion, violence, and power as a context for contemporary studies of the role of religion in society. Most of the course focuses on liberation theologies, with their emphasis on hope, empowerment, and right relationships. Voices of liberation theologians may be drawn from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as marginalized people in the United States. The latter include womanist, mujerista, Latino/a, Asian-American, African-American, Jewish, homosexual, and feminist groups; most integrate personal experience with theological reflection. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
What is "black" about black religion? Students examine "blackness" as both a racial/cultural descriptor as well as a theoretical term that describes expansive ways of being in the world. Students consider how theories of blackness inform a range of perspectives in the study of religion concerning what black religion is and how it functions. Particular focus is given to how blackness signals the existence of alternative, queer practices of gender, sexuality, and relationality that are central to black religious experience. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
"Christianity is freedom. Freedom is free enterprise; hence capitalism is Christianity in action." Following contemporary research, students will explore the relation from the high medieval monasteries to the present, highlighting the 17th and 18th-century Christian and Jewish farmers and traders, 19th-century British industrialists, and the 21st-century consumers, financiers and traders in commodities and various financial instruments (e.g., stocks, bonds, equities, derivatives, and securities, etc.). The course will investigate how worldviews and religious teachings order a lifestyle and a value system that inform and influence a particular economic activity. The course includes: what capitalism is (i.e., its elements and types, and the classical theories of capitalism); investigate the religious views, the cultural and social history that gave rise to capitalism, and the intellectual and economic innovations that turned capitalism into a system. Topics of discussions will include: capitalism and the environment, poverty and the Puritan work ethic, culture and global capitalism, capitalism and moral values, and the relation between contemporary spirituality and capitalism. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Explores the American church-state debate through the lens of abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. These sexual freedom and reproductive rights issues raise questions that reach to the very heart of the American political project. What is the scope of our right to engage in private behavior? Do longstanding religious and moral traditions have a place within a secular legal system? Are there limits to the Constitution's guarantee of religious free exercise, and, if so, how do we determine these limits? These issues have generated intense social and political conflict, and are at the center of today's "culture wars" in the U.S. This course will provide students with a robust background in the legal history of these issues, and will furnish students with a framework for making sense of some of today's most contentious political battles in the U.S.
A course on European and American Jewish thought, covering a spectrum of liberal and traditional figures. The course studies the ways in which Jewish thinkers have responded to the challenges of modern philosophy, religious pluralism, and feminism. Modern reformulations of traditional Jewish ideas and religious practices are discussed as well as contemporary theological exchanges between Jews and Christians. Readings are taken from such figures as Mendelssohn, Buber, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Fackenheim, and Plaskow. Crosslisted: JWST 339 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Recommended: Previous courses in the Jewish tradition and/or philosophy are recommended. Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Do we live in a secular age? Most of us would assert that we do, but what do we mean when we make this claim? Are we referring to the political separation of church and state, to a decline in religious beliefs and practices, or to something else? These questions have recently come to occupy a central place within the study of religion. This course explores the topic of secularism from a variety of angles, including differing notions of what is meant by the term "secular"; an examination of the historical development of secular ideas and institutions; a comparison of different secular political projects; and a series of important critiques of secularism. This course encourages students to think critically and creatively about the relationship between "the religious" and "the secular," and it thus enhances students' understanding of religion, secularism, and modernity more broadly. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
What is the relationship between religion and human rights? Do human rights stem from particular religious ideals, and, if so, can such rights be universalized? What happens when human rights conflict with longstanding religious beliefs and practices? This course explores the complex relationship between religion and human rights from a variety of perspectives: theological, philosophical, sociological, and legal-political. Students will examine some of today's most prominent voices on this topic, and will explore a variety of case studies involving both positive and negative interactions between religion and human rights. This course does not assume any prior knowledge of religion or human rights law. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Since the end of World War II, the United States has been a dominant force in global politics. How exactly has religion shaped U.S. foreign policy during these crucial decades? Do American officials tend to promote Christianity, secularism, both, or neither when they work abroad? How have American policies, in turn, impacted the philosophy and practice of religions across the globe? To begin to answer these questions, students examine the many ways in which religion, secularism, and U.S. foreign policy have intersected since World War II. Special topics of interest include: the post-war U.S. occupation of Japan, the use of religion as a weapon in the Cold War, American engagement with Islam after the 9/11 attacks, and the contested concept of religious freedom. Students read cutting-edge scholarship on religion and U.S. foreign policy, investigate important primary sources related to U.S. interventions abroad, and conduct original research on a foreign policy-related topic of their choosing. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
RELG 352Theory and Method in the Study of Religion1.00
Takes a critical look at the history of religious studies in the modern West and proceeds to chart some contemporary developments. Some of the issues that may come under investigation include, but are not restricted to, the quest for a science of religion, the impact of gender and race theory on religious studies, theories of religion and violence, the secularization of academic approaches to religion, and the nature of religion itself. The broad aim is to deepen reflection on the ways in which religion can become an object of study. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Students seek to understand the historical formation of such concepts as "ethnicity," "race," and "nationality" (and, of course, their Chinese counterparts: zuqun 族群、zhongzu 種族、minzu 民族, etc.) in the Greater Chinese world. Students also explore the consequences of this history for the identities and lives of the people who live by them, especially the so-called "minorities" shaoshu minzu 少數民族 of the People's Republic of China. Because the largest of these minoritized peoples are also always identified by their religious affiliation (Tibetan and Mongol Buddhists, Uyghur and Hui Muslims), questions arise concerning the relationships between racial/ethnic categories and identities and religious ones. Students thus explore the roles of religion, secularism, and the state in shaping perceptions of and policies for these minoritized peoples. Part history, part ethnography, and part theory, students are challenged to reconsider the simple labels of "Chinese," "China," "minority," and so on, and as such it parallels global movements and conversations taking place vis-à-vis ethnicity and identity. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Presents students with the opportunity to explore their own research interests and expand upon work that they have undertaken in previous religion courses. Students will read a selection of advanced texts related to the broader study of religion, and, in consultation with the faculty member, will undertake collaborative research, writing, and peer-editing of an independent research paper on a topic of their choice. When Offered: Fall semester only Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Students pursuing honors in religion enroll in this course. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Religion Majors Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
