21 courses with the subject IFS, 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.
IFS 100Understanding the Bible4
What is the Bible? Who wrote it? When and where was it written, edited, and collected? How did it come to be so important in World culture? How can we answer these and other questions asked of a text of such authority and antiquity? This course follows the history of the text and the academic discipline of Biblical criticism. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
Is religion unavoidably connected with violence? How has religion been used to motivate and justify violent conflict, aggression, and persecution? Does religion have a greater power to make war or to make peace? Scholars take a wide range of stances on these central questions about the relationship between religion and violence. This class will study critical theories about religion and violence and compare them to historical data. It is organized around four modes of violence: 1) martyrdom and redemptive suffering, 2) the violence of social stratification and “othering,” 3) traditional, political war and 4) apocalyptic and spiritual warfare. Case studies include early Christian martyrs, the American Civil War, attacks on abortion clinics and on theTokyo subway to clarify patterns and types of religious violence. Classes will consist of discussion, debates, films, and student presentations and explore the representation of religion and violence in the media, literature, and film.
This course is a general introduction to and an exploration of various matters regarding faith and science. The main springboard for the course will be the writings of C. S. Lewis that discuss and provide critical reflection on topics like atheism, the Big Bang theory, Christianity, culture, evolutionary theory, imagination, logic, myths, rationality, reason, religion, secularism, science, spirituality, theology, and theory. As an atheist who converted to Christianity to become its most significant defender in the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis continues to be relevant, perhaps even more so than in his time, for understanding the relationship between faith and science in a religiously pluralistic and increasingly secular world. Even though his reflections are from a Christian (and European) perspective, they provide a nexus of questions that can help all people from all perspectives think more clearly.
This introductory course will cover basic questions about Christianity and its continuing significance: What is Christianity? How have various Christians expressed and explained their faith in different times and places? How have they related to the rest of the world and the issues of the day (e.g., today’s concerns about equality, feminism, politics, racism, multiculturalism, relativism)? Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
An introduction to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, with particular attention to how it evolved and was celebrated in Russia. Students will explore the dogmas, liturgy, iconography, and history of the Orthodox Church; and attention will be given to the relationship between the Church and the State, particularly under communism. Students will also be asked to compare Orthodoxy with Western Christian traditions and with their own notions of worship and religious expression. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
Despite a huge diversity of individual positions on religion, it remains a universal and highly influential human activity. This course examines the narratives, rituals, symbols, moralities, and ultimate goals of the world’s religious communities. Particular attention is given to concepts and tools for understanding and analyzing religious behavior as an expression of human experience. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
The Western World is dominated by the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This course inspects the contents and the histories of these traditions as well as other less well-known traditions such as Zoroastrianism, indigenous traditions of Africa and America, and the New Religious Movements of the modern era. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
Hinduism and Buddhism are the major, but not the only, religious traditions to have emerged from the Indian sub-continent. This course studies the histories, narratives, rituals, scriptures, concepts, and meditative practices of the religions of India, including their increasing influence in our own society. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
Religious practices in China are a mixture of Daoism, Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and folk traditions, although Christianity and Islam are also present. The interactions of these traditions through China’s long history offers a fascinating insight into the human behaviors that we call “religion.” Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
This introductory course examines the ways religion has influenced the United States from the colonial period to the present. As well as the characteristics of the country’s diverse spiritual traditions, four interconnected themes are addressed: religious pluralism, religious freedom and its relationship to state power, individual spiritual experience, and social reform and religion. How, at various times, have these themes reflected, contradicted, inspired, and reinforced broader dynamics in the American past? Meets Religious & Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
Religion and art are intimately connected. Visual arts such as painting and sculpture express and enhance religious narrative, but more-music, dance, drama, and all performative and productive arts are seen as somehow giving access to the Extraordinary. How can art “express the inexpressible”? What might this tell us about religion? Meets Visual and Performing Arts Intellectual Perspective requirement (VP).
Philosophical studies of various specific topics, such as philosophy of science, of religion, of the mind, etc. More than one course in this sequence may be taken for credit, as long as each course has a different number, indicating different content. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
Subject
IFS
Credits (min)
4
Credits (max)
4
Credit unit
Semester Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
may be taken for credit, as long as each course has a different number, indicating different content.
This course explores the methods and theories that Religious Studies scholars use to study religious belief and practice. Students will learn how to apply a variety of methods to understand religious expressions, from historical criticism to cognitive science. Theoretical perspectives studied will include race, sex, and gender studies, postmodern theory, and post/de-colonial theory.
Hermeneutics is an interdisciplinary study of interpretation. It examines how human beings experience the world and life as intelligible. We will ask fundamental questions regarding such intelligibility: What is a text? What is a context? What is language? What is meaning? Can everything we perceive be considered texts, including people and the world itself? What are the principles and methods of understanding the world of human “objects”-i.e., forms of human expression such as paintings, laws, literature, music, and religions?
Junior or senior status or permission of the instructor.
IFS 277Religion and Society4
A study of contemporary religious beliefs, practices and organizations, primarily in the United States, as they derive from and influence a social context. Significant study of the Old Order Amish, as well as of the debate about secularization, the increased importance of evangelical Christianity, and new religions. Meets Religious and Philosophical Thought Intellectual Perspective requirement (RP).
