Department of Religious Studies

How does religion become a source of ethnic or racial prejudice among religious practitioners? When does prejudice against religious persons constitute a form of racism? This class explores answers to these questions by examining the connections between religion and racism in modern societies like the United States and South Africa.

This course explores the ways in which religion, magic, and science are defined in the modern world and the different forms in which supernaturalism circulates within contemporary culture.

Christian orthodox beliefs or practices often get formulated expressly to marginalize a viewpoint or community considered too radical. This course examines a variety of Western Christian dissenters and the authorities who opposed them: Gnostics; medieval, Spanish, and Latin American inquisitions; Protestant Anabaptists; witches; Galileo; Mormons; and Pentecostals.

In this seminar students learn about the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient manuscripts dating to the time of Jesus from caves around the site of Qumran by the Dead Sea. They include early copies of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and sectarian works belonging to the Jewish community that lived in Qumran.

An introduction to the Islamic religious tradition, focusing on major themes of Islamic religious thought, bringing out both traditional spirituality and the critical issues confronting Muslims today.

This course examines the conflicting ways in which ancient myth, science, and philosophy explained creation of the universe, origins of mankind, nature of dreams, and foundations of culture.

Introduces students to Buddhism and traces its history in the United States, highlighting the period since 1965. It focuses on immigrants, converts, and the cultural influence of Buddhism in America.

This course explores how different religious traditions conceive of human nature and cultural personhood, and the ways that these understandings are reflected in diverse forms of personal identity and public life.

A comparative examination of prophet, scientist, and poet as critics and creators of the entrepreneurial outlook and sensibility in individuals and organizations with special attention to innovator's dilemmas. Honors version available.

Taking a global perspective, the course compares the manners in which Jewish communities in America, Israel, Europe, Asia, and Africa have accommodated themselves to the changing norms in gender and sexuality in the last generation.

This seminar explores the ways the historical Jesus has been portrayed in the writings of modern scholars and films of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Examines scholarly work on the overlap of religion and capitalism.

This course explores the messianic idea in America as well as the messianic movements that have been active in the nation's history and their interaction with American society and culture.

This course examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion. Honors version available.

Within the vast field of activity called "religion," this course examines how people and societies give meaning to the relation between human organisms and the universe in time and space. Honors version available.

This course will consider the questions of debt, loss, and surrender as we explore the problem of sacrifice. Readings will address the associated problems of violence, transgression, and animality.

This seminar explores the many ways that different religions and cultures have imagined spiritual wealth, secular riches, and the appropriate modes of interaction between them in different places and times.

This seminar asks why some people choose to take life (their own or another's) for religious purposes and how texts, practices, and communities shape these motives. Focuses on martyrological traditions in Western religions, but also tracks idioms of war, sacrifice, and ritualized suffering in other religious contexts and secular discourses.

An introduction to the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. We will look at the biblical text as modern interpreters and through the eyes of the Bible's earliest Jewish and Christian interpreters with special attention to changing assumptions about how to read the Bible and the nature of Scripture itself.

This course investigates the figure of the human animal in religion and philosophy. What kind of animal is the human, and what separates humans from animals? We will consider how attending to distinctions between humans and animals can highlight varying ideological and religious viewpoints.

This seminar considers the role of writing as a technology in the shaping of ancient religious traditions, from the inventions of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt to the advent of Islam. Topics include the early alphabet, magical/mystical uses of writing, religion and literacy, and the development of "Scripture" (e.g., Bible, Qur'an).

This course approaches the central role of discourses about sexual norms, marriage, and family in select religious traditions. It asks how religious traditions have defined and negotiated normative models for marriage and family in their connection to larger theological frameworks and religious source texts.

This course will examine autobiographies and memoirs from at least two religious traditions and different historical eras, in which individuals interpret their changing religious identity through first-person narrative and/or artistic expression. We will consider how individuals negotiate and represent themselves to different communities according to need, time, and circumstance.

In this seminar we will read several books. Most of them are bestsellers and can be described as "historical novels." Having these books as a starting point, we will explore religion and society in Europe and the Middle East in the medieval and early modern period.

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester. Honors version available.

An introduction to the academic study of religion that considers approaches to the interpretation of religion and includes study of several religious traditions.

This course examines forms of religious expression as embodied in several important religious traditions. It investigates religious experience; myth and ritual; teachings and scripture; historical, social, and artistic aspects of religion; and the nature and function of religion in society, with a special focus on ethics and values.

This course introduces students to the various books of the Hebrew Bible and to the history and culture of ancient Israel, focusing on the formation of national identity, ancient conceptualizations of divinity, ritual practice, and modes of social regulation, all of which are set against the background of the ancient Near East. Honors version available.

This course studies the New Testament from both a literary and a historical perspective, focusing on its origins in the land of Israel and moving into the eastern Mediterranean. In it students learn to wrestle with the nature of historical evidence, develop their skills for making argumentation, and learn how to analyze the philosophical and ethical claims of the ancient Christian texts, and participate in class debates on contemporary ethical issues. Honors version available.

An introduction to religions and the religious life of the ancient world (1000 BCE-300 CE) in various cultural settings: Greek cities, cosmopolitan Hellenistic kingdoms in Egypt and Syria, and the Roman Empire.

This course surveys Jewish history and religion during the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods, from the destruction of the First Jewish Temple (Solomon's Temple) in 586 BCE to the Muslim conquest of Palestine (640 CE).

The course offers a comprehensive understanding of the development of Judaism from the late Middle Ages to contemporary times.

This course will explore Jewish literary works that are considered "fundamental," "classic," "traditional" (often, all of the above), including the Hebrew Bible, the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud, midrashic collections, works by Maimonides, major codes of Jewish law, major kabbalistic, philosophic, poetic, and ethical works, hassidic compositions, and more.

An examination extending from Hebrew origins to the Babylonian exile and including political history as well as social and religious institutions. Honors version available.

This course surveys the archaeology of Palestine (modern Israel and Jordan) from the Persian period (ca. 586 BCE) to the Muslim conquest (640 CE).

What did the earliest Christian churches look like? How did Christians worship, and what behaviors and gestures set them apart from other ancient communities? This course probes these questions, illustrating how different Christian groups developed different ways of regulating the body, food, space, and gender, and how this diversity still impacts contemporary global Christian cultures. Topics include the evolution of baptism, exorcism, marriage, speaking in tongues, and burial rites. Previously offered as RELI 214.

An overview of the history and culture of the ancient Near East, from the birth of writing through the first millennium BCE, covering the regions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and Syria-Palestine.

An introductory course that explores relations between religion and culture through the examination of social theory and the analysis of case studies. The case studies focus on such issues as visual culture, ritual, media, gender, and politics. Honors version available.

An introduction to philosophical approaches to the study of religion, exploring such topics as religious language and experience, the problem of evil, the relation between religious belief and practice, and issues of religious diversity. Honors version available.

An introduction to the broad scope of Jewish history, culture, and identity, from biblical times to the 21st century and from the Middle East to the New World.

This course will explore cultural development and significance of religious notions of an afterlife. Are they coherent? What alternative notions of life after death can we imagine?

A philosophical inquiry into the problems of religious experience and belief, as expressed in philosophic, religious, and literary documents from traditional and contemporary sources. Honors version available.

This course explores the sometimes competing, sometimes compatible claims of science and religion, including conflicting views about creation, miracles, rituals, revelation, and human nature. Global and historical case studies will enable students to consider claims to authority (religious, philosophical, medical, and scientific), types of proof, and ethical implications.

Examines representations of religion in mass media, as well as the interplay of religious ideas and popular cultures.

In this course, students review the intersections of religious thought and social justice around the globe. We will review how liberation theologies emerge, for example, as pathways for addressing various social issues related to food insecurity, reproductive health, migration and citizenship, race, poverty, and religious freedom. Students will explore various debates related to ethics and social justice in relation to the study of religion in multiple geographic contexts.

A study of the nature, methods, and aims of ethics as seen in exemplary persons and actions with emphasis on religious and social context and contemporary problems. Honors version available.

This course examines the ethical quandaries that emerge as new technologies are mobilized in religious cultures. Honors version available.

This course explores the development of religious liberty and freedom of conscience in Western culture by examining both the historical emergence of these concepts and important contemporary controversies.

An introduction to the history, themes, and issues in American religion from the precolonial period to the present. Honors version available.

Survey of the historical development of various African American religious traditions, with emphasis on folk spirituality, gender issues, black nationalism, and the role of the church in the black community. Honors version available.

An introduction to Roman Catholicism in the United States.

An examination of Judaism in its two major centers, demonstrating how different social and cultural environments shape very different interpretations and practices of the Jewish tradition.

This course surveys the history of Latin American religious traditions from precontact to the present. It explores the contributions of African, indigenous, and European traditions as well as the extraordinary combinations that resulted from their interaction.

Analysis of continuities and innovations in the history of Christian traditions in the West and globally. Honors version available.

This course provides students with a first glimpse and insight into the Catholic tradition, past, present, and future: its beliefs, structure, aims, successes, and failures.

A consideration of major questions concerning religion in modern culture.

During the Middle Ages and the early modern era, various inquisitions used legal inquiry and torture to determine the boundaries of heresy. This course surveys the influence of these regimes on the doctrine, practices, and morality of heretics, mystics, witches, Jews, and Muslims, in the interest of delimiting "orthodox" Catholicism.

Comparative study of mysticism in several religious traditions, Eastern and Western. Honors version available.

Permission of the instructor. A religious studies approach to the rituals, cultures, and disciplines of the university, assessing the ways in which explanatory ideals are embedded, changed, and promoted. Honors version available.

Christianity began in Asia and Africa, followed by expansion into Europe and eventually the Americas. Now, the Global South again has the highest population of Christians. This course examines the geographical expansion of Christianity in its early history, then turns to modern and current processes of enculturation and globalization as well as inter-religious dynamics.

A broad, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary introduction to the traditional civilization of the Muslim world. Students may not receive credit for both RELI 180/ASIA 180 and ASIA 138/HIST 138.

This course surveys important developments in modern Muslim societies since the 16th century and up to the present. Topics covered include Muslim experiences with colonialism and nationalism, modernist reform movements, fundamentalism, women's activism and changes in Qur'an interpretation, Islamic law, and religious practice. Students may not receive credit for both RELI 181/ASIA 181 and ASIA 139/HIST 139.

An introduction to major religions of South Asia and East Asia, such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto.

This course surveys East Asian religions and their relationship with the natural world. It provides an East Asian religious perspective on environmental thought and an environmental perspective on East Asian religions. We will explore parallels and divergences, and how each can enrich and critique the other.

A survey of gender roles in Muslim societies from the advent of Islam to the present. It explores how Muslims have interpreted the Qur'an to determine discourses on gender and sexuality and emphasizes the role of religious authority as well as historical/geographical contexts for Muslim women's lives. Honors version available.

Permission of the instructor. Subject matter will vary with instructor but will always be focused on a particular problem or issue.

The course looks at the origins of biblical interpretation, how the Hebrew Bible was interpreted around the turn of the Common Era, the key formative period for early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. We consider the nature of interpretation as an endeavor, as well as how the Bible came to be viewed as Scripture. Honors version available.

This course examines the religious phenomenon of sacrifice with a focus on examples from the ancient Mediterranean world (including Greece, ancient Israel, and the Near East). Honors version available.

An examination of prophecy and divination in the Israelite-Jewish traditions and in their environments, including an analysis of the major biblical prophets. Honors version available.

An analysis of the variety of traditions used in the first two centuries to portray Jesus, focusing on the reasons for this variety and the historical and literary problems it presents.

An analysis of the origin of the Christian church and its early expansion, with particular emphasis on the problems evident in the shift from a Jewish to a Gentile framework. Paul's role in defining and resolving the issues is considered in detail and evaluated in the light of subsequent events.

A study of various forms of Christianity in the second and third centuries (e.g., Gnosticism, Marcionism, Montanism), focusing on their polemical relationship to orthodox Christianity. Honors version available.

An introduction to the culture and history of ancient Israel through an exploration of the language of the Hebrew Bible. Students will learn the essentials for basic engagement with biblical Hebrew, then consider what this linguistic evidence reveals about the historical and cultural background of the Hebrew Bible.

This course explores the linguistic background of the Hebrew Bible, giving special attention to the literary aspect of biblical interpretation. Specific topics include the forms of the Hebrew verb, prose and poetic genres in the Hebrew Bible, wordplay and repetition, narration and dialogue.

Although Christianity is characteristically identified with "the West", the Middle East, Asia, and Africa have been home to native Christian populations for 2,000 years. This course surveys the diversity of these 300 million "Eastern" and/or "Orthodox" Christians, often marginalized in surveys of global Christianity. It highlights how these communities articulate their identities around particular linguistic, ritual, and cultural markers, and the struggle they face preserving these identities in the West following refugee and migrant experiences.

A comprehensive survey of ancient Christian Gnosticism, one of the earliest and most long-lived branches of early Christianity, with principal readings drawn from the famous "Nag Hammadi Library." Honors version available.

This course draws on a variety of cultural documents to explore both the conflict and cross fertilization between the Christian and Islamic cultures of the Middle Ages. Readings and discussions in English. Previously offered as GERM 218.

This course will deal with global interactions of religion, health care, medical ethics, disability, and the body in the past and present. Honors version available.

Representative themes and approaches in the work of modern Western religious thinkers.

This course examines how contemporary thinkers have considered philosophy, ethics, and theology from a Jewish perspective. Methodological points of inquiry include: the role of interpretation in Judaism, revelation and redemption, authority and tradition, pluralism and inclusion, suffering and evil, gender and Jewish philosophy, and 20th-century approaches to God. Honors version available.

This course explores the range of cultural manifestations of Christianity in the contemporary world, focusing particularly on differences of race, ethnicity, gender, geography, and class.

This course investigates the figure of the human animal in religion and philosophy. What kind of animal is the human, and what separates humans from animals? We will consider how attending to distinctions between humans and animals can highlight varying ideological and religious viewpoints.

The Reformation was seminal for the development of the modern world. This course will investigate Reformation literature written in the period from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 17th century, and will investigate how Reformation ideas resonate through today. Readings and discussions in English.

This course explores connections and interactions between Judaism and popular culture in the American context. We will consider what counts as religion by examining and interpreting a series of contemporary case studies drawn from film, television, radio, consumer culture, literature, stand-up comedy, and other media.

An introduction to the study of shrines and pilgrimage in multiple cultural contexts.

This course examines the problematic interplay between religion and violence. It engages and tests accusations that religion is inherently violent through the reading of sacred texts, historical cases, and critical theories.

A consideration of the attitudes toward place and space as they are expressed in religious ritual and artifact.

An introduction to religion and visual culture in the United States. The course focuses on painting, ritual objects, and architecture.

A study of the role of Jews and the "Jewish question" in German culture from 1750 to the Holocaust and beyond. Discussions and texts (literary, political, theological) in English. Previously offered as GERM 270.

Engages literary, performing, and visual arts to explore religion in American culture. Honors version available.

The course examines messianic movements in American history raising the questions, What has been the impact of such movements on the nation? What makes America particularly conducive to such movements?

An introduction to new religious movements in the United States, with emphasis on the nature of conversion and the role of founders.

Course provides a comprehensive introduction to American Judaism, its various movements, institutions, theological, and liturgical characteristics, as well as its standing within the larger framework of religious life in America.

An examination of the development of teachings on issues of gender and sexuality through the history of Western Christianity, with particular focus on contemporary controversies. Honors version available.

The goal of this course is to orient students in the great diversity of Latina and Latino religious formations in the United States today. Focusing on Indigenous, African, and Catholic Creole "inspirations," this course will focus students to the emergence of a distinctly U.S. Latina/o religious experience. Honors version available.

This course examines accounts of supernatural beings such as zombies and vampires and aims to understand them as popular ways of making sense of the world in the context of uneven and frequently unsettling processes of modernization, neoliberalism, and globalization. Honors version available.

This course examines the social dynamics of power, secrecy, paranoia, and suspicion, in order to explore the multiple relations between conspiracism, religious/magical thinking, and the social construction of truth. In addition to investigating the social and historical contexts that give rise to conspiracy thinking and the various shapes conspiracism takes in the modern world, students will consider conspiratorial lore as an important mode of political participation and contestation.

This course surveys Muslim communities in North America in their religious, historical, political, social, and cultural dimensions. Discussion frames include methods for the study of American Muslims, the role of public and media representations of Islam and Muslims, and the place of American Muslims within the larger American religious landscape. Honors version available.

This course examines gender in the religious lives of premodern Europeans from 500-1700, both in daily life (marriage, sexuality, devotions) and among the religious elite (clergy, monks and nuns, mystics). Feminist history, masculinity studies, and sexuality studies will all be taught as historical methods, paired with primary source documents from medieval Christians. Honors version available.

This course explores the cultural manifestations of Christianity in the medieval and Renaissance worlds, focusing particularly on interactions with other religions and on differences of gender, geography, and class.

In this course, we will explore various topics related to the past and present status of religion in general, and of certain religions in particular, within three Western European countries: the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Honors version available.

This course provides an introduction to Islamic law in its connection to religious ethics and diverse ritual practices, both in the premodern and modern periods, and through an analysis of local contexts and global flows of ideas and practices that determine what is considered "Islamic" about laws, ethics, and practices.

This courses focuses on the ways Hindu gods and goddesses are experienced in South Asia through analysis of literary works, including texts, film, comic books, performance, and ethnography. We will also examine key Hindu concepts (dharma, karma, and caste) in Hindu religious narratives. Honors version available.

Examines the diverse beliefs, practices, and cultures associated with Buddhism in the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, and Tibet. Topics include Buddhism's development and spread, the cultural dynamics of Himalayan societies, monasticism, folk religion, revivalism, tourism, gender, globalization, and the role of the state in shaping Buddhist life and culture.

An examination of the development of Buddhism after its importation to East Asia.

This course explores the Theravada school of Buddhism and themes in the social, cultural, and political lives of the Theravada Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.

Historical survey of the major premodern religious traditions in Japan: Shinto, Buddhism, Shugendo, and Christianity.

Survey of the major religious traditions in modern and contemporary Japan: Shinto, Buddhism, and the New Religions.

Historical introduction to Chinese religions: Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and folk religion.

An introduction to the life and significance of the Prophet Muhammad and the sacred scripture of Islam, the Qur'an. It offers discussion of textual sources for Muhammad's biography; his emulation and veneration in Muslim societies; and the nature, compilation, reception history, and range of interpretations of the Qur'an.

Who was Jesus? What did he teach? Can we interpret Jesus apart from religious frames or is our conception of Jesus always shaped by the religious texts preserving his memory? What modes of analysis and interpretation do contemporary historians apply to these texts, and what assumptions or biases can color their work? Comparing ancient and modern constructions of Jesus, this course probes the differences between cultural memory and historical writing as practices of knowing. Honors version available.

This course explores the problem of religious fraud-and more specifically, "pious fraud"-drawing case studies from Christian history. Although Christianity espouses a high moral code, some Christians have used deception to advance their beliefs and agendas: forging documents, inventing stories, and fabricating artifacts. Others have been suspected of these same activities. Throughout the semester, students wade through the thorny moral/ethical issues presented by the practice of pious fraud and debate possible cases. Honors version available.

This course addresses terms such as "the sacred," "sacrifice," "the dead," "divinity," and "possession" to explore the limitations and new potentials of religious studies for describing human experience. Honors version available.

Introduction to basic thinking about cultural difference (race, gender, nationality, religion, etc.). The course encourages students to examine the ways paradigms shape how we act, think, and imagine as members of diverse cultures in the United States.

Notions of what a human being is--and what this means for how one should live--lie at the root of all religious traditions and also of secular ideologies. This course explores the ways that different religious and cultural communities have conceptualized human nature and how those understandings are reflected in personal identity and ways of organizing public life. Readings include historic and contemporary texts and case studies engaging Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity.

Critical exploration of the ways in which religion, magic, and science have been constructed as distinct domains of knowledge in the West since the late 19th century.

The course comes to provide students with historical and theological knowledge and conceptual tools that will enable them to understand the very rich and diverse Protestant tradition. Honors version available.

An exploration of the position of religion in American legal and social theory, with particular focus on jurisprudence under the First Amendment.

An examination of the growth of liberal theological expressions, such as rationalism, romanticism, and modernism, from the early 18th century to the present.

Permission of the instructor. An introduction to the diversity of African American beliefs, experiences, and expressions from the colonial era to the present. Exploration will be both historical and thematic.

The relation between religious communities, their hopes and their agendas to the culture, politics, and law of the country has been a central feature of the Israeli state from its inception. Religious faiths, agendas, and affiliations have affected the character of the country, as well as its relationships with groups and governments around the globe.

This course is an introduction to Black Atlantic discourses from ethnographic and religious studies perspectives. Readings will privilege African-inspired performance and aesthetic forms as these are produced in religious practice. Honors version available.

In this course, on both Jewish and Islamic law, we will explore the nature, structure, development, and significance of the legal system of each of these two religions. Topics discussed include rituals, purity laws, commerce, warfare, and gender relations. There is no need to have any background in Hebrew or Arabic: all texts are provided in English, and no previous knowledge on Islam or Judaism is assumed.

This course introduces students to the anthropology of Christianity. Students will explore major themes of interest in the field. This course aims to familiarize students with the diversity of Christian religious experience and expression globally and to explore the mechanisms through which that diversity takes shape in various cultural contexts.

In certain eras, Mary has been more central to Catholic devotion than Christ. This course explores doctrine, liturgy, and popular devotion centering on the Virgin in medieval European Christianity, her impact on colonial religion in the New World, and her roles in Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Islam. Honors version available.

An investigation of one writer or school in the history of Christian theology as an example of typical methods, positions, and problems within the tradition.

In this course students will read major medieval religious texts (Christian, Jewish, and/or Muslim), that permit close study of religious life, culture, and thought during the Middle Ages (broadly defined). The works will be in English translation, but students with appropriate linguistic knowledge may read the texts in their original language.

This course examines creative expression at the service of religious belief from 1000 to 1700. Poetry, drama, art, architecture, and music will be the texts to understand the religious cultures of this rich period.

Over time, Christian institutions and traditions have helped constitute contemporary narratives of race, sexuality, and disability in society. This course examines shifting definitions and specific case studies from the premodern era through to contemporary discourses and polemics in America. Honors version available.

An investigation of the forms, characteristics, and variety of the mystical experiences of women in medieval and modern Christianity, with comparative consideration of women mystics and spiritual leaders in at least two other religious traditions.

This course examines the archaeological context of Greek religion, cults, and associated rituals from the Bronze Age until the Hellenistic period with emphasis on urban, rural, and panhellenic sanctuaries, and methods of approaching ancient religion and analyzing cult practices.

Exploration of the major religious traditions of South Asia. Focuses on the beliefs and practices associated with different traditions, and the ways that these relate to one another and to broader political, historical, and cultural formations. Also addresses questions of modernization, reform, communal violence, and other transformations of religious life.

Explores Valmiki's Ramayana (story of the Hindu god Rama), alternate versions of the story, its performance in theater, and its role in politics. Students work outside of class to stage scenes from the Ramayana, open to the public. Students may not receive credit for both ASIA 332 and ASIA 382.

Introduction to the classical Mahabharata as well as modern retellings of the epic in contemporary literature, film, and theater of India. Students work outside class to stage one or more scenes from the Mahabharata, open to the public. Students may not receive credit for both ASIA 333 and ASIA 383.

How does globalization affect religious life? How do historical, cultural, and religious traditions mediate the experience of globalization in particular locales? This course analyzes the forces and practices associated with political-economic and cultural globalization in Southeast Asia and explores the religious transformations and innovations that these processes have inspired.

This course introduces students to the multifaceted ways in which Muslims in the modern and contemporary periods have approached, experienced, and interpreted the Qur'an, including discussions of accessibility, hermeneutical methods, and exegetical themes.

In this theory-practice course focusing on religion, performance, and South Asian studies we will analyze the nature of embodied knowledge, aesthetic theory, and the creative power of dance performance in the Indian context. The course also includes a practical component involving embodied experience with Indian classical dance forms.

This course offers an introduction to the history and practice of East Asian martial arts. We will explore the social, political, and cultural contexts of the martial arts, from the classical period to the present. Integral to this course is a practical component involving embodied experience with martial arts training.

Permission of the instructor. Subject matter will vary with instructor but will always be focused on a particular problem or issue.

This course is used for guided undergraduate research under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies. Permission of the instructor is required.

The first part of a two-semester introduction to the grammar of biblical Hebrew.

The second part of a two-semester introduction to the grammar of biblical Hebrew.

A consolidation of the fundamentals of classical Hebrew grammar via readings of biblical texts of various genres (including both prose and poetry).

Further readings of classical Hebrew texts, focusing on biblical poetry as well as early postbiblical material (e.g., nonbiblical texts from Qumran, Mishnah/Tosefta).

Reading texts in rabbinic Hebrew or in biblical and/or talmudic Aramaic, with appropriate grammatical instruction.

Readings in literary, epistolary, and juridical texts.

Readings in the alphabetic texts of Ras Shamra and a study of the elements of Ugaritic grammar.

Coptic, the last stage of Egyptian, a living language in the Roman and Byzantine period. Thorough grounding in the grammar of the Sahidic dialect as a basis for reading biblical monastic and Gnostic texts.

An introduction to the grammar of Classical Syriac for the purpose of reading Syriac Christian texts from late antiquity. Knowledge of another Semitic language (e.g., Hebrew, Arabic) would be an asset but is not required.

This course explores the challenges, ethical questions, and opportunities inherent in teaching biblical literature within public educational settings--both secondary and higher-ed. It also equips students to make informed decisions on how to communicate critical academic ideas about the Bible in ways sensitive to students of different positionalities.

This course examines the challenges posed to ethics and theology by the Holocaust. We will address philosophical and moral issues such as the problem of evil, divine omniscience, omnipotence, suffering, theodicy, representation, testimony, and an ethics of memory. Honors version available.

This course explores the complex relation between religion and science in the modern world. Public disputes over teaching evolution in American schools serve as a central case study of this.

A theoretical inquiry into ethnicity, race, and religion as constituents of personal and communal identity. Emphasis on global migrations, colonial and postcolonial relations, diasporic communities, and issues of religious pluralism.

An examination of contemporary gender theory, with particular focus on its application to the study of religion.

A critical exploration of the concept of religious experience as defined by such authors as William James and Sigmund Freud. Honors version available.

This course examines philosophical interpretations of the attempted sacrifice by Abraham of his beloved son, offering a comparative approach. The incident in Genesis is remarkably succinct for its controversial subject matter. We will compare this event with representations in Greek drama, the New Testament, and the Qur'an. Honors version available.

This course explores the phenomenon of spirit possession and introduces students to various theoretical and methodological approaches to its academic study. In addition to critically engaging with accounts of spirit possession from around the world, students will explore various related themes of gender, power, and religious and cultural change.

Religion studied anthropologically as a cultural, social, and psychological phenomenon in the works of classical and contemporary social thought. Honors version available.

Sociological analysis of group beliefs and practices, both traditionally religious and secular, through which fundamental life experiences are given coherence and meaning. This course is a special version of SOCI 129 for juniors and seniors that explores the meanings and experiences of religion, as well as religion's role in communities, institutions, and societies through hands-on intensive research experience. Students may not receive credit for both SOCI 129 and SOCI/RELI 429.

This course explores the meaning of evil. By investigating the moral dimensions of evil, its social uses, its figuration in cross-cultural religious texts, theology, folklore, and political imaginaries, this course develops a critical framework for understanding the diverse manifestations and varied cultural renderings of evil in the modern world. Previously offered as RELI 526.

A seminar on concepts of nature within religions and a variety of world-wide spiritual traditions. Emphasis on sacred space, place, and ritual as a vital intersection of religion and nature. Honors version available.

This course examines religion in America from precontact to the Civil War. We will chart the development of religious life, thought, and practice in North America, concentrating on areas later incorporated into the United States, but maintaining broad interest in other Americas. Honors version available.

An examination of primary sources in the history of American religion since the Civil War.

Juniors or seniors only. Examination of evangelicalism and its role in American society, politics, and culture. Exploration of its various subdivisions and its relation to such movements as fundamentalism, pentecostalism, revivalism, and premillennialism. Honors version available.

The seminar examines the developments in gender roles and in sexuality in contemporary Judaism.

A study of intercultural interaction and interreligious encounter focusing on Asian religions in America, 1784 to the present.

An exploration of the varied and complex relationships which have developed between Christianity and Judaism, from the first century to the 21st century.

This course examines diverse indigenous engagements with Christianity from earliest contacts to the present. Topics range from missionary contestations in colonial Mexico to the fight for religious freedom in 20th-century United States, from historical revitalization movements like the Ghost Dance to contemporary indigenous theologies in North and South America.

This course deals with various topics related to sexuality and marriage in Jewish tradition and history: sex outside of marriage, wedding ceremonies, regulations of marital sex, menstruation, homosexuality, and more.

This course examines the politics of representing religious difference. What happens when journalists, pollsters, filmmakers, or pundits attempt to describe, explain or decode religious communities they do not belong to? How do these efforts constitute cultural centers and margins? We examine the political and ethical problems inherent to representing religion. Topics might include documentary film, photojournalism, reality television, opinion polling, news media, and more.

Examines a movement of religious reform that shattered Latin Christendom and contributed many of the conditions of early modern Europe. Emphases: religious, political, social.

In medieval Jewish Kabbalah, Christian mysticism, and Islamic Sufism, devotees attempt to express direct experiences of an infinite God. This course examines theories of mystical language, particularly the negation of language, the turn to the visual and the body, and the tension between communal and individual expressions of the divine.

This course introduces students to a variety of ancient and modern approaches to Buddhist meditation, to their philosophical underpinnings, and to the various claims and purposes associated with mindfulness practices in the past and today. Students will be expected to practice the different types of meditation discussed.

Stresses the diversity of modern Islamic experience by examining the works of various Muslim authors. Genres may include travelogues, memoirs, novels, sermons, and treatises, among others.

An exploration of explosive combinations of religion and politics in the Iranian revolution, the Palestinian movement, Hindu nationalism in India, and Christian fundamentalism in America.

This seminar draws on feminist and philosophical theory, including the works of Plato, Butler, and Foucualt, as well as postcolonial theory, to explore the categories of sex and gender in South Asian religions. We also analyze the moral cultivation of the self in relation to gender identity in South Asia.

This course approaches constructions of gender and sexuality in Muslim societies in diverse historical and geographical contexts. It focuses on changing interpretations of gender roles and sexual norms. Themes include gender in Islamic law, sexual ethics, masculinity, homosexuality, marriage, and dress.

This course explores Muslim women scholars, activists, and movements that have, over the course of the past 150 years, participated in the debate about the compatibility and relationship of Islam and feminism. It offers an introduction to feminist debates about religion and patriarchy focusing on Islam as 'other' and juxtaposes it critical analysis of contextual expressions of Muslim and Islamic feminist activists, thinkers, and movements that challenge and change gender norms and practices.

This course explores the role that mountains and pilgrimage have played in Japanese cosmology and how they relate to methodology of studying place and space.

This course discusses the development of Shinto in Japanese history and covers themes such as myths, syncretism, sacred sites, iconography, nativism, religion and the state, and historiography.

Permission of the instructor. This course examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion.

This course will examine how the modern historical-critical enterprise of biblical scholarship arose, out of what historical circumstances, for what purposes, and to what effect. What are its major aspects? How does it relate to other forms of academic and theological inquiry? How has this enterprise fared in recent times?

An examination of Babylonian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Hittite, and Sumerian texts from the prebiblical era, focusing on representative myths, epics, sagas, songs, proverbs, prophecies, and hymns. Honors version available.

A comprehensive introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the different Jewish groups connected with them. Honors version available.

This course will examine a major corpus of the Hebrew Bible with attention to the full range of historical-critical issues. Attention will be paid as well to early forms of biblical interpretation and their use in the religious life of subsequent communities.

This is a course on ancient synagogues in Palestine and the Diaspora from the Second Temple period to the seventh century CE.

Although the origins of Christianity clearly lie in Judaism--the religious framework inherited by Jesus and his disciples--scholars disagree over how and when the two traditions diverged. This course explores critical issues in the conceptualization of this parting, including the theoretical difficulty of distinguishing religion from ethnicity in a premodern context, competing ways of analyzing intermediate groups ("Jewish Christianities"), and the methodological and ethical problems of 19th-20th century scholarship in this area (e.g., Protestant bias, antisemitism).

This course traces the "lives" of individual New Testament texts to illuminate the shifting interests of Christians through different periods. Topics include the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of John, the letters of Paul and his imitators, and the book of Revelation. Honors version available.

Permission of the instructor. An exploration of influential 19th-century critiques of religion, including texts by such thinkers as Feuerbach, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Stanton, Douglass, and Freud.

Critical exploration of exemplary contemporary ethnographies of religion focusing on the ways that ethnographic methods and writing styles shape knowledge of religious and cultural life in various traditions and parts of the world. Topics considered include field work, culture, ethics, and the challenges of interpreting and representing religious experience.

Seminar topic varies.

This course explores the myriad and complex issues related to the function of metaphor and symbol in religious language.

An examination of ritual, allegory, and symbol as modes of religious expression in cultic and literary contexts.

This seminar explores the historical development of "religion" as a concept and object of academic scholarship through the critical study of key texts and foundational debates about religion in Western thought.

This course examines historical developments in the study of women and gender in Judaism. We will discuss efforts to challenge and revitalize Jewish tradition through the lens of gender theory and other critical interpretive approaches. Topics to be addressed include biblical interpretation, Jewish law, feminist Jewish theology and liturgy, the renewal of ritual, the rabbinic ordination of women, gender identity, race, sexuality, queer, trans, and non-binary approaches, and representations of these themes in various media.

Exploration of the history, beliefs, and practices of Mormons. Will include visits to Latter-Day Saints services, guest speakers, and discussion of race and gender in the contemporary church.

The course will examine the evangelical tradition from a global perspective, exploring the tradition from its early rise in Europe to its impact on the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Honors version available.

The course examines the interaction between the values and messages of the counterculture and religious groups, ideas, and practices during the Vietnam War era. It also investigates the impact of countercultural norms and styles on the current American religious scene. Honors version available.

This course on the "Atlantic World" studies Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the medieval Iberian kingdoms, then the religious "other" in the colonial expansion to Latin America, by deploying theories concerning race, gender, sexuality, and postcoloniality.

This course explores the Jewish interpretation of the Bible, focusing on important commentaries from influential medieval Ashkenazi and Sephardic thinkers.

This course explores many aspects of the Halakhah, the Jewish traditional legal system, focusing on issues such as rituals, holidays, religious obligations and prohibitions, and laws regulating sexual activity.

This seminar explores the topic of intimate relations between people who consider themselves, or are considered by others, to be part of different religious groups. We will explore cases in which such relations achieve the social sanction of marriage and cases in which the relations are of a more temporary nature.

Explores the indigenous Chinese sciences and the cosmological ideas that informed them. Topics include astronomy, divination, medicine, fengshui, and political and literary theory. Chinese sources in translation are emphasized.

An historical examination of African American Islam in the United States. Explores the intellectual, cultural, social, and political roots of black Islam in addition to its diverse doctrinal, ritual, and institutional manifestations.

Permission of the instructor. A survey of Islamic mysticism, its sources in the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad, and its literary, cultural, and social deployment in Arab, Persian, Indic, and Turkish regions.

A survey of the formation of Islamic traditions in the subcontinent from the eighth century to the present, with emphasis on religion and politics, the role of Sufism, types of popular religion, and questions of Islamic identity.

Iran from the rise of the Safavid empire to the Islamic Republic. Topics include Shi'ism, politics, intellectual and sectarian movements, encounters with colonialism, art and architecture, music, literature.

A nontheological approach to the Qur'an as a literary text, emphasizing its history, form, style, and interpretation.

This course will cover the history of Turkey from the Byzantine period until contemporary times. Key aspects of Turkish culture (architecture, music, poetry to arts) will be covered.

This seminar explores the roles of women in the religions of Japan (including Buddhism, Shinto, folk religions, pilgrimage, new religions movements, and new spirituality culture) from goddesses, shamans, nuns, and pilgrims to demons, temptresses, and lesser human beings. The course traces these themes across Japanese socioeconomic and religious history.

This course explores sexual norms and practices in Muslim contexts in the premodern and modern periods. It considers theories from sexuality, gender, and queer studies, and focuses on the contextual production of sexual norms, going beyond the sex and gender binary, and reflecting on a diverse range of sexual practices in Muslim communities and societies, analyzing concepts such as power, pleasure, control, as they are mapped onto and lived in diverse Muslim bodies.

Permission of the instructor. Subject matter will vary with instructor but will always be focused on a particular problem or issue.

Historical causes of violence between Hindus and Muslims in modern India. Short stories, poetry, and novels in translation are used to explore how conflicts over religious sites, religious conversion, image worship, and language contributed to a sense of conflicting religious identity.

The course traces the past and continued canonical processes that define what the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament has been and is today, with a focus on the history of biblical interpretation.

This course explores the translation of the Hebrew Bible in the West, with a view toward identifying religious and ideological trends.

Honors version available.

Ideas concerning the Messiah and the end of the world held by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Emphasis on the beginning of the Christian era.

The seminar surveys the development of Christianity in the Roman empire and examines a variety of attitudes adopted by early Christians toward Greco-Roman philosophy, religion, education, and literature.

Reading of the Apostolic Fathers. Students must have completed two courses in New Testament/Early Christianity and two years of Greek.

By late antiquity, the cult of martyrs and other saints had become "so popular among all levels of Christians, rich and poor, cleric and layperson, rustic and urban dweller, monastic and spouse," that it represented a "rudimentary framework for Christianity" (Limberis 2011). This course traces the origins and development of the cult, conceptualizing it as a network of discourses, practices, and representations. It also explores the cult's impact on neighboring, non-Christian cultures.

Examinations of practices and discourses pertaining to death and the afterlife in the ancient civilizations of Near East, Greece, and Rome. Honors version available.

This course introduces students to the rich and multi-faceted debates within and about feminism and religion. Through the cultivation of careful and critical reading practice of primary texts by religious feminists and their secular critics, the course enables students to recognize the patterns and arguments of historical and contemporary debates within and across religious traditions and communities, while continuously tracing the ethical commitments and underlying values of feminist scholars and activists.

This advanced seminar is for undergraduate and graduate students who have at least a basic knowledge about Catholicism. The range of topics to be discussed is open and will depend on students' interests and suggestions.

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Medieval Christians consistently focused on the suffering body as a means of reflecting on Christ's sacrifice. This course considers how medical theories of cognition, gender, and pain influenced the potential role of the body in medieval mystical experience.

Permission of the instructor. Study of selected religious, literary, and historical texts in Arabic, Persian, or Urdu.

Permission of the instructor. Exercises (including field work) in learning to read the primary modes of public action in religious traditions, e.g., sermons, testimonies, rituals, and prayers.

Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Required of all students reading for honors in religious studies.

Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Required of all students reading for honors in religious studies.

Advanced undergraduate or graduate standing and permission of the instructor. Subject matter should be arranged with a specific instructor.

Majors only. Concentrating on a different theme each year, this departmental seminar introduces the different areas and approaches in religious studies.

This course seeks to explore the historically difficult position of minorities in the modern world, using the situation of Jews in Germany from the 18th century to the Holocaust as a case study. Previously offered as GERM 56.

The course explores selected themes and case studies pertinent to culture and society in modern Israel, with emphasis on debates about "Israeliness" in various cultural and social arenas.