Religious Studies Courses

RELS 101 Introduction to Religious Studies

This course introduces key terms and concepts common to the study of religion, including myth, symbol, ritual, sacred/holy, belief, morality, scripture, and afterlife, by considering some of the core questions asked in the field of religious studies. Case studies from a variety of religious traditions provide examples of religious thought and practices.

RELS 113 Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Comparative study of the three major monotheistic traditions in the West: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Selections from the classical texts of each tradition are studied, as well as the ways in which those texts have been interpreted through law, theology and ritual practice.

RELS 114 Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto

See description for PHIL 114.

RELS 115 South Asian Religions

This course investigates the history and contemporary dynamics of religion in South India: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet, and Nepal. This region is the crucible for two of the world's global religions and is home to extraordinary religious diversity beyond these. The course provides an overview of the doctrines, practices, and cultural interactions of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Adavasi ("tribal") religions.

RELS 116 Native American Religions

This course examines Native American religious practices in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. During this period, Euro-American people, religions, and legal structures have systemically sought to disenfranchise indigenous people, in part by attempting to control, silence, and legislate against their religious practices. We will learn about some of the ways that Native American communities have fought to maintain their religious traditions, and how they have used religion to further their resistance to assimilation.

RELS 118 Introduction to Judaism

This course investigates the concept of Jewish civilization, religion, and "Jewishness" using religious, social, cultural, material, textual, political and historical lenses. The development of Judaism as a religion is central to this course, which focuses on Jewish traditions, culture, and history in the past and present.

RELS 125 The Bible in Literature

A focus on the Bible and its influence on Western historical and contemporary literature. Readings include selections from the Bible and literary texts on which the Bible has had an impact. Some attention is given to cultural, historical, and political contexts. The course will prepare students for more advanced study in writing, literature, and religious studies.

RELS 213 Anthropology of Islam

This course provides an ethnographic introduction to contemporary Islam, highlighting the diversity of Muslim communities and reflecting on various forms of Islam practiced in different geographic, social, and cultural contexts. In addition, the course explores how Islam is represented within popular culture and considers how issues of power, identity (gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class), and politics intersect with religious institutions and traditions. The first half of the course will introduce a range of historical and conceptual approaches to the study of Islam. The second half of the course will look at how contemporary Muslim communities negotiate questions of ethics and politics, focusing especially on debates over kinship, gender, education, and human rights.

RELS 215 Post-Communist Politics and Religion in Bulgaria 1/2

Immerse yourself in Bulgaria on a short-term, faculty-led program based in Sofia, with an opportunity for visiting Plovdiv, Europe's oldest continuously inhabited city, and the Rila Monastery "St. Ivan of Rila," the largest Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria and a UNESCO world heritage site. Students will explore how its turbulent past affects its contemporary national identity. Through meetings with students and faculty from local universities, students will learn about the first Bulgarian constitution and its importance in shaping today's parliamentary democracy, the religious tolerance of the Bulgarian people, the saving of Bulgarian Jews during World War II, and much more.

RELS 220 History of Christianity

This course narrates the social, institutional, and intellectual history of Christianity, paying particular attention to the experiences of Christian men and women living in specific places and times. Through a study of both individuals and institutions, the course looks at several points of dialogue, and often tension, between Christian communities and broader cultures, between official Christian teachings and popular beliefs, and between Christian traditions and forces of reform. The course also considers the roles Christianity has played in key world events, and builds awareness of Christianity's expanding diversity as a global faith.

RELS 230 Reading Islam: Texts and Images

This course considers the variety of ways in which Islam has been represented through texts, both written and imagistic, including the Qur'an, hadith, prose fiction, poetry, art, and film. Drawing from historical and contemporary sources available in English, the course pays close attention to the self-presentations of different forms of Muslim identity that reflect Islam's diverse cultural and geographic strains. To help provide that appreciation of Islam's diversity, we will sample in particular creative products from Iran, Egypt and the Gulf States, and South Asia.

RELS 231 Hebrew Bible

This course introduces students to formative texts of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh or the Old Testament. We will situate these texts in their own historical moment, considering them within Israelite religion, Judaism, the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. This course will also introduce modern methods of interpreting the Bible, including historical and literary approaches. This course considers the different questions related to the construction of Ancient Israelite religion and its development into Judaism. This course will familiarize students with the history of Ancient Israel, as well as relevant non-canonical and extra-biblical texts. Different interpretive methods will structure the course material, with a focus on ecological, gender, and rhetorical interpretation, among others.

RELS 232 Early Christian Texts

This course introduces students to formative texts in early Christianity, including texts of the New Testament as well as non-canonical texts. We will situate these texts in their own historical moment, considering them within Hellenistic Judaism and the Greco-Roman world. Diverse portrayals of the life and teaching of Jesus will emerge, and we will analyze ways that variety extends to the teachings of his followers. This course will also introduce modern methods of interpreting the Bible, including reading the New Testament in terms of postcolonialism, gender, sexuality, disability, and empire, in addition to historical and literary approaches. This course considers the different questions each scholarly method asks of a text, and the tools it uses to answer them. This course will familiarize students with the history and literary types of early Christianity, as well as different approaches to interpretation in the interest of equipping students for knowledgeable and respectful dialogue about the Bible.

RELS 241 Religion and Pop Culture

From music videos to computer games, advertisements to sporting events, religious imagery permeates popular culture. But popular culture does more than just make use of religious images. It can take on the trappings of religious practice, fill social desires for transcendent experience, even influence the self-perceptions of religious communities. This course examines the intersections between popular culture and religion in contemporary America by asking how popular culture may be functioning as religion, how it may shape what a society understands about religion, and how it may permeate the faith experiences of religion's adherents.

RELS 243 Religion and Video Games

This course investigates how playing interactive video games constructs narratives that resemble ritual enactments of religious myth. The "reader" of a game plays an active role by actualizing the game's narrative even as the game's structure steers any action towards a predetermined conclusion. This dynamic tension, in which the player feels an illusory sense of narrative agency, will be our starting point for exploring how religion influences the narrative structure of video games. In addition to asking whether the mechanics of video games resemble the mechanics of myth and ritual, students will evaluate the intertextual relationships between particular games and realworld religious traditions.

RELS 244 Religion and the Environment

From sacred mountains to polluted rivers, religion cannot be separated from our experience of the natural world or from our modern environmental crisis. Religion offers a strategic resource for environmental action even as it has been part of the occasional excuse for environmental neglect. This course includes an overnight stay at Green Oaks when there is no conflict with the Green Oaks Term.

RELS 245 Religion and Contemporary Art

A study of the ways in which contemporary artists explore sacred themes, such as the construction of utopia, the development of community, and the search for transcendence. The course follows various artists and movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and the ways in which they reflect upon modern religious life. The course shows how the sacred has remained a relevant concern for artists from modern to postmodern art.

RELS 246 Religion and Science Fiction

Speculative fiction in the various incarnations of science fiction and fantasy wanders in realms traditionally considered the purview of religion, asking questions about the ordering of the universe, the nature of existence, and the proper basis for human (and non-human) relations. Through careful reading/viewing of novels, short stories, movies and television episodes, this course explores the ways science fiction and some fantasy invent systems of meaning that are either explicitly or implicitly religious, both in recasting or adapting received religious forms, and in imagining new forms of their own.

RELS 248 Teaching Assistant 1/2 or 1

RELS 251 Anthropology of Religion

This course provides an anthropological introduction to the study of religion, highlighting the diversity of faith communities and reflecting on various forms of religion and ritual practiced in different geographic, social, and cultural contexts. In addition, the course explores how religion is represented within popular culture and considers how issues of power, identity (gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class), and politics intersect with religious institutions and traditions. The first half of the course will introduce a range of historical and conceptual approaches to the study of religion. The second half of the course will look at how contemporary faith communities negotiate questions of ethics and politics, focusing especially on debates over kinship, gender, education, and human rights.

RELS 252 Religion, Human Rights, and Activism

From the UN human rights council to civil rights in the US and anti-apartheid activism in South Africa, global rights-based movements have deep roots in faith-based communities. This course will explore the intersection of social movements, human rights, and religion. On the one hand, we look at how states and international bodies manage the right to religious freedom through legal regimes and minority rights. On the other hand, we look at faith-based social movements working on civil rights, women's rights, genocide, and indigenous activism. In so doing, we examine the complex interplay between diverse religious practice and emerging social movements in an increasingly globalized world.

RELS 261 Future-Proofing Humanity

The fear of human extinction and the promise of radical salvation through technology intertwine in a religious worldview unique to the contemporary world. We will explore this worldview and discuss the political and social implications of transferring our religious impulses and hope of salvation into technological forecasting

RELS 262 Religion and Artificial Intelligence

This course explores how religious ideas helped shape the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and how AI impacts the practice of religion. Topics include automata, the Turing Test, the Singularity, the simulation hypothesis, digital resurrection, robotic priests, and more.

RELS 264 Religion, Science and Technology

A study of historical and contemporary interactions between religion, science, and technology, with particular reference to their political implications and ethical ramifications. Themes vary, but include biotechnology, environmentalism, the teaching of evolution, and digital technologies (artificial intelligence, robotics, and/or virtual worlds).

RELS 265 Religion and World Politics

An examination of the impact of religion on contemporary world politics. Topics covered may include: the rise of fundamentalist religious movements, religious challenges to secular states, transnational religious activism around human rights, peace and social justice issues, the "clash of civilizations," and religiously based terrorism.

RELS 270 Life

This course considers the interrelation between scientific understandings of life and the moral teachings about life of the major monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We study how those traditions define the value of life, asking whether that varies at different points in the life cycle (e.g. conception, end of life), by organism (what is it ok to eat or experiment on?), or situation (abortion, euthanasia, murder, war, capital punishment, suicide). We examine how these values shape religious practice, and how values and practices may have changed as what we know about science has changed. Examples from non-monotheistic traditions will be considered when useful for comparison.

RELS 271 Topics in the History of Religion

Topics will vary year to year, focusing on a specific area within the history of religion. Topics have included: Geography of the Holy Land, Religions of Greece and Rome, Archaeology & History of the Bible, The Holocaust, and others.

RELS 284 Global Aesthetics

This course examines aesthetic traditions from around the world, including: Aboriginal Australian, African, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, and Persian. Among the issues we consider are: (1) the extent to which we can understand and appreciate art and artifacts from aesthetic traditions other than our own; (2) differences, continuities, and exchanges between Western and Non-Western aesthetic practices; (3) the relationship between aesthetic and religious practices in these traditions; and (4) whether art (particularly music) can ever induce mystical experiences. We address these issues by considering the work of a number of philosophers and other scholars.

RELS 295 Special Topics 1/2 or 1

Course offered occasionally to students in special areas of Religious Studies not covered in the usual curriculum.

RELS 344 Romantic Literature

This course traces the development of English literature from 1789-1837. Possible topics include Romantic obsessions with the monstrous and the unnatural, Gothic transgressive sexualities, controversies over female minds and bodies, the idealizing of colonized and enslaved populations towards the making of empire, the reimagining of religious language in aesthetic contexts, and theories of self, sublimity, and human consciousness.

RELS 348 Teaching Assistant 1/2 or 1

RELS 371 Topics in the History of Religion

See RELS 271. A major component of RELS 371 will be a long research paper based on primary sources.

RELS 395 Special Topics 1/2 or 1

Courses offered occasionally to students in special areas of Religious Studies not covered in the usual curriculum.

RELS 399 Seminar in Religious Studies

Specific seminar offerings vary year to year. Topics have included: Religions of Spaceflight, Psychology and Religion, Gnosticism, and more.

RELS 400 Advanced Studies 1/2 or 1

See College Honors.