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 103 Classical Mythology

This course introduces students to the myths of ancient Greece and Rome by reading literary texts and examining visual representations of myths found in architecture, sculpture and painting. Through a variety of approaches, we consider questions such as the following: What can we learn about the Greeks and Romans by studying the stories they tell? What is the relationship between myth and science? Myth and religion? How have ancient myths been appropriated in modern culture, such as in fiction and movies?

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, & Shinto

This course will introduce the three major philosophical systems of East Asian thought: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism through their canonical texts. This historical approach will be supplemented by contemporary readings in each tradition. When taught as a component of the Japan Term, this course will pay special attention to the development of Japanese Buddhism, specifically Pure Land Buddhism (Amida Buddhism), Esoteric Buddhism (Shingon Buddhism) and Zen Buddhism (Soto and Rinzai).

RELS 115 South Asian Religions

RELS 116 Native American Religions

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 203 Classical Mythology

This course introduces students to the myths of ancient Greece and Rome. These stories are, on the surface, thrilling tales about gods and heroes, but they are also windows into how these ancient cultures confronted the physical and social worlds: we will examine, for example, how social identities such as woman and man, citizen and slave, foreigner and native, were variously reinforced and contested through the medium of myth. In addition to becoming literate in classical mythology, which still forms the basis of countless films, novels, television shows, games, and comic books, you students will also learn some of the fundamentals of ancient history and culture.

RELS 205 Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism

This course is an introduction to Buddhism, with specific emphasis on Japanese Buddhism. To these ends, it will canvass the principal tenets of Buddhism, namely, the four noble truths, the eight-fold path, dependent originations, the no-self, karma, etc., in the Theravada and Mahayana traditions. It will then consider the development of Japanese Buddhism from the Asuka (552-645 CE) through the Kamakura Periods (1185-1332 CE) by examining the rise of particular sects within Japanese Buddhism (Nara Schools, Tendai, Shingon, Pure Land, and Zen).

RELS 221 Global Christianity

This course considers Christianity's roots and development as manifested in the contemporary lived experiences of practitioners in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The course pays particular attention to the impact of an expanding Christianity on preexisting cultural and religious forms, as well as their influences on Christianity. Inquiry is focused through the lens of local Christian practice: what Christians in specific regions believe and do. Topics include the complex relationship of Christian missions with imperialism, Christianity's role in post-colonial dynamics of power, and Christian engagement with other religions.

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 235 Contemporary Buddhism in SoutheastAsia

Southeast Asia is home to the strand of Buddhism known as "Theravada". What is included in this category and how do Southeast Asians who call themselves Buddhist actually practice this religion? How has Theravada Buddhist practice changed in recent years, and what has prompted these changes? After providing some historical background, including attention to the rise of Buddhist modernist movements, this course will examine the contemporary practice of Buddhism in Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as its connections with Buddhist practice in other parts of the world.

RELS 241A Religion and Film

RELS 241B Religion and Science Fiction

RELS 241C Religion and Media

RELS 241G Religion & Contemporary Art

RELS 241D Religion and Popular Culture

RELS 247 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 249 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 260 Religion and Politics in the UnitedStates

RELS 262 Religion & Artificial Intelligence

RELS 264 Religion, Science, & 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 271D Religions of Greece & Rome

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 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 371D Ancient Mediterranean Religions

RELS 375 Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

This course examines the psychological science of religion and spirituality (R/S). Course readings will survey the history of the scientific study of R/S, including exploration of major psychological theories and intersections with other fields: sociology, anthropology, political theory, and feminist theory. Through overview of primary literature, this course explores empirical definitions of R/S, why people believe (or do not), and the psychological functions of R/S at the individual and group levels. These questions culminate in a quantitative or qualitative research project. Other course topics include: morality, prejudice, mysticism, death, wellness, and the relation of religious and spiritual belief to psychotherapeutic practice.

RELS 399 Seminar in Religious Studies

Specific seminar offerings vary year to year. Topics have included: Freud, Jung, and Religion, Death and Afterlife, and Spiritual Autobiographies.

RELS 399B Death and the Afterlife

RELS 399D Religions of Spaceflight

RELS 399A Freud, Jung, and Religion

This course uses close study of key texts on religion by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung as an entry point for considering psychoanalytic explanations of religious experience and identity. Readings include theorists influenced by or responding to Freud and Jung, as well as other contributors to the sometimes troubled, sometimes fruitful, and often perplexing interplay between psychoanalysis and religion. Topics of study include the effects on religious theory of the objects relations school, developmental psychology, humanistic psychology, and existential psychology. Discussion themes include religious conversion, mysticism, asceticism, aestheticism, sexuality, and religious doubt.

RELS 399C Spiritual Autobiography

This topic of the Seminar in Religious Studies explores the creative processes by which authors attempt to describe the construction, evolution, and/or deconstruction of their religious or spiritual identities. The focus is on written texts, supplemented by film and other artistic representations of spiritual transformation. Readings include historical and contemporary essays, memoirs, and other works drawn from a variety of religious or spiritual expressions. Discussions consider such subjects as the nature and challenges of autobiographical writing, the adequacy of language and image to the task of relating spiritual experience, and the influences of culture and personal history on religious self-identity.