Semester Offering

Religious myth and ritual is full of allusions to animals. From the “Scapegoat” and the “Lamb of God” to the “Sacred Cow” and the “Chinese Dragon” animals are central to the symbolic representation and language of almost every religious tradition. This course will compare and contrast the way animals are imagined and used in the beliefs and practices of several religious traditions.

Meets general academic requirement HU.

This course seeks to introduce students to the diversity of religious thought and practice in India from its earliest manifestations in recorded history to the present. The Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world’s religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism—and also home to a large population of Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians and Christians. In this survey course, we will examine the emergence of these traditions within their specific socio-historical contexts and explore the dynamic interactions and resemblances between them. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between traditions as they are expressed and understood in texts and as they are lived and experienced in everyday life. We will read primary sources in translation including the great Indian epic, the Rāmāyana and draw on material from various disciplines that inform the study of religion including history and anthropology, as well as film. No prior knowledge of India or Indian religions is required.

Meets general academic requirements DE and HU. Also counts toward Asian Studies and International Studies.

Students will study the native Japanese religious tradition, Shinto, as well as the Chinese traditions that have become fundamental to Japanese religion (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism) as they have been interpreted in Japan. The course will also consider material culture, popular forms, folk traditions, and the ‘new religions’ of modern Japan as well as attitudes toward religion in today’s Japan.

Meets general academic requirement HU and DE.

This course studies the distinctive scriptural foundation of Christianity in its literary, historical, and theological contexts. Topics may include Jesus as an historical figure and as the object of early Christian faith; the relationships of various early Christian communities to one another and to contemporary Judaisms, Greek religions, and philosophies; the place and role of Paul; the gospel genre and its several examples; the definition of the canon; approaches to interpreting the New Testament. No prior study of the New Testament is expected.

Meets general academic requirement HU.

Meets general academic requirement HU. Also counts toward Jewish Studies and International Studies.

Meets general academic requirement HU, DE, and W.

This course will investigate the relationships that religious communities and individuals have envisioned, constructed, and practiced with their natural environments, as well as the ways those environments in their turn have influenced religious communities and individuals. Applying theoretical approaches to primary material, we will examine such topics as religiously inflected environmental ethics, the 'greening' of religion, religious rejections of scientific concepts such as evolution and human-caused climate change, and even consider the possibility of defining aspects of environmentalism as religious.

Meets general academic requirements HU.

Place and space have always been issues of central concern in the study of Religion. On a global scale, sites are designated as sacred; pilgrims travel to these sacred sites; ownership of these sites is contested. More locally, religious communities often travel and settle together, appropriating, or being relegated to, specific geographic spaces, which then take on significance both for those within the religious tradition and those outside. The emergence of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has invigorated a “spatial turn” in Humanities that now allows us to visualize religious information in geographic context so that we can better observe and track the ways that religions and religious communities interact with geographic space. In this course, we will consider issues of place and space in religion theoretically, and will learn foundational GIS skills that will allow us to critically analyze these theories. In doing so, we will simultaneously analyze and critique how we study religion and how we use GIS.

Meets general academic requirements HU and IL.

It is an understatement to say that Mahatma Gandhi, the pioneer of nonviolent political struggle in the first half of the twentieth century, lives on. Mahatma Gandhi is a titanic figure in South Asian politics and culture who impacted policy and practice around the world, and whose legacy continues to inspire nonviolent movements for social transformation. ‘Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth,’ said Einstein of Gandhi. Who is Gandhi? This course will examine the life and work of Mohandas K. Gandhi and his theory and practice of nonviolence through his own experiments and journeys through South Africa and India during a time of intense struggle for freedom and racial equality. We will explore the confluence of religion and politics in Gandhi’s life by analyzing the sources and development of religious ideas in the philosophy and practice of satyagraha, Gandhi’s nonviolent approach to social transformation, and in particular, his nonviolent resistant movement to free India from British control. We will read Gandhi’s autobiography and other key writings and look at the visual culture that has sprung around one of the most inspirational (and controversial) figures of modern times.

Meets general academic requirement DE and HU. Also counts toward Asian Studies and International Studies.

This course will offer a history of Jewish life in the United States. It will examine the different ways that American Jews have defined Jewish life in America and consider the challenges faced by Jewish immigrants as they worked to build a distinctly American Jewish culture. The tension and balance between religious meaning and the value placed on secularism in America form a vital part of this study.

Meets general academic requirement HU.