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Religious Studies (RELS) Courses

Academic Unit: Class & Near Eastern Studies

RELS 1001 - Introduction to the Religions of the World [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 1001 until 02-SEP-08
Introduction to major religions of world/academic study of religion. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, some pre-Christian religions of Antiquity.
RELS 1002 - Contemporary Issues in Religion, Culture, and Society: An Introduction to Religion [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Through examination of several contemporary issues this course introduces students to the complex ways in which religion functions in everyday life. The course will examine the intersection of religion with several cultural and social contexts and issues, such as gender, the environment, politics, power, race, ethnicity, health, medicine, food, art, and entertainment. It will draw upon the practices, texts, communities, and institutions of several religious traditions and familiarize students with interdisciplinary, humanistic methods for studying religion.
RELS 1034 - Introduction to Jewish History and Cultures [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 1034 until 02-SEP-08, JWST 1034 (starting 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 3034 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 3034 until 02-SEP-08), HIST 1534, JWST 3034, HIST 3534
This course traces the development of Judaism and Jewish civilizations from their beginnings to the present. With over three millennia as its subject, the course must of necessity be a general survey. Together we will explore the mythic structures, significant documents, historical experiences, narratives, practices, beliefs, and worldviews of the Jewish people. The course begins by examining the roots of Judaism in the Hebrew Bible and the history of ancient Israel but quickly focuses on the creative forces that developed within Judaism as a national narrative confronted the forces of history, especially in the forms of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. Rabbinic Judaism becomes the most dominant creative force and will receive our greatest attention, both in its formative years and as it encounters the rise of Christianity and Islam. After studying the Jewish experience in the medieval world, we will turn to Judaism?s encounter with the enlightenment and modernity. The historical survey concludes by attending to the transformations within Judaism and Jewish life of the last 150 years, including a confrontation with the experience of the Holocaust. Woven throughout this historical survey will be repeated engagements with core questions: ?Who is a Jew?? ?What do Jews believe?? ?What do Jews do?? ?What do we mean by `religion??? ?How do Jews read texts within their tradition?? And perhaps most importantly, ?How many answers are there to a Jewish question?? Students in this course can expect to come away with some knowledge of the Bible in Judaism, rabbinic literature and law, Jewish mysticism and philosophy, Jewish nationalism and Zionism, Jewish culture, ritual, and worship in the synagogue, the home, and the community, and Jewish celebrations of life cycle events and the festivals.
RELS 1082 - Jesus in History, Art & Culture [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 1082 until 02-SEP-08, CNRC 3092, CNRC 1082 (starting 07-SEP-04, was CNES 1082 until 18-JAN-22, was RELA 1082 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1082 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082 until 21-JAN-03, was CLAS 1082 until 21-JAN-03, was RELA 1082 until 03-SEP-02, was CLAS 1082 until 03-SEP-02, was RELA 1082 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 3092, CNES 1082H (inactive, ending 17-JAN-17, starting 20-JAN-15, was RELA 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082H until 05-SEP-00, was CLAS 1182 until 05-SEP-00, was RELA 1182 until 07-SEP-99), HIST 3092, RELS 1082H (inactive, starting 20-JAN-15, was RELA 1082H until 02-SEP-08), HIST 1082
Does time, place, and culture affect our picture of Jesus? We'll start by constructing our own Jesus story and then go backwards in time to examine modern times (film, music, and modern art), pre-Civil War America (views of Jesus from enslaved people and their enslavers), Renaissance and Medieval Europe and North Africa (art and architecture), and finally end with the ancient world (art and writings about Jesus, including the biblical gospels). No background in religious studies required, and students of any, all, or no religious background are welcome.
RELS 1201 - The Bible: Context and Interpretation, World of the Hebrew Bible [LITR]
(3 cr; Prereq-Knowledge of Hebrew not required; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 3201 until 18-JAN-22), RELS 3201 (starting 04-SEP-18, was RELA 3201 until 02-SEP-08, was CNES 1201 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 1001 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 3001 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-99), JWST 1201 (starting 04-SEP-18), JWST 3201 (starting 04-SEP-18), CNRC 1201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 1201 until 18-JAN-22)
The Hebrew Bible and Old Testament are literary collections that modern Jewish and Christian traditions maintain as important, but these collections were initially produced by ancient Israelite scribes who composed and/or compiled the biblical texts at particular time periods in the ancient Near East. This course will introduce the academic study of biblical texts, which demands critical analysis of the literature and an openness to reading the literature from the perspective of ancient Israelite writers (who lived in a world far different from today). The course will spend considerable time on the literary (and scribal) composition of biblical prose texts; time will also be spent on the historical circumstances of biblical prophets and other writers of the biblical texts. This course will only address the ancient setting of the biblical texts and not re-interpretations in Jewish or Christian traditions. Given the scope of the course, modern interpretations of the biblical literature will not be discussed; we will only focus on this literature in its ancient setting.
RELS 1203 - The Bible: Context & Interpretation, World of the New Testament [AH]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3213, CNRC 1203, CNRC 3213
Religious or not, Christian or not, hundreds of millions of people around the world utilize the New Testament for everything from personal belief ("Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior") to mass entertainment (documentaries, art house films, and blockbusters); from religious gatherings (most forms of Christianity) to ?secular? spiritual teachings ("Turn the other cheek"); from fine art (Salvador Dali's "Christ of Saint John of the Cross") to matters of law (Good Samaritan laws); and from politics (Christian nationalism) to literature (the quotes Harry Potter finds on the gravestones in Godric's Hollow). The New Testament deeply influences modern cultural contexts all around the world, but especially in the Western world. This course will explore the New Testament from a different context, that of its first century birthplace. We will build students? understanding of the writings of the New Testament in the Roman Empire of the first century by gaining basic cultural knowledge of first century Greece, Rome, and Israel/Palestine and then reading the Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the Book of Revelation from the perspective of these intersecting worlds. The New Testament is grounded in this context, and deeper exploration of New Testament writings from a first-century perspective will help students enrich their understanding of modern references like the ones mentioned above.
RELS 1205 - The Bible and Film: The Holy Book Meets the Silver Screen [AH]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: JWST 1205, CNRC 1205
The Bible has been a star of Hollywood and the silver screen since the birth of cinema. This course tells that story. The Bible has deep roots in American society, in communities of faith, in politics, in art and literature, and in popular culture. It is no surprise, then, that filmmakers have frequently drawn on the Bible as source text and as inspiration. This course explores the ways in which the Bible has been interpreted and reimagined in film over the past century. We will examine the relationships between the biblical texts and the films they inspired, considering questions such as: How do the filmmakers rework their sources to make them relevant to contemporary audiences? How beholden are the filmmakers to the interpretations of communities that view biblical texts as authoritative, and where are they free to depart from their sources? Is it possible to "translate" biblical narratives into film without losing something in the translation?
RELS 1544W - Martyrs, Monks, Crusaders: World Christianity, 100-1400 [WI GP HIS]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd, Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 1544 until 03-SEP-19, MEST 1081W, HIST 1081W, MEST 3081W, RELS 3544W, HIST 3081W
This course surveys the history of Christianity from its status as a persecuted minority religion of the Roman Empire to its dominant role in medieval Europe and Byzantium. We study Christian traditions in Asia and Africa as well as Europe with special attention to the relationship between Christianity and culture in the ancient and medieval world.
RELS 3001W - Theory and Method in Religion: Critical Approaches to the Study of Religion [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3001 until 19-JAN-10, RELS 5001 (starting 27-MAY-08, was RELA 5521 until 02-SEP-08)
Theoretical/methodological issues in academic study of religion. Theories of origin, character, and function of religion as a human phenomenon. Psychological, sociological, anthropological, and phenomenological perspectives.
RELS 3013W - Biblical Law and Jewish Ethics [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3013W until 02-SEP-08, was RELA 3013 until 05-SEP-00, RELS 5013W (starting 06-SEP-16, ending 17-JAN-06, was RELS 5013 until 05-SEP-17, was RELA 5013 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 5016W, JWST 5013W, JWST 3013W (starting 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3013 until 05-SEP-00), LAW 6916 (starting 03-SEP-19), CNRC 3016W
This course introduces students to the original meaning and significance of religious law and ethics within Judaism. Law is the single most important part of Jewish history and identity. At the same time, law is also the least understood part of Judaism and has often been the source of criticism and hatred. We shall therefore confront one of the most important parts of Jewish civilization and seek to understand it on its own terms. In demonstrating how law becomes a fundamental religious and ethical ideal, the course will focus on the biblical and Rabbinic periods but spans the entire history of Judaism. Consistent with the First Amendment, the approach taken is secular. There are no prerequisites: the course is open to all qualified students. The course begins with ideas of law in ancient Babylon and then studies the ongoing history of those ideas. The biblical idea that a covenant binds Israel to God, along with its implications for human worth - including the view of woman as person - will be examined. Comparative cultural issues include the reinterpretations of covenant within Christianity and Islam. The course investigates the rabbinic concept of oral law, the use of law to maintain the civil and religious stability of the Jewish people, and the kabbalistic transformation of law. The course concludes with contemporary Jewish thinkers who return to the Bible while seeking to establish a modern system of universal ethics. The premise of the course is the discipline of academic religious studies. The assumptions of the course are therefore academic and secular, as required by the First Amendment. All texts and all religious traditions will be examined analytically and critically. Students are expected to understand and master this approach, which includes questioning conventional cultural assumptions about the composition and authorship of the Bible. Willingness to ask such questions and openness to new ways of thinking are essential to success in the course. Ol
RELS 3019 - Buddhist Art and Architecture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3019 (starting 08-SEP-20)
This class provides an introduction to Buddhist art and architecture, from the sixth-century BCE to the present. Beginning with the life of the historical Buddha (563-483), it will follow the development of Buddhist art in India before tracing it across the Silk Road to China, Korea, and Japan. The class will consider how art and architecture evolved to serve the needs of Buddhism as its doctrine and practice evolved. At the same, we will consider how Buddhist cosmology and metaphysics were translated into culturally specific modes that served the multifarious cultural and artistic traditions of Asia.
RELS 3034 - Introduction to Jewish History and Cultures [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3034 until 02-SEP-08, RELS 1034 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 1034 until 02-SEP-08), JWST 1034 (starting 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-99), HIST 1534, JWST 3034, HIST 3534
This course traces the development of Judaism and Jewish civilizations from their beginnings to the present. With over three millennia as its subject, the course must of necessity be a general survey. Together we will explore the mythic structures, significant documents, historical experiences, narratives, practices, beliefs, and worldviews of the Jewish people. The course begins by examining the roots of Judaism in the Hebrew Bible and the history of ancient Israel but quickly focuses on the creative forces that developed within Judaism as a national narrative confronted the forces of history, especially in the forms of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. Rabbinic Judaism becomes the most dominant creative force and will receive our greatest attention, both in its formative years and as it encounters the rise of Christianity and Islam. After studying the Jewish experience in the medieval world, we will turn to Judaism?s encounter with the enlightenment and modernity. The historical survey concludes by attending to the transformations within Judaism and Jewish life of the last 150 years, including a confrontation with the experience of the Holocaust. Woven throughout this historical survey will be repeated engagements with core questions: ?Who is a Jew?? ?What do Jews believe?? ?What do Jews do?? ?What do we mean by `religion??? ?How do Jews read texts within their tradition?? And perhaps most importantly, ?How many answers are there to a Jewish question?? Students in this course can expect to come away with some knowledge of the Bible in Judaism, rabbinic literature and law, Jewish mysticism and philosophy, Jewish nationalism and Zionism, Jewish culture, ritual, and worship in the synagogue, the home, and the community, and Jewish celebrations of life cycle events and the festivals.
RELS 3070 - Topics in Religious Studies (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 6 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
Diverse topics in Religious Studies. Please see below for this semester's selection title.
RELS 3071 - Greek and Hellenistic Religions [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Even Year)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3071 until 02-SEP-08, RELS 5071 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 17-JAN-06, was RELA 5071 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 5071, RELS 3071H (inactive, starting 20-JAN-15, was RELA 3071H until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 3071
Greek religion from the Bronze Age to Hellenistic times. Literature, art, archaeology. Homer/Olympian deities. Ritual performance, prayer, sacrifice. Temple architecture. Death/afterlife. Mystery cults. Philosophical religion. Near Eastern salvation religions. Meets with 3171.
RELS 3072 - The Birth of Christianity [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3072 until 02-SEP-08, CNRC 3072, CNRC 5072 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was CNES 5072 until 18-JAN-22, was RELA 5072 until 18-JAN-05, was CLAS 5072 until 18-JAN-05, was RELA 5072 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5072 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 5072 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 5072 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 17-JAN-06, was RELA 5072 until 02-SEP-08)
Early Jesus movement in cultural/historical setting. Origins in Judaism. Traditions about Jesus. Apostle Paul, controversies/interpreters. Authority, religious practice, structure. Emergence of canon. Contemporary methods of New Testament study. Biblical writings as history/narrative. CNES 3072/CNES 5072/RELS 3072/RELS 5072 meet together.
RELS 3076 - The Apostle Paul: Life, Letters, and Legacy
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd, Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3076 until 02-SEP-08
How/what can we know about Paul. What his message was. What he was fighting. How he was later understood by friends/foes.
RELS 3079 - Muslims and Jews: Conflict and Co-existence in the Middle East and North Africa since 1700 [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: JWST 3511 (starting 06-SEP-11), HIST 3511 (starting 06-SEP-11)
Diversity of social/cultural interactions between Muslims and Jews and between Islam and Judaism since 1700. What enabled the two religious communities to peacefully coexist? What were causes of conflict? Why is history of Muslim-Jewish relations such a contested issue?
RELS 3092 - Jesus in History, Art & Culture [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3092, RELS 1082 (starting 20-JAN-15, ending 02-SEP-08, starting 27-MAY-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 1082 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 1082 (starting 07-SEP-04, was CNES 1082 until 18-JAN-22, was RELA 1082 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1082 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082 until 21-JAN-03, was CLAS 1082 until 21-JAN-03, was RELA 1082 until 03-SEP-02, was CLAS 1082 until 03-SEP-02, was RELA 1082 until 07-SEP-99), CNES 1082H (inactive, ending 17-JAN-17, starting 20-JAN-15, was RELA 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082H until 05-SEP-00, was CLAS 1182 until 05-SEP-00, was RELA 1182 until 07-SEP-99), HIST 3092, RELS 1082H (inactive, starting 20-JAN-15, was RELA 1082H until 02-SEP-08), HIST 1082
Does time, place, and culture affect our picture of Jesus? We'll start by constructing our own Jesus story and then go backwards in time to examine modern times (film, music, and modern art), pre-Civil War America (views of Jesus from enslaved people and their enslavers), Renaissance and Medieval Europe and North Africa (art and architecture), and finally end with the ancient world (art and writings about Jesus, including the biblical gospels). No background in religious studies required, and students of any, all, or no religious background are welcome.
RELS 3113 - History of Modern Israel/Palestine: Society, Culture, and Politics [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3512 (starting 06-SEP-11), GLOS 3942 (inactive), JWST 3512
History of Israel/Palestine, 19th?21st centuries. Zionism and Arab nationalism. Arab/Palestinian/Israeli wars. Ethnic, religious, and national identities. Israeli and Palestinian politics, culture, and society; conflicting narratives and shared histories.
RELS 3115 - Midrash: Reading and Retelling the Hebrew Bible
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3115 until 02-SEP-08, CNRC 5115, CNRC 3115, JWST 5115, RELS 5115 (starting 26-MAY-15, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 18-JAN-05, was RELA 5115 until 02-SEP-08), JWST 3115 (starting 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3115 until 07-SEP-99)
How did the Jews of the first seven centuries of the common era read and understand the Hebrew Bible? What were the problems they faced -- interpretive, historical, theological -- in trying to apply their holy scriptures? This course explores key issues that led to the development of a new form of Judaism in late antiquity, rabbinic Judaism, and its methods of scriptural interpretation. The course's study will focus on the forms and practices of rabbinic scriptural interpretation (midrash) as it developed in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia, focusing on key narrative and legal passages in the Five Books of Moses (Torah). A main focus of the course will be on the ways the rabbis adapted the Hebrew Bible to express their own core concerns.
RELS 3121 - Gender and Body in Early Christianity [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year; may be repeated for 30 credits)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 5121, RELS 5121, CNRC 3121
Ancient Christians, like any other social group in the ancient world, represented themselves through images, stories, and discourses using the cultural tools available to them in their own contexts. In this course, we will explore two key texts of early Christianity (1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Mark) with special attention to how representations of the body and gender served to communicate the nature of what it meant to be Christian for these authors. The study of ancient material offers a space to acquire the skills of critical analysis of body and gender dynamics so that we can better understand the roles that the body and gender play in shaping our self-identity, social interaction, and societal structures.
RELS 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3182, ARTH 3182 (starting 18-JAN-11)
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the art, architecture and archaeology of Egypt, East Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia from the Neolithic through Late Antiquity (ca. 7,000 B.C.E. - 650 C.E.). Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between the visual material and the social, intellectual, political and religious contexts in which it developed and functioned. In this regard, students will also gain an understanding of the evolution of, and exchanges and differences among, the visual cultures of these time periods and regions. It will also expose them to the preconditions for contemporary geopolitics in the region.
RELS 3201 - The Bible: Context and Interpretation, World of the Hebrew Bible [LITR]
(3 cr; Prereq-Knowledge of Hebrew not required; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3201 until 02-SEP-08, was CNES 1201 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 1001 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 3001 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-99, CNRC 3201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 3201 until 18-JAN-22), JWST 1201 (starting 04-SEP-18), JWST 3201 (starting 04-SEP-18), CNRC 1201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 1201 until 18-JAN-22), RELS 1201 (starting 04-SEP-18)
The Hebrew Bible and Old Testament are literary collections that modern Jewish and Christian traditions maintain as important, but these collections were initially produced by ancient Israelite scribes who composed and/or compiled the biblical texts at particular time periods in the ancient Near East. This course will introduce the academic study of biblical texts, which demands critical analysis of the literature and an openness to reading the literature from the perspective of ancient Israelite writers (who lived in a world far different from today). The course will spend considerable time on the literary (and scribal) composition of biblical prose texts; time will also be spent on the historical circumstances of biblical prophets and other writers of the biblical texts. This course will only address the ancient setting of the biblical texts and not re-interpretations in Jewish or Christian traditions. Given the scope of the course, modern interpretations of the biblical literature will not be discussed; we will only focus on this literature in its ancient setting.
RELS 3202 - Bible: Prophecy in Ancient Israel
(3 cr; Prereq-[RelS 1001] or [CNES 1201 or JWST 1201 or RELS 1201 or CNES 3201 or JWST 3201 or RELS 3201]; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3202 until 02-SEP-08, was ANE 1002 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3202 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3202 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 1002 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 3002 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3202 until 07-SEP-99, JWST 3202 (inactive), ANE 1002 (inactive), CNRC 3202
Survey of Israelite prophets. Emphasizes Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Second Isaiah. Prophetic contributions to Israelite religion. Personality of prophets. Politics, prophetic reaction. Textual analysis, Biblical scholarship. Prophecy viewed cross-culturally.
RELS 3205 - Women, Gender, and the Hebrew Bible [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3205, JWST 3205
How men, women, gender, sexuality is portrayed in Hebrew Bible. Social/religious roles/status of women in ancient Israel. Read biblical texts from academic point of view.
RELS 3206 - Sex, Murder, and Bodily Discharges: Purity and Pollution in the Ancient World [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3206 (starting 03-SEP-19), JWST 3206 (starting 03-SEP-19), MEST 3206, CNRC 3206 (starting 03-SEP-19, was CNES 3206 until 18-JAN-22)
"Dirt is dangerous," Mary Douglas declared more than 50 years ago in her groundbreaking study, "Purity and Danger." Douglas's ideas have been influential in ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies and provide a framework for us to analyze how people in antiquity conceptualized ideas of purity, pollution, ritual sacrifice, sacred spaces, bodily leakages, and the liminal stages of life and death. We'll delve into Douglas's theory in light of ancient examples with a special focus on ancient Israelite texts (the Tanakh or Old Testament) as well as ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern building inscriptions, specialist manuals, and rituals. Through this evidence, we'll gain profound insight into the ancient notions of "sacred/clean" (purity) and the "unclean/profane" (pollution).
RELS 3213 - The Bible: Context & Interpretation, World of the New Testament [AH]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 1203, RELS 1203, CNRC 3213
Religious or not, Christian or not, hundreds of millions of people around the world utilize the New Testament for everything from personal belief ("Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior") to mass entertainment (documentaries, art house films, and blockbusters); from religious gatherings (most forms of Christianity) to "secular" spiritual teachings ("Turn the other cheek"); from fine art (Salvador Dali's "Christ of Saint John of the Cross") to matters of law (Good Samaritan laws); and from politics (Christian nationalism) to literature (the quotes Harry Potter finds on the gravestones in Godric's Hollow). The New Testament deeply influences modern cultural contexts all around the world, but especially in the Western world. This course will explore the New Testament from a different context, that of its first century birthplace. We will build students? understanding of the writings of the New Testament in the Roman Empire of the first century by gaining basic cultural knowledge of first century Greece, Rome, and Israel/Palestine and then reading the Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the Book of Revelation from the perspective of these intersecting worlds. The New Testament is grounded in this context, and deeper exploration of New Testament writings from a first-century perspective will help students enrich their understanding of modern references like the ones mentioned above.
RELS 3320 - Topics in Religious Studies (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in class schedule
RELS 3321 - American Indian Philosophies [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: AMIN 3301 (starting 02-SEP-14)
World views of indigenous people of Americas. Topics include native medicines/healing practices, ceremonies/ritual, governance, ecology, humor, tribal histories, status of contemporary native people.
RELS 3371 - Buddhism [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Summer)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3413 until 20-JAN-09, AMES 3672 (starting 05-SEP-00, was ALL 3672 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 3413 until 20-JAN-09, was SALC 5413 until 05-SEP-00, was SALC 3413 until 05-SEP-00, was SALC 5413 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 5371 (inactive, was RELS 5413 until 20-JAN-09), AMES 5672 (inactive, was ALL 5672 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 5413 until 20-JAN-09)
Historical and contemporary account of the Buddhist religion in Asia/world in terms of its rise, development, various schools, practices, philosophical concepts, and ethics. Current trends in the modern faith and the rise of "socially engaged" Buddhism.
RELS 3373 - Religion and Society in Imperial China [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3466, AMES 3373 (starting 06-SEP-05, was ALL 3373 until 21-JAN-20)
Varieties of religious experience in imperial China. Religion as lived practices. Textual traditions. Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, relations among them. Western missionary enterprise in China.
RELS 3374 - Introduction to Japanese Religions
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3471 (ending 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3471 until 21-JAN-20)
An introduction to the development of different forms of religious practice in Japan over the past fourteen hundred years. A survey of Japanese religions and their development will be combined with specific examples (past and present) that demonstrate the way that religious belief has manifested itself in various forms of cultural practice.
RELS 3377 - A Thousand Years of Buddhism in China: Beliefs, Practices, and Culture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Buddhism in China, 4th-15th centuries. Introduction of Buddhism to China. Relevance of Buddhist teaching to indigenous thought (e.g., Taoism, Confucianism). Major "schools": Tiantai, Huayan, Chan/Zen, etc.. Cultural activities of monks, nuns, and lay believers.
RELS 3415W - Art of India [AH WI GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring; may be repeated for 4 credits)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3014W (inactive, was ALL 3014W until 21-JAN-20), ARTH 3014W (starting 02-SEP-03, was ARTH 3014 until 05-SEP-00), ARTH 3014V (inactive)
Indian sculpture, architecture, and paintings from the prehistoric Indus Valley civilization to the present day.
RELS 3502W - Ancient Israel: From Conquest to Exile [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3502 until 19-JAN-21, was RELA 3502 until 02-SEP-08, CNRC 5502W, HIST 3502W, CNRC 3502W (starting 07-SEP-99, was CNES 3502W until 18-JAN-22, was CNES 3502 until 19-JAN-21, was ANE 3502 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3502 until 12-JUN-00, was ANE 3502 until 12-JUN-00, was RELA 3502 until 07-SEP-99, was ANE 5502 until 07-SEP-99), JWST 3502W
Israel and Judah were not states of great importance in the ancient Near East. Their population and territory were small, and they could not resist conquest by larger, more powerful states like Assyria and Rome. Yet their ancient history matters greatly today, out of proportion to its insignificance during the periods in which it transpired. The historical experiences of the people of Israel and Judah were accorded religious meaning and literary articulation in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), which became a foundational text for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Essential features of Western as well as Islamic civilization are predicated on some element of Israel?s ancient past, as mediated through the Bible; therefore it behooves us to understand that past. But the Bible is a religious work, not a transcript of events, and the history of ancient Israel is not derived merely from reading the biblical accounts of it. Archaeological excavations have revealed the physical remains of the cultures of Israel and neighboring lands, as well as bringing to light inscriptions, documents, and literary works produced by those cultures. These sources, which complement and sometimes contradict the accounts conveyed in the Bible, provide the basis for reconstructing a comprehensive history of ancient Israel. This course covers the history of Israel and Judah from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1200 BCE), by the end of which Israel had emerged as a distinct ethnic entity, to the period of Roman rule (63 BCE-330 CE), which saw the final extinction of ancient Israel, represented by the kingdom of Judea, as a political entity. Knowledge of this history is based on archaeological, epigraphic, and literary sources, including the Hebrew Bible. N.B.: Students should be aware that the study of history, like all the human and natural sciences, is predicated on inquiry, not a priori judgments. Accordingly, the Bible is not privileged as an intrinsically true or authoritative
RELS 3504 - Apocalypticism, Cosmic Warfare, and the Maccabees: Jewish Strategies of Resistance in Antiquity
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3504 until 02-SEP-08, was ANE 3504 until 06-SEP-05, was RELA 3504 until 07-SEP-99, was ANE 5504 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 5504 until 07-SEP-99, JWST 3504, CNRC 3504
The rise of Hellenistic kingdoms in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East created a variety of responses from local, subjugated peoples, and some of the most documented cases are those of Jewish populations in Koele-Syria/Palestine. The main objective of this course is to analyze Jewish responses to imperial rule and military conflict during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (c. 300 B.C.E. - 150 C.E.), but we will also spend time examining the broader picture of how local, ancestral groups fared under foreign rule. Along with discussing pertinent archaeological evidence, we will discuss Jewish literature and documentary material from this period, including, the sectarian documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Judith (a Jewish "novel"), the Books of Daniel and the Maccabees (all of which provide historical information about the Maccabean revolt and rise of the Hasmoneans), and the writings of Josephus (a Jewish writer who witnessed the Roman takeover of Palestine in the first century C.E.). This course will stay within the confines of the ancient evidence and not examine later interpretations when analyzing each historical period; it will begin with Ptolemaic control of the region and conclude with the Bar Kokhba revolt, its aftermath, and the resilience of Jewish populations in northern Palestine. Topics that will be examined in depth are messianism and apocalypticism, the Jerusalem Temple, Jewish ancestral traditions (which include "biblical" literature), and theoretical models used by scholars to analyze power relationships in antiquity.
RELS 3520 - History of the Holocaust
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3727, HIST 3727W (inactive), RELS 3521W (inactive, starting 16-JAN-01, was JWST 3521W until 06-SEP-05, was JWST 3521W until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3521W until 03-SEP-02, was JWST 3521 until 16-JAN-01, was RELS 3521 until 07-SEP-99), JWST 3520, JWST 3521W (inactive)
Study of 1933-1945 extermination of six million Jews and others by Nazi Germany on basis of race. European anti-Semitism. Implications of social Darwinism and race theory. Perpetrators, victims, onlookers, resistance. Theological responses of Jews and Christians.
RELS 3535 - Death and the Afterlife in the Ancient World [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3535 until 02-SEP-08, RELS 5535 (inactive, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 05-SEP-06, was RELA 5535 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 3535, CNES 5535 (inactive)
Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors related to death and afterlife found in cultures of ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Literature, funerary art/epitaphs. Archaeological evidence for burial practices and care of dead.
RELS 3543 - Pagans, Christians, Barbarians: The World of Late Antiquity [GP HIS]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3617, MEST 3617, CNRC 3617
Between classical and medieval, pagan and Christian, Roman and barbarian, the late antique world was a dynamic age. This course focuses on the Mediterranean region from the 2nd to the mid-7th century exploring such topics as the conversion of Constantine, the fall of Rome, barbarian invasions, the spread of Christianity, and the rise of Islam.
RELS 3544W - Martyrs, Monks, Crusaders: World Christianity, 100-1400 [WI GP HIS]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd, Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3544 until 03-SEP-19, MEST 1081W, HIST 1081W, MEST 3081W, RELS 1544W, HIST 3081W
This course surveys the history of Christianity from its status as a persecuted minority religion of the Roman Empire to its dominant role in medieval Europe and Byzantium. We study Christian traditions in Asia and Africa as well as Europe with special attention to the relationship between Christianity and culture in the ancient and medieval world.
RELS 3545W - World Christianity, 1300-1800 Reformers, Radicals and Revolutionaries [HIS WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3545 until 17-JAN-23, HIST 3082W
This course, which requires no prerequisite, examines developments in the history of Christianity from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the eighteenth. We will start our investigation by considering the Latin church with its headquarters in Rome at the height of its power and influence. We will then trace its development through the crises of the fourteenth century and its subsequent transformation during the Reformation and the Confessional era. We will close by considering new challenges facing the church in an age of Enlightenment and Revolution. Though our geographic center of gravity will be in Europe, we will follow the expansion of Christianity into the Asian, African and American worlds and how developments here changed the nature of the church back in Europe. We will study religion as a phenomenon that affects human activity in a broad spectrum of area and activities. Though we will investigate formal matters of belief, significant attention will be given to Christianity as a lived experience, and how faith affected the everyday life of men and women in the premodern world.
RELS 3609 - Intersectional Medieval Art [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3009 (starting 17-JAN-12), MEST 3009
Grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, this class draws on primary texts and a range of visual and material sources to trace the histories, experiences, and representations of marginalized identities in the medieval world. We will consider gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures during the Middle Ages. This class will examine topics including transgender saints, miraculous transformations, demonic possession, female artists and patrons, the "monstrous races" of travel accounts, and gender-affirming surgeries. In contrast to misconceptions of a homogenous white European past, the reality of medieval Europe was diverse and complex, and its boundaries - geographical, cultural, bodily, and otherwise - were in flux, as reflected in its visual and material culture.
RELS 3611 - Eastern Orthodoxy: History and Culture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3767 (starting 02-SEP-08)
Development of orthodox church in Byzantium, Islamic Near East, Slavic world, and diaspora. Impact of orthodoxy on political/cultural institutions. Interaction with other Christian/non-Christian communities. Orthodox spirituality/aesthetics.
RELS 3612 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: RELS 5612, ARTH 3335, HIST 3706, ARTH 5335 (starting 02-SEP-08)
This course explores the center of Baroque culture, Rome, as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world's great capitals.
RELS 3623H - Religion and the American Culture Wars
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3804H, HIST 3804 (inactive, starting 17-MAY-21), RELS 3623 (inactive, starting 20-JAN-15)
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Paine, George Washington, and John Adams on religion, faith, and religion in politics. Deism. Enlightenment-era discussions about rational religion. Rise of evangelicalism. Separation of church/state, framers' original intent for first amendment. Religious Right.
RELS 3624 - Atheists as ?Other?: Religious and Nonreligious Outsiders in the US [DSJ]
(3 cr; Prereq-1001 recommended; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: SOC 3309, SURG 7500 (inactive, ending 08-AUG-16, starting 06-MAY-13)
What does it mean to be an atheist in the United States today? Atheists comprise a small percentage of the American population, but one with an increasingly visible presence in popular culture, political discourse, & everyday life. How do atheists organize into groups oriented toward identity-formation, social connection, and political action?
RELS 3625 - Magic and Medicine
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: INMD 7312 (ending 10-AUG-15), HIST 3285
Course examines how the line between magic and medicine has changed over time. From accusations of witchcraft to proclamations of scientific breakthrough, we will examine the relationship between the supernatural and the natural from the early modern period to today. Specific topics include the practice of exorcism, the concept of the "four humors," the persecution of witches, the development of "voodoo," the effectiveness of placebos, and the professionalization of medicine. Throughout, we will ask how gender, class, and race have affected the construction of "magic" and "medicine."
RELS 3626W - Witches, Seers, and Saints: Women, Gender, and Religion in the U.S. [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3626V (inactive), GWSS 3626W
This course examines the development and ramifications of gender ideologies within several religious groups in North America from the colonial period to the present and explores women's strategies that have contributed to and resisted these ideologies.
RELS 3627 - The End of the World in Literature and History [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ENGL 3025 (starting 02-SEP-14)
For at least two and a half millennia, prophets, politicians, and poets have crafted terrifying accounts about the end of the world. This comparatist seminar examines the way different cultures have imagined a final apocalypse with particular attention to the political and social consequences of their visions. Students will read texts that focus on pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, nuclear holocaust, prophecy, cybernetic revolt, divine judgment, resource depletion, meteoric impact, or one of the many other ways in which humans write of their demise. They will use literary analysis to explore the many historical and contemporary wastelands they will encounter. They will write short papers and give in-class presentations on different kinds of apocalypse.
RELS 3628 - Jewish American Literature: Religion, Culture, and the Immigrant Experience [HIS DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: JWST 3011, ENGL 3011 (starting 22-MAY-17)
Immigrant? Jewish? American? What do these labels mean, why are they applied, and do they ever cease to be applicable? Can we distinguish religion from culture, and what are the implications when we try? Why is it frequently asked whether Saul Bellow was ?really? a Jewish writer, but it is impossible to read Philip Roth as anything other than that? How does Grace Paley?s ?Jewishness? come through even when she is writing about non-Jewish characters? We will address these issues and others as we explore the literature growing out of the Jewish immigrant experience in America, as well as the literature by Jewish writers more firmly, though still sometimes anxiously, rooted in American soil. In this course we will engage in a highly contextualized and historicized study of Jewish American literature from the 19th century to today. We will discover in these texts how inherited Jewish culture and literary imaginings, developed over centuries of interaction between Jewish communities and the ?outside world,? get reexamined, questioned, rejected, reimagined, reintegrated, and transformed within the crucible of American experience. The discussions that ensue will also provide a framework for engaging with the creative energies and cultural productivity of more recent immigrant communities in the United States and beyond. Immigration and the experience of immigrant communities continues to be at the forefront of American consciousness, as immigrants work to create new meanings and new narratives for their lives, and as those who immigrated before them provide contested meanings for the impact of immigration on their own narratives. This course, though grounded in Jewish narratives, will therefore provide students with an expanded vocabulary and perspective for engaging in this central and very current debate within the American experience.
RELS 3631 - Islam in America: A History of the Present
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Summer)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3631
From the ?Age of Discovery? and the African slave trade, to Malcolm X and the War on Terror, Islam has long been an integral part of the American landscape. In this course students will examine the history of Islam and social formation of Muslim communities in the United States. We will approach this history in the plural: as histories of Islam in America, paying particular attention to the different local and global dynamics that led to the migration of this racially, ethnically, and class variegated community. This course will explore how racial, national, cultural, and sectarian differences within and between Muslim communities shape and challenge the notion of a singular Islam or Muslim community. We will ask how and why Islam and Muslims have been characterized - both historically and today - as a "problem" in/for America. What does the emergence of terminology like ?American Muslim? and ?American Islam? tell us about these historical tensions, conceptions of good/bad citizenship, and identity politics more broadly, in the United States today?
RELS 3671 - Hinduism
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3412 until 02-SEP-08, AMES 5671 (inactive, starting 27-MAY-08, was ALL 5671 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 5412 until 02-SEP-08), HIST 3492, AMES 3671 (starting 27-MAY-08, was ALL 3671 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 3412 until 02-SEP-08, was SALC 5412 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 5671 (inactive, starting 02-SEP-08, was RELS 5412 until 02-SEP-08)
Development of Hinduism focusing on sectarian trends, modern religious practices, myths/rituals, pilgrimage patterns/ religious festivals. Interrelationship between Indian social structure/Hinduism.
RELS 3679 - Religion and Society in Modern South Asia [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 5679, AMES 3679 (starting 02-SEP-14, was ALL 3679 until 21-JAN-20)
Survey of religious formations in premodern India (Hindu, Islamic, Sikh). Transformation of religious practice/thought. Religion and nationalism. Geopolitical dimensions of religious transformation in South Asia.
RELS 3704 - Exploring the Quran: An intellectual odyssey with Islam's holy scripture [AH]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3074
This course explores the contents of the Quran and probes its place in the history of human civilization. Students will learn about, and critically reflect on, the following subjects: 1) the Quran's core ideas, stories, laws, parables, and arguments, 2) the historical context in which the Quran was first promulgated and codified, 3) the relationship between the Quran and the preceding literary traditions of the ancient world, in particular, the Bible and post-biblical Jewish and Christian writings, 4) Muslim utilization of the Quran towards intellectual, social, religious, cultural, and political ends, and 5) the pre-modern and modern scholarly traditions of interpreting the Quran.
RELS 3706W - Art of Islam [AH WI GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3015W (starting 07-SEP-10, was ARTH 3015 until 05-SEP-00), CLCV 3015W (inactive)
Architecture, painting, and other arts from Islam's origins to the 20th century. Cultural and political settings as well as themes that unify the diverse artistic styles of Islamic art will be considered.
RELS 3708 - The Cultures of the Silk Road
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3504 (starting 08-SEP-09), AMES 3872
Past/present state of cultures that flourished in Central Asia (present-day CA republics, Iran, Afghanistan) after Alexander the Great. Decline with opening of sea routes.
RELS 3711 - The Islamic World [SOCS GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: GEOG 3145 (starting 04-SEP-01), GLOS 3645 (inactive)
The Islamic World provides a comprehensive introduction of Islam from its inception to today. The course?s journey begins with Islam?s dawn in the small desert oasis of Mecca in the Arabian peninsula over 14 centuries ago to today when it is a worldwide faith. One hundred years from its inception, Islam spread to what is today Syria, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and across the Mediterranean Sea. Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Anatolia (Turkey) came under the sway of Islam leading to the emergence of three major Islamic civilization that dominated and enlightened the old world for several centuries. This era came to an end with the rise of Capitalist Europe and its colonization of much of the world including Muslim societies. Like many colonized peoples, Muslims threw the yoke of colonialism and joined the postcolonial World. Beyond this historical geographic survey, the course examines the Muslim World?s relationships with the West, democracy, and development. It also explore how Muslims and Islam engage the seemingly contemporary topics such as human rights, gender relations, the monumental environmental crisis of our time, the war on terror and the terror of war, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Marhaba or Soo Dhawoow (Welcome).
RELS 3712 - Islam: Religion and Culture
(3 cr; Prereq-Soph or jr or sr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3036 until 02-SEP-08, ARAB 3036 (inactive, was HUM 3036 until 28-MAY-02, was RELA 3036 until 28-MAY-02, was HUM 3036 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3036 until 07-SEP-99), HIST 3493, HUM 3036 (inactive, ending 02-SEP-08), AMES 3871
This course is a brief survey of the religion and civilization of Islam. It introduces students to 1) Islamic history from its inception in the seventh century CE to the present, with emphasis on the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the early Caliphate; 2) The authoritative texts of Islam, i.e. the Quran and Prophetic traditions (Hadith); 3) The institutions and discourses characteristic of Islamic civilization; and 4) The transformation of Muslim life and thought in the modern period. By taking this course, students become familiar with the chief ideas, characters, narratives, rites, localities, and movements associated with Islam.
RELS 3714 - Islam and the West
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3546, GLOS 3643 (inactive), MELC 3533 (inactive, ending 02-SEP-08), CAS 3533 (inactive)
Cultural/intellectual trends that have defined differences between Islam and the West. Development of historical, philosophical, and intellectual mindset of both spheres. Factors in tension, anxiety, and hatred between Muslim world and Europe and the United States.
RELS 3715 - History of the Crusades [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: MEST 3613, HIST 3613 (starting 07-SEP-10)
Crusading spirit in Europe. Results of classic medieval crusades ca 1095-1285. States established by crusaders in Near East. Internal European crusades. Chronological prolongation of crusading phenomenon.
RELS 3716 - Gender and the Family in the Islamic World
(3 cr; Prereq-At least soph; 1001 recommended; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: SOC 3681 (starting 20-JAN-09), GWSS 3681, GLOS 3681
This course explores the experiences of Muslim women and Muslim families from a historical and comparative perspective. Expanding the discussion on Muslim women's lives and experiences beyond the Middle East, by also centralizing on the experiences of Muslim women and families outside of this geographical area highlights the complex and diverse everyday experiences of Muslim women around the world. This wider lens exposes the limitations intrinsic in the stereotypical representation of Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular. We will explore the intricate web of gender and family power relations, and how these are contested and negotiated in these societies. Some of the themes the course explores include the debates on Muslim women and colonial representations, sexual politics, family, education and health, women and paid work, gender and human rights, and Islamic feminisms debates.
RELS 3717 - Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle Ages [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Even, Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: MEST 3606, HIST 3606 (starting 07-SEP-10), JWST 3606
A Pew Research survey of the global religious landscape in 2010 found 2.2 billion Christians (31.5% of the world?s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23.2%), and 14 million Jews (.2%). In this class, we explore how the histories of these religious communities became deeply entangled in an age of diplomacy, trade, jihad, and crusade.
RELS 3718W - Christ in Islamic Thought [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3494W
Course examines the history of the figure of Christ in Islamic thought, from the beginnings of Islam in the Qur'an and the Hadith to the recent 2013 book by Reza Aslan, Zealot. The course is based on close reading of primary sources from regions extending from Spain to Iran, and in various languages (in translation): Arabic, Greek, French, Farsi, and Italian. Course demonstrates how much the interpretation of the figure of Christ in Islamic thought belonged to specific historical contexts.
RELS 3721 - North Africa since 1500: Islam, Colonialism, and Independence
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: RELS 5721 (inactive), HIST 5513, HIST 3513 (starting 21-JAN-14)
History of Maghrib (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, disputed territories of Western Sahara) from time of Ottoman expansion/Sharifian dynasties (Sa'dian/'Alawid) in 16th/17th Centuries to end of 20th century. Focus on encounter of Islamic cultures/societies of Maghrib with Africa/Europe.
RELS 3722 - The Ottoman Empire [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARAB 3547 (inactive, starting 28-MAY-02, was HIST 3547 until 28-MAY-02, was HIST 3547 until 07-SEP-99), HIST 3547, AMES 3883 (inactive, ending 16-JAN-18, was ALL 3883 until 21-JAN-20)
Survey of Islam's most successful empire, from its founding circa 1300 to its demise in 1923. Lands, institutions, peoples, historical legacy.
RELS 3773 - Islamic Mysticism [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3873 (starting 05-SEP-23)
This course offers an introduction to the tradition of Islamic mysticism, or Sufism. The main goal of the class is to develop an understanding of the mystical perspectives within Islam that have influenced most of the world?s Muslim population. Throughout Islamic history, Sufis (Islamic mystics) have developed fascinating philosophical theories and beautiful literature, attempting to answer questions about the meaning of life and the nature of reality. We will read Islamic mystical texts that explore everything from hidden meanings of the Qur?an, to dreams and supernatural powers, to sex, love, and spiritual connection with God. In addition to reading the writings of Muslim holy men (and sometimes women) from Turkey to China and beyond, we will also consider the role of Islamic mysticism in Muslim societies and how it influenced people at various levels of society. Finally, we will examine what happens to Sufism in the modern period, given challenges from colonialism as well as alternate schools of thought within Islam.
RELS 3777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3777, ARTH 5777 (starting 17-JAN-17), RELS 5777 (starting 17-JAN-17)
This class considers the development of Indian and Pakistani art and architecture from the introduction of Islam as a major political power at the end of the 12th century to the colonial empires of the 18th century. We will study how South Asia's diverse ethnic and religious communities interacted, observing how visual and material cultures reflect differences, adaptations, and shared aesthetic practices within this diversity of traditions. Students in this class will have mastered a body of knowledge about Indian art and probed multiple modes of inquiry. We will explore how Muslim rulers brought new traditions yet maintained many older ones making, for example, the first mosque in India that combines Muslim and Indic visual idioms. We will study the developments leading to magnificent structures, such as the Taj Mahal, asking why such a structure could be built when Islam discourages monumental mausolea. In what ways the schools of painting that are the products of both Muslim and Hindu rulers different and similar? The course will also consider artistic production in the important Hindu kingdoms that ruled India concurrently with the great Muslim powers. In the 18th century, colonialist forces enter the subcontinent, resulting in significant innovative artistic trends. Among questions we will ask is how did these kingdoms influence one another? Throughout we will probe which forms and ideas seem to be inherently Indian, asking which ones transcend dynastic, geographic and religious differences and which forms and ideas are consistent throughout these periods of political and ideological change. To do all this we must constantly consider how South Asia's diverse ethnic and religious communities interact. There are no prerequisites for this course.
RELS 3779 - Visions of Paradise: The Indian Temple
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3779
This course traces the development and diversity of the Indian temple, focusing the ways in which people interact with sacred space and how religious art addresses its viewers. We primarily focus on Hinduism, but also include Buddhism and Jainism. We will discuss the role of sculpture, painting, textiles, dance, and food within the temple. We will also examine how the legacy of colonial and orientalist scholarship inflects our study of these traditions and monuments. Although the architecture of both structural and rock-cut temples will be our main object of study, we will also discuss the role of sculpture, painting, textiles, and food within the temple. Our consideration of the structures will be attentive to the ways in which people interact with the space and how objects of sacred art address their viewers. In classroom discussions, we will work together to create an interpretive model that is synthetic, critical, and appreciative of the enormously diverse field that is South Asian Art. Lectures will move from explanatory descriptions of objects and histories that are covered in the textbook to critical interpretations of the historiographies that shape their contemporary reception. Class discussions and assignments are intended to encourage students to bring their own ways of looking at this art, to read critically in light of what they see, and to consider new approaches to the material. No prior experience in the history of art or religions of South Asia is required for this course.
RELS 3896 - Internship in Religion, Society, and Culture
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 20 credits; may be repeated 5 times)
Guided academic and vocational reflection on an internship supervised by a religious studies faculty member. Intended to support an applied learning experience in an agreed-upon, short-term, supervised workplace activity, with defined goals which are related to the academic study of religion, society, and culture. A student may only earn credit for a given internship through one course at a time.
RELS 3993 - Directed Studies
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 10 credits; may be repeated 5 times)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3993 until 27-MAY-08
Student works with faculty on a subject decided upon by both.
RELS 4309 - Religion in American Public Life: Culture, Politics, and Communities [CIV]
(3 cr; Prereq-Soc majors/minors must register A-F; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: SOC 4309H, SOC 4309 (starting 07-SEP-10)
How diversity/vitality of American religion shape public life. How religious groups engage in political action, foster understandings of democracy/styles of civic participation. Volunteering/service activities. Race, poverty, the family, sexuality.
RELS 4993 - Capstone: Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 4 credits)
This Directed Study is an independent research project developed and completed by the student in consultation with a faculty member of their choice who serves as the capstone project advisor and project evaluator. The Capstone should be a culminating project of the student?s learning in Religious Studies, focused on a topic related to the Area Concentration section of the student?s individual major program. Students enrolling in this directed study/research course will complete the University's Directed Study/Research contract with the faculty mentor/evaluator. The mentor/evaluator should have expertise in the chosen topic area and will ensure that academic standards are upheld, that the research proposed is at the appropriate level for the course and academic in nature, that the project is developed and executed by the student, and that the project scope is reasonable for one semester. Students should expect to devote 42 hours of work per credit to the project. The faculty mentor/evaluator will consult regularly with the student and
RELS 5001 - Theory and Method in the Study of Religion: Critical Approaches to the Study of Religion
(3 cr; Prereq-Sr or grad student or instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 5521 until 02-SEP-08, RELS 3001W
Theoretical/methodological issues in academic study of religion. Theories of origin, character, and function of religion as a human phenomenon. Psychological, sociological, anthropological, and phenomenological perspectives.
RELS 5013W - Biblical Law and Jewish Ethics [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 5013 until 05-SEP-17, was RELA 5013 until 02-SEP-08, RELS 3013W (starting 04-SEP-12, ending 17-JAN-06, starting 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3013W until 02-SEP-08, was RELA 3013 until 05-SEP-00), CNRC 5016W, JWST 5013W, JWST 3013W (starting 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3013 until 05-SEP-00), LAW 6916 (starting 03-SEP-19), CNRC 3016W
This course introduces students to the original meaning and significance of religious law and ethics within Judaism. Law is the single most important part of Jewish history and identity. At the same time, law is also the least understood part of Judaism and has often been the source of criticism and hatred. We shall therefore confront one of the most important parts of Jewish civilization and seek to understand it on its own terms. In demonstrating how law becomes a fundamental religious and ethical ideal, the course will focus on the biblical and Rabbinic periods but spans the entire history of Judaism. Consistent with the First Amendment, the approach taken is secular. There are no prerequisites: the course is open to all qualified students. The course begins with ideas of law in ancient Babylon and then studies the ongoing history of those ideas. The biblical idea that a covenant binds Israel to God, along with its implications for human worth - including the view of woman as person - will be examined. Comparative cultural issues include the reinterpretations of covenant within Christianity and Islam. The course investigates the rabbinic concept of oral law, the use of law to maintain the civil and religious stability of the Jewish people, and the kabbalistic transformation of law. The course concludes with contemporary Jewish thinkers who return to the Bible while seeking to establish a modern system of universal ethics. The premise of the course is the discipline of academic religious studies. The assumptions of the course are therefore academic and secular, as required by the First Amendment. All texts and all religious traditions will be examined analytically and critically. Students are expected to understand and master this approach, which includes questioning conventional cultural assumptions about the composition and authorship of the Bible. Willingness to ask such questions and openness to new ways of thinking are essential to success in the course.
RELS 5071 - Greek and Hellenistic Religions
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 5071 until 02-SEP-08, CNRC 5071, RELS 3071H (inactive, starting 20-JAN-15, was RELA 3071H until 02-SEP-08), RELS 3071 (starting 07-SEP-10, ending 22-JAN-08, was RELA 3071 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 3071
Greek religion from Bronze Age to Hellenistic times. Literature, art, archaeology. Homer/Olympian deities. Ritual performance, prayer, sacrifice. Temple architecture. Death/afterlife. Mystery cults. Philosophical religion. Near Eastern salvation religions. Meets with 3071.
RELS 5072 - The Birth of Christianity [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 5072 until 02-SEP-08, RELS 3072 (starting 27-MAY-08, ending 17-JAN-06, was RELA 3072 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 3072, CNRC 5072 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was CNES 5072 until 18-JAN-22, was RELA 5072 until 18-JAN-05, was CLAS 5072 until 18-JAN-05, was RELA 5072 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5072 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 5072 until 07-SEP-99)
Early Jesus movement in cultural/historical setting. Origins in Judaism. Traditions about Jesus. Apostle Paul, controversies/interpreters. Authority, religious practice, structure. Emergence of canon. Contemporary methods of New Testament study. Biblical writings as history/narrative. CNES 3072/CNES 5072/RELS 3072/RELS 5072 meet together.
RELS 5115 - Midrash: Reading and Retelling the Hebrew Bible
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 5115 until 02-SEP-08, CNRC 5115, CNRC 3115, JWST 5115, RELS 3115 (starting 23-MAY-16, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 02-SEP-03, was RELA 3115 until 02-SEP-08), JWST 3115 (starting 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3115 until 07-SEP-99)
How did the Jews of the first seven centuries of the common era read and understand the Hebrew Bible? What were the problems they faced -- interpretive, historical, theological -- in trying to apply their holy scriptures? This course explores key issues that led to the development of a new form of Judaism in late antiquity, rabbinic Judaism, and its methods of scriptural interpretation. The course?s study will focus on the forms and practices of rabbinic scriptural interpretation (midrash) as it developed in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia, focusing on key narrative and legal passages in the Five Books of Moses (Torah). A main focus of the course will be on the ways the rabbis adapted the Hebrew Bible to express their own core concerns.
RELS 5121 - Gender and Body in Early Christianity [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 5121, RELS 3121, CNRC 3121
Ancient Christians, like any other social group in the ancient world, represented themselves through images, stories, and discourses using the cultural tools available to them in their own contexts. In this course, we will explore two key texts of early Christianity (1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Mark) with special attention to how representations of the body and gender served to communicate the nature of what it meant to be Christian for these authors. The study of ancient material offers a space to acquire the skills of critical analysis of body and gender dynamics so that we can better understand the roles that the body and gender play in shaping our self-identity, social interaction, and societal structures.
RELS 5204 - The Dead Sea Scrolls
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: JWST 3204 (inactive), CNES 3204 (inactive), JWST 5204, RELS 3204 (inactive), CNRC 5204
Introduction to Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran. Contents of Dead Sea Scrolls, significance for development of Bible. Background of Judaism and Christianity. Archaeological site of Qumran. The course will focus on the material in translation and academic scholarship on the literature and archaeological site. Open to graduate students across the college; knowledge of classical Hebrew will not be required. The course is open to upper level undergraduate students with permission of the instructor.
RELS 5254 - Archaeology of Ritual and Religion
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Even Year)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3255 (inactive), RELS 3254 (inactive), ANTH 5255 (inactive, starting 17-JAN-17)
The course discusses evidence for the origins of religion and its diverse roles in human societies over millennia. It focuses on how artifacts and architecture are essential to religious experience. It asks: What constitutes religion for different cultures? Why is religion at the heart of politics, social life, and cultural imagination?
RELS 5612 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3335, HIST 3706, ARTH 5335 (starting 02-SEP-08), RELS 3612
This course explores the center of Baroque culture, Rome, as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world's great capitals.
RELS 5777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3777, ARTH 5777 (starting 17-JAN-17), RELS 3777
This class considers the development of Indian and Pakistani art and architecture from the introduction of Islam as a major political power at the end of the 12th century to the colonial empires of the 18th century. We will study how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interacted, observing how visual and material cultures reflect differences, adaptations, and shared aesthetic practices within this diversity of traditions. Students in this class will have mastered a body of knowledge about Indian art and probed multiple modes of inquiry. We will explore how Muslim rulers brought new traditions yet maintained many older ones making, for example, the first mosque in India that combines Muslim and Indic visual idioms. We will study the developments leading to magnificent structures, such as the Taj Mahal, asking why such a structure could be built when Islam discourages monumental mausolea. In what ways the schools of painting that are the products of both Muslim and Hindu rulers different and similar? The course will also consider artistic production in the important Hindu kingdoms that ruled India concurrently with the great Muslim powers. In the 18th century, colonialist forces enter the subcontinent, resulting in significant innovative artistic trends. Among questions we will ask is how did these kingdoms influence one another? Throughout we will probe which forms and ideas seem to be inherently Indian, asking which ones transcend dynastic, geographic and religious differences and which forms and ideas are consistent throughout these periods of political and ideological change. To do all this we must constantly consider how South Asia's diverse ethnic and religious communities interact.
RELS 5781 - Age of Empire: The Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 5781 (starting 02-SEP-08)
Artistic developments under the three most powerful Islamic empires of the 16th through 19th centuries: Ottomans of Turkey; Safavids of Iran; Mughals of India. Roles of religion and state will be considered to understand their artistic production.
RELS 5993 - Directed Studies
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 24 credits; may be repeated 24 times)
TBD
RELS 8070 - Readings in Religious Texts (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Close reading of selected literary or epigraphical texts of importance for the history of ancient Mediterranean religions, along with critical discussion of trends in recent scholarship. The texts may be read in the original languages (such as Greek, Latin, Hebrew, etc.) but may also be accessed in translation where appropriate.
RELS 8080 - Topics in Religious Studies (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Topics in Religious Studies
RELS 8190 - Comparative Seminar in Religions in Antiquity (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-Grad student in relevant field; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 6 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 8190 until 02-SEP-08
Topics vary. Major cultural movement as it developed over several centuries. Draws on evidence in literature, archival records, inscriptions, documentary papyri, and archaeological remains. Artistic media such as wall painting, architectural ornament, funerary sculpture, or manuscript illumination.

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