This seminar analyzes the construction and presentation of scholarly practices in key moments of Jewish history from late antiquity through the modern period. We discuss transformations in the figure of the scholar, the ideology of scholarship and its critique, the changing material conditions of scholarship, and the relationship between scholarship and the formation of distinct religious, social, and political movements.

This seminar centers on late ancient Jewish and Christian interactions with what we may call "science." We examine the place of natural observation and knowledge in some of the classical works of the period as well as more specialized texts dedicated to the description and interpretation of natural phenomena.

This course considers the production, consumption and transmission of written traditions in the ancient Near East. We extrapolate cultural and historical information from primary texts, while accurately placing them in their original historical and cultural context.

Critical examination of enduring and recent scholarship on popular religion, ethnography, modern (20th century) religion, and modernity in China. Designed for graduate students preparing for general examinations or research in Chinese religion.

In this cross-disciplinary course about ancient Antioch students learn about religious and ethnic diversity, imperial power, and domestic life in antiquity and communicate their knowledge clearly through creating virtual exhibits that draw on objects in collections at Princeton and Harvard. The seminar focuses on literary, archaeological, and art historical materials. This course is parallel-taught at Harvard Divinity School by Prof. Laura Nasrallah. Participants travel to collections at Dumbarton Oaks, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Worcester Art Museum, and Harvard University.

This seminar focuses on basic primary sources, Greek, Latin, and Coptic, that offer evidence for the early history of Christianity (c. 90-430 C.E.) To allow for breadth of reading and to include participants with varied interests, one may read primarily in English, with reference to the original texts as necessary.

This seminar focuses on basic primary sources, Greek, Latin, and Coptic, that offer evidence for the early history of Christianity (c. 90-430 C.E.) To allow for breadth of reading and to include participants with varied interests, one may read primarily in English, with reference to the original texts as necessary.

How did women and men appear before the divine in late antiquity? And what did they wear in everyday life? This interdisciplinary seminar examines self-representation through dress, footwear, hairdo, and jewelry. Special attention is reserved for questions regarding religion and ritual. We study a wide range of sources, including literary and documentary texts (papyri, inscriptions), iconographic representations (mosaics, frescoes, sculpture), and archaeological finds (shoes, clothes). Students conduct research with these sources and relate them to modern theoretical works about dress and self-representation.

Together we explore basic primary sources (especially Greek, some Latin or Coptic, reading mostly, for our purposes, in translation) of Ancient Mediterranean Religion c.100-400 CE, investigating how the early Jesus movement originated from and interacted with Jewish sources, writers and teachers, as well as classical ones, while spreading throughout the Roman empire, and how, in the fourth century, this unlikely movement morphed into "catholic church" endorsed by Roman imperial authority.

This seminar explores ancient Jewish memory-making and historiography through a doubled focus on [1] the shifting ideas about time and the normative past in Second Temple Jewish and late antique Jewish and Christian sources and [2] modern scholarly approaches to the periodization of ancient Judaism and the transition from Second Temple Judaism to post-70 Judaism and Christianity in particular. In the process, we consider the theorization of temporality, forgetting, and cultural memory within and beyond Religious Studies--and ask what test-cases from ancient Jewish sources might contribute to them.

This course is a survey of major text traditions in Indian religions, with an emphasis on the historical/cultural framework against which to read the development of Buddhist traditions. Major topics addressed are: "Orientalism" & "Hinduism"; Vedas & Upanisads; Early Buddhism; Dharmasastras & Mahabharata; Mahayana Buddhism; and Tantra & Vajrayana.

Recent developments in political theory, theology, and cultural criticism have led to revived interest in political theology, both as a matter of intellectual history and as a problematizing of secular politics. This graduate seminar examines these developments, assessing them in relation to classical thought and modern liberalism. This semester, we focus on questions of sin, historical injustice, complicity, reconciliation, and reparations. Traditional metaphysical and theological disputes are not excluded, but our attention focuses on social and political evil and varied responses to it.

This course focuses on four major modern Jewish philosophers: Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Leo Strauss, and Emmanuel Levinas, with particular attention to their relations to Kant and Heidegger. Among the topics considered are: What is the relation between Jewish philosophy, theology, and thought? Can or ought we speak of a canon of modern Jewish philosophy? What constitutes the borders or limits of a tradition of thinking? What is the relation between historical and conceptual analysis in thinking about Jewish philosophy within the history of philosophy?

Developments in political philosophy, literature, and critical theory have led to revived interest in political theology, both as intellectual history and as transgressive resistance to "secular" ethics, historiography, and politics. This seminar examines these developments in relation to diverse streams of Jewish and Christian thought. This semester, the primary focus is the philosophy and theology of history. Topics include temporality, periodization, prophecy, covenant, apocalypticism, universal history, international order, political economy, race, climate change, redemption, teleology, hope, and the end of the world.

This seminar examines the implications of constructivism and pragmatism for the study of religion, paying special attention to how characterizations of social practices enter into accounts of meaning, truth, rationality, values, norms, and power relations.

This course aims to take seriously Ludwig Wittgenstein's claim that his chief contribution was methodological, by seeking to elucidate - and to give practical facility with - his most important later tools, moves, and methods for clarifying our concepts and disentangling our confusions. To do this we must study a range of Wittgenstein's later works, and get to grips with such widely used (and misused) Wittgensteinian terms of art as 'language game', 'form of life', and 'surface/depth grammar'. Most importantly, the course involves practice in actually applying these tools and methods to our own research problems (philosophical or otherwise).

When Bertrand Russell met with Wittgenstein after the First World War, he wrote: "I... was astonished when I found that he has become a complete mystic. He reads people like Kierkegaard & Angelus Silesius, and he seriously contemplates becoming a monk". This course investigates Wittgenstein's religious thought - and its profound existential ramifications. From its roots in James, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and others; to the early mysticism of the Tractatus and its Notebooks; to his later understanding of religion as a life-orientating attitude summed up as "to love with hope, and not to despair when the hope is not fulfilled".

This course explores how histories of African American religions have produced enduring interpretive frames. Questions that animate this course include: What role have African American religions played in African American life? How have scholars studied the history of African American religions and shaped the discourse about African American religious life? The course considers African American religions and class, gender, racial identity formation, political engagement, cultural exchange and more. Through reading of foundational and newer texts, we will explore the sources and methodologies scholars use to study African American religion.

In this course we engage questions of approach, method, periodization, and scope in the study of religion in America through the Civil War. Texts consist of secondary literature with both classic and contemporary importance to the field, along with brief primary sources selected and presented by students.

This course introduces for an in-depth analysis the most important and influential texts written on American and African American religious history over the last half century. These texts have shaped the narrative structures, historical frames, and the theoretical assumptions that have had the most profound impact on the field of religious studies. The aim of the course is to be particularly attuned to the structure of argument and the use of evidence with the understanding that the mastery of these two aspects account for their influence. The aim of the course, then, is to read as much for structure as for content.