REL 225 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
The Buddhist World of Thought and Practice
Jacqueline I. Stone
1:30 pm – 2:20 pm M W
Department Area Requirement: Religions of Asia
This course surveys the development of Buddhism from its beginnings in India through some of its later forms in East Asia, Tibet, and the West. Attention will be given to continuity and diversity within Buddhism, its modes of self-definition as a religious tradition, the interplay of its practical and trans-worldly concerns, and its transformations in specific historical and cultural settings. Lecture/Precept
REL 230 /JDS 230 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Who Wrote the Bible
Laura E. Quick
11:00 am – 12:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
The course will introduce students to the Hebrew Bible (“Old Testament”) in its ancient Near Eastern setting. Key concepts often associated with the Hebrew Bible, such as God, damnation, sin, and history, will be scrutinized through a careful reading of a selection of Biblical texts including the Creation and Garden of Eden narratives in Genesis, the laws of Leviticus, the prophecies of Ezekiel and the poetry of Song of Songs. Particular attention will be paid to the transformations that the texts underwent through a continuous process of transmission and interpretation. Two 90-minute classes.
NES 240 / REL 240 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Muslims and the Qur’an
Muhammad Q. Zaman
10:00 am – 10:50 am M W
Department Area Requirement: Islam
A broad-ranging introduction to pre-modern, modern, and contemporary Islam in light of how Muslims have approached their foundational religious text, the Qur’an. Topics include: Muhammad and the emergence of Islam; theology, law and ethics; war and peace; mysticism; women and gender; and modern debates on Islamic reform. We shall examine the varied contexts in which Muslims have interpreted their sacred text, their agreements and disagreements on what it means and, more broadly, their often competing understandings of Islam and of what it is to be a Muslim. Lecture/Precept
REL 246 / JDS 246 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Ancient Judaism from Alexander to the Rise of Islam
Martha Himmelfarb
10:00 am – 10:50 am M W
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
This course offers an introduction to the development of ancient Judaism during the eventful millennium from the establishment of the Torah as the constitution of the Jewish people in the fifth century BCE–an event that some have seen as marking the transition from biblical religion to Judaism–to the completion of the other great canonical Jewish document, the Babylonian Talmud, in perhaps the sixth century CE. Lecture/Precept
REL 252 (EC) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Jesus: How Christianity Began
Elaine H. Pagels
11:00 am – 11:50 am M W
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
Who was Jesus of Nazareth, and how do we know about him? Why did some interpretations of truth — and his message — win out over others? How have these particular ways of thinking influenced western culture, shaping our views of politics, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, civil and human rights even now? To answer questions like these, we’ll investigate the earliest gospels, letters, Jewish and Roman sources, prison diaries and martyr accounts — as well as how artists, filmmakers, musicians and theologians interpret them. Regardless of religious background, or none, you will learn a lot, and be able to contribute.
Lecture/Precept
REL 256 / AAS 256 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit CANCELLED
African American Religious History
Wallace D. Best
11:00 am – 11:50 am T Th
Department Area Requirement: Religion in America
This course will trace the origins and historical development of African American Religion in the United States in all its various forms, beginning with the Colonial period and ending with the era of Civil Rights in the late 1950s and early 1960s. “Slave Religion” and its impact on the subsequent cultural, theological, and material expressions of black religion will serve as the theoretical centerpiece of the course. We will also analyze and discuss the predominance of “urban religion” and the rise of New Religious Movements such as the Black Hebrews and the Nation of Islam after the First World War and during the Great Migration. Lecture/Precept
REL 271 /AMS 341 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
“Cult” Controversies in America
Judith Weisenfeld
10:00 am – 10:50 am T Th
Department Area Requirement: Religion in America
In this course we examine a variety of new religious movements that tested the boundaries of acceptable religion at various moments in American history. We pay particular attention to government and media constructions of the religious mainstream and margin, to the politics of labels such as “cult” and “sect,” to race, gender, and sexuality within new religions, and to the role of American law in constructing categories and shaping religious expressions. We also consider what draws people to new religions and examine the distinctive beliefs, practices, and social organizations of groups labeled by outsiders as “cults.” Lecture/Precept
REL 293 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
The Theology of Thomas Aquinas
Denys A. Turner
12:30 pm – 1:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
The course is to serve as an introduction to the theology of one of the greatest minds in the Western Christian tradition, Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274). Based on his most systematic work, the Summa Theologiae as the main source, the course will cover some of the central themes of his theology, mainly through readings of the primary source itself, and some secondary readings. Thomas Aquinas has in recent decades become a source common to most of the mainstream Christian theological traditions. Aquinas is an essential resource for any who simply want to study a dominating intellectual force within the wider cultures of the Western middle ages. Lecture/Precept
REL 324 (EC) na, npdf
Mind and Meditation
Jonathan C. Gold
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm T
Department Area Requirement: Religions of Asia
This course examines the philosophy, history, and methods of Buddhist meditation. Primary readings will be Buddhist works on the nature of the mind and the role of meditation on the path to liberation (nirvana). We will ask how traditional Buddhist views have been reshaped by modern teachers, and we will interrogate the significance of current research on meditation in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and the philosophy of mind. In addition to other coursework, students will be practicing meditation and keeping a log and journal. Some coursework in Philosophy or Religion is expected.
REL 330 /HUM 330 /JDS 331 /COM 382 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Migration, Religion, and Literature: From Genesis to Toni Morrison
Leora F. Batnitzky, Ilana Pardes
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
Problems of mass migration are among the most pressing of our times. What does it mean to be a stranger in a strange land? What do we owe foreigners and what might foreigners owe their host nations? This course focuses on biblical depictions of strangers and migration, with particular attention to the story of Joseph, the Exodus from Egypt, and the Book of Ruth. The course explores the use of these biblical texts in modern literature, art, film, theology and political theory, with particular attention to debates about exile, acculturation, race, and gender.
REL 377 /AAS 376 /AMS 378 (SA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Race and Religion in America
Judith Weisenfeld
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Department Area Requirement: Religion in America
In this seminar we examine the tangled and shifting relationship between religion and race in American history. In doing so, we explore a broad landscape of racial construction, identity, and experience and consider such topics as American interpretations of race in the Bible, religion and racial slavery, race and missions, religion, race, and science, popular culture representations of racialized religion, and religiously-grounded resistance to racial hierarchy.
REL 394 (EC) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Madness and the Medicalization of Religious Experience
Liane F. Carlson
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm Th
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
This course explores a debate in the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth century about whether visions of God were religious or psychotic. By studying key moments, such as early efforts to diagnose medieval mystics as hysterics, the development of psychoanalysis, the influence of primitivism on the phenomenology of religion, and the rise of surrealism, this course will pursue the following questions. What is the nature of religious experience? How do we differentiate between religious experience and psychopathology? Who gets to determine what are authentic religious experiences and what are the gender politics behind those decision?
REL 398 /JDS 398 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Jewish Ethics: Philosophy, Interpretation, Practice
Yonatan Y. Brafman
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm M
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
This course considers fundamental questions in Jewish ethics: What are the relationships in the Jewish tradition among ethics, law, and theology? How does Jewish ethics relate to Western philosophical ethics? What are the interpretive issues involved when traditional texts are made to address contemporary problems? In addition to conceptual and methodological concerns, the course will also inquire into several normative issues from the perspective of Jewish ethics.
REL 399
Junior Colloquium (Non-credit)
Kevin Wolfe
10:00 am – 11:50 am F
Required Colloquium for Junior Majors
First semester junior majors participate in a non-credit colloquium with a member or members of the faculty. In addition to short assignments throughout the term that prepare majors to research and write a junior paper (JP), students are expected to produce a five to seven-page JP proposal. The grade for the colloquium is factored into the final grade for the junior independent work. For more detailed information on each course, please visit: http://registrar.princeton.edu/course-offerings/
Cross-listed Courses
ANT 208 / REL 208 (SA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Religion, Ideology, and Media
Carolyn M. Rouse
11:00 am – 12:20 pm M W
Department Area Requirement: Does NOT satisfy sub-field requirement; does NOT count as departmental. Majors may petition to count this as a cognate course (in addition to the 8 required courses for the major).
This course explores how media shapes cultural and social identities. From televangelism to political talk radio, the mass marketing of faith and political ideologies is contributing to how people understand themselves as gendered, raced, and classed subjects. But are these programs helping to sustain a fragile consensus within our nation-state, or is this media threatening radical disunity? This course examines what is at stake culturally in this religious and ideological war of symbols generated within mediascapes.
JDS 302 / NES 302 / REL 302 Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
Laura E. Quick
11:00 am – 12:20 pm M W
Department Area Requirement: Does NOT satisfy sub-field requirement; does NOT count as departmental. Majors may petition to count this as a cognate course (in addition to the 8 required courses for the major).
Students will achieve a basic ability to read the Hebrew Bible in the original language. During the semester, students will learn the script and the grammar, develop a working vocabulary, and read a selection of Biblical passages. The course is designed for beginners with little or no previous knowledge of the language. Students with extensive experience in the language should contact the instructor about course alternatives.
JDS 321 / REL 384 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
History of the Jewish Book
David Sclar
11:00 am – 12:20 pm M W
Department Area Requirement: Does NOT satisfy sub-field requirement; does NOT count as departmental. Majors may petition to count this as a cognate course (in addition to the 8 required courses for the major).
This course explores the composition and publication of books, manuscripts, and other written material for and by Jews during the medieval and early modern periods (ca. 1000-1800). The course touches on: orality and literacy; scroll and codex; authors, readers, publishers, and scribes; manuscript and print; Jewish-Christian interaction in scriptoriums, artist workshops, and printing houses; censorship; illustration, illumination, and deluxe printing; and major printing centers. Students will consider how these objects drove Jewish societies and reflected larger cultural trends. They will also address the definition of a “Jewish” book.
SAS 345 / REL 345 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Islam in South Asia: Literary Perspectives
Sadaf Jaffer
3:00 pm – 4:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Does NOT satisfy sub-field requirement; does NOT count as departmental. Majors may petition to count this as a cognate course (in addition to the 8 required courses for the major).
This course is a survey of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. We begin with the earliest Muslim descriptions of India and the rise of Persian poetry to understand how Muslims negotiated life at the frontiers of the Islamic world. Next we trace patterns of patronage and production at the Mughal court and the development of Urdu as a vehicle of literary composition including a discussion of the Progressive Writer’s Movement and the “Muslim Social” genre of Hindi cinema. The course concludes with an examination of contemporary novels from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Students will gain an informed perspective on Islam beyond the headlines.