REL 225 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
The Buddhist World of Thought and Practice
Professor(s): Jacqueline I. Stone
1:30 pm – 2:20 pm MW
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 239 (EM) no audit
Sufism and Muslim Ethics
Professor(s): Tehseen Thaver
1:30 pm-2:50 MW
Department Area Requirement: Islam
This course examines Sufism or what is often called the mystical tradition in Islam. Sufism represents one of the most important intellectual, social, and political traditions in Muslim thought and practice. This course engages multiple aspects of Sufism including its institutional and intellectual history, metaphysics and cosmology, meditation and disciplinary practices, poetry and literature, modern debates over the limits of normative Sufism, and orientalist and neo-imperialist representations of Sufism. A major focus of this course will be on close readings of primary texts, all in translation.
REL 244 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Their Emergence in Antiquity
Professor(s): Moulie Vidas
10:00 am-10:50 TTh
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
The period studied in this course saw wide-ranging transformations that inform religion and culture to this day, such as the emergence of the traditions now called Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a spread in allegiance to a single God, and a decline in public animal sacrifice. The course will introduce students to a critical examination of these changes. We will learn to identify patterns across different
traditions, uncover the ways these traditions shaped one another, trace the development of beliefs from their earliest forms, and analyze the social and political context of these changes. Lecture/Precept
REL 261 /CHV 261 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Christian Ethics and Modern Society
Professor(s): Eric S. Gregory
11:00 am-11:50 TTh
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
An introduction to ethical controversies in public life in light of modern disputes over the interpretation of Christian thought and practice. Is Christianity fundamentally at odds with the ethos of liberal democracy oriented toward rights, equality, and freedom? What do Christian beliefs and moral concepts imply about issues related to feminism, racism, and pluralism? What is the relationship between religious convictions, morality, and law? Special emphasis on selected political and economic problems, sexuality and marriage, bioethics, capital punishment, the environment, war, immigration, and the role of religion in American culture. Lecture/Precept
HUM 290 /REL 282 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Jesus and Buddha
Professor(s): Jonathan C. Gold, Elaine H. Pagels
11:00 am-11:50 MW
Department Area Requirement: Does NOT satisfy sub-field requirement; does count as departmental.
This course introduces the study of religion by juxtaposing the narratives, teachings, careers and
legacies of the founders of Christianity and Buddhism. While respecting each tradition’s unique and distinctive texts, rituals, philosophies, and histories, the course invites us to deepen our understanding of each tradition by looking through the lens of the other. Course readings will include accounts of the lives of Jesus and Buddha, what each taught about how to live and create society, and how each understood the meaning of life and death, suffering and salvation. Lecture/Precept
AAS 305 /REL 391 /AMS 355 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
The History of Black Gospel Music
Professor(s): Wallace D. Best
10:00 am-10:50 TTh
Department Area Requirement: Religion in America
This course will trace the history of black gospel music from its origins in the American South to its modern origins in 1930s Chicago and into the 1990s mainstream. Critically analyzing various compositions and the artists that performed them, we will explore the ways the music has reflected and reproached the extant cultural climate. We will be particularly concerned with the four major historical eras from which black gospel music developed: the slave era; Reconstruction; the Great Migration, and the era of Civil Rights. Lecture/Precept
REL 308 /SAS 308 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Hindu Ethical and Political Thought
Professor(s): Staff
1:30 pm-4:20 W
Department Area Requirement: Religions of Asia
A course in questions of justice, civic virtue, and good governance, as addressed by Indian thinkers ancient and modern. Is politics a realm of ethical action? What are the ideal virtues of a king or minister? What legitimate justifications for violence are there, if any? Should we be concerned primarily with duties (deontology) or the effects of our actions (consequentialism)? Course readings include the Mahabharata, The Law Code of Manu, Gandhi’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, and V.D. Savarkar’s Hindutva: Who is a Hindu.
REL 335 /NES 356 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
God’s Messengers: Prophecy and Revelation in the Islamic Tradition
Professor(s): Shaun E. Marmon
1:30 pm-4:20 Th
Department Area Requirement: Islam
Prophecy and revelation are the foundations of Islam. What is the meaning of revelation and of scripture in Islam? Why is the Qur’an considered to be the final revelation? How has the Prophet Muhammad been understood and represented by Muslims in the past and in the present? What role do Muhammad’s “brother prophets,” including Abraham, Moses and Jesus, play in the Qur’an and in Islamic tradition? Was Mary, mother of Jesus, a prophet? This seminar explores these questions through primary sources in translation as well as through the lens of ritual, sacred geography, images, novels, and film.
REL 342 /JDS 343 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Apocalypse: The End of the World and the Secrets of Heaven in Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Professor(s): Martha Himmelfarb
1:30 pm-4:20 Th
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
This course studies the rich corpus of revelations about end of the world, the fate of souls after death,
the secrets of the cosmos, and God’s heavenly abode in ancient Judaism and Christianity by placing them in their historical contexts and considering them in relation the development of Judaism and Christianity from the Hebrew Bible through late antiquity. Among the works to be considered are 1 Enoch (an anthology of ancient Jewish apocalypses about the antediluvian patriarch), Daniel (Hebrew Bible), Revelation (New Testament), early Christian tours of hell and paradise, and the early Jewish mystical work 3 Enoch (Sefer Hekhalot).
REL 350 /CLA 352 /ENG 442 /HIS 353 (HA) na, npdf
God, Satan, Goddesses, and Monsters: How Their Stories Play in Art, Culture, and Politics Enrollment by application or interview. Departmental permission required.
Professor(s): Elaine H. Pagels
1:30 pm-4:20 T
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
Each week we’ll take up a major theme–creation, the problem of evil; what’s human/inhuman/ divine; apocalypse–and explore how their stories, embedded in western culture, have been interpreted for thousands of years–so far! Starting with creation stories from Babylon, Israel, Egypt and Greece, we’ll consider how some such stories still shape an amazing range of cultural attitudes toward controversial issues that include sexuality, “the nature of nature,” politics, and questions of meaning.
REL 359 /LAS 388 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Indigenous Expressions: Native Christianities in Colonial Mexico
Professor(s): Jessica Delgado
1:30 pm-4:20 T
Department Area Requirement: Religion in America
In this seminar, we will discuss ideas about conversion, authorship, translation, and histories in the context of Indigenous people’s engagement with Christianity in colonial Mexico. In particular, we will be looking at the ways that Native Americans shaped Mexican Catholicism and the ways we can think of Indigenous people as authors and creators of their religious traditions rather than merely adopters or receivers of the Christian faith as taught by Spanish colonists.
REL 399
Junior Colloquium (Non-credit)
Professor(s): Staff
11:00 am-12:20 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.
REL 410/JDS 411
Talmudic Research (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Professor(s): Moulie Vidas
7:30 pm-10:20 T
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
This course is intended for students who already have experience with the Talmud and want to expand their engagement with the text by acquiring modern research methods. It addresses the use and significance of manuscripts of the texts; the relationship between the Bavli and the Yerushalmi; the sources of the Talmud and the way in which it was put together. We will trace the development of Talmudic ideas, laws, and stories and determine how and why different versions developed. We will also examine the text in its historical context. Students will be introduced to the online and offline databases and bibliographic tools.
Cross-listed Courses
AAS 230 /ENG 231 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Topics in African American Studies: The Fire This Time – Reading James Baldwin
Transcript Topic Title: The Fire This Time – Reading James Baldwin
Professor(s): Eddie S. Glaude
1:30 pm-4:20 M
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 examines the selected non-fiction writings of one of America’s most influential essayists and public intellectuals: James Baldwin. Attention will be given to his views on ethics, art, and politics –
with particular consideration given to his critical reflections on race and democracy.
JDS 302 /NES 302 /REL 302 Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
Professor(s): Laura E. Quick
1:30 pm-2:50 MW
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.
NES 221 / JDS 223 / REL 216 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Jerusalem Contested: A City’s History from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives
Professor(s): Jonathan M. Gribetz
1:30 pm-4:20 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).
Jerusalem is considered a holy city to three faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this course, students will learn the history of Jerusalem from its founding in pre-biblical times until the present. Over the course of the semester, we will ask: What makes space sacred and how does a city become holy? What has been at stake – religiously, theologically, politically, nationally – in the many battles over Jerusalem? Is a city that is so deeply contested doomed to endless tension or does history offer more hopeful precedents?
SAS 345 / REL 345 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Islam in South Asia through Literature and Film
Professor(s): Sadaf Jaffer
3:00 pm-4:20 TTh
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.