JDS 202 / REL 202 (HA) No Audit
Great Books of the Jewish Tradition
Yaacob Dweck
Moulie Vidas
11:00 am – 12:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
This course is intended to introduce students to the classical Jewish tradition through a close reading of portions of some of its great books, including Bible, the rabbinic midrash, the Talmud, Rashi’s commentary on the Torah, Mishneh Torah, the Zohar, and the Haggadah. We will pay particular attention to the role of interpretation in forming Jewish tradition.
REL 210 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Religions of India
Staff
12:30 pm – 1:20 pm M W
Department Area Requirement: Religions of Asia
This course traces the historical development of the major religious traditions of India, with special emphasis on Hindu traditions, but also treating Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. We will investigate how these traditions have shaped their religious practices and worldviews in an ongoing contest for Indian hearts and minds.
REL 222 / HUM 222 (EC) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion
Liane F. Carlson
12:30 pm – 1:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Required Course, Departmental
This course explores major theories and methods in the study of religion, starting with Enlightenment thinkers (Spinoza, Hume), before turning to the rise of social sciences in the study of religion (Durkheim, Weber), and ending with contemporary topics in the study of religion. Topics to be explored include rationality and religion; secularism; the effects of colonialism on the study of religion; gender and sexuality; religion and psychology; the conflict between freedom of religion and the state.
REL 235 / NES 235 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
In the Shadow of Swords: War, Martyrdom and the Afterlife in Islam
Shaun E. Marmon
10:00 am – 10:50 am T Th
Department Area Requirement: Islam
How were just war, holy war, and martyrdom imagined and enacted over the centuries in Islamic societies? How do concepts of the afterlife inform attitudes towards war and martyrdom? We begin in the Late Antique world with a survey of noble death, martyrdom, holy war, and just war, in the Roman, Jewish and Christian traditions. We explore these topics in the Islamic tradition through case studies: the Arab conquests, the Crusades, Spain and the Reconquista, the Iran-Iraq war and contemporary jihadist movements. We use primary sources in translation (including fiction and poetry) and, for modern period, films and internet.
REL 251 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Christianity in the Roman Empire: Secret Rituals, Mystery Cults, and Apocalyptic Prophets
AnneMarie Luijendijk
11:00 am – 11:50 am M W
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
How did Jesus’ earliest followers interpret his life and death? What were secret initiation rites and love feast gatherings about? How did women participate in leadership? How did the Roman government react to this movement and why did Jesus’ followers suffer martyrdom? How did early Christians think about the end of the world, and what did they do when it did not happen? This course is an introduction to the Jesus movement in the context of the Roman Empire and early Judaism. We examine texts in the New Testament (the Christian Bible) and other relevant sources, such as lost gospels, Dead Sea scrolls, and aspects of material culture.
REL 292 (EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Hip Hop, Reggae, and Religion
Kevin A. Wolfe
11:00 am – 12:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
In this course, we will examine music and the religio-political imagination of the Black Atlantic, focusing on Jamaica and the US. We will examine the ways that the various cultures of hip-hop and reggae offer critique to our contemporary religious and political arrangements. Listening to the perspectives expressed in these cultural formations we will question whether the music provides a prophetic challenge to the status quo. Giving attention to the music, from the Negro Spirituals, to contemporary Hip Hop and Dancehall, we will contextualize it with an interest in understanding the relationship between their religious and political visions.
REL 304 / JDS 314 (SA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Harlots and Heroines: Readings in the Books of Esther and Ruth
Laura E. Quick
11:00 am – 12:20 pm M W
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
We will read the books of Ruth and Esther in the original Hebrew, considering aspects of translation and Hebrew grammar and syntax, as well as the historical, literary and religious contexts of the books. Particular attention will be paid to the role of women in the larger societal context of ancient Israel, as well as the development of the genre of the Jewish novella in the Second Temple Period.
REL 311 (EC) na, npdf
Religious Existentialism
Leora F. Batnitzky
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Department Area Requirement: Critical Thought
An in-depth study of the existentialist philosophies of, among others, Søren Kierkegaard, Simone Weil, Martin Heidegger, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel Levinas. Most broadly, we will consider arguments about the relations between philosophy and existence, reason and revelation, divine law and love, religion, ethics and politics, and Judaism and Christianity. More particularly, we will focus on arguments about the meanings of different affective and cognitive states such as anxiety, boredom, and enjoyment as well as about historical and individual suffering and trauma.
REL 322 / EAS 322 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Buddhism in Japan
Jacqueline I. Stone
1:30 pm – 2:50 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Religions of Asia
This course will examine representative aspects of Buddhist thought and practice in Japan from the sixth century to the present. We will focus on the major Buddhist traditions–including Lotus, Pure Land, esoteric Buddhism, and Zen–as well as Buddhism and the literary arts, modern challenges to traditional Buddhism, and contemporary Buddhist movements. Readings will include scriptures, sermons, tales, and philosophical essays, as well as selected secondary sources. Some background in either Japan or Buddhism is strongly recommended.
REL 328 / GSS 328 (SA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Women and Gender in Islamic Societies
Shaun E. Marmon
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Department Area Requirement: Islam
Inter-disciplinary seminar makes use of texts in translation including: Qur’an and hadith, legal treatises, documents, letters, popular literature, autobiography, novels and subtitled films. These texts are supplemented by scholarly literature from religious studies, anthropology, history, gender studies, and sociology. Topics include: women in the Qur’an and hadith, sexuality and the body, woman and law, gendered space, marriage and the family, nationalism and feminism, gender and post-colonial societies, women’s voices, women and Islamic revivalism. No prior background in gender studies or Islamic studies required.
REL 341 / JDS 341 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
The Jews in Ancient Egypt
Martha Himmelfarb
3:00 pm – 4:20 pm T Th
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
The Jews of Egypt were one of the first diaspora communities in antiquity, and, from the fourth century BCE until the second century CE, undoubtedly the best documented. This course will examine the rich body of texts that allows us to trace the development of Judaism in Egypt, including works such as the Septuagint (the translation of the Torah into Greek) and the biblical commentaries of Philo of Alexandria, who combined Platonic philosophy with Judaism, as well as documentary papyri that illumine the everyday lives of Egyptian Jews. It will also look at how other Egyptians responded to a community whose central text was so anti-Egyptian.
REL 352 (HA) na, npdf
Who Was or Is Jesus?
Elaine H. Pagels
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm M
Department Area Requirement: Ancient Mediterranean
ENROLLMENT BY APPLICATION OR INTERVIEW. DEPARTMENTAL PERMISSION REQUIRED.
What do we actually know about Jesus of Nazareth? An actual person? If so, what kind of person? We’ll look first at the earliest sources — various accounts in the New Testament, statements by Jewish and Roman historians, and ancient gospels not in the NT (i.e., the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene). Then we’ll explore an enormous range of ways that various people, Christian or not, have interpreted Jesus and his message throughout two thousand years to the present — in art, music, poetry, writing, theology, politics, and film.
REL 360 / GSS 360 / AMS 369 (SA) na, npdf
Women and American Religion
Judith Weisenfeld
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Department Area Requirement: Religion in the Americas
This course explores the dynamics of religion, gender, and power in American religious history, with case studies of women in a variety of traditions. We consider how theologies, religious practices, and institutional structures shape gender systems; women’s religious leadership; gender and religious constraint and dissent; race and women’s religious experiences; and religion and sexuality. Each student’s final digital history project (e.g. podcast, online museum exhibition, Wikipedia page, digital oral history, audio walking tour, digitized primary source) will contribute to a collaborative digital exhibition.
REL 383 (EC) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
American Scriptures
Seth A. Perry
10:00 am – 10:50 am M W
Department Area Requirement: Religion in the Americas
What is a scripture? How does a text become one? In this class we’ll study several American scriptures, relatively recent texts that allow important perspective on these questions. We’ll read parts of The Book of Mormon, Science and Health, The Circle Seven Koran, and Dianetics, along with several other new-world scriptures and American iterations of some old-world ones. Emphasis will be on thinking through how these texts know what they know, and how they make that claim of knowledge to readers. We’ll investigate their discursive influences, internal logic, and rhetorical effects to think about how scriptures function in the world.
Cross-Listed Courses
AAS 358 / REL 379 / GSS 359 (SA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Sexuality and Religion in America
Wallace D. Best
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm T
Department Area Requirement: Religion in the Americas
Sexuality has long been a contested and contentious issue within American religions, yet only recently have scholars and practitioners begun to forthrightly address it. This course will explore the emerging literature on sexuality and religion as a way to understand how approaches to sex and sexuality within “sacred spaces” have shaped private behavior and public opinion. We will give particular attention to American Evangelical and Catholic religious expressions for the way they have been especially influential in framing (and inhibiting) sexual discourse and practices in the US and throughout the world.
ART 409 / REL 409 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
The Archaeology of Jerusalem: Selected Topics
Haim Goldfus
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm T
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).
In this course we will explore, discuss and dispute key archaeological topics pertaining to various aspects of the material multicultures of Jerusalem, from the time of Alexander the Great until its surrender to the Muslem Caliph, ‘Umar. During these centuries, Jerusalem grew from a small city into “by far the most famous city, not of Judæa only, but of the East.” It became the central sacred locale of the Jewish people, and the cradle of Christianity. During these times, it was twice a pagan city -Antioch in Jerusalem and Aelia Capitolina.
ART 431 / MED 431 / REL 431 (LA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Art, Culture, and Identity in Medieval Spain
Pamela A. Patton
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm 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).
Before the suppression of non-Christians in Spain and Portugal after 1492, three vibrant medieval cultures inhabited the peninsula: Muslims based in Al-Andalus, Christians based in the northern Spanish kingdoms, and Sephardic Jews throughout both realms. Their coexistence transformed their visual culture in ways that resonated well beyond Iberian borders, from Atlantic colonialism to modern identity politics. This course asks how the contacts, conflicts and compromises provoked by “living with” each other shaped artistic traditions and cultural identity in a land both enriched and destabilized by its own diversity.
CANCELLED
JDS 204 / REL 204 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Jewish Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah from Antiquity to Middle Ages
Ra’anan S. Boustan
1:30 pm – 2:50 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 traces the history of Jewish mysticism and magic from the Hebrew Bible to the flourishing of the Kabbalah in medieval Europe. We will consider such historical problems as: the roots of the Jewish mystical tradition in Israelite prophecy; rabbinic attitudes toward secret knowledge and ecstatic practice; and the emergence of the Kabbalah against the background of Jewish rationalist philosophy. The course also considers such thematic questions as: the relationship between literary expression and mystical experience; the power of speech and language in Jewish magic; and gender, sexuality, and the body in Jewish mysticism.
CANCELLED
JDS 305 / REL 305 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
Martyrdom and Religious Violence in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Ra’anan S. Boustan
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm 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 relationship between religion and violence in the ancient Mediterranean world. We will investigate how the shifting discourses and practices of religiously-motivated violence directed both at the self and the other shaped the social, cultural and political histories of specific groups within ancient Mediterranean society. Of special interest will be the emergence of Jewish and Christian traditions of martyrdom against their biblical and Graeco-Roman backgrounds and the impact of the Christianization of the Roman Empire on the relationship between political power, religiously-motivated violence, and communal identity.
CANCELLED
JDS 307 / REL 307 (HA) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit
History of Passover: From Moses to Jesus to Harry Potter
David Sclar
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm 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 history of Passover, from its ancient origins to its modern variations. Students will reflect on Jewish ideas of redemption as represented in art, food, memory, and ritual. Tracing the evolution of the holiday and its meaning, we will consider: sacrifice in its ancient Near Eastern context; Passover’s centrality in the development of Christianity; ritual disparity between varying Jewish ethnicities; and non-traditional Haggadahs composed over the last hundred years. In a semester-long project, students have the option to write, create, and/or perform a representation of the main themes of the course.
NES 339 / REL 339 (HA) No Audit
Introduction to Islamic Theology
Hossein Modarressi
1:30 pm – 4:20 pm 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 is a general survey of the main principles of Islamic doctrine. It focuses on the Muslim theological discourse on the concepts of God and His attributes, man and nature, the world to come, revelation and prophethood, diversity of religions, and the possibility and actuality of miracles.