Department of Religion | Spring 2004 Course Atlas

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Spring 2004 Course Atlas

REL 100: Introduction to Religions: Buddhist and Christian Practice

Patterson, MWF 9:35-10:25, MAX: 30

Content: The course will introduce Buddhism and Christianity, using a cultural studies and religious studies approach. Spiritual practices particularly as used by women will serve as the central organizing theme. The course is divided into two parts: history/major doctrines and understanding of practices. In the first half of the course, we will trace a comparative history of these two traditions and their interactions with specific cultures. This will help us gain a clearer understanding of the development of the major doctrines of each tradition. In the second half of the course, we will examine lives, practices, and writings by or about Buddhist and Christian women focusing on their understandings and experiences of the personal transformation, healing, and compassionate service as religious seekers.

Texts: May include:

The Story of Buddhism, by Donal Lopez

Beyond Belief, by Elaine Pagels

Society and the Holy, by Peter Brown

Virgins of God, by Susannah Elms

Women of Late Antiquity, by Elizabeth Clark

Holy Feast, Holy Fast, by Caroline Walker Bynum

Particulars: Assignments: Regular analytical and reflective papers. Final projects as determined by students and professor. The course fulfills General Education Requirement V.C.(Nonwestern Cultures or Comparative and International Studies).
(2/3 reserved for freshmen)
****Although content is different in REL 100 courses, you may not repeat for credit.****

REL 150: Introduction to Sacred Texts
V. Robbins/Von Thaden/Denapoli, MWF 9:35-10:25, (same as MES 160), MAX: 40

Content: An introduction to the life of oral and written sacred traditions in Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities in various periods. We will explore sacred texts in translation and investigate their origins, their transmission, and the processes by which they became authoritative for their communities. We will study ways the texts were interpreted in the past, how they are used and understood today, and we will visit local worship communities to observe contemporary uses of sacred texts. In addition to the written texts we will delve into the sights, sounds, feel, and in some cases, the taste of some of the world's most sacred texts.

Texts:

Richard Bush et al, The Religious World: Communities of Faith

Muhammed Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran

Wendy Doniger, Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism

Barbara Stoler Miller, The Bhagavad-Gita

New Oxford Annotated Bible

Particulars: There will be short written assignments on LearnLink, some short site visit reports, three short examinations during the semester, and a comprehensive final examination. The course fulfills General Education Requirements IV.A. (Humanities) and V.C. (Historical, Cultural, and International Perspectives).

REL 190: Freshman Seminar: Imagining China
Reinders, TTh, 1:00-2:15, (same as CPLT 190), MAX: 10

Content: In this class, we will look at some of the many “East-West” interactions, focusing on Western views of China, and working with the themes of cultural contact, religious tensions, the body, race and assimilation. We look at some of the religious, philosophical and political confusions that came out of these encounters. This narrative takes us through three crucial “episodes”: (a) the first major cultural interactions of Chinese with Jesuit missionaries of 16th century China, (b) 19th century Western visitors to China, including missionaries, and (c) images of the Chinese in America, especially in film and fiction. In considering the dynamics of long-distance intercultural representation, we discuss missionaries, maps, tourism, travelogues, souvenirs, museums, Hollywood, stereotypes, ritual, globalization and media. At the theoretical level, our questions include: How do we come to represent and imagine other cultures? Why does one culture, when producing its image of another, pick out certain elements and ignore others? What do we do with such knowledge? How does the representation of other cultures function to define one’s own? How do images of other cultures arise from our own desires, from our own interpretive framework, and from the dynamics of contact? The seminar will also focus on research methods, utilizing library resources, and writing skills.

Texts:

Jonathan D. Spence, The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds

Jonathan D. Spence, The Question of Hu

James S. Moy, Marginal Sights: Staging the Chinese in America

A selection of primary sources.

Particulars: TBA

REL 190: Freshman Seminar: Justice and Love in Biblical Writings
Buss, TTh, 10:00-11:15, MAX: 18

Content: The class will read portions of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament for Christians) and of the New Testament, together with some Jewish and Christian interpretations. Special, although not exclusive, attention will be given to sexual ethics and economics. “Justice” focuses, of course, on actions; “love,” on attitudes.

Texts: Course pack.
Particulars: Members of the class will make analyses of the blocks of the biblical materials that are covered. These analyses will be posted and shared orally in class. Members will also each pursue two special topics, one within sexual ethics and one within economics. Finally, they will each prepare a brief statement regarding the basic principles of ethics in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament, whether or not they agree with them. (For instance, a Jewish student may not like some ethical principles of the New Testament; a Christian student may reject some principles of the Hebrew Bible; other responses may engage in even more pick-and-choose.) In view of oral and written reports, there will probably be no tests.

REL 205: Biblical Literature
Gilders, MWF 9:35-10:25, (same as JS 205), MAX: 15

Content: This course provides a focused introduction to the collection of Hebrew texts that constitute the Bible of Judaism and the “Old Testament” of Christian Bibles. Special attention will be given to reading biblical documents in relation to their original historical context in ancient Israel. We will also examine the diverse ways the texts have been read and interpreted as sacred scripture in Judaism and Christianity. The course will involve survey coverage of the complete collection of texts, as well as focused study of selected books or portions of books, including the “Five Books of Moses” (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), stories about kings and prophets in the books of Samuel and Kings, the book of the prophet Isaiah, and the book of Job. Students will be expected to engage in careful reading of the texts and to reflect actively on how they interpret biblical literature. Prior study of the Bible is not a requirement for taking this course, and no particular religious commitments or beliefs about the Bible are assumed or required. What is required is openness to exploring new and different ideas, and a willingness to engage in disciplined reading of the biblical texts.

Texts:

The Jewish Study Bible (Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation) (Oxford University Press, 2003)

Richard Elliot Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (HarperCollins, 1997)

Particulars: There will be two short (five pages) papers, two tests, and a final examination. Students will also prepare a variety of study exercises in the course LearnLink conference. Careful preparation and active participation in class discussions (including on-line discussions in the course LearnLink conference) are required. This course fulfills General Education Requirement IV.A (Humanities).

REL 210: Classic Religious Texts: Christian Classics on Suffering
Kraftchick, T 2:00-5:00, MAX: 20

Content: Suffering of some sort appears to be a fundamental characteristic of the human condition. This class will read and discuss classic and contemporary religious responses to the reality of human suffering, their attempts to give it meaning and the challenge suffering poses to understandings of God.

Texts:

Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent

Dorothee Soelle, Suffering

Arthur McGill, Suffering: A Test of Theological Method

Nicholas Woltersdorff, Lament for a Son

Elie Wiesel, Night

selected articles and sections from the Bible

Particulars: This course fulfills General Education Requirement IV.A (Humanities).

REL 210: Classic Religious Texts: Gender and Power in Early Christian Writings
Hylen, TTh 10:00-11:15, MAX: 20

Content: This class cultivates skills in the interpretation of texts. The course material and assignments emphasize the skills and tools needed to interpret biblical and other early Christian texts, including strategies for careful reading, exploration of literary, historical, sociological and theological themes, and construction of a written argument based on textual evidence. The specific focus of the course will be on texts that lend themselves to a discussion of gender and power. We will pay attention to questions such as: In the culture that produced the text, what were the assumptions about men and women, their roles and characteristics or capabilities? How does a text reflect its culture's assumptions about gender? Are there ways in which it does not? What role does gender have in the rhetoric of the text? (i.e., how does the text rely on gender assumptions in making its argument?) We will also attend to ways that interpretations of the texts in modern contexts may affect contemporary issues of gender and power.

Texts:

The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.

Reserve readings.

Particulars: Students will write short papers interpreting different texts. Class attendance and participation will be a significant portion of the student's grade. This course fulfills General Education Requirement IV.A (Humanities).

REL 210: Classic Religious Texts: Moses
Gilders/V. Robbins, M 2-3:40/W 2-2:50, MAX: 30

Content: Moses is the central figure in four books of the Torah in the Hebrew Bible. Both the New Testament and the Quran refer to Moses more often than any other Hebrew Bible person. Also, there are other ancient Jewish writings in which Moses plays an important role. This class will explore the portrayal of Moses in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writings.

Texts:

The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, The Glorious Quran

Reserve readings.

Particulars: Careful reading of primary texts. Brief interpretations of texts submitted electronically. Some short papers (4-5 pages) and exams. The course fulfills General Education Requirement IV.A (Humanities).

REL 211: Western Religious Traditions: Transformations
Smith, MW 2:30-3:45, MAX: 30

Content: What is “religion” and what makes it “Western”? How has Christianity, originally a Jewish sect in the ancient Middle East, become Western and European? How has Judaism been transformed within its European context to become a Western religion at large? Why does it make more sense in the contemporary context to study Islam as a Western religious tradition among others?

Beginning with classical Greco-Roman religions and cultures, this course will address such questions not only historically and sociologically, but primarily in terms of the religious commitments of the traditions involved. We will explore, for example, how the shared background of these rival traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (co-heirs to Abrahamic traditions as well as Hellenistic culture)—creates convergences on the one hand and conflict on the other. Most promising is the opportunity to discover how they can encounter, challenge, and transform one another so that each religion becomes more authentically itself.

Texts:

Eugene B. Borowitz, Choices in Modern Jewish Thought (Behrman, 1995)

John B. Cobb, Transforming Christianity and the World (Orbis,1999)

Yossi Klein Halevi, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land (William Morrow, 2001)

Willard G. Oxtoby, ed., World Religions: Western Traditions (Oxford, 2002)

Richard Rubenstein, Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims & Jews Redis-covered Ancient Wisdom & Illuminated the Dark Ages (Harcourt, 2003)

Omid Safi, ed., Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (London: Oneworld, 2003)

Particulars: Course evaluations will be based on: (1) weekly reflections on the assigned readings, (2) a midterm project, involving either fieldwork or a multimedia presentation, that addresses the major issues and objectives of the course, and (3) a final term paper that addresses the encounter between two or more traditions in terms of the major issues of the course. This course meets General Education Requirement V.B (Historical Perspectives on Western Culture).

REL 309: Modernization of the Jews and Judaism
Seeman, TTh 11:30-12:45, (same as JS 309), MAX: 15

Content: How have Jewish communities faced the challenges posed by modernity? This class uses literary, historical, philosophical and anthropological material to explore this question. What is the origin of the split between different Jewish religious movements (i.e. Orthodoxy and Reform)? What is the relationship between Zionism, good citizenship in America or in Europe and traditional Jewish religion? What are the special challenges facing Israeli Jewry? How has Jewish thought been influenced by the Holocaust? By feminism? This class focuses on Jewish religious and intellectual life, but always tries to relate those to the larger existential dilemmas that Jewish people have faced in modern times.

Texts: TBA
Particulars: Students are expected to attend class each week prepared to discuss that week's readings, and will be evaluated on the basis of attendance and participation (20%). There will be an in class mid-term exam (30%) and a final essay (50%) in which students write a critical essay analyzing one topic on the basis of class readings and discussions plus related newspaper articles. There will be a mandatory film and discussion night, approximately four times during the semester.

REL 313: Modern Catholicism: Issues and Images
Sweeney, MWF 10:40-11:30, MAX: 30

Content: Modern Catholicism is a question, and some would say a contradiction. Can the Catholic Church be or become modern while remaining itself? This course provides a critical consideration of the question of Catholicism's relationship to modernity. Beginning with an overview of some of Catholicism's foundational practices and beliefs, we will then move to a contemporary issues-driven consideration, using various written texts, of Catholicism's relationship to modernity. Films will also be used to consider the various complexities, often difficult and confusing, of current concerns in Catholicism. Some of these controversial topics will include: human sexuality; women; church authority; the church and politics; the reforms of Vatican II.

Texts: The texts will be taken, wherever possible, from primary sources. In addition to official church documents (including selections from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Councils of Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II), readings will include selections by John Henry Newman, Thérèse of Lisieux, Edith Stein, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and Mark Jordan. Films will include Passolini's "Gospel According to St. Matthew" and Costa-Gavras' "Amen."
Particulars: You will be expected to read the assigned written texts carefully and closely. You will be expected to view critically one film every 1-2 weeks. You will be expected to discuss both written texts and films thoughtfully and constructively. You will also be asked to write 3 short interpretive papers (of about 5 pages each), and a final paper. You will be asked to attend 2-3 Catholic religious services. Finally, a weekly journal and media assignment are components of this course. There will be no examinations.

REL 317: Modern Islam

Martin, TTh 11:30-12:45, (same as MES 317), MAX: 10

Content: This course continues REL 316 "Early and Medieval Islam" (not a prerequisite). The first phase of the course is the history of Islamic civilization from the Fall of the Abbasid Empire in 1258 to the modern period. Next the course takes up the problem of modernity and the West, and Islamic responses, such as Fundamentalism, Modernism, Secularism, and Islamic Feminism. The final phase will focus on postmodern developments in Islam, including modern Islamic theology, law and ethics, the internet, globalization, the impact of the Gulf War and 9/11, and growth of social movements, such as Salafi/Wahhabi, and Progressive Muslim identities.

Texts:

John Voll, Modern Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World

Sayyid Qutb, Milestones

Muhammad Abduh, Theology of Unity

Tayeb Saleh, Wedding of Zein

Jonathan Brockopp, ed., Islamic Ethics of Life: Abortion, War and Euthanasia

Course Packet

Particulars: Each week will be divided roughly between lectures with discussion (usually Tuesdays) and student presentations discussion (usually Thursdays). Students will be asked to write brief responses to the readings before class as a basis for discussion. Three take-home exams during the semester. A written evaluation of student work will be provided at mid term and at the end of the course. No prerequisites.

REL 351: Paul and His Letters

Huber, TTh 11:30-12:45, MAX: 20

Content: This course examines the writings and traditions associated with one of the most influential and controversial figures in Christian history, the apostle Paul. Addressed to newly formed Christian communities, Paul's letters respond to a wide range of issues and questions about how to live true to one's religious faith in a diverse society. In exploring his letters, we will situate Paul within his first century context, paying special attention to his connections with Judaism and his posture toward the Greco-Roman social world. In addition, we will explore how this first-century letter writer continues to shape important cultural debates, especially those surrounding gender, sexuality and social class.

Texts:

Harper Collins Study Bible

The First Urban Christians, Wayne Meeks

Select articles and essays.

Particulars: Grades will based upon active class participation, class presentations, a take home mid-term exam, and a final paper or project.

REL 354R: Ethics and Public Policy

Queen, TTh 1:00-2:15, Max: 20

Content: Through the analysis of the methods of ethical analysis and key texts this course will examine the ethical dimensions of pressing social issues. Particular attention will be paid to the public policy implications and the relationship between ethics and public policy. Some of the possible issues for analysis include: the economy, the allocation and use of health care resources, war, human rights, and the environment.

Texts: TBA
Particulars: TBA

REL 356R: Christianity Meets Buddhism

Bianchi, W 2:30-5:30, (same as Candler's WR 698), Max: 15

Content: This course focuses on writings by modern exponents of Christian and Buddhist spirituality who reach over into other traditions for dialogue, insight and practice. It is, therefore, a course in transtraditional spirituality, a process of enriching a particular heritage by encounters with another tradition.

Texts: TBA
Particulars: Students will write short weekly papers as well as two longer papers.

REL 370R: Special Topics: Dance and Embodied Knowledge in the Indian Context
Flueckiger, MWF 11:45-12:35, (same as ASIA 370 and DANCE 385), MAX: 6

Content: This is an interdisciplinary course in religion, dance, and South Asian studies. The course will provide a context in which to experience and analyze the nature of embodied knowledge and the creative power of performance, particularly in the Indian context. The focus of this class is to explore ways in which the body "knows" and participates in ritual and religious knowledge. One class each week will be spent learning basic movements of Kuchipudi classical dance, taught by Sasikala Penumarthi, an Artist Affiliate in the Dance Department. The other two class periods will frame dance movement with discussions of Indian aesthetic theories, Hindu mythology (Kuchipudi dance choreography draws from Hindu mythological tradition), and western performance theories and theories of body and movement. We will consider "how and what performance creates" both through our own body practice (dance) and through theoretical frameworks. No dance experience is necessary, but full participation is required.

Texts: May include:

Selections from the Natyasastra [foundational dance manual of Indian classical dance practice & theory]

Dance and the Lived Body: A Descriptive Aesthetics, Sondara Fraleigh

Classical Hindu Mythology, transl. Cornelia Dimmitt & J.A.B. van Buitenen

Course packet of articles on performance & dance theory

Particulars: Five short response papers, two in-class exams, attendance at two out-of-class performances, weekly journal entries, full class participation (including dance classes), and final project consisting of dance performance and analysis. Prerequisites: None.

REL 370R: Special Topics: Globalization and Islam

Martin, T 2:30-5:30, (same as MES 370, ILA 790 and RLAR 738G), MAX: 4, (Permission of Instructor Required)

Content: Globalization has emerged since 1990 as both a descriptive and normative concept of world history, and it provides a productive framework for studying the problem of religion and modernity. The universal missionary religions that are global by self-definition are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. How do they relate to economic, political and cultural trends in globalization, which compete with the traditional claims of religion to be paths for all of humankind to the good life and world peace? The seminar will consider the case of Islam in particular, by first looking at pre-modern Islam as a highly networked religious civilization, and how Muslim networks have evolved and changed in the modern world. The seminar will also investigate the problem in globalization theory among both proponents and opponents of globalization. The writings of Muslim intellectuals on globalization will be analyzed against this background. Is Islam an "imagined world community"? Is al-Qa'ida an example of globalization? What role does the Internet play in challenging or privileging traditional and modern forms of authority? These and other questions that may develop in the seminar will guide weekly discussions.

Texts:

Ali Mohammadi, ed, Islam Encountering Globalization

Dale F. Eickelman and Jon W. Anderson, eds., New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere

Other readings on reserve and shorter articles handed out in class, including:

Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori, eds., Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimmage, Migration and the Religious Imagination

Marshall G. S. Hodgson, "The Great Western Transmutation," The Venture of Islam, vol. 3.

The works of advocates of globalization, such as John Micklewait et al, The Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization

Essays by critics of globalization, such as Pierre Bourdieu

Particulars: The course will be in seminar format. All students will prepare a brief position paper on the readings each week, and one or two students will be selected to lead the discussion on most weeks. Students will prepare a term project (individual or cooperative among two or more participants) on some aspect of the issues covered in seminar. Students will be evaluated on seminar attendance and participation and on the quality of the final project. The instructor will provide an evaluation of student work at midterm and at the end of the semester. Prerequisites: Graduate standing at Emory University or permission of the instructor.

REL 370R: Special Topics: Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians

Lang, MWF 10:40-11:30, (same as CL 305), MAX: 10

Content: War, empire, trade, new religions, old religions in new places, civil strife, mass suicides, martyrs: classical antiquity was an interesting time for the peoples around the Mediterranean basin. This course examines such issues as the construction of Greek and Roman identity as a cultural dichotomy, what it means to be a monotheist in an polytheistic empire, and why everyone hates the Christians. Theology, politics and social history are the topics under debate and sources include a Jewish Roman historian, a Jewish theologian in Greek Egypt, and an apostate Roman emperor, not to mention archeological and visual sources.

Texts:

Simon Goldhill, Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire

M.H.Williams, The Jews Among the Greeks and Romans: a Diasporan Sourcebook

Robin Lane, Fox Pagans and Christians

Particulars: Class participation, two papers of at least 10 pages; final exam.

REL 370RSWR: Special Topics: Great Books of the Islamic World
Devin Stewart, TTh 2:30-3:45, (same as MES 415SWR), MAX: 5

Content: With the establishment of an Empire stretching from Spain to India, the construction of Baghdad, the translation of hundreds of literary and scientific works from Sanskrit, Persian, Syriac, and Greek, and significant advances in rag-paper technology, the early medieval Islamic world witnessed an intellectual flowering rivaling that of the European Renaissance in intensity, importance, and effect. Between 800 and 1000 C.E., scholars in the Islamic world moved to the forefront in almost all the intellectual fields then known to man. During this period, all the then-known sciences were defined, organized, and theoretically formulated. This course will introduce students to the works and currents of thought of this period. Close reading, comparison of texts, and expository writing will be a major emphasis of the course.

Texts:

al-Andalusi, Science in the Medieval World: Book of the Categories of Nations

Gutas, Dmitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Society 2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries) London: Routledge, 1998

Ibn al-Nadim,The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture 2 vols. Trans. Bayard Dodge. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

Ihsa al-ulum, Enumeration of the Sciences

Mafatih al-ulum, The Keys to the Sciences

Particulars: You are expected to attend class, finish the readings on time, and participate in discussion. Short written assignments and class participation (40%). Three assigned papers, 6-7 pages each. (60%). In addition, you will be required to learn and have at your active disposal certain basic information about Islamic intellectual history. There will be an exam to ensure that you assimilate this information, but the exam will not be the main focus of the course. You must get 70% or above on this competency exam in order to pass the course.

REL 370R: Special Topics: South African History and Issues
Spuy, TTh 2:30-3:45, (same as JRNL 488, HIST 385, WS 385, AFS 389, and AAS 270), MAX: 5

Content: This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the history and contemporary issues of South Africa. It explores topics in modern South African history and issues facing a society undergoing enormous social change. The course encourages students to learn about themselves by challenging them to contrast and compare the racial dynamics in America with those in South Africa. Finally, this course allows students to do individualized preparation for May/June summer internships in Cape Town.

Texts: TBA
Particulars: Enrollment in this course requires permission of the department under which the student will be completing the internship. Students are required to attend the orientation on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 in Callaway Center S108, 4:30 pm to discuss the requirements of the 2004 Interdisciplinary Internship in South Africa Summer Study Abroad.

REL 370R: Special Topics: Baha'i Faith, History and Theology
Lewis, TTh 11:30-12:45, (same as MES 370), MAX: 5

Content: This course will trace the development of the Babi religion (1844-1863) as a messianic movement in Shi'i Islam, its persecution by the Iranian state, its theological transformation into the Baha'i Faith under Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), the spread of the religion to the west, the structure and organization of the Baha'i community, and Baha'i theology. Through class discussion, guest speakers, class discussions, and class presentations, we will examine in particular the relationship of the Baha'i Faith to Islam; Baha'i's messianic appeal to other religious traditions; beliefs, rituals and calendar; Baha'i administration; the relationship between religion, politics, government; the status of women; etc.

Texts:

Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Iqan

Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

Juan Cole, Modernity and the Millenium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith

Hatcher and Martin, Baha'i Faith: Emerging Global Religion

Michael McMullen, The Baha’i: The Religious Construction of a Global Identity

Moojan Momen, A Short Introduction to the Baha’i Faith

Robert Stockman, Baha'i Faith in America

Particulars: Attendance and participation in class is required; weekly summaries of the readings to LearnLink; independent project and class presentation; one term paper, one final. Grading: 25% class participation, 25% response papers, 20% term paper, 15% independent project, 15% Final. Prerequisite: None. Familiarity with a religious tradition is helpful.

REL 370RWR: Special Topics: Literature, Apocalypse, and Revelation: Romanticism and Science Fiction
Goss, TT 4:00-5:15, (same as Eng 389RWR), MAX: 7
Content: This course will explore the connection between catastrophe and the revelation of ultimate truth that makes up our understanding of Apocalypse. In our readings and our class discussions, we will work toward an understanding of the relationship of the revelation of truth to the destructive power of the apocalyptic. We will also ask ourselves what roles we can imagine for literature and language within that relationship. Our texts will range from poetic and philosophical works of the late 18th and early 19th century (the Romantic era) to more literally apocalyptic works of 20th century science fiction. The course will offer a brief introduction into the yearning for revelation that presents itself throughout nineteenth-century literature in addition to taking advantage of science fiction’s startling ability to provide imaginable apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic futures. It is my hope that the comparison of these two apparently divergent traditions will provide insight into the possibility of revelation and the necessity of apocalypse in a way that neither alone would do.
Texts:

selected poems and prose of William Blake, S. T. Coleridge, William Wordsworth, William Hazlitt, P. B. Shelley and Thomas DeQuincey

Walter Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz

James Morrow’s This is the Way the World Ends

selected short stories by Phillip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, and J. G. Ballard

Particulars: Work for the course will include a short essay in the middle of the semester and a long one at the end in addition to several short informal response papers throughout the semester. Most importantly, the course will demand active engagement in class discussion. This course fulfills the Post-Freshman Writing Requirement.

REL 370R: Special Topics: Allah, Jesus & African Spirits: Religious Encounters in African History
Willis, MWF 11:45-12:35, (same as AAS 270, AFS 389, and HIST 285), MAX: 5
Content: This course introduces students to the diversity of Africa's religious movements and practices in the 19th and 20th centuries. It examines case studies from the encounters between Islam and Christianity and Africa's traditional religions as they engage one another in selected West African communities. The bulk of the course focuses on Nigerian context. Given the manner in which religion has been such a prominent issue for contemporary Nigeria and the entire world, the course highlights the relevance of these 19th- and 20th-century religious encounters for contemporary Nigeria, the African diaspora, and the world. The goals of the course are to expose students to the following: 1) the diversity of Africa's religious heritage, 2) common themes across the African religious terrain, 3) an understanding of the social, political, and economic implications of religion, and 4) exposure to interdisciplinary research methods used in African history. Videos, photos, and other visual materials will add to the learning environment. Several contemporary Africans will visit as guest speakers to enhance the students' understanding of religion in Africa.
Texts: TBA

REL 372RWRS: Special Topics: Classical Texts and Religious Thought: Black Love
Stewart, Th 2:30-5:30, (same as AAS 270WRS), MAX: 13, (Permission of Instructor Required)

Content: The objective of this course is to explore historical and contemporary notions of love with a particular emphasis on love's presence in the lives of Black people in the North American context. Through readings of classic texts in philosophy, religion, literature and cultural studies, the course begins with a triadic look at Greek, Christian, and African notions of love, followed by a panoramic view of love across a landscape of social, cultural, and religious themes (including: theology, politics, feminism, literature, sexuality, masculinity, and romance). Students will investigate how love is interpreted, implemented, and identified in political spheres (e.g. civil rights and black power movements) and personal lives, relationships and revolutions, romance and religion, songs and social theories. Students will be encouraged to engage and critically appraise past and present thinkers to the end that they are able to construct and articulate their own ideas about what love is and its place in personal and public life.

Texts/readings:

Symposium by Plato

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King

Salvation: Black People and Love by bell hooks

New Visions:All About Love by bell hooks

Love Disconsoled by Timothy Jackson

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sista Souljah

A Love No Less; More than Two Centuries of African American Love Letters by Pamela Newkirk

By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X

Love by Toni Morrison

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks it Down by Joan Morgan

(Additional Authors include: June Jordan, James Cone, Rudolph Byrd, and Tavis Smiley)

Particulars: Assignments: journal, artistic exegesis, book review, final paper. This course fulfills the Post-Freshman Writing Requirement.

REL 470S: Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Religion: Post-Holocaust Jewish Theology
Berger, M 2:00-5:00, (same as PHIL 470S and JS 490S), MAX: 6

Content: The classic religious question of theodicy -- reconciling God and the existence of evil -- received renewed interest after the Holocaust. This course will closely examine the radical as well as traditional arguments and approaches taken by Jewish theologians in the half century since the destruction of European Jewry.

Texts:

Eliezer Berkovits, Faith After the Holocaust

David Birnbaum, God and Evil

David Blumenthal, Facing the Abusing God

Emil Fackenheim, God's Presence in History

Edward Feld, The Spirit of Renewal Irving Greenberg (collected essays)

The Book of Job (dep't packet)

Ignaz Maybaum, The Face of God After Auschwitz

Richard Rubenstein, After Auschwitz (2nd edition)

Particulars: Permission of instructor required. Weekly reading, in-class presentations by students, final paper.

REL 472R: Topics in Religion: Mahamudra: A Tibetan Buddhist Contemplative Science of Mind (2 credits)
Kaybje Lochoe Rinpoche/Negi, Th 4:00-6:00, (Mar 18, Mar 25, Apr 1, Apr 8, Apr 15, Apr 22), (same as RLAR 797R), Max 20, (Permission of Instructor Required)
Content: In this six-week seminar, Kyabje Lochoe Rinpoche (translated and assisted by Geshe Lobsang Negi) will present one of the most sophisticated meditative technologies, known in Sanskrit as Mahamudra, or The Great Seal. Based on the First Panchen Lama's classic text, The Gelug Tradition of Mahamudra, this seminar will present a comprehensive understanding of mind and its fundamental nature. Through the contemplative methodology, Rinpoche will introduce the students to the ancient meditations for accessing one's natural awareness that is the union of bliss, radiance and emptiness. The indivisible presence of these features of the mind is what is referred to as the Great Seal that permeates throughout all spheres of experience and existence. Following the Tibetan pedagological approach, each seminar will consist of a presentation, meditation, and discussion.
Texts:

The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Mind in Buddhist Psychology, Herbert V. Guenther, translator

Particulars: Requirements include regular attendance and active participation in discussions. The main method of evaluation will be an oral final exam conducted in the traditional Tibetan style of debate. Students will be expected to prepare for this exam as rigorously as they would for a written exam.

REL 490WR: Senior Symposium: Writing Religion
Jordan, T 2:30-5:30, MAX: 35, Majors Only
Content: The symposium will be divided into two rather different parts. In the first part, we will read together very different works--historical essays and anti-religious polemics, ethnographies and novels-- that will help us think about the varieties of writing in and about religion. In the second part, you will be asked to carry forward ideas about writing religion into a single project on a particular question or topic of special interest to you.
Texts: The texts for the first part of the course will include at least

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing

Wendy Doniger, The Implied Spider

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Gianni Vattimo, Belief

Particulars: Beyond their energetic attendance and informed participation, members of the symposium will be asked to write a series of short exercises in the first part of the semester, and then to propose and write a final essay of not less than 4000 words. This course fulfills the Post-Freshman Writing Requirement.

REL 495R: Directed Reading (honors)
Faculty, (Permission of Instructor Required)
Content: Independent research for senior major and joint major students selected to participate in the department's Honors program. Readings on special topics in Religion as arranged between individual students and a specific member of the Department who consents to guide the student in her/his study, arrange requirements and appointments.

REL 497R: Directed Reading
Faculty, (Permission of Instructor Required)
Content: Readings on special topics in Religion as arranged between individual students and a specific member of the Department who consents to guide the student in her/his study, arrange requirements and appointments.

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