Religious Studies Courses

This course provides a general introduction to the world's religions, including major traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, along with smaller indigenous traditions. The approach of the course is objective and academic; it is not designed to advocate any particular religious perspective or ideology. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit; it is also one of the basic requirements for the Religious Studies major.

 

 

This course will introduce you to the history, literature, and religion of the earliest period of Christianity (from about 30 to 150 CE). We will see how Christianity arose out of the Jewish religion and how it spread in the Greco-Roman world. We will examine a variety of writings from this period, including the collection of early Christian literature known as the New Testament. You will learn the historical, critical methods by which scholars study these writings as sources for our knowledge of the origins of Christianity. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.

 

 

 What is a “religion,” how do you study it, and who gets to decide? We will explore these fundamental questions by reading three very different textbooks commonly used in introductory courses like this. We will think about how these types of books, the approaches of their authors, and even this type of course shape the concept of "religion" among the general public. While we will touch on the doctrinal and ritual dimensions of several global traditions, our task will be to figure out and articulate the assumptions, values, and goals that shape our thinking about “religions” (and other stuff!). In this course, I assume that we are all curious—curious about how we think, curious about what we normalize or take for granted, curious about how we use words to describe and navigate the world around us. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.

 

This course is an introduction to the study of various African American religious practices and traditions and the theories that help to make sense of them.

 

Asian civilizations have a long history with far-reaching impact and influence on our global community today. One does not need to travel to Asia to be affected by Asian people, economic and political activities, cuisine, arts and entertainment, health treatment options, and religious orientations. The religious landscape of Asia is crucial to understanding Asian civilizations. This course focuses on a variety of Asian religious traditions, including fundamental teachings of the Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, Shinto, and Buddhist traditions of India, Tibet, China, and Japan. We explore how religious values influence decision-making processes in personal and public spheres. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit; it is also one of the basic requirements for the Religious Studies major.

 

Is there an all-powerful, infinitely intelligent, loving being (i.e., God) who created the visible universe and all within it? If so, can the existence of such a being be proven rationally? And if so, is there a rational explanation for the presence of evil in the world that this being created and governs? Does human consciousness survive the death of the physical body? Is it reasonable to believe in miracles, e.g., the claim that Jesus walked on water or that some Hindu saints have brought human beings back from the dead even after they had been cremated? In approaching these, and other, religious questions philosophically, we will focus upon the reasons, evidence, arguments and counterarguments that have been advanced with respect to these questions. The goal of this class is not only to make students familiar with those theories falling under the general rubric of the philosophy of religion, but to further refine each student’s ability to reason critically through any sort of logical argument, religious or otherwise. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.

 

This course introduces students to the histories, teachings, beliefs and practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to engage with guest speakers, take field trips to synagogues, churches, and mosques, and watch a number of videos pertaining to contemporary issues (e.g., women’s roles, waging war) within these religions. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit; it is also one of the basic requirements for the Religious Studies major.

 

In this course, students will explore the relationship between theology and politics, from the ancient Greeks and Hebrews to contemporary political theologians. While we will emphasize the Judeo-Christian tradition, the political theology of other religious traditions, such as Islam, Hinduism, and Confucianism, may be included.

 

This seminar is a learning space where students will critically engage with the concept of religion and academic approaches to the study of religion. Here we will not be learning about specific religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and so forth), but rather the different ways to talk and think about religion in an academically responsible way. We will focus on a set of interrelated questions: What is religion? What kinds of approaches have scholars adopted as they study religion? How have we come to talk about it in an academic setting? What are productive ways to analyze religious traditions, communities, beliefs, practices, and texts now? We will consider issues of sex and sexuality, embodiment, gender, race, law, theology, secularity, ritual, social organization, and culture. As a result, the theories of religion we read will come from a wide range of academic disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, law and politics, psychology, race studies, economics, gender studies, colonial studies, and, of course, religious studies. This course fulfills the capstone requirement for the Religious Studies major.

 

This course will introduce you to the four gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We will consider how each of these documents gives a unique portrait of Jesus of Nazareth. We will examine these documents from a literary perspective as works of literature with plots and characters. We will also examine them from a socio-historical perspective as windows revealing the concerns of the earliest Christian communities. 

 

If there was one thing on which early Christians were continually focused, it was the health of the soul. But what is the soul? And how is it connected to the body? Do the condition, habits, actions, and disposition of the body affect the present and future condition of the soul? If so, why? Can soul-health lead to bodily health? This seminar will investigate some of the earliest Christian investigations of these questions by placing them in their ancient contexts. Our course will touch on subjects like psychotherapy, monasticism, medicine and physiology, liturgy and ritual, philosophy, visions of the afterlife, and more. Students can expect to critically read primary sources from Greek and Roman antiquity as well as from the early Christian period (ca 50-565 c.e.). We will also engage with modern scholarly analyses of texts.