RELIGST 8N:
Francis of Assisi: An Exemplary Saint
Preference to freshmen. The making of a new model of saint at a time of cultural change in the Middle Ages. What Francis as a paradigm of the model self reveals about the ethical and religious imagination, past and present. Texts include Francis' writings and primary documents that chronicle the founding of the Franciscan order.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 10N:
The Problem of God: Aquinas to the New Atheism
Critical inquiry the meaning and credibility of theistic belief through exemplary classic formulations, modern critics, and contemporary defenders. What has the idea of God meant to serious minds in the past? And in the modern or postmodern world?
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 11N:
The Meaning of Life: Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Religious Perspectives
Raise ultimate questions about life. Yes, the unexamined life is not worth living, but also the unlived life is not worth examining. Students and professor examine their own lives in the light of questions that the readings and lectures bring up: 1. The big picture: Is there such a thing as "the" meaning of life? 2. What is entailed in making personal-existential sense of one's own life? 3. What constitutes the good life, lived in society? 4. How can a university education bear upon the search for a meaningful life? 5. What "methods" for or approches to life can one learn from studies in the humanities? After introductory lectures, the seminar studies a series of artworks, poems, diverse texts, and a film, all of which bear on the questions mentioned above -- works such: 1. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from "The Republic" 2. Manet's "A bar at the Folies Bergere" 3. A comparison/contrast of Monet's early (1862) "Still Life" and van Gogh's late (1889) "Irises" 4. Lyric poetry T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," and "East Coker"; Edwin Muir: "The Heart Could Never Speak"; Philip Larkin: "Days" 5. Martin Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics?" 6. Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "Nausea" 7. Marx's Paris Manuscripts of 1844 8. Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
RELIGST 14:
Exploring Buddhism
From its beginnings to the 21st century. Principal teachings and practices, institutional and social forms, and artistic and iconographical expressions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 15N:
Travels through the Afterlife (JEWISHST 15N)
Since the beginning of civilization, humans have refused to believe that physical death is the end of life and have sought in various ways to travel into the afterlife. We cannot know what lies beyond death, but there are other kinds of insights to be learned from these otherworldly journeys. The first part of the course will explore the origins and history of the afterlife, going back in time to ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece, and medieval Europe to survey these cultures' view of death and what lies beyond it. The second part of the course will investigate what has happened to belief in the afterlife in modern American culture. Our ultimate goal is to confront one of the most difficult aspects of life--our fear of death and oblivion--and also to explore the power of thought and imagination to move beyond the confines of mortality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 16SI:
Religion and Spirituality: LGBTQ Perspectives, (JEWISHST 16SI)
Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people today are finding that mainstream religious institutions do not meet their unique spiritual needs, and they are looking elsewhere to create meaningful spiritual lives. Examine various ways that LGBTQ people are creating and practicing religion and spirituality in the United States. Explore the diversity of American LGBTQ religious and spiritual traditions, both within and beyond the boundaries of traditional religions. Religious and spiritual practices created by and for LGBTQ people and communities, rather than the responses of religious institutions towards the reality of LGBTQ people in their midst. Students will be required to attend an LGBTQ worship service in a tradition of their choice. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of, and appreciation for, the diversity of religious and spiritual traditions within LGBTQ communities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 20:
Beyond Good and Evil: A Thematic Introduction to the Zoroastrian Religion
Introduction to Zoroastrianism through a survey of its defining themes, including an examination of the figure of the prophet Zarathustra, modes of transmitting sacred knowledge, the nature of good and evil, and the importance of ritual practice and practitioners. Discuss how Zoroastrianism views the individual with respect to the body, the life cycle, and issues of gender and sexuality. Also discuss the intersection of "religion" and "ethnicity" that has defined Zoroastrianism from its origins in the 2nd millennium BCE in Central Asia up to the present day.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 24:
Exploring Christianity
The historical development of Christian religious thought and practice from Jesus to the present. Emphasis is on the formation of Christianity's major teachings and their transformation and diverse expressions in the medieval, reformation, and modern periods. Readings focus on primary texts.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 27:
Exploring Islam
Introduction to Islam, its core beliefs and practices, through architecture and the arts. Explore the visual language through which these have been expressed across diverse Muslim societies.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 37:
Introduction to Japanese Religions
Major themes in Japanese religious culture, including gods, religious sites, and specialist and popular practices. Films and readings from literary, ethnographic, and historical sources in translation.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 66SI:
Catholic Social Teaching
Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is a large and rapidly growing corpus of thought generated by the Catholic Church in its ongoing quest to understand and explore the proper role of the human person in society. In developing and promulgating CST, the Church seeks to apply the basic principles of Catholic theology and natural law to the various realms of human thought which touch on human communities and social interaction: political philosophy, economics, labor relations, war & peace, international trade, and many others.CST seeks to explore this body of knowledge through the lens of the ¿seven key themes¿ of CST popularized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Study various papal encyclicals and pastoral letters associated with CST, read commentary on and criticism of CST in its various aspects, and discuss the varying interpretations of CST that have emerged over the past decades, especially in the United States. As CST puts great emphasis on engagement with the community and service to the less fortunate, this course will also integrate several service learning experiences, in which we will leave Stanford to explore the ¿praxis¿ of the principles we study in modern society.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
RELIGST 67SI:
Alternative Spring Break: Muslim Matters: Exploring the Muslim-American Identity
In a post 9-11 world, Muslims in general have been misperceived and stereotyped. Samuel Huntington coined the phrase 'Clash of Civilizations,' when he predicted a conflict between cultures, specifically focusing on the potential clash between Western and Islamic cultures. Many believe that the Muslim American is conflicted in loyalty to the Muslim world and the West. This Alternative Spring Break trip will attempt to provide the students the tools needed to critically examine the Muslim American identity and how it perceives itself within America and the Muslim world.nnnThrough the winter course, this trip will focus on dispelling misconceptions about the monolithic nature of Muslims in America. For example, although the media frequently depicts Muslim and Arab people as interchangeable, the majority of Muslims in America and the world are not Arabs. The Muslim-American identity is shaped by a myriad of different political, social, and cultural issues. This trip will explore the social and political dynamics of the Muslim-American community. By meeting with political leaders, community members, professors, lawyers and activists this trip will allow participants to understand the intricacies and diversity of Muslim American communities, and how the Muslim American has been affected by domestic and foreign policies. We hope to also explore how Muslim Americans have responded to problems, both internal and external, facing their communities.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1
RELIGST 84:
Mystics, Pilgrims, Monks, and Scholars: Religious Devotion in Medieval Christianity
The variety and vitality of religious expression in medieval Christian Europe. How Christians sought God through mystical encounter, the structure of monastic life, visits to shrines, devotion to the saints, and the study of scripture and ancient Christian wisdom. Readings focus on primary texts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 95:
How to Read the Bible (JEWISHST 95)
What does the Bible mean? Seeks to help students answer this question for themselves by introducing some of the many ways in which the Bible has been read over the ages. The focus will be the book of Genesis, but the real subject is the history of biblical interpretation¿how Genesis has been understood by theologians, writers, artists, scholars and others¿and the ultimate goal is not merely to engage the Bible itself but to gain a better appreciation of the act of reading, why people read differently and the consequences of that difference for religious history.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 102:
Modern Islam
How Muslims have engaged in diverse ways with the Modern World and with new ethical, social and political challenges from the 19th century on.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 104:
The Daoist Body
The human body as seen in Daoist traditions and related areas, particularly cosmol-nnogy and medicine. Major sources including images and charts, and the views of the human being that they reflect.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 112D:
Sociology of Judaism and Jewish Identity (JEWISHST 132D, SOC 112D)
Examines the place of the Jewish people in society throughout various locales and historical periods to understand how interactions among Jews and with other groups have shaped Jewish identities. Topics include modernism, the Holocaust, Israel/nationhood, race/ethnicity, intermarriage, and assimilation. Uses theoretical, empirical, and historical material from multiple social scientific fields of study and explores the study of Judaism from several major sociological lenses.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 5
RELIGST 113B:
Japanese Religion Through Film
Themes in premodern and modern Japanese religion though animations, movies and documentaries
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 114B:
Religions of Korea
Religious traditions in Korea from antiquity to the present. An examination of texts including Buddha tales, official histories, spatial representations, popular literature, modern media reports and other primary sources. The impact of imperialism, modernity, and nationalism on the contemporary practice of religion.
| Units: 1-4
RELIGST 117:
The Future of Christianity
Developments affecting the world¿s largest religion in the new millennium: shifting demographics; declining numbers in mainline Christian denominations in North America and Europe; the emergence of ¿global Christianity¿ in Africa, Asia, and South America; Christianity after the baby boomer generation; "flash point" issues (sexuality, global economic system, politics, bioethics); religious pluralism. Will Christianity have a future? What kind of future?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 11SC:
Religion in Science Fiction and Fantasy
How the literature of science fiction and fantasy explores current conceptions about religion. Religious themes such as free will and determinism, immortality, apocalypse, and redemption. How religion figures in the contemporary imagination.
| Units: 2
RELIGST 12:
Introduction to Hinduism
Historical study from earliest period to the present, including religious poetry, narrative, performance, concepts of self and liberation, yoga, ritual, God and gods, views of religion through history, region, class, caste, and gender.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 123:
Islam Today
Case studies from the Muslim world to explore contemporary developments that affect Muslims in maintaining religious identity and continuity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 124:
Sufi Islam
The complex of Islamic intellectual and social perspectives subsumed under the term Sufism. Sufi mystical philosophies and historical and social evolution. Major examples include: Qushayrî, Râbi'a, Junayd, Hallâj, Sulamî, Ibn al-'Arabî, Rûmî, Nizâm al-Dîn Awliyâ'. Social and political roles of Sufi saints and communities. Readings include original prose and poetry in translation, secondary discussions, and ethnography.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 125:
Authority of the Past in Islamic Thought (RELIGST 331)
How have Muslims thought about the past as a source for contextualizing the present and generating prescriptions for right conduct? What imaginations of time undergird major Islamic intellectual perspectives? A wide-ranging exploration based on readings from the Quran, lives of prophets, chronicles, philosophy of history, hagiography, epic and mythology, and ethnography.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 126:
Protestant Reformation
16th-century evangelical reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli) and reform movements (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist) in their medieval context.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 129:
Modern Jewish Thought
From the early Enlightenment to the present. Universalism, subjectivity, and redemption within Judaism's encounter with modernity as reflected on by Jewish intellectuals within the Western philosophical tradition; how modern Jewish intellectuals have shaped and been shaped by current debates. Challenges to religious identity by secularism, capitalism, and the nation state. Messianism, mysticism, reactionary romanticism, critical theory, post-Holocaust philosophy, spirituality, and feminism. Thinkers include Spinoza, Marx, Freud, Buber, Strauss, the Frankfurt school, Benjamin, Arendt, and Levinas.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 130:
Genesis and Gender: Male and Female in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (JEWISHST 120)
What does it mean to be a man or a woman? And what role have classical and religious traditions played in shaping understandings of gender differences? Investigation of the construction of gender identities, roles, and differences in Greek and Roman sources and three monotheistic faiths. Interpretation and retellings of the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible and the Qu¿ran, commentaries, lives and practices of religious communities, religious iconography down to the present.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 132D:
Early Christian Gospels (CLASSGEN 132)
An exploration of Christian gospels of the first and second century. Emphasis on the variety of images and interpretations of Jesus and the good news, the broader Hellenistic and Jewish contexts of the gospels, the processes of developing and transmitting gospels, and the creation of the canon. Readings include the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and other canonical and non-canonical gospels.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 136:
Buddhist Yoga
Buddhist models of spiritual practice emphasizing issues in the interpretation of the contemplative path.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 139:
Nihilism
The history of a religious specter. Examine the challenges and promises of "nihilistic thinking" in the wide context of European moral thought, focusing on the role it played in major 19th/20th century critiques of modernity (notably with the so-called "end of metaphysics"). Particular emphasis will be on the role of "nothing" as category of thought, and why so many religious thinkers and philosophers have tried to make something out of it. Readings to include Pascal, Jacobi, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Barth, Heidegger, Benjamin, Nishitani, Arendt, and the "return to religion" in late postmodern thought. Examples from literature/art and culture (Doestoevsky, Dada, contemporary culture critique) to enrich and ground the discussions.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 144:
John Calvin and Christian Faith
Close reading and analysis of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion as a classic expression of Christian belief.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 146:
Religious Mystery and Rational Reflection
Explores the boundaries of rational knowledge about Christian faith through a careful reading of the transcendental project of Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. Rahner¿s thought, informed by various sources (e.g., the mystics, Aquinas, Kant, Hegel and Ignatius Loyola), results in an interpretation of Christian faith that strives for intellectual honesty in the face of challenges from science, atheism and post-modern culture. Yet it leaves room for a fundamental human openness to the source and goal of self-transcendence, what Rahner calls Holy Mystery. Weekly short position papers will be required to stir both reflection and discussion.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 156:
Goddesses and Gender in Hinduism
India's tradition of worshiping female forms of the divine, including Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Radha, Sita, and local deities. The stories, histories, iconographies, theologies, arts, and practices associated with these goddesses. How the worship of goddesses impacts the lives of women. Readings include Is the Goddess a Feminist?
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 159:
Music and Religion in South Asia
Music and other arts in South Asia are often intertwined with religion. Guest teacher Tara Kini, a Hindustani classical singer from India, will join Prof. Hess in introducing history, theory and practice of music as it relates to religion, especially Hinduism and Islam, in South Asia. How is sound understood as revelation of divinity? How do songs express devotional emotion and theology? How do film songs show popular religious culture? How do musical performance and construction of history become arenas for political ideology? Students will do musical practice along with academic study. Guest artists will appear. No background required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 161:
Religion and Its Modern Critics (RELIGST 261)
Philosophical critique of religion as it developed in the modern west. Looking primarily at Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud--the so-called "masters of suspicion"--consider the century-long effort to understand religious consciousness as a form of projection, ideology or illusion. Central concern will be to evaluate the major claim of the critics: that religion fosters a sense of alienation or estrangement within the human condition
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 162:
Spirituality and Nonviolent Urban and Social Transformation (URBANST 126)
A life of engagement in social transformation is often built on a foundation of spiritual and religious commitments. Case studies of nonviolent social change agents including Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement, César Chávez in the labor movement, and WIlliam Sloane Coffin in the peace movement; the religious and spiritual underpinnings of their commitments. Theory and principles of nonviolence. Films and readings. Service learning component includes placements in organizations engaged in social transformation. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 167:
Medieval Religious Philosophy (PHIL 101A)
(Same as PHIL 101A.) Survey of medieval philosophy, focusing on God, world and words. A pervasive assumption about the structure of the world, that it reflected the categories of God's mind and emerged from an act of divine speech, gave impetus to the interest in the nature of language and its relation to the world. Scripture served as one kind of divine communication to human beings, and "The Book of the World" as another. The problem of universals, the question of how words relate to God, epistemology, theories of reference, semiotics, are some of the topics discussed. Readings from Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham, etc.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 16N:
The Story of Human Virtues
Bravery, Temperance, Generosity, Justice, Wisdom, and Friendship. Plato and Aristotle on human virtues, and select Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and secular appropriations and transformations of that Greek heritage.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 173:
What is Enlightenment? Religion in the Age of Reason
Many contemporary attitudes towards religion were forged in 17th- and 18th-century Europe in the midst of heated debates over the meaning and value of Christianity in a world 'come of age': Liberal calls for justice, toleration, and pluralism in matters religious; secular suspicions about religious superstition, fanaticism, and ideology; skepticism regarding the solubility of ultimate questions of meaning and metaphysics. Seminal readings on religion from Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Voltaire, Hume, Mendelssohn and Kant.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 174E:
Kierkegaard: Existentialism and Religion (RELIGST 374E)
Kierkegaard is rightly called one of the founders of existentialism. Like Socrates, the one philosopher in the western tradition to whom he felt consciously in debt, Kierkegaard sought to return philosophy to the work of thinking through the human condition in all its uncertainty and finitude. Although 20th century existentialists like Sartre and Camus were self-consciously atheist, Kierkegaard's existentialism has religious origins. Through readings of Kierkegaard's philosophical and religious texts, explore the possibility of an existentialist interpretation of the human condition that is religious in nature. Kierkegaard's development of a 'philosophy of existence' as a response to major trends in modern European thought, particularly in response to the philosophies of German idealism (Kant, Hegel) and romanticism.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 18:
Zen Buddhism
Classical Zen thought in China, and its background, origins, and development.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 199:
Individual Work
Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
(up to 99 units total)
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Hughes, B. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
West, C. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 19S:
Angels in America: Western Religion and Contemporary Culture
How religion is presented in the media. Cultural representations that shape and disrupt this image of the relationship between being religious and being modern. How believers and doubters in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are portrayed in popular culture. Sources include the music of Dar Williams and M.I.A., the plays of Tony Kushner, and the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie. How gay believers, agnostic leaders, terrorists, and born-again children of secular parents complicate the notion of religious belief in today¿s world.
| Units: 3
RELIGST 201:
Classical Islamic Law (RELIGST 301)
Emphasis is on methods of textual interpretation. History of premodern Islamic law, including origins, formation of schools of law, and social and political contexts. Laws of sale, marriage, divorce, and the obligation to forbid wrong.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 205:
Truthful Fictions: Religion in Popular Narratives
What do St. Augustine¿s Confessions, Dante¿s Divine Comedy, and Joss Whedon¿s Buffy the Vampire Slayer have in common? What can Cylons tell us about character and free will? Examine how some of today¿s new mythologies explore religious themes like hope, transcendence, selfhood, ethics, spiritual crisis, and heroism. Materials will include novels, graphic novels, television, and film.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 207A:
Modern African Islam through Literature (RELIGST 307A)
Read the works of Modern Muslim Literature in Africa. Explore the expressions and modes by which Islam and its contemporary condition are represented in African contexts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 210:
Translating the Daode Jing
One of the most frequently translated works in world literature. Challenges faced by translators, support from commentaries and related sources, and assumptions underlying translations into Western languages. Recommended: classical Chinese.
Last offered: Winter 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 216:
Japanese Buddhism
Focus on the religious lives of lay people in medieval Japan, as evidenced in collections of Buddhist stories (setsuwashu), narrative picture scrolls (emaki), and related historical materials. All readings are in English, but the instructor will also work with students interested in reading the original Japanese.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 217:
Japanese Studies of Religion in China (RELIGST 317)
(Graduate students register for 317.) Readings in Japanese secondary sources on Chinese religions.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 3
RELIGST 220B:
Crypto-Muslim Culture in Early Modern Spain (ILAC 214)
What is known about the secret religious practice and culture of the Moriscos, Spain's large minority community of Muslim converts to Christianity (1500-1609)? What role did their handwritten literature (largely Islamic texts written in Castilian but copied out in Arabic script) play in the formation and maintenance of their culture? What can these Crypto-Muslim communities teach us regarding the place of Muslim culture in Western Europe today? The course will be taught in English; knowledge of Spanish and/or Arabic script is useful but not necessary.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 221:
The Talmud (RELIGST 321)
Strategies of interpretation, debate, and law making. Historical contexts. Prerequisite: Hebrew.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 221C:
Aramaic Jewish texts (JEWISHST 221C, JEWISHST 321C, RELIGST 321C)
Reading of Aramaic Jewish texts with special focus on grammar and syntax. Foundations of classical Aramaic, the two major dialects of rabbinic Aramaic, the Palestinian (Galilean) and the Babylonian. Readings from Midrash, Piyyut, Talmud and Geonic materials and attempt to follow the development of the language though time. The course is intended for students with substantial knowledge of Hebrew.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 224:
Classical Islamic Texts (RELIGST 324)
Premodern Islamic scholarship. Genre-specific historical research methods. The hadith literature, tafsir, biographical dictionaries, fiqh, tarikh, and geographical works. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Arabic.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 226B:
Judaism and Christianity in the Mediterranean World: Contact, Comptetition, and Conflict (CLASSGEN 126, CLASSGEN 226, JEWISHST 226B, JEWISHST 326B, RELIGST 326B)
Jewish beginnings of Christianity in the first century C.E.; process of differentiation between various Jewish and Christian groups; effect of Roman-Jewish wars on Jewish and Christian identity formation; Jewish Christians, Christian Jews, and other heretics; rise of the discourse of orthodoxy and heresy; the emergence of the Adversus Judaeos tradition; theology as a realm of mutual attraction and conflict. Readings include Epistles of Paul in the New Testament, Christian authors from Justin through Augustine, excerpts from Rabbinic Texts (Mishnah, Midrash and Talmud), along with current literature on religion, ethnicity, and identity in the Roman world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 226C:
Mystics and Merrymakers: Innovations in Modern Judaism (JEWISHST 226C, JEWISHST 326C, RELIGST 326C)
How does a tradition many thousands of years old make a space for itself in the dynamic landscape of contemporary America? Judaism has continually adapted to its surroundings, and in the twentieth century new movements have reconstructed, revisioned, and renewed Jewish practice. A space within has been claimed by a series of previously disenfranchised Jews including women, queer Jews, and Jews of color. Examine some of the most innovative of these changes from Jewish feminism to the Chabad Hasidic revival.
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 226D:
Jewish-Christian Relations in Antiquity (CLASSGEN 126B, JEWISHST 226D)
Constructions of identity, community, ethnicity: these nconsiderations frame the investigation of ancient Christian rhetoric nand theology contra Iudaeos. This historical project will be set nwithin the larger intellectual and cultural context of a) learned nGraeco-Roman traditions of ethnic stereotyping; b) forensic nrhetoric; and c) philosophical paideia; and these ntraditions will be considered within their larger social context of the Mediterranean ncity (I-III). Specifically, various Christian, and especially Latin ntraditions contra Iudaeos (IV-VI) will be studied.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 229:
Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire (CLASSGEN 159, CLASSGEN 259, RELIGST 329)
Since Herodotus in the 5th century BCE, the Persian Empire has been represented as the exemplar of oriental despotism and imperial arrogance, a looming presence and worthy foil for the West and Greek democracy. History of the Achaemenid Empire, beginning with the rise of the Medes in the 7th century BCE to the fall of the Achaemenids to Alexander the Great's armies in 331 BCE. Focus on the intimate relationship between religion and empire and will also survey the diverse cultural institutions and religious practices found within the Empire. Evaluate contemporary representations of the Persians in politics and popular culture, such as the recent film "300" and the graphic novel on which it is based, in an attempt to better appreciate the enduring cultural legacy of the Greco-Persian wars.
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 23:
Exploring Judaism
Introduction to the varied beliefs, ritual practices, and sacred stories of Judaism, moving from foundational texts like the Bible and the Talmud to recent changes in Jewish religious life that have arisen in response to secular and feminist critiques, the Holocaust, and the emergence of the State of Israel.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 230B:
Zen Studies (RELIGST 330B)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Chan and Zen Buddhism
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 236:
European Reformations (HISTORY 231G, HISTORY 331G, RELIGST 336)
Readings in and discussion of theological and social aspects of sixteenth century reformations: Luther, Radical Reform, Calvin, and Council of Trent, missionary expansion, religious conflict, creative and artistic expressions. Texts include primary sources and secondary scholarly essays and monographs.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 237:
Jewish and Christian Rome, 1st to 6th Centuries
To what extent are Judaism and Christianity products of the Roman Empire, and shaped by its politics? Literature concerning Jewish and Christian perceptions of power, and archaeological and artistic traces of both religions in the imperial city of Rome. What roles did strategies of resistance and accommodation play in the formation of these religious communities¿ emerging identities? Possible optional field trip to Rome over Spring break.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 241B:
Mystics and Mysticism (RELIGST 341B)
Explore the varities of meaning and significance the term "mysticism" takes on in religious studies though an exploration of accounts of "mystical experiences": visions, bodily sensations, sense of the sacred, along with practices engaged in and texts written by those claiming such experiences for themselves or others. Focus will be on Medieval/Renaissance Christians but students are invited to explore examples from other times, traditions and places.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 247B:
Readings in Chinese Religious Texts: The Lingbao Scriptures (RELIGST 347B)
A survey of the original Lingbao scriptures. Composed in the late-4th / early 5th century, these texts radically revised Daoist practice, incorporated elements of Buddhist thought and practice, and created liturgies that are still used in Daoist communities today. (Reading knowledge of Literary Chinese ¿¿ required).
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 251:
Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 351)
(Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 258:
Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 358)
Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 261:
Religion and Its Modern Critics (RELIGST 161)
Philosophical critique of religion as it developed in the modern west. Looking primarily at Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud--the so-called "masters of suspicion"--consider the century-long effort to understand religious consciousness as a form of projection, ideology or illusion. Central concern will be to evaluate the major claim of the critics: that religion fosters a sense of alienation or estrangement within the human condition
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 265:
Research Methods and Resources in Jewish Studies (JEWISHST 225, JEWISHST 325, RELIGST 365)
Enhance students' research skills in the interdisciplinary field of Jewish Studies, emphasizing electronic reference sources, but also archival resources and print publications. Coverage includes: Basic reference sources in Jewish Studies, History and bibliography of the Hebrew book, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Religious studies (post-Talmudic), Jewish philosophy, Jewish history (by period; by region), Jewish languages, Hebrew literature, Yiddish literature, Zionism and Israel, Sephardic Jewry, women, Holocaust, miscellaneous topics (art, music, folklore and ethnography, sociology, genealogy, geography, pseudonyms, honorifics, abbreviations). Class sessions will also include special workshops on Hebrew / Yiddish / Ladino romanization (transliteration/transcription).
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
RELIGST 271A:
Dante's Spiritual Vision
Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Students may take 271A without taking 271B. Consent of the instructor required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 271B:
Dante's Spiritual Vision
Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Prerequisite: 271A
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 273:
Historicism and Its Problems (RELIGST 373)
The emergence, varieties, and crises of historicism as a world view and approach to the study of religion in the 19th and 20th centuries. The implications of historical reason and historical consciousness for the philosophy of religion, ethics, and theology.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 274:
From Kant to Kierkegaard (RELIGST 374)
(Graduate students register for 374.) The main currents of religious thought in Germany from Kant's critical philosophy to Kierkegaard's revolt against Hegelianism. Emphasis is on the theories of religion, the epistemological status of religious discourse, the role of history (especially the figure of Jesus), and the problem of alienation/reconciliation in seminal modern thinkers: Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.
Last offered: Spring 2006
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 275:
Kierkegaard and Religious Existentialism (RELIGST 375)
(Graduate students register for 375.) Close reading of Kierkegaard¿s magnum opus, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in its early 19th-century context.
Last offered: Winter 2007
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 277:
The Later Heidegger (RELIGST 377)
Lectures and seminar discussions of the problematic of the later Heideggern(1930 - 1976) in the light of his entire project. Readings from "Pathmarks,"n"Four Seminars," "On Time and Being," and other texts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 280:
Schleiermacher: Reconstructing Religion (RELIGST 380)
Idealist philosopher, Moravian pietist, early German Romantic, co-founder of the University of Berlin, head preacher at Trinity Church, translator of Plato's works, Hegel's opponent, pioneer in modern hermeneutics, father of modern theology. Schleiermacher's controversial reconception of religion and theology in its philosophical context.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 282:
King Solomon and the Search for Wisdom (JEWISHST 228, JEWISHST 328, RELIGST 382)
What is wisdom according to the Bible? The course addresses this question by surveying various biblical and post-biblical texts associated with King Solomon. Other topics include the on-going debate over the historical existence of a Solomonic kingdom, the origins and history of the Jerusalem Temple, and Solomon's role in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
RELIGST 290:
Majors Seminar
Required of all majors and joint majors. The study of religion reflects upon itself. Representative modern and contemporary attempts to "theorize," and thereby understand, the phenomena of religion in anthropology, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, and philosophy. WIM.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 297:
Senior Essay/Honors Essay Research
Guided by faculty adviser. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Brose, B. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gonnerman, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Lerner, A. (PI);
Lyman, R. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 298:
Senior Colloquium
For Religious Studies majors writing the senior essay or honors thesis. Students present work in progress, and read and respond to others. Approaches to research and writing in the humanities.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
RELIGST 301:
Classical Islamic Law (RELIGST 201)
Emphasis is on methods of textual interpretation. History of premodern Islamic law, including origins, formation of schools of law, and social and political contexts. Laws of sale, marriage, divorce, and the obligation to forbid wrong.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 302:
Islamic Studies Proseminar
Research methods and materials for the study of Islam.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-5
RELIGST 304B:
Theories and Methods
Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
RELIGST 307A:
Modern African Islam through Literature (RELIGST 207A)
Read the works of Modern Muslim Literature in Africa. Explore the expressions and modes by which Islam and its contemporary condition are represented in African contexts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
RELIGST 317:
Japanese Studies of Religion in China (RELIGST 217)
(Graduate students register for 317.) Readings in Japanese secondary sources on Chinese religions.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 3
RELIGST 321:
The Talmud (RELIGST 221)
Strategies of interpretation, debate, and law making. Historical contexts. Prerequisite: Hebrew.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 321C:
Aramaic Jewish texts (JEWISHST 221C, JEWISHST 321C, RELIGST 221C)
Reading of Aramaic Jewish texts with special focus on grammar and syntax. Foundations of classical Aramaic, the two major dialects of rabbinic Aramaic, the Palestinian (Galilean) and the Babylonian. Readings from Midrash, Piyyut, Talmud and Geonic materials and attempt to follow the development of the language though time. The course is intended for students with substantial knowledge of Hebrew.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-5
RELIGST 324:
Classical Islamic Texts (RELIGST 224)
Premodern Islamic scholarship. Genre-specific historical research methods. The hadith literature, tafsir, biographical dictionaries, fiqh, tarikh, and geographical works. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Arabic.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 326B:
Judaism and Christianity in the Mediterranean World: Contact, Comptetition, and Conflict (CLASSGEN 126, CLASSGEN 226, JEWISHST 226B, JEWISHST 326B, RELIGST 226B)
Jewish beginnings of Christianity in the first century C.E.; process of differentiation between various Jewish and Christian groups; effect of Roman-Jewish wars on Jewish and Christian identity formation; Jewish Christians, Christian Jews, and other heretics; rise of the discourse of orthodoxy and heresy; the emergence of the Adversus Judaeos tradition; theology as a realm of mutual attraction and conflict. Readings include Epistles of Paul in the New Testament, Christian authors from Justin through Augustine, excerpts from Rabbinic Texts (Mishnah, Midrash and Talmud), along with current literature on religion, ethnicity, and identity in the Roman world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
RELIGST 326C:
Mystics and Merrymakers: Innovations in Modern Judaism (JEWISHST 226C, JEWISHST 326C, RELIGST 226C)
How does a tradition many thousands of years old make a space for itself in the dynamic landscape of contemporary America? Judaism has continually adapted to its surroundings, and in the twentieth century new movements have reconstructed, revisioned, and renewed Jewish practice. A space within has been claimed by a series of previously disenfranchised Jews including women, queer Jews, and Jews of color. Examine some of the most innovative of these changes from Jewish feminism to the Chabad Hasidic revival.
| Units: 3-4
RELIGST 329:
Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire (CLASSGEN 159, CLASSGEN 259, RELIGST 229)
Since Herodotus in the 5th century BCE, the Persian Empire has been represented as the exemplar of oriental despotism and imperial arrogance, a looming presence and worthy foil for the West and Greek democracy. History of the Achaemenid Empire, beginning with the rise of the Medes in the 7th century BCE to the fall of the Achaemenids to Alexander the Great's armies in 331 BCE. Focus on the intimate relationship between religion and empire and will also survey the diverse cultural institutions and religious practices found within the Empire. Evaluate contemporary representations of the Persians in politics and popular culture, such as the recent film "300" and the graphic novel on which it is based, in an attempt to better appreciate the enduring cultural legacy of the Greco-Persian wars.
| Units: 3
RELIGST 330B:
Zen Studies (RELIGST 230B)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Chan and Zen Buddhism
| Units: 4
RELIGST 331:
Authority of the Past in Islamic Thought (RELIGST 125)
How have Muslims thought about the past as a source for contextualizing the present and generating prescriptions for right conduct? What imaginations of time undergird major Islamic intellectual perspectives? A wide-ranging exploration based on readings from the Quran, lives of prophets, chronicles, philosophy of history, hagiography, epic and mythology, and ethnography.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
RELIGST 336:
European Reformations (HISTORY 231G, HISTORY 331G, RELIGST 236)
Readings in and discussion of theological and social aspects of sixteenth century reformations: Luther, Radical Reform, Calvin, and Council of Trent, missionary expansion, religious conflict, creative and artistic expressions. Texts include primary sources and secondary scholarly essays and monographs.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 340:
Contemporary Religious Reflection
Focus is on normative and prescriptive proposals by recent and contemporary philosophers and theologians, as opposed to the domination of Religious Studies by textual, historical, cultural, and other largely descriptive and interpretive approaches. Do such normative and prescriptive proposals belong in the academy? Has Religious Studies exorcised its theological nimbus only to find contemporary religious reflection reappearing elsewhere in the university?
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 341:
Comparative Perspective on Confucian Texts
Classical Confucian texts, in prose and poetry, interpreted through comparative perspectives drawn from both inside and outside China. Consent of the instructor required.
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 341B:
Mystics and Mysticism (RELIGST 241B)
Explore the varities of meaning and significance the term "mysticism" takes on in religious studies though an exploration of accounts of "mystical experiences": visions, bodily sensations, sense of the sacred, along with practices engaged in and texts written by those claiming such experiences for themselves or others. Focus will be on Medieval/Renaissance Christians but students are invited to explore examples from other times, traditions and places.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 347:
Chinese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 247)
Readings in Chinese Buddhist texts, including selections from s¿tras, ¿¿stras, Vinaya texts, indigenous monastic rules (qingui), and Chan texts (yulu, gongan). Prerequisite: background in classical Chinese
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 35:
Introduction to Chinese Religions
(Formerly 55.) Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and the interchange among these belief systems and institutions. Set against the background of Chinese history, society, and culture, with attention to elite and popular religious forms.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 351:
Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 251)
(Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 358:
Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 258)
Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 365:
Research Methods and Resources in Jewish Studies (JEWISHST 225, JEWISHST 325, RELIGST 265)
Enhance students' research skills in the interdisciplinary field of Jewish Studies, emphasizing electronic reference sources, but also archival resources and print publications. Coverage includes: Basic reference sources in Jewish Studies, History and bibliography of the Hebrew book, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Religious studies (post-Talmudic), Jewish philosophy, Jewish history (by period; by region), Jewish languages, Hebrew literature, Yiddish literature, Zionism and Israel, Sephardic Jewry, women, Holocaust, miscellaneous topics (art, music, folklore and ethnography, sociology, genealogy, geography, pseudonyms, honorifics, abbreviations). Class sessions will also include special workshops on Hebrew / Yiddish / Ladino romanization (transliteration/transcription).
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
RELIGST 370:
Comparative Religious Ethics
The difference that the word religious makes in religious ethics and how it affects issues of genre. Theoretical analyses with examples from W. and E. Asia. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 373:
Historicism and Its Problems (RELIGST 273)
The emergence, varieties, and crises of historicism as a world view and approach to the study of religion in the 19th and 20th centuries. The implications of historical reason and historical consciousness for the philosophy of religion, ethics, and theology.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 374:
From Kant to Kierkegaard (RELIGST 274)
(Graduate students register for 374.) The main currents of religious thought in Germany from Kant's critical philosophy to Kierkegaard's revolt against Hegelianism. Emphasis is on the theories of religion, the epistemological status of religious discourse, the role of history (especially the figure of Jesus), and the problem of alienation/reconciliation in seminal modern thinkers: Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.
Last offered: Spring 2006
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 374E:
Kierkegaard: Existentialism and Religion (RELIGST 174E)
Kierkegaard is rightly called one of the founders of existentialism. Like Socrates, the one philosopher in the western tradition to whom he felt consciously in debt, Kierkegaard sought to return philosophy to the work of thinking through the human condition in all its uncertainty and finitude. Although 20th century existentialists like Sartre and Camus were self-consciously atheist, Kierkegaard's existentialism has religious origins. Through readings of Kierkegaard's philosophical and religious texts, explore the possibility of an existentialist interpretation of the human condition that is religious in nature. Kierkegaard's development of a 'philosophy of existence' as a response to major trends in modern European thought, particularly in response to the philosophies of German idealism (Kant, Hegel) and romanticism.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 375:
Kierkegaard and Religious Existentialism (RELIGST 275)
(Graduate students register for 375.) Close reading of Kierkegaard¿s magnum opus, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in its early 19th-century context.
Last offered: Winter 2007
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 377:
The Later Heidegger (RELIGST 277)
Lectures and seminar discussions of the problematic of the later Heideggern(1930 - 1976) in the light of his entire project. Readings from "Pathmarks,"n"Four Seminars," "On Time and Being," and other texts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
RELIGST 380:
Schleiermacher: Reconstructing Religion (RELIGST 280)
Idealist philosopher, Moravian pietist, early German Romantic, co-founder of the University of Berlin, head preacher at Trinity Church, translator of Plato's works, Hegel's opponent, pioneer in modern hermeneutics, father of modern theology. Schleiermacher's controversial reconception of religion and theology in its philosophical context.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 382:
King Solomon and the Search for Wisdom (JEWISHST 228, JEWISHST 328, RELIGST 282)
What is wisdom according to the Bible? The course addresses this question by surveying various biblical and post-biblical texts associated with King Solomon. Other topics include the on-going debate over the historical existence of a Solomonic kingdom, the origins and history of the Jerusalem Temple, and Solomon's role in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
RELIGST 385:
Research in Buddhist Studies
Independent study in Buddhism. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Bokenkamp, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Crowley, P. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Foulk, T. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Horton, S. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Lin, I. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Vevaina, Y. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 386:
Research in Islamic Studies
Independent study in Islamic Studies. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Baker, Z. (PI);
Barletta, V. (PI);
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Bokenkamp, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Crowley, P. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Foulk, T. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Horton, S. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Lin, I. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Vevaina, Y. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
West, C. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 387:
Research in Jewish Studies
Independent study in Jewish Studies. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Baker, Z. (PI);
Barletta, V. (PI);
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Bokenkamp, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Crowley, P. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Foulk, T. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Horton, S. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Lin, I. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Vevaina, Y. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
West, C. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 388:
Research in Modern Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy
Independent study in Modern Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Baker, Z. (PI);
Barletta, V. (PI);
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Bokenkamp, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Crowley, P. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Foulk, T. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Horton, S. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Lin, I. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Vevaina, Y. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
West, C. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 389:
Individual Work for Graduate Students
May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Vevaina, Y. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 390:
Teaching Internship
Required supervised internship for PhDs.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 391:
Pedagogy
Required of Ph.D. students. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 392:
Paper in the Field
Prerequisite: consent of graduate director. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 395:
Master of Arts Thesis
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 2-9
| Repeatable
9 times
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kangas, D. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 46:
Introduction to Daoism
(Formerly 56.) Historical survey from origins to the present. Main schools, notions, communal rites, and individual practices, and the relation of Daoism to facets of Chinese culture.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 54:
The Roots of Right and Wrong in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
What Christian, Jewish, and premodern Muslim thinkers have to say about these questions: what makes an act right or wrong; can a basis for right and wrong be identified independently of revealed religion; is observing commands and prohibitions sufficient to lead a life of virtue and refinement? Readings in primary texts.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 57:
Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem
How the apocalypse has captured the imaginations and influenced the behaviors of many Jews and Christians who predict the end of the world during their lifetimes, whether facilitated by the arrival of a human or divine emissary, preceded by a cataclysm, or announced by a renunciation of normative morals. Examples include the Book of Revelations, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Brotherhood of the Free Spirit, Shabtai Tzvi, Jacob Frank, the Mormons, and Chabad Chasidism.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 62:
Philosophy of Religion
Classic and modern questions in the philosophy of religion traced through Western and Eastern traditions: the coherence of theism, relativism, verification and ethics of belief, and mystical experience. Readings from traditional and modern texts.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 802:
TGR Dissertation
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Bielefeldt, C. (PI);
Blair, H. (PI);
Carrasco, D. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Gleason, M. (PI);
Gregg, R. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Nanji, A. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Radwin, A. (PI);
Rapp, J. (PI);
Rose, J. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Weitzman, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 82:
Approaches to the Study of Religion: Christianity
Historical and contemporary Christianity from four viewpoints: ritual and prayer; sacred texts and creeds; ethics and life; and community governance.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 90:
Buddhism and Gender
In the Buddhist tradition there are contradictory approaches to gender: in some cases, gender is described as an illusion; in others, the female body is an impediment to enlightenment. How do Buddhists - men and women, lay and monastic - interpret these divergent views? Different Buddhist approaches to the category of gender. Values associated with masculinity and femininity in Buddhist philosophy, the gendered symbolism surrounding buddhahood, images of the masculine and feminine in Buddhist texts, and the experiences of lay and monastic men and women.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 101:
Who is Allah?
Introduction to classical Islamic theology. How did notions about God's nature define theological communities? What made some ideas more likely than others to function as markers of group identity? Were the different sects distinguished by different methods of reading scriptures? Did differences in the interpretation of the Qur'ân generate the communal divisions, or did differing communal identities generate different interpretations of the Qur'ân? God's power (free will versus predestination) the age of the Universe (pre-eternal world vs coming into being at some point) roots of ethics (what makes an act right or wrong.) Readings of the greatest philosophers and theologians in classical Islam.
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 103:
Religion and Global Conflict
A weekly lecture series - drawing upon experts in various disciplines, departments, and centers on campus and beyond - which seeks to understand and explain religion's renewed, and often violent, public and political relevance for global affairs at the beginning of the 21st century.
| Units: 2
RELIGST 107:
Hindus and Muslims in South Asia
The history of Hindus and Muslims living together in S. Asia for over 1,000 years. Peace and conflict, composite cultures, and interdependent social worlds. Partition in 1947 and the creation of separate nations. Religion, arts, society, and politics.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 108:
The Mahabharata
How the Sanskrit epic and its versions in other languages are interwoven with the history of Hinduism and S. Asian arts, philosophy, and social and political thought. How the text is interpreted through performance, including village ritual dramas, classical dance, and mass market television.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 108A:
Religious Epics of India: The Ramayana
The much-loved Ramayana story, from the ancient Sanskrit epic poem of Valmiki to other avatars through the ages--vernacular and Sanskrit poetry, theater, the chart-busting television serial of the late 1980s, classic comics, animated film. Religion, politics, cultural ideals, gender, media,. Recent battles over "Ram's birthplace" in Ayodhya and their effects on Hindu-Muslim relations and political power.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 111:
Religions of Mexico
Key issues in the study of religion and religions of Mexico. Sacred cities of the Aztec and Maya, the encounter between Christianity and indigenous religions and contemporary religious performances in Mexico and among Mexican Americans. Theoretical frames of Mircea Eliade, Emile Durkheim, and Victor Turner. Emphasis is on the recently recovered indigenous codex known as the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan #2.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 112:
Handmaids and Harlots: Biblical Women in Jewish and Christian Traditions
Miraculous births, wandering in the wilderness, encounters with angels: stories of Hagar, Sarah, Hannah, and Mary, and how their tales are read and re-told by later Jews and Christians. Sources include the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, Jewish and Christian commentary, and religious iconography.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 115:
Hope and Prophetic Politics: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The biblically informed prophetic tradition that has long shaped the history of American religious and political thought and that has often clashed with an impulse towards empire and the desire to accumulate power. Focus is on Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr., 20th-century religious intellectuals whose lives and works draw on this tradition to raise and address questions basic to the role of religion in public life.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 127A:
Kabbalah: The Mystical Teachings of Judaism
Jewish mystical literature, especially the Zohar. Mystical concepts of the divine: masculine and feminine aspects of the Godhead, divine sonship; eroticism and sexuality; cosmogony and apocalypse; mystical secrecy and popularization, including the contemporary Kabbalah movement in the U.S. and figures such as Madonna and Roseanne. Guest lectures by scholars of Kabbalah including Moshe Idel from Jerusalem and Daniel Matt, the American translator of the Zohar.
| Units: 2
RELIGST 132:
Jesus the Christ
How did Jesus of Nazareth, who never claimed to be Christ or divine, become the son of God after his death? Sources include the history of first-century Judaism and Christianity.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 132C:
Jesus the Jew in First Century Christianity
Contemporary historical-critical methods in investigating how one might study Jewish and Christian texts of the 1st century CE. Social contexts including economic realities and elite ideological views. What can be known historically about 1st-century Judaism and Jesus' part it in it. How Jewish apocalyptic messianism shaped the birth of Christianity and its trajectory through the 1st century.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 133:
Inventing Christianity in Late Antiquity
The transformation of an apocalyptic sect into an imperial religion from 200 to 600 C.E. Shifts in structures of authority, worship, and belief mapped against shifts in politics, economics and religion in the larger Roman empire. Cultural visions of this history including Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Dan Brown's conspiracy theory in The Da Vinci Code, and Elaine Pagels' The Secret Gospel of Thomas.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 148:
From Jesus to Paul
Jesus considered himself God's definitive prophet, but he did not think he was God, and had no intention of founding a new religion. How did this Jewish prophet become the gentile God and the founder of Christianity? The role of Paul.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 148A:
St. Paul and the Politics of Religion
The major letters written by Paul, the Apostle, and his biography, Acts of the Apostles. Historical context in first century Jewish cultural politics. Origins of Christianity, and the split into Judaism and Christianity. The relationship between Jews and non-Jews. The juxtaposition of law and faith. Origins of cultural universalism. Paul as Jewish radical versus Paul, the first Christian thinker and theologian. Recent philosophical readings of Paul (Taubes, Badiou, and Agamben).
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 150:
The Lotus Sutra: History of a Buddhist Book
The Lotus school of Mahayana, and its Indian sources, Chinese formulation, and Japanese developments.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 151A:
Buddhist Art in a Cosmopolitan Environment
The Buddhist art of Gandhara, historical Northwest India, was the product of a complex interplay of different cultures, religions and societies in the region. Gandharan art from the historic circumstances that led to its development in the first century AD to its gradual disappearance in its homeland around 500 AD.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 154:
Buddhism Today: Responses to New Global Challenges
How do the traditions of Buddhism cope with new social, ethical, and global challenges? Case studies from Sri Lanka, Japan, and the West. The historical position of Buddhist social thought. Buddhism's ascetic and meditative legacy: friend or foe of social engagement?
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 159A:
Religion and Performance (RELIGST 359A)
What happens when religion is viewed through the lens of performance? Texts become dramas, songs, recitations, oral commentaries, dances, movies, and political appropriations. Beliefs become embodied enactments; doctrine puts on a costume and indulges in role play. Approaches to performance theory through religious enactments such as ritual, prayer, festival, drama, music, and film. Most examples from S. Asian religions; students may undertake research projects into other cultures and traditions.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 170C:
Reading in Biblical Hebrew
Third of a three quarter sequence. Readings and translation of biblical narratives emphasizing grammar and literary techniques. Prerequisite: AMELANG 170B.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 172:
Sex, Body, and Gender in Medieval Religion
Anxiety about sex and the body increased markedly during the early years of Christianity, while the doctrine of the Incarnation put the human body at the center of religious concern. Ideals of virginity, chastity, ascetic self-denial of necessities like food, sleep, and freedom from pain were central to lay and clerical piety. The religious theory and practice associated with questions about sex, body, and gender in the Middle Ages as constructed in literature, mythology, ritual, mystic, and monastic texts.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 176:
Religious Diversity: Theoretical and Practical Issues
What does it mean for a religion to be true? If one religion is true, what about the truth of other religious possibilities? How, and why, should religious traditions be compared? Readings address tolerance and pluralism, relativism, comparative theory, and new religious virtues.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 183:
The Death of God: Between Hegel and Marx
The radical transformations in Western notions of God between the death of Hegel and the birth of historical materialism, arguing that questions about theism and atheism, humanism, and history formulated in the period 1831-50 are still pertinent today. Texts from Hegel, the young Hegelians, Feuerbach, and Marx on issues of God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 185:
Prophetic Voices of Social Critique
Judges, Samuel, Amos, and Isaiah depict and question power, strong leaders who inevitably fail, the societal inequities and corruption inevitable in prosperity, and the interplay between prophet as representative of God and the human king. How these texts succeed in their scrutiny of human power and societal arrangements through attention to narrative artistry and poetic force, and condemnation of injustice. Includes service-learning component in conjunction with the Haas Center.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 203:
Myth, Place, and Ritual in the Study of Religion (RELIGST 303)
Sources include: ethnographic texts and theoretical writings; the approaches of Charles Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Victor Turner, Michael D. Jackson, and Wendy Doniger; and lived experiences as recounted in Judith Sherman's Say the Name: A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry, Jackson's At Home in the World, Marie Cardinal's The Words to Say It, and John Phillip Santos¿ Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 212:
Chuang Tzu
The Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) in its original setting and as understood by its spiritual progeny. Limited enrollment.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 219:
Buddhism and Death
The role of pre and post mortem practices in ancient and modern Buddhist traditions; examples from India, China, and Japan. How the clergy and laity conceived of the process of dying, and how those beliefs were transformed into rituals.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 220:
Modern Muslim Thought: Philosophy, Politics, Society
Focus is on major challenges of the modern period. Historicity and plurality. Questions concerning governance, law, development, and political and social order in majority and minority Muslim contexts. Readings include original works in English and in translation.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 221A:
Philology of Rabbinic Literature (RELIGST 321A)
The genesis of rabbinic texts as texts. Evolution from oral stage to manuscript to printed text. Questions of redaction versus edition. Focus on Palestinian and Babylonian Talmud, with excursions into midrashic texts. Prerequisite: strong background in Hebrew. Knowledge of Aramaic preferred.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 221B:
The Talmud as Literature (RELIGST 321B)
In what sense can Talmud be studied as literature? Which voices can be identified? Concepts of author, editor, or redactor. The basic textual units of Talmud: sugya, chapter, and tractate. The sugya as literary genre. The aesthetic of talmudic dialectics.nPrerequisite: Strong Hebrew, Aramaic preferred.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 222:
Literature and Society in Medieval Islam
The development of literary traditions, 600-1500. Major poetic and prose topoi through examples from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature in translation. Literature¿s place in Islamic societies and biographies of significant authors. The religious value of literary forms. Literary canons as unifying agents in different parts of the medieval Muslim world. Comparison between high and folk literatures. The role of aesthetic paradigms in the formation of Islamic religious and cultural identities.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 222B:
Sufism Seminar (RELIGST 322B)
Sufism through original texts and specialized scholarship. Prerequisite: ability to read at least one major language of Islamic religious literature (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu).
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 222C:
Debauchery and asceticism (RELIGST 322C)
Arabic texts written by and about early Muslim figures famous either for their limitless self-indulgence or their rigorous self-denial. Language and style of these texts, their implied or explicit dialogue with religious values, and their possible relation to each other. Questions of representation, self-representation, and biographical fallacy. Intended for students with reading knowledge of Arabic.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 223:
Studying Islam: History, Methods, Debates
Islam as a subject of academic inquiry since the 19th century. Origins and critiques of major methodological perspectives in Islamic studies such as philology, religious studies, history, art history, and anthropology. Landmarks in the development of the field and the work of major scholars. Academic debates regarding unity versus diversity, orientalism, fundamentalism and Islamism, Sufism, and gender. Current trends in scholarship on medieval and modern Muslim societies. Prerequisite: course work in Islamic studies or methodology in religious studies.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 223A:
The Arabic Qur'an (RELIGST 323A)
Early history, language, structure, style, chronology, motifs, themes, and interpretation. Knowledge of Arabic required.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 224B:
Unveiling the Sacred: Explorations in Islamic Religious Imagination (RELIGST 324B)
Poetry and prose in translation as well as historical studies. Islamic movements invested in the idea that the sensory world has a hidden or esoteric counterpart that can be understood or experienced through following particular religious programs. Various forms of Shi'ism and Sufism, millenarian and apocalyptic movements, the Nation of Islam and its offshoots. Philosophical propositions, historical contexts, and the role of ritual in the construction of religious systems.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 226:
Philosophy and Kabbalah in Jewish Society: Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (RELIGST 326)
Characteristics of religious philosophy from Saadia Gaon to Maimonides, Jewish opposition to and support of philosophy in the medieval Christian and Muslim world, texts from the early development of Kabbalah, the relationship between philosophy and Kabbalah, and conflicting views of Kabbalah from the 16th through 18th centuries.
| Units: 5
RELIGST 226A:
Judaism and Hellenism (RELIGST 326A)
interactions and conflicts between Jews and Greeks in the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the cultural/religious repercussions of their encounter. In what ways were Jews influenced by Greek culture? In what ways, and for what reasons, did they resist it? And how the interaction of these cultures shape the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity? Jewish texts in the Greco-Roman period, including Jewish-Greek writers like Philo of Alexandria, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, selected writings from the New Testament, and the Passover Haggadah.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 227:
The Qur'an (RELIGST 327)
Early history, themes, structure, chronology, and premodern interpretation. Relative chronology of passages.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 238:
Christian Neo-Platonism, East and West (RELIGST 338)
Christianity's shift to neo-Platonic Greek philosophical categories and its significance for contemporary spirituality. Readings from Plotinus, Proclus, Greek fathers such as Pseudo-Dionysus, and from Ambrose and Augustine.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 239:
Luther and the Reform of Western Christianity (RELIGST 339)
Luther's theology, ethics, biblical interpretation, and social reforms and their significance for the remaking of Western Christianity. Readings include Luther's own writings and secondary sources about Luther and his world.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 245:
Religion, Reason, and Romanticism
The late 18th-century European cultural shift from rationalist to romantic modes of thought and sensibility. Debates about religion as catalysts for the new Zeitgeist. Readings include: the Jewish metaphysician, Mendelssohn; the dramatist, Lessing; the philosopher of language and history, Herder; the critical idealist, Kant; and the transcendental idealist, Fichte.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 247:
Chinese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 347)
Readings in Chinese Buddhist texts, including selections from s¿tras, ¿¿stras, Vinaya texts, indigenous monastic rules (qingui), and Chan texts (yulu, gongan). Prerequisite: background in classical Chinese
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 248:
Chinese Buddhism in World Historical Perspective (RELIGST 348)
Shared cosmologies, trade routes, and political systems. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 248A:
Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall (RELIGST 348A)
The thought, practice, and cultural resonance of the sorts of originally Chinese Buddhism that flourished to the north and northwest of China proper during the two to three centuries following the fall of the Tang - i.e., under the Khitan Liao (907-1125) and the Tangut Xixia (1032-1227) dynasties - with special emphasis on the later fortunes of the Huayan, Chan, and Mijiao (Esoteric) traditions. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 250:
Classics of Indian Buddhism
Texts in English translation includING discourses (sutras), philosophical treatises, commentaries, didactic epistles, hymns, biographies, and narratives.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 250B:
Depictions of the Buddha (RELIGST 350B)
The image of the Buddha changes relatively little from its earliest conceptions. The role of the image and the notion of the Buddha do change fundamentally with time and place. South Asian depictions of the Buddha from the earliest symbolic representations to the wrathful and peaceful forms found in the esoteric Buddhism of India and the Himalayas, as well as the changing conceptions of the Buddha to which these depictions are related.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 251A:
Buddhist Visions of Paradise (RELIGST 351A)
Textual and art-historical evidence for the early development in the greater Indian cultural area of the cult of the Buddhas of the present and their paradise worlds ("Pure Land Buddhism").
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 253:
Mountains, Buddhist Practice, and Religious Studies (RELIGST 353)
The notion of the sacred mountain. Readings from ethnographic and theoretical works, and primary sources.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 254:
Recent Contributions to Buddhist Studies
May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 257:
Readings in Daoist Texts (RELIGST 357)
Readings from primary sources. Prerequisite: classical Chinese.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
20 times
(up to 99 units total)
RELIGST 263:
Judaism and the Body
Representations and discourses of the body in Jewish culture; theories of body and ritual. Case studies of circumcision, menstrual impurity, and intersexuality. Readings include classical texts in Jewish tradition and current discussions of these textual traditions.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 272:
Kant on Religion (RELIGST 372)
Critical examination of Kant¿s principle writings on religion against the background of his general theoretical and practical philosophy and guided by the hypothesis that his philosophy of religion continues to offer significant insights and resources to contemporary theories of religion. Recent reassessments of Kant on religion in the secondary literature will also be read and discussed
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 278:
Heidegger: Confronting the Ultimate (RELIGST 378)
Heidegger's work on meaning, the self, and the sacred. Texts include Being and Time, courses and opuscula up to 1933, the Letter on Humanism, and Contributions of Philosophy.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 279:
Heidegger and the Holy (RELIGST 379)
Heidegger's philosophy as opening a new door onto the possibility of experiencing the sacred after the collapse of traditional metaphysical theology. A close reading of Being and Time as an introduction to the question of the holy.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 303:
Myth, Place, and Ritual in the Study of Religion (RELIGST 203)
Sources include: ethnographic texts and theoretical writings; the approaches of Charles Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Victor Turner, Michael D. Jackson, and Wendy Doniger; and lived experiences as recounted in Judith Sherman's Say the Name: A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry, Jackson's At Home in the World, Marie Cardinal's The Words to Say It, and John Phillip Santos¿ Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 304A:
Theories and Methods
Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 308:
Medieval Japanese Buddhism
Japanese religion and culture, including Buddhism, Shinto, popular religion, and new religions, through the medium of film.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 312:
Buddhist Studies Proseminar
Research methods and materials for the study of Buddhism. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese.
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 321A:
Philology of Rabbinic Literature (RELIGST 221A)
The genesis of rabbinic texts as texts. Evolution from oral stage to manuscript to printed text. Questions of redaction versus edition. Focus on Palestinian and Babylonian Talmud, with excursions into midrashic texts. Prerequisite: strong background in Hebrew. Knowledge of Aramaic preferred.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 321B:
The Talmud as Literature (RELIGST 221B)
In what sense can Talmud be studied as literature? Which voices can be identified? Concepts of author, editor, or redactor. The basic textual units of Talmud: sugya, chapter, and tractate. The sugya as literary genre. The aesthetic of talmudic dialectics.nPrerequisite: Strong Hebrew, Aramaic preferred.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 322B:
Sufism Seminar (RELIGST 222B)
Sufism through original texts and specialized scholarship. Prerequisite: ability to read at least one major language of Islamic religious literature (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu).
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 322C:
Debauchery and asceticism (RELIGST 222C)
Arabic texts written by and about early Muslim figures famous either for their limitless self-indulgence or their rigorous self-denial. Language and style of these texts, their implied or explicit dialogue with religious values, and their possible relation to each other. Questions of representation, self-representation, and biographical fallacy. Intended for students with reading knowledge of Arabic.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 323A:
The Arabic Qur'an (RELIGST 223A)
Early history, language, structure, style, chronology, motifs, themes, and interpretation. Knowledge of Arabic required.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 324B:
Unveiling the Sacred: Explorations in Islamic Religious Imagination (RELIGST 224B)
Poetry and prose in translation as well as historical studies. Islamic movements invested in the idea that the sensory world has a hidden or esoteric counterpart that can be understood or experienced through following particular religious programs. Various forms of Shi'ism and Sufism, millenarian and apocalyptic movements, the Nation of Islam and its offshoots. Philosophical propositions, historical contexts, and the role of ritual in the construction of religious systems.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 326:
Philosophy and Kabbalah in Jewish Society: Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (RELIGST 226)
Characteristics of religious philosophy from Saadia Gaon to Maimonides, Jewish opposition to and support of philosophy in the medieval Christian and Muslim world, texts from the early development of Kabbalah, the relationship between philosophy and Kabbalah, and conflicting views of Kabbalah from the 16th through 18th centuries.
| Units: 5
RELIGST 326A:
Judaism and Hellenism (RELIGST 226A)
interactions and conflicts between Jews and Greeks in the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the cultural/religious repercussions of their encounter. In what ways were Jews influenced by Greek culture? In what ways, and for what reasons, did they resist it? And how the interaction of these cultures shape the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity? Jewish texts in the Greco-Roman period, including Jewish-Greek writers like Philo of Alexandria, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, selected writings from the New Testament, and the Passover Haggadah.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 327:
The Qur'an (RELIGST 227)
Early history, themes, structure, chronology, and premodern interpretation. Relative chronology of passages.
| Units: 5
RELIGST 328S:
The Study of the Midrash
Two-week block seminar; four sessions. Talmudic philology; development and transmission of the Talmudic text and manuscripts. Relationship between Midrash and Mishnah and between Mishnah and Tosefta; development of talmudic sugiot; relationship between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud.
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 338:
Christian Neo-Platonism, East and West (RELIGST 238)
Christianity's shift to neo-Platonic Greek philosophical categories and its significance for contemporary spirituality. Readings from Plotinus, Proclus, Greek fathers such as Pseudo-Dionysus, and from Ambrose and Augustine.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 339:
Luther and the Reform of Western Christianity (RELIGST 239)
Luther's theology, ethics, biblical interpretation, and social reforms and their significance for the remaking of Western Christianity. Readings include Luther's own writings and secondary sources about Luther and his world.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 347B:
Readings in Chinese Religious Texts: The Lingbao Scriptures (RELIGST 247B)
A survey of the original Lingbao scriptures. Composed in the late-4th / early 5th century, these texts radically revised Daoist practice, incorporated elements of Buddhist thought and practice, and created liturgies that are still used in Daoist communities today. (Reading knowledge of Literary Chinese ¿¿ required).
| Units: 4
RELIGST 348:
Chinese Buddhism in World Historical Perspective (RELIGST 248)
Shared cosmologies, trade routes, and political systems. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 348A:
Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall (RELIGST 248A)
The thought, practice, and cultural resonance of the sorts of originally Chinese Buddhism that flourished to the north and northwest of China proper during the two to three centuries following the fall of the Tang - i.e., under the Khitan Liao (907-1125) and the Tangut Xixia (1032-1227) dynasties - with special emphasis on the later fortunes of the Huayan, Chan, and Mijiao (Esoteric) traditions. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 349:
Meditation and Mythology in Chinese Buddhism
Readings in Chinese texts and English scholarly literature on issues such as specific techniques and hagiographical imagery in Chinese Buddhist traditions of self-cultivation. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 350:
Modern Western Religious Thought Proseminar
Selected topics in recent and contemporary religious thought. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
RELIGST 350B:
Depictions of the Buddha (RELIGST 250B)
The image of the Buddha changes relatively little from its earliest conceptions. The role of the image and the notion of the Buddha do change fundamentally with time and place. South Asian depictions of the Buddha from the earliest symbolic representations to the wrathful and peaceful forms found in the esoteric Buddhism of India and the Himalayas, as well as the changing conceptions of the Buddha to which these depictions are related.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 351A:
Buddhist Visions of Paradise (RELIGST 251A)
Textual and art-historical evidence for the early development in the greater Indian cultural area of the cult of the Buddhas of the present and their paradise worlds ("Pure Land Buddhism").
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 353:
Mountains, Buddhist Practice, and Religious Studies (RELIGST 253)
The notion of the sacred mountain. Readings from ethnographic and theoretical works, and primary sources.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 357:
Readings in Daoist Texts (RELIGST 257)
Readings from primary sources. Prerequisite: classical Chinese.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
20 times
(up to 99 units total)
RELIGST 359A:
Religion and Performance (RELIGST 159A)
What happens when religion is viewed through the lens of performance? Texts become dramas, songs, recitations, oral commentaries, dances, movies, and political appropriations. Beliefs become embodied enactments; doctrine puts on a costume and indulges in role play. Approaches to performance theory through religious enactments such as ritual, prayer, festival, drama, music, and film. Most examples from S. Asian religions; students may undertake research projects into other cultures and traditions.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 372:
Kant on Religion (RELIGST 272)
Critical examination of Kant¿s principle writings on religion against the background of his general theoretical and practical philosophy and guided by the hypothesis that his philosophy of religion continues to offer significant insights and resources to contemporary theories of religion. Recent reassessments of Kant on religion in the secondary literature will also be read and discussed
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 378:
Heidegger: Confronting the Ultimate (RELIGST 278)
Heidegger's work on meaning, the self, and the sacred. Texts include Being and Time, courses and opuscula up to 1933, the Letter on Humanism, and Contributions of Philosophy.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 379:
Heidegger and the Holy (RELIGST 279)
Heidegger's philosophy as opening a new door onto the possibility of experiencing the sacred after the collapse of traditional metaphysical theology. A close reading of Being and Time as an introduction to the question of the holy.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 399:
Recent Works in Religious Studies
Readings in secondary literature for Religious Studies doctoral students. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 1-2
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 801:
TGR Project
(Staff)
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
