| Course | crn | Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| RST 1B | - | Topic: Death and the Afterlife | M. Vidas |
| 83130 | (sec. 1, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83131 | (sec. 2, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83132 | (sec. 3, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83133 | (sec. 4, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83134 | (sec. 5, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83135 | (sec. 6, Discussion Section) | ||
| RST 1C | - | Topic: Sacrifice | A. Coudert |
| 83090 | (sec. 1, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83096 | (sec. 2, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83103 | (sec. 3, Discussion Section) | ||
| 83104 | (sec. 4, Discussion Section) | ||
| - | (sec. 5) CANCELED | ||
| 83128 | (sec. 6, Discussion Section) | ||
| RST 10 | 83676 | Ethics Issues: 2012 Apocalyptic Ethics | N. Janowitz |
| RST 30 | 83136 | Religions of South Asia | M. Elmore |
| RST 42 | 83140 | Religion and Science Fiction | W. Terry |
| RST 70 | 83680 | Religion and Language | M. O'Keefe |
| RST 104 | 83609 | Christianity, 1450-1700 | A. Coudert |
| RST 115 | 83138 | Mysticism | W. Terry |
| RST 124 | 79747 | Topic: Israel-Palestinian Encounter | A. Raab |
| RST 130, sec. 1 | 79748 | Topic: Buddhist-Christian Comparatison | W. Lai |
| RST 130, sec. 2 | 74779 | Topic: The Formation of the Rabbinic Tradition | M. Vidas |
Note:
Effective Fall 2009, the Hebrew Language Courses will now be housed under the Classics Program. To find out more information about course schedule and expanded course descriptions, please click HERE (It will lead you to the Classics Program Website).
For the meantime, please contact Maria Saldana-Seibert, Undergraduate Program Coordinator, for any questions at (530) 752-1219.
Religious Studies 1B: Topics in Comparative Religion - Death and the Afterlife
Prof. Moulie Vidas
Lecture: TR 10:30-11:50, 6 Olson
Discussion Section:
A01 (T 4:10-5:00, 113 Hoagland) CRN 83130
A02 (T 5:10-6:00, 163 Olson) CRN 83131
A03 (W 4:10-5:00, 27 Wellman) CRN 83132
A04 (W 5:10-6:00, 167 Olson) CRN 83133
A05 (F 9:00-9:50, 125 Olson) CRN 83134
A06 (F 10:00-10:50, 151 Olson) CRN 83135
Description: This course reviews concepts of death and afterlife in a number of religious traditions. The course will begin with religions which do not have afterlife traditions, examining the role and images of death in these traditions (some oral religions, ancient near eastern religions etc). The course will then move to the emergence of afterlife traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. How, why and when did traditions of a place of rewards (heaven) and punishment (hell) emerge how have changing images of Paradise and Hell in turn influenced other modes of social thought. The course will conclude with an examination of modern controversies about death and afterlife in American society and the world at large. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text:
- TBA
Religious Studies 1C: Topics in Comparative Religion - Sacrifice
Prof. Allison Coudert
Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00, 6 Olson
Discussion Section:
A01 (M 3:10-4:00, 233 Wellman) CRN 83090
A02 (M 4:10-5:00, 1060 Bainer) CRN 83096
A03 (T 9:00-9:50, 233 Wellman) CRN 83103
A04 (R 4:10-5:00, 205 Wellman) CRN 83104
A05 CANCELED
A06 (F 1:10-2:00, 244 Olson) CRN 83128
Description: The central question addressed in this course is why sacrifice has played such a prominent part in world religions right up to the present. What has allowed humans to believe that supernatural beings demand the gruesome and bloody sacrificial death of men, women, children, and animals? In addressing this issue, we will focus on sacrificial rituals in major world religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and we will discuss the rationale for sacrifice among oral religious traditions in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In addition, we will analyze and evaluate the various theories offered by scholars to explain sacrifice. Is it sufficient to understand sacrificial rituals as a means of communication with higher powers or as gift made in the hope of receiving something valuable in exchange? Alternatively, do we have to look more deeply into human nature and psychology and explain sacrifice as a response to human anxiety, aggression, and violence? Finally, what, if any, role does gender play in sacrifice? GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text:
- A Course Reader (Available at the Davis Copy Shop or Copyland)
Religious Studies 10: Ethics Issues - 2012 Apocalyptic Ethics
Prof. Naomi Janowitz
TR 3:10-4:30, 1100 Social Science & Humanities
CRN 83676
Description: What would you do if you thought the world was coming to an end? What did people do in the past? What apocalyptic ideas circulated at the time of Jesus? How did Muslims face the expected end of time in the year 999? What kind of apocalyptic ideas motivated early modern scientists? What drives the incredible popularity of the Left Behind novels?
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite:Watch the movie 2012
Text:
- A Course Reader
Religious Studies 30: Religions of South Asia
Prof. Mark Elmore
TR 1:40-3:00, 212 Wellman
CRN 83136
Description:
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the vibrant religious traditions of South Asia. The course will examine Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and Jain traditions as well as the ancient and modern contexts in which they are situated. In order to guide our inquiries, we will focus the ways that various problems (material, intellectual, political) have served as catalysts for the formation and dissolution of communities of interpretation and practice. One of the primary goals of this course is to reexamine the multiple pasts of South Asia without projecting modern categories onto those traditions. Accordingly, we will examine Upanisadic texts and the four noble truths as more than tenants of ‘Hinduism’ or ‘Buddhism.’ Throughout the course we will ask how appropriate these concepts are for understanding the premodern traditions of South Asia.The class will include extensive use of visual resources in addition to traditional texts.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text:
- Embree, Sources of Indian Tradition, Volume 1
- Clothey, Religion in India
- Gethin, Foundations of Buddhism
Religious Studies 42: Religion and Science Fiction
Prof. Wendy Terry
MWF 11:00-11:50, 146 Olson
CRN 83140
Description: This course introduces students to popular representations of religions, real and imagined, in modern science fiction and fantasy writing and film. Topics covered include: science fiction as contemporary myth-making; the characteristics of religion and religiosity in fictional religious movements; the relationship between religion, science, and technology in modern speculative fiction; the role of allegory and distanciation in contemporary discourse on religion; tropes of science-fiction in contemporary religious movements. Particular focus on the relevance of post-humanism to religious discourse, i.e., the implications of non-human-centered experience for religious practice and thought, and contemporary problems in defining the limits of the "human" in the imagined relationship between human and divine.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text:
- Neil Gaiman, American Gods: A Novel
- Walter M. Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
- Ursula LeGuin, The Dispossessed
- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
- A Course Reader
Religious Studies 70: Religion and Language
Prof. Meaghan O'Keefe
MWF 9:00-9:50, 101 Olson
CRN 83680
Description: This course considers the relationship between religion and language: how does language shape religious experience and how do religious traditions shape our understanding of language? Topics covered include the translation of sacred texts, ritual language, and the involvement of religious traditions in the ways in which scholars study language. Material covered will include performances of “speaking in tongues,” early European descriptions of Asian and Meso-American languages, and contemporary problems in translations of sacred terms.
Prof. Meaghan O'Keefe is a Lecturer in the University Writing Program. For more information about the course, contact her at mmokeefe@ucdavis.edu.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text:
- Errington, Colonial Linguistics
Religious Studies 104: Christianity, 1450-1700
Prof. Allison Coudert
TR 9:00-10:20, 141 Olson
CRN 83609
Description: Most people do not realize that the period of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations (roughly 1450-1660) was one of extreme mental and physical violence, during which many individuals were compelled to abandon their most cherished beliefs, forced to flee the cities, towns, and villages in which they were born, and even killed because of their religious views. The violence characterizing the era has led some scholars to describe it as the real “Dark Ages,” when religious and secular authorities began to exert unprecedented control over the beliefs and behavior of individuals.
Orthodoxy was the flip side of heresy, and it is therefore not surprising that the Catholic Inquisition reached the apogee of its power during this time or that executions for religious deviance, witchcraft, and magic were more numerous than ever before. To be right about religion was to be right about God and salvation, and anyone who disagreed had to be on the side of the devil and deserved to die. But for all the devastation and destruction, the Reformation period also fostered new ways of thinking about God, nature, man, and society that provided the foundation for our modern world. As this course will show, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants over scripture, the sacraments, miracles, relics, and the role of saints involved crucial questions concerning the authority and credibility of the Christian revelation, the origin, antiquity, and history of the physical world, the nature of human beings, and the basis of ethics and morality. Every one of these involved the larger problem of what constitutes knowledge and how knowledge may be obtained.
I think we will have a lot of interesting issues to discuss!
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text:
- Carter Lindberg, The European Reformations (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing)
- A Course Reader (Available via Davis Copy or Copyland)
Religious Studies 115: Mysticism
Prof. Wendy Terry
MWF 10:00-10:50, 101 Olson
CRN 83138
Description: Historical and descriptive analysis of selected key figures in mystical traditions and readings of representative mystical texts.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: one lower-division Religious Studies course.
Text:
- A Course Reader
Religious Studies 124: Topics in Judaism - Israel-Palestinian Encounter
Prof. Alon Raab
TR 3:10-4:30, 101 Olson
CRN 79747
Description: For the past one hundred years, the encounter between the Israeli and Palestinian people has been one of strife and war, but also filled with many expressions of friendship and hope. Beyond the statements of the guns there exists a rich tradition of artists and writers, on both sides, looking at the "other" and their relations with each other. Based on the belief that film and literature often reflect dominant values in their society as well as help to shape new ways of action, this class will examine artistic expressions of the complex and tangled relationship between the two nations.
Objectives:
- Become familiar with Israeli and Palestinian cinema and literature and their portrayals of the encounter of the two nations.
- Know and understand key events and themes.
- Develop and express opinions about the subject.
- Engage other students’ thinking and be engaged by them.
- Learn not only facts but also make connections to our own lives and history.
Among the films we will watch (all or parts) in class and outside of it: Israel-Birth of a Nation, Al Nakba, Hill 24 Does not Answer, The Land Speaks Arabic, The Milky Way, Frontiers of Dreams and Fears, My Terrorist, Black Sunday, Reel Bad Arabs, Cup Final, Crossfire, Out for Love, Divine Intervention, and Promises.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: course 23.
Text:
- Jayyusi (ed.), Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature
- Ezer (ed.), Sleepwalkers and Other Stories: The Arab in Hebrew Literature
- Lesch, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History
- A Course Reader (Selected works by Israeli and Palestinian writers about war and love)
Religious Studies 130: Topics in Religious Studies - Buddhist-Christian Comparison
Prof. Whalen Lai
F 12:10-3:00, 101 Olson
CRN 79748
Description: The course is a basic introduction to the two religions. It will lay out the basic differences in their worldviews and then work at how to translate those major divergences (like theism vs. atheism) into more comparable existential situations seen from the human side. There will be a review of the history of the Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. Possible historical and institutional parallels in the medieval period of Europe and the Far East will be explored.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: course 1 or Consent of Instructor.
Text:
- The book the instructor co-wrote with Michael von Brueck (the English version) is out of print. [The French and the German versions are longer and more accessible.] The class will be provided computer files to a number of essays and encyclopedia entries that address the core issues.
Religious Studies 130: Topics in Religious Studies - The Formation of the Rabbanic Tradition.
Prof. Moulie Vidas
TR 4:40-6:00, 101 Olson
CRN 74779
Description: How can we know the law of God? How can we include contradictory opinions in a single sacred text? How can an entire people be called holy? How can we keep our culture up to date without compromising tradition? In this course we will examine how the ancient rabbis – who invented Judaism as we know it today – answered these and other questions through their creation of literature, law and religion. We will also examine how, in these answers, the rabbis tried to secure their own leadership of the Jewish people at the expense of competing groups and advanced their own vision of Judaism while silencing others.
Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Prerequisite: course 1 or Consent of Instructor.
Text:
- Cambridge Companion to Talmud and Rabbinic Literature
- Selections from the Talmud, the Mishnah, and Midrashic works
- A Course Reader (Available via SmartSite)