Spring 2013

 

---

Religious Studies 1D. Topics in Comparative Religions: "Conversion"  
Prof. Meghan O' Keefe, mmokeefe@ucdavis.edu

Lecture: MWF 11:00-11:50A, 234 Wellman

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 01. Andrea Dooley (M 3:10-4:00P, 151 Olson) CRN 62648
Sec. 02. Andrea Dooley (M 4:10-5:00P, 163 Olson) CRN 62649
Sec. 03. Tania Garcia (T 3:10-4:00P, 90 SocSci) CRN 62650
Sec. 04. Tania Garcia (T 4:10-5:00P, 90 SocSci) CRN 62651

Course Description: This course examines the idea of conversion: what is conversion, why does it happen, and how do we know it has taken place?  As part of understanding what it means to convert or be converted, we will look at academic theories of conversion as well as descriptions of the conversion process from various religious traditions including American Islam, Afro-Brazilian religions, and Evangelical Christianity.

Prerequisite:  None.

GE credits (Old): Arts and Humanities, Domestic Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credits (New): Arts and Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Texts:

• Conversion of a Continent: Contemporary Religious Change in Latin America(Rutgers University Press, 2008)
• Malcolm X, et al., The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley(Ballantine Books, 1987)
   

---

Religious Studies 1F. Topics in Comparative Religions: "Contemporary Religion"
Prof. Mark Elmore, mkelmore@ucdavis.edu

Lecture: TR 10:30-11:50A, 26 Wellman

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 01. Ryan Tripp (R 3:10-4:00P, 110 Hunt) CRN 62653
Sec. 02. Ryan Tripp (R 4:10-5:00P, 110 Hunt) CRN 62654
Sec. 03. Catherine Garoupa White (F 10:00-10:50A, 148 Physics) CRN 62655
Sec. 04. Catherine Garoupa White (F 11:00-11:50A, 148 Physics) CRN 62656

Course Description: This course will explore the ways in which religion is adapted and transformed in the modern world. Special attention will be given to the means by which older forms of traditional religious authority are revised, abandoned, or challenged by new forms of individualism and religious pluralism. One of the central aims of the course is to help students avoid essentializing religion with analyses that emphasize timeless doctrines, beliefs, or rituals. Topics of study include contemporary processes of secularism, pilgrimage, embodiment, mediation, violence, and globalism. Consideration will also be given to the validity of different approaches to the study of religion.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credits (Old): Arts and Humanities, Domestic Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credits (New): Arts and Humanities, Oral Literacy, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Texts:

• None
   

---

Religious Studies 10. Contemporary Ethical Issues: "Religion and Politics"
Prof. Baki Tezcan, btezcan@ucdavis.edu

MW 12:10-1:00P, 2 Wellman
CRN 59156

Course Description: Did Moses believe in democracy? Would Buddha get involved in politics? Would Jesus vote? What would Muhammad do? Should their opinions on politics matter for us? Who has the authority to tell us what exactly Buddha, Jesus, Moses, or Muhammad would say on any of this? Come and join some of the best instructors on campus as they explore the relationship between politics and religion throughout history, all the way from Ancient Rome to contemporary Afghanistan.

Throughout the spring quarter, the students in this class will reflect on the ethical implications of religion in politics as they are listening to lectures on such varied topics as a Buddhist monk at the Tang court; the Covenant of the Old Testament; Rome vs. the Christians; Constantine, Christianity, and the Roman Empire; the Zoroastrian order of the world; a Muslim discussion on the social utility of prophets; the Crusades; the Christianization of Spain; Sunni-Shiite political rivalry in the early modern Islamic world; religion in early American history; secularism; Osama bin Laden’s audiotapes; the Zionist movement; and modern Turkish politics.

Rather than teaching a “lesson,” this course aims to expose students to various combinations of politics and religion throughout history with a view to raise an awareness of the ethical problems that these combinations created.

Grading: Essays (altogether 5 pages), 80 %; quizzes, 20 %.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credits (Old): Writing Experience.
GE credits (New): None.

Format: Lecture - 2 hours.

Texts:

• None (all readings will be posted on SmartSite)
   

---

Religious Studies 23. Introduction to Judaism
Prof. Wendy Terry, wrterry@ucdavis.edu

TR 3:10-4:30P, 234 Wellman
CRN 62658

Course Description: This class will be an introduction to the study of religion using examples from the ritual, art and holy texts of Judaism. We will review the historical development of Judaism, beginning with its biblical foundation and moving into the modern era. We will read primary texts from The Second Temple era, from the Talmud and Midrash, as well as primary Rabbinic, mystical and philosophical texts. In additional, we will review the ritual and cultural life of Judaism, noting key beliefs and practices.  No prior knowledge of any kind is required, neither of Judaism, nor of the academic study of religion.

Prerequisite:  None.

GE credits (Old): Arts and Humanities, Domestic Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credits (New): American Cultures, Arts and Humanities, Domestic Diversity, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

• Eliezer Segal, Introducing Judaism (Routledge, 2008)
   

---

Religious Studies 69. Introduction to Hindu Mythology
Prof. Archana Venkatesan, avenkatesan@ucdavis.edu

MWF 10:00-10:50A, 166 Chemistry
CRN 62659

Course Description: This course offers an interdisciplinary survey of Hindu myth.

Prerequisite:  None.

GE credits (Old): Arts and Humanities, Domestic Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credits (New): Arts and Humanities, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

• Cornelia Dimmitt, Classic Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas(Temple University Press, 1978)
   

---

Religious Studies 100. Study of Religion: Issues and Methods
Prof. Mark Elmore, mkelmore@ucdavis.edu

TR 1:40-3:00P, 101 Olson
CRN 62660

Course Description: In the wake of the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the discovery of the new world, religion became a problem as never before. This class explores the development of this problem from the early modern period through the present, focusing on two wide-ranging narratives. The first concerns the declining authority of God and the reciprocal ascent of the individual as it develops through Luther's theology, Descartes' epistemology, and Locke's liberalism and finally arrives in the consumer technologies of contemporary cosmopolitan life. The second concerns the birth and growth of the academic study of religion alongside the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and sociology. This class unsettles many of the unreflective conceptions of religion that circulate today, from new-age assumptions about the difference between religion and spirituality to those guiding our foreign and domestic policy. In a world where religion is both the guarantor of mass murder and unbounded generosity, such questions have rarely been more important.

Prerequisite:  None.

GE credits (Old): None.
GE credits (New): Arts and Humanities or Social Sciences, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

• None
   

---

Religious Studies 125. Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Prof. Naomi Janowitz, nhjanowitz@ucdavis.edu

TR 9:00-10:20A, 1120 Hart
CRN 63313

Course Description: The ancient world produced many more texts than the few that became the Jewish and Christian Bibles. This course will survey a selection of these texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls (an amazing set of parchment scrolls found in the Judean desert near the Dead Sea between 1946 and 1956),  the Apocrypha (“hidden” writings) and Pseudepigrapha (“false” writings). These texts include vivid depictions of the end of time, cosmic battles, tours of the heavens and claims about divine knowledge.  We will also read the famous account in Josephus’ The Jewish War of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans.

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor; RST 21 or RST 40 recommended.

GE credits (Old): Writing Experience.
GE credits (New): Arts and Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

• Josephus, The Jewish War (Penguin Classics, 1984)
• Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Penguin Classics, 2012)
   

---

Religious Studies 140. Christian Theology
Prof. Catherine Chin, chin@ucdavis.edu

M 3:10-6:00P, 293 Kerr
CRN 62661

Course Description: This course examines the history of Christian thought through the lens of traditional problems in "God-talk": how have people in the Christian tradition historically attempted to describe something (God) that has usually been understood as beyond human comprehension?  We will examine the ways that Christian thinkers attempted to solve the problem of "how can humans know the unknowable" from antiquity to the present day.

Prerequisite:  RST 40; RST 102 recommended.

GE credits (Old): None.
GE credits (New): Arts and Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

• Plato, Symposium (Oxford University Press, 2009)
• Saint Athanasius, On the Incarnation (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2012)
• Saint Gregory, et al., On God and Christ (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002)
• Anselm and Thomas Williams, Proslogion (Hackett Publishing, Co., 2001)