| Course | Section | Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| HEB 2 | 001 | Elementary Hebrew I | A. Raab |
| HEB 22 | 001 | Intermediate Modern Hebrew I | A. Raab |
| RST 1B | 001 | Death and Afterlife | W. Lai |
| A01 | Disc. | ||
| A02 | Disc. | ||
| A03 | Disc. | ||
| A04 | Disc. | ||
| A05 | Disc. | ||
| A06 | Disc. | ||
| RST 1F | 001 | Religion Today | F. Miller |
| A01 | Disc. | ||
| A02 | Disc. | ||
| A03 | Disc. | ||
| A04 | Disc. | ||
| A05 | Disc. | ||
| A06 | Disc. | ||
| RST 23 | 001 | Introduction to Judaism | S. Hammerman |
| RST 30 | 001 | Religions of S. Asia | M. Elmore |
| RST 80 | 001 | Religion, Gender, & Sex | C. Chin |
| RST 100 | 001 | Issues and Methods | M. Elmore |
| RST 102 | 001 | Christian Origins | C. Chin |
| RST 115 | 001 | Mysticism | W. Terry |
| RST 130 | 001 | Dance, Religion and Cultural Identity in India and the Diaspora | A. Venkatesan |
| RST 135 | 001 | Bible and Film | A. Raab |
| RST 161 | 001 | Modern Islam | F. Miller |
| RST 170 | 001 | Buddhism | W. Lai |
Hebrew 002: Elementary Hebrew
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 4 hours; laboratory - 1 hour.
Course description: Speaking, listening, comprehension, reading and writing fundamentals of modern Hebrew.
Prerequisite: course 1 or the equivalent.
Text: Chayet's, Hebrew from scratch pt 1 aleph and Hebrew from scratch pt 1 aleph 5 cd set; Shumuel Bolozky, 501 Hebrew Verbs; Ya'cov Levy, Oxford-English-Hebrew Hebrew-English.
Hebrew 022: Intermediate Modern Hebrew
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 5 hours.
Course description: Continued develpment and refinement of grammar, composition, and language skills required for reading literary texts and conversing about contemporary topics at an advanced level. History of the Hebrew language.
Prerequisite: Course 21 or consent of instructor.
Text: Chayet's, Hebrew from scratch pt 1 aleph and Hebrew from scratch pt 1 aleph 5 cd set; Shumuel Bolozky, 501 Hebrew Verbs; Ya'cov Levy, Oxford-English-Hebrew Hebrew-English.
Religious Studies 1B: Death and Afterlife
Disc. A01
Disc. A02
Disc. A03
Disc. A04
Disc. A05
Disc. A06
Course 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.
Course format: Lecture - 3 hours; discussion - 1 hour.
Prerequisite: None.
Text: Pu Songling and John Minford, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio; P. Aries, Western Attitudes Towards Death.
Religious Studies 1F: Religion Today
Disc. A01
Disc. A02
Disc. A03
Disc. A04
Disc. A05
Disc. A06
Course description: Introduction to the methods used in comparative religion, focusing on a particular theme in a number of religious traditions: (F) Contemporary Religion. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Course format: Lecture - 3 hours; discussion - 1 hour.
Prerequisite: None.
Text: Asra QNomani, Standing Alone; Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God.
Religious Studies 23: Introduction to Judaism
Course description: Using Jewish religious texts, philosophical treatises, and other works of cultural production, we will trace the evolution and transformation of a single set of Jewish rituals, those surrounding the Sabbath, as a lens through which to explore Jewish thought and practice in general. Throughout the course, we will examine the effects and limits of studying Judaism as a "religion." Reader responses, research paper. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text: Nicholas de Lange, An Introduction to Judaism; Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath.
Religious Studies 30: Religions of S. Asia
Course 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, Jain, and Sikh 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 attempt to 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. Both of these will be made available electronically. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text: Ivan Strenski, Thinking About Religion: An Historical Introduction to Theories of Religion; Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader; Freidrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for None and all; Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion; Hillary Rodrigues, Introducing Hinduism; Thich Hanh Nhat, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita; Khilnani, Idea of India.
Religious Studies 80: Religion, Gender, & Sex
Course description: Constructions of gender and sexuality within one or more religious traditions, pre-modern and modern. Emphasis on the interaction between religious, medical, and ethical definitions of the human body and sexual behavior.
Topics covered in this course include: premodern and modern definitions of masculinity and femininity, and the religious connotations and implications of these definitions, for example in standards of dress and public appearance, and in the different religious status of persons of differing genders, or of non-gender-normative persons. The course also examines historical constructions of sexual behavior, and the interaction between these constructions and different religious identities, for example in religious requirements of celibacy, procreation or polygamy. The course introduces students to the variety of changes and conflicts in different religious attitudes toward gendered and sexual behavior such as marriage, reproduction, abortion, and homosexuality. It also examines the reciprocal effects that ideas of gender and sexuality have on human notions of the divine and on notions of divine and human interaction, for example in the use of sexual language to describe mystical experience. Emphasis of the course is going to be on the christian tradition. GE credit: Div, Wrt.
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Text: TBA.
Religious Studies 100: Issues and Methods
Course description: In the wake of the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the discovery of thenew 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 cosmopolises. 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.
Course format: Lecture - 3 hours: term paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Texts: Ivan Strenski, Thinking About Religion: An Historical Introduction to Theories of Religion; Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader; Freidrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for None and all; Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion; Hillary Rodrigues, Introducing Hinduism; Thich Hanh Nhat, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita; Khilnani, Idea of India.
Religious Studies 102: Christian Origins
Course description: Beginning of the Christian faith seen in relation to milieu in which it originated.
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: course 40; course 23 recommended.
Texts: TBA.
Religious Studies 115: Mysticism
Course description: Historical and descriptive analysis of selected key figures in mystical traditions and readings of representative mystical texts. Analytic term paper. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Course format: Lecture - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: one lower division Religious Studies course (except 10, 98, or 99).
Texts: TBA.
Religious Studies 130: Dance, Religion and Cultural Identity in India and the Diaspora
Course description: This class explores the history and development of the theater and dance traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit aesthetic theory and plays, the love songs of courtesans, epic poetry will form the backdrop against which we will explore the changes that colonialism, modernity and a vibrant South Asian diaspora have effected in the forms and modes of dance production in India and abroad.
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: One of the following 5 courses: 1, 2, 3a, 3b, or 3c or consent of instructor.
Texts: Indira Viswanathan Peterson and Davesh Soneji, Performing Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South India.
Religious Studies 135: Bible and Film
Course description: Examination of the uses of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures in film. Topics include dramatic depictions of biblical stories, the tension between science and religion, allegorical treatments of biblical themes, and the problems of religious conviction.
Course format: Lecture - 2 hours; term paper; film viewing - 3 hours.
Prerequisite: Humanities 10 recommended.
Texts: Bulgakov, Master and Margerita; Karen Armstrong, History of God; Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan.
Religious Studies 161: Modern Islam
Course description: The response of Islam to modernity: secularism, reformism, fundamentalism. Islam and imperialism, women, media and immigration. Islamic modernism, political Islam, Islam in Europe and America. GE credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.
Course format: Lecture/discussion - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: Course 60 or consent of instructor.
Texts: Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics.
Religious Studies 170: Buddhism
Course description: Buddhism in its pan-Asian manifestations, from its beginning in India to its development in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China and Japan; teachings and practices, socio-political and cultural impact.
Course format: Lecture - 3 hours; term paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Texts: Paul Williams, Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition; Edward Conze, Buddhist Scriptures.