Winter 2015

Religious Studies 001F. Contemporary Religion (4 units)
Mark Elmore

Lecture:
TR 10:30-11:50A
106 Wellman

Discussion Sections:

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

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

Textbooks: 

• TBA
   

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Religious Studies 001H. Religion and Law: Sex, Marriage, Divorce (4 units)
Mairaj Syed

Lecture:
TR 1:40-3:00P
126 Wellman

Discussion Sections:

Course Description: Sex, marriage and divorce are ubiquitous features of human societies. This course will consist of a comparative investigation of these phenomena across different religious traditions, time periods, and areas of the world. In the first two-thirds of the course, we will analyze how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have conceived of the law, primarily by looking at how these religions regulated the institution of marriage and sexual activity. In the last third of the course, we will analyze how the emergence of modernity affected the way the law was conceived by the different religions. We will end the course by looking at how religion is involved in debates about family law in three different modern societies: Israel, the United States, and Egypt.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): Arts and Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts and Humanities, Oral Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

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

Textbook:

• A Course Reader
   

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Religious Studies 023. Introduction to Judaism (4 units)
Wendy Terry

MWF 9:00-9:50A
118 Olson
CRN 93235

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

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

Textbook:

• Eliezer Segal, Introducing Judaism  (Routledge, 2008)
   

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Religious Studies 040. New Testament (4 units)
Catherine Chin

Lecture:
MWF 5:10-6:00P
1003 Geidt

Discussion Sections:

Course Description: This course examines the emergence of the documents we now call the "New Testament" from debates within a variety of forms of Judaism in the first-century Roman Empire.  We will be discussing controversies over Roman imperial rule in Judea, problems of assimilation in the ancient world, and the way that the writers of New Testament texts argued over the idea of "the messiah" and the legacy of Abraham in this period.  We will pay particular attention to the way that political and religious debates within ancient Judaism laid the groundwork for the new movement that would eventually become Christianity.

Prerequisite: None.

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

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

Textbooks:

• The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament [4th Edition], translated by Robert K. Brown and Philip W. Comfort  (Tyndale House Publishers, 1993)

[RECOMMENDED]

• Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament [3rd Edition]  (Oxford University Press, 2012)
   

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Religious Studies 100. Study of Religion: Issues and Methods (4 units)
Mark Elmore

TR 1:40-3:00P
147 Olson
CRN 93242

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 in early-modern and modern philosophy including, for example, the writings of Nietzsche. The second concerns the birth and growth of the academic study of religion alongside the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and sociology. We will text these theories against a selection of religious texts and rituals from a wide variety of ancient and contemporary traditions. Students are encouraged to investigate examples of particular interest to them (perhaps something from a prior Religious Studies course). This course is ideally taken no later than the junior year.

Prerequisite:  None.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences; World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

• TBA
   

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Religious Studies 131. Genocide (4 units)     [Cross-listed with HMR 131]
Keith Watenpaugh

MW 2:10-4:00P
115 Hutchison
CRN 93212

Course Description: This course focuses on comparative and critical approach to the modern phenomenon of genocide from ethical, historical and religious perspectives. This course takes neither a bestiary approach to the study of genocide; nor does it seek to determine which genocide was worse. It is based on the proposition that the modern phenomenon of genocide can be studied from a comparative, critical theoretical perspective while simultaneously preserving the specificity and distinctive nature of each genocidal moment. Several genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries are examined through the lens of five thematic fields: Beginnings, Styles and Technologies, Remembering and Commemoration, Denial and Responsibility. Five genocides will be examined through these thematic fields: The Armenian Genocide, The Holocaust, The Genocide of the Kurds, The Rwandan Genocide and the Ethnic Cleansings of the Balkans. Course will consider the links between modernity and genocide, and the steps that could be taken to prevent/punish genocide in the future and explore the concept of restorative justice. Term paper (2500 words) will engage students in the comparison of two or more genocides using primary and secondary material.

Prerequisite: Upper division standing.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences; Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences; Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper or Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

• TBA
   

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Religious Studies 156. Religion and the Performing Arts in India (4 units)
Archana Venkatesan

W 2:10-5:00P
90 SocSci
CRN 93243

Course Description: This course is a survey of the relationship between religion and the performing arts in India, with an emphasis on the reinvention, re-making, reforming and rewriting of the performing arts in the nexus of colonialism and nationalism. Focusing on three major areas: drama, music and dance, we will pay particular attention to social reform movements and the reinvention of the ‘classical’ in India. Sikkil Gurucharan, a prominent performing artist from India will lead discussion and offer practical training during the music component of the course. The course will also feature other guest performers and speakers representing the music, dance and theater traditions of the Indian subcontinent.

Some background in the study of Hinduism and/or in the history of the Indian subcontinent is recommended.

No texts required for purchase. Students will be expected to purchase a reader.

Prerequisite: Religious Studies 30, 68 or consent of instructor (avenkatesan@ucdavis.edu).

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

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbook:

• A Course Reader
   

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Religious Studies 396. Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (Variable units)

Catherine Chin (CRN ***)
Mark Elmore (CRN ***)
Mairaj Syed (CRN ***)

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