Courses and Syllabi
The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.
Religious Studies Fall 2021
Undergraduate
Examines main forms of religious expression as embodied in several important religious traditions in contemporary world. Investigates religious experience; myth and ritual; teachings and scripture; ethical, social, and artistic aspects of religion; and nature and function of religion in human society. Limited to three attempts.
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8 Sections Currently Scheduled »
Focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from historical, comparative, and cross-cultural perspectives. May also include modern developments of those faiths such as Mormonism and Baha'ism, as well as Zoroastrianism and religions of ancient Near Eastern cultures. Limited to three attempts.
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4 Sections Currently Scheduled »
Focuses on the traditional religions from Asia, particularly Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confusianism from historical, comparative, and cross-cultural perspectives. May also include Jainism, Sihk, Shinto, native shamanism, and others as well as modern developments after European colonialism and growth as global religions. Limited to three attempts.
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3 Sections Currently Scheduled
Explores the relationship between religion and literature in different times and cultures, the influence of religion on literary works, and how literature expresses major religious themes such as death and immortality, divine will and justice, suffering and human destiny, and religion and state. Limited to three attempts.
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8 Sections Currently Scheduled »
Explores how selected world religions address the universal experience of death and express their beliefs in an afterlife. Focuses on the scriptures, beliefs, rituals and customs of selected world religions as they reflect each tradition's response to the most basic question about human destiny - how human beings face death and attempt to transcend it. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Analyzes the Bible as a collection of literary texts. Course readings will include selections from the Jewish Tanakh and from the Christian New Testament. Students will become familiar with contemporary scholarship on the Bible and sample the Bible's impact on the art and literature of the last millennia. Students will become conversant with concepts such as scripture, canon, source criticism, historical criticism, genre, and reception history. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
RELI 272:
Islam
(3 Credits)
Introduces basic religious beliefs and practices of Islam, with view to diverse manifestations of Islamic culture in different ethnic and social contexts. Provides overview of essential rituals of Islamic life, mystical practices of Sufis, certain popular forms of religious practice, sources and application of Islamic law, and distinctive Islamic artistic and literary forms. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Basic introduction to interdisciplinary methods, theories, definitions, and thinkers in the academic study of religion. Provides foundation for further comparative studies of religions, concentrated studies of a particular religion, and the understanding of engagement between religion and wider culture. Prerequisite for upper-level courses on religious studies theory and method, such as the writing intensive and synthesis courses in Religious Studies. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Introduces Hindu religion and thought, beliefs, rituals, ethics and religious practices. Emphasis on classical Hinduism, but also covers Hinduism and modernity, modern Hindu movements, and Hinduism as a global religion. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Survey of the religious traditions and philosophical systems of Korea including Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity. The course will explore the Korean development of the religious traditions and philosophical ideas introduced to Korea in relationship to native Korean spirituality and thought pattern. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores the worlds of religion, fantasy and imagination, presented in selected writings of 20th century fantasy authors, including Lewis, Tolkien, Pullman, Rowling. Covers ideas of quest for enlightenment, redemption or salvation, conflict between good and evil, worlds of the supernatural, parallel dimensions and their inhabitants. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Religious heritage in American culture, growth of denominations and sects, and interrelationship of religion and sociopolitical life. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Investigates the genre of autobiography as employed by religious authors, both classical and modern. Introduces students to personal, historical, and religious doctrinal contexts that shape the autobiographical literature. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
This course will focus on the oldest known Christian literature, the letters by Saint Paul. The course will explore these letters in their first-century historical and literary contexts, while also surveying some of the most relevant contemporary theoretical approaches to the letters (e.g., feminist, queer, affective, African American, and economic approaches). Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores the roles of religion in contemporary political life in the United States and abroad. Emphasizes religion in current political debates. Includes history, political theory, sociology, and theology to present a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Surveys representations of religious beliefs, practices, persons, and institutions in popular film. Focuses on the media consumption of box office movies in the United States. Examines how religion is imaged in film and how that religious imagination relates to social constructions of national, ethnic, racial, gender, and sexual identities. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Studies Judaism from origins to present. Includes origins of Judaism B.C.E.; Rabbinic Judaism; Jews in the Middle Ages; Hasidic and Mystical Judaism; Enlightenment; persecution and Holocaust; contemporary American Judaism; and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim relations. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Selected topics from a philosophical perspective. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 12 credits.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Cross-cultural examination of comparative aspects of religious phenomena. Examines significance of religious phenomena from diverse religious and cultural perspectives, and investigates patterns of religious phenomena that have appeared in world cultures and civilizations. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Selected topics from a philosophical perspective. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 12 credits.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Graduate
A co-taught course by Religious Studies faculty that introduces students to the graduate study of religion through a survey of different lines of inquiry in the field and different methodological approaches in the discipline. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores contemporary religious thought on the morality and ethics of environmental responsibility. Begins with an exploration of this issue in Western Christian thought and examines religious approaches to the environment in the traditional and contemporary thought of other major world religions, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Chinese traditions. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Compares the conception of human rights in international human rights documents and accords with conceptions of human rights in classical Islamic theological, legal, and ethical texts. Examines various relevant issues, including but not limited to religious and gender discrimination, slavery, freedom of religion and belief and apostasy, and questions of punishment. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
