Courses

• CAS RN 397: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
  Topic for Fall 2017: Love and Hate. Designed to run side by side with the Institute for Philosophy and Religion's fall lecture series on the topic of "Love and Hate" in the philosophy of religion. What is the role of love in living a good life? Are there different kinds of love? What are the proper objects of love? What happens when love goes wrong? These questions, and others like them, are examined in a wide range of texts drawn from the religious, philosophical, and literary traditions of Asia and the West. Also offered as CAS PH 456.
• CAS RN 410: Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain
  Interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Europe's most religiously diverse region -- from the establishment of an Islamic al-Andalus in 711 CE to the final Christian "reconquest" of the peninsula and expulsion of the Jews in 1492 CE. Also offered as CAS HI 410.
• CAS RN 423: Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions: West
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS CC 101 and CAS CC 102; or two courses in religion or philosophy.
  An intensive seminar in primary texts and key ideas of theology and religious philosophy as developed in representative world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. First course in a year-long sequence. Each semester may be taken independently.
• CAS RN 424: Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions: East
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS CC 101 and CAS CC 102; or two courses in religion or philosophy.
  An intensive seminar in primary texts and key ideas of theology and religious philosophy as developed in representative world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism. Second course in a year-long sequence. Each semester may be taken independently.
• CAS RN 427: Topics in American Religion
  Topic for Spring 2017: Religion and Sexuality. Religion and sexuality in modern U.S. Reading queer theory alongside religious and secular cases. Topics include religious protest and AIDS activism; formation of bodies and identities; sexual regulation; camp; gay rights; visual art; pornography; and race. Also offered as CAS WS 305 A1.
• CAS RN 435: Women, Gender, and Islam
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS RN 104 or CAS RN 214; or equivalent.
  Investigates the way Muslim religious discourse, norms, and practices create and sustain gender and hierarchy in religious, social, and familial life. Looks at historical and contemporary challenges posed to these structures.
• CAS RN 439: Jewish Bioethics and Holocaust Studies
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor.
  Exploration of Jewish perspectives on life, death and dying, abortion, the new reproductive technologies, organ transplantation and genetic engineering. Examination of the impact of the Nazi doctors, racial hygiene, euthanasia, and genocide on contemporary bioethics.
• CAS RN 452: Topics in Religious Thought
  Topics vary from year to year. Topic for Fall 2016: Mysticism: East and West. What is mysticism? In this interactive seminar, we engage in close reading and analysis of texts describing direct communion with a divine or absolute reality. Texts drawn from Chinese, Indian, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Neoplatonic traditions. Also offered as CAS PH 485.
• CAS RN 453: Topics in Religion and Sexuality
  Topic for Spring 2017: Gender, Sexuality, and Buddhism. Examines conceptions of gender, sexuality, the body, and the family in Buddhism. We look at primary sources from different Buddhist cultures from a broad range of time periods. No previous knowledge of Buddhism required.
• CAS RN 454: Sexuality and Religion in the U.S.
  Religion and sexuality in the U.S., including theoretical and historical approaches to religious and sexual desire, identity, ritual, and regulation. Possible topics include religious and sexual freedom, plural marriage, the Sexual Revolution, reproductive justice, sex and secularism, and LGBTQ rights. Also offered as CAS WS 454.
• CAS RN 459: Primo Levi Within Holocaust Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS LL 281 or CAS RN 384; or junior standing or consent of instructor.
  A study of Primo Levi's writings and scientific, theological, and philosophical approaches to the Holocaust. Other theorists (Arendt, Wiesel, Muller-Hill) and other survivors' testimonies (Delbo, Borowski, Fink) are read in conjunction with Levi's works. Also offered as CAS LI 459 and CAS XL 459.
• CAS RN 460: Seminar on the Holocaust
  Seminar examining ethical and religious issues raised by the Holocaust, including anti-Semitism; treatment of Jewish women; nature of the perpetrators; actions of different countries; importance of ideology; the nature and degree of Jewish resistance; post-Holocaust theology.
• CAS RN 466: Religion and the Problem of Tolerance
  Explores the religious roots of tolerance as an alternative to secular, more liberal foundations for pluralism. Grapples with the challenge of tolerance to the revealed religions and the ways different societies have met or failed to meet this challenge.
• CAS RN 468: Symbol, Myth, and Rite
  Historical overview of ritual behavior, the role of symbolism in the study of culture, and the narrative quality of worldview and belief. Emphasis on verbal performance and public display events in specific cultural contexts.
• CAS RN 470: Topics in Medieval Religious Culture
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor.
  Topic for Fall 2017: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Demonic in Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Magic, witchcraft, and the demonic as understood, employed, and feared in medieval Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities. Exploration of religious world views; visual culture; healing and medical practices; matters of gender, power, and social control, including counter-magic, legal prohibitions, and inquisition. Also offered as CAS HI 407.
• CAS RN 471: Topics in Ancient Christianity
  Topic for Spring 2017: Christianity and Islam in the First Millennium. The complex relationships between Christianity and Islam as rival imperial cultures, from their origins to the emergence of the Islamic Middle East and Christian Europe by the year 1000 CE, focusing on themes such as scripture, violence, authority, and identity.
• CAS RN 504: Topics in Religion and the Visual Arts
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor.
  In-depth discussion of special issues in the study of religion and art. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2015: Religious Architecture in Islam: Mosques, Shrines, and Tombs. Examines a select group of buildings from the Islamic world in terms of architecture and religious practice. Topics include monuments such as the Ka'ba, the Dome of the Rock, or the Taj Mahal. Also offered as CAS AH 504.
• CAS RN 524: Topics in Religion and Literature
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing and one course in literature or religion, or consent of instructor.
  Topic for Fall 2017: Apocalypse and Literature. Literary responses to the biblical book of Revelation, from ancient to modern times. Systematic analysis of the biblical text. Readings from Dante, Langland, Rabelais, Blake, Holderlin, Dostoevsky, Garcia Lorca, Samuel Beckett, and Flannery O'Connor. Reference to artistic and musical representations of apocalypse. Also offered as CAS XL 560.
• CAS RN 526: Topics in Religion and Literature in East Asia
  Topic for Fall 2015: The Story of the Stone. A masterpiece of world literature, depicts the interworkings of love, tragedy, honor, and drama within a Buddho-Daoist cosmos set in the everyday life of Chinese Confucianism. This course emphasizes the religious traditions of Chinese culture. Also offered as CAS LC 470 B1 and CAS XL 470 B1.
• CAS RN 555: Dante's Hell
  A close reading of one text, Dante Aligheri's Inferno, with attention to its medieval contexts: philosophical, theological, and historical. Analysis of the poetic means by which Dante represents both human evil and human hope. Bi-lingual text. Lectures and discussion in English. Also offered as CAS LI 555 and CAS XL 383.