Undergraduate Courses

Fall 2008
(click here for a full inventory of Dept. of Religion courses)

CAS RN100
Religion and Culture
Faculty: Lobel
MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM
Introduction to the history of religions with special emphasis on the classical periods of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and to the scientific study of religion. Attention is focused on the cultural contributions of religion in ways that invite further investigation and study.

CAS RN 106
Death and Immortality
Faculty: Prothero
TR 11:00AM-12:30PM
Examines death as religious traditions have attempted to accept, defeat, deny, or transcend it. Do we have souls? Do they reincarnate? Other topics include cremation, ancestor worship, apocalypse, alchemy, AIDS, near-death experiences, otherworld cosmologies.

CAS RN 201
Hebrew Bible
Faculty: Klawans
TR11:00PM-12:00PM
Study of the literature of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the religious faith to which these writings bear witness within the context of the history of the ancient Israelite community.

CAS RN 202
From Jesus to Christ
Faculty: Fredriksen
TR 11:00AM-12:30PM
Places Jesus of Nazareth in his contemporary religious and social context of Second Temple Judaism; accounts for the origins and growth of Christian life, belief, and spirituality up to the second century as reflected in the writings of that period.

CAS RN209
Catholicism
Faculty: TBA
MWF 10:00AM-11:00PM
Introduction to the history, character, beliefs, and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Topics include the origin and development of the church, the function of the sacraments, the councils, popes, and monks.

CAS RN212
Christianity
Faculty: Green
MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM
Introduction to Christian thought and practice in a world context, origins to present. Topics include sin, salvation, sacrament, sacred text, bodies and souls, community, authority and the individual, Christians and non-Christians, and the challenge of modernity.

CAS RN 213
Hinduism                          
Faculty: Korom                       
MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM
Introduction to the Hindu tradition. Ritual and philosophy of the Vedas and Upanishads, yoga in the Bhagavad Gita, gods and goddesses in Hindu mythology, "popular" aspects of village and temple ritual, and problems of modernization and communalism in postcolonial India.

CAS RN 216
Judaism
Faculty: Levine
MWF 8:00AM-9:00AM
Systematic and historical introduction to doctrines, customs, literature, and movements of Judaism; biblical religion and literature; rabbinic life and thought; medieval mysticism and philosophy; modern movement and developments.

CAS RN239
Science and Religion
Faculty: Wegter-McNelly
MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM
Examines the complex relationship between science and religion, focusing on historical episodes (e.g. the "Gallileo Affair") ad current controversies (e.g. "Intelligent Design" movement's influence on school curricula, "Spirituality and Health" research, and "Ecology and Religion.")

CAS RN 313
Hinduism in America
Faculty: Prothero
TR 2:00PM-3:30PM
The transplantation and transformation of the ideas, institutions, and practices of Hinduism and Sikhism in America. Consideration of gurus and students, Indian-American immigrants, and European-American converts. Emphasis on primary texts, including autobiographies, novels, catechisms, sermons, and anti-cult polemics.

CAS RN 315
Spiritual Autobiography
Faculty: Freitas
TR 11:00AM-12:30PM
American spiritual autobiographies. Explores the literary genre of spiritual autobiography as a window onto the varieties of American religious experience and the vagaries of the modern self. Attention to text and context, classic exemplars and contemporary American authors, and multiple religious traditions.

CAS RN 328
Judaism in the Modern Period
Faculty: Katz
TR 12:30PM-2:00PM
Exploration of complex encounters between Judaism and modernity from the Renaissance and Reformation to expulsion from Spain and creation of Jewish centers in the New World; emmancipation and its consequences; assimilation, conversion, Reform Judaism, Zionism, the American-Jewish community, modern anti-semitism.

CAS RN 331
Zionism
Faculty: Kabalo
TR 12:30PM-2:00PM
Introduction to the development of Jewish nationalism from its traditional and European origins through its culmination in the modern state of Israel. Readings from Zionist and Israeli literature on political, religious, and philosophical implications.

CAS RN 322
History of Judaism
Faculty: Levine
M 12:00PM-3:00PM
Major trends in post-biblical Judaism; academy and synagogue; Mishna and Talmud; Babylonian diaspora; medieval poetry, philosophy, and mysticism; codes of law; organization of the Jewish community "in exile," the land of Israel; Jewish, Islamic and Christian civilizations.

CAS RN 322
History of Judaism
Faculty: Levine
M 12:00PM-3:00PM
Major trends in post-biblical Judaism; academy and synagogue; Mishna and Talmud; Babylonian diaspora; medieval poetry, philosophy, and mysticism; codes of law; organization of the Jewish community "in exile," the land of Israel; Jewish, Islamic and Christian civilizations.

CAS RN 345
Islamic Law
Faculty: TBA
TR 12:30PM-2:00PM
A major survey of trends in Islamic jurisprudence from the seventh century to the present; the structure of Islamic Law, its regulative principles, its place in Islamic society, and the mechanisms by which it is elaborated and applied.

CAS RN 360
Taoist Religion
Faculty: Michael
TR 2:00PM-3:30PM
A historical survey of the Taoist traditions in China. The philosophy of Lao-Tzu and Chuang-tzu and Han dynasty religion. Early Taoist movements, as well as the heyday of the religion in the Six Dynasties and the Tang. Modern Taoism as it was first formed in the Tong dynasty is also discussed.

CAS RN 363
Zen Buddhism
Faculty: Michael
TR 11:00AM-12:30PM
A study of Zen teachings and practices as a sect of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, as a philosophic system, and as a pattern of culture.

CAS RN 389
Moses and the Origin of Monotheism
Faculty: Zank
MWF 2:0PM-3:00PM
From Philo to Freud, the richly varied afterlife of the biblical Moses figure and stoy of monotheism's Egyptian origins, considered as an abiding preoccupation of western religions, theology, literary and visual art, and secular thought.

CAS RN 390
New Testament Literature
Faculty: TBA
MWF 12:00Pm-1:00PM
Exploration of the work that constitutes a "New Testament Literature": scriptural writings--both canonical and rejected--are read together with works of literary art that, taking their inspiration from the New Testament, perpetually reinterpret and renew the Christian tradition.

CAS RN 430
Topics in Asian Religion
Faculty: Cogan
T 3:30PM-6:30PM
Women in East Asian Religion. Explores gender norms and roles in Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and folk traditions and how these structure social relations. Examines attitudes towards the feminine, gender, and sexuality through reading doctrinal texts, autobiography, and ethnography about women in China, Korea, and Japan.

CAS RN 439
Jewish Bioethics
Faculty: Grodin
R 3:30-6:30 PM
What right does a physician have to heal? What obligation does a patient have to seek cure? What does the Torah, Talmud, the Codes, and Responsa teach us about life, death, dying, abortion, the new reproductive technologies, organ transplantation, and genetic engineering?

CAS RN 452 A1
Topics in Religious Thought: Maimonides in Comparative Perspective
Faculty: Lobel
TR 2:00PM-3:30PM
We will investigate the works of the 12th century Judeo-Arabic philosopher Maimonides in dialogue with texts from Islamic and Christian philosophy and mysticism, Taoism, Chinese and Zen Buddhism, and the process philosophy of A.N. Whitehead.

CAS RN 452 B1
Topics in Religious Thought: Religion and Children's Literature
Faculty: Freitas
T 2:00PM-5:00PM
Explores the subtext of religious ideas/images/big questions (about death, suffering, purpose, etc.) across Young Adult fiction; includes realistic and fantas genres, considers lack of explicitly religious protagonists alongside recent trend toward the paranormal to drive plots; novelists include Lois Lowry, David Almond, Marcus Zusak.

CAS RN 468
Symbol, Myth, and Rite
Faculty: Seligman
TR 11:30AM-1:00PM
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
Faculty: Klepper
M 3:00PM-6:00PM
Origins and history of the academic study of religion. Different constructions of religion as an object of study and the methods that arise from them. The role of the humanities and social sciences in understanding religion’s place in history and contemporary experience.

CAS RN 495
Theoretical Approaches To the Study of Religion
Faculty: Klawans
R 3:30PM-6:30PM
Origins and history of the academic study of religion. Different constructions of religion as an object of study and the methods that arise from them. The role of the humanities and social sciences in understanding religion’s place in history and contemporary experience.

CAS RN 498
Topics in Ancient Christianity: Augustine
Faculty: Fredriksen
T 3:30PM-6:30PM
The works of Augustine in their cultural and historical contexts.