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Undergraduate Courses
Fall
2006 * Spring
2007
(click here
for a full inventory of Dept. of Religion courses)
CAS RN100
Religion & Culture
Faculty: Green
TR 9:30 - 11a.m.
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 RN102
Sacred Journeys
Faculty: Lehrich
MWF 2 - 3p.m.
An introduction to the comparative study of religion through scriptural images, travelers' accounts, and mystical reflection on the theme of the sacred journey in religious quest in Native American traditions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
CAS RN103
Religions of the World: Eastern
Faculty: Cogan
MWF 10 - 11a.m.
Study of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto. Focus on the worldview of each tradition and the historical development of that worldview.
CAS RN104
Religions of the World: Western
Faculty: Verter
MWF 11a.m. - 12p.m.
Continues but does not presuppose CAS RN 103. The study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Introduction to the development, thought, practices, and influence of these religions.
CAS RN106
Death & Immortality
Faculty: Prothero
TR 11a.m. - 12:30p.m.
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 RN201
Hebrew Bible
Faculty: Klawans
TR 12:30 - 2p.m.
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 RN204
Topics in Religion and Art
Faculty: Schwain
MWF 12 - 1p.m.
In-depth discussion of special issues in the study of religion and art. Topic changes each year. May be repeated for credit. Topic for Spring 2007: Word and Image in American Biblical Religions. Investigates interaction of word and image in America's religious visual culture. Addresses how words and images operate, their claims to legitimacy, and the relationship between seeing and believing. Topics include graphic novels, quilts, paintings, illustrations, folk art. Also offered as CAS AH 504.
CAS RN210
Buddhism
Faculty: Cogan
MWF 1 - 2p.m.
A historical introduction to the major themes of Indian Buddhist thought and practice with special attention to the development of Buddhism in Tibet.
CAS RN239
Religion and Science
Faculty: TBA
TR 2 - 3p.m.
Examines the complex relationship between science and religion, focusing on historical episodes (e.g., the "Galileo Affair") and curent controversies (e.g., "Intelligent Design" movement's influence on school curricula, "Spirituality and Health" research, and "Ecology and Religion.")
CAS
RN245
Religious Thought: The Quest for God and the Good
Faculty: Lobel
MWF 12 - 1p.m.
Introduction to religious thought, exploring the aims of human life, the
place of God in the good life, and the role of contemplation and action
in the spiritual quest. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Bible, Upanishads,
Bhagavad Gita, Augustine, Maimonides, Ghazzali.
CAS
RN301
Early Christianity
Faculty: Knust
TR 11a.m. - 12p.m.
Surveys the many different and often competing forms of Christianity that
arose and flourished in the second to the seventh century, from the "apostolic
period" to the Arab conquest in the Middle East.
CAS
RN311
African American Religious History
Faculty: Verter
MWF 1 - 2p.m.
Surveys the religious beliefs and practices of Americans of African descent
from the colonial period to the present. Foci include the role of religion
in the formation of personal and national identity, and the political
ramifications of Christian faith. Also offered as CAS AA 311.
CAS RN324
Introduction to Rabbinic Literature
Faculty: Klawans
TR 3:30 - 5p.m.
Chronological exploration of rabbinic Judaism's major documents, using
a modern scholarly anthology. The Mishnah; legal and legendary selections
from the midrashim and both the Jerusalem and Palestinian Talmuds. Themes:
monotheism, sin and atonement, heaven and hell, conceptions of gender,
the impact of rabbinic texts on medieval and modern Judaism.
CAS RN344
Islam and the West
Faculty: Ali
MWF 12 - 1p.m.
Examination of religious and intellectual interaction of Islam and the
West during the Middle Ages: philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, mystical
thought, and ethical theory. Literary and scientific influences also considered.
CAS
RN384
The Holocaust
Faculty: Levine
MWF 9 - 10a.m.
Background of German (and European) anti-Semitism. Rise of Nazism and
early oppression, initial Jewish reaction, mechanics of destruction, ghettos,
camps, world response and non response, literature of the Holocaust, and
religious implications.
CAS
RN387
Anthropology of Religion
Faculty: TBA
MWF 1 - 2p.m.
Myth, ritual, and religious experience across cultures. Special attention
to the problem of religious symbolism and meaning, religious conversion
and revitalization, contrasts between traditional and world religions,
and the relation of religious knowledge to science, magic, and ideology.
CAS
RN397
Topics in Philosophy and Religion
Faculty: Lehrich
M 3 - 6p.m.
Topic for Spring 2007: Religion, Science, and the Occult in the Early
Modern Age. Also offered as CAS PH 456.
CAS RN435
Women, Gender, and Islam
Faculty: Ali
M 3 - 6p.m.
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 RN450
Philosophy of Religion
Faculty: Zank
TR 12:30 - 2p.m.
An introduction in three stages to the philosophy of religion: its historical
development as a discipline of theology, metaphysics, and comparative
religion; its principal topics, issues, and problems; a close reading
of Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (1827).
CAS
RN499
Topics in Judaic Studies
Faculty: Levine
M 3 - 6p.m.
Examines Jewish people's moral and ideological debates about the use of
the military during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specal attention
to the creation of a new Jewish ethos of power and its ambiguous relation
to the Jewish tradition.
CAS
RN524
Topics in Bible and Literature: Apocalypse and Literature
Faculty: Costa
TR 9:30 - 11a.m.
Section A1: Apocalypse and Literature. Prereq: one literature
course. Literary response to the book of Revelation from ancient to modern
times. Readings from the Bible, Dante, Langland, Rabelais, Blake, Wordsworth,
Dostoevsky, Hölderlin, D. H. Lawrence, García Lorca, Beckett,
and others. Reference to visual and musical representations of apocalypse.
Students may take either or both sections for credit. Also offered as
CAS LL 560 A1.
CAS
RN524
Topics in Bible and Literature: Genesis: Scripture, Interpretation,
Literature
Faculty: Hawkins
TR 12:30 - 2p.m.
Section B1: Genesis: Scripture, Interpretation, Literature.
Prereq: junior standing and one course in literature or religion, or consent
of instructor. Comprehensive study of primary and secondary characters
in Genesis, and interpretations given them in Jewish and Christian exegetical
traditions, as well as in imaginative literature of the modern period.
Texts in translation or in original languages. Students may take either
or both sections for credit. Also offered as CAS LL 560 B1.
Department of Religion
145/147 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215
College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
E: religion@bu.edu • P: 617.353.2636 • F: 617.358.3087