Courses

• GRS RN 684: The Holocaust
  Background of German (and European) anti-Semitism. Rise of Nazism and early oppression, initial Jewish reaction, mechanics of destruction, ghettos, camps, world response and nonresponse, literature of the Holocaust, and religious implications.
• GRS RN 685: Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and Film
  Questions of representation in literature and film about the Holocaust, including testimonial and fictive works by Wiesel and Levi, Ozick, and others; films include documentaries and feature films. Discussions of the Holocaust as historical reality, metaphor, and generative force in literature.
• GRS RN 687: Anthropology of Religion
  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 idealogy.
• GRS RN 688: Oral Tradition as Verbal Art
  Exploration of religious and secular poetry worldwide with emphasis on the ethnography of communication. A focus on performance in oral tradition and its consequences for literary form, as well as the impact of mass media and literacy on orality.
• GRS RN 689: Moses and Monotheism
  From Philo to Freud, the richly varied afterlife of the biblical Moses figure and story of monotheism's Egyptian origins, considered as an abiding preoccupation of western religions, theology, literary and visual art, and secular thought.
• GRS RN 690: New Testament Literature
  Exploration of the work that constitutes a "New Testament Literature": scriptual 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.
• GRS RN 697: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
  Two topics are offered Fall 2010. Students may take one or both for credit. Topic for Section A1: God, Politics, and Philosophy. From head scarves to school prayer, the intersection of religion and politics raises important philosophical questions. Course parallels Institute for Philosophy and Religion's lecture series. Also offered as GRS PH 656. Topic for Section B1: Phenomenology of Religion: The Relation Between Philosophy and Theology as a Phenomenological Problem. A consideration of the "theological turn" of recent French phenomenology. Preliminary reading of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and its construal of the relation among philosophy, religion, and theology provides a thematic context for contemporary readings from Michel Henry, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Jean-Luc Marion.
• GRS RN 698: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
  Topic for Spring 2006: Phenomenology of Religion. Traces the development of "phenomenology" from nineteenth- to twentieth-century philosophy before turning to twentieth-century phenomenology of religion and the "phenomenological philosophy of religion." The theme of self-consciousness and the relation between philosophy and theology are explored throughout.
• GRS RN 699: Teaching College Religion
  The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in religion. General teaching-learning issues. Required of all teaching fellows.
• GRS RN 712: Theology of Christian Mysticism
  A concentrated venture in philosophical theology. This lecture, reading, and discussion course centers on the thought, not the praxis, of selected major mystics in the Christian tradition. Overviews Greek philosophical backgrounds then moves to a close examination of Eckhart, Nicolas of Cusa, Boehme, and William Blake.
• GRS RN 713: Gender in Medieval Christian Mysticism
  Study of the Christian mystical traditions of medieval Europe, both orthodox and heretical, with particular emphasis on the role of gender and authority in mystical writing, practicing, and teaching. Also offered as GRS HI 713.
• GRS RN 715: Traditional African Religions in Diaspora
  Chronicles the religions of the African Diaspora in transatlantic communities of African descent from the pre-colonial period to the present and examines the multiple dimensions of religion in the diverse cultural contexts influenced and transformed by African peoples.
• GRS RN 720: Maimonides
  A study of major aspects of the thought of Maimonides. Primary focus on the Guide of the Perplexed, with attention to its modern reception in works by Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Leo Strauss, and others.
• GRS RN 723: Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions: West
  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. Also offered as STH TT 901.
• GRS RN 724: Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions: East
  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. Also offered as STH TT 902.
• GRS RN 725: Topics in South Asian Religion
  Specific aspects of South Asian religions within a historical or comparative/ phenomenological framework. Two topics are offered 2009/2010. Students may take one or both for credit. Fall 2009: Religion and Politics in South Asia. Explores the relationship between religion and politics in colonial and post-colonial South Asia through readings of primary texts as well as debates on religious reform/revival, nationalism, caste, and partition. Spring 2010: Visual Piety in South Asia. A focus on the Indic concept of darshan (auspicious sight) as a way of understanding the everyday religious lives of South Asians. An exploration of the way people in the region "see" religion, with an emphasis on Hinduism.
• GRS RN 727: Topics in American Religion
  Topic for Fall 2010: Wandering as Practice and Play. Is wandering punishment or opportunity? Virtue or vice? Might this playful practice serve as an antidote to American obsessions with efficiency, productivity, and the purpose-driven life? Possible authors: Thoreau, Twain, Kerouac, Crace, Dillard, Berry.
• GRS RN 729: Rel & Pol Sa
  This course description is currently under construction.
• GRS RN 730: Topics in Asian Religion
  Topic for Spring 2006: 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.
• GRS RN 735: Women, Gender,and Islam
  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.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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