Courses

• CAS RN 336: The Heretical Jew
  Explores heresy in the Jewish context, both in the classic sense and as a category evolving in the secular world. Topics include biblical and rabbinic heretics, early modern and Enlightenment philosophy, post- Holocaust theology, and feminist and gay/lesbian challenges to normative Judaism. Also offered as CAS XL 356.
• CAS RN 337: Gender and Judaism
  Jewish monotheism examined from the perspectives of gender theory, feminism, and homoeroticism. Themes include religion and gender, women and homosexuals as "other" in Jewish and Christian thought, difficult traditional texts and their reappropriation, issues in contemporary spirituality.
• CAS RN 339: The Modern Jew
  Explores modern Jewish experience of space, body, language, and the self as sites of the struggles over a secular identity. Part of a sequence on "The Other Within." Counts toward concentrations in Judaic Studies and Religion.
• CAS RN 340: The Quran
  The emergence of the Quran as a major religious text, its structure and literary features, and its principal themes and places within the religious and intellectual life of the Muslim community.
• CAS RN 341: Islamic Mysticism: Sufism
  Rise and development of the mystical movement in early Islam; analysis of the thought of leading Sufi brotherhoods, their organization, liturgy, and religious life; the impact of Sufism on classical and postclassical Islam.
• CAS RN 344: Islam and the West
  Considers centuries of cooperation and conflict between Islam and the West, including the "Golden Age" of Islamic Spain, the Crusades, medieval European views of Islam, enslaved Muslims in the New World, colonialism and its legacies, and Western Muslim communities today.
• CAS RN 345: Islamic Law
  A survey of major 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 348: Rumi and Persian Sufi Poetry
  Introduction to the Persian Sufi poet Rumi's narrative and lyric writings. Beginning with an introduction to Islamic mysticism, studies the innovative aspects of Rumi's poetry and the problem of profane vs. sacred love. All readings in English translation. Also offered as CAS LZ 281.
• CAS RN 360: Daoist Religion
  A historical survey of the Daoist traditions in China. The philosophy of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu and Han dynasty religion. Early Daoist movements, as well as the heyday of the religion in the Six Dynasties and the Tang. Modern Daoism as it was first formed in the Tang dynasty is also discussed.
• CAS RN 363: Zen Buddhism
  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 364: Buddhist Literature
  Focuses on Buddhist sutras and other literature to explore key issues of doctrine, philosophy, and praxis in the Theravada and Mahayana traditions of Buddhism. Topics include the Buddha's life, practicing the path, emptiness, and interdependence.
• CAS RN 369: Science and Christianity
  Examines the relationship between science and the Christian tradition in Europe and North America since 1500. Considers the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of both science and Christian thought as they have evolved over time. Also offered as CAS HI 369.
• CAS RN 375: Culture, Society, and Religion in South Asia
  Ethnographic and historical introduction to the Indian subcontinent with a focus on the impact of religion on cultural practices and social institutions.
• CAS RN 382: History of Religion in Pre-Colonial Africa
  The study of the development of religious traditions in Africa during the period prior to European colonialism. An emphasis on both indigenous religions and the growth and spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the continent as a whole. Also offered as CAS AA 382 and CAS HI 349.
• CAS RN 384: 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.
• CAS RN 385: 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. Also offered as CAS XL 281.
• CAS RN 387: 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 ideology.
• CAS RN 389: Moses and the Origin of 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.
• CAS RN 396: Philosophy of Religion
  Critical survey of the manner in which philosophers over the centuries have evaluated the truth and value claims of various religions. Focus on Hegel and the nineteenth-century emergence of "philosophy of religion" as a subdiscipline of philosophy and theology.
• CAS RN 397: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
  Topics vary from year to year.

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