Courses

• CAS RN 401: Senior Independent Work
  
• CAS RN 402: Senior Independent Work
  
• CAS RN 412: Theology of Christian Mysticism
  A concentrated venture in philosophical theology. Lectures, reading, and discussion center on the thought, not the praxis, of selected major mystics in the Christian tradition. Overviews Greek philosophical backgrounds; closely examines Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, Boehme, and William Blake.
• CAS RN 413: 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, practice, and teaching. Also offered as CAS HI 413.
• CAS RN 415: Traditional African Religions in the 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.
• CAS RN 420: 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. Also offered as CAS PH 409.
• CAS RN 424: 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.
• CAS RN 425: Topics in South Asian Religions
  Specific aspects of South Asian religions within a historical or comparative/ phenomenological framework. Topics vary from year to year.
• CAS RN 427: Topics in American Religion
  Topic for Spring 2012: The Culture Wars in America: Jefferson to Obama. Examination of culture wars in the United States from the election of 1800 to the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy. Possible topics include anti-Catholicism in the Age of Jackson, the slavery debate, and anti-Mormonism.
• CAS RN 429: Religion and Politics in South Asia
  Explores the relationship between religion and politics in pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial South Asia through readings of primary texts as well as debates on religious reform/revival, nationalism, caste, and partition.
• CAS RN 430: Topics in East Asian Religions
  Topic for Fall 2011: Women in East Asian Religions. Explores religious lives of women in China, Japan and Korea. Covers Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, shamanism and folk traditions. Includes premodern and contemporary beliefs and practices drawing on case studies and broader historical and doctrinal materials.
• CAS RN 434: Representations of Muhammad
  Explores Muslim and non-Muslim representations of Muhammad over the centuries in prose biographies, poetry, and film. Attention to differences of genre across time and space. Focuses on shifting ideas about holiness, sex, violence, and revelation.
• CAS RN 435: 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.
• CAS RN 439: Jewish Bioethics
  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 441: Hermeneutics
  Analysis of literary works, ancient and modern, informed by hermeneutical theories of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur. Attention to structure and meaning of symbol, myth, narrative; religious, philosophical, and poetic discourse; problems of self, world, and the Divine.
• CAS RN 443: Problem of Evil
  A philosophical and theological analysis of the problem of evil, as formulated in the Bible and other sacred texts, ancient and modern philosophy, literature, and cinema. Also offered as CAS PH 483.
• CAS RN 452: Topics in Religious Thought
  Topics vary from year to year.
• CAS RN 453: Topics in Religion and Sexuality
  Topic for Fall 2011: The Body and Sexuality in Classical Religious Texts. Treats foundational primary sources in translation on sex and the body in several world religions. Consideration of differences in sources: genre, gender, modern/classical. Traditions include Greek, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist.
• CAS RN 459: Primo Levi Within Holocaust Literature
  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 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.

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