Religion

• CAS RN 216: Judaism
  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 RN 220: Holy City: Jerusalem in Time, Space, and Imagination
  Transformation of an ordinary ancient city into the holy city of Jews, Christians, and Muslims; and development of modern Jerusalem, as shaped by British rule, Zionism, and Palestinian nationalism. Jerusalem's past, present, and meanings considered through analyses of religious and secular rhetoric.
• CAS RN 221: Moses
  From Philo to Freud, the richly varied afterlife of the biblical Moses figure, considered as an abiding preoccupation of western religions, theology, literary and visual art, and secular thought.
• CAS RN 224: Women and Religion
  Explores the roles, images, and experiences of women across a range of religious traditions. Topics key to the study of religion and gender are considered, including religious experience, the gendering of the body, and sources of religious authority.
• CAS RN 239: Religion and Science
  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 RN 241: Topics in Religion & Evil
  Topics vary; may be repeated for credit. Topic for Fall 2011: The Devil in the World. Addresses the construction of evil beings in early Jewish and Christian literature, their manifestation in medieval and early modern experience of demons and witches, and the modern functions of demon-belief in possession and cult rumors.
• CAS RN 242: Magic, Science, and Religion
  Boundaries and relationships between magic, science, and religion from late antiquity through the European Enlightenment. Topics include transformation of pagan traditions, distinctions between learned and popular traditions, Scientific Revolution, and changing assumptions about God and Nature. Also offered as CAS HI 203.
• CAS RN 243: Shamans and Shamanism
  Shamans in global and theoretical perspectives. The origins and construction of the category of shamanism. Modern theories and debates about the category and the appropriateness of applying it cross-culturally. Also offered as CAS AN 243.
• CAS RN 245: Religious Thought: The Quest for God and the Good
  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 RN 301: Varieties of Early Christianity
  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 RN 302: Early Christian Women
  An examination of the lives, concerns, and roles of women during the first four Christian centuries. Engages texts that present women as disciples, missionaries, ascetics, and church leaders, with attention to ancient gender constructions.
• CAS RN 307: Medieval Christianity
  Explores Christian beliefs and practices in medieval Europe within and outside formal church structures. Topics include accommodation of pagan culture, constructing identity, clerical and lay piety, heterodox practice and institutional response, and encounter with non-Christian traditions.
• CAS RN 308: The Open Heaven: Apocalyptic Literature in Early Judaism and Christianity
  Examines literary and historical roots of "apocalypticism" in early Judaism and Christianity. Attention to literary genre, symbolism, metaphor, heaven, hell, angelology, demonology, attitudes toward the end of the world. Examines relationship of apocalypticism to shamanism, mysticism, magic, magic, gnosticism, liturgy.
• CAS RN 309: Theology and Piety in Catholic Christianity
  Roman Catholic Theology, tradition and piety, with additional reference to the Orthodox Churches and to the Anglican Communion. Dogmas, a sacramental view of reality, a vision of human nature, forms of devout life. Catholic inspiration in art and music.
• CAS RN 310: Christendom Divided: Reformation and Religious Conflict in Early Modern Europe
  Religious change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the origins and causes of the Protestant Reformation; the Catholic Reformation; the resulting civil wars in the Germanies, France, and the Netherlands; pertinent aspects of Tudor and Stuart England. Also offered as CAS HI 209.
• CAS RN 312: Buddhism in America
  The transplantation and transformation of Buddhism in the United States. Time period ranges from the eighteenth century to the present, but the emphasis is on contemporary developments, including the new Asian immigration, Jewish Buddhism, feminization, and engaged Buddhism.
• CAS RN 316: Modern Islam
  Focuses on formations of Islam in colonial and postcolonial periods. How modernist and Islamist thinkers have negotiated the encounter between tradition and modernity.
• CAS RN 317: Greek and Roman Religion
  Survey of ancient Greek and Roman religions and their development from earliest beginnings to the eclipse of paganism. Theories and practices of these religions, comparisons with other religions, and relationships to Judaism and Christianity.
• CAS RN 318: Religion and American Foreign Policy
  Introduction to the historical roots and contemporary relevance of religion for American foreign policy. Uses conventional chronological approaches to explore key themes that illustrate the role of religion as input and object of American foreign policy. Also offered as CAS IR 318.
• CAS RN 319: Midrash: Classical Rabbinic Biblical Interpretation
  Explores rabbinic biblical interpretation in its literary, cultural, and historical context (second to seventh centuries CE). Examines how the rabbis read the Bible, and what these interpretations tell us about Jews and Judaism in the ancient world.

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