Religion

• 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.
• 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.

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