Fall 2024 Courses

Religious Dimensions of Human Experience

*Required course for all RLST majors
RLST��1620-010��| 3.0
Aun Hasan Ali, �Ѱ��1:25–2:15��(*Note you must also sign up for a recitation section.) HALE 230

Surveys different approaches to the study of religion. Students will grow familiar with key thinkers, texts, and movements that shape how we understand religious phenomena. Students will also examine critiques of how religion is studied. In the end, students will have gained insight into significant aspects of religious life, belief, and practice that will empower them to navigate a world in which religion is increasingly relevant.

A&S Core: Ideals and Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Huamnities and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities

Jewish History to 1492

RLST/JWST/HIST��1818-010��| 3.0
Jamie Meyers,��TTH 2:00–3:15, HUMN 250

Focus on Jewish history from the Biblical period to the Spanish Expulsion in 1492. Study the origins of a group of people who call themselves, and whom others call, Jews. Focus on place, movement, power/powerlessness, gender, and the question of how to define Jews over time and place. Introduces Jews as a group of people bound together by a particular set of laws; looks at their dispersion and diversity; explores Jews' interactions with surrounding cultures and societies; introduces the basic library of Jews; sees how Jews relate to political power.

Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
CMCI Core: Diversity & Global Cult-NonCMCI
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

RLST/JWST 1900-001 | 3.0
Samuel Boyd, MWF 11:15-12:05,��HUMN 1B80

Examine the content of the Hebrew Bible and critical theories regarding its development. Explore the development of these texts, as well as their foundational role for rabbinic literature and the New Testament. Assess the enduring influence of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in world literature and culture (such as in art and music).

Islam

RLST 2202-001 | 3.0
Aun Hasan Ali, �հձ��9:30-10:45, HUMN 250

Introduces students to foundational Islamic concepts, texts, core practices, historical narratives and intellectual, spiritual and literary traditions. Topics covered include: the figure of Muhammad; the Quran; the emergence of distinct Muslim identities; Hadith; Sharia; Islamic theology; Islamic philosophy; science in Islamic civilization; Islamic mysticism; the impact of colonialism and modernity on the Muslim world; gender and sexuality; and political Islam.

A&S Core: Ideals & Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Business General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
CMCI Core: Diversity & Global Cult-NonCMCI
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Education General Education: Diviersity-U.S. Perspective
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Music General Education: Diversity-US Perspective

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

RLST/JWST 2600-001 | 3.0
Samuel Boyd, MWF 12:20–1:10, HUMN 135

In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham is described as a founding figure. In recent times, the label “Abrahamic Religions” has become increasingly important both as a way to describe the origins and beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and as a means for finding common ground in political and religious discourse. Yet in each religion Abraham is also used in strikingly different ways and for distinct purposes. In this course, we will look at these three religious traditions and how each one imagines Abraham. In particular, the focus will be on how each religion uses Abraham to construct foundational stories of a special relationship to God, stories that ultimately serve to promote religious identity over time.��

Asia Content
A&S Core: Ideals & Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Arts & Hum: Ways of Thinking

Happiness and Nirvana: India

RLST��2610-001 | 3.0��
Loriliai Biernacki, TTH 12:30–1:45, LBB 155

Addresses religious and spiritual practices geared towards ideals of enlightenment across various religious traditions in India, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, in relation to different social groups historically. Examines the concept of happiness (sukhā) and its connections to spiritual enlightenment.

Yoga: Ancient and Modern

RLST 2612-001 | 3.0��
Loriliai Biernacki, TTH 2:00–3:15, HUMN 150

Addresses the history and philosophy of yoga, beginning from its earliest articulations in Vedic India 1200 BCE up to contemporary understandings of yoga. Examines yoga's historical evolution from a primarily mental practice to a bodily centered practice. Looks at the shifts yoga undergoes as it becomes popular in the modern West.

A&S Core: Human Diversity
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
CMCI Core: Diversity & Global Cult-NonCMCI
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective

Paganism to Christianity

RLST 2614 / CLAS 2610-001 | 3.0��
Celene Lillie, MWF 11:15-12:05, HUMN 135

Offers a cultural history of Greek and Roman religion. Students read ancient texts in translation and use evidence from archaeology to reconstruct the shift from paganism to Christianity in antiquity. No Greek or Latin required.

A&S Core: Ideals & Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities

Women and Religion

RLST/WGST 2800-001��| 3.0��
Celene Lillie, MWF��10:10-11:00, HUMN 135

What is a woman? ��What is religion? ��How does the answer to one inform the answer to the other? ��In this course, we will explore a range of literature from ancient Greek and Roman mythology to first and second century Jewish and Christian writings alongside contemporary readings from Buddhist, Muslim, Indigenous, and Christian traditions. ��To frame these explorations, we will engage theories of gender and religion, particularly the ways in which they intersect with race, class, and violence.

A&S Core: Human Diversity
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Education General Education: Diviersity-U.S. Perspective
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-US Perspective
Arts & Hum: Lit & Humanities

Judaism

RLST/JWST 3100-001 | 3.0
Elias Sacks, TTH 11:00–12:15, HUMN 1B90

What is Judaism? What beliefs and practices have been associated with this tradition, and how have these ideas and customs developed over time? Is there such a thing as��Judaism, or should we speak instead of various��Judaisms? This course will explore such questions, surveying Jewish belief, practice, and literature from the biblical period to the present day. We will encounter diverse voices and explore the changing contexts in which these voices have emerged, paying special attention to the relationship between the beliefs that Jews have held and the rituals that Jews have performed. We will consider specific topics such as forms of worship associated with Jewish life; Jewish views on religious diversity, race and Judaism in the contemporary United States; and attempts to reimagine inherited beliefs in light of developments such as the Holocaust. Exploring these topics will also lead us to reflect more broadly on the nature of religion.

Asia Content
A&S Core: Historical Context
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Upper
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities

Women, Gender, Sexuality in Jewish Texts and Traditions

RLST/HEBR 3202/WGST 3201-001 | 3.0
Celene Lillie, TTH 12:30–1:45, DUAN G2B21

Reads some of the ways Jewish texts and traditions look at women, gender and sexuality from biblical times to the present. Starts with an analysis of the positioning of the body, matter and gender in creation stories, moves on to the gendered aspects of tales of rescue and sacrifice, biblical tales of sexual subversion and power, taboo-breaking and ethnos building, to rabbinic attitudes towards women, sexuality and gender and contemporary renderings and rereadings of the earlier texts and traditions.

A&S Core: Human Diversity
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
CMCI Core: Diversity & Global Cult-NonCMCI
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Upper
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective

Foundations of Buddhism

RLST 3300-001��| 3.0
Dan Hirshberg �հձ��9:30-10:45, ECCR 150

This course provides an introduction to Buddhist thought and practice in the variety of its historical and cultural contexts. We begin with the story of the Buddha, his teachings, and the early Buddhist community in India. We then trace the expansion of the Theravada to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia with a focus on the role of images and relics in Buddhist ritual and kingship. Next, we consider the rise of Mahayana in India including the bodhisattva ideal, key doctrinal concepts of emptiness and buddha nature, the cosmology of buddha lands, and the Buddhist path in Mahayana contexts.

Asia Content
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Upper
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities

Seminar: Religion and Authenticity

RLST 4820/5820-001��| 3.0
Deborah Whitehead, M��3:35–6:05, HUMN 270

This seminar for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in religious studies will focus on��the religious dimensions and philosophical roots of the rhetoric of “authenticity” in contemporary popular culture.�� In this course we will become familiar with and critically analyze genealogies of authenticity in the modern West.�� We will treat “authenticity” and “realness” as, among other things, religious categories and discourses, and as such, we will seek to identify, contextualize, and critically analyze their various (re)presentations.�� Tracing the roots and present manifestations of these discourses in cultural studies, philosophy, American religious history, anthropology, critical theory, communication studies, and religion and digital media studies, we will examine how “authentic” individuals and “authentic” forms of practice and belief are described and prescribed, and what these forms signify. Attention will also be given to critical analysis of the rhetoric of authenticity in the academic study of religion.�� Limited to graduate and advanced undergraduate students in religious studies with a prerequisite of 6 hours RLST coursework or instructor permission.��

Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Upper
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities

Seminar: Gender in Hagiography

RLST 4850/5850-001��| 3.0
Holly Gayley, W��3:35-6:05, KTCH 1B60

Gender in Hagiography focuses on the lives and writings of medieval and modern female visionaries. We explore gendered ideals of sainthood as well as issues of embodiment, agency, and voice in religious biographies, letters, fiction and film. Drawing mainly from the lives of female saints in Buddhist and Christian sources, we also consider the construction of mendicant masculinities. In examining these sources, we discuss a range of corporeal practices—from asceticism to sexuality—and their connection to visionary experience.

Introduction to the Academic Study of Religion

RLST 6830-001 | 3.0
Elias Sacks,��T��3:30–6:00, HUMN 270

What is the academic study of religion? What do we mean when we talk about “religion,” and what does it mean to adopt an “academic” approach to this subject? This course will explore diverse approaches to these questions, providing an introduction to a wide range of methodological options and theoretical perspectives in the field of religious studies. We will devote attention to topics such as the relationship between practice and belief, the promise and perils of comparing different religious traditions, and the role of the body and materiality in religious life. We will also examine the complicated history and political stakes of the field of religious studies itself, wrestling with issues including the role of colonialism in forging a comparative approach to religion, the development of concepts such as “religious” and “secular,” and the role of political advocacy in scholarly work.��

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