[Any of these courses will satisfy the
GDR:HU3 requirement.]
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Rel. Stud. 100 (NW) "Religions of
Asia" offered every semester
Corinne Dempsey -- This
course provides an introductory view into the major religious traditions of
Asia, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism and introduces students to some of the
problems and issues involved in the study of comparative religion.
Rel. Stud. 101 "Judaism, Christianity, Islam" offered once a year
Alice Keefe -- This course
introduces students to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
We will use a comparative methodology to understand how each of
these religions developed and changed over time, and how each religion
today offers ways for people to find meaning and significance in their
lives. Class time will be
divided between lecture and discussion.
Rel. Stud. 102 (MNS) "The Ways of Religion" offered every semester
Donald Fadner --
We
spend two-thirds of the course learning about four general "ways of
being religious" and observing their expressions in cultures from
many different places in the world.
The final section of the course examines the distinctive way of
being religious created by African Americans in response to the
experiences of slavery and exclusion in the United States.
There are frequent quizzes on the readings and three essay exams.
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Rel. Stud. 105 (NW) "Myths of
Creation" offered every semester
Donald Fadner -- We take a developmental approach to mythology, examining the creations of
the mythic imagination that have arisen out of human experiences with
hunting, with nurturing/gathering/planting (featuring the Goddess), and
with warrioring. There are frequent quizzes on the readings and
three essay exams.
Rel. Stud. 301 "Contemporary Religious
Thought" offered once every four
semesters
Donald Fadner (Subtitle:
God
and Nature)
-- Awareness of environmental issues has brought with it challenges to
traditional notions of God and proposals for new ways of imagining the
human place in Nature. We
will explore some of these.
Rel. Stud. 302 "Religion and Cultural
Conflict" offered once every four
semesters
Alice Keefe -- This course
explores the intersections between religion, violence and non-violence.
Our methodology will be comparative and cross-cultural. Possible topics to be covered include: religion and colonialism in the New World, fundamentalism and
gender in modern India, religion and racism in South Africa, engaged
Buddhism in Vietnam and Tibet. Class
time will be largely devoted to discussion of reading materials.
Rel. Stud. 303 "Jewish Scriptures" offered once every four
semesters
Alice Keefe -- This course introduces
students to the literature of the Hebrew Bible and to a variety of critical
(interpretive) approaches to that literature. We will study the Hebrew
Bible as the literary creation of an ancient people, shaped in its composition
by specific historical and sociological contexts, rather than as the revealed
word of a transcendent God. Our emphasis will be upon methods of
interpretation and upon the multiplicity of meanings which those
interpretations can produce. No prior knowledge of the Bible or any
religion is assumed or necessary for success in this class.
Rel. Stud. 304 "The New
Testament and Early Christianity" offered once every four
semesters
Donald Fadner -- We will investigate early Christian works, both within the New Testament
and in noncanonical texts, such as the Gospel of Thomas, to discern the
various ways in which their authors responded to the historical
circumstances in and for which they were writing.
Rel. Stud. 311 (MNS) "Religion in America" offered once every four
semesters
Alice Keefe -- This course will focus on
selected historical periods and problems in American Religious History.
Particular attention will be paid to the encounter of Europeans, Africans, and
Native Americans as the key formative factor shaping the emergence of new forms
of religion in America. Because Christianity has been a dominant
influence in this history, it will receive the lion's share of attention in the
course, but we will not consider any particular interpretation or form of
Christianity to be normative or correct. Rather, as we shall see, the
history of Christianity in America has been the history of the emergence of
many new interpretations and new forms of Christianity -- along with new
interpretations and new forms of other religions as well. As we study
America's considerable religious diversity, we will learn to exercise our
skills in both empathetic imagination and critical judgment.
Rel. Stud. 316 (MNS or NW) "Native
American Religions" offered once a year
Donald Fadner -- A consideration of the
spiritual traditions and aspirations of various American Indian peoples,
eastern woodland, plains, southwestern, northwestern, and their reactions to
the cooptation of their land and heritage by European peoples.
Rel. Stud. 321 "Studies in Religion" offered occasionally with various subtitles *
Corinne Dempsey -- (Subtitle:
Oppression & Liberation) -- This course examines religious
oppression and discrimination in the forms of sexism, economic injustice,
racism, anti-semitism, and homophobia. Readings will concentrate on the voices
of alternative theologies -- feminist, Latin American, Black, post-Holocaust,
and gay -- as expressions of liberation amid oppression.
Alice Keefe (Subtitle:
Women and the Biblical
World)
-- How are women and sexuality represented in the Bible?
How much (or how little) power or status did women have in the
social worlds that produced the Bible?
What relationships can we see between these social realities and
biblical images of women? We
will explore these and related questions through an interdisciplinary
approach that seeks not to arrive at one “right” answer, but rather
to struggle with problems of interpretation.
Joseph Waligore (Subtitle: New
Age Spirituality) -- We will study the basic elements and the most
important figures of the New Age movement. We will critically evaluate
the ideas of such figures as Redfield, Millman, Maharishi, Aurobindo, Ferguson,
Capra, and Chopra. We will also discuss important New Age concepts such
as reincarnation, karma, channeling, acupuncture, healing, est, and nature
spirituality. A portion of the course will be devoted to putting the
movement in its cultural context.
Rel. Stud. 330 "Women in
Religion" [offered once every four
semesters]
Alice Keefe --
This
course examines the historical development of patriarchal forms of
religion, symbolic constructions of gender within a variety of
religions, and the effects of patriarchal forms of religion upon
women’s religious lives and self-perceptions.
Class time will be devoted to discussion of the reading
materials.
Rel. Stud. 333 "Women and Goddesses in India" [offered
every two years]
Corinne Dempsey -- Study of women's
roles, notions of female power, and goddesses in Hindu tradition.
Rel. Stud. 340 (NW) "Buddhism" [offered once every 4th semester]
Alice Keefe -- Study of Buddhist
religious traditions in their historical and cultural contexts. Special
attention will be given to the relevance of Buddhism for addressing problems in
the modern world such as war, environmental degradation and social injustice.
Rel. Stud. 341 (NW) "Religions of India" [2 sections offered once
every two years]
Corinne Dempsey -- A study of
Hindu deities, practices, and philosophies including a comparison of Indian and
U.S. Hinduism, and Hinduism's influences on Indian Christianity.
Rel. Stud. 342 "Islam" [offered
Corinne Dempsey --A study of Islam
in a variety of historical, cultural, and political contexts. Basic
overview of Islamic beliefs and practices including attention to issues of
women in Islam, politics and war in Islam, and Islamic mysticism.
Rel. Stud. 392 "Rel. Studies Internship"
1 cr. Pass/Fail (Prereq: CONS INSTR)
This course is offered in association with the reading adjunct program
through the Tutoring and Learning Center, LRC. The intern provides small group
reading and writing assistance in selected religious studies courses.
Rel. Stud. 450 "Senior Seminar" offered once a year with various subtitles
Alice Keefe (Comparative Mysticism)
-- Do
all religious paths lead to the same goal?
This course considers this question by studying and comparing the
writings of mystics and yogis from different religious traditions, with
particular attention given to the ongoing interreligious dialogue between the
Buddhist and Christian traditions.
(Prereq:
1 course in Rel. St. or cons. inst.)
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* 321 is a special topics course and is not offered on a regular schedule.
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