Religious Studies Fall 2024 Course Offerings

Religious Studies FALL 2024 Course Offerings

100.        Mystery and Meaning: An Introduction to the Study of Religion.
What is religion? Why are people religious? What power does religion have for individuals and societies? How does religion function as a way of knowing, acting, and being in the world? How did the study of religion arise in the modern West, and how scholars of religion go about studying it? What ways have they devised to grasp the rich varieties of religious experiences and expressions that they classify as religions? Throughout the course, students will study a wealth of material that may be regarded as religious, from societies past and present, literate and non-literate, and from around the globe. Finally, students will reflect on the place of the religious in contemporary society. Offered each semester.

222.        Buddhist Religious Traditions.
An introductory exploration of the various classical and contemporary forms of Buddhism. The initial task is to understand the Buddha in the context of India in the sixth to fifth centuries BCE, then to examine the emergence of a sophisticated philosophical and psychological literature, the meditational techniques of Tantra and Zen, the different forms of monastic life, lay practice and more. The course enables students to follow the historical spread of Buddhism into Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, Japan and, more recently, the West. Offered every other year. Also offered through Asian Studies. Fulfills HU Distribution.

272.     The Crusades
The medieval phrase "taking the cross" described a variety of military actions, often characterized as God's will. They were influenced by and generated new ideological expressions of legitimate religious violence. This course looks at crusades to the area known as the "Holy Land," and the expanded ideology of crusading that underpinned attacks against heretics, Iberian Muslims, Jews, pagans, and others. Issues engaged include: crusaders' motivations; ideas of Christian holy war and just war; Islamicate perceptions of the crusades; pogroms against Jews; the Military Orders such as the Knights Templar; and cultural interaction and non-interaction among western Christians, eastern Christians, and Muslims in the "Latin East." Fulfills HU Distribution.

281.     American Religious Lives
NO PRE-REQS In this course we will look at the diversity of religions practiced in America to think about what that diversity means for understanding the range of human religious experiences. We will also discuss religious diversity's perennial challenge to Americans' conceptions of equality and inclusiveness, and how recognition of a tradition as a religion is often implicated in one's access to legal protections and civil rights. Of particular interest in this class is the significance of American religions in the construction, maintenance, and frequent re-formation of identities, principally as it pertains to notions of community, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. Important to this course is also the effort to understand our own identity formations in relation to the powerful impact that religions and debates about the role of religion in American life has had on us, even when we were not aware of it, or even if we are not originally from the United States. Fulfills HU Distribution (2013 curriculum). Fulfills DIV13 Distribution.

3045.   Holy Horrors
Religion and the Religious in Horror Films. Horror films deal with transcendence. They invariably are about worlds, beings, and paranormal experiences that go beyond what we know, what is "natural," and what is "real" in this beautiful but also terrifying world where we live. Horror films, through text, sounds, music, and pictures offer an "as if reality," something we can enjoy and ponder without necessarily believing in it as an absolutely true, real, and authoritative. In the darkness of the movie theater, we can experience the "stygian transcendence" of horror films: We confront the frightening reality that there are powerful dangers, evils, and chaotic forces beyond our control that threaten our sanity, our lives, our world, and our very humanity. This course focuses on a variety of American horror films, for the most part that reflector express what we want to call "religion."

4001.   Mythologies
This class is a critical analysis of myth and mythmaking. It takes the term broadly, to include narratives conventionally called myth and to include other narratives of ideological import, such as national mythologies. In order to question the category of myth, the class considers case studies such as Old Norse mythology and the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas in the United States. (Is "Santa Claus" the deity in his own religion of consumerism? Is Christmas a means of inculcating morality in children?) Scholarship on the category of myth informs the analysis of these case studies. Students will pursue a research project on a topic of their choice.

450.     Directed Studies in Religion
An individual study program for candidates for honors in religious studies or others showing special interest and aptitude in the study of religion, as approved by the department chair and the instructor under whom the work will be completed. A term paper is required as the product of the special study. (A 2.5 average is required.) Also offered through Asian Studies.

489.     SYE: Independent Study
An individual study program for candidates for majors in religious studies that fulfills the requirements for their SYE and may be taken in place of Religious Studies 360 with approval of the department chair. (A 2.5 average is required.) An extended term paper is required as the product of the special study.

498.     SYE: Honors
This is a departmentally approved honors project requiring an extended term paper that is the product of the special study. A cumulative GPA of 3.5 in the department is required to do an honors project