Courses
Courses
Fall 2005 Courses
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- 014. Heresy and Orthodoxy
- Jorunn Buckley M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Ashby House-Conference Room - This writing-intensive course focuses on readings in heretical texts, orthodox creeds and scholarly treatments of the religious-ideological construction of heresy and orthodoxy. Fundamentally, heresy is dangerous precisely because of its proximity to orthodoxy. Examples will focus on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions; attention is given to categories such as dogma vs. freedom, pure vs. impure, society vs. individual. Facets of present-day debates on fundamentalism will be included.
- 023. Death in the Ancient World
- Nicola Denzey M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Kanbar Hall - 109 - An interdisciplinary first year seminar on death in the ancient world. We will examine mortuary culture and ritual, the literature of consolation letters and eulogies, and evidence for changing attitudes toward death across cultures from ancient Egypt to the "cult of the saints" in the Early Christian Rome.
- 101. Introduction to the Study of Religion
- John Holt T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Hubbard-Conference Room West - Basic concepts, methods, and issues in the study of religion, with special reference to examples comparing and contrasting Eastern and Western religions. Lectures, films, discussions, and readings in a variety of texts such as scriptures, novels, and autobiographies, along with modern interpretations of religion in ancient and contemporary, Asian and Western contexts.
- 208. Islam
- Jorunn Buckley M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
VAC-Kresge Auditorium - Furnishes a non-apologetic outline of Islam while tackling anti-Islamic prejudices common in general American culture. Selected themes include the religion�s own terminological apparatus and categories of understanding, ritual and ethics, religious and secular leadership, mystical traditions, and modernity issues in Islam. In the interest of balance, there is an emphasis on including works by Muslims, especially regarding central topics in modern Islam.
- 222. Theravada Buddhism
- John Holt T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
Hubbard-Conference Room West - An examination of the major trajectories of Buddhist religious thought and practice as understood from a reading of primary and secondary texts drawn from the Theravada traditions of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Burma.
- 234. Christianity and Culture in Latin America
- Jill Wightman M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Adams-208 - Examines the impact and importance of Christianity in Latin America and its role in shaping Latin American culture. Begins by looking at the cultures - Iberian, native American, and African - that together forged the region now thought of as Latin America. Explores the formative role of Christianity and the blending of different religions in the "traditional" culture of Latin America. Discusses important 20th- and 21st-century developments in Christianity in Latin America, such as Liberation Theology, the rise of evangelical Protestantism, and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
- 253. Women in Religion
- Elizabeth Pritchard T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
Chase Barn-Chamber - Analysis of the ways in which religion authorizes women�s oppression and provides opportunities and resources for women�s emancipation. Topics include the enforced gender relationships of monotheism; the goddess movement as alternative society; and the conflicts generated among women by racial, class, religious, ethnic, and sexual differences. Materials drawn from Christianity, Neopaganism, Voudon, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism.
- 289. Construction of Goddess and Deification of Women in Hindu Religious Tradition
- Sree Holt T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
CT-16 Whiteside Room - The focuses of this course include: 1) an examination of the manner in which the power of the feminine has been expressed mythologically and theologically in Hinduism; 2). how various categories of goddesses can be seen or not as the forms of the "great goddess, " and 3) how Hindu women have been deified, a process that implicates the relationship between the goddess and women. Students will read a range of works, primary sources such as Devi Mahatmya, biographies and myths of deified women, and recent scholarship on goddesses and deified women. One-half credit course.
- 390. Theories about Religion
- Elizabeth Pritchard T 1:00 - 3:55
Ashby House-Conference Room - Seminar focused on how religion has been explained and interpreted from a variety of intellectual and academic perspectives from the sixteenth century to the present. In addition to a historical overview of religion�s interpretation and explanation, the focus also includes consideration of postmodern critiques and the problem of religion and violence in the contemporary world.