Course Descriptions: 2005-06
The course numbering system in Religious Studies is as follows:
- 100-level: Introductory courses -- not prerequisite for the 200-level.
- 200-level: Foundation courses -- basic surveys of the religious traditions, all open to first-year students.
- 300-level: Focus courses -- on more specific topics, some open to first-year students.
- 400-level: Seminars (limited to 12 or 15 students) -- usually have prerequisites, but some open to first-year students.
For a more detailed description, click here.
Our introductory courses (RLST 101, 102, and 103) are designed especially
for students new to the study of religion, although they are not prerequisites to other courses. RLST 101 is a
regular class; RLST 102 covers the same material in the format of a seminar limited to first-year students; RLST
103, also a first-year seminar, covers equivalent material with a focus on women and religion. Students who enroll
in any one of these and wish to fulfill their Humanities requirement with Religious Studies courses may do so by
taking any other course in the department. For this purpose we especially recommend our foundation courses (200
level), which can also serve as first courses in Religious Studies. The introductory and foundation courses are
indicated below by the 
symbol.
A few upper-level courses do have specific prerequisites, and a few with no specific course prerequisites do require
sophomore or junior standing. They are so noted below.
First Semester
|
RLST 101 |
Introduction to the Study of Religion |
1/2 unit
|
Both semesters |
| Staff | Sample Syllabus: (02) | ||
| Four sections of this course are offered this year (but
see also RLST 102). The format of this course is lecture and discussion. The usual enrollment in each section is
twenty to twenty-five students. The course includes brief introductions to four or five major religious traditions,
while exploring concepts and categories used in the study of religion, such as sacredness, myth, ritual, religious
experience, and social dimensions of religion. Traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism,
Taoism, Hinduism, and Native American traditions are presented through their classic scriptures and traditional
practices. Readings vary among sections, but typically include important primary sources on Hindu thought and practice (e.g., the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-gita), Buddhist thought and practice (The Questions of King Milinda, the Heart Sutra), Jewish life and thought (selections from the Hebrew Bible, the Sayings of the Fathers), Christian origins (one or more Gospels, selected Pauline letters), Islam (selections from the Qur’an and Sufi mystical poetry), Confucianism (the Analects), Taoism (the Tao Te Ching), and modern expressions of religion (e.g., Martin Buber’s I and Thou). Many of the primary sources are studied in conjunction with relevant secondary sources (e.g., Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy, important articles by anthropologists of religion). The Department of Religious Studies emphasizes writing, and several essays are assigned in this course. The course is open to all students. |
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|
RLST 102 |
First-year Seminar: Introduction to the Study of Religion |
1/2 unit |
First Semester |
| Schubel | |||
| This course covers the same material as RLST 101 (see course description, above) but it is open only to first-year students and will be run in a seminar format. | |||
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| RLST
232 |
Afro-Caribbean Spirituality |
1/2 unit |
First Semester |
| Edmonds | |||
| This course explores the contours of the religious expressions that people of African descent have forged in the Caribbean. It will examine the context of domination and resistance in which African spirituality was forged, give a brief overview of African influence on religious expressions in the Americas, and explore the religious traditions of Vodou, Santeria, and Rastafari, paying close attention to their social history, their understanding of the universe, their social structure, and their rituals and ceremonies. | |||
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|
RLST 240 |
Classical Islam |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Schubel | |||
| Islam is the religion of nearly a billion people and the dominant cultural element in a geographical region that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia. This course examines the development of Islam and Islamic institutions, from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the death of Al-Ghazali in 1111 CE. Special attention will be given to the rise of Sunni, Shi'i, and Sufi piety as distinctive responses to the Qur'anic revelation. | |||
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RLST 270 |
Chinese Religions |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Adler | Syllabus | ||
| This course is a survey of the major historical and contemporary currents of religious thought and practice in Chinese culture. Our primary aim will be to gain a richer understanding of some characteristic Chinese ways of experiencing the self, society, and the world. We will examine the three traditional "teachings" (Confucianism, Daoism/Taoism, and Buddhism), as well as "popular religion," and the contributions of all four to Chinese culture. Specific themes will include ancestor worship, sacrifice and divination, religious ethics, meditation, and longevity techniques. In each section we will attempt to identify those aspects of Chinese religion which are inextricable from traditional Chinese culture and those which are capable of crossing cultural boundaries. Classes will be a mixture of lecture and discussion. | |||
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RLST 313 |
Jewish Mysticism |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Suydam | Syllabus | ||
| This course examines Judaism and the development of its mystical tradition from the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE to the Kabbalistic works of the thirteenth century. The course will also cover the later traditions such as Lurianic mysticism in the sixteenth century and Hasidism. Topics to be covered include the Merkebah mystics, who elaborated upon Ezekiel's vision of the fiery chariot; religion and magic; religious movements of later antiquity, such as Gnosticism, and their influences on Jewish mysticism; the influence of Jewish mysticism on the development of rabbinic Judaism and its classic texts; the origin of Kabbalah and its reinterpretation of Torah. Texts will include translations of mystical texts of this period, such as Merkebah tracts, the Book of Creation, the Bahir, and the Zohar. Prior knowledge of Judaism is not required. This course counts as a foundation course for religious studies majors and minors. | |||
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| RLST 325 | Women and Islam |
1/2 unit |
First Semester |
| Kilic-Schubel | |||
| This course will examine the construction of gender and the history of women in Islamicate societies. Challenging popular Western stereotypes and images of women in Muslim societies, it will explore a wide range of women's roles and experiences in a variety of cultural regions and historical periods. Through reading both primary and secondary sources by or about women, we will examine the historical processes that have influenced the status of women as well as the ways and strategies women have used to respond to them. Among the topics we will discuss are the methodological problems of approaching issues involving gender in Islamicate societies, women in early Islamic history, the diversity of positions of women in urban, rural, and nomadic societies in the premodern and modern periods, the roles of women in nationalist movements, and changing gender relations in new nation-states. We will proceed in chronological order, but the course will have a strong thematic approach. Prerequisite: RLST 240. Enrollment limited to fifteen. | |||
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| RLST 380 | Ethics and Social Justice |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Rhodes; McCarthy (sociology) |
Syllabus | ||
| This mid-level course will examine the development of theories of ethics and social justice from the ancient Hebrew tradition of Torah and the prophets, New Testament writers Luke and Matthew, and the political philosophy of Aristotle, to modern discussions about social, political, and economic justice. We will explore how modern social theories have employed ancient Hebrew and Greek teachings as the bases for social ethics. Questions of justice, freedom, economic development, individualism, and alienation will be major themes in this study of liberalism, Christianity, and Marxism. Special emphasis will be on contemporary debates about the ethics of democratic capitalism, including conservative theology and philosophy and radical liberation theology. Readings will be from the Bible, Aristotle, Pope John Paul II, M. Friedman, E. Fromm, R. Pirsig, E.F. Schumacher, and N. Wolf. Prerequisite: introductory sociology or religious studies courses or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as SOCY 243. | |||
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| RLST 390 | Approaches to the Study of Religion |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Adler | Syllabus | ||
| This course introduces students to the variety of academic approaches to the study of religion. We will cover the phenomenology of religion, philosophy of religion, hermeneutics, the anthropological and sociological approaches, the psychology of religion, feminist theory, and some theological approaches. Some of the major figures we will read include Marx, Freud, Jung, Weber, Durkheim, Otto, Eliade, Geertz, Turner, and Smart. The course is required for religious studies majors, who should take it before the senior year if possible. Prerequisite: RLST 101, 102, or 103. | |||
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| RLST 411 | Trials, Debates, and Controversies in American Religious History |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Edmonds | |||
| This course aims at an in-depth exploration of controversial issues in U.S. religious history—issues that resulted in trials and/or significant national debates, for example, the antinomian controversy and the trial of Anne Hutchinson, the Salem witch hunt, the Quaker Invasion, slavery and abolition, social gospel, Jim Crow and civil rights, and abortion and same-sex marriage. Each offering of the course will explore two or three such issues, utilizing role playing or more specifically the pedagogical approach called "Reacting to the Past," developed by Barnard College History Professor, Mark Carnes. Students will assume, research, and reenact the roles of the various participants in these controversies. For fall 2005, the course will focus on the trial of Anne Hutchinson, the abolition debate, and the Scopes trial. Enrollment limited. | |||
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| RLST 490 | Senior Seminar |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Rhodes | |||
| This year's topic will offer opportunities to examine different relationships between film and religion. Rather than reject cinematic depictions of religion in comparison with "real" religion, we will explore film as a religious function in itself, tracking the diverse images of religion and religious traditions that circulate in contemporary cultures worldwide. How does this popular medium convey lessons about values, symbols, and beliefs that shape both religion and society? Themes of myth/ritual, world views, founder figures, and "otherness" will be discussed using such films as: Devi; Kundun; La ultima cena; Mahabharata; The Quarrel; King of Kings; Nazarin; Secret of Roan Inish; and Aliens. The course is required for, but not limited to, senior religious studies majors. Religious studies minors are encouraged to enroll, provided there is space. Non-majors should consult the instructor for permission to register for the course. Enrollment limited. Permission of instructor required. | |||
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| RLST 493 | Individual Study |
1/2 unit
|
First Semester |
| Staff |
|
||
| Prerequisites: permission of instructor and department chair. | |||
Year Courses
| RLST 497Y-498Y | Senior Honors |
1 unit
|
Year Course |
| Staff |
|
||
| Prerequisite: GPA of 3.25 or better overall, 3.5 or better in Religious Studies courses, and permission of the department. | |||
Second Semester
|
RLST 101 |
Introduction to the Study of Religion |
1/2 unit
|
Both Semesters |
| Staff |
Sample Syllabus: (02) |
||
| See first-semester course description. | |||
| RELN 103 | Introduction to the Study of Religion: Women and Religion (First-Year Seminar) |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Dean-Otting | Syllabus | ||
| This course presents an introduction to the study of religion, focusing particularly on women. A variety of religious traditions will be explored as we look into myths, rituals, and practices particular to women. Traditions to be explored may include Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and some native American religions. Students will have a hand in shaping the syllabus in the last third of the semester with the expectation that individual interests can be accommodated. Enrollment limited to twelve first-year students. | |||
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RLST 212 |
The Jews in Literature |
1/2 unit |
Both Semesters |
| Dean-Otting |
|
||
| This course will use literature as a vehicle to introduce religious practices and themes in Jewish life. The course will examine outstanding works from the fourteenth through the twentieth century in a variety of genres (poetry, drama, folktales, short stories, and novels). We will study literature that was originally written in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and English. Authors in our study may include: Mendele Mocher Sforim, I.L. Peretz, Anski, Scholem Aleichem, H. N. Bialik, S.Y. Agnon, Chaim Grade, Anzie Yezierska, Mary Antin, Tillie Olsen, Yehuda Amichai, Aharon Appelfeld, Amos Oz, Philip Roth, Bernhard Malamud, and Leslea Newman, as well as non-Jewish writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and George Eliot. | |||
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RLST 225 |
New Testament |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Suydam | |||
| This course presents a study of the New Testament, focusing on images of Jesus and the origins of early Christianity. Students will learn the metholodogies for studying New Testament books, the composition of the New Testament, with careful attention to the historical background in Judaism and the Hellenistic Age. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor.. | |||
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| RLST
230 |
Religion and Society in America (U.S.) |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Edmonds | |||
| This course explores the religious history of the United States, with an emphasis on the relationship between religious beliefs/values and broader social and political processes. Section one examines the attempt of European immigrants to establish church-state compacts in New England and Virginia, while the middle colonies adopted a more pluralistic approach. Section two surveys the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War, looking at the separation of chruch and state, the growth of religious pluralism, and the continued existence of the "Peculiar Institution." Section three looks at how various social forces shaped religion in the United States from the Civil War to World War II: immigration, urbanization, prejudice, and the Social Gospel; expansionism and missions; and modernism and fundamentalism. Section four examines the shaping of the American religious landscape from World War II to the present through such forces as religious revitalization, activism for personal and civil rights, new waves of immigration, and new communication media. | |||
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| RLST 331 | Reformation and Literature: Dogma and Dissent |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Rhodes; Davidson (English) |
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| The Reformation deeply influenced the literary development of England and transformed the religious, intellectual, and cultural worlds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The long process of Reformation, shaped by late-medieval piety, the Renaissance, Continental activists, and popular religion, illustrates both religious continuities and discontinuities in the works of poets and prelates, prayerbooks and propaganda, sermons and exorcisms, bibles and broadsheets. This interdisciplinary course will focus on a range of English literature, from the Humanists under early Tudor monarchs to the flowering of Renaissance writers in the Elizabethan and Stuart eras, in the context of religious history, poetry, drama, prose, and iconography. Writers and reformers, such as More, Erasmus, Cranmer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Southwell, Herbert, and Donne, will be examined. NOTE: This course is cross-listed as ENGL 331. | |||
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| RLST 342 | Religion and Popular Music in the African Diaspora |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Edmonds | |||
| Religious spaces, ideas, and practices have exerted a formative influence on the cultures of the people of African descent in the Americas. Nowhere is this more evident than in the musical traditions of the African Diaspora. This course will examine the relationship between African Diaspora religious expressions and popular music in the United States and the Caribbean. It will focus primarily on the African-American (U.S.) musical traditions, rara from Haiti, calypso from Trinidad and Tobago, and reggae from Jamaica. Special attention will be given to the religious roots of these musical expressions and their social functions in shaping identity and framing religious, cultural, and political discourses. Readings, videos, audio tapes, and CDs, along with presentations and discussions, will assist us in the exploration of the various facets of our topic. Enrollment limited. | |||
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| RLST 381 | Meanings of Death |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Rhodes | |||
| In all cultures, the idea of death and dying has shaped the imagination in myth, image, and ritual. This course will explore the symbols, interpretations, and practices centering on death in diverse religious traditions, historical periods, and cultures. We will use religious texts (the Bible and the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying), art, literature (Gilgamesh, Plato, Dante), psychological interpretations (Kuebler-Ross), and social issues (AIDS, atomic weapons, ecological threats) to examine the questions death poses for the meaning of existence. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Enrollment limited. | |||
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| RLST 440 | Seminar on Sufism |
1/2 unit |
Second Semester |
| Schubel | |||
| This seminar will examine some of the important ideas, personalities, and institutions associated with Islamic mysticism. Students will read and discuss important primary and secondary sources on such topics as the development and organizations of Sufi tariqahs, Sufi mystical poetry, the nature of the Sufi path, and Sufi psychology. A crucial aspect of the course will be an examination of the role of the veneration of the "holy person" in Islamic society. Prerequisite: RLST 240 (Classical Islam) or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited. | |||
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RLST 472 |
Taoism |
1/2 unit |
First Semester |
| Adler | |||
| This seminar will examine the various expressions of Taoism
(Daoism) in the Chinese religious tradition. Beginning with the classical Taoist texts of the third century BCE
(often referred to as "philosophical Taoism"), we will discuss the mythical figure of Lao Tzu and the
seminal and engimatic text attributed to him (Tao Te Ching), the philosopher Chuang Tzu, and the shadowy "Huang-Lao"
Taoist tradition. We will then examine the origins, beliefs, and practices of the Taoist religion, with its hereditary
and monastic priesthoods, complex body of rituals, religious communities, and elaborate and esoteric regimens of
meditation and alchemy. Some of the themes and questions we will pursue along the way are: (1) the relations
between the mystical and political dimensions of Taoist thought and practice; (2) the problems surrounding the
traditional division of Taoism into the "philosophical" and "religious" strands; (3) the relations
between Taoism and Chinese "popular" religion; and (4) the temptation for Westerners to find what they
want in Taoism and to dismiss much of its actual belief and practice as crude superstition, or as a "degeneration"
from the mystical purity of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tsu. Prerequisite: any of the following: RLST 270 (Chinese Religions), RLST 471 (Confucianism), HIST 250 (East Asia to 1800), or permission of the instructor. |
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ASIA 490 |
Senior Seminar: Asia in Comparative Perspective |
1/2 unit |
First Semester |
| Adler | |||
| The topic of senior seminar this year will be the social, economic, and cultural aspects of Buddhism throughout Asia. As one of the major connective links among the varied cultures of South, Southwest, and East Asia for over two millenia, Buddhism has reflected and influenced cultural change on a wide variety of levels. The seminar will focus on Buddhism's role in intra-Asian trade via the "Silk Road", urbanization, the construction of identity (personal, national, and transnational), conceptions of power (numinous, political, and economic), and conceptions of order (cosmic, spiritual, and temporal). Specific topics will include Buddhist cosmology, notions of kingship (the cakravartin and the dharmaraja), the Buddhist community (sangha) and the wider social order, misssionary activity, pilgrimage, commerce, the confluence of spiritual and political power in Tibet, and the ways in which religious and secular phenomena can be mutually conditioned. Open to Asian Studies concentrators and others by permission.. | |||
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| RLST 494 | Individual Study |
1/2 unit
|
Second Semester |
| Staff |
|
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| Prerequisites: permission of instructor and department chair. | |||
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Edit date: 1/15/06