Raising issues of spirituality, this course investigates a theological exchange between Judaism, represented by its classical writings, and Christianity, formulated in its initial canon, that of orthodox, catholic Christian tradition. We cover three dimensions of the religious life lived by both religious traditions equally: knowing God, dying in good faith, and bearing faithful witness to God through martyrdom - two of them common human experiences, the third an exemplary one. When we speak of meeting God and of how we die, we take up human experiences that the faithful of Torah and Christ know full well. And, in the aftermath of the Holocaust and in the age in which Christians in Africa and Asia suffer for their faith, we share knowledge of what the martyr exemplifies for us all. These three dimensions of the inner, spiritual life of faith take the human measure of what it means to live life in the Torah, for Judaism or in Christ, for Christianity.

Prophets, shamans, visionaries and mystics exemplify the ways in which religious systems engage and channel the ecstatic dimensions of human experience, albeit sometimes with reluctance. Are there meanings in such experiences that point toward or represent transcendent truths? What are the implications such experiences hold for understandings of our world and such notions as person, self, individual nature, and society? How do they speak to the sources of creative imagination and analytic intuition? This course explores theological methods for questioning, examining and utilizing ecstatic and transpersonal experiences. Among the authors considered will be Dionysius the Areopagite, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, George Fox, William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Evelyn Underhill, Virginia Woolf, Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner, Colin Wilson, Edward Schillebeeckx and Matthew Fox. Methodological and cross-cultural contributions from the social sciences on altered states of consciousness, creativity, and spirit possession will be included. (Limited to 15 students.)

The Bible is of pivotal importance in understanding the development of literature and history in the West, and it offers unique insights into the nature of the religious consciousness of humanity. Familiarity with the biblical documents, and a critical appreciation of those documents are therefore among the attainments of an ordinarily well-educated person in our culture. By means of lectures, discussions, quizzes, essays, and a test, the present course is designed to help students become biblically literate. Tutorials in Greek and Hebrew may be arranged in association with the course.