2 credits The religion colloquium is a two-credit course open to all students, but required of religion moderands. The purpose of the colloquium is to foster a community of scholarship among students and faculty interested in the study of religion, and to prepare public presentations of independent research. The colloquium is designed to encourage interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on students' topics of particular interest. Weekly sessions will be devoted to discussion of new books, films, CD-roms, etc. as well as regular updates of progress on senior projects. Public sessions of the colloquium will be scheduled three or four times each semester; students who enroll for credit will shoulder the responsibility for preparing papers to present in these sessions. Outside speakers and faculty members may also be invited to present papers in these public sessions.

The main purpose of this course is to familiarize ourselves with the major categories of Buddhism, an historically pan-Asian religious tradition of remarkable philosophical and practical diversity, and expansive geographical and chronological scope. While the course will always maintain an historical perspective, to provide us with a framework for understanding Buddhist developments in their cultural and temporal contexts, the course will be structured mainly along thematic lines, according to the traditional concepts of the "Three Jewels or Refuges": Buddha (teacher, exemplar, enlightened being), Dharma (doctrine), and Sangha (community), and the "Three Trainings": Shila (ethics), Samadhi (meditation), and Prajna (wisdom). Following this structure, we will closely read primary sources (in translation) and historical and ethnographic studies, in order to explore how Buddhists, both ancient and modern, have viewed the world and lived their lives in the cultural settings of South and Southeast Asia (Theravada Buddhism), East Asia (Mahayana Buddhism), and the Tibetan and Himalayan regions of Asia (Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism). Religion program category: Historical

This introductory survey covers the history of Islam from its origins in Arabia to the modern day. It touches on all the main features of the religion, such as the Qur'an, the life of Muhammad, Islamic theology and mysticism, but also deals with modern issues of fundamentalism and attitudes toward women. Along the way, the class will focus on the construction of religious history within Islam, including the claims of extremists and reformers to represent authentic history. Religion program category: Historical

Capital punishment, euthanasia, warfare, the environment, abortion, reproductive technologies, homosexuality, pre-marital sexuality, and divorce are among the issues on which individuals and communities seek to make appropriate moral responses. Within Christianity, there are several recognized sources of moral guidance: the scriptures, tradition, natural law, reason, conscience, official church declarations and personal experience. Various Christian traditions variously weight these sources, resulting in differing outlooks not only between traditions but in the application of shifting standards of moral reasoning from issue to issue within traditions. Moreover, church history offers striking illustrations of significant reframings of moral standards for such issues as capital punishment, usury, slavery, homosexuality and abortion, which result in radical reassessments and reversals on matters long regarded as settled. Focusing on a selection of moral issues, this course will closely examine notions of the processes of moral decision-making within Christianity, as well as various understandings of the moral life itself. Religion program category: Historical

2 credits The history of Western civilization, from late antiquity and the fall of Rome, through the founding of Europe, to the Middle Ages, Renaissance, two Reformations (Protestant and Catholic), Enlightenment, 19th century Romanticism, and to the present day, represents a working out of a grand conversation between the religions of the West, Judaism and Christianity, and the politics and culture of Europe (encompassing the European overseas diasporas). In four large divisions, comprising a total of fourteen topical units, this course will describe the high points of the history of West. The survey will show how religion has laid the foundations of Western civilization and for much of history how it has defined the issues of politics and culture of the West. Representative cases of literature, philosophy, music, architecture and art will illustrate the interplay of religion and politics, religion and culture, from Augustine to the Cathedral to Baroque music in the Catholic Reformation, and on into deism and the American experiment, for example. The Islamic component of European civilization will enter in at appropriate points. Readings will stress descriptive, narrative history, on the one side, and living expressions of sentiment, intellect, and emotion by participants at the great ages of that history, on the other. Preference given to first-year students. Religion program category: Historical

In this 55^th anniversary of independence in India, it seems appropriate to reflect upon the life, ideas, and legacy of perhaps the single most important figure in that national freedom movement, and surely one of the most remarkable figures anywhere in the 20^th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi. This course will examine some of Gandhi's own works, as well as different analyses of Gandhianism done by various critics inside and outside of India. We will begin with two of Gandhi's own writings, the autobiographical Story of My Experiments with Truth, and his seminal treatise on politics and civilization, Hind Swaraj. Then we will investigate a variety of interpretive approaches to his life and work, ranging from the dramatic (Richard Attenborough's Academy Award-winning film "Gandhi") and the fictional (R.K. Narayan's Waiting for the Mahatma) to the documentarial ("The Making of the Mahatma") and the social-scientific (Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph's Gandhi: The Traditional Roots of Charisma). Gandhi's spiritual life will be explored as well. Finally, we will consider aspects of Gandhi's ongoing influence within and without India, such as the impact of his life and teachings on social activists and reformers, like Sunderlal Bahugana in India and Martin Luther King in America.

2 credits In the year 35 CE, a Pharisee named Saul departed Jerusalem, having been converted to a movement that venerated Jesus as a teacher whom God had raised from the dead. At that time, he was a marginal figure within a marginal movement. Within a period of fifteen years, he emerged as the most radical theologian of that movement, which during the same time took the name of Christianity. Saul reverted to his pagan name, Paul, and insisted on a complete redefinition of what constituted "Israel." In his mind, and in the practice of communities he influenced, all Christians -- whether or not Jewish by descent or affiliation - became Israel at the moment they believed in Jesus. The purpose of the lectures and seminars is to understand how and why Paul framed this theology.

The course combines intermediate-level readings in Sanskrit with the study of Indian society and religion. Beginning with a review of basic grammatical structures of Sanskrit, students will quickly move on to read Sanskrit texts such as the animal fables of the Hitopadesa, the religious philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, and the classic poetic rendition of the Buddha's life, the Buddhacarita of Asvaghosa.

Prerequisite: Sanskrit 101-102 or equivalent.

The Jewish people have been known as the People of the Book. However, in recent scholarship it has been suggested that "The People of the Body" would be fitting as well. Because historically Judaism has defined itself in a complex combination of religion, ethnicity and nationhood, questions of sexuality, reproduction and the role of the body are central to its understanding. Biological reproduction has stood with cultural reproduction as a religious value, and the engenderment of bodies is a central concern. In this course we will explore the interface of sexuality, the body, and Judaism's religious literature, rituals and practices. Circumcision and the symbolism of blood, practices pertaining to menstruation, eating and clothing will be discussed, along with questions of the construction of gender and attitudes toward sex and sexualities. Religion program category: Theoretical