Course	REL 103 Buddhist Thought and Practice
Professor	Kristin Scheible
CRN	97196
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 -4:20 pm OLINLC 210
Distribution	Humanities / Rethinking Difference

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

This course is designed to explore the “three jewels” of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teaching), and the Sangha (the Buddhist community).  We will move imaginatively through different historical periods, cultures, and what might be called “Buddhisms” in this introductory survey of Buddhist teachings and practices. Our goals are threefold: first, we must consider what tools are potentially helpful in the comparative study of religion.  We will revisit and reevaluate this objective throughout the course.  Second, and most importantly, we will explore the diversity of thought and practice within the religious tradition monolithically referred to as “Buddhism,” by acquainting ourselves with the texts and participants of various communities (or “schools”) of Buddhists including Theravada, Tibetan, Pure Land and Zen.  Finally, the “three jewels” framework will help us to organize our findings and to make sense of apparent continuities and differences among the traditions.  Religion program category: Historical

Course	REL 106 Introduction to Islam
Professor	Ismail Acar
CRN	97496
Schedule	Mon Wed 9:00 - 10:20 am OLIN 303
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-list: Middle Eastern Studies, Theology

Is Islam in Arabia in the seventh century the same religion as Islam in Michigan in the twenty-first century? Is a woman in fifteenth-century Iran the same kind of Muslim as a man in nineteenth-century Indonesia? Does West African Islamic mysticism differ from South Asian Islamic mysticism? This course answers these questions by introducing Islamic religious systems in world context. We will study a series of cultures in order to explore differing elements of Islamic practice and to understand some commonalities of Islamic faith. Regions we will encounter include Arabia, Iran, Africa, South Asia, Indonesia and Malay Peninsula, and America. Themes we will trace include conceptions of prophecy, ritual practice, development of Islamic theology and jurisprudence, forms of mysticism, relationship between genders, and definitions of communal identity. Textual traditions we will examine include the Quran, traditions of the prophet Muhammad, philosophical treatises, mystical guidebooks, reform literature, and contemporary educational manuals.

Course	REL 122 Catholicism & American Society
Professor	Paul Murray
CRN	97203
Schedule	Tu Th 4:00 -5:20 pm OLIN 201
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: American Studies, Theology

Life in the American republic presented Roman Catholics with new opportunities and challenges, including religious pluralism, democratic ideals, and minority status in a predominantly Protestant society. Within the framework of a historical overview, this survey course examines the understandings and strategies employed by Catholic organizations and individuals as they engage life in the United States to craft a distinctively American Catholic culture. American Catholic responses to the social, cultural and theological challenges posed by the post-Vatican II, post 1960s period will be examined in depth.

Religion program category: Historical

Course	REL 140 Sanskrit
Professor	Richard Davis
CRN	97200
Schedule	Tu Wed Th 9:20 - 10:20 am OLIN 309
Distribution	Foreign Language, Literature & Culture

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Classical Studies

Sanskrit is the language of ancient India, the language in which such works as the Bhagavad Gita, the great Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Upanisads were written. In this course students will learn the grammar and syntax of Classical Sanskrit and acquire a working vocabulary. In the second semester students will read substantial portions of original texts in Sanskrit. Religion program category: Interpretive

Course	REL 156 Religions and Politics
Professor	Bruce Chilton
CRN	97541
Schedule	Wed Fri 12:00 – 1:20 pm OLIN 310
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: Theology

With the close of the Cold War, a confrontation that took on some traits of a religious struggle between the Soviet and American empires, President George H. W. Bush announced a "new world order," and Francis Fukuyama predicted "the end of history." Events have disappointed belief in those and other forecasts. Instead, the underlying role of religion in shaping behavior, which had been obscured by the polarity of the "Superpowers," has become increasingly evident, and in some cases troubling. This course investigates how the global religions shape ideals and policies and strategies of governance out of their classic resources. Religion program category: Theoretical

Course	REL 236 Introduction to Sufism
Professor	Ismail Acar
CRN	97498
Schedule	Tu Th 10:30 – 11:50 am OLIN 107
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: Middle Eastern Studies

Sufism is one of the most important philosophical and theological movements within the world of Islam. While primarily known for their production of mystical poetry and achievement of ecstatic states, Sufis have produced a unified system of belief and interpretation which both transgresses and defines the boundaries of the Islamic religious tradition. In this course we will examine some of the central ideas of Sufism, such as the nature of the relationship between God and humanity, and between God and His creation. The implication of these relationships for the process by which the Sufi hopes to achieve closeness or even union with God will be examined. As well as the intellectual aspect of Sufism, the historical developments of the Sufi orders, and their social and political role in Islamic history will be dealt with. As far as possible, translations of original Sufi texts will make up the majority of the course readings. The course is open to all students, but previous work in the study of religion is strongly recommended. Religion program category: Interpretative

Course	REL 242 Hinduism in the Epics
Professor	Richard Davis
CRN	97201
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 -4:20 pm OLIN 301
Distribution	Foreign Language, Literature & Culture

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

The Indian epics have long been one of the major ways that the teachings of the Hindu tradition have been transmitted. In this course we will read the Mahabharata (including the Bhagavad Gita) and the Ramayana, with a view to the role of the epics in Hindu ritual and devotional life. In addition, we will examine how these texts have been retold and performed in various ways up to the present. Religion program category: Interpretive

Course	PSY / REL 266 Mind, Brain & Religious Experience in the 21^st Century
Professor	Frank Scalzo / Paul Murray
CRN	97187
Schedule	Mon 2:00 -4:00 pm RKC 111 Tu Th 1:00 -2:20 pm OLIN 202
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: STS; Theology

This course will examine modern approaches to understanding the role of neural systems in mediating conscious everyday experience and mind alterations during religious experience. Mechanisms of sensation, perception and consciousness will be discussed with an emphasis on their alterations during a variety of paths to religious experience including prayer and meditation. The course will also examine the locus of religious experiences within diverse religious systems, including, for example, the cultivation and interpretation of various states of consciousness. What impact do contemporary scientific perspectives have on the study of religious systems? Film screenings, demonstrations and group work will take place during the laboratory meeting.

Religion program category: Theoretical

Course	REL 268 The Quran: Listening, Reading, Viewing
Professor	Ismail Acar
CRN	97548
Schedule	Mon Wed 10:30 – 11:50 am OLIN 303
Distribution	Humanities / Rethinking Difference

Cross-listed: Middle Eastern Studies, Theology

Unlike other religious texts, the Quran explains itself. It announces itself as the word of God, and verse after verse reiterates that its form and content provide proof of the reality of Allah’s dominion. This course aims to understand how the Quran as a divine book is situated within Islamic culture. In assessing the position of and meanings in the Quran, we will approach the text through three modes of analysis: listening, reading, and viewing. In the first part of the course, we will review scholarship about the Quran’s constitution. In the second part, we will examine Quranic recitation as the mechanism by which most Muslims first encountered and continue to encounter the text. In the third part, we will study verses in thematic clusters in order to understand the Quran’s message and proclaimed relationship with other religious books. In the fourth part, we will focus on Quranic inscriptions in calligraphic and visual arts. No Arabic required. Program category: Interpretive

Course	REL / PS 327 American Politics Seminar: Religion and Politics
Professor	Mark Lindeman
CRN	97179
Schedule	Wed 1:30 -3:50 pm OLIN 307
Distribution	Social Science /Rethinking Difference

See Political Studies section for description.

Course	REL 338 World Religions in the Hudson Valley
Professor	Kristin Scheible
CRN	97197
Schedule	Fr 9:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 202
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

The first unit of our course will consist of a historical overview of the religious movements that have shaped the religious diversity of the Hudson Valley.  As we conclude the first unit we will take excursions to local sites of interest.  In the second unit, we take the influx of Buddhism into the Hudson Valley (resulting both from immigration of Asian Buddhist communities as well as the rapid spread of various schools of Buddhist thought and practice in the West) as a case study.  Our focus will be on the major and still evolving Buddhist presence from the Wappingers Falls stupa, to the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra and Zen Mountain Monastery of the Woodstock area, to the first Tendai institution in America in Chatham.  Finally, in the third unit students will devote their attention to a location and religious tradition of their choice and produce both a contribution to our collective research on area institutions as well as a critical paper about religious pluralism and diversity around us.  Students will begin to map area establishments, and use methods devised and modeled by the Pluralism Project; we may web-publish our contribution as this sector of New York has yet to be mapped.

Course	REL 343 Popular Arts in Modern India
Professor	Richard Davis
CRN	97198
Schedule	Tu 4:00 -6:20 pm OLIN 309
Distribution	Analysis of Arts

Cross-listed: Art History, Asian Studies

In India one sees them everywhere: bright wide-eyed Hindu deities, in poster form, perched above cash registers in restaurants and clothing shops, glued to the dashboards of taxis and buses, and framed on the walls of temples and home shrines. These mass-produced chromolithographs or “god-posters” occupy a central place in the visual landscape of modern India, but until recently they have remained far on the periphery of scholarly attention. In this seminar we will explore the world of Indian god-posters. The course will consider iconographic features, stylistic developments, political and religious significations, and devotional responses to these popular commercial prints. We will look at the ways the artists have adapted their visual practices within commercial structures of production, and how they have directed their arts towards devotional needs. We will also situate this pervasive genre in “interocular” relation to other modern forms of South Asian visual arts, such as tribal and folk arts (Warli and Mithila painting), pilgrimage paintings (Kalighat, Nathadvara), Parsi theater, photography in India, and especially Bollywood cinema.

Course	REL COL Religion Colloquium
Professor	Kristin Scheible
CRN	97202
Schedule	Wed 6:00 -7:20 pm OLIN 202
Distribution	None

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. Religion program category: Theoretical