|
99407 |
REL 103 Buddhist Thought and Practice |
Kristin Scheible |
M . W . . |
10:30 - 11:50 am |
OLIN 204 |
HUM/DIFF |
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
|
99512 |
REL 106 Introduction to Islam |
Ismail Acar |
M . W . . |
1:30 - 2:50 pm |
OLINLC 115 |
HUM/DIFF |
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.
|
99186 |
REL 140 Sanskrit |
Richard Davis |
. T W Th . |
9:20 - 10:20 am |
OLIN 101 |
FLLC |
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.
|
99184 |
REL 145 Filming Saint Paul |
Bruce Chilton |
. T . Th . |
1:00 -2:20 pm |
Center for James,
Village Dorm A |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Theology Paul has been reviled and revered
throughout Western history. A visionary thinker who combined Stoicism, Judaism,
and nascent Christian theology, he transformed all of them in the mix. He is
one of the most frustrating and tantalizing figures in our intellectual
tradition, because he tried to change every group he joined, every idea he
embraced. A particular challenge of the seminar will be to discuss how Paul
might be represented visually, on film. The producers of “Rabbi Paul,”
currently in production, have made their screenplay available for our use.
|
99187 |
REL / ASIA 152 Asian Humanities Seminar |
Richard Davis |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 306 |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Asian Studies This course will examine classic texts in
three primary Asian cultures: India, China, and Japan. Works may include the teachings of the
Buddha, Confucius, and Chuang-tzu, epics like the Ramayana, the poetry of
Kalidasa and Basho, and the Japanese novel Tale of Genji. Through an engagement with these great
works, we will seek to understand some of the ways Asian thinkers have dealt
with fundamental issues pertaining self, society, and the cosmos that are
common to all humans. Like the First
Year Seminar, the format of this seminar will involve close reading of select
texts, seminar discussion, and expository writing. The course is intended as an entry into Asian Studies.
|
99189 |
REL 175 Classics of Judaism |
Jacob Neusner |
. T . Th . |
10:30 - 11:50 am |
OLIN 101 |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Jewish Studies This is a course in the study of a
particular religion, meaning to exemplify an important trait of religion in
general. It concerns how writing serves
as a medium for preserving and handing on religious experience in the life of
an on-going religious community (a community formed principally by shared
convictions about God and how God is made manifest to humanity). Judaism is the
religion that knows God through the Torah, the self-manifestation of God to a
particular group of people, who called and now call themselves
"Israel," through the prophet, Moses. Other religions know God in other ways, through different media,
in the person of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, for Christianity; in the Quran
revealed through the prophet Muhammed, for Islam, to name two others. In this book we read writings that are part
of the Torah of Sinai. Specifically,
Judaism maintains that when God was made known at Sinai, the Torah was formulated
and transmitted for Moses in two media.
One was in the medium of writing, and the written Torah corresponds to
the Five Books of Moses as we know them, also known as the Pentateuch; these
form the beginning books of what Christianity calls the Old Testament, and
Judaism, the written Torah. The other
medium was through a process of oral formulation and oral transmission, that
is, a process of memory. This other
part of the one Torah of Sinai, the oral part, called in Judaism "the
memorized Torah," encompasses all of the documents that are presented in
this course, but the Torah extends far beyond those particular documents. We deal with the first writings beyond
Scripture that the Judaism of the Dual Torah treats as part of the Torah, the
Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, and related writings, Every classical writing in this book forms part of the oral
Torah, that is to say, the oral part of the one whole Torah that God revealed
to Moses at Mount Sinai. And the first
thing you learn is that, in Judaism, a classical, authoritative writing -- a
document accepted by the consensus of the faithful as normative and true --
finds a place in the revealed will of God that the Torah comprises. Each of these writings, therefore,
represents a moment at which, as at Sinai, in the conviction of the community of
the faithful, the Torah encompassed still more truth, in an ever-growing and
never-ending transaction of revelation.
|
99185 |
REL 269 Sacred Pursuits |
Bruce Chilton |
. T . Th . |
2:30 -3:50 pm |
Center for James,
Village Dorm A |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Jewish Studies, Theology This seminar is devoted to developing
theoretical self-awareness in the study of religion. In order to achieve that
end, we will read some of the key theorists in the study of religion, apply
their insights to case-studies, and refine their approaches as seems necessary.
|
99245 |
REL 279 Jewish Responses to Destruction |
David Nelson |
. T . Th . |
4:00 – 5:20 pm |
OLIN 308 |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Jewish
Studies The
notions of destruction, suffering, and victimhood have often played prominent
roles in Jewish collective identity. This course will examine Jewish textual
responses to three important instances of destructions of Jewish communities:
the destruction of the Second Temple, the destructions of European Jewish
communities during the Crusades, and the destruction wrought upon most of
Europe's Jewish communities during the Holocaust. We will study primary texts
that express theological, philosophical, and literary responses to these
important historical turning points.
|
99511 |
REL 321 Seminar in Islamic Law: Crime and
Punishment |
Ismail Acar |
. T . . . |
9:30 - 11:50 am |
OLIN 302 |
HUM/DIFF |
Cross-listed: Middle East Studies; Human Rights This course aims to introduce students to
the history and practice of Islamic law with the focus on crime and punishment
in two parts. During the first part of this course, we will trace the
sources of Islamic law, the formation of Islamic jurisprudence, and the history
of Islamic law in society. In the second part of the course, theory of crime,
capital punishments, retaliation, stoning, flogging, exile, and amputation in
both classical and contemporary literature will be explored. Current
implementations of these punishments in Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran
will be examined. Prerequisite:
one religion course or permission of instructor. Program category: Historical
|
99258 |
PS 327 American Religion and Politics |
Mark Lindeman |
. . . Th . |
9:30 - 11:50 am |
OLIN 301 |
SSCI/DIFF |
See Political Studies
section for description.
|
99408 |
REL 345 Legends and Legitimacy in
Theravada Buddhism |
Kristin Scheible |
. . W . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 101 |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Asian Studies This course will explore
the genre of chronicle (vamsa) as employed in Southeast Asian
Theravada Buddhist cultures. Broadly
construed, our project is to explore the relationship between myth and
history. How are mythically-infused
histories conceived, preserved, explained, and employed? What do the “histories” of the founding of
kingdoms in Sri Lanka and Northern Thailand say about their producers and
consumers? After establishing our bearings by reviewing the social history of
Theravada Buddhism, we will focus on the earliest (4th-6th
century C.E.) (vamsa) texts from Sri Lanka, the Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa,
where stories of three visits of the historical Buddha galvanize Sinhala Buddhist
presence and claims of authority and culminate in the heroic tale of the second
century B.C.E. Sinhalese King Dutthagamini.
Topics to consider include the voice of the chronicles themselves as
products of the orthodox Mahavihara,
the particularity of view, and the complicated relationship with state
authority and royal patronage. We will
examine how these texts have been employed in current nationalist and Buddhist
fundamentalist movements. We then turn
to an informative case from fifteenth-century Northern Thailand where an
orthodox Theravada chronicle follows similar patterns and claims a preordained
status for the nascent kingdom of the seventh-century Queen Cama. Prerequisite:
REL 103 or permission of instructor. Religion
Program Category: Historical
|
99188 |
REL COL Religion Colloquium |
Richard Davis |
M . . . . |
5:30 -6:50 pm |
OLIN 201 |
|
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
|
99183 |
HEB 101 Beginning Hebrew |
David Nelson |
M T W Th . |
1:25 -2:25 pm |
PRE 101 |
FLLC |
|
99506 |
HEB 201
Intermediate Hebrew |
TBA |
M T W Th . |
9:00-10:00 am |
OLIN 306 |
FLLC |
See Jewish Studies
section for description.