CRN	14136	Distribution	A/C
Course No.	REL 117
Title	Hindu Religious Traditions
Professor	Kristin Scheible
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 202

Cross-list: Asian Studies

This course will provide an historical overview of the series of religious movements in India collectively referred to as “Hinduism.” For the foundations of classical Hinduism, we will read from a vast corpus of mythic and epic literature and familiarize ourselves with the gods, goddesses, and heroes that have been central to Hindu religious practice throughout history. We will explore a range of social and devotional paths taken by Hindus by examining caste structure and social location, as well as the paths of action, devotion, and wisdom (karma, bhakti, and jnana, respectively). Moving into the contemporary context, we will focus on modern ethnographic accounts of how the tradition is lived, both in India and the United States, with a special eye to the construction of sacred space through temples and pilgrimage.

Religion program category: Historical

CRN	14064	Distribution	C
Course No.	REL 123
Title	Religious Foundations of Western Civilization
Professor	Bruce Chilton / Jacob Neusner
Schedule	Tu Th 4:30 pm - 5:50 pm OLIN 202

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies, Theology

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

CRN	14137	Distribution	C
Course No.	REL 130
Title	History of Islamic Society
Professor	Nerina Rustomji
Schedule	Mon Wed 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 308

Cross‑listed: History, Human Rights, Medieval Studies

The rise of Islam in Arabia affected dramatically the historical landscape of territories stretching from Spain to the Indus Valley, from Central Asia to Yemen. This course surveys the political, social, religious, and cultural developments of these Islamic worlds from the seventh to sixteenth centuries AD. We examine each region’s initial encounter with Muslims, investigate the process by which it transformed into an “Islamic” society, and determine how its particular cultural and dynastic forms evolved and eventually influenced the idea of the “Islamic World.” The course addresses topics such as the process of conversion, the relationship between Muslim rulers and their Muslim and non‑Muslim subjects, the maturation of Islamic theology and sciences, the formation of Islamic art, and the growth of political and religious institutions. Readings from the course include historical monographs, biographical traditions, poems, epic tales, mirrors for princes, political and religious manuals, and philosophical treatises. Religion program category: Historical

CRN	14139	Distribution	C
Course No.	REL 254
Title	Buddha Imagined: Literary and Artistic Landscape of Buddhism
Professor	Kristin Scheible
Schedule	Tu Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 301

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

We will begin our investigation of the sustaining myths and arts of Buddhism with the earliest images of the Buddha. How is the absent Buddha re-presented? Drawing upon literary and artistic sources, we will see how the biography of the Buddha is writ upon the landscape of his birthplace, and how his projected presence through images, relics, and stupas reinvents Asia in Buddhist terms. We will move beyond the paradigmatic biography of the Buddha to examine how new myths and images evolve to imagine and explain an expanding religious tradition. From early “aniconic,” symbolic stand-ins for the image of the Buddha to the later highly articulated and vast pantheon of Mahayana holy beings, we will consider how the central, mythic narrative and images transform as they are received and interpreted by other cultural settings. Religion program category: Historical

CRN	14138	Distribution	A
Course No.	REL 268
Title	Quran: Listening, Reading, Viewing
Professor	Nerina Rustomji
Schedule	Tu Th 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 305

Cross-listed: Theology

Related interest: Medieval Studies

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 study Quranic recitation as the mechanism by which most Muslims first encountered and continue to encounter the text. In the second part, we will examine verses in order to understand the Quran’s message and proclaimed relationship with other religious books. We will also survey the development of Quranic exegesis and sciences. In the third part, we will focus on Quranic inscriptions in calligraphic and visual arts from the eighth to twentieth centuries AD. While materials for the course include secondary sources and some theoretical texts, the course is driven by discussion of aural, textual, and visual sources in translation.

Religion program category: Interpretive

CRN	14140	Distribution	C
Course No.	REL 273
Title	Same-Sex Unions and Christianity
Professor	Paul Murray
Schedule	Tu Th 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 203

Cross-listed: Theology, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Related interest: Medieval Studies

The legitimizing of same-sex unions, both civilly and ecclesiastically, has emerged in recent years as a major preoccupation within many Christian communions. In addition, assertions regarding Christian rejection of such relationships have been invoked by political authorities within the United States as evidence to support their continued rejection by civil society. Drawing on scriptural, historical, cross-cultural, scientific and theological materials, this course will focus a critical light on arguments against efforts to legitimize same-sex unions within Christianity. With the increase of both legal and social acceptance of same-sex identities and, in some cases, relationships, in various societies, both Western and non-Western, the legitimizing of permanent, committed, same-sex relationships, or “gay marriage,” has emerged as an intense focus of theological debate and practice within most mainstream Christian churches. The course of study will begin with an examination of oft-cited scriptural texts, as well as the varieties of heterosexual marriage in Christian history. We will examine the monograph of John Boswell, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, in which he claims the existence of evidence for a blessing of same-sex unions that was employed, in effect, as a rite of union between persons of the same gender in some places in Europe for hundreds of years. In conjunction with this study, students will be required to attend the lecture of Ralph Hexter, a noted scholar of medieval and classical literature. Hexter's lecture will speak to the legacy of the late Professor Boswell, whose untimely death prevented him from responding to the controversies and criticisms that ensued, following the 1994 publication of this final publication of the acclaimed medievalist. We will examine, as well, official ecclesiastical documents that have been generated recently by various Christian communions in terms of the scriptural, historical and scientific data they adduce whether in support or opposition to the legitimizing of same-sex unions as a permanent feature of church and society.

Religion program category: Historical

CRN	14141	Distribution	A
Course No.	REL 352
Title	James, Brother of Jesus
Professor	Bruce Chilton
Schedule	Fr 12:00 pm – 1:20 pm OLIN 101

Cross-listed: Theology

(2 credits) The Gospels plainly identify James, whose name in Aramaic was Jacob, as Jesus' biological brother, and the book of Acts portrays him as the most prominent leader of Jesus' movement in Jerusalem after the resurrection. Yet his role in the primitive church has been obfuscated by the dogma of the virgin birth and by the pre-eminence accorded to Peter in the apostolic hierarchy. The purpose of this course, both a lecture series and a sequence of seminars, is to draw James out of the doctrinal shadows and permit him to be assessed within his own context.

CRN	14142	Distribution	n/a
Course No.	REL COL
Title	Religion Colloquium
Professor	Paul Murray
Schedule	Mon 4:30 pm - 6:00 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