Course	REL 130 History of Islamic Society
Professor	Nerina Rustomji
CRN	16018
Schedule	Mon Wed 10:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 305
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: Humanities

Cross-listed: GISP, Middle East Studies, Medieval Studies

The rise of Islam in Arabia affected dramatically the historical landscape of territories stretching from Spain to the Indus Valley and 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. Special attention will be paid to the different forms of narrating history. Readings from the course include historical monographs, biographical traditions, poems, epic tales, mirrors for princes, political and religious manuals, and philosophical treatises. On-line

Religion Program category: Historical

Course	THEO / REL 201 Working Theology: the Bible as Literatures
Professor	Bruce Chilton
CRN	16061
Schedule	Wed 12:00 -1:20 pm OLIN 308
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: Humanities

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. On-line

Course	REL 241 Myth and Arts of India
Professor	Richard Davis
CRN	16077
Schedule	Tu Th 9:00 - 10:20 am OLIN 301
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: Humanities

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

Of related interest: Classical Studies

Stories about the legendary heroes and gods of India form the basis for much of the literature, visual art, and performing arts of southern Asia. In this course we will examine narratives from the Hindu epics, Puranas, and other literary sources relating the deeds of Visnu and his incarnations, the various manifestations of the Goddess, Siva in his multiple forms, and the Buddha Sakyamuni and his former lives. We will also explore how these myths have been represented visually in painting and temple sculpture, and how they are retold in the performative traditions of Indian drama and dance. In addition to the arts of India, we will also consider how these mythological traditions have been

both preserved and transformed in the arts of Bali and Indonesia. On-line

Religion program category: Historical

Course	THEO / REL 256 Historical Knowledge: Problems in Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Professor	Bruce Chilton / Jacob Neusner
CRN	16062
Schedule	Tu 2:30 -3:50 pm OLIN 310 + conference
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: History

For more than two centuries, the study of Judaism and the study of Christianity have been revolutionized by attempts to understand those religions in historical terms. During that period, history has been portrayed as both the friend and the enemy of religious insight. Profound controversies in regard to the aims and methods of historical knowledge have also characterized discussion since the Enlightenment. The purpose of this course, which will convene during a weekly seminar and also during a conference over several days, is to enable students to develop approaches to historical study that they believe are viable. On-line

Course	REL 261 Women in Buddhism
Professor	Kristin Scheible
CRN	16473
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 -4:20 pm OLIN 305
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: Humanities / Rethinking Difference

Cross-list: Gender & Sexuality Studies, GISP, Asian Studies

Paying attention to an immense diversity in historical, geographic and cultural locations of our subjects, we will encounter the sacred images and social realities of women in the Buddhist world.  Specifically, we will consider the ways in which categories such as "woman," "feminine," "gender," and "nun" have been explained and imagined by Buddhist communities (as well as by academics and feminists) through various historical and cultural locations.  We will begin with an examination of early Buddhist sources, the stories surrounding the founding of the nun's order and the songs of women saints (Pali Therigatha).  We will then consider gender(ed) imagery in Mahayana sources, with a sustained focus on the evolution of the bodhisattva Kuan-yin in China.  We will consider the feminine principle as envisioned by Vajrayana Buddhists in Tibet before devoting a significant portion of the course to the study of how real women in the contemporary Buddhist landscape, especially those who have taken vows, understand theoretical and practical tensions inherent in the Buddhist tradition.  Sources for this section will be the collected observations of nuns who were in attendance at the First International Conference on Buddhist Nuns, individual biographies of Buddhist women, and ongoing debates about women’s roles in the Buddhist sangha (community). On-line Program category:  Theoretical

Course	REL / PSY 266 Mind, Brain & Religious Experience
Professor	Paul Murray / Frank Scalzo
CRN	16075
Schedule	Tu Th 10:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 202
Distribution	OLD: C/E	NEW: Social Science

Cross-list: 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? On-line

Religion Program Category: Theoretical

Course	REL 268 Quran:Listening, Reading, Viewing
Professor	Nerina Rustomji
CRN	16078
Schedule	Mon Wed 1:30 -2:50 pm OLIN 107
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: Humanities

Cross-listed: 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. On-line

Program category: Interpretive

Course	REL 323 Religiously Plural World
Professor	Paul Murray
CRN	16079
Schedule	Mon 4:00 -6:20 pm OLIN 307
Distribution	OLD: A/C	NEW: Humanities

Cross-listed: Human Rights, Theology

The proximity of religious traditions in an increasingly global society tends to undermine absolutist and exclusivist truth claims, by rendering them both socially and psychologically untenable. What are the alternatives? This seminar will examine this question, by tracing its Biblical and historical roots and antecedents and examining its modern emergence among diverse religious thinkers, including Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner, Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths,and John Hick. Prerequisite: Moderation in Social Studies, or permission of the instructor.On-line

Course	REL 345 Legends and Legitimacy in Theravada Buddhism
Professor	Kristin Scheible
CRN	16081
Schedule	Tu 1:30 -3:50 pm OLIN 306
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: Humanities

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 (4^th-6^th 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. On-line

Religion Program Category: Historical

Course	REL 350 Ritual & Performance Studies
Professor	Richard Davis
CRN	16080
Schedule	Tu 4:00 -6:20 pm OLIN 301
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: Humanities

Cross-listed: Anthropology, Asian Studies

This seminar will explore theories of ritual and performance as they have developed in disciplines of religious studies, sociology, anthropology, and theater studies. Using a series of case studies, we will consider how these symbolic and transformative human practices are represented and analyzed within various theoretical perspectives. Of particular interest in this seminar will be rituals and ceremonial performances in the public sphere. We will look at political ceremonial such as royal coronations and Presidential inaugurations, enactments of public protest such as Gandhi’s Salt March, religious festival processions like Mardi Gras and the Rath Yatra, and performative dramas like the Ramlila. On-line

Religion program category: Theoretical

Course	REL COL Religion Colloquium
Professor	Richard Davis
CRN	16082
Schedule	Wed 7:00 -8:30 pm OLIN 201
Distribution	OLD: n/a	NEW:

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. On-line

Religion program category: Theoretical