11426 |
REL 131 Islam and Islamics |
Ismail Acar |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 202 |
HUM/DIFF |
See Religion section for description.
11346 |
THEO 201 Kierkegaard: A Writer’s Identity |
Nancy Leonard |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 310 |
HUM |
Cross-listed:
Literature, Philosophy An
exploration of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s experiments writing
through “indirect communication” (under a pseudonym) as well as “direct
communication” (signed by himself).
Kierkegaard sometimes rushed to the printer to keep a work from being published
under his name —and other times tried unsuccessfully to sign it in his own
name. Within the works theological,
philosophical, and literary play and
seriousness intersect, so a reading in Kierkegaard becomes an experience of
feeling boundaries stretched and clarified. What is an author—a person as well
as a writer? Can a “whole person” communicate directly? Is all representation
inevitably “indirect”? Is religious experience most effective in disguise? We will read great works that resist
religious perspective, or personify skeptical attitudes—as well as those,
especially frequent in his later years but present throughout—which embrace
theological desire. Among works studied
are Fear and Trembling, Either/Or, Repetition, and The Point of View of
My Work as an Author. Some reading in his journals and biography, in
Kierkegaard scholarship and in other writers will provide context for our
questioning, with him, of all identities that comprise the singularity of
experience. Required for prospective
theology concentrators but all are welcome, with no requirement of belief.
11030 |
THEO 212 Archaeology of the Bible |
Bruce Chilton |
. T . Th . |
1:00 -2:20 pm |
Center for the
Study of James |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Religion In two senses, the Bible has been an object of
excavation. Artifacts and
archaelological investigations have played a major part in the reconstruction
of the meanings involved, while the depth of texts -- as compositions that took
shape over time -- has been increasingly appreciated. This seminar involves
understanding the social histories of Israel and the early Church as they
shaped the biblical texts. This approach identifies the constituencies for
which the sources of the texts were produced. By “sources” we mean, not the
documents as they stand (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and so on), but the
traditions that fed into those documents. The final, editorial moment when
traditions were crystallized in writing is a vital juncture in the literary
formation of the Scriptures, but is not solely determinative of their meaning.
The unfolding of meanings within texts during the whole of their development
explodes the claim of a single, exclusive meaning in biblical exegesis. The
seminar will attend to the variety of meanings inherent within the Scriptures
-- without limitation to a particular theory of interpretation, and with
constant attention to issues of historical context. Religion program
category: Interpretive
11032 |
THEO 214 Visions of the Social Order in
Formative Judaism and Christianity |
Bruce Chilton / Jacob Neusner |
. T . . . |
10:30 - 11:50 am |
OLIN 101 |
SSCI |
Cross-listed:
Jewish Studies, Religion The seminar will focus on how a select group of
texts from Western antiquity envision human collectivity, on the normative
pictures they construct and project of how human beings should live together in
community. The basic question of our inquiry is: How does religion
imagine society? We want to explore the contours of religious imagination in
the particular case of a vision of the social order.
11031 |
THEO 320 The Gnostic Quest |
Bruce Chilton |
. T . . . |
2:30 -4:50 pm |
Center for the
Study of James |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Religion
Gnostics between the first century and the fourth century of the Common
Era quested for a single, integrating insight into the divine world amid the
conflicting religious traditions of ancient society, apart from parochial
requirements, peculiar customs, and ethnic preferences. Traditional religions
talked about transcendence, but restricted the delivery of their truths to
their different constituencies, which were limited and often mutually
exclusive, defined by race, history, family, or status. Gnosticism claimed to
smash through those barriers, making it the most potent cultural force in this
period of the Roman Empire and the most successful effort at the intellectual
reform of religion there has ever been.
11105 |
LIT 3306 Scholasticism vs. Humanism |
Karen Sullivan |
. . . . F |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLINLC 120 |
ELIT |