17506

REL 103 Buddhist Thought and Practice

Dominique Townsend

T Th 10:10am-11:30am

OLINLC 206

MBV D+J

HUM DIFF

Cross-listed: Asian Studies For more than 2,500 years Buddhist thought and practice have evolved around the central problem of suffering and the possibility of liberation. The importance of cultivating compassion and wisdom and the reality of death are among Buddhism’s guiding concerns. Across diverse cultural landscapes, Buddhism comprises a wide array of philosophical perspectives, ethical values, social hierarchies, and ritual technologies. It is linked to worldly politics, institutions, and charismatic personalities. At the same time, it is geared towards renunciation. Buddhism’s various faces can seem inconsistent, and they are frequently out of keeping with popular conceptions. This course offers an introduction to Buddhism’s foundational themes, practices, and worldviews within the framework of religious studies. Beginning with Buddhism’s origination in India, we will trace its spread and development throughout Asia. We will also consider its more recent developments globally. There are no prerequisites for this course. Class size: 22

17507

REL 104 Creating Judaism

Samuel Shai Secunda

M W 3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 201

MBV D+J

HUM DIFF

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; Middle Eastern Studies For millennia, the Jewish tradition has played a sizable role in religious and world history. Jewish communities have flourished around the globe – from the Americas to the Far East – and a dizzying variety of Jewish traditions (some would say Judaisms) have developed in these different climes, and during different times. Notwithstanding the common (mis)perception of a single Jewish ethnicity, Judaism presents humanists with a fascinating test-case of a distinct, even parochial tradition that constantly takes up new shape and color while, arguably, maintaining a “family resemblance” with parallel expressions of Judaism. This course introduces students to the many foundational practices, ideas, and expressions of Judaism while grappling both with its inner diversity, as well as its sense of dissimilarity from surrounding non-Jewish communities. We will emphasize the formative history of rabbinic Judaism in ancient and medieval times, and then consider the development, in modern times, of new traditions out of that Judaism, including Hassidism, the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment), modern European and American denominations (Reform, Orthodox, Conservative et al), Zionism, and contemporary “cultural” Judaism. Class size: 22

17508

REL 106 Islam

Tehseen Thaver

M W 11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 203

MBV D+J

HUM DIFF

Cross-listed: Global & International Studies; Middle Eastern Studies An examination of the intellectual and lived traditions of Islam. In addition to early Muslim political history this course will also familiarize students with the major disciplines in Islam including the Qur’an, Hadith, theology, Islamic law, Islamic philosophy, and Sufism. The concluding segments of this course interrogate the interruptions of modernity in these traditions through the study of contemporary Muslim reform movements, Muslim modernism, and Islamism. We will utilize a variety of sources including primary sources (in translation), historical works, anthropological and literary sources, and films to guide our discussion. Through the study of Islam, this course will also provide students a solid theoretical foundation in larger conceptual questions and categories pertinent to the academic study of religion and to the humanities more broadly.

Class size: 22

17509

REL 108 Religions of the World

Richard Davis

T Th 8:30am-9:50am

OLIN 205

MBV

HUM DIFF

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Theology This course is intended to offer an entry into the academic study of religion. We will examine the major religions of the world as they have developed over the course of world history, utilizing two approaches. The first will be comparative: we will consider the formative ideas and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The second approach is historical: we will explore some of the roles religious ideas and institutions have played within struggles for political power, from the time of Alexander the Great up to the present. Class size: 22

17510

REL 152 Asian Humanities Seminar

Dominique Townsend

M W 10:10am-11:30am

HEG 300

LA D+J

HUM

Cross-listed: Asian Studies This seminar provides an introduction to a number of foundational and canonical philosophical, religious, and literary texts from China, India, Tibet and Japan. The course spans over 2000 years, from the 4th century B.C.E. to the 18th century; across this broad reach of time and space, we will explore how these works formulate conceptions of self, society, and the good life. By focusing in the Asian traditions, this class seeks to develop students’ understanding of the diversity of world thought and literature. This class is designed to fulfill the core requirement for the Asian Studies major, as well as to provide the opportunity for students in all courses of study to read and grapple with these texts. Class size: 16

17516

REL 231 Great Jewish Books

Samuel Shai Secunda

M W 11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 307

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; Literature; Middle Eastern Studies Since the Middle Ages, Jews have been known as a people of the book – though what that means depends on period, place, and perspective. Jews have produced an impressive variety of books that defy modern literary categorization. This course introduces students to some twenty “great” Jewish books, each in their own way engaged with Jewish tradition and spanning from antiquity to the postmodern. Along with engaging with the different genres and imaginative worlds these works present, this course considers relevant theoretical issues of canon, intertextuality, and asks whether we can or should conceive of a Jewish textuality. Works / authors studied include: biblical books (Exodus, Isaiah, Psalms), rabbinic texts (Talmud, Midrash), Jewish philosophy (Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed), Iberian Jewish poetry (Ibn Gabirol, A. Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi), Kabbalah (Zohar, Lurianic Mysticism), Hassidic homilies and stories (Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, Nahman of Bretslav), works of the Jewish Enlightenment (Autobiography of Salomon Maimon), Political Manifestos (Herzl’s Old-New Land), Holocaust (Primo Levi), Modern Fiction (I. B. Singer, Cynthia Ozik, S. Y. Agnon, Orly Castel Bloom), Counterculture (Allen Ginsburg, Rachel Adler). No prior background in Jewish Studies necessary.

Class size: 18

17511

REL 240 Collaboration with West Point: equality

Bruce Chilton

T Th 11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 305

MBV D+J

HUM

Cross-listed: Theology The theme of the third joint academic project between Bard College and West Point is the meaning and the nature of equality – equality for individuals, and equality for communities, societies and nations. The topic of equality reaches into every area of human culture: local politics, national identity, international relations; political science, philosophy, jurisprudence, and literature; religious institutions; the military profession; economics, psychology, sociology, and history. Problems focused on equality have broad dimensions of theory and practice, contrasting what should be and what can be with what is. The examination of what equality means in these different areas holds up a mirror to ourselves. The project includes parallel seminar courses at both institutions using common reading material prepared by Bard and West Point faculty; four joint sessions that bring together the students and faculty collaborating in the project; an academic conference hosted by Bard College at which invited scholarly papers are presented and discussed. This course is part of the Courage To Be College Seminar Series; students are required to attend three lectures in the in Courage to Be Lecture Series sponsored by the Hannah Arendt Center. Class size: 14

17512

REL 242 Hinduism in the Epics

Richard Davis

M W 3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 204

MBV

FLLC DIFF

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Classical 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.

Class size: 22

17513

REL 257 Gender and Sexuality in Judaism

David Nelson

T Th 11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 201

MBV D+J

HUM DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Jewish Studies Traditional Judaism is often seen as a highly patriarchal system in which women have little access to public ritual roles or community leadership. It enforces a strict separation between men and women in many social situations, and prohibits even casual physical contact between husband and wife during the wife’s menstrual period. It defines some sexual acts between two men as an “abomination” for which capital punishment is prescribed. What are the origins of these practices, and the social, theological, and psychological attitudes that they reflect? This course will examine a broad sweep of issues relating to gender and sexuality in the earliest strata of Jewish historical development, that is, the biblical and rabbinic periods. Topics to be covered will include public and private gender roles; power dynamics between men and women; views of sexuality, marriage and its variants; homosexuality; etc. We will read both narrative and legal primary texts, as well as current scholarship on the development of these issues in the ancient world. Our goal will be to gain an understanding of some of the beliefs and values that drove the development of early Judaism. Class size: 22

17577

REL 334 Qur'an

Tehseen Thaver

T 1:30pm-3:50pm

HDR 101A

MBV

HUM DIFF

Cross-listed: Medieval Studies, Middle Eastern Studies This course will involve a close reading of the Qur’anic text and a study of different translations. We will explore the history of the Qur’an’s compilation and codification, its major themes, structure, and literary aspects. This course will also go beyond approaching scripture as a bounded, collected, literary text, by examining the ritual, experiential and material encounters between the Qur’an and Muslim communities. Some of the questions that we will address in this class are:  How does the Qur’an operate within societies and what are its multiple functions? How are the controversial verses often associated with the Qur’an interpreted?  How do modern understandings of “scripture,” “sacrality,” “text,” and “meaning” determine, dominate, and perhaps limit the way we engage with premodern sacred material? There are no prerequisites for this class. Class size: 15

17519

REL 340 Talmud

Samuel Shai Secunda

T 4:40pm-7:00pm

OLIN 205

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; Middle Eastern Studies Even more than the Bible, the Talmud – one of the world’s most intellectually challenging works – has traditionally been the nerve-center of the classical Jewish canon, meriting more sustained engagement than any other Jewish text. While the Talmud was composed during a specific period (third to seventh centuries) and place (Sasanian Mesopotamia), it has been read and reread in many contexts since, from Baghdad to Brooklyn (to Bard). Each reading has engendered new texts worthy of study in their own right. Often classified as a work of law, it is perhaps best to describe the Talmud based on what it does: unrelenting, interpretive and intertextual weaving. This course will attempt to tackle the Talmud and talmudic process by closely reading a representative sample of talmudic passages, and then adopting lenses provided by a variety of humanistic disciplines, including philosophy, history, literature, anthropology, and even performance studies. All texts will be provided in translation. No prior background in Jewish Studies is required, though some experience in textual analysis / hermeneutics is important. Class size: 16

17515

REL 349 how to die well: buddhist approaches to Death and Dying

Dominique Townsend

Th 1:30pm-3:50pm

OLIN 303

MBV D+J

HUM

Cross-listed: Asian Studies Buddhist cultures pay a great deal of attention to impermanence and the inevitability of death. Many Buddhist practices are designed to help people approach the process of dying in a pragmatic and beneficial manner. In this course we will critically analyze texts and practices associated with intermediary states of consciousness including dreaming and the “in-between” states surrounding death; accounts of those who claim to have died and come back to life; Buddhist hospice work; and texts that usher the recently deceased towards a good rebirth. Course materials will consist primarily of Tibetan Buddhist texts in translation. Additional sources will include Zen death poems, audio recordings intended to guide the dying through the harrowing process of leaving the body, and recent works by Buddhist filmmakers. Prerequisite: At least one prior Buddhist Studies course.

Class size: 18

17517

REL 355 Yoga: from Ancient India to the Hudson Valley

Richard Davis

T 1:30pm-3:50pm

OLIN 303

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Asian Studies Yoga originated in ancient India as a loose set of ascetic practices for spiritual seekers who had renounced worldly life. In the modern West, Yoga has become a widespread and popular form of exercise, practiced by some 36 million Americans (including this instructor). Spending on classes and yoga-related clothes and equipment amounts to some $16 billion per year. In this seminar we will track the early development and modern transformations of Yoga. Topics will include the origins and debates over Yoga and renunciation in classical India, Hindu and Buddhist forms of meditation, the growth of new forms of tantric Yoga in medieval India, early Western perceptions of exotic yogis, the creation of a posture-centered physical Yoga in modern times, and the culture and economy of Yoga in the contemporary United States. Class size: 15

17518

REL COL Religion Colloquium

Bruce Chilton

M 5:30pm-7:00pm

OLIN 301

MBV D+J

HUM

Cross-listed: Theology 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 topics of particular interest.

Class size: 15