RELIGIOUS STUDIES (2018 - 2020)
REQUIRED COURSES FOR THE MAJOR
Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion
RELST-UA 1 Offered in the fall. 4 points.
Fundamental theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to the academic study of religion. Theories of the origin, character, and function of religion as a human phenomenon. Understanding and interpretation of religious phenomena through psychological, sociological, anthropological, historical, and hermeneutical perspectives.
Advanced Seminar
RELST-UA 15 Prerequisites: junior or senior status, Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion (RELST-UA 1), and at least two other religious studies courses, or permission of the instructor. Offered in the spring. 4 points.
Varying topics with cross-cultural applicability (for example: ritual, the body, sacrifice, religion and the state). Students examine topics within context of their own area of specialization, as well as within other traditions.
MAJOR ELECTIVE COURSES
Cultures and Contexts: Global Christianities
CORE-UA 500 Counts toward the major in religious studies. Offered every year. Oliphant. 4 points.
Examines the ongoing global formation and reformation of Christianity, from its origins in a pluralistic ancient Mediterranean world and spread throughout Europe and the Middle East, to its historical and ever-transforming role in Africa, Asia, and the New World. Explores the problems and possibilities Christian texts, concepts, institutions, and narratives have posed for a diversity of populations over distinct historical periods.
Cultures and Contexts: Islamic Societies
CORE-UA 502 Counts toward the major in religious studies. Offered every year. 4 points.
The emphasis in the pre-modern period is first on the Qur’an and then on law, political theory, theology, and mysticism. For the more recent period, the stress is on the search for religious identity. Throughout, students are exposed to Islamic societies in the words of their own writings.
Texts and Ideas: God
CORE-UA 420 Counts toward the major in religious studies. Offered every other year. de Vries. 4 points.
What or who is- or was- “God”? And what or who might “He” still - or yet again- become, for us, whether we consider ourselves true believers or not? Do admittedly insufficient philosophical proofs for His existence that, throughout the ages have been attempted, add up, in the end? And, if so, in what sense or to what extent, precisely? Or, if God's existence and essential predicates can neither be verified nor even sharply defined, can they instead be falsified, as has also ben claimed? Are God's concept and names - and there are, across past and prsent traditions and cultures quite a few in circulation - as many instances of "nonsense," at least in rigourous logical, conceptual and argumentative, terms? Is to speak of and reason about “God” proliferate mere noise, an inchoate feeling of cosmic and existential dependence, nothing more?
This course is devoted to historical and contemporary efforts to nonetheless understand and justify this at once most familiar and stragest of invocations or references: the Being called highest, by many, but also eternal, all-knowing, perfectly good, itself enough, and much else besides.
What Is Islam?
RELST-UA 85 Identical to MEIS-UA 691, HIST-UA 85. Offered yearly. 4 points.
Introduction to the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the origins of Islam; the beliefs and practices of the Islamic community; differences between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam; Sufism; the spiritual, intellectual, and artistic life of the Islamic commonwealth; and modern Islamic revival.
Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Early Christianity
RELST-UA 86 Offered periodically. Becker. 4 points.
Reexamines the light shed by ancient writings (and other evidence) not only on the role(s) of women in ancient Christian groups but also on the ideologies of gender promoted or assumed by those groups. The focus, while predominantly on women, also extends to the way in which gender identities were constructed and adhered to by males and females.
Of Miracles, Events, and Special Effects
RELST-UA 97 Offered every other year. de Vries. 4 points.
Do miracles happen? What do miracles, everyday events, and special effects have in common? Brings together theological, philosophical, and media studies to pose questions and offer intellectual resources—an imaginative archive as well as repository—for answering some basic questions regarding human agency and freedom.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
RELST-UA 102 Identical to MEDI-UA 25, MEIS-UA 800, HBRJD-UA 160. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Explores differences and similarities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and assesses their roles and interactions in the formation and functions of human society, culture, and politics. Examines the ancient origins and contemporary relevance of these monotheistic traditions. Considers the existence of Judaisms, Christianities, and Islams, rather than a trio of theological monoliths.
Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism
RELST-UA 104 Identical to HBRJD-UA 430, MEDI-UA 430. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Jewish Philosophy in the Medieval World
RELST-UA 106 Identical to HBRJD-UA 425. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Jewish Ethics
RELST-UA 117 Identical to HBRJD-UA 117. Rubenstein. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Biblical Archaeology
RELST-UA 120 Identical to HBRJD-UA 120. Fleming, Smith. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Jesus and Judaism
RELST-UA 158 Identical to HBRJD-UA 158. Offered periodically. Reed. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Foundations of the Christian-Jewish Argument
RELST-UA 192 Identical to HBRJD-UA 160, MEDI-UA 160. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Religion, Magic, and the Jewish Tradition
RELST-UA 212 Identical to HBRJD-UA 212. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Early History of God
RELST-UA 220 Identical to HBRJD-UA 116. Fleming, Smith. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Early Christian Mystics
RELST-UA 241 To be first offered in spring 2019. Seminar. 4 points.
Mysticism conjures images of spiritual ecstasy and power in ways that continue to fascinate us in our so-called modern age. Explores how early Christian mystical thinkers laid the foundation for a long and diverse tradition of Christian experiential engagement with the divine. We will read some of the most influential and fascinating works in this tradition of spirituality. Topics: dependence on earlier pagan thought, especially the works of Plato; the ascetic devotion of chastity, fasting, and monastic solitude; mystical interpretations of the biblical text; and the politics, literary culture, and psychology of mysticism more broadly.
Passion and Desire in the Middle Ages
RELST-UA 250 Identical to COLIT-UA 961, MEDI-UA 961. Vitz. 4 points.
See description under medieval and Renaissance studies.
Introduction to the New Testament
RELST-UA 302 Identical to CLASS-UA 293, HBRJD-UA 22. Offered periodically. Becker. 4 points.
Examines issues and themes in the history of the Jesus movement and early Christianity through a survey of the main texts of the canonical New Testament, as well as other important early Christian documents. Provides historical context, describes modern scholarly methodologies, and places the empirical material within the larger framework of ancient history and the theoretical study of religion.
Religions of India
RELST-UA 337 Offered every year. 4 points.
Examines Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Jain, and Sikh traditions, as well as the ancient and modern contexts in which they are situated. Focuses on how various problems (material, intellectual, political) have served as catalysts for the formation and dissolution of communities of interpretation and practice and reexamines the multiple pasts of South Asia without projecting modern categories onto those traditions.
Belief and Social Life in China
RELST-UA 351 Identical to ANTH-UA 351, EAST-UA 351. Offered periodically. Zito. 4 points.
The Chinese word for “religion” means “teaching.” Explores what Chinese people “taught” themselves about the person, society, and the natural world and thus how social life was constructed and maintained. Examines in historical perspective the classic texts of the Taoist and Confucian canon and their synthesis as well as Buddhism, especially Ch’an (Zen). Discusses the practices of filiality in Buddhism, Confucian orthodoxy, and folk religion.
Classical Mythology
RELST-UA 404 Identical to CLASS-UA 404. Meineck. 4 points.
See description under classics.
Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives
RELST-UA 422 Identical to HBRJD-UA 422 and PHIL-UA 422. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Creating a Good Society: Greek, Christian, and Jewish Perspectives
RELST-UA 428 Identical to HBRJD-UA 428 and PHIL-UA 428. Offered every one or two years. Gottlieb. 4 points. Recommended prerequisite: Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives (HBRJD-UA 422)
Central questions: What is the best form of government? What economic system is ideal? Should government actively promote a vision of the good life or leave it to individuals to decide the good for themselves? Should government prioritize the freedom, equality, or happiness of its inhabitants? What role should religion and nationhood play in society? What models of education should government promote? Careful analysis of primary texts by Plato, Maimonides, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mendelssohn, Marx, and Hess.
Jewish Responses to Modernity: Religion and Nationalism
RELST-UA 470 Identical to HBRJD-UA 719. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
American Religion
RELST-UA 480 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Religious formations from the national founding to the late twentieth century that influenced American culture, society, national identity, and politics. Topics: disestablishment and church-state relations; revivalism and social activism; race and religion; women’s religious leadership; atheism, freethought, and skepticism; pluralism and religious liberalism; religion and science; immigration and nativism; and religious conservatism and politics.
American Evangelicalism
RELST-UA 482 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Considers colonial America and religion in the new nation, evangelical reform in the nineteenth century, the clash between fundamentalists and modernists, holiness and Pentecostal movements, African American evangelicalism and the civil rights movement, the Christian right, youth movements, and neo-evangelicalism. Addresses variations in theology and religious practice and how evangelicals have approached modern Western culture (gender, race and ethnicity, performance, nation, sexuality, and economics).
Religion and U.S. Political Radicalism
RELST-UA 484 Offered periodically. 4 points.
From the mid-19th century to the present. Introduces various models for defining and interpreting radicalism in religion and politics. Topics include labor activism, the women’s movement, anti-radical repression, genealogies of socialism and communism, civil rights activism, religious fundamentalism, ethnic and immigrant expressions of radicalism, and the role of religion in Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movement.
Confessional Culture from Augustine to Oprah
RELST-UA 561 Offered every other year. Pellegrini. 4 points.
Different uses and forms “the confession” has taken in Western culture and its evolution from a specifically religious practice into a genre of self-fashioning in a putatively secular modernity. Includes the written word, TV, film, and the Internet. Explores the differences and similarities between these confessional modes, their cultural locations, their historical moments, and their ideological effects.
The History of Religions of Africa
RELST-UA 566 Identical to HIST-UA 566, SCA-UA 790. 4 points.
See description under history.
The Land of Israel Through the Ages
RELST-UA 609 Identical to MEIS-UA 609, HBRJD-UA 141, HIST-UA 540. Schiffman. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Jews in the Islamic World in the Modern Period
RELST-UA 610 Identical to MEIS-UA 616, HBRJD-UA 114. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Jews and Christians in the Ancient World
RELST-UA 611 Identical to CLASS-UA 611, HBRJD-UA 128. Offered periodically. Becker, Reed. 4 points.
The early history of Judaism and Christianity. Explores self-definition and typology in the formulation of religious categories and the use of these categories in examining religious and other social phenomena. Questions the relationship of ideology and literary evidence to social reality.
Religion, State, and Politics
RELST-UA 613 Offered periodically. 4 points.
A comparative and theoretical approach to the debate on secularism. Emergence, development, and close empirical analysis of the secularization paradigm. Different examples of state-religion relationships in historical and religio-cultural context. Considers the scope and limits of secularization theory and current debates on religion.
Gods & Profits: Religion and Capitalism
RELST-UA 636 Offered every other year starting Spring 2021. Oliphant. 4 points.
This course explores the "enchanted" production and reproduction of capitalism and the effects of capitalism on ever-transforming religious practices. Through a combination of classical and contemporary approaches in political economy, religious studies, and anthropology, we will address what makes capitalism a unique mode of exchange and explore examples of the spirits that haunt the market's invisible hand as well as those that resist its powerful reach. Our readings and discussions will cover important debates surrounding the history and origins of capitalism in Europe; classical anthropological writings on "pre-capitalist" economies encountered during European colonial expansion; and current writings that refuse the distinction between the supposedly separate spheres of religion and economy.
Religion, Art, and the City
RELST-UA 637 Offered every other year starting Fall 2021. Oliphant. 4 points.
This course offers a new vantage point on the remarkable city in which we live. We will explore New York through lenses that may be unfamiliar to you, but that have long been essential to its rich diversity and historical complexity: its religion, its art, and those moments when the two have intersected. The course will begin with the big questions: what do we mean when we say art? What do we mean when we say religion? Why do they often seem to be referring to similar sets of ideas and practices? How do museums get us to look at both religion and art in particular ways? We will then move into looking at the city through the lens of religion and art. We will begin with a tour of the signs of Islam that populate lower Manhattan. Following, we will confront the complex interweaving of race, religion, politics, art, and real estate in New York. The final section of the class will look at religion and art beyond institutions. How are urban boundaries made and undone through religion and art? How do religious and artistic practices create alternative spaces in the city? How, following tragedy, has the city memorialized itself through museum practices? In this final section of the class we will pay a visit to the 9/11 museum.
After Religion? Rethinking Our Secular Age
RELST-UA 638 Identical to ANTH-UA 352. Offered every other year. Oliphant. 4 points.
Explores different forms of the secular found around the world and over time and questions the power of the universal tale of modernization that sits at the foundation of the “secularization thesis.” Explores what it means to live in a “secular age”—a framework which, although often invisible or implicit, establishes and limits much of what we experience, expect, and encounter in our daily lives.
Religious Bodies
RELST-UA 642 Identical to ANTH-UA 29. Offered periodically. Zito. 4 points.
The body as medium both for ritual and religious experience; the body as locus for virtue and sin; the split between mind and body. Examines the body in various situations—gendered, sexualized, covered, naked, suffering, disabled, altered, missing—and interrogates notions of representations and ideals, from the religious ban on representing the human body to divine anthropomorphism.
Religion and Media
RELST-UA 645 Recommended prerequisite: prior course work in religious studies, anthropology, or media studies. Offered periodically. Zito. 4 points.
This course will introduce you to the longstanding and complex connection between religious practices and various media. We will first analyze how human hearing, vision and the performing body have been used historically to express and maintain religious life through music, voice, images, words and rituals. Then we will spend time on more recent electronic media such as cassette, film, television, video, and the internet. Students should note that an anthropological/ historical perspective on studying religion will be pursued in the course. We will read, listen, view, log on, discuss and write.
Religion, Sexuality, and Public Life
RELST-UA 646 Offered periodically. Pellegrini. 4 points.
The U.S. was founded on the promise of religious freedom, yet laws and policies regulating sexual life draw on specifically religious notions of “good” versus “bad” sex, what bodies are “for,” and what kinds of human relationships are valuable. Considers this apparent contradiction and the implications, for both sexual and religious freedom, of treating sexual life as a special case.
Topics
RELST-UA 650 4 points.
Topics vary and have included Christianity and culture, religion and violence, and postcolonialism.
Martyrdom, Ancient and Modern
RELST-UA 660 Identical to CLASS-UA 660. Offered periodically. Becker. 4 points.
Begins with a close study of the development of the martyrological discourse in classical, early Christian, early Jewish, and Muslim literature and culture. Traces how the concept of martyrdom is deployed in modern culture: the “Columbine martyrs,” “martyrdom operations” (“suicide bombers”), political martyrdom, and modern notions of holy war.
Perspectives on Islam
RELST-UA 665 Identical to MEIS-UA 665. Katz. 4 points.
See description under Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
History of Judaism: The Classical Period
RELST-UA 680 Identical to MEIS-UA 680, HBRJD-UA 100. Rubenstein, Schiffman. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Judaism: From Medieval to Modern Times
RELST-UA 683 Identical to HBRJD-UA 111, HIST-UA 98, MEIS-UA 680. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Introduction to Egyptian Religion
RELST-UA 719 Identical to MEIS-UA 719. Goelet. 4 points.
See description under Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
The Civilizations and Religions of the Ancient Near East
RELST-UA 790 Identical to MEIS-UA 790. 4 points.
See description under Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
RELST-UA 807 Identical to HBRJD-UA 131. Schiffman. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Modern Perspectives on the Bible
RELST-UA 809 Identical to MEIS-UA 809, HBRJD-UA 126. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Gender and Judaism
RELST-UA 815 Identical to HBRJD-UA 718, SCA-UA 732. 4 points.
See description under Hebrew and Judaic studies.
Anthropology of Religion
RELST-UA 829 Identical to ANTH-UA 30. 4 points.
See description under anthropology.
Introduction to Buddhism
RELST-UA 832 Identical to EAST-UA 832. Offered yearly. 4 points.
An introduction to this complex religion, emphasizing its history, teachings, and practices. Discusses its doctrinal development in India, then emphasizes certain local practices such as Buddhism and the family in China; Buddhism, language, and hierarchy in Japan; the politics of Buddhist Tibet; Buddhist art; and Buddhism in the United States.
Tibetan Buddhism
RELST-UA 835 Identical to EAST-UA 833. Offered yearly. 4 points.
Begins with the principles of the tradition, then moves from the 7th-century arrival of Buddhism in Tibet to the present-day encounter with Western devotees of exiled Tibetan lamas. Topics include doctrinal innovation, ritual, myth, art, sacred geography, revelation, and the role of Buddhism in Tibet’s relationship with its neighbors.
Engaging Early Christian Theology
RELST-UA 840 Identical to CLASS-UA 856. Offered periodically. Becker. 4 points.
What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ was both human and divine? How can the Christian divinity be one yet three? How are the sacrements such as baptism effective? Do we have freewill? These were some of the pressing questions the Church Fathers addressed in the early centuries of Christian history and their answers contributed to the Christian theological tradition for centuries to come. In this course we will examine some of the classic works of early Christian theology. Despite the often highly rhetorical and polemical character of their writings the Church Fathers nevertheless developed an intellectually rigorous field of knowledge, one that has had a significant intellectual historical as well as socio-political impact in the history of the Church. This is not a tehological course but rather an introduction to some of the key texts in a historicallly significant mode of theological inquiry.
Virgins, Martyrs, Monks, & Saints: Early Christianity
RELST-UA 846 Identical to CLASS-UA 846. Offered periodically. Becker. 4 points.
What was it about Christianity that made it so popular in the ancient world? Was it the martyrs volunteering for public execution? Monks' sexual renunication? The isolation of hermits living on the tops of columns in the wilderness? Or perhaps orhtodoxy and its politically divisive anxieties about heretics and Jews? In fact, all these things (and more) explain how a small Jewish messianic sect from Palestine became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. This course will provide an introduction to the big questions in the history of early Christianity. The focus will be on early Christian literature, such as martyr texts, saints' lives, and works of monastic spirituality and mysticism. Issues addressed will include the Christian reception of Greco-Roman antiquity, the origins of anti-Semitism, gender and sexuality in the early Church, and the emergence of Christian theology.
INTERNSHIP AND INDEPENDENT STUDY
Internship
RELST-UA 980, 981 Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. 1 to 4 points per term.
Independent Study
RELST-UA 997, 998 Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. 1 to 4 points per term.