RELIGIOUS STUDIES SPRING 2025 COURSE OFFERINGS
RELIGIOUS STUDIES SPRING 2025 COURSE OFFERINGS
100. What the Heck is Religion? An Introduction to the Study of Religion
What is religion? Why are people religious? What power does religion have for individuals and societies? How does religion function as a way of knowing, acting, and being in the world? How did the study of religion arise in the modern West, and how scholars of religion go about studying it? What ways have they devised to grasp the rich varieties of religious experiences and expressions that they classify as religions? Throughout the course, students will study a wealth of material that may be regarded as religious, from societies past and present, literate and non-literate, and from around the globe. Finally, students will reflect on the place of the religious in contemporary society. Offered each semester.
200. Explaining Religion
This course serves as a general introduction to the study of religion, with an emphasis on introducing its methodological and theoretical tools and their intellectual historical background. This entails exploring a selection of readings that have been and are influential in the study of religion, drawn from diverse academic disciplines. The course considers basic methodological approaches for understanding religion as a human construction, offers a general picture of the field of religious studies as a whole, and provides basic research skills that will develop students' abilities to do independent research. Offered every fall. Fulfills HU Distribution.
207. African American Religious Traditions
This course is a survey of African American religions that exist outside the Black Church tradition. We will begin with a discussion of blackness in America through the works of W. E. B. DuBois and Franz Fanon, among others. This is meant to contextualize our later discussions. We will then look into African traditions that were adapted in the context of the enslavement of African peoples in the Americas. These include Vodou, Espiritismo, and Santeria, as well as a brief look at West African traditions that still are practiced in Nigeria and in the United States. Other case studies include Rastafarianism, The Nation of Islam, and Father Divine's ministry, which merged elements of Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Methodism, and proto-New Age spirituality. All of this is designed to expand our historical understanding of what African American religions have expressed, what they have meant to the people who practiced them, and what they have meant for defining America. Fulfills HU distribution.
212. Icons of Islamic Architecture
An introduction to Islamic architecture through a focused study of a global tourist attraction: the Taj Mahal. Built as a lavish tomb for an empress in seventeenth century India, the Taj Mahal was a sign of immense privilege and social exclusion from its very inception. Over time, it became the object of fantasy for modern European travelers and a model for both British colonial architecture as well as opulent private homes in America. In what ways did elite men and women in medieval Islam shape and control architecture? Why are religious and political groups, archaeologists, and conservationists fighting for ownership of this building today? To appreciate the historical and contemporary significance of the Taj, students will also study comparative examples from other parts of Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. By taking this course, students will: a) learn to recognize pluralism in Islamic architecture; b) critically examine how diverse social groups interact with Islamic architecture; and c) develop a capacity for critical self-reflection on how issues of power and justice play out in their own societies. Diversity (DIV13). No prerequisite. Offered every spring. Also offered through Asian Studies.
242. Norse Mythology
This course is an introduction to the pre-Christian religion of Scandinavia. Beginning with an introduction to pagan sources outside of Scandinavia, the course examines the major sources for Old Norse mythology. We will discuss Christian influence and the ongoing expression of myth in a Christian context. The course ends with some consideration of the continuing reinterpretations and adaptations of Norse mythology in cultural expressions such as Wagner's Ring cycle and Marvel's Thor. Fulfills HU Distribution.
3046. Cinema and The Sacred
The premise of this course is that popular American films often wrestle with religion: What does it mean live spiritually? What is life all about? Who am I? Is there a way that a person (society) ought to live that is existentially real, true, and meaningful? What is evil and why does it exist? How can I, my society, and the world be saved? These "ultimate questions" still concern us in a time of increasingly "secularization," that is, a time when traditional religions are playing a less central role institutionally in ordinary people's lives. The premise of this course is that while going to the movie theater is not the same as going to church, the movie screen, with its images flickering mysteriously in a cave-like darkness, often provides viewers "living religious narratives" that speak to contemporary people's religious quest.
3047. History of Satanism
This course focuses on the historical development of Satanism as an accusation, literary trope, and practice. We will chart how it has been depicted from the beginnings of Christianity after the 1st century of the Common Era, in the literary imagination of revolutionaries and writers in the 18th century to the present, and in the more recent development of various expressions of "religious Satanism" in The Church of Satan, The Temple of Set, The Order of the Nine Angles, and The Satanic Temple in the mid-20th and early 21st centuries. Fulfills HU Distribution.
334. Way of The Gods: Shinto in Modern Japan
Shinto or the "Way of the Gods" has long been viewed as the "archaic indigenous religion" of Japan. However, "Shinto," as the Japanese sociologist of religion Inoue Nobutaka has recently noted, is "notoriously vague and difficult to define." This course explores how Shinto was "invented" and has evolved throughout modern Japanese history, from local cults worshipping kami to state Shinto and new religious movements in the pre-war period to its modern guise today as religious organizations independent of state control. Shinto remains a powerful force even after the demise of State Shinto after World War 2 and even in secularized Japan of today. Topics include: Shinto mythology, religious ultranationalism, emperor worship and the imperial system (also called State Shinto), Shinto in new religious movements, Shinto militarism and the Kamikaze pilots, the Yasukuni shrine war memorial issue, Japanese contemporary national identity (Nihonjinron), Shinto in popular culture, the role of contemporary shrines and festivals, and kami worship and ecology. Fulfills DIV13 Distribution.
360. Hate in Religion
This is an in-depth examination of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of religion that will enable students to do sophisticated independent research. Required of all majors in religious studies, ideally in the Spring of their junior year.