An Interdepartmental Program in Religious Studies

Last updated: September 9, 2020 at 12:43 PM

The contemporary field of religious studies contributes significantly to a liberal arts education, cultivating the investigation of religious thought, ritual, spiritual insight, culture, history, and sacred texts. The Program in Religious Studies (PRS) is designed to deepen each student’s understanding of religion and its manifestations through required interdepartmental exploration: surveying systematic approaches to the field and completing courses in at least two different religious traditions. This approach exposes students to several scholarly perspectives on a variety of religious phenomena, often in a comparative context.

The university, with its commitment to ethical responsibility, and the wide range of religious and ethnic backgrounds represented in its student body, provides a unique context for examining religion with open-minded curiosity and sympathetic understanding.

Learning Goals

The modern field of religious studies is an important part of a liberal arts education, allowing for the study of religious thought, ritual, culture, history and texts, often in a comparative context.

The goal of the Program in Religious Studies is to expose students to different scholarly and pedagogical approaches to a variety of religious teachings. For example, the study of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam will bring great depth to one’s understanding of the historical development of individual traditions during a given epoch, as well as of the related art, literature, and politics of the societies practicing these religions. Similarly studies in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism will provide deeper appreciation not only of the relevant texts, but also of East-West cultural encounters and fundamental topics such as enlightenment and the possibility of rebirth.

In this program students survey the world's religions and a variety of approaches to religious studies, study specific religious traditions, and learn additional methods and contexts in which these traditions are situated.

Core Skills

As an interdisciplinary program, PRS helps its students to gain a broad understanding of religions, the peoples who practice them, and their modes of belief, particularly of those religions outside the student’s usual experience. Students analyze texts, histories, and the ways in which human beings have understood their world as reflected in their beliefs, ethics, rituals, artifacts, and organizations of religions. Students also investigate the changing relationships between religion and elements of the wider culture, and learn the theories and methods used in the study of religion.

Knowledge

The exposure to a wide range of religions often opens whole new fields of inquiry to the student: some extend their studies into languages, literature, history, law, and even the sciences. The Program in Religious Studies, through its unique and dynamic interdepartmental course work, strives to deliver a deep understanding of the multi-faceted nature of religion.

Some of the majors and minors with which our students have combined their studies in religion include: American Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Biology, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, English, Environmental Studies, European Cultural Studies, Film, Television, and Interactive Media, Health: Science, Society and Policy, History, International and Global Studies, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Music, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Neuroscience, Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Theater Arts and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Social Justice

The PRS curriculum provides students with the knowledge and perspectives needed to participate as informed citizens in a global society. PRS emphasizes understanding of and critical engagement with various religious ways of conceptualizing the world and of how religious communities contest practices and beliefs.

Students who are familiar with the narratives and history of various religious traditions develop a deeper understanding of the artistic expression in the world and the need to preserve it. Students who engage the beliefs and practices of various religious traditions develop a greater understanding of the forces that motivate people and move them toward justice. Students will learn to think in a more sophisticated manner about religious freedom within civil society.

After Brandeis

A Brandeis student with a religious studies minor will be prepared to:

Pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in religious studies, theological education, or another related field,
Use the knowledge and perspectives gained from the sustained study of religion to pursue professional training and a range of careers in any field dealing with people and religious-cultural diversity— including health care, politics, policy, education, and human rights work—in local and international settings,
Engage in a pluralistic world as an educated global citizen.

How to Become a Minor

Ideally a mapping out of an academic plan with the current Program for Religious Studies chair or another member of the Religious Studies program core faculty would occur early in a student's career; leading them to fulfill the core course, REL 107a or one of its alternative courses (SOC 129a and ANTH 80a) by the completion of their sophomore year. This ideal scenario is not required, however; and students are welcome to enter the program at any point as long as they are able to complete all degree requirements in a timely fashion. Students gaining an early start in fulfilling PRS requirements are better able to maximize course selection, as a number of courses are not offered annually.

Steering Committee

Kristen Lucken, Chair and Undergraduate Advising Head
(International and Global Studies and Sociology)

Abigail Cooper
(History)

Wendy Cadge
(Sociology)

Jonathan Decter
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

Maura Jane Farrelly
(American Studies)

Yu Feng
(German, Russian and Asian Literature and Languages)

Sarah Lamb
(Anthropology)

Charles McClendon
(Fine Arts)

Jonathan Sarna
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

Ellen Schattschneider
(Anthropology)

Jerome Tharaud
(English)

David Wright
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
John Burt (English)
Suleyman Dost (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Gregory Freeze (History)
Anita Hannig (Anthropology)
Eli Hirsch (Philosophy)
William Kapelle (History)
Reuven Kimelman (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Jytte Klausen (Politics)
Jon Levisohn (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Yeduddah Mirsky (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Laura Quinney (English)
Eugene Sheppard (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
David Sherman (English)
Govind Sreenivasan (History)
David Steele (Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies)
Ilana Szobel (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Cheryl Walker (Classical Studies)
Aida Wong (Fine Arts)
Palle Yourgrau (Philosophy)

Requirements for the Minor

Students wishing to minor in Religious Studies must complete a total of five semester courses in Religious Studies from among the REL-designated courses and cross-listed offerings, as well as the following requirements:

At least one core course: REL 107a (Introduction to World Religions), ANTH 80a (Anthropology of Religion), or SOC 129a (Sociology of Religion). Ideally, the student should take the core course early in their career, but not necessarily as the first course in the program.
The remaining four courses must cover at least two different religious traditions. One course must focus on just one tradition, while a second may include up to two different religious traditions within the course content, other than the tradition of the first course. Additionally, the remaining four courses must be offered from at least two different departments or programs. A list of approved electives is below.
A senior essay (REL 97a or 97b) may replace one course with the approval of the Program Chair.
Students must obtain at least a C in each course. Pass/fail courses are not allowed.
The Undergraduate Advising Head may approve up to two courses transferred from study elsewhere.

The following courses focus on just one tradition:

Buddhism: REL 151a
Christianity: ENG 154b, FA 42b, FA 145a, HIST 123b, NEJS 128a, NEJS 130b
Greek and Roman Religion: CLAS 170a
Hinduism: REL/SAS 152a
Islam: FA 33b, IMES 104a, NEJS 186a, NEJS 190a
Judaism: NEJS 5a, NEJS 111a, NEJS 112a, NEJS 115b, NEJS 124b, NEJS 127b, NEJS 153a, NEJS 159a, NEJS 162a, NEJS 164a, NEJS 166b, NEJS 191b

The following courses focus on no more than two traditions:

Christianity and Judaism: AMST 50b
Confucianism and Daoism: REL 161a
Islam and Judaism: NEJS 144a

Courses of Instruction

Expand All

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

REL 97a Senior Essay

Usually offered every year.
Staff

REL 98a Independent Study

Usually offered every year.
Staff

REL 98b Independent Study

Usually offered every year.
Staff

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

REL 107a Introduction to World Religions
[ hum nw ]

An introduction to the study of religion; this core course surveys and broadly explores some of the major religions across the globe.
Kristen Lucken

REL 151a The Buddha: His Life and Teachings
[ hum nw ]

Few human beings have had as much impact on the world as Siddhartha Gotama Shakyamuni, known to us as Buddha. This course explores his life and teachings as reflected in early Buddhist literature and Western scholarship. Usually offered every year.
Staff

REL 161a Chinese Religion and Thought: Understanding Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism)
[ hum nw ]

This course aims at widening and deepening students' knowledge of world religions by introducing to them distinctive Chinese religions and schools of thought with emphasis on two most significant ones, namely, Confucianism and Taoism. Usually offered every second year.
Yu Feng

REL/SAS 152a Introduction to Hinduism
[ hum nw ]

Introduces Hindu practice and thought. Explores broadly the variety of forms, practices, and philosophies that have been developing from the time of the Vedas (ca. 1500 BCE) up to present day popular Hinduism practiced in both urban and rural India. Examines the relations between Hindu religion and its wider cultural, social, and political contexts, relations between the Hindu majority of India and minority traditions, and questions of Hindu identity both in India and abroad. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

REL Core

ANTH 80a Anthropology of Religion
[ nw ss ]

Introduces the anthropological study of religious experience and practices across diverse contexts. Studies rituals, from initiation to conversion to pilgrimage, and examines the relationship between religion, society, and politics in a variety of societies. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb, Pascal Menoret or Ellen Schattschneider

REL 107a Introduction to World Religions
[ hum nw ]

An introduction to the study of religion; this core course surveys and broadly explores some of the major religions across the globe.
Kristen Lucken

SOC 129a Sociology of Religion
[ deis-us ss ]

An introduction to the sociological study of religion. Investigates what religion is, how it is influential in contemporary American life, and how the boundaries of public and private religion are constructed and contested. Usually offered every year.
Wendy Cadge or Kristen Lucken

REL One Tradition

ANTH 141a Islamic Movements
[ ss ]

Examines the social and cultural dimensions of contemporary Islamic movements from an anthropological perspective. It starts by critically engaging with such fundamental concepts as Orientalism, colonialism, and nationalism. Topics to be discussed include the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism, Islamist feminism, Islamic public arguments, Al-Qaeda and ISIS, victimization and martyrdom, and the relationship between humanitarianism and terrorism. Usually offered every second year.
Pascal Menoret

CLAS 170a Classical Mythology
[ hum ]

An introduction to Greek and Roman mythology. Considers ancient song cultures, and the relationship between myth, drama, and religion. Also explores visual representations of myth. Usually offered every second year.
Joel Christensen

ENG 154b Spirit Worlds: Religion and Early American Literature
[ hum ]

Explores how the religious imagination shaped literary expression in colonial America and the early United States, and how early American religion is represented in contemporary culture. Authors may include Ann Bradstreet, Charles Brockden Brown, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Arthur Miller, and Nat Turner. Usually offered every third year.
Jerome Tharaud

FA 33b Islamic Art and Architecture
[ ca nw ]

Through case studies of cities, sites, and monuments, the course presents an overview of the art and the architecture of the Islamic world beginning from the seventh century up to the present. Some of the themes include, but are not limited to, Islamic material culture, orientalist imaginations, systems of governance and the colonial present, search for the local identity, urban modernity and nationalism, and globalization. Usually offered every second year.
Muna Guvenc

FA 42b The Age of Cathedrals
[ ca ]

Architecture, sculpture, and painting (including stained glass) in Western Europe from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, with particular attention to the great churches of medieval France. Usually offered every second year.
Charles McClendon

FA 145a St. Peter's and the Vatican
[ ca ]

The history, growth, and development of Christendom's most famous shrine, with particular concern for the relationship between the design and decoration of the Renaissance/Baroque church and palace complex and their Early Christian and Medieval predecessors. Usually offered every second year.
Charles McClendon

HIST 117b The History of Modern Christianity, 1700-2022
[ ss ]

Christianity is the common culture of about a third of the world’s population. The evolution of Christianity is a wonderful illustration of the history of ideas, and the way an ideology adapts itself to the needs of its followers. Usually offered every second year.

David Katz

HIST 123b Reformation Europe (1400-1600)
[ ss wi ]

Survey of Protestant and Catholic efforts to reform religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Topics include scholastic theology, popular piety and anticlericalism, Luther's break with Rome, the rise of Calvinism, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the Catholic resurgence, and the impact of reform efforts on the lives of common people. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan

NEJS 5a How Did Biblical Judaism Evolve into Modern Judaism?
[ hum ]

A survey of the Jewish experience and thought, focusing on the varieties of historical Judaism, including its classical forms, its medieval patterns and transformations, and its modern options. Usually offered every year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 12a Who Wrote the Bible?
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Hebrew Bible (Christian “Old Testament”) is a collection of diverse and powerful books that is central to worldwide social, political, and religious experience. Despite this centrality, there are innumerable misconceptions about how the Bible came into being and what it really says. In this class, we will ask and answer questions about the Bible’s historical context and ancient meaning, with a focus on matters of composition and early reception. Who wrote the Bible? When was it written? To what circumstances were its authors responding? Moving beyond the often impossible project of identifying complex texts with individual authors, we will use both biblical and ancient non-biblical sources to situate biblical authors with respect to chronology, geography, institutions, class, gender, and more. Usually offered every second year.

Madadh Richey

NEJS 30a Reading the New Testament: Origins and Communities of Faith
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Introduces the New Testament, its authors, and early Christian communities. The course examines the development of the New Testament in a broader Jewish and Roman context and how communities selected both canonical and non-canonical texts for shaping Christian life. Focus on decolonizing scholarship and scholars of the New Testament with attention to migration, empire, authority, race, ethnicity, gender, personhood, and reading communities within a historical framework. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 104a Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[ hum nw ]

Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern period. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, and women in Islam. Usually offered every year.
Carl El-Tobgui

NEJS 112a The Book of Genesis
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 122a or b, NEJS 10a, or permission of the instructor.

An in-depth study of the Hebrew text of Genesis, with particular attention to the meaning, documentary sources, and Near Eastern background of the accounts of creation and origins of human civilization in chapters one to eleven, and of the patriarchal narratives, especially those about Abraham. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 115b Gender and Sexuality in the Bible
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Bible's depiction of gender, relationships, and social values in narrative, poetry, and law. Topics include the legal status of women, masculinity, prostitution, and how particular readings of the biblical text have shaped modern ideas about gender and sexuality. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 116a Mesopotamian Mythology
[ hum nw ]

Open to all students.

An introduction to the religion, mythology, and thought of the ancient Near East. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 124b Divinity, Difference and Desire: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
[ hum ]

A study of Jewish mysticism through history. While investigating the nature of mysticism and the idea of mysticism itself and the transformation of key motifs of Judaism into a mystical key, the course will also be concerned with how to read a Jewish mystical text. All readings are in English. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 127a Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism
[ hum ]

A survey course of the Second Temple and rabbinic periods focusing on the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writing of Josephus and Philo, the Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash. Usually offered every third year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 127b How Is the Jewish Liturgy Different from Muslim and Christian Liturgies?
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: A 20-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.

A study of the literature, theology, and history of the daily and Sabbath liturgy. Emphasis will be placed on the interplay between literary structure and ideational content, along with discussion of the philosophical issues involved in prayer. Usually offered every third year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 128a Introduction to Christianity
[ hum ]

An introduction to Christian beliefs, liturgy, and history. Surveys the largest world religion: from Ethiopian to Korean Christianity, from black theology to the Christian right. Analyzes Christian debates about God, Christ, and human beings. Studies differences among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 146a World Jewry since 1945
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Examines the post war Jewish world with special attention to Jewish communities beyond Israel and the United States. Topics include demography, the emergence of new centers, anti-Semitism, identity, and assimilation. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 153a Between Ecstasy and Community: Hasidism in Jewish Thought and History
[ hum oc ]

Explores Hasidism, from the 18th century until today, as one of the dynamic forces in Jewish life, mixing radicalism and reaction, theology, storytelling and music, thick community and wild individualism, deep conformity and spiritual abandon. Usually offered every third year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 159a Modern Jewish Philosophy
[ hum ]

Surveys the contours of modern Jewish philosophy by engaging some of its most important themes and voices, competing Jewish inflections of and responses to rationalism, romanticism, idealism, existentialism, and nihilism. This provides the conceptual road signs of the course as we traverse the winding byways of Jewish philosophy from Baruch Spinoza to Emanuel Levinas. Usually offered every second year.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 162a American Judaism
[ hum ss wi ]

American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum wi ]

Examines, through a close reading of selected primary sources, central issues and tensions in American Jewish life, paying attention to their historical background and to issues of Jewish law. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 166b Jewish Identities: Navigating the Boundaries of Religion, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality
[ hum ]

Explores the central question, 'who is a Jew' and what constitutes Jewishness from late antiquity times to the present through an interdisciplinary lens. Beginning with the rabbinic texts that sought to construct and strengthen the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews, the class will explore thorny questions about identities through the lens of religion, ethnicity and race, culture, nationality, and science. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 181b Film and the Holocaust
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Examines the medium of film, propaganda, documentary, and narrative fiction relevant to the history of the Holocaust. The use of film to shape, justify, document, interpret, and imagine the Holocaust. Beginning with the films produced by the Third Reich, the course includes films produced immediately after the events, as well as contemporary feature films. The focus will be how the film medium, as a medium, works to (re)present meaning(s). Usually offered every second year.
Sharon Rivo

NEJS 186a Introduction to the Qur'an
[ djw dl hum nw ]

Traces the history of the Qur'an as text, its exegesis, and its role in inter-religious polemics, law, theology, and politics. Examines the role of the Qur'an in Islamic teachings and its global impact. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 191b The World to Come: Jewish Messianism from Antiquity to Zionism
[ hum ]

Messianism is an important component in Jewish history. This course examines the messianic idea as a religious, political, and sociological phenomenon in modern Jewish history. Examining how the messianic narrative entered Jewish political discourse enables a critical discussion of its role in Zionist activities as an example of continuity or discontinuity with an older tradition. Usually offered every year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 192a Islamic Ethics: Theory and Applications
[ djw hum ]

Explores Islamic thinking and practices related to ethics by examining relevant discussions and debates in Islamic law, theology, Sufism, philosophy, and literary works. We answer broad questions such as the nature of moral obligation, the provenance of moral and ethical norms, and the practical means for living an ethical life. The final month of the course applies these theoretical foundations to practical ethical questions including contemporary debates surrounding economic justice; reproduction, end of life, and abortion; race and racism in Islam; and animal rights and the environment. Special one-time offering, spring 2023.

Carl El-Tobgui

NEJS 194b Sufism: Mystical Traditions in Classical and Modern Islam
[ hum nw ]

An examination of the teaching and practices of the Sufi tradition. Explores the foundations of Sufism, its relation to other aspects of Islam, the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose, and the manner in which Sufism is practiced in lands as diverse as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Malaysia, and Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

REL 151a The Buddha: His Life and Teachings
[ hum nw ]

REL/SAS 152a Introduction to Hinduism
[ hum nw ]

SAS 100a India and Pakistan: Understanding South Asia
[ djw hum nw ss ]

Examines the making and unmaking of modern South Asia as a region, with particular focus on India and Pakistan as well as their connections to Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Using perspectives from history, politics, anthropology, literature, and film, the course introduces students to key themes in the study of South Asia, such as colonialism and anti-colonial struggles, legacies of empire, caste critique and Dalit thought, gender and sexuality, religion, and popular culture. Usually offered every year. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Anjaria, Ulka Anjaria, or Harleen Singh

REL Two Traditions

AMST 50b Religion in American Life
[ ss ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 167b in prior years.

Considers the historical influence of religious belief on various aspects of American political, cultural, legal, and economic life. Topics include the use and effectiveness of religious language in political rhetoric, from the American Revolution to the War in Iraq; the role that religious belief has played in galvanizing and frustrating various reform movements; and the debate over the proper role of religion in the public square. Usually offered every second year.
Maura Farrelly

NEJS 144a Jews in the World of Islam
[ hum nw ]

Examines social and cultural history of Jewish communities in the Islamic world. Special emphasis is placed on the pre-modern Jewish communities. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

REL 161a Chinese Religion and Thought: Understanding Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism)
[ hum nw ]

REL Elective

AAAS 111a Afrophobia and Africana Religions
[ djw ss ]

Africana or African-derived religions and their devotees have been historically persecuted and vilified. This course examines afrophobia as an aspect of anti-Black racism that has sought to eradicate and stifle African spiritual worldviews in the Black Atlantic. We will explore the roots of afrophobia as well as its connections to transnational structures of racism. The course focuses on the relationship between anti-Black racism and religious intolerance, and the social and political treatment of non-Abrahamic, indigenous, African-derived religions, rather than the theological components of Africana religions. Special one-time offering, fall 2021.
Rachel Cantave

AMST/ENG 138a Race, Region, and Religion in the Twentieth-Century South
[ deis-us hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took ENG 38b in prior years.

Twentieth century fiction of the American South. Racial conflict, regional identity, religion, and modernization in fiction from both sides of the racial divide and from both sides of the gender line. Texts by Chestnutt, Faulkner, Warren, O'Connor, Gaines, McCarthy, and Ellison. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

ANTH 80a Anthropology of Religion
[ nw ss ]

ANTH 105a Myth and Ritual
[ nw ss ]

Studies myth and ritual as two interlocking modes of cultural symbolism. Evaluates theoretical approaches to myth by looking at creation and political myths. Examines performative, processual, and spatial models of ritual analysis through study of initiation, sacrifice, and funerals. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 160a Dreams, Visions, and Prophecy
[ ss ]

The meanings and interpretation ascribed to dreams and related visionary experiences vary dramatically across cultures and historical periods. Dreams may be understood as messages from ancestors, divinities, or demons; as gifts of foretelling; or, as private experiences born of internal longing and conflict. Dreams may inspire new developments in religion, arts, and political struggle. This course gives particular attention to the significance of dreams in the shaping of culture and history: How, paradoxically, do powerful experiences outside of conventional consciousness help constitute or generate new frameworks for self and society? Usually offered every third year.

Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 164a Medicine and Religion
[ djw nw ss ]

Considers the convergence of two cultural spheres that are normally treated as separate: medicine and religion. The course will examine their overlap, such as in healing and dying, as well as points of contention through historical and contemporary global ethnographies. Usually offered every second year.
Anita Hannig

ANTH 165b Anthropology of Death and Dying
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Explores how different societies, including our own, conceptualize death and dying. Topics include the cultural construction of death, the effects of death on the social fabric, mourning and bereavement, and medical issues relating to the end of life. Usually offered every second year.
Anita Hannig

CLAS 155a Mummies, Myths, and Monuments of Ancient Egypt
[ hum wi ]

Surveys Egyptian archaeology and culture and provides a critical examination of the reception and (mis)use of Ancient Egypt in popular culture over time. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

CLAS 190b Ancient Mystery Cults
[ hum ]

Often shrouded in secrecy, ancient mystery cults appealed to people in ways different from traditional Greek and Roman religion. As indicated by their name, the Mysteries come from the Greek word, mystes, which means 'initiate.' Membership in the Mystery Cults was based on initiation into rituals, kept secret from the outside world. We rely on the archaeological evidence, myths, and literary references to build an understanding of these cults who offered more personal and individualized experience towards death and the afterlife. In this class, we will explore Mystery Cults across the Mediterranean world, beginning in ancient Greece and ending in the Late Roman Empire. This course provides an exploration of ancient religion its art, architecture, belief systems, origins, and evolution, as well as understanding it in its socio-political and cultural context. Usually offered every third year.
Alexandra Ratzlaff

ED 161b Religious Education in America
[ hum ]

No principle stands more sacred in American public education than separation of Church and state. Public schools pride themselves as neutral playing fields when it comes to matters of religion. But this position belies a more complicated history. American public schools were initially founded by protestant leaders concerned with an influx of non-protestant immigrants during the middle of the 19th century. Indeed, despite lip service to ideas like separation of Church and state, American educational leaders long saw schools as a vehicle for promoting a Protestant inflected American culture. This course begins from the premise that American education and American religion have always existed in relationship. Religious groups have sometimes tried to use the public schools as vehicles to advance their religion, sometimes, they have created supplemental schools, and sometimes they have created whole parallel school systems. But in all cases, education and religion in American are intertwined. This course asks when education is religious and when religion is educational. It examines a series of case studies drawn from different faith communities including Judaism, Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam. Usually offered every second year.
Ziva Hassenfeld

ENG 73a Witchcraft and Magic in the Renaissance
[ hum ]

Focuses on the representation of witches, wizards, devils, and magicians in texts by Shakespeare, Marlow, and others. Historical accounts of witchcraft trials in England and Scotland are read and several films dramatizing these trials are viewed. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ENG 108a Literature and Heresy
[ hum ]

A study of major texts of British literature through the lens of religious heresy. Does literature provide a refuge for heresy? Or is there something about literature that encourages heretical thinking? These questions are considered in light of dissident works by Milton, Blake, Shelley, James Hogg, and others. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Quinney

ENG 136a Imagining Apocalypse
[ hum ]

Examines apocalypse as a literary genre and explores the modern apocalyptic imagination in diverse media including film, visual culture, and radio. Topics include slavery and race war, nuclear Armageddon, eco-apocalypse, evangelical rapture culture, and global pandemics. Authors include Octavia Butler, Stanley Kubrick, Ling Ma, Cormack McCarthy, Nat Turner, and H.G. Wells. Usually offered every year.
Jerome Tharaud

FA 171b* Buddhist Art
[ ca nw ]

Surveys Buddhist art and architecture in different parts of the world. Primarily, religious buildings, artworks, and monuments from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia will be examined within their historical, cultural, and social contexts. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

FA 170a Arts of the Ming Dynasty
[ ca nw ]

Examines a broad array of arts from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The first half of the course focuses on activities in and around the Chinese court. The second half concentrates on monuments related to literati and popular cultures. Usually offered every second year.
Aida Wong

HISP 123b Supernatural Latin America: The Visual Culture of the Unknown
[ dl hum ]

Latin America is haunted by the specters of countless colonial genocides, ritual sacrifices, fratricidal wars, thousands of disappeared. Its vast territory is swarming with ruins, ghost towns, the emptiness of devastated fauna and languages killed by ecocide. This course explores the numerous ways Latin American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible. Some of the topics that we will address in this journey into the unknowable are: popular culture and the paranormal/supernatural; otherworldly visitors; aura, trauma, and art; avant-gardes and the supernatural; hauntology; contemporary witch culture; uncanny spaces. Works by Jayro Bustamante, Leonora Carrington, Guillermo del Toro, Mariana Enríquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Samanta Schweblin, Xul Solar, among others. Usually offered every third year.

Staff

HIST 110b The Civilization of the High and Late Middle Ages
[ ss ]

Survey of European history from 1000 to 1450. Topics include the Crusades, the birth of towns, the creation of kingdoms, the papacy, the peasantry, the universities, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every second year.
William Kapelle

HIST 112b The Crusades and the Expansion of Medieval Europe
[ ss ]

Survey of the relationships between medieval Europe and neighboring cultures, beginning with the decline of Byzantium. Topics include a detailed look at the Crusades, the Spanish reconquista, the Crusader kingdoms, economic growth, and the foundations of imperialism. Usually offered every third year.
William Kapelle

HIST 126a Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[ oc ss ]

Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan

HIST 152b The European Occult Tradition, 1200-2021
[ ss ]

Is the universe alive? Yes...according to the European occult tradition, a coherent intellectual stream that has roots in religion, philosophy and history and the more supernatural elements of conventional religion, such as providence, prophecy and messianism. Usually offered every third year.
David Katz

HIST 157b Marginalized Voices and the Writing of History
[ deis-us dl ss wi ]

Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper

HIST 188b The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1350-1900
[ ss ]

How do you talk about religion after Darwin, when science has replaced religion as the authoritative discourse, but most people everywhere adhere to some sort of religious belief? By reading together The Varieties of Religious experience (1902) by William James. Usually offered every third year.
David S. Katz

HUM 10a The Western Canon
[ hum ]

May not be taken by students who have taken NEJS 18a in prior years.

Foundational texts of the Western canon: the Bible, Homer, Vergil, and Dante. Thematic emphases and supplementary texts vary from year to year.
Staff

IGS 165a Revolution, Religion, and Terror: Postcolonial Histories
[ djw nw oc ss ]

Examines religious conflict, revolutionary violence, and civil war in modern South Asia. It looks at Jihad, Maoist militancy, rising fundamentalism, and the recent refugee crisis. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

NEJS 190a* Introduction to Islamic Theology
[ hum ]

An introduction to Islamic theology and intellectual tradition. After studying the formative period of the Prophet Mohammad's life, students examine the development of law, doctrines, beliefs, philosophy, and the diversity of thought in Islamic tradition. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 3a Religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
[ hum ]

An introduction to the three major religions originating in the Near East: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Areas of focus include historical development, sacred texts, rituals, and interpretive traditions. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 18a Understanding Evil and Human Destiny
[ hum ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took FYS 18a in prior years.

Designed to introduce students to some of the Western classics that deal with the impact of evil on human destiny. Suffering, justice, and death are studied in their relationship with God, the world, and history. Usually offered every second year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 23a The Bible and Contemporary Arts, Literature and Film
[ hum ]

The Bible is a foundational text for contemporary art, literature, and political discourse as well as a sacred text in some religious traditions. This course examines Biblical reflections in cultural production, in global perspective, drawing on artists and writers from Eastern and Western Europe, the US, the Middle East and Latin America. It also gives students opportunities to see their own cultural contexts anew, and to explore the Bible's possible relevance to our time. Usually offered every second year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 26b Jewish Environmental Ethics
[ djw hum ]

Explores the ways in which Jewish ethics can inform contemporary discussion of environmental issues, teaches how to read texts from a regularly distant and unfamiliar past in light of burning questions today, and in so doing offers an overview of Jewish Ethics as a whole. The readings will be a mix of primary sources (e.g., Bible, philosophers), and secondary readings by contemporary scholars and thinkers. Among the contemporary issues we will deal with are the consumption, biodiversity, animals, environmental justice, and how we can hopefully add Jewish ideas and historical experience to our toolkit. Usually offered every second year.

Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 27a Abortion, Reproduction, and Contraception in Jewish Law and Ethics
[ hum ]

Challenges the usual framing of abortion in the U.S. as a conflict between religious and secular, or murder versus personal autonomy, and challenges the predominant Christian framings of ethical considerations for abortion, by introducing Jewish sources from the bible until today. Students will gain detailed, critical, and historical information about how Jewish law and Jewish individuals have deliberated about ending pregnancies. The primary sources, along with guest speakers and academic scholarship, will empower students to weigh and propose alternative framings of abortion and reproduction in the U.S. Topics include: Is a fetus considered alive? What grounds do Jewish ethics offer for abortion? How does a pregnant woman or person’s mental and physical health affect a decision for abortion? Do Jewish ethics recognize rape to be grounds for abortion? Who should be the decision-maker on abortion? How should genetic testing affect decisions to terminate pregnancies? How greatly do modern Jewish legal voices range on abortion? Special one-time offering, fall 2022.

Lynn Kaye

NEJS 37a The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry
[ hum ]

Open to all students. May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 137a in prior years.

Why and how did European Jews become victims of genocide? A systematic examination of the planning and implementation of Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' and the Jewish and general responses to it. Usually offered every year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 110b Psalms in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.

A close reading of selected Psalms in Biblical Hebrew, with study of their poetic, historical, and mythological features and contexts. Usually offered every third year.
Madadh Richey

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. Topics such as demonology, illness, prayer, and exorcism are covered; special attention is paid to witchcraft. This course is organized around the close reading of ancient texts. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 129b Debating Jesus: Diverse Beliefs in the Early Church
[ hum wi ]

Examines the nature of Jesus, the Trinity, and scripture, both canonical and non-canonical, in the first four centuries of early Christianity. Students analyze material culture and written documents related to a wide array of diverse Christian voice. The course explores scandals, heresies, and dissension along with points of unity and changing alliances within the Early Church in diverse religious and political landscape. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 130b Denial and Desires: Gender and Sexuality in Early Christianity
[ hum wi ]

Formerly offered as NEJS 218a.

Investigates how Christians (1st-4th C.) contested and reshaped attitudes toward the family gender expectations (for nonbinary persons, men, and women), sexuality, and aging in cities, the countryside, and in monasteries. Readings include the New Testament, early Christian literature, and modern studies regarding the body, sexuality, and theological frameworks for defining how to maintain the Christian body. Usually offered every fourth year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 133b Judaism in the Time of Jesus
[ hum ]

Studies the dynamics of Judaism in the Roman empire in the first century CE through a study of the textual, archaeological, and art-historical evidence from the late Second Temple period to explore the cultural context out of which both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism emerged. Special one-time offering, fall 2021.
Jillian Stinchcomb

NEJS 134a Debating Religion: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Dialogue and Dispute
[ hum ]

A history of interreligious polemic, disputation, and dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims from antiquity to modernity. The course highlights points of difference and contention among the traditions as well as the ways in which the practice of disputation played a formative role in the coevolution of those traditions. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 139b Christians and Israel
[ hum ]

Explores how different Christian groups--from American evangelicals to Orthodox Palestinians--have wrestled with both the idea and reality of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Staff

NEJS 143a Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain
[ djw hum ]

Examines interactions among the three religious communities focusing on political and social development, intra-religious conflict, and intellectual and artistic production. We will investigate the degree to which Castilian culture can be described as "Christian" or as "Muslim-Christian-Jewish" in character. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 149a The Jews of Muslim and Christian Spain
[ hum ]

A survey of Jewish political, intellectual, and social history in the Islamic and Christian spheres from the beginnings of Jewish life in Spain until the expulsion in 1492. Students develop skills in reading historical, literary, and philosophical texts. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 153b The Philosophies of Abraham J. Heschel and Joseph B. Soloveitchik
[ hum ]

The two most influential American philosophers of twentieth-century Judaism were Joseph Soloveitchik and Abraham Heschel. Their distinctive combinations of modernity and tradition changed the nature of Jewish philosophical reflection in America and abroad. The course will focus on their commonalities and differences. The topics include epistemology, the understanding of the human, the nature of revelation and redemption, the function of prayer, the understanding of the Sabbath, and inter-religious dialogue. Usually offered every third year.

Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 156b A Philosophical Introduction to Judaism
[ hum ]

Explores selected topics that are central to Jewish thought and practice. An introduction to Judaism for those without background in Jewish texts and traditions, but also appropriate for those with background. Topics include covenant, ritual, idolatry, interpretation, gender, violence, chosenness. Usually offered every second year.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 160a Jewish Feminisms
[ deis-us hum ]

Examines the role of Jewish women in the broader feminist movement and the impact of feminist theory and activism on Jewish thought, law, ritual practice and communal norms in the 20th and 21st century. We will explore classic feminist critiques and transformations of traditional Judaism and examine contemporary controversies involving issues such as equality under Jewish ritual and family law, sex segregation in public life, inclusion of Jewish People of Color and of LGBTQ Jews and antisemitism in the women's movement. Usually offered every year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 162b It Couldn't Happen Here: American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective
[ hum ]

A close examination of three American anti-Semitic episodes: U.S. Grant's expulsion of the Jews during the Civil War, the Leo Frank case, and the publication of Henry Ford's The International Jew. What do these episodes teach us about anti-semitic prejudice, about Jews, and about America as a whole? Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 170a Studying Sacred Texts
[ hum ]

What does it mean to study a sacred text? What are the problems with doing so? What is sacred about a sacred text? How is studying a sacred text similar to and different from studying other texts? How do different religious traditions study texts differently? Usually offered every second year.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 193a Pirates, Mystics and Scholars: Travel Literature from the Islamic World
[ hum ]

Studies medieval and early modern travelogues from the Islamic world in English translation. These works provide us with a candid view of the Muslim Mediterranean including things like urban topography, social life, orthodox and subversive religious practices, status of minorities, conditions and limits of hospitality and so on. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

PHIL 24a Philosophy of Religion
[ hum ]

An introduction to the major philosophical problems of religion. Discusses traditional arguments for and against the existence of God, the nature of faith and mystical experiences, the relation of religion to morality, and puzzles about the concept of God. Usually offered every second year.
Eli Hirsch

PHIL 146a Idea of God
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission from the instructor.

Engages in a philosophical investigation, not of religion as an institution but of the very idea of God. Studies the distinction between human being and divine being and addresses the issue of the relation of God's essence to his existence. Usually offered every second year.
Palle Yourgrau

POL 145b Seminar: Muslims in the West: Politics, Religion, and Law
[ oc ss ]

Controversies about the integration of Muslims and Islam have fueled anti-immigrant sentiments and electoral politics in Western Europe and North America. But what are the facts about Muslim minorities and Islam in Western societies? Muslim migrants embrace many Islamic traditions from conservative to secularized identities and blended identities. The course introduces students to public policies and law on matters of the exercise of religion, secularism, and the accommodation of Islam and Muslim through comparative case studies ranging from the French headscarf bans to controversies over free speech and blasphemy. Usually offered every year.
Jytte Klausen

SAS 100a India and Pakistan: Understanding South Asia
[ djw hum nw ss ]

SOC 129a Sociology of Religion
[ deis-us ss ]

Provisional University Bulletin (2023-2024)