Religion Professors: Betsy Halpern-Amaru, Lawrence H. Mamiya, Deborah Dash Moore;
Associate Professor: Mark S. Cladis (Chair); Assistant Professors: Marc Michael Epsteinab, E.H. Rick Jarow, Lynn R. LiDonniciab; Lecturer: Tova Weitzman.
ab Absent on leave for the year.
The concentration in religion is intended to provide an understanding
of major religious traditions, an exposure to a variety of approaches
employed within the study of religion, and an opportunity for
exploration of diverse problems that religions seek to address.
Requirements for the Concentration: 11 units, including 270, 271, 3 seminars at the 300 level, and
a senior thesis or project. It is recommended that students take
Religion 270 in the sophomore or junior year. Students are expected
to pursue a program of study marked by both breadth and depth.
Of courses in Hebrew, 206, 305 and 121 may be counted toward the
concentration. After declaring a concentration in religion, no
courses taken under the Non-Recorded Option serve to fulfill the
requirements.
Senior-year Requirements: 271 and a 300-level senior thesis or project.
It is possible to integrate the study of religion with another
concentration by means of a correlate sequence in religion.
Requirements for the Correlate Sequence: 6 units: 1 unit at the 100-level, 3 at the 200-level and two
seminars at the 300-level. Various tracks within the correlate
sequence may be devised in consultation with a department adviser.
After declaring a correlate sequence in religion, no courses taken
under the Non-Recorded Option serve to fulfill the requirements.
Advisers: Ms. Amaru, Mr. Epstein, Mr. Cladis, Mr. Jarow, Ms. LiDonnici,
Mr. Mamiya, and Ms. Moore.
Religion
I. Introductory
[101. The Religious Dimension] (1)
Is religion best described as a personal, inward experience or
as a communal, social activity? The course explores the relation
between religion, society, and the individual. The second half
of the course investigates the ways religions, as social institutions,
shape particular notions of the self.
Open to all students.
Not offered in 1999/00.
[102b. Love: The Concept and Practice] (1)
A study of love (in classical and modern texts and in film) that
explores a host of religious and ethical issues. Topics include
the potential conflict between divine and human love, and the
nature of friendship, romance, and marriage. Focus is on love
in the Western world, but the Kamasutra and other Eastern texts furnish a comparative component. Authors
will include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Dante, Simone Weil,
and Alice Walker. Mr. Cladis.
Not offered in 1999/00.
[120a. Sacred Literature: Strategies of Interpretation] (1)
What we learn from any given text is largely determined by interpretative
choices we make when we read. In this course, we will work with
several core religious texts from a variety of traditions, and
explore the many "meanings" they may have when regarded from cultural,
psychological, and other perspectives. Ms. LiDonnici.
Open only to freshmen. Satisfies requirements for a Freshman Course.
Not offered in 1999/00.
150a and b. Western Religious Traditions (1)
An historical comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. The course will focus on such themes as origins, development,
sacred literature, ritual, legal, mystical, and philosophical
traditions, and interactions between the three religions. The
department.
Open to all students.
152a and b. Eastern Religious Traditions (1)
An introduction to the religions of Asia (including Hindu, Buddhist,
and Taoist traditions) through a study of their basic doctrines,
sensibilities, and practices. The focus is comparative as the
course explores numerous themes, including creation (cosmology),
revelation, action, fate and destiny, human freedom, the existence
of evil, and ultimate values. Mr. Jarow.
Open to all students.
II. Intermediate
201b. Religion Gone Wild: Spirituality & the Environment (1)
(Same as Environmental Studies Development Project 201) A study
of the dynamic relation between religion and nature. Religion,
in this course, includes forms of spirituality within and outside
the bounds of conventional religious traditions (for example,
Buddhism, Christianity, and Jainism, on the one hand; ecofeminism,
the literature of nature, and Australian Aboriginal religion,
on the other). Topics in this study of religion, ethics, and ecology
may include: religious depictions of creation, nature, and the
position of humans in the environment; religious aspects of environmental
degradation and contemporary ecological movements; environmental
justice; and environmentalism as a religion. Mr. Cladis.
Prerequisite: one unit in religion or permission of instructor.
203a. The Origins and Development of Islamic Literature (1)
(Same as Africana Studies 203) Ms. Berkley.
205b. Modern Problems of Belief (1)
Some say it is impossible to be both a modern and a religious
person. What are the assumptions behind this claim? The course
explores how religion has been understood in the context of the
eclipse of religion in Western culture from the Enlightenment
to the present. Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Neitzsche, Freud, and
Buber are some of the thinkers whom we study. Mr. Cladis.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in philosophy or religion, or by permission
of instructor.
211a. Religions of the Oppressed and Third-World (1)
Liberation Movements
(Same as Africana Studies 211) Mr. Mamiya.
[215b. Religion and the Arts] (1)
An exploration of various aspects, spiritual and political, of
the interdependence of art and religious culture from the dawn
of human consciousness through postmodernity. May be taken more
than once for credit when content changes.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion at the 100-level, or by permission
of instructor.
Not offered in 1999/00.
220a. Text and Tradition (1)
Study of selected oral and written text(s) and their place(s)
in various religious traditions. May be taken more than once for
credit when content changes. Ms. Amaru.
Topic for 1999/00: Adam and Eve. A comparative study of Jewish and Christian interpretations of
the biblical myth of the first man and woman. This course examines
a variety of interpretations and explores the significance of
the myth within Western culture.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion or by permission of instructor.
225a. The Hebrew Bible (1)
The books of the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) are about
a very long and tempestuous relationship between a people and
a God. But who are these people, and where did they come from?
Why were they chosen, and by whom? What were they chosen for?
Where did the biblical books come from, and why are they so influential?
In this course we examine these and other questions that relate
to the interpretation of one of the most important books of Western
civilization. The department.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion, or by permission of instructor.
[227b. The New Testament and Early Christianity] (1)
The Christian Scriptures speak with many different voices. Some
advocate peace, some rebellion; some praise duty, others a radical
rejection of family and all it represents. What was the earliest
Christian message, and how did it evolve? How do the texts of
the New Testament both reflect and shape the developing Christian
communities? This course examines these unique texts and relates
them to the religious, cultural, and intellectual realities found
by individuals and groups in the Mediterranean world from the
first century b.c.e. through the third century c.e. Ms. LiDonnici.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion, or by permission of instructor.
Not offered in 1999/00.
[231. Hindu Traditions] (1)
An introduction to the history, practices, myths, ideas and core
values that inform Hindu traditions. Beginning with the pre-Vedic
period, the course traces major religious practices and developments
up to and including the contemporary period. Among topics examined
are yoga and upanishadic mysticism, the spiritual paths (marga) of action (karma) knowledge (jnana) and love (bhakti), the worship of (and ideologies surrounding) gods and goddesses,
and issues of gender, caste, and ethnicity in both pre- and postmodern
times. Mr. Jarow.
Prerequisite: Religion 152 or by permission of instructor.
Alternate years: not offered in 1999/00.
[233a. Buddhist Traditions] (1)
An introduction to Buddhist traditions, beginning with the major
themes that emerged in the first centuries after the historical
Buddha and tracing the development of Buddhist thought and practice
throughout Asia. The course examines how Buddhist sensibilities
have expressed themselves through culturally diverse societies,
and how specific Buddhist ideas about human attainment have been
(and continue to be) expressed through meditation, the arts, political
engagement, and social relations. Various schools of Buddhist
thought and practice are examined including Theravada, Mahayana,
Tantra, Tibetan, East Asian, and Zen. Mr. Jarow.
Prerequisite: Religion 152 or by permission of instructor.
Alternate years: not offered in 1999/00.
236a. Christian Traditions (1)
An exploration of the variety of perspectives within Christian
self-understanding as it has developed in the course of Western
history. Particular attention is paid to expressions of spirituality
both in terms of the individual and of the Christian community.
Ms. Amaru.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion or history, or by permission
of instructor.
[243. Islamic Traditions] (1)
(Same as Africana Studies 243). The religion of Islam in its historical
expressions, including sectarian developments and Sufi mysticism.
Special attention is given to the role of Islam in Africa through
Arabic conquest and to the impact of Islam with the Black Muslim
movement in American culture. Mr. Mamiya.
Prerequisite: Religion 150, 152, or by permission of instructor.
Alternate years: not offered in 1999/00.
245b. Religion and Antisemitism (l)
A study of the intersections of religion and antisemitism that
examines antisemitism as a cultural phenomenon within western
civilization. The course explores various formulations of antisemitic
ideologies with particular attention to such issues as the place
of antisemitism/anti-Judaism in the theological development of
Christianity; antisemitism and Islam in the West; antisemitism
as a unifying political force; and antisemitism as a secular religion
in totalitarian and nontotalitarian contexts. Ms. Amaru.
[246b. Jewish Politics and Religion] (1)
(Same as History 246) An exploration of the development of Judaism
as a spiritual response to political empowerment and disempowerment
in the context of Jewish encounters with the empires of the ancient
world. Special attention is given to the themes of land and exile;
religion and revolution; messianism; and modes of spiritual empowerment.
Ms. Amaru.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion or history, or by permission
of instructor.
Not offered in 1999/00.
[248a. Jews and Judaism in the Modern World] (1)
(Same as History 248) The social, cultural, political, and religious
transformations of Jewish life in Europe, northern Africa, and
the Americas during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries under
the impact of modernity. Jewish responses to emancipation, enlightenment,
nationalism, and antisemitismincluding social movements, political
ideologies, religious innovations, and intellectual trendswill
be discussed in comparative contexts of immigration, social mobility,
and urbanization. Ms. Moore.
Prerequisite: Religion 150, or 1 unit in history, or by permission
of instructor.
Not offered in 1999/00.
249a. The Jewish Experience in the Twentieth Century (1)
(Same as History 249) The twentieth century shattered and transformed
Jewish life throughout the world altering our understanding of
evil and challenging accepted meanings of modernity. This course
explores the rise of political and racial antisemitism and its
culmination in the Holocaust; the growth of Zionism and the establishment
of the State of Israel; the transformation of Jews from a largely
small-town people into a highly urbanized one. The implication
of these eventswhat it has meant for Jews to live in a post-Holocaust
world, how Jews interpret political sovereignty, the Jewish response
to American lifeform the second part of the course. Ms. Moore.
Prerequisite: Religion 150, or 1 unit in history, or by permission
of instructor.
250b. Across Religious Boundaries: Understanding Differences (1)
The study of a selected topic or theme in religious studies that
cuts across the boundaries of particular religions, allowing opportunities
for comparison as well as contrast of religious traditions, beliefs,
values and practices. May be taken more than once for credit when
the content changes. Mr. Jarow.
Topic for 1999/00b: The Ritual Dimension. Ritual has been called the "grammar of religion" because it lends
body to religious experience. In the study of ritual we focus
on what followers of religious traditions actually do as opposed
to what they profess. This course explores the Ritual Dimension
of religion through the experiential, social, and structural aspects
of ritual and through the examination of ritual-in-action in a
variety of cultural contexts. The course considers an ongoing
series of questions: Is ritual an innate or a social construct?
Is there a basic morphology of ritual? How does ritual foster
social order, community, and/or personal transformation? When
and why does ritual "succeed" or "fail"? How does ritual manifest
in non-liturgical contexts? How does ritual construct "the other"?
And what is the relationship between the ritual and ethical dimensions
of human experience?
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion.
255a. Western Mystical Traditions (1)
Textual, phenomenological and theological studies in the religious
mysticism of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. May be taken more
than once for credit when content changes. The department.
Topic for 1999/00: Kabbalah. A survey of the historical and phenomenological development of
the theoretical/theosophical and practical/magical dimensions
of the Jewish mystical tradition from its biblical origins to
postmodernity.
Prerequisite: one 100-level course or by permission of instructor.
[256b. Religion and Popular Culture] (1)
While the study of religion encompasses the construction of dogma
and theology by a clerical elite, it also concerns itself with
the popular and phenomenological manifestions of religious culture.
This course examines various popular movements in the history
of religion as well as the reception of theology and dogma by
the masses, and the repercussions of class, race and gender relationships
on interreligious and intrareligious conflict and collusion. May
be taken more than once for credit when content changes.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in Religion, or by permission of instructor.
Not offered in 1999/00.
[266. Religion in America] (1)
An historical introduction to the study of religion in America,
focusing on religious innovation and change, especially the introduction
and creation of new religions and religious movements and redefinition
of boundaries of margins and mainstream in American religious
life. Topics include the role of religion in politics, culture,
ethnic group life, and the social construction of gender.
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion, or by permission of instructor.
Not offered in 1999/00.
267a. Religion, Culture and Society (1)
An examination of the interaction between religion, society, and
culture in the work of classical theorists such as Freud, Marx,
Durkheim and Weber, and in the writings of modern theorists like
Berger, Luckman, Bellah, and Geertz. Students will learn to apply
theoretical concepts to the data of new religious movements in
American society. Mr. Mamiya.
Prerequisite: 1 unit at the 100-level in religion, 1 unit at the
100-level in anthropology or sociology, or by permission of instructor.
[268b. Sociology of Black Religion] (1)
(Same as Africana Studies 268) Mr. Mamiya.
Not offered in 1999/00.
270b. Departmental Colloquium (1/2)
Joint exploration of methods in the study of religion. The department,
Mr. Cladis.
Permission required.
One two-hour period during the first half of the semester.
271a. Advanced Methods in the Study of Religion (1/2)
A continued exploration of methods in the study of religion and
their application to research questions. Mr. Cladis.
Senior religion majors only. Permission required.
One two-hour period bi-monthly.
290a or b. Field Work (1/2)
Supervised field work in the community in cooperation with the
field work office. The department.
By permission, with any unit in religion as prerequisite and work
in other social sciences recommended.
Reading Courses
Prerequisite: 1 unit in religion or as specified.
Permission required.
297.01. Feminism and Theology (1/2)
Mr. Cladis.
297.03. Buddhist Texts in Translation (1/2)
Mr. Jarow.
Prerequisite: Religion 233.
297.04. Hindu Texts in Translation (1/2)
Mr. Jarow.
Prequisite: Religion 231.
297.05. The Qumran Scrolls ("Dead Sea Scrolls") (1/2)
Ms. Amaru.
Prerequisite: Religion 225 or 246.
297.06. Religion and the Black Experience (1/2)
Mr. Mamiya.
[297.07 The Method to Our Madness: Introductory Methods in the
(1/2)
Study of Religion]
Ms. LiDonnici.
Not offered in 1999/00.
298a or b. Independent Work (1/2 or 1)
The department.
Prerequisite: One semester of appropriate intermediate work in
the field of study proposed. Permission of instructor required.
III. Advanced
Prerequisite for all 300-level courses unless otherwise specified:
1 unit at the 200-level or permission of instructor.
300b. Senior Thesis or Project (1)
An essay or other project in religion written under the supervision
of a member of the department. Normally taken in the second semester,
and in the first only under special circumstances.
Permission required.
301. Religion and Critical Thought (1)
An examination of philosophical and social theoretical issues
in religious thought and practice. Topics may include the rationality
of religious belief, attempts to explain the origin and persistence
of religion, or problems in the interpretation of religion. May
be taken more than once for credit when the content changes. Mr.
Cladis.
Topic for 1999/00: Reason Within the Bounds of Religion. An investigation of the intellectual status of religious thought,
posing such questions: Is religious belief reasonable? Does it
need to be? Can it respond to the challenges of Darwin or Marx?
310b. Politics and Religion: Tradition and Modernization (1)
in the Third World
(Same as Africana Studies 310) An examination of the central problem
facing all Third-World and developing countries, the confrontation
between the process of modernization and religious tradition and
custom. Along with social, economic, and political aspects, the
course focuses on the problems of cultural identity and crises
of meaning raised by the modernization process. Selected case
studies are drawn from Africa and Asia. Mr. Mamiya.
Prerequisite: Sociology/Religion 261 or Africana Studies 268,
or 2 units in Religion or Africana Studies at the 200-level, or
by permission of instructor.
Alternate years: offered in 1999/00.
320a. Studies in Sacred Texts (1)
Examination of selected themes and texts in sacred literature.
May be taken more than once when content changes. Ms. Amaru.
Topic for 1999/00: The Matriarchs and Their Sisters. An examination of the "heroine" typologies in Hebrew Scriptures
& Apolcrypha. Analysis of selected characterizations in the biblical
literature and exploration of the portrayals as interpreted and
reinterpreted in modern western art, music, and literature.
346b. Studies in Jewish Thought and History (1)
Advanced study in selected aspects of Jewish thought and history.
May be taken more than once for credit when the content changes.
Ms. Amaru.
Topic for 1999/00b: Portraits of Biblical Women. An examination of the portrayals of women in Hebrew Scriptures
and a study of how the characterizations are reinterpreted and
the portraits reworked in post-biblical Jewish literature.
350b. Comparative Studies in Religion (1)
An examination of selected themes, issues, or approaches used
in illuminating the religious dimensions and dynamics within particular
cultures and societies, with attention to the benefits and limits
of the comparative method. Past seminars have focused on such
topics as myth, ritual, mysticism, and iconography. May be taken
more than once for credit when content changes. Mr. Jarow.
Topic for 1999/00: Dreams, Myths, and Visions in the Religious Imagination. This seminar focuses on the understanding and utilization of dreams
and myths in eastern and western religious traditions. It will
explore dream and visionary passages in Jewish, Christian, and
Islamic works as well as traditional interpretations of dreams,
and their attendant myths in India and Tibet. In addition to working
with traditional commentaries and interpretations, the course
will consider contemporary theoretical approaches from structuralist
and post-structuralist sources, depth psychology, and cognitive
science. Readings include passages from the Hebrew Scriptures,
the Book of Revelation, the Qur'an, the Bhagvata-Purana, and the
Tibetan Book of the Dead. Critical materials include the works
of Tsong Kha Pa, Freud, Jung, Laberge, and others.
Hebrew Language and Literature
I. Introductory
105a-106b. Elementary Hebrew (1)
Introduction to the language. Basic phonics and grammatical structures.
Stress on development of reading comprehension, simple composition,
and conversational skills. For 105, no background in the language
is assumed; admission to 106 is possible with the demonstration
of previous work equivalent to 105. Ms. Weitzman.
May not be counted toward fulfillment of requirements for concentration.
Open to all students.
121b. Voices from Modern Israel (1)
An examination of modern and post-modern Hebrew literature in
English translation. The course will focus on Israeli voices of
men, women, Jews, Arabs, Ashkenazim and Sepharadim to investigate
topics such as memory, identity, alienation, the 'other', community,
exile. Authors may include Dalia Rabikowitz, Zelda, Nathan Zach,
Yehudah Amichai, A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, David Grossman, Anton
Shammas, Savion Librecht and Ruth Almog. Ms. Weitzman.
Open to all students.
II. Intermediate
205a, 206b. Continuing Hebrew (1)
Formal study of Hebrew language with emphasis on oral practice
and writing skills. Ms. Weitzman.
Prerequisite: Hebrew 105-106, or equivalent of two years in high
school.
298. Independent Work (1/2 or 1)
III. Advanced Hebrew
305a. Advanced Hebrew (1)
Expansion of language proficiency through intensified study of
cultural and literary texts, including poetry, prose, essays,
newspapers, films, songs. Extensive discussion of issues related
to contemporary Israel. Ms. Weitzman.
Prerequisite: Hebrew 205/206 or equivalent. |
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