|
|
COURSE OFFERINGS
SPRING 2005
RS 101:1 Introduction
to Western Religions-- CRN# 7439
Humanities Division
Credit; Historical and Cultural Analysis Mode Credit for new core;
Required for Religious Studies Major and Minor
J.
Messana, TR 12:10-1:30, Vulg 204
Course
Description:
The focus of this class will be
the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism.
Through the textbook, primary sources, and other materials, students
will develop and understanding of the ancient as well as modern-day
manifestations of the traditions covered. By the end of the class,
students will posses an understanding of the history, system, and
dynamics of these four traditions. In addition, students will have
acquired a vocabulary for each tradition, which will aid in further
study as well as real-life encounters. The class will also briefly look
at how these religions have been recently portrayed in popular culture.
Text:
Oxtoby, W. World Religions: Western Traditions
Evaluation:
Students will be graded on class participation, periodic quizzes to
assess comprehension of readings, a test at the end of each tradition,
and a final paper- the topic of which is up to the student.
RS 101:2 Introduction
to Western Religions-- CRN# 7440
Humanities Division
Credit; Historical and Cultural Analysis Mode Credit for new core;
Required for Religious Studies Major and Minor
S.
Chamberlain, MW 2:10-3:30, Olin 232
Course
Description:
The focus of this class will be
the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism.
Through the textbook, primary sources, and other materials, students
will develop and understanding of the ancient as well as modern-day
manifestations of the traditions covered. By the end of the class,
students will posses an understanding of the history, system, and
dynamics of these four traditions. In addition, students will have
acquired a vocabulary for each tradition, which will aid in further
study as well as real-life encounters. The class will also briefly look
at how these religions have been recently portrayed in popular culture.
Text:
Oxtoby, W. World Religions: Western Traditions
RS 102:1
Introduction to Eastern Religions—CRN# 7441
Humanities Core
Division Credit; Historical & Cultural Analysis Mode Credit for new
core; Required for Religious Studies Major and Minor
J.
Messana, TR 2:10-3:30, Rob 403
Course
Description:
This class will seek to acquaint
students with the major traditions of the East: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism & Sikhism, Taoism & Confucianism, and Shinto. The class will
focus on both historical and contemporary manifestations of these
religions by using primary sources and audiovisual material in addition
to the textbook. Students will become familiar with the history, system,
and dynamics of the traditions and will develop tradition-specific
vocabularies which will prepare them for further classes in religion, as
well as multicultural encounters outside the classroom. The class will
also briefly look at how these religions have been recently portrayed in
popular culture.
Text:
Oxtoby, W. World Religions: Eastern
Traditions
Evaluation:
Students will be graded on class participation, periodic quizzes to
assess comprehension of readings, a test at the end of each tradition,
and a final paper- the topic of which is up to the student.
RS 102:2
Introduction to Eastern Religions—CRN# 7442
Humanities Core
Division Credit; Historical & Cultural Analysis Mode Credit for new
core; Required for Religious Studies Major and Minor
S.
Chamberlin, MW 12:10-1:30, Herrick 506
Description:
This class will seek to acquaint
students with the major traditions of the East: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism & Sikhism, Taoism & Confucianism, and Shinto. The class will
focus on both historical and contemporary manifestations of these
religions by using primary sources and audiovisual material in addition
to the textbook. Students will become familiar with the history, system,
and dynamics of the traditions and will develop tradition-specific
vocabularies which will prepare them for further classes in religion, as
well as multicultural encounters outside the classroom. The class will
also briefly look at how these religions have been recently portrayed in
popular culture.
Text:
Oxtoby, W. World Religions: Eastern
Traditions
R.S. 122 History, Literature, and Religion of the New
Testament—CRN# 7443
Fulfills Humanities requirement (old core), Fulfills
Textual Analysis mode requirement (new core), Fulfills Biblical Studies
Requirement for RELS Majors
S. Metso: TR 2:10-3:30, Epworth 210
Course
Description:
The New Testament is not a single book, but an
anthology reflecting different authors, historical circumstances,
literary genres, and theological agendas. This course is designed as an
introduction to the critical study of this and related literature, and
of the Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman cultural environment that was its
background. In the context of this environment, we shall examine how a
small group of Jews connected with a prophet named Jesus became a
separate religion with its own rituals and literature about one they
regarded as ‘Son of God’.
We shall analyze the earliest extant Christian
documents (the letters of Paul), the production of ‘gospels’ about
Jesus, and the development of the early Christian movement, as reflected
both in canonical and extracanonical literature. Our aim in this course
is to reconstruct the history, literature, and religion of the first
Christians in their various shapes. We shall also explore biblical
scholarship as an academic field of the liberal arts, and why every
educated person ought to know about its findings of the last 200 years.
Our main task, however, is to understand what the New Testament writings
may have meant in their original, historical context. Students will read
the entire New Testament as well as selected extracanonical documents.
GOALS:
1. To acquire a general understanding of the methods
and results of modern New Testament scholarship.
2. To practice using the techniques of linguistic and literary criticism
(close reading) to interpret New Testament literature.
3. To acquire a basic understanding of the Jewish and Greco-Roman
cultures that constitute the environment in which the New Testament
developed.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:
Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical
Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (3rd ed.; New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003).
Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings:
A Reader (2nd ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
EVALUATION:
1. Attendance and participation 25%.
2. Midterm exam 25%.
3. Term paper 25%.
4. Final exam 25%.
RS 232 Faith and Reason--CRN# 7444
This course fulfills the Textual Analysis Mode requirement.
R. Mourad, MWF 10:10-11:00, Rob 401
Course Description:
This course explores epistemology, or the theory of
knowledge, as it applies to religious belief. What is the nature and
source of religious belief, and is it irrational? Is there more to
faith than mere belief? Is there a conflict between Christian and
philosophical beliefs? We will examine several classic answers to these
questions from thinkers such as Blaise Pascal, John Locke, Karl Marx,
and Sigmund Freud.
Texts:
Paul Helm, ed. Faith and Reason.
Nicholas Wolterstorff. Reason Within the Bounds of Religion.
Requirements:
Attend all classes.
Read all assigned material and participate actively in class
discussions.
Two short papers (minimum 2000 words each-- approximately 7 typed
pages).
Two brief presentations identifying the position taken by one of our
authors and posing questions for class discussion.
One final exam.
Grading:
Paper 1: 25%
Paper 2: 25%
Final: 25%
Presentation: 15%
Attendance/Participation: 10%
RS 242 Christian Ethics--CRN#
7445
R. Mourad, MWF 1:10-2:00, Rob 407
Course Description:
God is on our side! Christians have
claimed the authority of their religious tradition for various, and
often contradictory, purposes. Confronted with this plurality, can we
claim that Christianity prescribes a single, clear set of ethical
principles? We will begin our discussion of Christian ethics by trying
to identify characteristic themes and emphases that distinguish them
from philosophical ethics. Next, we will compare several contemporary
types of Christian ethics and reflect critically on their theological
and philosophical adequacy. In the second half of the class we will
examine several arguments for substantive Christian positions regarding
pressing political and social issues.
Texts:
James Gustafson.
Can Ethics Be Christian?
Patricia Beattie Jung and Shannon Jung.
Moral Issues and Christian Responses.Philip Quinn.
A Companion to Philosophy of Religion.
Requirements:
Attend all classes.
Read all assigned material and
participate actively in class discussions.
Weekly written responses to the
reading.
One paper (minimum 2000 words --
approximately 7 typed pages).
2 in-class exams.
Evaluation:
Paper: 25%
Midterm: 20%
Final: 20%
Weekly Responses: 25%
Attendance: 10%
RS 311 Religion & Ecology—CRN# 7446
Fulfills Environmental Category Requirement
S. Raj: MW 11:10-12:30; Rob 403
Course Description:
The relation between religion and ecology has attracted the attention of
scholars and students of religion. The course will critically examine
the relation between humans, the natural and the sacred in selected
religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese Religions, the
Native American Religion, Christianity and Judaism. We will ask
throughout the course how and if the different ways individuals and
religious communities define and value nature and its relation to the
sacred affect their actual uses and treatment of their surroundings. We
will also examine some examples of the contemporary eco-religion
discussion such as ecotheolgy, ecofeminism, and deep ecology.
Texts:
Kinsley, D. Religion and Ecology (RE)
Tucker, M.E. & Grim, R. (eds) Worldviews and Ecology (WE)
Religion & Ecology Course Pack (CP)
Class lectures (CL), Video (VI), Class Discussion (CD), Presentation (P)
Evaluation:
Class attendance & participation, leading one class discussion with
another student, one individual presentation, two critical papers (7
pages each), and a final exam.
RS 320 Gender and Biblical Interpretation--
CRN# 7447
Fulfills the Gender Category Requirement
S. Metso, MW 2:10-3:30, Olin 112
Course Description
What happens when we read the Bible as women and as men?
Reflecting a patriarchal world, written by men, and until very recently
interpreted by almost exclusively by men—what does this book have to
offer to its readers today? How do women and men, on the basis of their
different life experiences, approach and interpret the Bible?
This course provides a study of the representation of
gender in biblical texts, with attention to their historical and
contemporary significance. A variety of methods will be employed
(historical, socio-cultural, literary, feminist, theological) to explore
ancient texts through a variety of perspectives that are shaped by
gender. We will question, for example, what role language and literature
play in the articulation of gender constructs in a culture.
The recognition that a text is an expression of meaning
by and for another culture and in another time and place evokes the need
to critically assess the social and political functions of ancient
texts. No reading of a text is neutral or objective; readings that claim
to be objective are usually biased in the favor of the dominant group.
Therefore, questions about power relations will be of special interest
in this course.
This course will give students an opportunity to become
more familiar with many sections of the Bible that have been influential
in shaping our depictions of the roles of men and women, and to begin to
understand how Judaism and Christianity find their roots in these
biblical texts. The focus in this course is on biblical stories and
their use of male and female imagery, for biblical narratives, in
particular, have had considerable cultural impact.
There are no pre requisites
for this course.
G oals:
1. To become acquainted with some of the principal
methods of biblical interpretation in the Jewish and Christian
traditions.
2. To discover the indicators by which biblical texts
show that they are products of androcentric, patriarchal societies,
and to critique the gender constructs in those societies.
3. To discover the cultural functions of biblical
literature, both in the cultures that produced the literature and in
contemporary cultures.
4. To explore the relationship between biblical
perspectives on gender relationships and the religious authority of
the Bible. We will be concerned with questions such as: Does the Bible
teach a specific hierarchy and prescribed roles for men and women? Can
the Bible itself be a liberating resource of role-oppressed women and
men.
5. To develop strategies for formulating and
addressing gender-nuanced questions.
6. To reflect on the role that religious traditions
play in the lives of Jewish and Christian women and men, on the
varieties of questions and approaches that feminist scholars, for
example, bring to the biblical text, and on the reciprocal
relationship of tradition and critique in religion.
7. To reflect on the importance of inductive study of
texts, of becoming more aware of one’s own experience and the
questions one brings to the text, and of various factors impinging on
the interpretive process, such as the life experience and social
context of both the individual interpreter and of the interpreting
community.
R equired
Textbooks:
1. Dana Noland Fewell and David M. Gunn, Gender,
Power and Promise: The Subject of the Bible’s First Story
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1993).
2. Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (ed.), Searching
the Scriptures: A Feminist Introduction (New York: Crossroad,
1993).
3. Carla Ricci, Mary Magdalene and Many Others:
Women Who Followed Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994).
5. Jane Prague Zones, Taking the Fruit: Modern
Women’s Tales of the Bible (San Diego: Woman’s Institute for
Continuing Jewish Education, 1981).
4. Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe (eds.),
Women’s Bible Commentary (Expanded edition; Louisville:
Westminster John Knox press, 1994).
6. Alica Odgen Bellis, Helpmates, Harlots, and
Heroes: Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible (Louisville:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994).
E valuation:
1. Attendance, participation, and homework 30%
2. Midterm exam (take-home) 30%
3. Term paper 40%
|
|
