Religious Studies

This course explores the contents, historical contexts, themes, development, and transmission of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and New Testament. Readings will be selected portions of most biblical books, in a translation that offers explanatory notes and other helps. Class sessions will focus in great part on trying to understand these writings in their original situations, and how people ever since have used and interpreted them. No previous knowledge of the Bible is assumed.

“Who do you say that I am?" Throughout Christian history and in the contemporary world, there are numerous and sometimes quite incompatible responses to this question about Jesus's identity. This course introduces students to the Christian tradition in history and the contemporary world through a focus on the diversity of these “interpretations of Jesus/' including in the global religious and interfaith context. Through this course, students will also gain the critical and cross-cultural thinking skills required for the academic study of religion. No previous knowledge of Christianity or religious studies is assumed.

Contrary to popular belief, the Bible doesn't have a single meaning. Rather, it means different things to people depending on the questions they ask, when they live, how they understand the world, and their social location. This class will explore this by reading three Bible stories: Creation and the Garden of Eden, the Exodus, and Revelation. We will then examine how different people (other Biblical authors, ancient Jews and Christians, Renaissance artists and writers, and modern Americans, both black and white) have found different meanings in these texts.

Christianity began as a marginal sect, became the official religion of the Empire, and has continually shaped and been shaped by political forces. This course explores how Christian beliefs and practices have been understood from the margins, contesting the structures of power of its day. Particular attention will be given to African American forms and expressions of Christianity.

Satan is hot in popular culture. This course will explore how Satan has been viewed by the West. We will consider Satan's (few) appearances in the Bible but most of the class will be spent looking at more recent representations of Satan in literature, comics, film, music, and television. We will focus on how people have imagined Satan differently and what has prompted these different versions of Satan to be imagined.

What is a cult and why would somebody want to join one? What might the end of the world look like? Why are people worried about the apocalypse? This course will attempt to answer these questions through the study of different groups that have been labelled “cults.” We will explore why people choose to join new religions and why others call those new religions “cults” but why we're supposed to call them “New Religious Movements.” We will also try to discover why many of these new religions focus on the end of the world, the coming apocalypse, and the rebirth of humanity and society. Throughout the semester we will use a variety of groups from America and Asia to illustrate four key themes within New Religious Movements: charismatic leadership, the end of the world, race and gender, and violence.

Where does religion happen? Why are people so interested in and protective of religious spaces? This class examines the ways that people experience and live religion through interactions with particular spaces and places. We will examine the nature of “sacred space” and why religion, which is considered by many to be relatively abstract, is in fact often grounded in geography at the intersection between the physical and the spiritual realms. Covering religions from across the globe and their interactions across space and time, we will examine the ways that religions interact, develop, and establish themselves in new locations and with new peoples and cultures. We will also look at how various religions understand and interact with the environment.

The relationship between athletic competition and religious worship is as old as the Olympics in ancient Greece. Why do some religions encourage athletic competition, while others see sports as incompatible with religious life? How do specific religious commitments conflict with athletic competition? Why do some religions borrow athletic imagery to describe the religious life? How do sports use religious imagery? In this class, we will look at the role of sports in several religions from ancient Greece to contemporary America. We will look at Jews, Christians, Muslims, among others, examining the relationship between their religious commitments and athletics. Finally, we will think of how athletics and religion often take on each other's qualities to the point that sports can be analyzed as a form of religion.

This course will explore the connections between Business and Economics and Religion. Religion has played a major role in shaping American business practices and continue to influence business decisions especially related to the environment and agriculture. We will also think about how big business has sought to influence American religion.

Religion - and Christianity in particular - has been called one of the greatest threats to the environment, the Bible often being used to justify the exploitation of natural resources for human benefit. Is this true? Does it have to be the case? In this class, we will explore how religious commitments shape attitudes toward the environment, and ways that people can act in an environmentally ethical manner through their religious traditions. We will look, in particular, how the Bible has been called upon on all sides of the debate, but also turn to other traditions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism for comparison.

What do femininity and masculinity look like in East Asia? How many genders are there according to East Asian religions? This course will examine these and other related questions to explore the meaning of gender and sexuality in East Asian religions. Using stories, traditions, and testimonies of gender transformation and fluid sexuality, along with their counterpoints of gender rigidity and restrictive sexuality, it will look at both historical and contemporary expressions of gender and sexuality across East Asia to show the variety of interpretations of women, men, and everything in between that lie at the heart of East Asia. (See HI 181.)

This class helps students expand beyond their own religious tradition in order to see the way other traditions view their worlds and explore how religion can be understood as a reflection of attempts to comprehend the human condition. In this course, we examine Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese Traditions, alongside a select number of additional traditional and new religious movements to reflect the diversity inherent in religious experiences across the globe. Using the lived experience of religion as a launching point, we compare and contrast these religions and critically examine texts from each one to illuminate how misunderstandings about religion can easily arise. We pay particular attention to the ways that historical practices and beliefs are present in contemporary expressions of religious identity.

In this interdisciplinary course, you will gain knowledge and skills necessary for navigating professional and community life in a religiously diverse 21st century. Using case studies, texts from multiple disciplines like religion, history, and sociology, alongside experiences and interactions inside and outside of the classroom, you will learn about multiple religions, about what is at stake when people who orient around religion differently interact, and about how you can become an effective interfaith leader. The course includes an opportunity to connect this work with a profession, a major, or an issue of specific interest to you.

In this course, you will learn about global politics as manifest in religious terrorism from five global religions, one case study of a violent new religious movement in the United States, and the intersection of religion and the physical and imagined body. Drawing together historical, textual, philosophical, and theoretical examinations of religion and violence, this class will question the enduring relationship of the two, with a particular focus on the contemporary landscape and all that came to form it. The class will conclude with an examination of responses to religious violence like Martin Luther King Jr.'s and Mohandas Ghandi's work on nonviolence.

Illness is a universal human experience and so is the desire to give meaning to illness. Nevertheless, cultural and religious differences can produce very different interpretations of the meaning and significance of illness for both individuals and those around them. In this course we will examine religiously-informed understandings of illness (of body, mind, and spirit) as well as the interpretative and healing strategies different cultures have developed to explain, address, and alleviate it. We will cover faith healing, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, shamanism and a variety of alternative ways of thinking about health and the human body in order to make sense of why people pursue non- Western biomedical forms of medicine. In addition, we will explore how different ways of healing raises questions about the differences between disease and illness, curing and healing, and religion and folk tradition.

Many people's ideas about religion are shaped by how it is presented in film. This class will introduce the vocabulary of film analysis to students and then use it to study a variety of films. We will see that films often reflect the concerns of the time in which they were made, even if they claim to represent the life of Jesus or other biblical figures. Films to be studied include several Bible films (that is, films adapting stories from Bible), films that represent Jewish and/or Christian ideas, and films representing other religions. Films are one of the most complex art forms, but most people watch them passively. In this class we will learn to “read” them carefully, analyze them, and reflect upon them. While the content of the films will be biblical and religious, the skills learned in this class are applicable to any film-based medium.

Japanese history and religion are intimately intertwined; indeed, it is impossible to understand one without the other. This course is intended to assist you in understanding Japan in the context of its history and major religious traditions. It will cover the sweep of Japan's story from its archaeological and mythical beginnings to today. We will explore the development of its primary religious traditions, Buddhism and Shinto, as well as other religions such as Confucianism that play an important part in Japanese history and thought. Readings will include texts by Japanese and non-Japanese alike. No previous knowledge of Japan is assumed. (See HI 223.)

This course is intended to assist you in understanding contemporary China in the context of its history and major religions. It will cover the sweep of China's story from its beginnings to the 21st century. Traditions treated will include ancient beliefs and practices, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and modern political ideologies such as Maoism. Readings will include texts by Chinese and non-Chinese alike. No previous knowledge of China is assumed. (See HI 224.)

What kind of being is God supposed to be? Does God exist? How do we know? If there is a God, why is there evil? Is belief in God relevant in our contemporary social and political world? Can you create ideas of God, new religions? This course investigates these and other questions about God by examining the writings of historical and contemporary thinkers (philosophers, religious adherents, and novelists).

A thorough and rigorous introduction to biblical Hebrew, with emphasis on grammar, syntax and vocabulary, in preparation for translation of biblical prose. Readings in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament begin in the first semester and increase in complexity throughout the year. This course is offered upon student request. Please contact Dr. Porter if you are interested.

A thorough and rigorous introduction to biblical Greek, with emphasis on grammar, syntax and vocabulary, in preparation for translation of biblical prose. Readings in the New Testament begin in the first semester and increase in complexity throughout the year. This course is offered upon student request. Please contact Dr. Porter if you are interested.

A detailed study of some topic or a movement in religion.

A detailed study of some topic or a movement in religion.