Courses

    Prereq., SNSK 1010.

    Studies religion as individual experience and social phenomenon. Examines varieties of religious language (symbol, myth, ritual, scripture) and of religious experience (Asian, Western, archaic). Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

    Ritual continues to play an important role in contemporary societies in both religious and secular contexts. This course examines the elements and genres of ritual activity from African rites of passage to the Beijing Olympics, paying close attention to how the media documents, appropriates and transforms aspects of ritual. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: Contemporary Societies.

    Continued study of the grammar of classical Sanskrit and translation of selected readings from the literature. Meets MAPS requirement for foreign language. Prereq., SNSK 1020.

    Continuation of SNSK 2120. Prereq., SNSK 2110.

    Studies the nature of contemporary American society from various theoretical perspectives in religious studies. Gives attention to the impact of secularization and to the religious elements foundin aspects of secular life (e.g., politics, literature, education, and recreation). Approved for GT-SS3. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: contemporary societies.

    Explores the development of various religions within the shaping influences of American culture, including separation of church and state, the frontier experience, civil religion, and the interaction of religions of indigenous peoples, immigrants, and African Americans. Approved for GT-AH2. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: United States context or ideals and values.

    Introduces literature, beliefs, practices, and institutions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in historical perspective. Same as JWST 2600. Approved for GT-AH3. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

    Introduces the literature, beliefs, practices, and institutions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, in historical perspective. Approved for GT-AH2. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

    Introduces literature, beliefs, practices, and institutions of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism in historical perspective. Approved for GT-AH3. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

    Introduces religions of the peoples indigenous to the Americas. Concerns include ritual, mythology, and symbolism occurring throughout these cultures in such areas as art, architecture, cosmology, shamanism, sustenance modes, trade, and history. Same as ETHN 2703. Approved for GT-AH2. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values or human diversity.

    Examines roles of women in a variety of religious traditions including Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and goddess traditions. Same as WMST 2800. Approved for GT-AH2. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

    May be repeated up to 8 total credit hours.

    Serves as an introduction to the academic study of Christianity, understood in its historical context, beginning with its most remote Mesopotamian origins and through to beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. Coverage is global, but "Western" Christian tradition are emphasized, as is the evolution of doctrine, ritual and institutions in relation to social, cultural and political factors. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: historical context.

    Expanding the five common senses so they are grounded on a more fundamental kinesthetic sense, that is, sense of movement, this course focuses on the study of religion and culture on all those marvelous richly and sensuously textured aspects of religious behavior: movement, experience, feeling, action, sensation, gesture, art, music, dancing, architecture, costume, food, and ritual.

    Seminar for religious studies majors that emphasizes the development of writing skills for use inside as well as outside the academy. Writing assignments are focused on one or more core topics in religious studies. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: written communication. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Religious Studies (RLST) majors only.

    Studies religious dimensions of American culture through representative literature, beginning with the Puritans and focusing on diversity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: United States context.

    Explores Jewish religious experience and its expression in thought, ritual, ethics, and social institutions. Same as JWST 3100. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: historical context.

    Studies literature, beliefs, practices, and institutions of Hinduism, in historical perspective.

    Introduction to Buddhist thought and practice in the variety of its historical and cultural contexts. The course begins with an exploration of narrative, cosmology, doctrine and ritual in early Buddhism and the Theravada of South and Southeast Asia. Through case studies, we then trace diverse conceptions of the Buddhist path in Tibet and East Asia where the Mahayana spread.

    Studies the literature, beliefs, practices, and institutions of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism within the development of Japanese culture.

    Introduces Islamic beliefs and practices through an examination of the Qur'an, Muhammad's life, ritual duties, law and theology, mysticism, and social institutions.

    Explores diverse representations of the female in Buddhist literature and the social realities of actual women in Asian historical contexts. Through case studies that traverse Buddhist Asia, we delve into monastic views of the female body, philosophical analyses of the emptiness of gender, idealized images of the feminine in Buddhist tantra, and contemporary issues such as the nun's revival moment. Same as WMST 3750.

    Studies classical Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism within the historical context of Chinese culture.

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