REL Courses for Spring 2024
Please click on the course title for more information.
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REL 115 01 - Christianity in Twelve Objects
Course: |
REL 115 - 01 |
Title: |
Christianity in Twelve Objects |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
A study of the Christian religion through twelve objects that represent key beliefs, rituals, institutions, and spiritualities of the tradition: a cross, flame, water, bread and wine, a crown, an icon, a monastery, a cathedral, a bible, a hymn book, a meetinghouse, and a megachurch. We will take one week of the term to examine each of these objects and their complex meanings in Christian culture. Our approach will feature historical and thematic perspectives and engage with a combination of primary source texts, secondary interpretive readings, visual images, sound recordings, and videos. No previous knowledge of Christianity is assumed. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Instructors: |
Stephen Marini |
Meeting Time(s): |
Green Hall 136C Classroom - TF 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
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REL 119Y 01 - First-Year Seminar: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Yasukuni Shinto Shrine
Course: |
REL 119Y - 01 |
Title: |
First-Year Seminar: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Yasukuni Shinto Shrine |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Discussion based seminar deals with Japan both as a victim and as a victimizer during and in the aftermath of the World War II. It probes what drove Japan to aspire toward world domination; how the "ultimate bomb to end all wars" was used twice on Japan in August 1945; and how the Japanese "war criminals" are enshrined today at Yasukuni as "divine beings"; and how Yasukuni Shinto Shrine remains a major barrier in establishing peace between Japan and its Asian neighbors. The seminar is intended for students interested in the comparative and historical study of religion, Peace and Justice Studies, and East Asian Studies. Requirements: active participation in discussion, joint paper writing and presentation; no exams. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. Open to First-Years only. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
PEAC 119Y 01 - First-Year Seminar: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Yasukuni Shinto Shrine
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Instructors: |
Jim Kodera |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 225 Classroom - R 2:20 PM - 5:00 PM |
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REL 210 01 - Seminar: Joy Vey: Humor and Positive Emotions in Judaism
Course: |
REL 210 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: Joy Vey: Humor and Positive Emotions in Judaism |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Scholars of Jewish Studies tend to focus on moments of hardship and pain. But do disasters and the despair tell the whole story? What gets missed when we prioritize despair and misery and cast aside allegedly lighter and more positive themes? Such questions are the engine that runs this seminar. We will rethink the cultural roles of joy in Judaism, take Jewish humor seriously, and ponder whether happiness in Judaism is distinct from what we find in other religious traditions. Throughout the semester, through careful readings of primary sources (in translation) and contemporary theories, we will explore how so-called positive emotions, moods, and affects are inextricable from the most serious aspects of religion, politics, and the human experience, such as identity formation, violence, gender norms, and power. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
JWST 210 01 - Seminar: Joy Vey: Humor and Positive Emotions in Judaism
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Instructors: |
Erez DeGolan |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 151 Seminar Room - R 2:20 PM - 5:00 PM |
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REL 233 01 - The Anthropology of Religion
Course: |
REL 233 - 01 |
Title: |
The Anthropology of Religion |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course offers an introduction to the anthropological study of human religious experience, with particular emphasis on religious and ritual practice in a comparative perspective. What is the relationship between religion and society? Can categories such as “religion” and “the sacred” be legitimately applied to all cultures? Does religion necessarily imply belief in a God or sacred beings? We will concentrate on a range of small-scale, non-Western, cultures for much of the semester, returning to religious experience in the modern industrial world and the concept of "world religions" at the course’s end. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
ANTH 233 01 - The Anthropology of Religion
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Instructors: |
Holly Lynn Walters |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 216 Case Method Room - TF 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
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REL 241 01 - Courtesans in South Asian Literature and Films
Course: |
REL 241 - 01 |
Title: |
Courtesans in South Asian Literature and Films |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Mystifying and complex, the figure of courtesan has appeared as the foil to the virtuous and docile wife in Sanskrit and Tamil classics of ancient India, early Urdu novels, and literary works of several South Asian languages. Since the mid-twentieth century, the courtesan has appeared in films produced in South Asia as a self-sacrificing character with a strong will. In this course, we will examine literary works in South Asian languages since the antiquity with courtesans as central characters and films based on them. For each work, we will first consider the figure of the courtesan in view of the cultural context of the time of its composition and various theories of literary criticism. We will then analyze the film based on the work in terms of how the interpretation of the character here compares with the literary work. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Language and Literature |
Cross Listed Courses: |
SAS 241 01 - Courtesans in South Asian Literature and Films
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Instructors: |
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 225 Classroom - TF 2:10 PM - 3:25 PM |
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REL 245 01 - The Holocaust and the Nazi State
Course: |
REL 245 - 01 |
Title: |
The Holocaust and the Nazi State |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
An examination of the origins, character, course, and consequences of Nazi antisemitism during the Third Reich. Special attention to Nazi racialist ideology, and how it shaped policies that affected such groups as the Jews, the disabled, the Roma, Poles and Russians, Afro-Germans, and gay men. Consideration of the impact of Nazism on women and on the German medical and teaching professions. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
JWST 245 01 - The Holocaust and the Nazi State
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Instructors: |
Barbara H. Geller |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 128 Classroom - W 1:30 PM - 4:10 PM |
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REL 255 01 - Japanese Religion and Culture
Course: |
REL 255 - 01 |
Title: |
Japanese Religion and Culture |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Constancy and change in the history of Japanese religious thought and its cultural and literary expression from the prehistoric "age of the gods" to contemporary Japan. An examination of Japanese indebtedness to, and independence from, Korea and China, assimilation and rejection of the West, and preservation of indigenous tradition. Topics include: Shinto, distinctively Japanese interpretations of Buddhism, neo-Confucianism, their role in modernization and nationalism, Western colonialism, and modern Japanese thought as a crossroad of East and West. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
|
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Instructors: |
Jim Kodera |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton West 001 Classroom - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
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REL 262 01 - The Formation of the Islamic Tradition
Course: |
REL 262 - 01 |
Title: |
The Formation of the Islamic Tradition |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Historical study of the Islamic tradition, from its beginnings in Arabia through its shaping in the seventh to tenth centuries in the diverse and newly integrated regions of Western and Central Asia and North Africa. Topics include the sacred sources of the Islamic religious tradition, the Prophet and the Qur'an; the formulation of religious law, ethics, theology, and philosophy; varied patterns of piety and mysticism; and the development of Sunni and Shi'i understandings of Islam and Islamic history. Particular attention to the diversity within the Islamic tradition, its intercultural contacts, and its continuing processes of reinterpretation. The course also addresses approaches, methods, issues, and new directions in the study of Islam and Muslim societies. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
Normally alternates with REL 260. |
Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
MES 262 01 - The Formation of the Islamic Tradition
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Instructors: |
Louise Marlow |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 151 Seminar Room - TF 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
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REL 271 01 - Love and Longing in Middle Eastern and Iranian Literature and Film
Course: |
REL 271 - 01 |
Title: |
Love and Longing in Middle Eastern and Iranian Literature and Film |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Love in its myriad manifestations constitutes a central and perennial theme in the literary and artistic repertoires of Arabic- and Persian-speaking societies. This course explores the varied, subtle vocabulary and the versatile, multivalent imagery linked with the themes of love and longing in Arabic- and Persian-language literature and film. In different times and places, how have men and women writers and directors used the themes of love and longing to depict and critique concepts of gender and gender relations, and social and political inequalities? How have men and women writers and filmmakers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries both continued and disrupted earlier literary and poetic discourses of love? How have modern filmmakers engaged with and reworked classical stories of transgressive love? Divided roughly equally between literary and cinematic works, the course explores treatments of love and longing in, for example, early Arabic poetry and the Quranic text, philosophical and medical treatises, narrative cycles (for example the Thousand and One Nights), epic (notably the Persian Shahnameh or ‘Book of Kings’), lyric poetry (Rumi, Saadi, Hafez), modern verse, and film, including films by Dariush Mehrjui, Youssef Chahine, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshan Bani-Etamad and Shirin Neshat. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. Not open to students who have taken MES 371/REL 371. |
Notes: |
This course is also taught at the 300-level as MES 371/REL 371. |
Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
MES 271 01 - Love and Longing in Middle Eastern and Iranian Literature and Film
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Instructors: |
Louise Marlow |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 151 Seminar Room - W 9:30 AM - 12:10 PM |
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REL 280 01 - South Asian Religions in the USA
Course: |
REL 280 - 01 |
Title: |
South Asian Religions in the USA |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
The form of a religion changes according to the social and historical contexts.. In the past century, a large number of South Asians of diverse religious backgrounds have migrated to the USA and have established their religious communities in its various regions. How have the Hindu, Muslim, Jain, and Buddhist South Asians contributed to the growing religious diversity in the US? What adjustments have they made to meet the expectations from religion in their new homeland where their children have grown? In this course we will explore these questions employing the case-study approach. We will begin with a review of the historical forms of religions in South Asia, followed by their study in the USA. Groups of students will pursue case-studies of various South Asian communities in New England. The final project will bring the findings of all groups in a collective study of South Asian religions in this part of the USA. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
SAS 280 01 - South Asian Religions in the USA
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Instructors: |
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt |
Meeting Time(s): |
Green Hall 136B Classroom - TF 12:45 PM - 2:00 PM |
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REL 330 01 - Seminar: Religion and Violence
Course: |
REL 330 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: Religion and Violence |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Is religion inherently violent, or do external forces like political factionalism and ethnic hostility exploit it to gain power? This course explores these and other questions to theorize the sources and manifestations of religious violence. Topics include the role of violence in sacred texts and traditions, intra- and interreligious conflicts, religion and nationalism, and religious violence in today's global society. Historical and contemporary examples selected from world religious traditions and global geography, with particular attention to the role of religion in the rise of violent American survivalist, paramilitary, and internet movements. This course counts as a capstone seminar for the Peace and Justice major. |
Prerequisite(s): |
One of the following - HIST 205, REL 200, REL 230, PEAC 104, or permission of the instructor. |
Notes: |
Normally alternates with REL 319. |
Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
PEAC 330 01 - Seminar: Religion and Violence
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Instructors: |
Stephen Marini |
Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Art Center 452 Seminar Room - M 2:20 PM - 5:00 PM |
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REL 357 01 - Seminar: Issues in Comparative Religion
Course: |
REL 357 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: Issues in Comparative Religion |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Promises and challenges in the evolving debate over how different truth claims and faith communities might seek tolerance, respect, and coexistence. How to reconcile tradition with innovation, doctrine with practice, contemplation with action, globalism with tribalism. Impediments of monotheism and "revealed scripture." The role of religion in prejudice and discrimination; and yet also inpeace and justice. The rise of Buddhism in the West and of Christianity in the East. Readings include works by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, John Hick, Uchimura Kanzo, Endo Shusako, Raimundo Panikkar, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, and Diana Eck. |
Prerequisite(s): |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Instructors: |
Jim Kodera |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 317 Classroom - W 2:30 PM - 5:10 PM |
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REL 371 01 - Love and Longing in Middle Eastern and Iranian Literature and Film
Course: |
REL 371 - 01 |
Title: |
Love and Longing in Middle Eastern and Iranian Literature and Film |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Love in its myriad manifestations constitutes a central and perennial theme in the literary and artistic repertoires of Arabic- and Persian-speaking societies. This course explores the varied, subtle vocabulary and the versatile, multivalent imagery linked with the themes of love and longing in Arabic- and Persian-language literature and film. In different times and places, how have men and women writers and directors used the themes of love and longing to depict and critique concepts of gender and gender relations, and social and political inequalities? How have men and women writers and filmmakers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries both continued and disrupted earlier literary and poetic discourses of love? How have modern filmmakers engaged with and reworked classical stories of transgressive love? Divided roughly equally between literary and cinematic works, the course explores treatments of love and longing in, for example, early Arabic poetry and the Quranic text, philosophical and medical treatises, narrative cycles (for example the Thousand and One Nights), epic (notably the Persian Shahnameh or ‘Book of Kings’), lyric poetry (Rumi, Saadi, Hafez), modern verse, and film, including films by Dariush Mehrjui, Youssef Chahine, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshan Bani-Etamad and Shirin Neshat. |
Prerequisite(s): |
At least one course in Religion or Middle Eastern Studies, or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken MES 271/REL 271. |
Notes: |
This course is also taught at the 200-level as MES 271/REL 271. |
Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy |
Cross Listed Courses: |
MES 371 01 - Love and Longing in Middle Eastern and Iranian Literature and Film
|
Instructors: |
Louise Marlow |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 151 Seminar Room - W 9:30 AM - 12:10 PM |
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