What does “spiritual but not religious” mean, and whyhas it become such a pervasive self- description incontemporary America? This course lends a lens to therelationship between spirituality and formal religion,on the one hand, and secular modes of understandingthe self, such as psychology, on the other. Closeattention will be paid to the writings of 19th CenturyTranscendentalist Thinkers, Pragmatic Philosophy, thePositive Thinkers Movement, Quaker Mysticism, theSpirituality of the Harlem Renaissance, the emergenceof Yoga and Meditation in the American popularculture, and the Religion of Black Lives Matter.

Spiritual but

Monday/

Wednesday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 101-6-22 | Larry Perry

11:00-12:20 pm

not Religious

This course offers an introduction to Buddhist history,culture, philosophy, and practice. We explore the majordoctrinal varieties of Buddhism, from its inceptionthrough the rise of the Mahayana and Tantric orVajrayana traditions. At the same time, we also investigateBuddhist visual, material, and ritual cultures—which offerwindows onto aspects of Buddhism as a lived religion notalways visible in scriptural sources. In the process weengage themes like the meaning of suffering, thecosmology of cyclical rebirth, the social role ofmonasticism and its intervention in traditional familystructures, the place of women and gender in Buddhism,the relationship between religious ideals and everyday life,the question of self-reliance versus divine assistance, andthe power of images and icons.

Intro to Buddhism

Monday/Wednesday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 210-21 | Kevin Buckelew

12:30-1:50 pm

There is no understating the significance of the HebrewBible/Old Testament in Western Culture. The Bible is a text thathas been repeatedly turned to for spiritual guidance, forexplanations of mankind's origins and as the basis of bothclassical art and contemporary cinema. English idiom ispeppered with phrases that originate in the Hebrew Bible andmany a modern political clash can be understood as a conflictover what the Bible's messages and their implications. Thiscourse introduces students to the Hebrew Bible by readingsections of most of the Bible's books. But reading is itself acomplicated enterprise. The Bible has been put to manydifferent uses; even within the world of academic scholarship,the Bible is sometimes a source of history, sometimes areligious manual, sometimes a primitive legal code andsometimes a work of classical literature. This course willintroduce students to the various challenges that presentthemselves within the study of the Hebrew Bible and the variedapproaches scholars take when reading the Hebrew Bible. Thiscourse is a critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible.

Intro to

Hebrew

BibleMon/Wed/Fri

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 220-20

Barry Wimpfheimer 9:00-9:50 am

This course introduces Islam, one of the major religioustraditions of world history, developing a framework forunderstanding how Muslims in varying times and placeshave engaged with Islamic scripture and the propheticmessage of the Prophet Muhammad through diversesources: theological, philosophical, legal, political, mystical,literary and artistic. While we aim to grasp broad currentsand narrative of Islamic history, we will especiallyconcentrate on the origins and development of thereligion in its formative period (the prophetic career of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an, Islamic belief and ritual,Islamic law, and popular spirituality) and debatessurrounding Islam in the contemporary world (the impactof European colonialism on the Muslim world, the rise ofthe modern Muslim state, and discourses on gender,politics and violence).

Intro to Islam

Tuesday/

Thursday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 250-20 | Brannon Ingram

11:00-12:20 pm

Nonviolence refers to any spiritual, ethical, or politicaldisposition that refuses to use violence in the navigation ofdaily life and/or in the resolution of conflict. It is found incultures around the globe and throughout history. Somepeople and communities feel a strong ethical or spiritualimpulse toward nonviolence. For them, nonviolence is amatter of principle and may or may not also be seen as a toolfor political change. For others, nonviolent strategies areways to resolve social conflict at all levels. In the 20th centurynonviolence came to be seen as a powerful force againstrepressive regimes. This course will examine critically thetheory and practice of nonviolence and assess its limitationsand potential. We will begin look at the feasibility ofnonviolence for our species through an inquiry into theinterconnection between violence, nonviolence, and humannature. We will look at the role of spiritual and ethicalconviction in the establishment of nonviolent dispositionsand explore the uses and limits of nonviolence towardcontemporary political ends. Counts towards RLP.

Ahimsa

Tuesday/ Thursday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 295-21/ASIAN_LG 260-21 | McClish

11:00-12:20 pm

Nonviolence in South Asia

& Beyond

In the middle of the twentieth century, cutting-edge literarytheorists concluded that autobiography was exclusively aproduct of “Western” individualistic culture, thereby ignoringthe literary output of large parts of the globe, includingBuddhist religious literature. The goal of this course is toexplore Buddhist biography and autobiography as literarygenres and as lenses through which we can examine thevarious meanings of living an exemplary Buddhist life, focusingon religious literature from India and Tibet. Questions thecourse will probe include: How did a religious doctrine such asBuddhism, which denies the ultimate existence of the self,become a major locus of auto/biographical writing? What isthe nature of the self as it is expressed in Buddhist religiousauto/biography, and what were the aims of this literature?What can we learn from reading biographies andautobiographies about Buddhist selves, societies, andhistories? How do differences of gender, nationality, andreligious lineage inform auto/biographical representations ofthe self?

Buddhist

Auto/biography

Tuesday/Thursday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 315-21/ASIAN_LG 390-21

9:30-10:50 am

Sarah Jacoby

KabbalahREL 339-22 | Barry Wimpfheimer

11:00-12:20 pm

Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism,is an esoteric (secret) traditionof deliberating about andexperiencing the mysteries ofthose spaces that areinaccessible to the five senses.Though for much of its historyJewish mysticism has been theprovince of a select fewdevotees, at times Kabbalahhas flourished as a popularreligious movement. Recentyears have seen a rise in thepopularity of Kabbalah asvarious celebrities (includingMadonna and Kanye West)have become affiliated withThe Kabbalah Center. Thiscourse will introduce thediscourse of Kabbalah, thinkabout mysticism as both anexperiential and an intellectualtradition and consider whyKabbalah has become sopopular today.

Monday/

Wednesday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

Islamic law – the sacred law of Islam grounded in theQur’an, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, and thewritings of Muslim scholars and jurists – stretches backnearly 1400 years. This course offers, first, an overview ofthe origins and evolution of Islamic law from the life ofMuhammad to end of the classical era. We then seek,secondly, to understand how colonialism and themodern nation-state affected the conceptualization andimplementation of Islamic law in the modern period. Tothese ends, we look in-depth at two specific areas of law– marriage and divorce, and criminal law – in twospecific regions: the Ottoman empire and contemporaryIran. *Counts towards Religion, Law and Politics (RLP)major concentration. *Prerequisite: 250 or consent ofinstructor.

Islamic LawBrannon Ingram

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

REL 351-20/

MENA 301-3-20/

LEGAL_ST 376-21

3:00-5:50 pm

Wednesday

Monday/

Wednesday

REL 369-22/AF_AM 380-22 | Larry Perry

A study of Black religions, from the time of slavery to thepresent, in the context of American social, political, andreligious history. The course pushes students to take apanoramic view of Black Religions in America.Consideration will be given to debates concerning theroots of Black American Religion, the Black Social Gospel,the Centrality (or lack there of) of Black Churches, BlackIslam, Black Catholicism, African Indigenous Religions,Black Atheism, the Religiosity of the Civil RightsMovement, Black Theology, Womanist Theology, BlackTelevangelism, and the present battle for Black Rights.

African American

Religions

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

3:30-4:50 pm

Media, Earth,

and Making a

difference

REL 369-25/EPC 390-25

2:00-4:30 pm

The central question of this courseis: What Makes a Difference?Analyzing a variety of works ofmedia addressing environmentalthemes, including works drawnfrom advertising and marketing,we will consider different types ofenvironmental messaging andattempts to mobilize public moralengagement. *This course is forundergraduate students only.

Tuesday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES | Spring 2020

Sarah Taylor