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Offerings - Spring 2009 |
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CM 37. History of World
Christianity.
Ms. Yonemoto. The history of Christianity from Jesus to the
present. The origins of Christian doctrine, the canon of
Scripture, orthodoxy vs. heresy, rise of the papacy,
monasticism, scholasticism, mysticism, the Crusades,
church-state debates,
Catholic-Orthodox/Christian-Muslim/Christian-Jewish
conflicts, the Reformation, missions, Protestant
denominationalism, Christian liberalism, fundamentalism,
Pentecostalism, liberation theology and struggles over
indigenization, autonomy and colonialism in Africa, Asia and
Latin America. (tentative)
42. The Art of Living.
Mr. Smith. Considers the possibility of a human life itself
as a religious practice of aesthetic creativity. By tracking
exemplars in the Western tradition in both art and theory,
investigates the potential for living such a life
successfully, the discipline required to do so and the
hazards that it faces.
SC 90. Early Christian Bodies.
Mr. Jacobs. In this course we will explore physical
religious behavior, understandings of the human body, and
interpretations of bodily experience among early Christian
men and women. The course will emphasize critical analysis
of primary sources, secondary scholarship, and contemporary
theoretical approaches concerning gender, sexuality,
martyrdom, pilgrimage, asceticism, virginity, fasting, and
monasticism.
SC 93. Early Christianity and/as
Theory.
Mr. Jacobs. Why do scholars of early Christianity so often
turn to theories developed in modern contexts, and why do
modern theorists so often use ancient Christianity as a
testing ground? We will examine this cross-fascination in
the realms of sociology, anthropology, Marxism,
psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonialism and queer theory.
CM 129. Formative Judaism.
Mr. Gilbert. A survey of Jewish history, literature,
thought, and practice from the early Second Temple period
(500 BCE) to the early Middle Ages (1000 CE). Particular
attention will be given categories central to the formation
of classical Judaism: modes of biblical interpretation, the
role and authority of rabbis, the function of halakha
(Jewish law), synagogue, philosophy, and mysticism.
140. The Idea of God: Modern
Theologies of Belief.
Mr. Irish. An exploration and assessment of 20th-century
European and North American theologians. How do they
describe the human condition? Are their descriptions
convincing? Do their ideas of God, religion and morality
match our own? Are they asking questions we would ask, and
do their responses give expression to our beliefs, religious
or secular?
CM 145. Religion and Science.
Staff. Examines historical encounters between science and
religion and provides a systematic analysis of their present
relationship. Goal is to produce an appropriate synthesis of
science and religion. Evolution, mechanism, reductionism,
indeterminacy, incompleteness and the roles of faith and
reason in science and religion.
152. Ritual and Magic in
Children’s Literature.
Ms. Eisenstadt. Many children’s stories describe a passage
from immaturity to individuality and responsibility, and
facilitate such a passage in their readers. We study this
pattern in various works with a focus on the role of ritual
and magic. Our purpose is to arrive at a critical awareness
of how the stories work, and to speculate on the residue
they leave on our religious sense and hermeneutics.
154. Life, Love and Suffering in
Biblical Wisdom and the Modern World.
Ms. Runions. Examines the wisdom literatures of the Hebrew
Bible (Proverbs, Job, Qohelet) in their ancient Near Eastern
and literary contexts, and alongside what might be
considered latter-day wisdom literature, that is, works by
20th-century writers influenced by existentialism (Simone de
Beauvoir, Elie Wiesel and Tom Stoppard).
155. Religion, Ethics and Social
Practice.
Mr. Irish. How do our beliefs, models of moral reasoning and
communities of social interaction relate to one another? To
what extent do factors such as class, culture and ethnicity
determine our assumptions about the human condition and the
development of our own human sensibilities? Discussion and
three- to six-hour-per-week placement with poor or otherwise
marginalized persons in the Pomona Valley.
157. Philosophical Responses to
the Holocaust.
Ms. Eisenstadt. According to some thinkers, the event of the
Holocaust has called into question all of the Western
thought that preceded it. In this course, we examine this
claim, focusing on the question of whether, after the
Holocaust and similar contemporary horrors, theology and
philosophy must change in order to speak responsibly.
Thinkers taken up include Arendt, Fackenheim, Browning,
Bauman, Spiegelman, Voegelin, Adorno, Jabes, and Levinas.
1164. Engendering and Experience:
Women in Islamic Traditions.
Ms. Kassam. Explores the normative bases of the roles and
status of women and examines Muslim women’s experience in
various parts of the Muslim world in order to appreciate the
situation of and the challenges facing Muslim women.
166A. The Divine Body: Religion
and the Environment.
Ms. Kassam. Sallie McFague calls the universe, and hence the
earth, the Body of God. How are we treating such a body? How
have our religions treated the earth? Is our environment at
risk, and if so, due to what factors? Are religions part of
the problem or part of the solution with respect to
sustaining and possibly nurturing our environment?
CM 166B. Religion, Politics and
Global Violence.
Mr. Espinosa. Examines the critical intersection of
religious ideology, rhetoric and values to justify acts of
violence and calls for peace and reconciliation in the name
of God. Explores case studies that include attention to
conflicts in Europe-Northern Ireland and Bosnia/Serbia; the
Middle East-Israel-Palestine and Iraq; Southeast
Asia-Indonesia; the Indian Subcontinent-India-Pakistan;
Africa-the Sudan and Rwanda.
177. Gender and Religion. Ms.
Runions.
This course will look at the ways in which gender and
religion interact within various historical and cultural
contexts to reinforce, contradict and also resist
traditional notions of gender and religious experience.
Attention will be paid to how religion affects experiences
of gender and how gender affects experiences of religion.
CM ? Asian American Religions.
Ms. Yonemoto (tentative)
180. Interpreting Religious
Worlds.
Mr. Smith. Required for all majors and minors. Examines some
current approaches to the study of religion as a legitimate
field of academic discourse. Provides an introduction to the
confusing array of “isms” encountered nowadays in those
debates over theory and method in the humanities and social
sciences that concern the scholarly study of religion.
191. Senior Thesis.
Staff. Required of all senior majors in Religious Studies.
99/199. Reading and Research.
Staff. A reading and research program for juniors and
seniors. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. 99,
lower-level; 199, advanced work. Course or half-course.
Related Courses
CLAS 121 PZ. Classical Mythology. Spring 2010. (PRT)
HIST 173 PZ. Religion, Violence, and Tolerance, 1450–1650.
Spring 2010. (HRT II)
SOC 114 PZ. Sociology of Religion. Spring 2010. (CWS)
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