REL 2408 - Jewish Secularism/Jewish Civilization I

Institution:

Temple University

Subject:

Description:

Judaism is most often studied as a religious entity, despite the fact that much of Jewish experience does not fit into the rubric and discourse of religion. This course will consider the history of the concept “secularism” and its development in modernity, and will then consider what secularism has meant for Jews in particular. This is the first course of a two-semester sequence. It treats the emergence of Judaism and Jewishness in the modern world, up to the 20th century. Students will be introduced to recent critical work on the construction of “Religion” in the Enlightenment and with it, the “secular/religious” binary. The course will historicize and contextualize the ways that despite Jewish adherence to the notion of Judaism as a religion in the West in the modern period, Jewishness has always exceeded the bounds of this definition. Building on recent work by Baird, Pellegrini and Jakobsen as they rethink “secularism” for the 21st century, students will be asked to rethink Jewish history in other than religious terms. This new conceptual material will provide the framework for reading the classic texts of modern Jewish thought produced up to the end of the 19th century.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

WWW.TEMPLE.EDU

Phone Number:

(215) 204-7000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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