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Course Criteria
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4.00 Credits
Asian Studies The Indian epics have long been one of the major ways that the teachings of the Hindu tradition have been transmitted. In this course students read the Mahabharata ( including the Bhagavad Gita) and the Ramayana, with a view to the role of the epics in Hindu ritual and devotional life. In addition, students examine how these texts have been retold and performed in various ways up to the present.
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4.00 Credits
Asian Studies This course begins by examining the earliest images of the Buddha. How is the absent Buddha represented? Drawing upon literary and artistic sources, the course considers how the biography of the Buddha is writ upon the landscape of his birthplace, and how his projected presence through images, relics, and stupas reinvents Asia in Buddhist terms. It then moves beyond the paradigmatic biography of the Buddha to examine how new myths and images evolve to imagine and explain an expanding religious tradition. From early "aniconic," symbolic stand-ins for the imageof the Buddha to the later highly articulated and vast pantheon of Mahayana holy beings, the course explores the transformation of the central mythic narrative and images as they are received and interpreted by other cultures.
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4.00 Credits
Asian Studies, GIS, GSS This course explores the sacred images and social realities of women in the Buddhist world. Specifically, it considers the ways in which categories such as "woman," "feminine," "gendeand "nun" have been explained and imagined byBuddhist communities (as well as by academics and feminists) through various historical and cultural locations. It examines early Buddhist sources, the stories surrounding the founding of the nun's order and the songs of women saints (Pali Therigatha), and considers gender(ed) imagery in Mahayana sources, with a sustained focus on the evolution of the bodhisattva Kuan-Yin in China, along with the feminine principle as envisioned by Vajrayana Buddhists in Tibet. A significant portion of the course focuses on how real women in the contemporary Buddhist landscape, especially those who have taken vows, resolve tensions inherent in the Buddhist tradition. Readings include recent, provocative books in the field of Buddhist studies.
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4.00 Credits
The sacrificial practice of the ancient Near East resulted in a calendar of sacred time that has influenced both Judaism and Christianity. How does time become sacred? Where have the calendars of the past intersected to shape the experience of time today? Those questions foreground this inquiry into the functioning of the Christian calendar.
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4.00 Credits
Theology Unlike other religious texts, the Qur'an explains itself. It announces itself as the word of God, and verse after verse reiterates that its form and content provide proof of the reality of Allah's dominion. This course aims to understand how the Qur'an as a divine book is situated within Islamic culture. In assessing the position of and meanings in the Qur'an, students approach the text through three modes of analysis: listening, reading, and viewing. In the first part of the course, they review scholarship on the Qur'an'sconstitution. They then examine Qur'anic recitation as the mechanism by which most Muslims first encountered and continue to encounter the text. Finally, following an intensive study of verses in thematic clusters, students focus on Qur'anic inscriptions in calligraphic and visual arts.
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4.00 Credits
Theology This team-taught course begins with the perennial question of shared Indo-European origins and what, if anything, we might posit as "history."Turning to rich and foundational cosmogonic and catastrophic myths operative in texts such as Hesiod's Theogony and Ovid' s Metamorphoses and in the Indic Vedas and Puranas, the course considers cosmological structures of time and space, and also varying possible relations between males and females both mortal and immortal. It continues to pursue these themes in the enduring epics, the Odyssey and the Ramayana. In a more intensive mode, reflecting the special scholarship of each professor, study turns to the interaction of ritual and sacred places in selected texts, principally the odes of Pindar and the edicts of Asoka. The course culminates with a revisiting of historical questions, examining evidence of direct contact between the two civilizations and how they represented each other as the other, the "barbarian."
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4.00 Credits
Theology Recent study of the material and cultural contexts of ancient Israel has advanced critical understanding of Jesus, but the religious context of Jesus and his movement has received less attention. This course investigates Jesus not just as a product of 1st-century Galilee, but also as a committed Israelite. Students analyze the visionary disciplines that lie at the heart of his announcement of the divine kingdom, his therapeutic arts, his parabolic actions and sayings, and his death and resurrection. The course examines the narrative order of his life: his conception, birth, and nurture; his association with and break from John the Baptist; his emergence in Galilee as exorcist, healer, and prophet; his confrontation with Roman as well as cultic authorities in Jerusalem; and his execution and postmortem appearance to his disciples.
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4.00 Credits
Theology Dreams, visions, metaphors, and myths, the generative sources of religion, draw from the imagination to create, structure, and restructure "worlds." From shamanic journeys into mythicworlds to prophetic cries for reform, the roots of religious systems in imagination are evident. But what is imagination and how do societies and individuals conceptualize, utilize, manipulate, and attempt to regulate or contain its expressions and effects? Why is trance mediumship welcome in one society and dreaded in another? What is the relationship of imagination to conscious thought? Readings introduce the works of several contemporary theologians who engage these and related questions, including Henry Scott Holland, Matthew Fox, and Letty Russell. Readings are also drawn from anthropological and psychological literature, including works by William James, Clifford Geertz, Gregory Bateson, A. F. C.Wallace, and Michele Stephen.
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4.00 Credits
American Studies, Human Rights The first Muslims in America wereWest African slaves. Since then American encounters with Islam have been far richer and more complex than the news media and popular culture suggest. This course explores U.S. perceptions of Islam and how they have influenced culture and politics. It begins by tracing patterns of American consumption, from Muslim slaves to the craze for oriental carpets. It then considers the presence of Muslim communities and concerns in politics from 19th-century discussions about the prophet Muhammad to the rise of organizations like the Nation of Islam in the 20th century. Finally, it reviews contemporary images of Muslims and Arabs in American culture, and explores 21st-century perceptions of America held by Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East. Texts include historical monographs, primary sources, material culture, film, and public image "polls."
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4.00 Credits
Medieval Studies This course provides a historical overview of Christian-Muslim relations by discussing the lives and writings of significant persons against the backdrop of important events and developments, including the exploration of some of the key issues that have divided Christians and Muslims. The course is open to all students interested in religion and history.
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