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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically Explorations of vrieties of Catholicism in the United States: 1) as a common spiritual impulse across different times and contexts; 2) as a highly differentiated religion whose members both shared and contested its meanings; and 3) as a prism for understanding historical developments for America and Americans in general. The course begins by trying to define Catholicism, including close reading of primary sources, and concludes with reflection upon a semester-long reading of Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. Each offering will include specific emphases, from expressions of sacramentality to social justice to sexuality issues. Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes: RELI 10, 12, 13, 14F, 14S, 15, 16, 17, 18, 50, 70, 75, 80 or 85.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically This course examines the nature, role and meanings of Sikh thought, religion and culture by looking at what mysticism is, and what it contributes to modern Sikh consciousness and culture. Expressions of Sikh mysticism as found in the writings of the Sikh Gurus will be presented in comparative context. One of the aims of this course is to show how Sikh mysticism draws attention to the way in which we construct ourselves and notions of reality.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically This class goes behind the headlines of general perceptions of religion to see faiths close up. It tests the idea that understanding religion starts with understanding the people that live it - and the person who's studying it. Using methods from anthropology, literary studies, and cultural studies, each student chooses a local religious community as his or her site for semester-long field work, including self-analysis, participant-observation, interviews, and readings of bodies, literature, and material culture. At the same time, students read some of the best ethnographic studies of religion from the past decade.Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes: RELI 10, 12, 13, 14F, 14S, 15, 16, 17, 18, 50, 70, 75, 80 or 85.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Fall, Spring This course examines the central traditions, ideas and practices of the major religious traditions of India including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Sikhism. Major themes explored in a comparative context include: violence and eroticism, death and immortality, wisdom and ritual. Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes: Credit given for this course or RELI 120, but not both. (Formerly RELI 120.)
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically This course explores the varieties of Christianity that co-existed from Jesus' death in the middle of the first century through the end of the second century. Included in these are Jewish-Christians, Marcionites, Montanists, and Gnostics. Students will read a variety of primary texts in translation to understand better the struggle between forms of early Christianity and the way that one form became dominant and, thus, "orthodox.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically There are many versions of the branch of Christianity called "Catholicism," and many ways people throughout history have practiced it. This class asks what various Catholic communities have meant by the word "Catholic," explorers its major global varieties and common contested characteristics, and studies aspects from theology and ethics to history and popular cultur
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Fall, Spring A study of the rise of Islam within the context of the cultural social and religious conditions of pre-Islamic Arabia, Muhammad's religious message and the Koran, development of theology, law, and consolidation of Sunnism. Attention given to the concept of nonseparation of state and religion in Muslim thought, to the experience of women, and to themes in comparative art, architecture and ritual.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically This course will explore historical, philosophical, social, and ritual dimensions of lived Hinduism in the greater New York area. Common readings deal with diasporic Hinduism in several locations and with the religious plurality of contemporary New York state. Individual field projects will focus on working faith communities.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically Mysticism is traditionally defined as the yearning for direct connection to a transcendent reality and is referred to as the esoteric dimension of religious search. Though evident as a global phenomenon, mystical traditions most notably developed in the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as in the many religious traditions of India, China, Japan and ancient Greece. A cross-cultural exploration of the meanings, definitions, practices and common themes of mysticism via a study of original texts (in translation) from different parts of the world. Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes: Same as PHI 102. Credit given for this course or PHI 102, not both.
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3.00 Credits
Semester Hours: 3 Periodically Examination of the concepts of life, death and immortality as represented in religious and literary texts from a range of crosscultural sources: western and nonwestern monotheistic traditions, eastern traditions (e.g., Tibetan and Indian), middle eastern (e.g., Turkish), African, and Native American. Further examination of the encounter between a native tradition and a western colonial, typically Judeo-Christian presence. Discussion as well, of the implications of these concepts for such issues as abortion, euthanasia, suicide. Original texts in translation. Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes: Same as PHI 103. Credit given for this course or PHI 103, not both.
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