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Courses
RELG 111 (3): Good and Evil
What do the world’s religions say about war and
peace, hunger and poverty, death and dying,
science, technology, medicine, the environment, the
political and economic order, sexuality, civil rights,
and business? This course will examine the ways
that religions deal with principal moral issues in the
modern world. Offered alternate years. V.5.
RELG 177 (3): Introduction to the Study of Religion
An introduction to the broad field of religious
studies from a variety of perspectives drawn from
anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy,
the fine arts, gender studies, and history. The
course will consider what the elements of religion
are (myth, doctrine, ritual, ethics, world view,
human community, and destiny), how they
are to be interpreted vis-a-vis modern academic
perspectives on culture, and whether religion as
a concept makes any sense in an age of scientific
rationalism. May be counted as an adjunct course
toward the minor in gender studies. V.1, V.5.
RELG 178 (3): Introduction to World Religions
A comparative survey of the world’s major
religious traditions from the time of their
foundation to the present. Emphasis will be placed
on understanding how religious traditions both
reflect and are formative in the cultures and
societies in which they appear. V.5.
RELG 221 (3): Hindus, Jainas, and Sikhs
A comprehensive survey of the major religious
movements of India. This course will examine
Indian notions of truth, ritual, family life, social
organization, human destiny and salvation,
literature, and arts as they have developedwithin
the Hindu, Jaina, and Sikh communities. Students
will also examine the role of these communities
in the development of modern Indian nationalism
and ethnicity. Offered alternate years. V.4.
RELG 222 (3): Buddhism
A broad historical study of the development of
Buddhism in India and its adoption and adaptation
in Tibet, China, and Japan. This course will
examine the Buddhist world view, Buddhist
forms of spirituality (Mahayana, Hinayana, and
Tantrayana), Buddhist rituals, philosophy,
literature, arts, organizations, and Buddhism’s
relation to political and economic systems. Offered
alternate years. V.4.
RELG 231 (3): Taoism
A broad comparative study of the development
of Taoism in China, Korea, and Japan. This
course will examine the origins of Taoism in
China, its development of cosmological, political,
ritual, gymnastic, alchemical, and monastic
forms, and the regional understandings and uses
of these forms in Korea and Japan. V.4.
RELG 235 (3): Latin American Religion
The study of religion in Latin America includes the
diverse cultures of indigenous, African-American,
and Hispanic peoples from South America, Central
America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The course
may consider: indigenous religions from
geographically distinct regions (from the Yahgan
of Tierra del Fuego to the Pueblos and Yaquis of
Mexico); Catholicism in its many cultural forms;
African cultures from Brazilian condomblé to
Afro-Caribbean ritual; and contemporary religious
movements. Critical approaches include precontact,
colonial and post-colonial issues; cosmovisiones,
conflict and mestizaje, religion and society, modernity
in Latin American perspectives. Offered alternate
years. V.4.
RELG 236 (3): Multicultural Religious America
This course explores a diversity of new approaches
to religion in pluralistic America, considering new
historical understanding of Protestant, Catholic,
and Jewish traditions, and many non-mainstream
religions. The study will include Native American
religion, African American Christianity and Islam,
Hispanic Catholicism, Asian American traditions,
Mormonism, and new religious movements.
Pluralistic religious America will be examined in
light of colonialism, post-colonial interpretations,
cultural and regional diversity, gender issues, ethics
and social issues. Offered alternate years. III.O, V.5.
RELG 241 (3): Judaism
An historical study of the origins and development
of Judaism down to the present. The course will
deal with Jewish ethics, gender, literature, law,
ritual, and notions of history and ethnic identity
as they developed in various Jewish communities
throughout the world. Offered alternate years. May
be counted as an adjunct course toward the minor
in gender studies. III.W, V.1.
RELG 244 (3): Christianity
An historical survey of the development of
Christianity from its beginnings in the Greco-
Roman empire through its global establishment
in the modern era. The focus of the course will
be on how Christianity in its literature, rituals,
institutional forms, and intellectual traditions
changes and develops as it encounters new
peoples and new cultures. May be counted as an
adjunct course toward the minor in gender studies.
III.W, V.1.
RELG 248 (3): The Religions of Africa
Students will examine religions of Africa both
in their indigenous expressions and in the
Diaspora. Methodological issues such as what
constitutes a “traditional” religion will be examined,
as will questions of ritual, cosmology, myth-making,
and the place of women. The effects of colonialism
and the situation of postcolonialism will be discussed
in-depth in the context of both continental and
diaspora religious experience. The relationship of
colonialism to syncretism will be explored in the
examination of diaspora religions in the Caribbean
and American settings. Movements such as
Voodoun and Rastafarianism will be studied
with a view to understanding how new religions
are created as a process of inter-cultural contact
and adaptation to historical events. III.O, V.4.
RELG 255 (3): Islam
An introduction to the “world of Islam”, beginning
with an examination of its foundation in the
seventh century and concluding with a
consideration of issues pertaining to Islam in
the modern world. The course will deal with
such topics as: Muhammad; the Qur’an; Islamic
“Traditions” (hadith) and the “Law” (shariah);
the Caliphate; sectarian divisions, especially the
Sunni-Shiite schism; Sufi mysticism; Muslim
influences on medieval European societies; the
Crusades; Islamic art and literature; and the
modern resurgence of Islam. Offered alternate
years. V.4, V.5.
RELG 261 (1, 2, or 3): Directed Study
Prerequisites: One RELG course and permission
of the instructor. The study of introductory level
material by an individual student or by a small
group of students under the immediate supervision
of a faculty member.
RELG 263 (3): Asian Philosophies
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy or
religion; sophomore standing. A survey of
the major philosophers in North and South
Asia. This course will look at the philosophical
contributions made to world philosophy
by such philosophers as Confucius, Laozi,
Zhuxi, Nagarjuna, Candrakirti, Shankara,
and Ramanuja. The course will focus on the
basic questions of human existence and nature,
notions of truth and ultimate meaning, ethical
obligations, and the nature of society. Offered
alternate years. V.5.
RELG 301 (3): Religion, Science and
Occultism
Are there critical differences between scientific
and religious ways of knowing and are there
ways in which humans have tried to bridge the
gap between science and religion? This course
will examine the philosophy of science as a
means of understanding modern intentional
revivals of ancient religious traditions, including
modern witchcraft, fertility practices, various
divination and fortune-telling techniques, the
development of parapsychology and New Age
religion. Offered alternate years.
RELG 302 (3): The Comparative
Philosophy of Religion
Prerequisite: One course in religion.
Philosophical analysis of religious claims about
the nature of human existence, religious notions
of authority, religious language, ethics, and
theories of knowledge. While the categories of
analysis are drawn from the Western philosophical
tradition, the data are drawn from the world’s
religions. III.O, V.1.
RELG 316 (3): The Psychology of Religion
Prerequisite: One course in religion or psychology.
This course will explore theories of the
psychological underpinnings and functions of
religion. Students will acquire an understanding
of Modernist and Post-modernist theories
of psychology, religion, and their intersection.
It will begin with the classic works of Freud and
Jung and move through the twentieth-century
re-interpretations of their writings in Lacan,
French feminism, Renee Girard, James Hillman
and David L. Miller. It will ask whether theories
designed for individuals may be accurately
applied to religious groups. The course will
raise questions of the applicability of archetypal
models of psychology in a post-modern society.
It will also examine how psychology has
contributed to increased individualism and whether
the practice of psychoanalysis has taken over some
or many of the traditional functions of religion.
RELG 350 (3): Religion and U.S. Law
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. An
examination of the issues that are produced by
religious and state interests in the United States
from the colonial period to the present. The
course will focus on understanding the history of
colonial and post-colonial views of religion and
government, the process that led to the
constitutional separation of religion and government,
and the history of interpretations of this constitutional
doctrine by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Offered alternate years. III.W, V.7.
RELG 361 (1, 2, or 3): Special Study
Prerequisites: 100-level RELG course and
permission of the instructor. The study of an
intermediate level topic by an individual student
or by a small group of students under the
immediate supervision of a faculty member.
RELG 377 (1, 2, or 3): Internship
Prerequisites: Three credits in RELG
and permission of instructor, department
chair, and dean. This course is graded
P/CR/NC only.
RELG 451 (3): Research Seminar in the
Study of Religion
Prerequisite: One course in religion at the 200-
level or above. This seminar provides an
opportunity for students and faculty to collaborate
in research that will produce a student-faculty
publication in an appropriate academic form
(e.g. a conference presentation, a paper journal,
or an electronic journal). Offered alternate years.
RELG 452 (3): Senior Seminar
Fundamental problems of religion, ethics, and
theology, such as religious authority and
experience, understandings of the world, humanity
and history, doctrines of salvation, the study of
sacred scriptures, phenomenology of religion,
and the methodologies of religious studies. The
course is the senior exercise for students who
major in religion. III.O
RELG 461 (1, 2, or 3): Independent Study
Prerequisites: One 100-level RELG course, one
200-level RELG course, and permission of the
instructor. Pursuit of an upper level research
project determined in advance by the student in
consultation with a faculty member who will act
as the sponsor.
