SPRING 2011 COURSES
| RE 103 - 001 Religion & Culture Tu/Th 9:40 - 11:00 M 9:05 - 10:00 |
4 Cr. G. Spinner |
| RE 103 - 002 Religion & Culture Tu/Th 2:10 - 3:30 M 1:25 - 2:20 |
4 Cr. G. Spinner |
| RE 103 - 003 Religion & Culture M/W 2:30 - 4:20 |
4 Cr. M. Segol |
| RE 220 Goddesses of India Tu/Th 3:40 - 5:00 |
3 Cr. J. Smith |
| *RE 230-001 Sex, Drugs andRock & Roll: Peak & Flow Experiences in Religion Tu/Th 11:10 - 12:30 |
3 Cr. |
| *RE 230-002 Religious Revolutionaries M/W 2:30 - 3:50 |
3 Cr. R. Chrisman |
| RE 241 Theory & Method T/TH 2:10 - 3:30 |
3 Cr. M. Segol |
| *RE 330-001 Goddesses and Amazons T/TH 9:10 - 11:00 |
4 Cr. M. Stange |
| *RE 330 World's Millennialism W/F 12:20 - 2:10 |
4 Cr. G. Spinner |
| RE 375 Senior Seminar W 6:30 - 10:10 |
4 Cr. M. Stange |
RE 230-001 Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and Religion: Peak & Flow Experiences in Religion
Sex, drugs, and rock & roll present opportunities for psychically and physically intense experiences. This course will explore sexuality and ecstasy in religion, the ritual use of intoxicants, and music and trance in religious life. These practices can induce transpersonal and ecstatic states, as well as those of euphoria, harmonization, and interconnectedness, sometimes called ‘peak’ and ‘flow’ experiences. We’ll look at how peak and flow experiences are generated by these means, how religious institutions authorize or sanction those practices, and the ways in which they are integrated into religious canons, rituals, and lives.
RE 230-002 - "Religious Revolutionaries." John Brown, Gandhi, King, bin Laden and others: a study of the intersection of love, power and justice."
RE 330-001 - Goddesses and Amazons
An investigation of culturally encoded ideas about female power—physical, intellectual, spiritual and moral—as they play out in myth and history. Our exploration will be far-ranging: from ancient Greece to contemporary goddess spirituality, from the warrior priestesses of the Siberian steppes to modern hunter-horsewomen in Kazakhstan, from the Virgin Mary to the seer/soldier Joan of Arc to the poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz to that “positively revolting hag” Mary Daly. The Western “dark goddess” Artemis will be played off against her Eastern counterpart, Kali. In every case, our focus will be on the interplay between the patriarchal drive to contain or control these manifestations of female self-assertion, and the liberating potential these mythical and historical figures hold for women, and men too, in contemporary society.
RE 330-002 - World's Millennialism
End-time preachers, devotees of the Virgin Mary, cargo cultists, would-be messiahs, wagers of racial holy war, followers of Odin or of Rastafari, people waiting for the saucers to land or for the Temple to be rebuilt: meet the millennialists, groups that expect an imminent apocalypse which will usher in a Golden Age of peace, material plenty and spiritual pursuits. This course surveys millennial movements from around the world, examining how such movements emerge, how they continue even after the anticipated End fails to come, and questioning the connections between millennialism and violence.