RELIGION COURSES - FALL 2009
| RE 103-001 Religion & Culture M 11:15 - 12:10 T/TH 11:10 - 12:30 |
4 Cr. G. Spinner |
| RE 103-002 Religion & Culture M 1:25 - 2:20 T/TH 2:10 - 3:30 |
4 Cr. G. Spinner |
| RE 103-003 Religion & CultureT/TH 9:10 - 11:00 | 4 Cr. O. Solovieva |
| RE 202 Christian Scriptures M/W 2:30 - 3:50 |
3 Cr. J. Tibbetts |
| RE 220 Encountering the Goddess of India T/TH 9:40 - 11:00 |
3 Cr. J. Smith |
| RE 230 Death & Immortality T/TH 12:40 - 2:00 (course description below) |
3 Cr. O. Solovieva |
| RE 330-001 Midrash: Scripture Reimagined T/TH 3:40 - 5:00 (course description below) |
4 Cr. G. Spinner |
| RE 330-002 Sufism M/W 2:30 - 4:20 (course description below) |
4 Cr. O. Solovieva |
This course will be a cross-cultural exploration of the religious interpretations
of death and its beyond. Throughout the semester, we will take a look at several different
perspectives on death and afterlife as articulated in texts, doctrines, and ritual
practices of selected religious traditions including but not limited to, Hinduism,
Buddhism, Ancient Greek and Near Eastern religions, Christianity, and indigenous traditions
of Mesoamerica. In the course of this study we will see how these different perspectives
are integrally related to the particular religions’ cosmologies, visions of the ultimate
reality, and their concepts of human nature and ethics.
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RE 330-001 Midrash: Scripture Reimagined
This course introduces the fascinating blend of critical and creative readings
that constitute midrash, the meta-genre of Jewish exegesis. “Midrash” is what Jews have been doing with the
Bible for millennia: retelling it and rereading it, effectively reinventing their
sacred traditions (and in the process inventing what comes to be called “Judaism”).
Reading primary texts in English translation, we will survey some of the vast and
varied corpus of Jewish literature produced after the Bible. Moving from novels and
parables and animal fables to martyrologies and apocalypses, ranging across rabbinic
commentaries and kabbalistic secrets, we will sample the pious fictions and fantastic
stories that animate Jewish thought and practice. As religious texts are engaged deeply,
and their prior meanings expanded upon, the closed canon is ingeniously reopened,
requiring us to rethink our very notions of what is “Scripture.” No prerequisite;
although the instructor does recommend either some prior knowledge of the Bible or
some background in the Jewish tradition.
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RE 330-002 Sufism
Mysticism as a quest for transformative knowledge and conscious experience of the ultimate reality has been an important dimension of many religious traditions and cultures of the world. In this course we will focus on Sufism—a complex and fascinating mystical path or tradition developed within Islam. Drawing on the Sufi texts as well as on discussions and representations of Sufism in scholarly readings, film, and other contemporary sources, we will attend to a number of crucial questions raised in the Islamic mystical practice and thought: What is the nature of God and of human self? How can we access and experience the divine reality? How does one meaningfully articulate this experience? What is the relationship between Sufism and the overall tradition of Islam? Specific topics explored in the course of this semester will include mystical interpretations of Islamic scriptures; Sufi poetry and music; various Sufi orders and their meditative techniques; the tradition of “love mysticism” as embodied by Rumi and Rabi’a of Basra; the metaphysical mysticism of Ibn al-Arabi; social contexts and roles of the Sufi movements; and some of the controversies surrounding Sufism throughout its history and in the contemporary scene.