What is religious freedom? How have debates about the role of religion in public life shaped U.S. politics? And how have anxieties about race, gender, and sexuality determined the limits and possibilities of religious freedom? Grounding contemporary political debates in their historical context, we will analyze speeches, court cases, visual and popular culture, and political theory and philosophy to explore the complex relationship between religion and politics in the United States.
- מורה: Molly Farneth
The Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament, is fundamental to both Judaism and Christianity. But as a literary, historical and theological text, the Hebrew Bible poses a challenge to modern readers. What is this book? Who wrote it? When? And why? What makes it sacred to some? What was its significance then? And now? How does one study the Bible from an academic point of view, when it is so laden with religious symbolism and meaning for so many people? Using the literary, historical, theological, interpretative and archaeological tools available we will attempt to answer these questions and more. This course will introduce the student to the fundamentals of academic bible studies. All students, of any background, are encouraged to participate. Sometimes, the less we know, the better we learn.
- מורה: Naomi Koltun-Fromm
This course offers critical study of women, gender, and sexuality in the literature of the New Testament and early Christianity. We’ll employ a variety of methods (literary, historical, feminist, socio-cultural, theological) to investigate the representations of women and gender in a broad range of texts dating from the first through the fourth centuries CE. We’ll focus on the roles of women, their relation to notions of gender and sexuality, and the uses of gendered imagery in representations of divine and human characters. Among the female characters we’ll consider: Sophia, divine Wisdom; Eve the “mother of the living”; Mary the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene, Prisca, Junia, Phoebe and other disciples, apostles, prophets; Thecla, Perpetua, Felicitas, Macrina, Syncletica, Mary of Egypt, and other female holy women or saints.
- מורה: Anne McGuire
This course analyzes the dynamic relationship between queer theories and religious discourse. With an emphasis on LGBTQIA+ experiences, perspectives, and practices, we will use a theological and ethical lens across (a few) religions to explore concepts, sacred texts, and relational possibilities that constitute contemporary ideas about religion and queerness. To be sure, this is not a survey course, and we will not cover every tradition, or even attempt to do so. Instead, we will ask a small number of hard questions and pursue each one far enough to see where the real disagreements, points of connection, and spaces of nuance exist. Our main resource, Melissa Wilcox’s Queer Religiosities, will accompany us on the journey and provide a bit of breadth across traditions and regions while our discussions will aim for depth with what we encounter.
- מורה: Thelathia "Nikki" Young
Course Description: This seminar focuses on close study of the parables attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels (Mk, Mt, Lk) and the Gospel of Thomas. The goals of the course are to understand the adaptations, interpretations, and transformations of the parables from the oral tradition to the written gospels, to engage in close reading of the parables in their distinct literary contexts, and to become informed and critical readers of contemporary scholarship on the parables.
- מורה: Anne McGuire
Course Description
A critical study of prominent ethical and political themes in Augustine’s religious thought, e.g., the character of the good life; the meaning of and relations between love of God and love of neighbor; Christ and the moral life; the nature of freedom; the moral significance of the emotions; evil and sinfulness; idolatry’s reach; sexuality and its discontents; the purposes and limits of political society; the very idea of “religion/church and politics;” war and peace. Our seminar will emphasize close readings of On Christian Teaching, Confessions, and The City of God.
Course Objectives
1. To understand and critically analyze a variety of moral and political stances in Augustine’s Christian thought, and just so in their close connection with central theological themes such as Scriptural authority, creation, incarnation, Trinity, sin, redemption, “the last things,” and the “theological anthropology” (i.e., account of humanity as it is and ought to be) that the preceding themes configure.
2. To read texts carefully and critically, and write and speak clearly and thoughtfully about the issues we consider.
Texts for Purchase
Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 2009)
Paperback (ISBN 978-0199537822)
Augustine, The City of God against the Pagans, ed. R.W. Dyson (Cambridge, 1998)
Paperback (ISBN 978-0521468435)
A critical study of prominent ethical and political themes in Augustine’s religious thought, e.g., the character of the good life; the meaning of and relations between love of God and love of neighbor; Christ and the moral life; the nature of freedom; the moral significance of the emotions; evil and sinfulness; idolatry’s reach; sexuality and its discontents; the purposes and limits of political society; the very idea of “religion/church and politics;” war and peace. Our seminar will emphasize close readings of On Christian Teaching, Confessions, and The City of God.
Course Objectives
1. To understand and critically analyze a variety of moral and political stances in Augustine’s Christian thought, and just so in their close connection with central theological themes such as Scriptural authority, creation, incarnation, Trinity, sin, redemption, “the last things,” and the “theological anthropology” (i.e., account of humanity as it is and ought to be) that the preceding themes configure.
2. To read texts carefully and critically, and write and speak clearly and thoughtfully about the issues we consider.
Texts for Purchase
Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 2009)
Paperback (ISBN 978-0199537822)
Augustine, The City of God against the Pagans, ed. R.W. Dyson (Cambridge, 1998)
Paperback (ISBN 978-0521468435)
- מורה: William Werpehowski
This seminar will guide senior religion majors through the early stages of the thesis project, from generating ideas, to crafting a well-developed proposal, conducting research, and beginning the writing process. We will meet weekly to practice research and writing skills and to participate in writing workshops and peer review. Students are expected to work diligently on their thesis projects outside of class, at least 10 hours per week.
By the end of the semester, students will:
• Articulate a sharply defined thesis topic and a clear argument about that topic;
• Develop their independent research skills;
• Conduct focused research and begin analyzing and critically evaluating that research;
• Understand and practice the writing process as one of drafting, revising, and revising again.
By the end of the semester, students will:
• Articulate a sharply defined thesis topic and a clear argument about that topic;
• Develop their independent research skills;
• Conduct focused research and begin analyzing and critically evaluating that research;
• Understand and practice the writing process as one of drafting, revising, and revising again.
- מורה: Naomi Koltun-Fromm