Religious Dimensions of Human Experience

*Required course for all RLST majors
RLST 1620-010 | 3.0
Aun Hasan Ali, MW 1:25–2:15, CASE E240  (*Note you must also sign up for a recitation section.)   

Surveys different approaches to the study of religion. Students will grow familiar with key thinkers, texts, and movements that shape how we understand religious phenomena. Students will also examine critiques of how religion is studied. In the end, students will have gained insight into significant aspects of religious life, belief, and practice that will empower them to navigate a world in which religion is increasingly relevant.

A&S Core: Ideals and Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Jewish History to 1492

RLST/HIST/JWST 1818-001 | 3.0
Gregory Grobmeier, TTH 11:00–12:15, RAMY N1B23   

Focus on Jewish history from the Biblical period to the Spanish Expulsion in 1492. Study the origins of a group of people who call themselves, and whom others call, Jews. Focus on place, movement, power/powerlessness, gender, and the question of how to define Jews over time and place. Introduces Jews as a group of people bound together by a particular set of laws; looks at their dispersion and diversity; explores Jews' interactions with surrounding cultures and societies; introduces the basic library of Jews; sees how Jews relate to political power. 

Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity
Global Perspective

Holocaust and Global Genocide

RLST/HIST/JWST 1830-001 | 3.0
Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, TTH 2:00–3:15, DUAN G131

Examines the interplay of politics, culture, psychology and sociology to try to understand why the great philosopher Isaiah Berlin called the 20th century, "The most terrible century in Western history." Our focus will be on the Holocaust as the event that defined the concept of genocide, but we will locate this event that has come to define the 20th century within ideas such as racism, imperialism, violence, and most important, the dehumanization of individuals in the modern world.

A&S Core: Historical Context
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Arts & Sciences General Education: DiversityGlobal Perspective

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

RLST/JWST 1900-001 | 3.0
Samuel Boyd, MWF 10:10–11:00, LBB 155

Examine the content of the Hebrew Bible and critical theories regarding its development. Explore the development of these texts, as well as their foundational role for rabbinic literature and the New Testament. Assess the enduring influence of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in world literature and culture (such as in art and music). 

Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity
Global Perspective

The Muslim World, 600–1250

RLST/ARAB 2320-200 | 3.0 
Brian Catlos, TTH 9:30–10:45, KTCH 1B71

Focusing on the history of the Muslim World in the age of the caliphates (650-ca1200 CE), this course takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach to the development of the Islamicate society, tracing the evolution of Islamic religion, society and culture from the era of pre-Islamic Arabia through the “Golden Age of Islam.”

Asia Content
A&S Core: Human Diversity

Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity
Global Perspective

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

RLST/JWST 2600-001 | 3.0
Samuel Boyd, MWF 12:20–1:10, DUAN G131

In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham is described as a founding figure. In recent times, the label “Abrahamic Religions” has become increasingly important both as a way to describe the origins and beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and as a means for finding common ground in political and religious discourse. Yet in each religion Abraham is also used in strikingly different ways and for distinct purposes. In this course, we will look at these three religious traditions and how each one imagines Abraham. In particular, the focus will be on how each religion uses Abraham to construct foundational stories of a special relationship to God, stories that ultimately serve to promote religious identity over time.  

Asia Content
A&S Core: Ideals and Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Arts and Hum: Ways of Thinking

Yoga: Ancient and Modern

RLST 2612-001 | 3.0 
Loriliai Biernacki, TTH 2:00–3:15, HUMN 150

What is yoga? Is it a way to get enlightened? A way to get washboard abs? This class looks a yoga through its many transformations, from its beginnings in ancient India 3500 years ago to its present forms in the West, in American yoga studios. We look at key ideas in yoga, its links to ideas of the body and conceptions of karma. We explore the many varieties of yoga techniques developed throughout its long history, from practices with the breath, to working with the mind, to postures designed to make the body stronger, with a view to understanding both the history of yoga and its impact on a mental and physical level.

A&S Core: Human Diversity
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Arts & Sciences General Education: DiversityGlobal Perspective

Paganism to Christianity

RLST 2614-001  CLAS 2610-001 | 3.0 
Celene Lillie, MWF 9:05–9:55, RAMY N1B23

Offers a cultural history of Greek and Roman religion. Students read ancient texts in translation and use evidence from archaeology to reconstruct the shift from paganism to Christianity in antiquity. No Greek or Latin required. 

A&S Core: Ideals and Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Women and Religion

RLST/WGST 2800-001
Celene Lillie, MWF 10:10–11:00, HUMN 1B80

What is a woman?  What is religion?  How does the answer to one inform the answer to the other?  In this course, we will explore a range of literature from ancient Greek and Roman mythology to first and second century Jewish and Christian writings alongside contemporary readings from Buddhist, Muslim, Indigenous, and Christian traditions.  To frame these explorations, we will engage theories of gender and religion, particularly the ways in which they intersect with race, class, and violence.

A&S Core: Human Diversity
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity
U.S. Perspective
Arts & Hum: Lit & Humanities

Christian Traditions

RLST 3000-001 | 3.0
Brian Catlos, TTH 11:00–12:15, KTCH 1B71

What are Christian Traditions?
Many would say that Christianity defines western culture and society. Media figures constantly reference “Christian values” and “Christian traditions.” But what are the origins of Christianity? Have Christian values and traditions been constant over time? And what are the forces that shaped Christian beliefs today. Over the course of the semester RLST 3000 traces Christianity from its remotest origins in ancient Mesopotamia, through the time of Jesus and the Church Fathers and on through the age of Crusade to the Reformation and the Wars of Religion -- the dawn of modern Christianity. 

A&S Core: Historical Context
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Foundations of Buddhism

RLST 3300-010 | 3.0
Dan Hirshberg, MW 12:20–1:10, HALE 230  (*Note you must also sign up for a recitation section.)

This course provides an introduction to Buddhist thought and practice in the variety of its historical and cultural contexts. We begin with the story of the Buddha, his teachings, and the early Buddhist community in India. We then trace the expansion of the Theravada to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia with a focus on the role of images and relics in Buddhist ritual and kingship. Next, we consider the rise of Mahayana in India including the bodhisattva ideal, key doctrinal concepts of emptiness and buddha nature, the cosmology of buddha lands, and the Buddhist path in Mahayana contexts.

Asia Content
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Islamic Philosophy

RLST 4610/5610-001 | 3.0
Aun Hasan Ali, M 3:35–6:05, HUMN 270

Students will explore a diverse set of intellectual approaches to central questions in Islamic traditions. The topics covered include epistemology, ontology, causality, matter, and change. Additionally, students will examine the history of Islamic intellectual traditions, including theology, the reception of Greek thought, Avicennism, Spanish Aristotelianism, mystical philosophy, Illumination, and the philosophy of Mulla Sadra. The course will revolve around two texts: Philosophical Instructions by M. T. Misbah Yazdi and Philosophy in the Islamic World by Peter Adamson. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours as topics change. Prerequisite: 6 RLST credit hours or instructor permission.

Asia Content
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Religion, Psychedelics and Shamanism

RLST 4820/5820-001 | 3.0
Loriliai Biernacki, T 3:30–6:00, HUMN 270

From ancient India’s tradition of using the hallucinogenic plant Soma to 21st century mestizo shamans in Peru offering ayahuasca medicine retreats, the use of psychedelics has played an expansive role in the generation of religious and mystical experience and the subsequent structure of religious praxis. This class focuses on the historical use of mind-altering substances as a way of generating mystical and religious experiences and what this means for the social structures governing religious practice. We will examine their use across a variety of cultures, with attention to historical and contemporary classifications of what psychedelics do to the mind, also with attention to what the use of mind-altering substances have to say about human interactions with the natural world, and with attention to current issues of appropriation for Indigenous cultures. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours as topics change.

Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution–Arts & Humanities

Introduction to the Academic Study of Religion

RLST 6830-001 | 3.0
Holly Gayley, W 3:35–6:05, HUMN 270

What is the academic study of religion? What do we mean when we talk about “religion,” and what does it mean to adopt an “academic” approach to this subject? This course will explore diverse approaches to these questions, providing an introduction to a wide range of methodological options and theoretical perspectives in the field of religious studies. We will devote attention to topics such as the relationship between practice and belief, the promise and perils of comparing different religious traditions, and the role of the body and materiality in religious life. We will also examine the complicated history and political stakes of the field of religious studies itself, wrestling with issues including the role of colonialism in forging a comparative approach to religion, the development of concepts such as “religious” and “secular,” and the role of political advocacy in scholarly work.