Fall 2008
Fall 2008 textbooks.
HBR
1102 (Levenson) Beginning Biblical Hebrew (Levenson): The
first semester of an introduction to Biblical Hebrew. In HBR 1102 and
HBR 1103 (offered in Spring 2009), the student will be introduced to
virtually the entire grammar and gain a good working vocabulary of
Biblical Hebrew, so that they will be able to translate any Biblical
text with the help of a dictionary. In addition to grammar and
vocabulary, selections from the Hebrew Bible will be read in the
first semester course. The sequence of HBR 1102, 1103 and 2222
fulfills the College of Arts & Sciences language requirement. A
three-course sequence in Modern Hebrew (HBR 1120, 1121, 2220), which
also fulfills the language requirement, is offered by the Department
of Modern Languages. Students can take both Modern Hebrew and
Biblical Hebrew concurrently, since the focus of the former is on
developing communication skills and the focus on the later will be on
learning to translate the Bible and other Classical Hebrew texts.
REL
2121, Religion in the United States (Porterfield): This course offers historical study of religious
groups and movements in the United States, focusing on their
developments over time and interplay with other cultural forces.
REL 2121,
Religion in the United States (Koehlinger): The purpose of this course is to introduce you to
the historical study of religion in the United States, with an eye
toward ways that social and cultural contexts have shaped the
religious experience of Americans in different places and times. The
course is structured around 4 themes, each of which is comprised of a
pairing of common analytical concepts used in the study of religion,
(i.e the first theme is “pluralism and syncretism”). Readings,
lectures, and class discussions will explore the relationship between
the 2 concepts in specific places and times in U.S. history. Over
the course of the semester we will survey religious developments,
movements, groups, and individuals, stopping to linger over
representative “soundings” within each historical period. The
primary goal of the course is for you to become familiar with the
history of American religion both by learning about central events
and trends, and by learning how to think and write historically.
REL
2210-02, Introduction to Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (Goff): This
course is an introduction to the critical study of the Old
Testament/Hebrew Bible and the world in which it was produced.
We will examine individual texts of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
within their historical contexts while taking into consideration
other methodological approaches such as literary criticism and
theology.
REL 2240, Introduction to the New Testament (Kelley and Staff):
To understand the writings of the New Testament in the context of the
historical development of the early Christian church. After surveying
Judaism and other religious options in the Roman world, attention will
be focused on the figure of Jesus of Nazareth and the development of
the traditions about Jesus. Next, an attempt will be made to understand
Paul and the development and spread of the Christian movement. Emphasis
throughout will fall on the variety of interpretations of the Christian
message as Christians encountered new social circumstances and
theological challenges. This course meets the Liberal Studies
literature requirement and the "Gordon Rule" writing requirement.
REL
2315 - Religions of South Asia (Erndl)
An
overview of the religions in the South Asian cultural region with
emphasis on Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Islam. The
history and cultural contexts of these traditions will be explored
with particular attention to sacred stories, holy people, religious
leadership, and gender issues. This course also serves as an
introduction to the academic study of religion. No previous
background is required. Meets Liberal Studies Humanities, Gordon
Rule, and Multicultural (x) requirements.
REL
2350, Religions of East Asia (Yu): A historical and thematic
introduction to the major religious traditions of East Asia from
earliest times to the present. This course examines both defining
characteristics of and interactions among various religious
traditions, including Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and kami
worship (local deities in Japan) as developed and practiced in China,
Korea, and Japan.
REL
3128, Catholic Experience in America (Koehlinger): This course provides a general introduction the
historical experiences of American Catholics from the colonial period
through the present. This course focuses on popular
Catholicism, trying to uncover the diverse experiences of American
Catholics through asking what it was like to be Catholic in different
places and times throughout United States history. We will use a wide
variety of sources to answer this question, including traditional
historical monographs, novels, memoir, film, papal documents,
correspondence, essays, speeches, poetry, political writing, sermons,
advertisements, liturgy, and artwork. Over the course of the term you
will learn about the major developments, persons, institutions, and
ideas that shaped the experience of Catholics in different moments of
U.S. history. You also will learn how to how to “hear” and
understand the voices of
people from the past embedded in historical
artifacts.
REL
3170, Religious Ethics and Moral Problems (Kelsay):
A
discussion of historic and contemporary moral issues, particularly as
these affect or are addressed by major religious traditions. This
course counts for Liberal Studies and multicultural (x) credit.
REL
3293-01, The Hebrew Prophets (Goff): In this class we will analyze
the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets. We will also
examine the role of prophecy elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible (as in the
Elijah stories) and situate the biblical prophets within the broader
context of prophecy, as a religious and social phenomenon, in the
ancient Near East. Prerequisite: REL 2210 (Introduction to Old
Testament) or equivalent.
REL
3340, The Buddhist Tradition (Yu): A historical and thematic survey
of the Buddhist tradition in Asia from its beginnings through the
modern period. Topics covered include origins and history, doctrine,
ethical beliefs, meditation, ritual, and monastic and popular
traditions. Some attention will also be given to contemporary forms
of Buddhism outside of Asia, in Europe and America.
REL
3363, Islamic Traditions (Gaiser), is a historical and topical survey
of Islam as a religion and civilization that focuses on the formative
and classical periods of Islamic history. The course is primarily
concerned with: the life and career of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam,
the scriptural sources of Islam (i.e. the Qur’an and the Sunna),
the development of the Muslim community and its principle
institutions (schools of thought, law, theology, cultural life and
mystical traditions). The course will acquaint you with significant
aspects of Islam as a religion, and to help you think through some of
the basic questions of human religious experience in light of the
responses given to those questions by the great sages and saints of
the Islamic tradition.
REL
3607, The Jewish Tradition (Kavka): This course is a survey of the Jewish tradition and its
development from the Biblical period to the present. We will
critically read important texts representing the fundamental
periods/themes of the tradition:
• Biblical texts
• Talmud
and Midrash, the texts of rabbinic Judaism
• philosophy and
Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) from the medieval era
• philosophy
and Hasidic texts from the early modern era
• Zionism
•
the rise of Reform, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox Judaism
•
modern Jewish feminism
In addition, we will spend some time on
Jewish “lived religion”: the structure of the liturgical year,
the primary Jewish festival holidays, and contemporary worship
services. Finally, this course contains a writing component in
accordance with the university’s “Gordon Rule” (section
1007.25, Florida Statutes; see p. 64 of the General Bulletin
for more details).
REL 3936-01 (Kavka), Harry Potter, Religion, and Fantasy Literature: Over the last decade, literature aimed at children and teenagers -- whether CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Rowling's Harry Potter books, and Pullman's His Dark Materials
trilogy -- has become a flashpoint for debates over whether Western
culture is overly, or insufficiently, religious. This course will
trace through these four important series of books, from Lewis's
not-so-veiled Christianity to Pullman's not-so-veiled atheism, in order
to answer the following questions: What does "children's literature"
aim to produce in its audience, and to what extent does its aim
require a religious imagination? Is religion, a certain religion,
or a certain understanding of religion, dangerous to Western culture,
or is it necessary? Are these books as religious, or as
irreligious, as they appear? Readings will be these series,
obviously, with supplementary readings from Augustine, Milton, Bruno
Bettelheim, and others. Four take-home exams of at least 1400 words
each.
REL 4290 (Levenson) Biblical Studies Seminar: The Gospel of Mark: A
close reading of the Gospel of Mark using the methods of contemporary
Gospel studies which seek to understand the literary, historical, and
sociological dimensions of the gospel text and the community from which
it arose. The course will be discussion oriented and will require
regular student presentations and a research paper. Prerequisite:
Introduction to New Testament.
REL
4333 & 5332, Modern Hinduism (Erndl):
Is
there such a thing as Hinduism? If so, what is it? How has it
changed, and where is it going in the future? This course will
explore selected topics on the Hindu tradition in 19th, 20th, and
21st century India, including popular religion, thinkers, reform
movements, gurus, nationalism, gender issues, secularism, and
pluralism. Emphasis will be on Hinduism in the social, political, and
religious context of India, with some attention to transnational
Hinduism and Hindu-inspired religious movements. Prerequisite:
An introductory course on Hinduism (such as REL 3335 or 3337) or
religions of South Asia (REL 2315) or on the history or anthropology
of India. Graduate students in Religion will be admitted without this
prerequisite. Students with no previous background in South Asian
studies or the study of religion should consult Prof. Erndl.
REL 5497, God After Nietzsche (Kavka): This course is a survey of
philosophy of religion in the wake of the work of Friedrich
Nietzsche. The central question for the course is: what happens to
religion once we have agreed that truth is perspectival, that there
are no knowable ultimate categories (such as “God”) which can
lend stability to our lives? Are we then forced into a nihilism, in
which God is nothing? Or, if we see God as no-thing—i.e. as
transcending the world of things—is it now the case that the only
way to disclose God’s radical transcendence is through the critique
of those systems of reason which claim to exhaust truth? During the
course of the term, we will survey answers to these questions, paying
particular attention to postmodernism’s fascination with medieval
mysticism, in respect of both its attempts to describe that which
transcends description and of its destabilization of traditional
gender dichotomies. In the last two weeks of the term, we will turn
to the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity in order to explore
how these philosophical texts have opened up possibilities for
scriptural reading.
REL5035-01,
Introduction to the Study of Religion (Day): This seminar is
explicitly designed to introduce first-year graduate students in the
Department of Religion to some of the texts, theories and
methodological considerations that make up the contemporary field of
religious studies. To a first approximation, there are two strategies
for tracing the contours of the modern academic study of religion.
One strategy assumes that there is a single, unified subject of
inquiry–something out there in the world straightforwardly called
“religion” -- that historians, philosophers, ethicists, and
theologians can all identify and are trying their very best to
understand. The second strategy is suspicious of the Platonism
(latent or explicit) of the first approach, and identifies the
field‚s conceptual borders by observing how the category of
religion has been constructed and applied in particular times at
particular places for particular reasons. This seminar introduces
students to both perspectives.
REL
5305/4304, Muhammad and the Qur’an (Gaiser):
examines the early biography (sīra)
of the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the sacred
scripture of the Muslims, the Qur’an. The course uses primary
sources in conjunction with source critical secondary literature to
explore contemporary scholarly debates surrounding the historical
Muhammad and the text of the Qur’an. Additionally, topics include:
popular piety surrounding the figure of Muhammad, auditory and visual
aspects of the Qur’an, and Qur’anic commentary (as well as a
contemporary Shi’ite commentator on the Qur’an).
REL
6498, Historiography of American Religion (Porterfield): This seminar analyzes major trends in American
religious historiography, focusing on historiographies of particular
religious groups as well as the historiography of master narratives
and their methodological challengers. Designed for students planning
to take comprehensive exams in American religious history.
REL 6498-01 America and Religious Intolerance (Corrigan):
We will investigate the nature of religious intolerance and violence
through our engagement of theoretical literature bearing on the topic
and then we will study the history of religious intolerance in America.
We will pay particular attention to colonial and post-colonial
mentalities, Americans' misperceptions of the religious past of the
United States, and the ways in which American actions in a global 21st
century are shaped by a repressed American past of religious
intolerance as well as by American constitutional commitment to freedom
of religion.
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