The requirements of the Religion Major : (33 semester hours)
The Senior Exercise
RELG 452 (3): Senior Seminar

Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 111 (3) Good and Evil
RELG 112 (3) Sacred Words, Sacred Texts

Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 177 (3) Introduction to the Study of Religion
RELG 178 (3) Introduction to World Religions

Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 236 (3) Multicultural Religious America
RELG 241 (3) Judaism
RELG 244 (3) Christianity
RELG 255 (3) Islam

Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 221 (3) Hindus, Jainas, and Sikhs
RELG 222 (3) Buddhism
RELG 231 (3) Taoism
RELG 248 (3) Religions of Africa

Choose 6 additional three-credit courses in religion or approved cross-listed courses in the department. Two of these six courses must be at or above the 300-level.

Cross-listed Courses
ANTH 328 (3) Ritual and Worldview
ARTH 235 (3) Early Medieval Art
ARTH 237 (3) Asian Art
ClAS 201 (3) Classical Myth
ENVR 264 (3) The Sacred Earth
SOCI 218 (3) Sociology of Religion

The requirements of the Religion Minor: (18 semester hours)
Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 111 (3) Good and Evil
RELG 112 (3) Sacred Words, Sacred Texts
RELG 177 (3) Introduction to the Study of Religion
RELG 178 (3) Introduction to World Religions

Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 236 (3) Multicultural Religious America
RELG 241 (3) Judaism
RELG 244 (3) Christianity
RELG 255 (3) Islam

Choose 1 of the following courses:
RELG 221 (3) Hindus, Jainas, and Sikhs
RELG 222 (3) Buddhism
RELG 231 (3) Taoism
RELG 248 (3) Religions of Africa

Choose 3 additional three-credit courses in religion or approved cross-listed courses in the department. Two of these three courses must be at or above the 300-level.

Course Descriptions - Religion

100-199 Level

Courses at the 100-199 level are introductory courses that can be elected independently of each other and require no previous background in the the study of religion. All four courses introduce the student to religion as a pluralistic, historical, global phenomenon that is not separate from, but integral to human culture. They are also aimed at giving students a vaiety of disciplinary perspectives (historical, text critical, ethical, philosophical) for understanding religion as a general concept and religions as variant expressions of that concept.

RELG 111 (3) - Good and Evil

What do the world's religions say about war and peace, hunger and poverty,death and dying, science, technology, medicine, the environment, the political and economic order, sexuality, civil rights, and business? This course will examine the ways that religions deal with principal moral issues in the modern world. Offered alternate years.

RELG 112 (3) - Sacred Words, Sacred Texts

Selected readings from the world's religions, including, among others, Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic, Judaic, and Hindu scriptures. Emphasis will be on understanding the forms and varieties of religious writing, their contextual history, and the ways that they can be interpreted. Offered alternate years.

RELG 177 (3) - Introduction to the Study of Religion

An introduction to the broad field of religious studies from a variety of perspectives drawn from anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, the fine arts, gender studies, and history. The course will consider what the elements of religion are (myth, doctrine, ritual, ethics, world view, human community, and destiny), how they are to be interpreted vis-a-vis modern academic perspectives on culture, and whether religion as a concept makes any sense in an age of scientific rationalism.

RELG 178 (3) - Introduction to World Religions

A comparative survey of the world's major religious traditions from the time of their foundation to the present. Emphasis will be placed on understanding how religious traditions both reflect and are formative in the cultures and societies in which they appear.

200 level

Courses at the 200 level are historical surveys of discreet religious communities in one or several societies (societies of their origin and/or societies in which they have been adopted). The purpose is to demonstrate how such communities change over time in response to internal and external pressures and how those communities express their world view in a variety of forms (laws, governments, economic activities, social organizations, etc.).

RELG 221 (3) - Hindus, Jainas, and Sikhs

A comprehensive survey of the major religious movements of India. This course will examine Indian notions of truth, ritual, family life, social organization, human destiny and salvation, literature, and arts as they have developed within the Hindu, Jaina, and Sikh communities. Students will also examine the role of these communities in the development of modern Indian nationalism and ethnicity. Offered alternate years. Satisfies the non-Western studies requirement.

RELG 222 (3) - Buddhism

A broad historical study of the development of Buddhism in India and its adoption and adaptation in Tibet, China, and Japan. This course will examine the Buddhist world view, Buddhist forms of spirituality (Mahayana, Hinayana, and Tantrayana), Buddhist rituals, philosophy, literature, arts, organizations, and Buddhism's relation to political and economic systems. Offered alternate years. Satisfies the non-Western studies requirement.

RELG 231 (3) - Taoism

A broad comparative study of the development of Taoism in China, Korea, and Japan. This course will examine the origins of Taoism in China, its development of cosmological, political, ritual, gymnastic, alchemical, and monastic forms, and the regional understandings and uses of these forms in Korea and Japan. Offered alternate years. Satisfies the non-Western studies requirement.

RELG 235 (3) - Latin American Religion

The study of religion in Latin America includes the diverse cultures of indigenous, African-American, and Hispanic peoples from South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The course may consider: indigenous religions from geographically distinct regions (from the Yahgan of Tierra del Fuego to the Pueblos and Yaquis of Mexico); Catholicism in its many cultural forms; African cultures from Brazilian condomble to Afro-Caribbean ritual; and contemporary religious movements. Critical approaches include precontact, colonial and post-colonial issues; cosmovisiones, conflict and mestizaje, religion and society, modernity in Latin American perspectives. Offered alternate years. Satisfies the non-western studies requirement.

RELG 236 (3) - Multicultural Religious America

This course explores a diversity of new approaches to religion in pluralistic America, considering new historical understanding of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish traditions, and many non-mainstream religions. The study will include Native American religion, African American Christianity and Islam, Hispanic Catholicism, Asian American traditions, Mormonism, and new religious movements. Pluralistic religious America will be examined in light of colonialism, post-colonial interpretations, cultural and regional diversity, gender issues, ethics and social issues. Offered alternate years.

RELG 241 (3) - Judaism

An historical study of the origins and development of Judaism down to the present. The course will deal with Jewish ethics, gender, literature, law, ritual, and notions of history and ethnic identity as they developed in various Jewish communities throughout the world. Offered alternate years.

RELG 244 (3) - Christianity

A historical survey of the development of Christianity from its beginnings in the Greco-Roman empire through its global establishment in the modern era. The focus of the course will be on how Christianity in its literature, rituals, institutional forms, and intellectual traditions changes and develops as it encounters new peoples and new cultures.

RELG 248 (3) - The Religions of Africa

Students will examine religions of Africa both in their indigenous expressions and in the Diaspora. Methodological issues such as what constitutes a "traditional" religion will be examined, as will questions of ritual, cosmology, myth-making, and the place of women. The effects of colonialism and the situation of post- colonialism will be discussed in-depth in the context of both continental and diaspora religious experience. The relationship of colonialism to syncretism will be explored in the examination of diaspora religions in the Caribbean and American settings. Movements such as Voodoun and Rastafarianism will be studied with a view to understanding how new religions are created as a process of inter-cultural contact and adaptation to historical events. Satisfies the non-Western studies requirement.

RELG 255 (3) - Islam

An introduction to the "world of Islam," beginning with an examination of its foundation in the seventh century and concluding with a consideration of issues pertaining to Islam in the modern world. The course will deal with such topics as: Muhammad; the Qur'an; Islamic "Traditions" (hadith) and the "Law" (shariah); the Caliphate; sectarian divisions, especially the Sunni-Shiite schism; Sufi mysticism; Muslim influences on medieval European societies; the Crusades; Islamic art and literature; and the modern resurgence of Islam. Offered alternate years. Satisfies the non-Western studies requirement.

300 Level

300 level courses examine religion from a variety of critical approaches, including philosophical analysis, the philosophy of science, arts theory, ecology and eco-feminism, pyschoanalytic theory, and political and legal theory. These courses are intended to train students who have prior training in the history of religions and comparative religion in a variety of interdisciplinary interpretative techniques.

RELG 301 (3) - Religion, Science, and Occultism

Prerequisite: One course in religion or the history of science. Are there critical differences between scientific and religious ways of knowing and are there ways in which humans have tried to bridge the gap between science and religion? This course will examine the philosophy of science as a means of understanding modern intentional revivals of ancient religious traditions, including modern witchcraft, fertility practices, various divination and fortune-telling techniques, the development of parapsychology and New Age religion. Offered alternate years.

RELG 302 (3) - The Comparative Philosophy of Religion

Prerequisite: One course in religion or philosophy. Philosophical analysis of religious claims about the nature of human existence, religious notions of authority, religious language, ethics, and theories of knowledge. While the categories of analysis are drawn from the Western philosophical tradition, the data are drawn from the world's religions.

RELG 310 (3) - Women, Ecology, and Religion

Prerequisite: One course in religion, women and gender studies, or environmental studies. This course will examine the relationship between women and nature, ask whether there is a "privileged" and "natural" relationship between women and the environment, and then ask whether religions have served to reinforce, subvert or appropriate that relationship. The course will also examine how intentional religious movements, such as neo-paganism, and current feminist paradigms of spirituality incorporate the "natural" association of women and the earth as a subversive strategy. This course may be counted as a core course for the minor in Women and Gender Studies.

RELG 313 (3) - Religion and the Fine Arts

Prerequisite: One course in religion or the history of the performing arts. An examination of modern aesthetic theory in regard to the purposes, processes, and values of creating music, dance, theater, and the visual arts, and their relation to religious values, rituals, and moral behavior. Offered alternate years.

RELG 316 (3) - The Psychology of Religion

Prerequisite: Once course in religion or psychology. This course will explore theories of the psychological underpinning and function of religion. Students will acquire an understanding of Modernist and Post-modernist theories of pyschology, religion, and their intersection. It will begin with the classic works of Freud and Jung and move throught the 20th century re-interpretations of their writings in Lacan, French feminism, Renee Girard, James Hillman and David Miller. It will ask whether theories designed for individulas may be accurately applied to religious groups. The course will raise questions of the applicability of archetypal models of psychology in a post-modern society. It will also examine how psychology has contributed to increased individualism and whether the practice of pyscho-analysis has taken over some or many of the traditional functions or religion.

RELG 350 (3) - Religion and U.S. Law

Prerequisite: One course in religion, government, or the permission of the instructor. An examination of the issues that are produced by religious and state interests in the United States from the colonial period to the present. The course will focus on understanding the history of colonial and post-colonial views of religion and government, the process that led to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and the history of interpretations of this constitutional doctrine by the U.S. Supreme Court. Offered alternate years. Satisfies requirements of the Law and Society Minor.

RELG 361 (1, 2, or 3) - Special Study

Special topics pursued by individual students under supervision.

400 Level

400 level courses are advanced courses for seniors and those majoring in the study of religion. The emphasis in these courses is the production of original reseach papers for publication and as the culminating exercise in the study of religion at the undergraduate level.

RELG 451 (3) - Research Seminar in the Study of Religion

Prerequisite: Open to senior majors and minors in Religion. This seminar provides an opportunity for students and faculty to collaborate in research that will produce a student-faculty publication in an appropriate academic form (e.g. a conference presentation, a paper journal, or an electronic journal). Offered alternate years.

RELG 452 (3) - Senior Seminar

Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Fundamental problems of religion, ethics, and theology, such as religious authority and experience, understandings of the world, humanity and history, doctrines of salvation, the study of sacred scriptures, phenomenology of religion, and the methodologies of religious studies. The course is the senior exercise for students who major in religion.