RELG 1000 Questions in the Study of Religion
Course Abstract
What is religion? Why do people reach out to God(s) or other unseen powers? How are beliefs in spiritual entities expressed and perpetuated? Why do people come together to form religious communities? How does religion order people’s lives, and what impact have religious visionaries and institutions had on societies through the ages? This is a co-taught seminar that introduces students to the rich and interdisciplinary field of Religious Studies.
Course Description
This course introduces students to the expansive, interdisciplinary, and fascinating world of religious studies. It affords undergraduates a vivid sense of key topics in the field, including ritual, belief, power, ethics, embodiment, scripture and narrative, gender, spirituality, theologies and philosophies, and literature and arts. In addition, the course acquaints students with a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives developed within the various concentrations of the Religious Studies major at UVA, while also engaging diverse outlooks and practices from various religions and time periods. The Course is suitable for those with general interests and for those who might consider a major or minor in Religious Studies.
RELG 3730 Conversations in the Study of Religion
Course Abstract
This seminar explores the major conversations that scholars of religion are having, and have had, about what “religion” is and the best ways to study it. Focusing on classical controversies, ongoing debates, and new developments, this course will help students map out the field of religious studies and begin to situate their own studies within it. This course is geared towards Religious Studies majors but open to any interested student.
Course Description
Scholars of religion engage in a range of conversations, from debates that have lasted centuries to heated discussions about the latest hot topic. This course invites you to learn about, and then enter into, these conversations as a budding scholar of religion. You’ll find that almost everything is up for questioning, debating, and reconsidering—and even the smallest detail may have ultimate consequences.
Some of the questions that we’ll be considering are: What is “religion”? What are the best ways to study it? Who are scholars of religion and what are they supposed to do? Is the scholar of religion a “caretaker” or “critic” of religion? Can “outsiders” ever really understand a religious tradition? Can “insiders”? What counts as “religion”? Are horror films or Buddhist philosophy or Sufi poetry “religious”? Where do scholars look to study religion: religious experience, belief, ritual and practice, texts, or whatever catches the scholar’s interest? How does attention to embodiment and affect change how we do research into religion and what we pay attention to? How has the field of religious studies been shaped and misshaped by colonialism, sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression? What is the relationship between religion and violence?
The debates range across time and consider everything from ancient civilization to the end of the world, moving globally across multiple geographies. The conversations engage cultures and communities, individuals and ideals, contexts and confluences. Studying these conversations will help us to unsettle our preconceptions and presumptions about the study of religion in the process. Students will begin to map out the field of religious studies and situate their own interests within it. While geared towards Religious Studies majors, the course is open to any student interested in the conversations that make up the field of religious studies.
RELG 4500 Majors Seminar
Course Abstract
Students in this course will fashion their own approach to studying religion and develop a retrospective project that interweaves the various strands of their prior study over the course of the major. Building on earlier courses in Religious Studies, this capstone seminar completes the major’s sequence by applying questions and conversations in the study of religion to some advanced theme crafted by the instructor.
Course Description
In this seminar, students will move from “questions” raised in the required 1000-level Religious Studies course and from the scholarly “conversations” explored in RELG 3730 to constructing their own unique engagement in the field. They will do so by applying their learning about questions and conversations in the study of religion to reflect critically on some advanced major topic or theme in religious studies. The specific theme will vary from semester to semester, according to the design of the instructor. Examples of past integrative motifs include: “Sensing the Sacred,” “Religious Americana,” “Idolatry,” “Sex, Gender & Religion,” “Religion & Drama,” “Religion & Psychology,” and “Scripture.” As a capstone scholarly experience in the major, students will further undertake a project that allows them to integrate what they have learned throughout the course of their studies. Generating an independent project in the study of religion relevant to the theme of the seminar, students will reflect on their entire repertoire of courses taken in the major. They will also interact with Religious Studies alumni/ae through the Career Mentoring Network so as to see what one can do with a Religious Studies degree in terms of one’s professional or intellectual journey after graduation. In short, this course aims to facilitate both retrospective examinations of students’ journeys through religious studies and prospective imaginings of where such journeys may lead in the future.