AFRICAN RELIGIONS

RELA 2750  African Religions
Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton 
An introductory survey of African religions. The course concentrates on African indigenous religions, but Islam and Christianity are also discussed. Topics include African mythologies and cosmologies, as well as rituals, artistic traditions and spiritualities. We consider the colonial impact on African religious cultures and the dynamics of ongoing religious change in the sub-Sahara.

 RELA 5559  New Course in African Relgions: Evangelism in Contemporary Africa
Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton 
This seminar examines Christian missions in Africa over the past two decades. We consider foreign, faith-based initiatives in Africa, as well as African missionaries in Europe and the U.S. How are missionary efforts being transformed in response to democratization, globalization and a growing awareness of human rights? What is the relationship between evangelism and development, proselytism and humanitarian aid, mission and education today?

BUDDHISM

RELB 2054  Tibetan Buddhism Introduction
Staff
(This course is tentative) A systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, including aspects of its history, iconography, philosophy, ethics, monasticism, rituals, practices, and social milieu. Special attention will be paid to the various strands of Indo-Tibetan culture that have intertwined to produce the immensely rich tradition we see today, though we will also spend a good bit of time examining the uniquely Tibetan tantric technologies that evolved from this process. Previous knowledge of Buddhism is not necessary, but would be helpful for certain segments of the course.

RELB 2100  Buddhism
Karen Lang
The goal of courses in religious studies is to promote sensitivity to religious ideas, personalities, and institutions. Such courses are not intended to persuade you toward or away from any particular tradition. This course is an introduction to Buddhism, beginning with its origins in India, its spread throughout Asia to the West. The course will examine the historical and cultural contexts in which Buddhist beliefs and practices developed and are still developing. We will explore a wide variety of sources to understand the many ways in which Buddhists speak about the Buddha, what he and his followers say about karma and rebirth, the practice of meditation and the pursuit of enlightenment. We will also examine the views of contemporary Buddhist teachers and on the challenges Buddhism faces in the modern world.

RELB 2770  Daoism
W Clarke Hudson 
While early classics of Daoist wisdom are well-known nowadays, the Daoist religion--with its celestial gods and disease demons, communal rituals and private meditations--is relatively little-known. This course will cover the whole spectrum of Daoism in China, including early classics, religious history, practices, ideas, and ways of life. Through readings, lectures, discussions, and writing assignments, students will gain a general understanding of this ancient and vital tradition.

RELB 3559/RELH 3559 Yogic Traditions of South Asia
John Campbell
An exploration of concepts and practices associated with the Indic categories of yoga and tantra in major religious traditions of South and Himalayan Asia.

RELB 3655 Buddhism In America
Ben Deitle

RELB 5470  Literary Tibetan V
Kurtis Schaeffer 

RELB 5520  Seminar in Daoism
W. Clarke Hudson 
Topics on the history, scripture, thought, and practice of religious Daoism, with an emphasis on the formative period (2nd-10th c.).

RELB 5660  Seminar on Indian Buddhism
Karen Lang 
 This seminar will focus on the development of Buddhism in India and the spread of these ideas into the neighboring South Asian countries of Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.   We will examine the divergent views on the nature of the Buddha and his teachings and explore how these views changed by reading translations of various canonical and post-canonical writings of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, along with contemporary scholarship on these issues.    We will examine both doctrinal texts and the story literature of both traditions for information on Buddhist beliefs and practices.   We  will also look at what archeological records suggest about the social history of South Asian Buddhism.

RELB 5800  Literary Tibetan VII
Kurtis Schaeffer 

CHRISTIANITY

RELC 1050  Introduction to Christian Traditions
Valerie Cooper 
This course will explore Christianity in its modern and historical contexts, combining an examination of current scholarship, worship and praxis. Because one course could not begin to exhaust the wide diversity present in Christianity, we will instead focus on several smaller questions over the course of the semester. The first half of the course will ask the question, “Who was Jesus?” We will consider some of the historical, textual, sociological, theological, and archaeological evidence surrounding his life and the subsequent Jesus Movement which developed into early Christianity. Efforts will be made to place Jesus’ life in the context of Jewish popular movements of his time. The second half of the course will ask the question, “What is the church?” and consider the development of the Christian church from the time of Constantine onward. This discussion of Christian worship will be accented by students’ field visits to churches in the Albemarle County area. Course materials will include those dealing with the development of a few specific denominations, as well as larger subsets of Christianity such as Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. Although Christian traditions worldwide will be addressed, the main emphasis of the second half of the course will be modern American Christianity.

RELC 1210/RELJ 1210  Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martien Halvorson-Taylor 
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELC 2050  The Rise of Christianity
Karl Shuve 
How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents.

GREE 2230 New Testament Greek I (Intermediate Greek): Gospels
Judith Kovacs
The Department calls attention to this course offered through the Classics Department, which can be counted towards the major in Religious Studies: This intermediate course aims to solidify the student's knowledge of Greek grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and give practice in reading the Greek New Testament. Readings come from the gospels, primarily Luke and John, with consideration of questions of interpretation as well as grammar and translation. (Letters of Paul will be read in Greek 2240). Prerequisite Greek 1010-1020 or equivalent (one year of classical or Koine Greek). Requirements: regular quizzes, midterm, and final examination.

RELC 2360  Elements of Christian Thought
Paul Jones 
This course considers the complicated world of Christian thought. It examines the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology (ancient, medieval, and modern) and become acquainted with a wide range of theological approaches and ideas. The course is suitable for those seeking a basic introduction in Christian thought and for those wishing to deepen their understanding of key issues in Christian theology. It can fulfill the second writing requirement. No previous knowledge of Christian thought is required.

RELC 2401  History of American Catholicism
Gerald Fogarty 
(Unconfirmed description from Fall 2010) Catholicism in the United States has often been in a dilemma. On the one hand, its spiritual loyalty to Rome and its growth through immigration made it appear "foreign" to most Americans. On the other, the American Catholic support for religious liberty drew suspicion from Rome. In 1960, the election of John Kennedy seemed to signal the acceptance of Catholics as Americans. In 1965, the Second Vatican Council seemed to ratify what had long been a cherished American Catholic tradition. To understand the significance of these events of the 1960s, the course will treat the following themes: the early Spanish and French settlements, the beginning of English-speaking Catholicism in Maryland, with its espousal of religious liberty, the establishment of the hierarchy under John Carroll and its early development of a strong sense of episcopal collegiality, immigration and nativism, American Catholic support of religious liberty and conflict with the Vatican at the end of the 19th century, and the American Catholic contribution to Vatican II (1962-1965). The course will conclude with an analysis of social, political, and theological developments in the American Catholic Church since the end of the council. Course requirements: 1) a mid-term and final exam; 2) an analysis of an historical document selected from collections on reserve.

RELC 3030/RELJ 3030 The Historical Jesus
Harry Gamble 
This course focuses on Jesus of Nazereth as an historical figure, that is, as he is accessible to the historian by means of historical methods applied to historical evidence. Careful attention will be given to all the potentially useful sources including the canonical Gospels, apocryphal Gospels, and Jewish and Graeco-Roman sources, as well as to the problems of dealing with them. A reconstruction of the activity and teaching of Jesus will be attempted, with a view to determining Jesus' place within ancient Judaism and the relation of Jesus to the emergence of Christianity.

RELC 3043  Themes in Eastern Orthodoxy: An Introduction
Vigen Guroian 
Rather than a broad historical overview of Orthodox Christianity, this course is an introduction to the thematic core of the Orthodox Christian tradition. We will first review the major elements of the Orthodox faith that developed over the course of the Byzantine era. Then we will examine some themes to which Orthodox theologians have given considerable thought. These include: scripture and tradition, liturgy and sacrament, the meaning and role of icons, faith and spirituality, the nature of the church, Christian ecumenism, and Christianity and culture.

RELC 3090/RELJ 3090  Israelite Prophecy
Gregory Goering 
This course examines the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). Each primary text will be considered in its historical, cultural, and political contexts. In addition, the course analyzes Israelite prophecy in light of similar phenomena in the neighboring cultures of the ancient Near East and with regards to modern anthropological studies of shamanism. The end of the course considers the transformation of prophecy in the Second Temple period and examines the emergence of apocalypticism. No prerequisite required, but RELJ/RELC 1210 recommended  

RELC 3447  History of Christian Ethics
Margaret Mohrmann 
This course surveys the development of Christian ethical thought and teaching from its beginnings through the Reformation era. Major ethical themes are traced through the centuries, as the church’s scripture, evolving doctrine, and emerging tradition interact— in thought, word, and deed—with secular society, politics, and philosophy. Readings are taken mostly from primary texts, such as the Bible and the writings of selected Christian thinkers, but also include an online text that provides historical and theological background ethical issues in historical context, and selected secondary works that examine particular ethical issues in historical context. Class sessions are a combination of lecture and discussion.

RELC 3681  Cultural Catholicism
John Portmann 
Today many North Americans insist on a Roman Catholic baptism, wedding, and funeral but otherwise want little to do with the institutional Church. In this seminar, we will try to make sense of “secular” or “cultural Catholics.” Are they just lazy, or do they have good reason for ambivalence about their Church? What would it take to overcome such ambivalence?

Ambivalent or distanced Catholics may retain certain inclinations (for example, opposition to the death penalty) or patterns of thought (for example, redemption through community) which tie them to Rome in some peculiar way. We will explore Roman Catholic experience outside the official structures of the Holy See (for example, devotions, pilgrimages, shrines, art, fiction, cinema, television), particularly as committed Catholics argue over how to honor their spiritual tradition in day-to-day life. We will study current challenges wrought by women, Jews, and gays. We will pay special attention to dissent as an emerging hallmark of Catholic culture in the United States. Can we reduce Catholicism to a set of rules? If instead Catholicism asserts itself as a way of living, how does this mindset evolve and from where does it take its spiritual cues? How has Catholic culture in the United States moved from obedience to protest, from passion to ambivalence?

RELC 3690  The Gospel of John and Its Interpretation
Judith Kovacs 
A close reading of the Gospel of John, this course considers literary, historical, and theological issues. Questions raised include: What is distinctive about the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospel of John in comparison with the synoptic gospels, and why was this gospel so important in the development of Christian theology? What clues are there in the text for imagining the specific historical situation in which the gospel was written? What are the reasons for, and implications of, its depiction of "the Jews"? Attention will also be given to the book’s reception history, including the important role the Gospel played in the development of the church’s teaching about Jesus Christ, portrayals in art, and feminist interpretations.

RELC 3804  American Catholic Social and Political Thought
Gerald Fogarty 
This seminar examines American Catholic social and political thought.

RELC 5048  Philo of Alexandria and Hellenistic Judaism
Harry Gamble 
This seminar will explore the works and thought of Philo Judaeus (ca. 20 BCE-50 CE), the most prolific Jewish thinker and writer of antiquity.  In addition to extensive reading of Philo’s work, the seminar will have a view to the socio-political, intellectual and religious context to which he belonged, namely Hellenistic Judaism, particularly in Egypt, to the relation of Philo to other forms of Judaism in the ancient world, and to the significance of Philo for early Christian thought.

RELC 5155  Ecology, Christianity, and Culture
Vigen Guroian 
The character and content of this course differs from the policy-oriented nature of many standard courses in environmental ethics. If there is an underlying premise to the class, it is that the environmental crisis is not external to ourselves but rather originates “within” us, as we are sinfully disposed to misuse not only our own bodies but the whole of Creation. If this is so, then a Christian ecological ethic must include serious reflection on theological anthropology, doctrines of Creation and Salvation, and a theology of culture. It must include an ecological spirituality.

RELC 5158  History of Christian Ethics
Margaret Mohrmann 
This course is designed to provide a solid understanding of the historical roots, from the New Testament period to the Reformation, of Christian ethics, experience in working with historical source materials, and familiarity with some important interpreters of this history. In seminar discussions, we will primarily explore primary materials, but also consider the work of interpreters such as Ernst Troeltsch and Peter Brown.

RELC 5559  New Course in Christianity: Making of Christian Orthodoxy
Karl Shuve 
In this course, we will study the key developments in Christian theology in Late Antiquity.  Topics include the relationship between Christianity and Greek philosophy; biblical exegesis; the being of God and Christ; mysticism and contemplation; and the liturgy. We will focus on the Trinitarian and Christological controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries, tracing the exegetical, philosophical and liturgical roots of the debates.

RELC 5830  Love and Justice in Christian Ethics
James Childress 
An examination of various conceptions of neighbor-love (agape) and justice and their relations (e.g., identity and opposition) in selected Protestant (and some Catholic) literature (mainly from the 20th and early 21st centuries). The principles of agape and justice will be considered in the context of interpretations of human nature (e.g., the locus and power of sin), theological convictions (e.g., God as creator, preserver, and redeemer), and perspectives on moral reasoning. In addition, attention will be devoted to the distinction and relations between agape and other modes of love, such as philia and eros. Finally, in passing, the seminar will also examine the implications of different interpretations of agape (and its relations to justice) for selected practical areas, such as punishment, war, allocation of resources, and friendship

RELC 5910  Religion, Race and Politics in American Society
Valerie Cooper 
This course will evaluate the role of religion and race in shaping political campaigns, party affiliation, and the nature of political consensus around issues from the 1960s to the present.  Of particular interest here will be racially- or religiously-affiliated groups and movements like the Tea Party, the Occupy Wall Street protests or the Civil Rights Movement. In the end, we will test the hypothesis that religion and race have been two of the most potent tools for building political power in the US in the last five decades.

RELC 5976  The Theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher
Paul Jones 
This graduate-level seminar focuses on the major Protestant theologian of nineteenth-century Europe, Friedrich Schleiermacher. We will read most of Schleiermacher's major works, spending considerable time on his magnum opus, The Christian Faith. Topics considered include theological method; religious experience; the doctrines of God, Christ, creation, and church; theology and gender; and the relevance of Schleiermacher for contemporary philosophical theology. Students ought to have a background in Christian thought and some familiarity with European philosophy.

GENERAL RELIGION

RELG 1010  Introduction to Western Religious Traditions
Heather Warren
An historical survey of the origins and development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Subjects include the origins of monotheism, the rise of Israel as a nation, early Christianity, the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, Christianity during the Enlightenment, and the influence of modern science and industrialism on 19th and 20th century religious life. Requirements: Weekly readings, two tests and a final

RELG 2475  God
Peter Ochs 
An introduction to the personality of God as portrayed in the sacred literatures, histories, and practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Part I of the course asks: What are the major personality traits of God as displayed in the three Abrahamic scriptures? Creator or destroyer? Loving guide or angry ruler? Infinite and distant or right here, as close as a touch? The first or the last? Never to be seen or that face that sees you? Part II of the course asks: how have prophets, sages, mystics and scoundrels experienced God as recounted in the literatures of these religions? Do they experience the “death of the ego?” or “unity with God?” or “God’s emptiness and absence?” Part III of the course asks: What paths of relationship with God do these three traditions recommend? And with what results? (You have to take the course to hear about these!)… The course no prerequisities. There will be at least 2 films. There is a midterm and a final; and students write 2pp. papers to conclude each Part of the course.

RELG 2630  Business, Ethics, and Society
This course will be taught by advanced graduate students. 
This course aims to acquaint students with a variety of philosophical and religious frameworks for interpreting and evaluating human activity in the marketplace. The first half of the semester will focus on Adam Smith, Max Weber, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Ayn Rand. The second half of the semester will examine some contemporary issues within the marketplace that deserve additional scrutiny, such as private property, freedom of contract, and the distribution of goods. In addition, we will attend to specific issues in corporate ethics. Requirements will include both a midterm and final exam, as well as writing requirements to be determined.

RELG 2650  Theology, Ethics, and Medicine
James Childress 
An analysis of the ethical principles that should undergird decisions in science, medicine, and health care. The lectures readings, and discussions will focus on ethical principles developed within different ethical traditions (such as Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, and Humanism) and on their implications for cases in abortion, death and dying, research involving human subjects, artificial reproduction, genetic engineering, cloning, and allocating resources. Several films, videotapes, and cases will be used. Requirements: Midterm, final examination, 3 brief papers (2 pages) and participation in discussion.

RELG 2700  Festivals of the Americas
Jalane Schmidt 
By reading case studies of various religious festivals in locations throughout the Caribbean and South, Central and North America, as well as theoretical literature drawn from social anthropology and religious studies, students will become familiar with significant features of contemporary religious life in the Americas, as well as with scholarly accounts of religious and cultural change. Students will become more critical readers of ethnographic and historical sources, as well as theories from the Study of Religion (Jonathan Z. Smith, Ronald Grimes, Lawrence Sullivan), and will increase their ability to theorize about ritual, festivity, sacred time, ritual space and ethnicity.

RELG 3200  Martin, Malcolm, and America
Mark Hadley 
An intensive examination of African-American social criticism centered upon, but not limited to, the life and thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. We will come to grips with the American legacy of racial hatred and oppression systematized in the institutions of antebellum chattel slavery and post-bellum racial segregation and analyze the array of critical responses to, and social struggles against, this legacy. We will pay particular attention to the religious dimensions of these various types of social criticism.

RELG 3360  Religions in the New World
Jalane Schmidt 
A history course which examines Latin American and Caribbean religions from the 1400s through the 1830s. We will proceed topically (in rough chronological order), studying religious encounters during the pre-Columbian era, the Spanish conquest and colonial eras, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Latin American independence (1820s), and slave emancipation in the anglophone Caribbean (1830s). The class will focus primarily upon the signature religious episodes, devotions, personalities and institutions of indigenous, African, Afro-creole, and mestizo communities, since these "gente de color" constituted the majority population in the New World during this historical epoch. We will consider issues of historiography?specifically, the problem of interpreting (sometimes hostile) extant archival sources and the use of such primary material in the writing of secondary literature. Students will develop their abilities to evaluate primary sources (in translation), and to identify the interpretive choices which scholars make in the crafting of historical narratives.

RELG 4023  Bioethics Internship Seminar
Margaret Mohrmann
This course is designed to provide students with experience in discerning and analyzing ethical issues as they arise in particular clinical settings. Each student spends approximately four hours each week in a clinic, hospital unit, or other health care- related venue (the same one throughout the semester), under the mentorship of a health care professional engaged in that setting. Seminar time focuses primarily on student experiences and observations in their placements, plus discussion of readings that explore selected ethical issues common to clinical medicine and the role of the ethicist/observer. During the second half of the semester, each student presents for class critique an analysis of an ethical issue or question that arises in his or her setting, and that will form the basis of the student's final paper for the class. Students must have some background knowledge of bioethics' methods and common questions. Admittance to the course is by application only; for details, see the Undergraduate Bioethics Program Website at https://bioethics.as.virginia.edu/internships.

RELG 4220  American Religious Autobiography
Heather Warren
A multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms, among them Thomas Merton's The Sign of Jonas; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Charles Colson's Born Again; and Kathleen Norris' Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Fulfills the majors seminar requirement. Prerequisites: Courses in religious studies, American history, or American literature. Requirements: weekly short autobiographical papers (2pp.), 1 paper 8-12 pages, and an autobiography (20 pp.)

RELG 4500  Majors Seminar: Death and the Afterlife
Benjamin Ray 
The goal of this seminar is to develop an informed and critical perspective on the study of religion through the study of myths, rituals, theology, medical ethics, and fictional literature concerning death and afterlife in a variety of religious traditions. The seminar does not intend to make the case for any single definition of religion or to take a particular theological perspective on death, but rather to have participants develop critical skills necessary for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a number of scholarly approaches to the subject. Requirements: Six short papers, approximately one every other week. No mid-term and no final exam.

RELG 5070  Interpretation Theory
Larry Bouchard 
We will explore various approaches to interpretation theory, with emphasis on the nature and problems of interpretive activity in aesthetics, religion, and ethics. We will take up hermeneutical considerations of figuralism (e.g. Erich Auerbach), truth and understanding in encounters with texts and others (e.g., Schleiermacher, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Adam Zachary Newton), and reconsiderations of the hermeneutical model in such figures as Bahktin, Nussbaum, and Vattimo. Special attention may be given this time to postmodern views of religious discourse (e.g., in Derrida and some of his sympathizers and critics). Requirements: Class participation of assigned materials, a midterm take-home examination, and either a paper or an essay final. Undergraduates not yet enrolled in this course need to obtain permission of the instructor and may be placed on a waiting list kept by Prof. Bouchard. Contact:lbouchard@virginia.edu.

RELG 5559  New Course in Religion: Prayer
Peter Ochs 
Studies in the poetics and theology of prayer in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Sequence of topics: (a) Studies in poetics and  experience in  poetry and individual prayer; (b) Studies in the history of Jewish and Christian prayer and liturgy; (c) Philosophic and literary studies of liturgy as prayer. new course to provide graduate level study of prayer/liturgy for students of theology and of scriptural traditions. a new goal is also to provide work on poetics and literary theory as well as on scriptural traditions -- something we have not previously done in a theology or SIp course.

RELG 7360  Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion
Benjamin Ray 
Given the interdisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for entering graduate students to gain a basic grounding in the theoretical and methodological studies in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the basic nineteenth and twentieth century approaches, as well as some contemporary methods. The course will facilitate critical engagement with classic concepts in the study of religion by applying them to examples of religious belief and practice.

RELG 8000  Tragedy and the Religious Imagination
Larry Bouchard 
This seminar will explore ways in which three modes of expression and inquiry—imaginative literature, religious thought (including ethical reflection), and forms of critical theory—encounter aspects of tragic suffering, moral evil or "sin," and the ways these phenomena are reflected in various sorts of discourse or rhetoric.  Particular attention will be given to an implication of Paul Ricoeur, that the tragic "resists thought."  Literary sources will include those from Greek tragedy, Christian epic and fiction, and modern drama and fiction.  Religious and ethical reflective sources will include classical and modern thinkers who interpret tragedy, sin, finitude, and suffering (e.g., Augustine, the Niebuhrs, Fackenheim, Levinas, Ricoeur, Nussbaum, Keller).    Examines the ways in which tragedy (and other forms of imaginative literature), scripture and theology, and hermeneutics and criticism portray and reflect on aspects of suffering and evil.

RELG 8350  Proseminar in Scripture Interpretation and Practice
Peter Ochs 

HINDUISM

RELH 2559  New Course in Hinduism: Contemporary Hinduism
John Nemec 
This course examines Hinduism in Modern and Contemporary India, paying attention to the particular traditions of the various regions of the subcontinent, as well as to the interaction of Hinduism with other South Asian religious traditions.

RELH 3559/RELB 3559 Yogic Traditions of South Asia
John Campbell
An exploration of concepts and practices associated with the Indic categories of yoga and tantra in major religious traditions of South and Himalayan Asia.

RELH 5559  New Course in Hinduism: Hindu-Buddhist Debates
John Nemec 
The most famous and fundamental Hindu-Buddhist debate concerns the existence and nature of the “self” or “soul” (Skt. ‡tman), a perennial dispute born with the Buddha himself and active even today.  This disagreement is rarely purged from Hindu-Buddhist disputes, though it is frequently addressed indirectly, in the context of negotiating a disparate range of philosophical issues.  

ISLAM

RELI 2070  Classical Islam
Abdulaziz Sachedina 
This is a historical and topical survey of the origins and development of Islam.  The course is primarily concerned with the life and career of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, the teachings of the Qur'an, the development of the Muslim community and its principal institutions, schools of thought, law, theology, cultural life and mystical tradition, to about 1300 A.D.  The objectives of the course are:
            (a)        To acquaint the student with significant aspects of Islam as a religion in the classical period; and,

            (b)        To help the student think through some of the basic questions of human religious experience in the light of the responses given to these questions by the great sages and saints of the Islamic tradition. 

RELI 5400  Muslim Comparative Theologies: Sunni-Shi'i Creeds
Abdulaziz Sachedina 
The seminar will undertake to study the comparative Sunni and Shi’ite theologies (‘ilm al-kalam) to underscore a historical development of Muslim creed in the context of social and political conditions. The course will concentrate on the development of Muslim Theology in general and the Sunni and Shi’ite creeds in particular.  It will primarily be a comparative theological study, and secondarily Sunni-Shi’i doctrinal analysis.  The major concern will be the development of creeds in Islam, the gradual process of formulating Principles of Religion (usul al-din), and their crystallization in the form of dogmas, with theological complexities.  The essential difference between the Sunni and Shi’ite schools of thought begins in their emphasis on the fundamentality of leadership for the continuation of the prophetic mission.  This difference also leads to their classification of the founding principles of Islam.  While the Sunnites have insisted on a communal consensus regarding the centrality of the community’s adherence to the Tradition for the continuation of the mission, the Shi’ites have regarded the ongoing need for authoritative guidance in the person of the Imam following the Prophethood.  There is agreement among all Muslims that three doctrines constitute the faith of Islam: Affirmation of the Unity of God, the Prophethood of Muhammad, and the Final Day of Judgment.  The Shi’ites add to these three two other doctrines: Affirmation about the Justice of God and the necessity of the Imamate of the rightful successors of the Prophet.  The Shi`a-Sunni differences have also impacted the development of juridical principles and ethical epistemologies based on the relationship between reason and revelation.

The objectives of the course are:
(i) To introduce the student to the history of Islamic theology,
(ii). To direct the student to form a relatively complete picture of Muslim creed by discussing the Sunni-Shi’ite doctrinal formulations, and,
(iii). To encourage the student to undertake a comparative study of Sunni-Shi’ite theologies.

JUDAISM

RELJ 1210/RELC 1210  Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martien Halvorson-Taylor 
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELJ 1410  Elementary Classical Hebrew I
Martien Halvorson-Taylor 
This course and its sequel (RELJ 1420) introduce students to the basics of classical (biblical) Hebrew vocabulary and grammar. After completing the two semester sequence in grammar and syntax, students will have mastered the basic tools required to read prose passages from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the original language.

RELJ 2030  The Judaic Tradition
Elizabeth Alexander 
An introduction to Judaism as it is practiced as a living tradition. We will survey the central understandings that undergird the Jewish tradition and examine the ritual context in which these beliefs are manifest: sacred text study, prayer, holy day practices and life cycle passages (e.g. birth, marriage, death). We will explore the ancient sources from which so much of the Jewish tradition derives and observe the ever-changing ways tradition is manifest in contemporary Jewish life. We will draw on film, sacred text study and anthropological observation of Jewish life in Charlottesville today.

RELJ 2061  Judaism, Modernity, and Secularization
Asher Biemann 
This course develops the history and intellectual underpinnings of the Jewish experience of modernity and secularization. We will explore the variety of Jewish responses and adjustments to the modern world and their implications for present day Judaism in its many forms.

RELJ 2410  Intermediate Classical Hebrew I
Gregory Goering 
In this course, which continues and builds upon HEBR/RELJ 1420, students will develop facility in the reading, comprehension, and translation of biblical Hebrew. Students will review basic grammar, learn to analyze syntax, and build their working vocabulary. As a secondary objective of the course, students will learn to interpret biblical prose. By the end of the course, students will be able to translate moderately difficult prose passages from Hebrew to English. This course is equivalent to HEBR 2410. Prerequisite: HEBR or RELJ 1420.

RELJ 3030/RELC 3030  Historical Jesus
Harry Gamble 
This course focuses on Jesus of Nazereth as an historical figure, that is, as he is accessible to the historian by means of historical methods applied to historical evidence. Careful attention will be given to all the potentially useful sources including the canonical Gospels, apocryphal Gospels, and Jewish and Graeco-Roman sources, as well as to the problems of dealing with them. A reconstruction of the activity and teaching of Jesus will be attempted, with a view to determining Jesus' place within ancient Judaism and the relation of Jesus to the emergence of Christianity.

RELJ 3090/RELC 3090  Israelite Prophecy
Gregory Goering 
This course examines the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). Each primary text will be considered in its historical, cultural, and political contexts. In addition, the course analyzes Israelite prophecy in light of similar phenomena in the neighboring cultures of the ancient Near East and with regards to modern anthropological studies of shamanism. The end of the course considers the transformation of prophecy in the Second Temple period and examines the emergence of apocalypticism. No prerequisite required, but RELJ/RELC 1210 recommended.

JWST 3559 The Soundtrack of Israeli History
Visiting Scholar: Assaf Shelleg
Designed for both music and non-music majors, the course explores the various musical attitudes to Israeli nationality in popular and concert (art) music. Surveying Israeli music within the larger context of history, Zionism, and culture, we will study early pioneer songs, music composed during the years of statehood, the aftermath of Israeli wars and its impact on music, the waning of nationalism in Israeli society, globalization, and the tensions between Jewishness and Israeliness.

RELJ 3559 Music in the Holocaust: Portrayals in Sound from Past and Present
Visiting Scholar: Assaf Shelleg
Designed for both music and non-music majors, this course deals with the embedment of Jewish musical markers and stereotypes in the European imagination, in particular Germany´s. Studying nineteenth and twentieth century "Jewish music libels” we will attempt to understand the German perceptions of nationalism and its cultural repercussions. Having established this background, the second part of this course will discuss the evolvement of Nazi cultural policies in the 1930s and their effect on musical activities in the Third Reich, including music in the ghettos. The last segment of the class will deal with commemoration music and the aesthetics of memory postmodern works.

RELJ 3372/HIEU 3372/GETR 3372  German Jewish Culture and History
Gabriel Finder, Jeff Grossman 
This course provides a wide-ranging exploration of the culture and history of German Jewry from 1750 to 1939.  It focuses especially on the Jewish response to modernity in Central Europe, a response that proved highly productive, giving rise to a range of lasting transformations in Jewish life in Europe and later North America, in particular, and in European culture and society, more generally.

RELJ 3430  Women in Judaism
Elizabeth Alexander 
This course explores the role of women in Judaism as understood by classical Jewish sources and as reconceived by key feminist thinkers in the modern era. Starting with the classical sources, this course familiarizes students with talmudic sources that touch on various aspects of women's lives. We begin with the observation that classical Jewish sources imagine sexuality as a potent creative force, and then explore a number of derivative questions affecting the status and lives of women. How did this positive embrace of sexuality affect the place accorded women in Jewish society? Was female sexuality imagined in different terms than male sexuality? Were women seen to interfere with men's religious lives or enhance it? Was there a domain of women's religious experiences that was distinct from men's? We will analyze both legal and narrative texts for answers to our questions. Other topics treated include: control and protection of women's sexuality, the economics of women's labor, rituals of the body and the modes of expression characteristic of classical Jewish sources. In the last section of the course we will review contemporary attempts by key feminist Jewish thinkers (Plaskow, Adler and Ross) to rethink women’s roles in the religion.

RELJ 4950  Senior Seminar in Jewish Studies
Gabriel Finder 

RELJ 5048  Philo of Alexandria and Hellenistic Judaism
Harry Gamble 
This seminar will explore the works and thought of Philo Judaeus (ca. 20 BCE-50 CE), the most prolific Jewish thinker and writer of antiquity.  In addition to extensive reading of Philo’s work, the seminar will have a view to the socio-political, intellectual and religious context to which he belonged, namely Hellenistic Judaism, particularly in Egypt, to the relation of Philo to other forms of Judaism in the ancient world, and to the significance of Philo for early Christian thought.

RELJ 5559  New Course in Judaism: Jewish History, Meta-History
Asher Biemann 
The course discusses models of history, meta-history,  counter history, and anti-history in modern Jewish thought. Readings from Heinrich Graetz, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, A.J. Heschel, Leo Strauss, and others.

RELJ 8559 Song of Songs (Canticles)
Martien Halvorson-Taylor
An intensive research seminar on the Song of Songs (Canticles). Fluency in Classical Hebrew and Greek and instructor permission are required.

Special Topics

RELS 8995 Research Selected Topics
Instructor: Student's choice

Systematic reading in a select topic under detailed supervision. Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding his course.

RELS 8998 Non Topical Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For master's research, taken under the supervision of a thesis director. Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9998 Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected.

Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9999 Non-Topical Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For dissertation research, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.

Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

African Religions

RELA 3000 Women and Religion in Africa 
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia Heyden
This seminar examines women’s religious activities, traditions and spirituality in anumber of different African contexts. Drawing on ethnographic, historical, literary, and religious studies scholarship, we will explore a variety of themes and debates that have emerged in the study of gender and religion in Africa.Topics will include gendered images of sacred power; the construction of gender through ritual; sexuality and fertility; and women¹s agency in indigenous religious movements, Muslim communities and Christian congregations in Africa.

RELA 3890 Christianity in Africa 
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia Heyden
This course offers an historical and topical survey of Christianity in Africa from its roots in Egypt and the Maghreb in the 2nd c. CE, to contemporary times when nearly half the continent's population claims adherence to the faith. Our historical overview will include the flowering of medieval Ethiopian Christianity, 16th- and 17th- century Kongolese Christianity, European missions during the colonial period, the subsequent growth of independent churches, the emergence of African Christian theology, and recent examples of charismatic and Pentecostal ‘mega-churches’.  We will consider the relationship between colonialism and evangelism; assess efforts in translation and inculturation of the gospel; reflect on the role of healing, prophesy and spirit-possession in conversion, and explore a variety of ways of understanding religious change across the continent. We will attempt to position Christian movements within the wider context of African religious history, and to understand Africa's place in the larger course of Christian history.

Buddhism

RELB 2054 Tibetan Buddhism Introduction 
DiZinno, Dominic Joseph
(This description is not from the instructor listed above) A systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, including aspects of its history, iconography, philosophy, ethics, monasticism, rituals, practices, and social milieu. Special attention will be paid to the various strands of Indo-Tibetan culture that have intertwined to produce the immensely rich tradition we see today, though we will also spend a good bit of time examining the uniquely Tibetan tantric technologies that evolved from this process. Previous knowledge of Buddhism is not necessary, but would be helpful for certain segments of the course.

RELB 2100 Buddhism 
Lang, Karen C
The goal of courses in religious studies is to promote sensitivity to religious ideas, personalities, and institutions. Such courses are not intended to persuade you toward or away from any particular tradition. This course is an introduction to Buddhism, beginning with its origins in India, its spread throughout Asia to the West. The course will examine the historical and cultural contexts in which Buddhist beliefs and practices developed and are still developing. We will explore a wide variety of sources to understand the many ways in which Buddhists speak about the Buddha, what he and his followers say about karma and rebirth, the practice of meditation and the pursuit of enlightenment. We will also examine the views of contemporary Buddhist teachers and on the challenges Buddhism faces in the modern world.

RELB 2559 Religions of Korea 
Groner, Paul S
This is a new course taught by Paul Groner with substantial help from a visiting Korean scholar, Hyekyung (Lucy) Jee. Korea has been influenced by religious traditions from China, Japan and the west; at the same time, it has developed its own interpretations of various religious traditions. This course focuses on four traditions in modern Korea that both cooperate and conflict with each other: Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. There are no prerequisites for the course, though previous courses in religious studies or the history of East Asia are useful.

RELB 2770 Daoism 
Hudson II, William Clarke
While early classics of Daoist wisdom are well-known nowadays, the Daoist religion--with its celestial gods and disease demons, communal rituals and private meditations--is relatively little-known. This course will cover the whole spectrum of Daoism in China, including early classics, religious history, practices, ideas, and ways of life. Through readings, lectures, discussions, and writing assignments, students will gain a general understanding of this ancient and vital tradition.

RELB 3408 Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy 
Campbell, John R.B.

RELB 5250 Seminar in Japanese Buddhism 
Groner, Paul S
This course is a survey of issues in the study of Shinto and Japanese Buddhism, as well as their roles in Japanese culture and society. Among the topics discussed are syncretism between Buddhism and Shinto, the relationship between folk religion and the monastic traditions, the emergence of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan, the development of uniquely Japanese forms of Zen and Pure Land, the emergence of Nichiren Buddhism, the use of Shinto as a nationalistic ideology, and position of Buddhism in a modern society. A basic knowledge of Buddhism or Japanese history (at least one course) is very useful for understanding the course.

RELB 5430 Sanskrit Religious Texts 
Lang, Karen C

RELB 5470 Literary Tibetan V 
Weinberger, Steven Neal
This is part of the two-year sequence of literary Tibetan courses that cover 16 genres of Tibetan literature. This semester we will read Tibetan poetry, meditation, and ritual literature, with selections from four genres:
1. Songs of Spiritual Experience (mgur): Songs of Kelden Gyatso
2. Ornate poetry (snyan sngag): tba
3. Meditation: tba, but perhaps a Dunhuang tantric ritual text
4. Meditation: tba, but perhaps a Bonpo completion-stage (dzokrim) text.

RELB 5520 Seminar in Daoism 
Hudson II, William Clarke
Topics on the history, scripture, thought, and practice of religious Daoism, with an emphasis on the formative period (2nd-10th c.).

RELB 5559 Buddhist Digital Humanities 
Schaeffer, Kurtis R

RELB 5559 Tibetan Buddhist Lit History 
Schaeffer, Kurtis R

RELB 5800 Literary Tibetan VII 
Weinberger, Steven Neal
See RELB 5470

RELB 8230 Adv Literary & Spoken Tibetan 
Germano, David F

Christianity

RELC 1050 Intro Christian Tradition 
Cooper, Valerie C
This course will explore Christianity in its modern and historical contexts, combining an examination of current scholarship, worship and praxis. Because one course could not begin to exhaust the wide diversity present in Christianity, we will instead focus on several smaller questions over the course of the semester. The first half of the course will ask the question, “Who was Jesus?” We will consider some of the historical, textual, sociological, theological, and archaeological evidence surrounding his life and the subsequent Jesus Movement which developed into early Christianity. Efforts will be made to place Jesus’ life in the context of Jewish popular movements of his time. The second half of the course will ask the question, “What is the church?” and consider the development of the Christian church from the time of Constantine onward. This discussion of Christian worship will be accented by students’ field visits to churches in the Albemarle County area. Course materials will include those dealing with the development of a few specific denominations, as well as larger subsets of Christianity such as Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. Although Christian traditions worldwide will be addressed, the main emphasis of the second half of the course will be modern American Christianity.

RELC 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien A
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELC 2050 Rise of Christianity 
Shuve, Karl Evan
How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents.

Gree 2230 New Testament Greek
Kovacs, Judith
The Department calls attention to this course offered through the Classics Department, which can be counted towards the major in Religious Studies: This intermediate course aims to solidify knowledge of Greek grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and to give practice in reading and translating texts from the New Testament gospels (especially Luke and John). It also presents basic principles of historical study of the gospels in their first century context. The course presupposes two semesters' study of ancient Greek (classical or Koine) or the equivalent.

RELC 2360 Elements of Christian Thought 
Jones, Paul Dafydd
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought. It examines the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas. Authors considered include Anselm of Canterbury, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Elizabeth Johnson, and many others. The course is suitable for those seeking an academic introduction to the study of Christian thought and for those wishing to deepen their understanding of this religious tradition. It can fulfill the second writing requirement. No previous knowledge of Christian thought is required.

RELC 2559 Kingdom of God in America 
Marsh Jr.,Charles Robert
The course examines the influence of theological ideas on social movements in twentieth and twenty-first century America, and it clusters around such basic questions as: How do ideas about God shape the way communities and individuals engage the social order?  What role do nineteenth century European and American Protestant theologies play in informing the American search for "beloved community"?  What are the social consequences of religious beliefs?  Our primary historical focus is the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s, but we will also explore the student movements of the late 1960's and a variety of faith-based social movements of recent decades.  Resources include theological books, novels, social criticism and historical documents, film and music, and guest lectures by former activists and participants.  Requirements:  two pages (5-7 pages in length), two exams, weekly reading summaries, and participation in discussion sections.

RELC 3040 Paul: Letters and Theology 
Gamble,Harry Y

RELC 3056 In Defense of Sin 
Portmann, John Edward
Exploration of transgression in Judaism and Christianity with a focus on the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins. Reflection on who determines what is sinful and why. Close reading of texts questioning acts and attitudes long considered sinful with critical attention to the persuasiveness of religious rules. Does religious practice remain focused on pleasing God, or does it now principally fulfill familial and ethnic demands? Has religious piety perhaps become an indeterminate quest with largely personal goals? What does sin have to do with the modern world?

RELC 3090 Israelite Prophecy 
Goering,Gregory Wayne Schmidt
This course examines the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). Each primary text will be considered in its historical, cultural, and political contexts. In addition, the course analyzes Israelite prophecy in light of similar phenomena in the neighboring cultures of the ancient Near East and with regards to modern anthropological studies of shamanism. The end of the course considers the transformation of prophecy in the Second Temple period and examines the emergence of apocalypticism. No prerequisite required, but RELJ/RELC 1210 recommended  

RELC 3315 Jefferson and Religion 
Gamble, Harry Y
This course will examine several inter-related topics, including the religious formation and outlook of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson’s conception of the proper relation of religion and the civil power, Jefferson’s conception of a university (most particularly the University he founded) as a secular institution, and the role of religion at the founding and during the subsequent history of the University of Virginia up to the present. Required reading will include all or parts of: Edwin Gaustad, Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson; G. W. Sheldon and D. Dreisbach, eds., Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson’s Virginia;, W. Hudson, The English Deists: Studies in the Early Enlightenment; K. Walters, The American Deists: Voices of Reason and Dissent in the Early Republic; Thomas Jefferson: Writings (Library of America); F. Rudolph, The American College and University: A History; Minutes of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors; and a variety of other sources and studies.

RELC 3447 History of Christian Ethics 
Mohrmann, Margaret Elizabeth
This course surveys the development of Christian ethical thought and teaching from its beginnings through the Reformation era. Major ethical themes are traced through the centuries, as the church’s scripture, evolving doctrine, and emerging tradition interact— in thought, word, and deed—with secular society, politics, and philosophy. Readings are taken mostly from primary texts, such as the Bible and the writings of selected Christian thinkers, but also include an online text that provides historical and theological background ethical issues in historical context, and selected secondary works that examine particular ethical issues in historical context. Class sessions are a combination of lecture and discussion.

RELC 3690 Gospel of John 
Kovacs, Judith
A close reading of the Gospel of John, this course first locates the Gospel in its first century context, considering literary, historical, and theological questions, and then surveys the book’s later influence. Questions raised include: What is distinctive about the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospel of John in comparison with the synoptic gospels? How does the Gospel use irony, misunderstanding, and other literary techniques to draw out the meaning of Jesus’ teachings and actions? What clues are there in the text for imagining the specific historical situation in which the Gospel was written? What are the reasons for, and implications of, its depiction of "the Jews"? The class will conclude with an examination of the Gospel’s reception history, including fictional lives of the author, the important role the Gospel played in the development of the church’s teaching about Jesus, and its influence on visual art, poetry, music, and film.

RELC 3695 Sex and Creation in Christianity
Guroian,Vigen
In this course we will ask and examine such questions as: What is the origin of human sexuality and what are its purposes? What do our sexual identities as male and female have to do with the Christian doctrines of Creation, the imago Dei (image of God), original sin, and salvation? Are male and female complementary or incidental? What value does the Christian faith give to the body? How should we view the body with respect to our sexuality? Is there gender or sexuality in the Kingdom of God? What meaning is there in sexual love? Why marriage? Why singleness? Where in our lives does sex belong? Our inquiry will include readings that range from the Bible and early Christian writers to contemporary theologians.

RELC 3890 Christianity in Africa 
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia Heyden
This course offers an historical and topical survey of Christianity in Africa from its roots in Egypt and the Maghreb in the 2nd c. CE, to contemporary times when nearly half the continent's population claims adherence to the faith. Our historical overview will include the flowering of medieval Ethiopian Christianity, 16th- and 17th- century Kongolese Christianity, European missions during the colonial period, the subsequent growth of independent churches, the emergence of African Christian theology, and recent examples of charismatic and Pentecostal ‘mega-churches’.  We will consider the relationship between colonialism and evangelism; assess efforts in translation and inculturation of the gospel; reflect on the role of healing, prophesy and spirit-possession in conversion, and explore a variety of ways of understanding religious change across the continent. We will attempt to position Christian movements within the wider context of African religious history, and to understand Africa's place in the larger course of Christian history.

RELC 5006 Augustine's City of God 
Mathewes, Charles T
Combining lecture and discussion, this class will read, slowly, the entire City of God, in an attempt to understand that work's argument, paying attention to the various audiences to which it was addressed, and (so far as we can tell) Augustine's larger overall theology, politics, and vision of history.

RELC 5130 Being and God 
Hart ,Kevin John
This seminar takes contemplation in the Christian tradition as its focus. Accordingly, we shall begin by examining what Plato and Aristotle say about *theoria* and then see how the first Christians took up these two quite different understandings. Does *theoria* touch on something fundamental to Christianity or does it add something superfluous to it? How does *theoria* (and, in the West, contemplatio) influence Christian understandings of the Hebrew Bible? These questions will lead us to consider the elaborate development of contemplatio in the Medieval Latin West, especially in the Victorines and Aquinas. Yet the adventures of the gaze do not stop there, and we shall also consider the partial revival of contemplation in phenomenology and in analytic philosophy of religion. What is the relation, if any, between *theoria* and “mysticism”? More generally, should one speak of *theoria* in the register of “experience”? These are among the questions we shall discuss.

RELC 5559 Foundations of Western Christianity 
Shuve,Karl Evan
Although Christianity is often treated as a "Western" religion, it is helpful to remember that it began as a religion rooted in the Eastern Mediterranean, which reached Asia long before many places in Europe. In this course, we will examine the making of a distinctly Western form of Christianity, which came to provide the intellectual and cultural foundation of European society. Through a carefulreading of primary sources (as well as a consideration of some artistic, architectural and epigraphic evidence), we will study the theological, philosophical, ritual and cultural innovations of Christians in the period 350-600 AD. All sources will be assigned in English translation, but there will be an optional language component, which will give interested students the ability to read sources in Latin and/or Greek.

RELC 5795 The Icon in Orthodox Christianity 
Guroian,Vigen

RELC 5980 Theology of Karl Barth 
Jones,Paul Dafydd
A close examination of the thought of Karl Barth -- arguably the most important European Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. While we will deal with some of Barth’s early work -- specifically, the second edition of *Epistle to the Romans* -- our primary focus will be the mighty *Church Dogmatics*. Topics considered include the role of the Bible in theological reflection, theological epistemology, the doctrine of God, election, human being and human agency, Christology and atonement, sin and evil, and the nature of Christian community. This course is primarily intended for graduate students with interests in Christian theology, western philosophy of religion, theological ethics, and biblical exegesis. Advanced undergraduates who wish to enroll must have significant background in the academic study of Christian thought and should contact the instructor before signing up on SIS.

General Religion

RELG 1010 Intro Western Religious Trads 
Warren, Heather A
An historical survey of the origins and development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Subjects include the origins of monotheism, the rise of Israel as a nation, early Christianity, the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, Christianity during the Enlightenment, and the influence of modern science and industrialism on 19th and 20th century religious life. Requirements: Weekly readings, two tests and a final

RELG 1040 Intro Eastern Religious Trads 
Nemec, John William
This course serves as a general introduction to Asian Religions, in particular Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese religions. By emphasizing the reading of primary texts in translation, we will explore the major ideas and practices of these traditions, making special note of the cultural, historical, political and material contexts in which they were conceived and expressed. There are no prerequisites for students who wish to take this course.

RELG 2475 God 
Ochs Peter W
An introduction to the personality of God as portrayed in the sacred literatures, histories, and practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What are the major personality traits of God as displayed in the three Abrahamic scriptures? In discussions, journals and writing assignments, students will be offered opportunities to comment on how these literatures portray the attributes of God and to explore various implications and wonderments.

RELG 2630 Business Ethics and Society 
TBA
This course will be taught by advanced graduate students. 
This course aims to acquaint students with a variety of philosophical and religious frameworks for interpreting and evaluating human activity in the marketplace. The first half of the semester will focus on Adam Smith, Max Weber, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Ayn Rand. The second half of the semester will examine some contemporary issues within the marketplace that deserve additional scrutiny, such as private property, freedom of contract, and the distribution of goods. In addition, we will attend to specific issues in corporate ethics. Requirements will include both a midterm and final exam, as well as writing requirements to be determined.

RELG 2650 Theology, Ethics and Medicine 
Childress, James F
An analysis of the ethical principles that should undergird decisions in science, medicine, and health care. The lectures readings, and discussions will focus on ethical principles developed within different ethical traditions (such as Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, and Humanism) and on their implications for cases in abortion, death and dying, research involving human subjects, artificial reproduction, genetic engineering, cloning, and allocating resources. Several films, videotapes, and cases will be used. Requirements: Midterm, final examination, 3 brief papers (2 pages) and participation in discussion.

RELG 2700 Festivals of the Americas 
Schmidt, Jalane Dawn
By reading case studies of various religious festivals in locations throughout the Caribbean and South, Central and North America, as well as theoretical literature drawn from social anthropology and religious studies, students will become familiar with significant features of contemporary religious life in the Americas, as well as with scholarly accounts of religious and cultural change. Students will become more critical readers of ethnographic and historical sources, as well as theories from the Study of Religion (Jonathan Z. Smith, Ronald Grimes, Lawrence Sullivan), and will increase their ability to theorize about ritual, festivity, sacred time, ritual space and ethnicity.

RELG 3200 Martin, Malcom, and America 
Hadley, Mark Andrew
An intensive examination of African-American social criticism centered upon, but not limited to, the life and thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. We will come to grips with the American legacy of racial hatred and oppression systematized in the institutions of antebellum chattel slavery and post-bellum racial segregation and analyze the array of critical responses to, and social struggles against, this legacy. We will pay particular attention to the religious dimensions of these various types of social criticism.

RELG 3360 Religions in the New World 
Schmidt, Jalane Dawn
A history course which examines Latin American and Caribbean religions from the 1400s through the 1830s. We will proceed topically (in rough chronological order), studying religious encounters during the pre-Columbian era, the Spanish conquest and colonial eras, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Latin American independence (1820s), and slave emancipation in the anglophone Caribbean (1830s). The class will focus primarily upon the signature religious episodes, devotions, personalities and institutions of indigenous, African, Afro-creole, and mestizo communities, since these "gente de color" constituted the majority population in the New World during this historical epoch. We will consider issues of historiography?specifically, the problem of interpreting (sometimes hostile) extant archival sources and the use of such primary material in the writing of secondary literature. Students will develop their abilities to evaluate primary sources (in translation), and to identify the interpretive choices which scholars make in the crafting of historical narratives.

RELG 3559 Global Ethics and Climate Change 
Jenkins, Willis
This seminar focuses on the ethics of climate change as it considers broader attempts to develop moral responsibilities across national, cultural, and religious borders

RELG 3600 Religion and Modern Theatre 
Bouchard, Larry D

RELG 3780 Faulkner and the Bible 
Wilson, William M

RELG 3800 African American Rel History 
Cooper, Valerie C

RELG 3950 Evil in Modernity: Banal, Demonic 
Mathewes, Charles T
Modernity is riddled by evil. Its history is in large part a chronicle of wickedness and savagery; and many of its most powerful thinkers have struggled to grasp the truth about evil. Some argue that the great lesson of modernity is its failure to come to terms with evil, a failure that reveals the modern world to be morally and spiritually bankrupt. This class will investigate the attempts of various modern thinkers to understand evil, in order both to gain a deeper purchase on evil's manifestations, character, and effects, and to understand the several challenges that evil presents to the modern world's self-understanding. We will read novels, study texts in theology, history, philosophy, political theory, and psychology, and view several films, all in the service of our basic investigation into the inner history both of modern thought about evil, and of evil in modernity, in the hopes of understanding some of the implications of that history for the future.

RELG 4023 Bioethics Internship Seminar 
Mohrmann, Margaret Elizabeth
This course is designed to provide students with experience in discerning and analyzing ethical issues as they arise in particular clinical settings. Each student spends approximately four hours each week in a clinic, hospital unit, or other health care- related venue (the same one throughout the semester), under the mentorship of a health care professional engaged in that setting. Seminar time focuses primarily on student experiences and observations in their placements, plus discussion of readings that explore selected ethical issues common to clinical medicine and the role of the ethicist/observer. During the second half of the semester, each student presents for class critique an analysis of an ethical issue or question that arises in his or her setting, and that will form the basis of the student's final paper for the class. Students must have some background knowledge of bioethics' methods and common questions. Admittance to the course is by application only; for details, see the Undergraduate Bioethics Program Website at https://bioethics.as.virginia.edu/internships.

RELG 4220 Amer Religious Autobiography 
Warren, Heather A
A multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms, among them Thomas Merton's The Sign of Jonas; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Charles Colson's Born Again; and Kathleen Norris' Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Fulfills the majors seminar requirement. Prerequisites: Courses in religious studies, American history, or American literature. Requirements: weekly short autobiographical papers (2pp.), 1 paper 8-12 pages, and an autobiography (20 pp.)

RELG 4500 Death and the Afterlife 
Ray, Benjamin C
The goal of this seminar is to develop an informed and critical perspective on the study of religion through the study of myths, rituals, theology, medical ethics, and fictional literature concerning death and afterlife in a variety of religious traditions. The seminar does not intend to make the case for any single definition of religion or to take a particular theological perspective on death, but rather to have participants develop critical skills necessary for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a number of scholarly approaches to the subject. Requirements: Six short papers, approximately one every other week. No mid-term and no final exam.

RELG 4500 Suffering 
Portmann, John Edward
Moral assessment of bodies in pain and spirits in turmoil. Philosophical, theological, psychiatric, biomedical, psychoanalytic, literary, biographical, sociological, operatic, and artistic exploration of suffering. Analysis of ongoing debate over the meaning of suffering. Study of religion as both cure for, and source of, human suffering. Particular attention to the Crucifixion as a cultural paradigm of suffering and social wellspring of anti-Semitism, as exemplified by criticism of actor Mel Gibson’s controversial film of 2004 The Passion of the Christ.

This “capstone” seminar will help you assess what contribution the study of religion can make to the humanities:a deeper understanding of what suffering is and what our chances are for eliminating or reducing it. Further, this seminar will investigate how scholars of religion and ordinary believers rely on discoveries from other fields of inquiry, the insights of other thinkers who have pondered what it is to be human.

RELG 5541 Just War 
Childress, James F
This seminar will examine just-war, pacifist, and holy-war attitudes toward war, mainly in the context of Christian theology and modern philosophical discussions. After a brief exploration of the moral reality of war, the seminar will examine the evolution of Christian attitudes toward war, from the early Church through the Reformation, with particular attention to how the Church and its theologians handled New Testament directives that at a minimum created tensions in efforts to justify war as well as Christian participation in war. The thought of selected twentiethand twenty-firstcentury theologians will be examined. These include Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, Karl Barth, Paul Ramsey, the U.S. Catholic Bishops, James Turner Johnson, Oliver O'Donovan, John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas, among others. In addition, the seminar will pay careful attention to Michael Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars. In the examination of just-war thought, the seminar will attend to both the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello and contemporary debates about preventive and pre-emptive wars, weapons of mass destruction, and torture.

RELG 5559 Postliberal Theologies : Christian and Jewish
Ochs, Peter W
A study of postliberal Christian theologies, including Hans Frei, George Lindbeck, Robert Jenson, Stanley Hauerwas and a first and now second generation of their students. These theologians believe that postmodern criticisms of modern rationalism do not rule out recovering scripture and theological commentary as resources for knowing the world and our place in it. Thus, they revisit Christology and Trinitarian theology as sources of non-dogmatic and non-foundationalist Christian knowledge. Surprisingly, their “return to Christology” leads them also to re-value Judaism as an enduring source of knowledge. About 1/3 of the course will examine Jewish postliberal responses to these Christian theologians along with the beginnings of a Muslim response.

RELG 5630 Sem Study of Religion & Lit 
Bouchard, Larry D

RELG 5835 Ethnography and the Study of Religions 
Ochs, Vanessa L

RELG 7360 Study of Religion 
Ray, Benjamin C
Given the interdisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for entering graduate students to gain a basic grounding in the theoretical and methodological studies in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the basic nineteenth and twentieth century approaches, as well as some contemporary methods. The course will facilitate critical engagement with classic concepts in the study of religion by applying them to examples of religious belief and practice.

RELG 8350 Proseminar in SIP 
Ochs, Peter W

RELG 8400 Historiography Amer Religion 
Hedstrom, Matthew Sigurd
This course introduces graduate students to the study of American religious history through a careful analysis of important recent and classic works in the field. It is designed to accommodate graduate students whose primary work is in religious history, aswell as students from a variety of fields—history, theology, religious studies, politics, literature, anthropology, and others—who might benefit from a thorough grounding in the religious history of the United States. In this way,the course lays the foundation for further advanced study in American religious history and a variety of allied fields.

Our focus throughout will be on the “state of the art”—understood broadly to include recent trends and debates in both subject and method. We will read works by emerging and established practitioners in the field to assess the current shape of the field, and the way religious history dialogues with wider conversations in both religious studies and history. We will examine the assigned texts from multiple angles, including their utility for us as models of scholarship.

In addition to the primary focus on method—a focus that will take us into social history ,political history, labor history, and cultural history—the course also covers a variety of religious traditions and subjects, seeking to balance an appreciation of diversity with the search for unifying themes. The content of the readings covers the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Hinduism

RELH 2559 Theory and Practice of Yoga 
Campbell, John R.B.

RELH  3104  The Jain Tradition  
Lang, Karen C
This course examines the religious beliefs and practices of the Jains in India. Beginning with the teachings of Lord Mahavira and basic doctrines of Jainism, the course will consider the historical foundations of the Jain tradition through philosophical and doctrinal texts, and the rich Jain narrative tradition.  The second half of the course will focus more on contemporary Jain life and religious practice, both monastic and lay, through examination of the religious lives of ascetics and Jain laity, ritual practices of temple worship and pilgrimage, as well as modern sectarian movements within the tradition and the emerging Jain interest in environmentalism.

RELH 5559 Ritual and Renunciation
Nemec, John William
This course will examine the relationship of two central religious institutions of premodern South Asia--ritual and renunciation--exploring their interrelations in classical Hinduism. Readings will be drawn from major scholarly works that treat these subjects, as well as from primary sources in translation. Students are expected to have a strong background in Hinduism and/or Indian religions as a prerequisite for enrolling in this course.

Islam

RELI 2070 Classical Islam 
Al-Rahim, Ahmed
This course is intended to trace the history and development of the religion of Islam and the Muslim world in the classical period, roughly dating from the 7th to 13th centuries C.E. We will examine through readings of the primary (in translation) and relevant secondary sources: (1) the biography of Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, and the history of his successors, the caliphs, and Islamic dynasties; (2) the history and themes of the Koran, Islam’s scripture, and its exegesis; (3) the hadith, or the sayings attributed to Muhammad, his companions, and his progeny, and the development of Islamic schools of law; (4) the history of Islamic creeds, theology, and philosophy; (5) sectarian history, the Sunni and Shi’a chasm, and Sufism, or Islamic mysticism; and (6) the daily life and rituals of medieval Muslims and their relations with the “People of the Book,” i.e., Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians.

RELI 5415 Classical Islamic Sources 
Al-Rahim ,Ahmed

Judaism

RELJ 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien A
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELJ 1410 Elementary Classical Hebrew I 
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien A
This course and its sequel (RELJ 1420) introduce students to the basics of classical (biblical) Hebrew vocabulary and grammar. After completing the two semester sequence in grammar and syntax, students will have mastered the basic tools required to read prose passages from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the original language.

RELJ 2061 Judaism, Modernity, Secularism 
Biemann, Asher D
This course develops the history and intellectual underpinnings of the Jewish experience of modernity and secularization. We will explore the variety of Jewish responses and adjustments to the modern world and their implications for present day Judaism in its many forms.

RELJ 2410 Intermed Classical Hebrew I 
Goering,Gregory Wayne Schmidt
In this course, which continues and builds upon HEBR/RELJ 1420, students will develop facility in the reading, comprehension, and translation of biblical Hebrew. Students will review basic grammar, learn to analyze syntax, and build their working vocabulary. As a secondary objective of the course, students will learn to interpret biblical prose. By the end of the course, students will be able to read and translate moderately difficult prose passages from Hebrew to English.

RELJ 2590 Israeli History and Society 
Shelleg,Assaf

RELJ 3090 Israelite Prophecy 
Goering,Gregory Wayne Schmidt
In this course, we will examine the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). We will locate each primary text in its historical, cultural, and political contexts, compare Israelite prophecy to similar phenomena in the neighboring cultures of the ancient Near East, and consider modern anthropological studies of shamanism. At the end of the course, we will examine the transformation of prophecy in the Second Temple period and the emergence of apocalypticism.

RELJ 3170 Modern Jewish Thought 
Biemann, Asher
This course is a critical survey of the most significant Jewish responses to the experience of the modern era. Beginning with Spinoza's political and hermeneutic thought, we will explore how Jewish thinkers met the social, cultural, and religious challenges of modernity and, in turn, influenced the transformation of modern Jewry. Jewish Thought is understood in a broader sense to include philosophers, religious reformers, and political leaders. Changing and conflicting perspectives on tradition, education, culture, and religion will be in the center of our interest.

RELJ 3350 Judaism and Ethics 
Alexander,Elizabeth S
An exploration of ethical thinking using the resources of the Jewish tradition.  Among the topics to be explored are 1) dietary laws (curbing the human desire for meat, recognizing that God gives life); 2) death penalty (competing concerns:  only God gives and takes life vs. certain crimes violate God); 3) animal rights (what is the relative value of human life vs. animal life); 4) human responsibility regarding the environment;  5) charity and obligations to the poor (social justice);  6) etiquette (with food, in the bathroom, socializing the self); 7) social obligation to peers; and 8) gender

RELJ 3559 Jewish Weddings 
Ochs, Vanessa L
As we study the ritual of the Jewish wedding ceremony, from antiquity to the present day, we will see how notions about marriage, gender relations, and the normative family are displayed and challenged. In particular, we will be looking at innovations in the contemporary Jewish weddings of traditional, liberal, and same-sex-couples.

RELJ 3590 Music in the Holocaust 
Shelleg, Assaf
Designed for both music and non-music majors, this course deals with the embedment of Jewish musical markers and stereotypes in the European imagination, in particular Germany´s. Studying nineteenth and twentieth century "Jewish music libels” we will attempt to understand the German perceptions of nationalism and its cultural repercussions. Having established this background, the second part of this course will discuss the evolvement of Nazi cultural policies in the 1930s and their effect on musical activities in the Third Reich, including music in the ghettos. The last segment of the class will deal with commemoration music and the aesthetics of memory postmodern works.

RELJ 5065 History, Counter-History, Meta-History  
Biemann, Asher

RELJ 5105 Religion and Culture of the Rabbis 
Alexander, Elizabeth S
An examination of religion and culture of the rabbinic movement (c. 70-600 CE) in the social and cultural contexts of Greco-Roman antiquity.  Among the issues to be examined: 1) rituals and institutions of the rabbis, 2) social organization within the rabbinic movement and 3) rabbinic engagement with other sectors of Jewish and non-Jewish society.

RELS: Special Topics

RELS 8995 Research Selected Topics
Instructor: Student's choice

Systematic reading in a select topic under detailed supervision. Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding his course.

RELS 8998 Non Topical Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For master's research, taken under the supervision of a thesis director. Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9998 Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected.

Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9999 Non-Topical Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For dissertation research, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.

Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

African Religions

RELA 2750 African Religions  
Hoehler-Fatton,Cynthia
An introductory survey of African religions. The course concentrates on African indigenous religions, but Islam and Christianity are also discussed. Topics include African mythologies and cosmologies, as well as rituals, artistic traditions and spiritualities. We consider the colonial impact on African religious cultures and the dynamics of ongoing religious change in the sub-Sahara.

RELA 3559 New Course: Religious Themes in African Literature and Film
Hoehler-Fatton,Cynthia
An exploration of the ways in which religious concepts, practices and issues are addressed in African literature and film.  Literary genres include novels, short stories and poetry; Cinematographic genres include commercial "Nollywood" movies, as well as "Christian video films"   We will examine how various directors and authors interweave aspects of Muslim, Christian and/or traditional religious cultures into the stories they tell.

Buddhism

RELB 2100 Buddhism  
 Lang,Karen C
This course is an introduction to Buddhism, beginning with its origins in India, its spread throughout Asia to the West. The course will examine the historical and cultural contexts in which Buddhist beliefs and practices developed and are still developing. We will explore a wide variety of sources to understand the many ways in which Buddhists speak about the Buddha, what he and his followers say about karma and rebirth, the practice of meditation and the pursuit of enlightenment. We will also examine the views of contemporary Buddhist teachers and on the challenges Buddhism faces in the modern world.

RELB 2770 Daoism  
Hudson II,William Clarke
While early classics of Daoist wisdom are well-known nowadays, the Daoist religion--with its celestial gods and disease demons, communal rituals and private meditations--is relatively little-known. This course will cover the whole spectrum of Daoism in China, including early classics, religious history, practices, ideas, and ways of life. Through readings, lectures, discussions, and writing assignments, students will gain a general understanding of this ancient and vital tradition.

RELB 3190 Buddhist Nirvana  
Lang,Karen C
This seminar will examine what Buddhists mean when they talk about Nirvana. We'll begin with how the concept of Nirvana develops in the culture in which Sakyamuni Buddha lived and taught, explore how different forms of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Tibet, China, Japan, and in the west developed new ideas about what Nirvana is and how it can be experienced. We'll read classic sutras on the topic, as well as books and essays by Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, other contemporary Zen masters, and western Buddhist pratitioners and scholars.

RELB 3408 Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy  
Campbell,John R.B.
 

RELB 5470 Literary Tibetan V  
TBA

RELB 5520 Seminar in Daoism  
Hudson II,William Clarke
Topics on the history, scripture, thought, and practice of religious Daoism, with an emphasis on the formative period (2nd-10th c.).

RELB 5559 New Course: Buddhist Meditation
Schaeffer,Kurtis R
In this seminar we will survey recent scholarly research on the history, literature, and practices of Buddhist meditation in Asia, with a focus on Tibet. We will read traditional works on meditation, studies of meditation, as well as books and articles on a host of related issues, including consciousness, self, and experience.

RELB 5800 Literary Tibetan VII  
TBA

RELB 8230 Adv Literary & Spoken Tibetan  
Germano,David F

RELB 8559 Advanced Pali
Karen Lang
Reading course in Pali suttas

Christianity

RELC 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament  
Halvorson-Taylor,Martien A
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob,  Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in  the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex  process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELC 2050 Rise of Christianity  
Shuve,Karl Evan
How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents.

RELC 2215 Mormonism and American Culture  
Flake,Kathleen
An introduction to who the Mormons are, their beliefs and religious practices, this seminar will explore issues raised by Mormonism’s move toward the American mainstream while retaining its religious identity and cultural distinctiveness.

RELC 2360 Elements of Christian Thought  
Jones,Paul Dafydd
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought, examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas. Authors considered include Anselm of Canterbury, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Elizabeth Johnson, and many others. The course is suitable for those seeking an academic introduction to Christian theology and those wishing to deepen their understanding of this religious tradition. No previous knowledge of Christian thought is required.

RELC 2401 Hist of American Catholicism  
Fogarty,Gerald P
Catholicism in the United States has often been in a dilemma. On the one hand, its spiritual loyalty to Rome and its growth through immigration made it appear "foreign" to most Americans. On the other, the American Catholic support for religious liberty drew suspicion from Rome. In 1960, the election of John Kennedy seemed to signal the acceptance of Catholics as Americans. In 1965, the Second Vatican Council seemed to ratify what had long been a cherished American Catholic tradition. To understand the significance of these events of the 1960s, the course will treat the following themes: the early Spanish and French settlements, the beginning of English-speaking Catholicism in Maryland, with its espousal of religious liberty, the establishment of the hierarchy under John Carroll and its early development of a strong sense of episcopal collegiality, immigration and nativism, American Catholic support of religious liberty and conflict with the Vatican at the end of the 19th century, and the American Catholic contribution to Vatican II (1962-1965). The course will conclude with an analysis of social, political, and theological developments in the American Catholic Church since the end of the council. Course requirements: 1) a mid-term and final exam; 2) an analysis of an historical document selected from collections on reserve.

RELC 3030 Jesus and the Gospels (formerly known as the Historical Jesus)
Janet Spittler
This course focuses on Jesus of Nazareth as an historical figure, that is, as he is accessible to the historian by means of historical methods.  Our most important – though not our only – ancient sources of information on Jesus are the four canonical Gospels, and so much of the course will involve reading and attempting to understand these texts.  To that end, we will discuss the special problems involved in the interpretation of ancient texts, as well as the various methods used by contemporary scholars in response to these problems.  We will also discuss the complex relationship of literary works and historical persons they depict.  Ultimately, we will attempt to reconstruct at least the broad outlines of Jesus’ activity and teachings, while also attempting to define the limits of our sources.

RELC 3043 Themes in Eastern Orthodoxy  
Guroian,Vigen
Rather than a broad historical overview of Orthodox Christianity, this course is an introduction to the thematic core of the Orthodox Christian tradition. We will first review the major elements of the Orthodox faith that developed over the course of the Byzantine era. Then we will examine some themes to which Orthodox theologians have given considerable thought. These include: scripture and tradition, liturgy and sacrament, the meaning and role of icons, faith and spirituality, the nature of the church, Christian ecumenism, and Christianity and culture.

RELC 3045 History of Bible  
Gamble,Harry Y
This course is not being offered. See RELC 3559 for replacement.

RELC 3056 In Defense of Sin  
Portmann,John Edward
Exploration of transgression in Judaism and Christianity with a focus on the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins.  Reflection on who determines what is sinful and why.  Close reading of texts challenging the wrongfulness of acts and attitudes long considered sinful, with critical attention to the persuasiveness of religious rules. 

Does religious practice remain focused on pleasing God, or does it now principally fulfill familial / ethnic obligation?  Or has it perhaps become simply a personal quest with indeterminate goals?  What does sin have to do with the modern world? 

COURSE OBJECTIVES: 

• to hone critical thinking skills
• to learn to manage ideas
• to appreciate intellectually the difficulty of following rules
• to clarify the limits of morality
• to articulate what the world loses by leaving sin behind

RELC 3447 History of Christian Ethics  
Mohrmann,Margaret
This course surveys the development of Christian ethical thought and teaching from its beginnings through the Reformation era. Major ethical themes are traced through the centuries, as the church’s scripture, evolving doctrine, and emerging tradition interact— in thought, word, and deed—with secular society, politics, and philosophy. Readings are taken mostly from primary texts, such as the Bible and the writings of selected Christian thinkers, but also include an online text that provides historical and theological background ethical issues in historical context, and selected secondary works that examine particular ethical issues in historical context. Class sessions are a combination of lecture and discussion.

RELC 3559  Apocryphal Christian Literature
Janet Spittler
This course offers a survey of “apocryphal” Christian literature of the second to fourth centuries CE, that is, gospels, acts, apocalypses and letters that were not included in the New Testament.  Some of these texts seem to have been intended to supplement the canonical literature; others represent substantially different, often contrary, views.  We will read a selection of texts, including the Gospel of Thomas, the Infancy Gospel of James, the Gospel of Judas, the Acts of John, the Apocalypse of Paul, the correspondence of Paul and Seneca, and the Acts of Andrew and Matthias in the City of the Cannibals.  Our close reading of these highly interesting, highly entertaining primary sources (in English translation) will reveal the remarkable diversity of early Christianities.  

RELC 5077 Pius XII, Hitler the US &WW II  
Fogarty,Gerald P
Since Rolf Hochhuth’s play, “The Deputy” was first performed in Germany in 1963, controversy has swirled around Pius XII, the wartime pope.  Hochhuth [portrayed the pope as anti-Semitic--and hence silent in regard to the Holocaust--and pro-Hitler, partly out of fear of communism.  Since then the pope and the Vatican have had defenders and attackers.  The literature on both sides of the question has been more heated than historical.  The course will investigate that controversy through the lens of American relations with the Vatican. After general reading on both sides of the question of the role of the pope, including several recent books that rely on the recently opened Vatican Archives up to 1939, the students will choose a topic in consultation with the professor on which to write a major paper. Course requirements: 1) attendance at class and discussion; 2) short weekly papers on the readings: and 3) a major paper of 20 pages on a topic approved by the professor.

RELC 5158 History of Christian Ethics  
Mohrmann,Margaret
This course is designed to provide a solid understanding of the historical roots, from the New Testament period to the Reformation, of Christian ethics, experience in working with historical source materials, and familiarity with some important interpreters of this history. In seminar discussions, we will primarily explore primary materials, but also consider the work of interpreters such as Ernst Troeltsch and Peter Brown.

RELC 5685 Orthodoxy and Heresy  
Shuve,Karl Evan
This seminar traces the making of Christian 'orthodoxy¿ in Late Antiquity. Our focus will be debates concerning the doctrines of God and Christ, which we will place in their historical, philosophical and exegetical contexts. Our study is informed by the move in modern scholarship towards anti-essentialist notions of orthodoxy and heresy, and so we will be attentive to the myriad ways in which early Christians sought to authorize their own views.

RELC 5830 Love & Justice Christian Ethic  
Childress,James F
An examination of various conceptions of neighbor-love (agape) and justice and their relations (e.g., identity and opposition) in Protestant and some Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox literature (mainly from the 20th and early 21st centuries).  The principles of agape and justice will be considered in the context of interpretations of human nature (e.g., the locus and power of sin), theological convictions (e.g., God as creator, preserver, and redeemer), and approaches to moral reasoning.  In addition, attention will be devoted to the distinction and relations between agape and other modes of love, particularly philia and eros.  Finally, in passing, the seminar will also examine the implications of different interpretations of agape (and its relations to justice) for selected practical areas, such as friendship, forgiveness, punishment, war, and allocation of resources.

General Religion

RELG 1010 Intro Western Religious Trads  
Warren,Heather A
An historical survey of the origins and development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Subjects include the origins of monotheism, the rise of Israel as a nation, early Christianity, the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, Christianity during the Enlightenment, and the influence of modern science and industrialism on 19th and 20th century religious life. Requirements: Weekly readings, two tests and a final

RELG 2559 New Course: Theories of Religion
Hudson II,William Clarke
An introduction to classic twentieth-century theories about religion from the social sciences and the human sciences.

RELG 2630 Business Ethics and Society 
TBA
This course will be taught by advanced graduate students. 
This course aims to acquaint students with a variety of philosophical and religious frameworks for interpreting and evaluating human activity in the marketplace. The first half of the semester will focus on Adam Smith, Max Weber, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Ayn Rand. The second half of the semester will examine some contemporary issues within the marketplace that deserve additional scrutiny, such as private property, freedom of contract, and the distribution of goods. In addition, we will attend to specific issues in corporate ethics. Requirements will include both a midterm and final exam, as well as writing requirements to be determined.

RELG 2650 Theology, Ethics and Medicine  
Childress,James F
This course examines the ethical principles that commonly guide decisions in health care. It focuses on ethical principles accepted by many Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and humanistic traditions, and embedded in a liberal, pluralistic society, and it examines debates about the implications of these principles for suicide and assisted suicide; terminating life-sustaining treatment; abortion and maternal-fetal relations; artificial reproduction, including human cloning; using human subjects in research; genetic counseling, screening, and engineering; health-care reform; allocating life-saving medical resources; obtaining and distributing organs for transplantation; and public health issues surrounding AIDS, pandemic influenza, and bioterrorism. We will use numerous actual and hypothetical cases to highlight moral issues.

RELG 2700 Festivals of the Americas 
Schmidt, Jalane Dawn
By reading case studies of various religious festivals in locations throughout the Caribbean and South, Central and North America, as well as theoretical literature drawn from social anthropology and religious studies, students will become familiar with significant features of contemporary religious life in the Americas, as well as with scholarly accounts of religious and cultural change. Students will become more critical readers of ethnographic and historical sources, as well as theories from the Study of Religion (Jonathan Z. Smith, Ronald Grimes, Lawrence Sullivan), and will increase their ability to theorize about ritual, festivity, sacred time, ritual space and ethnicity.RELG 3200 Martin, Malcom, and America  
Hadley,Mark Andrew

RELG 3200 Martin, Malcolm, and America
Mark Hadley
An analysis of African-American social criticism centered upon, but not limited to, the life and thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.  We will come to grips with the American legacy of racial hatred and oppression systematized in the institutions of antebellum chattel slavery and post-bellum racial segregation and analyze the array of critical responses to and social struggles against this legacy.  We will pay particular attention to the religious dimensions of these various types of social criticism.

RELG 3360 Religions in the New World 
Schmidt, Jalane Dawn
A history course which examines Latin American and Caribbean religions from the 1400s through the 1830s. We will proceed topically (in rough chronological order), studying religious encounters during the pre-Columbian era, the Spanish conquest and colonial eras, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Latin American independence (1820s), and slave emancipation in the anglophone Caribbean (1830s). The class will focus primarily upon the signature religious episodes, devotions, personalities and institutions of indigenous, African, Afro-creole, and mestizo communities, since these "gente de color" constituted the majority population in the New World during this historical epoch. We will consider issues of historiography?specifically, the problem of interpreting (sometimes hostile) extant archival sources and the use of such primary material in the writing of secondary literature. Students will develop their abilities to evaluate primary sources (in translation), and to identify the interpretive choices which scholars make in the crafting of historical narratives.

RELG 3375/ENWR Spiritual Writing
Ochs, Vanessa L
This course concerns the  quest for meaning, purpose and direction and explores individual encounters with the sacred.  Half of the class is devoted to the study of contemporary spiritual writing from diverse religious and spiritual traditions in fiction, memoir, diaries, and creative non-fiction.The other half of the class is a writing workshop. Students will write about matters of the spirit (as they understand the term) in various genres and will share their work with classmates. This course fulfills the Second Writing Requirement.

RELG 3380 Feasting, Fasting, Faith
 Ochs,Vanessa L
Through reading, studying films and eating, we will learn how preparing food, consuming it, and abstaining from it have been made sacred and ethical  in Jewish and Christian Practices. This course will be especially relevant to people with an ardent interest in foods (foodies).

RELG 3420 First Amendment Limits  
Flake,Kathleen
Far from absolute, the liberties described in the First Amendment have always been subject to a variety of restraints by federal and local governments. This course will focus on the cultural experience of these restraints; not only how they were devised by courts and implemented by regulatory agencies, but also how they are understood in the popular imagination and, finally, what influence they have had on the shape of religion in America.

RELG 3485 Moral Leadership
 Portmann,John Edward
Exploration of moral ways of inspiring and influencing other people.  Special attention to the thought of Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Al Gore, and Oprah; styles of leading; the role of the so-called global elite in contemporary world affairs; the media; censorship; the Internet; plagiarism; globalization; and going to war.  What is the definition of leadership?  What does traditional religious observance have to do with the definition?  What is the role of judgment in moral leadership?  Requirements:  informed class participation; three brief exams; final 8-12-page paper. Please note that no laptops will be allowed in this seminar.

RELG 3559 New Course: Civil Rights
Marsh Jr.,Charles Robert
The seminar considers the American civil rights movement as theological drama.  The goal is to analyze and understand the movement, its participants and opponents, in religious and theological perspective.  While interdisciplinary in scope, the seminar will probe the details of religious convictions in their dynamic particularity and ask how images of God shape conceptions of race, community and nation and modes of practical engagements.  Readings include four seminal studies of the period, writings by movement and anti-movement activists, and documents archived at http://archives.livedtheology.org/, in the digital history titled, "The Civil Rights Movement as Theological Drama".  Course requirements include active participation in class discussions, one 20-30 presentation, weekly reading summaries (250-300 words), one research paper (10-12 pages, or 3000-3400 words), and a take-home final.

RELG 3559 New Course: Spirtual Writing
Ochs,Vanessa L
This course concerns the  quest for meaning, purpose and direction and explores individual encounters with the sacred within the context of religious traditions.  Students will study examples of contemporary spiritual writing from diverse traditions in fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction and will be required to write about matters of the spirit in various genres. Intructor permission required.

RELG 3780 Faulkner and the Bible  
Wilson, William
Go Down Moses, If I forget Thee Jerusalem, Absalom, Absalom!...These and many other novels by William Faulkner indicate that this author was deeply influenced by biblical narrative and verse. This course will explore this influence. The primary goal is simply to see how a critical knowledge of the Bible can help us better understand Faulkner's complex and very challenging writing. However, the course will also be deeply concerned to understand why the Bible became a vital tradition in the development of American letters, and how biblical themes were employed in the struggle over race relations and regional identity, and especially in the South, Faulkner's homeland.

RELG 3820 Global Ethics & Climate Change  
Jenkins, Willis
Addressing planet-wide problems seems to require a global ethic, but is a global ethic possible in a world of many moral cultures and religious traditions? This seminar takes up the ethical questions posed by climate change as ways into the search for shared grounds of cooperation across human difference. We examine political, philosophical, and religious arguments about justice amidst inequality, fairness across borders, harm across generations, and duties to other species. We also explore relations of science, ethics, and culture in developing practical responsibilities for global environmental change.

RELG 4023 Bioethics Internship Seminar 
Mohrmann, Margaret Elizabeth
This course is designed to provide students with experience in discerning and analyzing ethical issues as they arise in particular clinical settings. Each student spends approximately four hours each week in a clinic, hospital unit, or other health care- related venue (the same one throughout the semester), under the mentorship of a health care professional engaged in that setting. Seminar time focuses primarily on student experiences and observations in their placements, plus discussion of readings that explore selected ethical issues common to clinical medicine and the role of the ethicist/observer. During the second half of the semester, each student presents for class critique an analysis of an ethical issue or question that arises in his or her setting, and that will form the basis of the student's final paper for the class. Students must have some background knowledge of bioethics' methods and common questions. Admittance to the course is by application only; for details, see the Undergraduate Bioethics Program Website at https://bioethics.as.virginia.edu/internships.

RELG 4220 Amer Religious Autobiography  
Warren,Heather A
A multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. The course also examines the question, What is religion?  Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms, among them Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz, Ari Goldman's The Search for God at Harvard, Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies, and Henri Nouwen's Genesee Diary. Fulfills the majors seminar requirement. Prerequisites: Courses in religious studies, American history, or American literature. Requirements: reading, weekly short autobiographical papers (2pp.), 1 paper 8-12 pages, and an autobiography (20 pp.).

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar God Politics and War
Mathewes,Charles T
Once upon a time, we lived under kings, who were great warriors and high priests.  Now we largely don't have kings, our rulers are not soldiers, and neither rulers nor soldiers are perceived to possess special theological mojo, whose votaries are elsewhere.  How did this change happen?  Our class will study how humans have come to distinguish activities they describe as "politics" from "religion," and how they have differentiated both from the use of violence in war.  We will watch films, read plays, various scriptures, and philosophical, political, sociological and theological texts in pursuit of answers to our questions: how did humans come to distinguish religion, politics, and war, and in what ways do they remain, perhaps despite our best efforts, intertwined?

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar Religion and Psychology
Portmann, John
Exploration of religious emotions such as fascination, terror, guilt, wholeheartedness, and ecstasy. What motivates religious conversion?  What keeps someone loyal to the religion of his parents?  What impulse prompts a believer to commit acts of hatred or terrible violence in the name of God?  How does contemporary psychiatry compete with or complement pastoral counseling? What does religious fervor have to do with the sex drive?  Emphasis on Nietzsche, James, Freud, Kierkegaard, and Richard Dawkins.  Requirements: 1) regular and substantive class participation; 2) two brief exams; 3) a class presentation; and 4) a final 14-20-page paper

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar Death and the Afterlife 
Ray, Benjamin C
The goal of this seminar is to develop an informed and critical perspective on the study of religion through the study of myths, rituals, theology, medical ethics, and fictional literature concerning death and afterlife in a variety of religious traditions. The seminar does not intend to make the case for any single definition of religion or to take a particular theological perspective on death, but rather to have participants develop critical skills necessary for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a number of scholarly approaches to the subject. Requirements: Six short papers, approximately one every other week. No mid-term and no final exam.

RELG      4500       Pilgrimage
Ochs, Vanessa
The Majors’ seminar in Religious Studies gives you an opportunity to step back and consider what you have been studying and how you have been studying it.  Hopefully, this will clarify why you have devoted yourself to the study of religion. One goal of the seminar is to recall that religions are studied through diverse lenses—for example, through the methodologies of different disciplines and through the eyes of particular theorists; these shape the way religion is approached, understood and interpreted. religion. The focus of this seminar is the pilgrimage, emphasizing the diverse ways in which this complex ritual has been experienced, described and understood in diverse traditions. Contemporary pilgrimages we will discuss include the Hajj to Mecca, Israel Birthright, the Camino (to Santiago de Compostella, Spain), and the Rolling Thunder Run to the Wall (via motorcycle, to the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall in DC).

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar: Modern American Marriage
Flake, Kathleen
Using a variety of approaches and methods, this course will examine the modern history of Christian marriage and family construction in its cultural context. Equal emphasis will be given to early modern and contemporary American marriage, including gay marriage and polyfidelity. Particular attention will be paid to such issues as the gendered ideologies and practices of marriage, especially in relation to the shift from patriarchal to companionate marriage; the connection between marriage, citizenship and civil rights; and the significance of sex, as the root symbol of marriage. We will trace these issues through the evolution of marriage rites and American law and consider contemporary practical challenges posed to specific religious communities    

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar  Book Culture in Religions
 Al-Rahim,Ahmed

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar  Secularism and Religion
 Nemec,John William
Does religion belong in the public square? Does it have a legitimate role in public
life, despite a lack of unanimity in the religious beliefs of the public? Can religion be separated from public and political life?   This course examines these and related questions and queries the ways in which religion shapes, challenges, and clashes with the modern nation-state. It further examines the degree to which religion has served to shape—and to challenge—contemporary societies in the context of the modern nation-state, all while examining why religion has historically found a role for itself in political life.

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar  Evil and Suffering
 Geddes,Jennifer Leslie

RELG 4500 Death and the After Life
 Ray,Benjamin C
The subject of death and dying in ancient and modern literature, contemporary Christian theology, Jewish, and Buddhist traditions, medical ethics, the American civil war, and public monuments.

RELG 4559 Bioethics Internship: Health Policy Administration
 Mohrmann,Margaret Elizabeth
Also listed as PHSE 4500/7500 The Bioethics Internship: Health Policy and Administration is designed for fourth-year undergraduate students who have declared a minor or interdisciplinary major in bioethics or have significant course background in bioethics, as well as for graduate students in any discipline who are pursuing studies in or relevant to health policy and/or administration. It is designed to provide students with experience in discerning and analyzing ethical issues as they arise in healthcare institutions in regard to policy making and implementation and to other organizational issues. Each student spends several hours a week in the UVA medical center under the mentorship of an administrator engaged in some facet of the institution’s operation. Seminar time focuses on the students’ observations and analyses of particular ethical issues that arise in their placements. Each student chooses an observed ethical issue to analyze for a final project, which is presented to the class and written up as the term paper. Admittance is by instructor permission, based on an emailed request detailing relevant courses taken (and grades) plus reasons for wishing to take the course, including how it may fit into the student's future academic and career trajectory; send enrollment requests electronically to Prof. Mohrmann (mem7e) and the course co-leader, Prof. Lois Shepherd (lls4b).  Instructor permission

RELG 4800 Research Methods in RS
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia 
   This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project.  As a follow-up to this course, students usually take RELG 4900, “Distinguished Major Thesis,” which affords them an opportunity to write the research project that they have conceived in this course.  Whether students plan to write a thesis or not, this course offers an accessible introduction to the craft of advanced research in Religious Studies.
   The course surveys the skills needed for advanced research in Religious Studies: critical and analytic reading, formulating a research problem, crafting an evidence-based argument, and developing a professional voice in non-fiction prose. The course also exposes students to religious studies arguments constructed from different kinds of data, evidence and sources so that students grasp the field’s range.  
   The course is conducted as a workshop in which students submit work-in-progress to their peers for feedback and discussion. They are thus initiated into the culture of advanced research wherein constructive feedback is given and received in a generous spirit.

RELG 4810 Poetry and Theology  
Hart,Kevin John
This seminar focuses on the writings of two important poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Geoffrey Hill. The one is Catholic, and the other questions religion at every level while also remaining open to the possibility of faith. Each poet raises major theological issues: belief, doubt, ecstasy, martyrdom, revelation, transcendence, and theodicy, among them. We will read, as closely as possible, some poems and prose writings by each poet, consider their theological contexts, and examine the ways in which theological issues are folded in their poems. Students will write two essays, one on each poet.

RELG 5088 (pending) Dostoevsky and Eliot
Guroian,Vigen
The title of this course is not mere word play.  Dostoevesky and Eliot present penetrating diagnoses of modernity, especially the failure of faith and love among its inhabitants. We will read Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov and Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Wasteland, Four Quartets, and other poems.

RELG 5070 Interpretation Theory  
Bouchard,Larry D
We will explore various approaches to interpretation theory, with emphasis on the nature and problems of interpretive activity in aesthetics, religion, and ethics. We will take up hermeneutical considerations of figuralism (e.g. Erich Auerbach), truth and understanding in encounters with texts and others (e.g., Schleiermacher, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Adam Zachary Newton), and reconsiderations of the hermeneutical model in such figures as Bahktin, Nussbaum, and Vattimo. Special attention may be given this time to postmodern views of religious discourse (e.g., in Derrida and some of his sympathizers and critics). Requirements: Class participation of assigned materials, a midterm take-home examination, and either a paper or an essay final. Undergraduates not yet enrolled in this course need to obtain permission of the instructor and may be placed on a waiting list kept by Prof. Bouchard.

RELG 5320 / RELG 3559 Research Seminar in Religion, Conflict, and Peace 
Ochs, Peter
Advanced research on religion, politics and conflict for students of "religion-on-religion" conflict/conflict resolution. Research methods drawn from religious studies, politics, anthropology and linguistics, history, sociology, nursing, philosophy, systems analysis and data science. Topics recommended by current work in the Global Covenant of Religions, the UVA Initiative on Religion in Conflict, and other professional work in the field.

RELG 5485 American Relig &Social Reform
 Warren,Heather A
American Religion and Social Reform examines the history of the interplay between theology, morality, and politics in American history. Topics covered include temperance and prohibition, labor, civil rights, the peace movement, and environmentalism. Weekly reading, class presentation, and original research will be important components of the class. Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

RELG      5541       Just War
Childress, James  
Contact professor directly

RELG 5541 Seminar in  Social & Political Thought: Public Health Ethics
Childress, James F
This course will explore both ends and means in public health ethics. On the one hand, it will examine the broad goal of public health and reduction of the social burden of disease and injury. It will consider how this goal, which is grounded in a commitment to social welfare and social justice/equity, can be specified for purposes of guiding both policy and practice. On the other hand, public health’s population-based perspective poses a challenge to the traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven perspectives in the U.S.’s public philosophy. This course will consider when, in a liberal democracy, the broad and specific goals of public health justify overriding liberty, privacy, confidentiality, etc., all of which establish presumptive (but non-absolute) constraints against certain societal and governmental interventions. It will examine the tension between giving priority to voluntary actions by members of the public and employing effective public health interventions, in such contexts as testing and screening, surveillance, quarantine/isolation, vaccination, and allocation of resources. 

RELG 5559 Reason and Love in Thought  
Biemann,Asher D
Starting with three modern Jewish thinkers, Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, and Franz Rosezweig, this seminar will explore the paradoxical theme of love as a commandment rooted in reason and revelation in modern Jewish and Christian thought. Selections from Kant, Feuerbach, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, and others will provide a broader picture of modern religious thought. The concept of religious love will thus also emerge as a polemical term.     

RELG 5559 New Course:  Atheism and Literature
Hart,Kevin John
This seminar proposes a close reading of major narrative and critical writings by one of the foremost atheists of the twentieth century: Maurice Blanchot. We shall read several of his demanding fictional works, including *Death Sentence* and *Thomas the Obscure*, which concern themselves with a strange atheistic mysticism, and attend to his equally intense critical writings on literature and the nature of writing. Attention will be given to Blanchot's debts to philosophers, especially Martin Heidegger, and to writings about Blanchot by Jacques Derrida and others. Students may read Blanchot's writings in either French or English translation.

RELG      5559       Ethics and Aesthetics
Flores, Nichole  
Contact professor directly

RELG      5559       Environmental Ethics
Jenkins, Willis  
Jointly led by an ethicist and an environmental lawyer, this seminar introduces students to major figures and frameworks in environmental ethics, including ecocentric and biocentric theories; consequentialism (including economic approaches); rights-based approaches, including environmental justice, the rights of animals, the rights of nature, and the argument among them; virtue ethics; religious perspectives; and relationships among law, philosophy and culture.  We will test the frameworks and theories through engagement with contemporary problems, such as treatment of animals, biodiversity loss, climate change, toxic exposures, and the production and consumption of food. The goals of the course are to familiarize students with the main concepts of the field, to give students experience in applying these concepts to problems in diverse ecological and cultural settings, and to think through the relation of ethics to practical decisions.  

RELG      5559       Basic Philosophy Kant +
Ochs, Peter

fewer):Basic Philosophy for Students of  Religion: Kant and After" introduces students to the primary philosophic contributions of Kant, Reid, Hegel, Husserl, Peirce, Postrmodernism, Recent Philosophies of Language and Logic. Discussion will focus on thesse thinkers' potential significance for contemporary studies in religion and theology For grads and  undergrads.

RELG      5559       Abrahamic Feminisms
Ochs, Vanessa  
Feminists in Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been developing distinct and complex strategies (and abandoned some along the way) as scholars and activists. Sometimes, they have been able to draw upon each other's perspectives to inspire or clarify their own thinking and strategies. This comparative study will consider these contemporary feminist approaches to sacred texts, prayer, ritual practice, leadership, and community.

RELG 5559 Suffering
 Geddes, Jennifer Leslie

RELG      5630       Seminar on the Study of Religion & Literature
Bouchard, Larry
This seminar explores possibilities for interdisciplinary study in religion, literary art, and criticism.  Attention is given to three problem-areas in religion and literature: innovation and tradition, aesthetic experience and religious meaning, and what it may mean to engage in "religious," "theological," and "ethical" readings of literary works and their cultural settings.  The seminar is also is designed to direct students to important bibliography in religion and literature.   However, literary texts, not just adjacent criticism and theory, will be the weekly focus.

Issues are structured around important redefinitions of four major literary forms or genres:  epic poetry and its modes of composition, lyric poetry in terms of Romanticism and modern formalism, drama in terms of ritual and local histories, and prose fiction as social and moral inquiry—together with considerations of scripture read "as" literature.  Our focus is on the creative and productive (not just classificatory) functions of genre.  Of special concern will be with how generic relationships can provide an intersection between reading and authoring, productive-of or “giving rise to” religious, ethical, and theological experience and thought.

Requirements include active participation, short weekly response papers, and a journal article length paper on a topic related to the course and to one’s own research interests.

RELG 5780 Wallace Stevens & the Absolute
 Hart,Kevin John
This seminar attempts to develop a close reading of Wallace Stevens's major poems and to evaluate their theological significance. What is the character of the atheism of early poems such as “Sunday Morning”? Is the project of a “supreme fiction” theological or anti-theological or both? In what sense, if any, is “The Auroras of Autumn” a poem concerned with belief? These are some of the questions that will interest us. While reading Stevens we will also be concerned to consider assumptions that structure our reading of poetry that involves religion, whether affirmatively or negatively, and to discover what is involved in developing a rigorous theological reading of modern poetry. What differences are there, if any, between reading canonical biblical poetry and canonical secular poetry that addresses the absolute? Reference will be made to theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar, among other theologians, and to literary critics: Harold Bloom, for example.

RELG 5835 Ethnography Study of Religion  
Ochs,Vanessa L

RELG 7130 American Spirituality
Hedstrom, Matthew
What is “spirituality” and why has it become such a pervasive term in contemporary American culture? This course explores this question through historical interrogation of the category and its development since the early nineteenth century. The encounter of historic religious traditions, especially Protestant Christianity, with the intellectual, cultural, economic, and social currents of modernity will form the larger background for our analysis. We will read primary and secondary texts that investigate religious liberalism, the rise of psychology, secularism and secularization, consumerism, media, and globalization. Students will produce an article-length research paper.

RELG 7360 Study of Religion  
Ben Ray
Jones,Paul Dafydd
Through an examination of landmark texts -- classic and contemporary -- this course introduces new graduate students to important approaches, discussions, and controversies in the field of Religious Studies. Beyond helping students think carefully and critically about the academic study of religion, the course (a) encourages reflection about how particular research agendas relate to the broader field of Religious Studies, (b) explores various theoretical and methodological perspectives, and (c) helps students to formulate introductory syllabi for use in an academic setting. 

This course is mandatory for all first-year Ph.D. candidates in the Religious Studies Department.
 

RELG 7559 New Course in Religion Spirituality in America
Hedstrom,Matthew
AWhat is “spirituality” and why has it become such a pervasive term in US culture? This course examines the category’s development since the early 19th century, considering especially the encounter of religious traditions with the intellectual, economic, and social currents of modernity. We will read primary and secondary texts that investigate religious liberalism, psychology, secularism and secularization, consumerism, and globalization.

RELG 7559 New Course in Religion Method & Inquiry in Rel Eth
Mathewes,Charles T
Jenkins, Willis
This advanced graduate seminar examines the range of possibilities for inquiry within religious ethics.  It considers philosophical, tradition-specific, comparative, and applied works, and focuses on interpreting their methodological variety. We will read and assess a range of major texts composed in recent years, attending not only to their explicit arguments, but the larger strategic choices they make, their intended aims, and the ways that they construct an audience and perhaps a field.

RELG 7559 New Course in Religion Signs of Salvation
Ochs,Peter W
A study of the sources of semiotics and pragmatism from Augustine to Peirce and beyond. The course examines the place of contemporary sign theory (semiotics) and reparative reasoning (pragmatism) in the history of philosophic theology in the west, with particular attention to the Abrahamic (Muslim, Jewish, Christian) scriptural traditions. Careful, detailed textual and formal (logical) studies in philosophy, scriptural interpretation, and theology, including Aristotle; the Stoics; early rabbinic and patristic sources; medieval Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophies; modern, postmodern, and postliberal theorists.

RELG 8350 Proseminar in SIP  
Ochs,Peter W

Hinduism

RELH 2090 Hinduism  
Nemec,John William
This course serves as a general introduction to Hinduism in its classical, medieval and modern forms.  By reading primary texts in translation (along with key secondary sources), and by taking note of the cultural, historical, political and material contexts in which they were composed, we will explore Hinduism from its earliest forms to the period of the “Hindu Renaissance” in the nineteenth century.  In other words, we will take a sweeping look at the religious and cultural life of the Indian sub-continent from the second millennium B.C. (B.C.E.) to the nineteenth century.

RELH 2195 Theory and Practice of Yoga  
Campbell,John R.B.
 

RELH 5465 Saiva Tantra  
Nemec,John William
The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to Indian tantric Saivism, beginning with the proto-tantric traditions of the "Outer Way" (atimarga) and including the increasingly goddess orientated and increasingly non-dualistic developments evidenced by the myriad traditions of the "Way of Mantras" (mantramarga).  Students who wish to take this course are expected to have a deep familiarity with Hindu traditions.

Islam

RELI 2070 Classical Islam 
Al-Rahim, Ahmed
This course is intended to trace the history and development of the religion of Islam and the Muslim world in the classical period, roughly dating from the 7th to 13th centuries C.E. We will examine through readings of the primary (in translation) and relevant secondary sources: (1) the biography of Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, and the history of his successors, the caliphs, and Islamic dynasties; (2) the history and themes of the Koran, Islam’s scripture, and its exegesis; (3) the hadith, or the sayings attributed to Muhammad, his companions, and his progeny, and the development of Islamic schools of law; (4) the history of Islamic creeds, theology, and philosophy; (5) sectarian history, the Sunni and Shi’a chasm, and Sufism, or Islamic mysticism; and (6) the daily life and rituals of medieval Muslims and their relations with the “People of the Book,” i.e., Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians.

RELI 5559 Virtue and Knowledge in Islam  
Al-Rahim,Ahmed
This seminar explores medieval manuals of virtue ethics in the traditional religious sciences, primarily Islamic law, and philosophy.

Judaism

RELJ 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament  
Halvorson-Taylor,Martien A
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELJ 1410 Elementary Classical Hebrew I  
Goering,Gregory Schmidt
Learning a new language can be extremely challenging and immensely fun. This course promises to be both. In this course (in combination with its sequel, HEBR/RELJ 1420) students will develop a basic grasp of classical (biblical) Hebrew grammar and syntax. By the end of the spring semester, students will be able to read and translate narrative prose from the Hebrew Bible. Being able to read the Hebrew Bible in its original language provides a better window into the life and thought of the ancient Israelites, as well as a foundation for interpretation of the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Students who successfully complete this course and its sequel will be able to continue study of classical Hebrew at the intermediate level.

RELJ       1420       Elementary Classical Hebrew II
Goering, Gregory  
In this sequel to HEBR/RELJ 1410, students will learn the derived stems and weak verbs, cardinal and ordinal numbers, Masoretic accents, oath formulas, and parsing. Thus students will complete the study of the verbal system and of basic Hebrew grammar as a whole. In addition, students will learn to use a Hebrew lexicon and read prose passages directly from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. At the completion of the two semester sequence, students will have learned the basic tools required to read longer prose passages from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the original language.

RELJ       2030       Introduction to Judaism
Alexander, Elizabeth S
This course introduces students to the academic study of Judaism.  We will use historical methods to observe change and development in Jewish beliefs and practices over time, we will analyze Jewish texts to learn about Jewish beliefs and practices, and we will observe contemporary Jews engaged in Jewish practice to gain insight into Judaism as lived religion.  Among the topics covered are:  sacred text study, prayer, kashrut, holy day practices and life cycle passages.

RELJ 2410 Intermed Classical Hebrew I  
Goering,Gregory Schmidt
In this course, which continues and builds upon HEBR/RELJ 1420, students will develop facility in the reading, comprehension, and translation of biblical Hebrew. Students will review basic grammar, learn to analyze syntax, and build their working vocabulary. As a secondary objective of the course, students will learn to interpret biblical prose. By the end of the course, students will be able to read and translate moderately difficult prose passages from Hebrew to English.

RELJ       2420       Intermediate Classical Hebrew II
French, Blaire A
In this course, which continues and builds upon HEBR/RELJ 2410, students will develop facility in the reading and translation of biblical Hebrew. Students will review basic grammar, learn to analyze syntax, and build their working vocabulary. As a secondary objective of the course, students will learn to interpret biblical poetry. To this end, students will learn repetition, acrostic, inclusio, refrain, metaphor, correspondence, elision, compensation, and other poetic devices. By the end of the course, students will grasp the complex phenomenon of poetic parallelism. Cross-listed as HEBR 2420.

RELJ       2559       Jewish-Muslim Relations
Andruss, Jessica
Jewish and Muslim communities share a complex history of interaction. It stretches from seventh-century Arabia to the present day and includes instances of collaboration as well as moments of violence. This course presents this history through documentary and literary sources. We will focus on points of contact between Muslims and Jews over time, in contexts ranging from courts and battlefields to sites of scholarly and artistic creativity.

RELJ 3030 Jesus and the Gospels (formerly known as the Historical Jesus)
Janet Spittler
This course focuses on Jesus of Nazareth as an historical figure, that is, as he is accessible to the historian by means of historical methods.  Our most important – though not our only – ancient sources of information on Jesus are the four canonical Gospels, and so much of the course will involve reading and attempting to understand these texts.  To that end, we will discuss the special problems involved in the interpretation of ancient texts, as well as the various methods used by contemporary scholars in response to these problems.  We will also discuss the complex relationship of literary works and historical persons they depict.  Ultimately, we will attempt to reconstruct at least the broad outlines of Jesus’ activity and teachings, while also attempting to define the limits of our sources.

RELJ 3052 Responses to the Holocaust  
Geddes,Jennifer Leslie

RELJ       3090       Israelite Prophecy
Goering, Gregory Wayne Schmidt
In this course, we will examine the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). We will locate each primary text in its historical, cultural, and political contexts, compare Israelite prophecy to similar phenomena in the neighboring cultures of the ancient Near East, and consider modern anthropological studies of shamanism. At the end of the course, we will examine the transformation of prophecy in the Second Temple period and the emergence of apocalypticism.

RELJ       3100       Medieval Jewish Thought
Andruss, Jessica
This course introduces the medieval Jewish intellectual tradition (9th-13th centuries) in its cultural and historical context. We will explore key themes such as the nature of God, prophecy, exile, the status of Scripture, the history of religions, and the quest for spiritual perfection. Readings will be drawn from philosophical, theological, exegetical, pietistic and mystical texts, including works from Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, and Maimonides.

RELJ 3170 Modern Jewish Thought  
Biemann,Asher D
This course is a critical survey of the most significant Jewish responses to the experience of the modern era. Beginning with Spinoza's political and hermeneutic thought, we will explore how Jewish thinkers met the social, cultural, and religious challenges of modernity and, in turn, influenced the transformation of modern Jewry. Jewish Thought is understood in a broader sense to include philosophers, religious reformers, and political leaders. Changing and conflicting perspectives on tradition, education, culture, and religion will be in the center of our interest.

RELJ 3292 Book of Job
 Halvorson-Taylor,Martien A
The biblical figure of Job continues to shape how we conceive of the nature of divine justice, the problem of unjust suffering, the limits of human knowledge, and the possibility of integrity. In this seminar, we will consider first how Job is depicted in the Bible. Then, we will examine how Job has been interpreted and portrayed in early Jewish and Christian interpretations and, finally, how Job serves as a vehicle for articulating profound questions about the nature of human existence in philosophical and literary works of the modern period; we will consider, for example, interpretations of the book of Job by the artist and poet William Blake, the theologian Søren Kierkegaard, the writers Franz Kafka and Cynthia Ozick, and the filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. 

RELJ 3372 German Jewish Cult & Histor
 Finder,Gabriel & Grossman, Jeffrey

RELJ 3390 Jewish Feminism
 Ochs,Vanessa L
What happened when feminists, female and male, addressed the secondary status of women within traditional Jewish religion? A revolutionary transformation has taken place, and it is still ongoing. This course will be of interest to all who study how contemporary ethical concerns challenge and refine traditional religions.

RELJ 3490 Jewish Weddings
Ochs, Vanessa
What makes a wedding Jewish? Working from an interdisciplinary perspective,  and consulting a variety of resources including sacred texts, historical sources, artifacts, literary sources, music, dance and films, we will study the ritual of the Jewish wedding  from antiquity to modernity. In particular, we will look at challenges to the traditional Jewish wedding in contemporary times that are raised by interfaith couples,  Orthodox feminists, secular Jews, liberal Jews, same-sex-couples and the marriage laws of teh State of Israel. Students will work together in teams over the course of the semester to present elaborately staged and festive weddings for their classmates and invited guests. 

It does not matter what your starting point is, whether this is your first course in Judaism: you will be helped to chart your own trajectory for learning.  And should you ever attend a Jewish wedding; you will be able to explain everything that is going on—and its history—to the person sitting next to you. 

RELJ 3559 Political Theology and Israel
Weinman, Michael
This course investigates the tradition of Political Theology. The course will focus centrally on Spinoza'the Theological-Political Treatise, and will cover precursors-“precursors” to Spinoza, including 1st and 2nd Samuel, Talmudic selections (read with commentary from Levinas), e medieval texts (Rambam/Ibn Sina/Ibn Roschd), “responses” to Spinoza, including Hegel, Schmitt, Benjamin, and Derrida as well as Arendt, Agamben, Butler and Levinas.

RELJ 3830 Introduction to Talmud 
Alexander,Elizabeth S
This course introduces students to the talmudic corpus, which in conjunction with the Hebrew Bible, plays a fundamental role in shaping Judaism as we know it today. Indeed, the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud are the two major sacred texts on which Jewish practice and belief are based. Ostensibly an interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud creates something exciting and new through its empowered approach to interpretation. In this course we will examine the various strategies of interpretation used by the Talmud and the new trajectories of thought, belief and practice that result from the Talmud's creative interpretations. We will pay special attention to the talmudic reshaping of the biblical myths of creation and revelation. We will also explore the culture of "holy" debate and argumentation that talmudic texts encourage. Finally, we will gain competence and mastery in reading the three main genres of the talmudic corpus (biblical interpretation, legal codes, and legal argumentation) so that students can put forward their own interpretations of these foundational texts.

RELJ 5210 Mishnah Seminar  
Alexander,Elizabeth SThis course trains students to read Mishnah in the original language. Primary emphasis will be on giving students tools to decode the text and set the text in its appropriate historical and cultural contexts. Special attention will be paid to literary and legal aspects of the text. The Mishnah will also compared with parallels from contemporary compositions (the Tosephta and midrash halakhah). Secondary readings will expose students to the range of theoretical concerns raised in the interpretation of the Mishnah. We will address the following kinds of questions: What is the purpose of the Mishnah? Was the Mishnah written down or orally transmitted? How should a literary reading of the Mishnah proceed? What is the function of dispute in the Mishnah? How can we best use the Mishnah as a historical source in the reconstruction of early rabbinic Judaism?

RELJ 5559 Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt  
Geddes,Jennifer Leslie
This course will explore the works of three key figures in modern Jewish thought: Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt. Although extremely diverse in style, these three European Jewish intellectuals, who wrote during the first half and middle of the twentieth century, shaped the ways in which we understand modernity and our experience and the meanings of our contemporary world.

Special Topics

RELS 8995 Research Selected Topics
Instructor: Student's choice

Systematic reading in a select topic under detailed supervision. Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding his course.

RELS 8998 Non Topical Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For master's research, taken under the supervision of a thesis director. Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9998 Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected.

Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9999 Non-Topical Research

Instructor: Student's choice

For dissertation research, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.

Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

African Religions

RELA 2700 Festivals of the Americas
Schmidt, Jalane Dawn
Readings will include contemporary ethnographies of religious festivals in the Caribbean ans South, Central, and North America, and increase their knowledge of the concepts of sacred time and space, ritual theory, and the relationships between religious celebration and changing accounts of ethnicity.

Buddhism

RELB 2054 Tibetan Buddhism Introducition
Provides a systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with a strong emphasis on tantric traditions of Buddhism - philosophy, contemplation, ritual, monastic life, pilgrimage, deities & demons, ethics, society, history, and art. The course aims to understand how these various aspects of Tibetan religious life mutually shape each other to form the unique religious traditions that have pertained on the Tibetan plateau for over a thousand years.

RELB 2100 Introduction to Buddhism
Kachru, Sonam
Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantrayana Buddhist developments in India.

RELB 3408 Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy
Campbell, John R.B.
Tibet possesses one of the great Buddhist philosophical traditions in the world. Tibetan Buddhist thinkers composed comprehensive and philosophically rigorous works on human growth according to classical Buddhism, works that surveyed ethics, meditation practice, the nature of personal identity, and enlightenment itself. In this seminar we will read and discuss famous Tibetan overviews of Buddhist philosophy. Pre-Requisites: One prior course in religion or philosophy recommended

RELB 5470 Literary Tibetan V
TBA
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

RELB 5559 Truth & Tradition: Intro to Buddhist Scholasticism
Kachru, Sonam
This course examines the distinct genres of Buddhist systematic thought (commentary,  conspectus, monograph, etc.) and explores how they function, and how hermeneutics interacts with epistemology, this as a way of clarifying what Buddhist scholasticism might be. Special attention is paid to Vasubandhu, but also other thinkers, in this course.

RELB 5800 Literary Tibetan VII
TBA
Examines the Yogachara-Svatantrika system as presented in Jang-kya's Presentation of Tenets, oral debate, and exercises in spoken Tibetan. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, 5470, 5480 or equivalent.

RELB 8230 Advanced Literary & Spoken Tibetan
Germano, David F
Examines selected topics and techniques of Tibetan education.

Christianity

RELC 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob,  Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in  the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex  process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELC 2050 Rise of Christianity
Shuve, Karl
How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents.

RELC 2215 Mormonism and American Culture
Flake, Kathleen  
At one time Mormonism, meaning primarily The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had the distinction of being one of the most radical and violently persecuted religions in U.S. history. It is now the nation's fourth largest religious body, with a reputation for hyper patriotism and middle class mores. In addition to introducing who the Mormons are, their beliefs and religious practices, this seminar will explore issues raised by the Church's move toward the American mainstream while retaining its religious identity and cultural distinctiveness. These issues include: What is the religious “mainstream” in the U.S.?  How did conflicts over Mormonism during the nineteenth century, especially the conflict over polygamy, help define the limits of religious tolerance in this country? How have LDS teachings about modern revelation, gender, race and marriage, as well as controversies about whether or not Mormons are Christian, positioned and repositioned Mormons within U.S. society?

RELC 2360 Elements of Christian Thought  
Jones, Paul Dafydd
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought, examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas. Authors considered include Anselm of Canterbury, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Elizabeth Johnson, and many others. The course is suitable for those seeking an academic introduction to Christian theology and those wishing to deepen their understanding of this religious tradition. No previous knowledge of Christian thought is required.

RELC 2401 History of American Catholicism
Fogarty, Gerald P
Catholicism in the United States has often been in a dilemma. On the one hand, its spiritual loyalty to Rome and its growth through immigration made it appear "foreign" to most Americans. On the other, the American Catholic support for religious liberty drew suspicion from Rome. In 1960, the election of John Kennedy seemed to signal the acceptance of Catholics as Americans. In 1965, the Second Vatican Council seemed to ratify what had long been a cherished American Catholic tradition. To understand the significance of these events of the 1960s, the course will treat the following themes: the early Spanish and French settlements, the beginning of English-speaking Catholicism in Maryland, with its espousal of religious liberty, the establishment of the hierarchy under John Carroll and its early development of a strong sense of episcopal collegiality, immigration and nativism, American Catholic support of religious liberty and conflict with the Vatican at the end of the 19th century, and the American Catholic contribution to Vatican II (1962-1965). The course will conclude with an analysis of social, political, and theological developments in the American Catholic Church since the end of the council. Course requirements: 1) a mid-term and final exam; 2) an analysis of an historical document selected from collections on reserve.

RELC 3006 Augustine's City of God
Mathewes, Charles
Augustine’s magnum opus The City of God is the most important book in Western Civilization that almost nobody has read. It is one of the greatest works of human intellect in the West, and had an almost unmatched impact on Western history. Yet its very scale is so galactic as to intimidate even the most serious reader. This course provides an introduces you to the book in an accessible way so you understand its structure, the thought of Augustine, the world of Late Antiquity in which he lived, and the fundamental questions that drive the book forward, from its beginnings in the sack of pagan Rome in 410 AD to Augustine’s concluding vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem at the End of Time. By the end of this course, you will not only understand the content of The City of God but you’ll also have a profoundly new way of thinking about politics, religion, the course of history, and Christian understandings of humanity's relationship to the divine.

RELC 3040 Paul: Letters and Theology
Spittler, Janet Elizabeth
The apostle Paul is arguably the most important figure in the development of early Christianity.  Of the 27 books of the New Testament, thirteen are explicitly attributed to Paul; of these thirteen, seven are near unanimously recognized by scholars as having been written by Paul himself – his letter to the Thessalonians being the earliest piece of Christian literature that we have today.  Paul is also the primary hero of the longest narrative in the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, as well as multiple non-canonical narratives.  In this course we will study the life, teachings, and influence of Paul through careful reading of four different types of ancient texts.  We will consider: 1) his own letters, paying close attention to his role within the larger Christian community, including his disputes with other prominent figures; 2) letters written in Paul’s name by Christians of subsequent generations, including some texts the authenticity of which is still disputed by scholars (e.g. 2 Thessalonians and Colossians) and others that were quite clearly composed well after Paul’s death (e.g. his correspondence with the philosopher Seneca); 3) narrative texts in which Paul plays a leading role, including the canonical Acts and the non-canonical Acts of Paul; and 4) non-Pauline canonical texts that seem to contradict Paul’s positions on multiple issues (e.g. James and 2 Peter).  Because the one absolutely incontrovertible thing we know about Paul is that he was a resident of the Roman empire in the first century C.E., we will begin with an historical survey, setting the material covered in this course within its geographical, cultural and social contexts.

RELC 3804 Amer. Catholic Social Thought
Fogarty, Gerald P
This reading and discussion seminar will trace the evolution of American social and political thought from the Catholic Church's assimilation of an immigrant population to sometimes  unfriendly environment.  The American Church would accordingly support the organized labor movement and set an example for the European Church.  While the American Catholic Church developed progressive social thought, it sometimes refused to take a stand on such "political" issues as slavery.  During the Great Depression, there were, however, further developments in both papal social thought and its acceptance and accommodation to the American ethos.  Post World War II years saw the assimilation of older ethnic groups and yet the plight of new arrivals and racial minorities.  Gradually the American Church addressed these new problems and, in light of Vatican II, took up new issues such as nuclear arms and capital punishment.

RELC 5009 Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr and King
Marsh Jr., Charles Robert
This graduate seminar explores the theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr., with attention to their intellectual inheritance and formation, historical context, and influence on modern religious thought.  Course requirements include three 1800-2000 word essays or one 6000-7500 research paper, weekly discussions, a class presentation and readings in primary and critical sources.  Undergraduate enrollment by permission of instructor.

RELC/J  5291 Genesis
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien 
A seminar of the book of Genesis, its formation, and its subsequent interpretation. We will examine the literary artistry of the book—the dramatic and tangled narrative that opens the Hebrew Bible—by considering its plot, characterization, and compositional history. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will further consider the book in its historical and religious context. And, finally, we will examine the early history of how the book was interpreted. Readings will include not only biblical texts, but other ancient Near Eastern compositions that shed light on Genesis, early biblical interpretation, and secondary scholarship on the history, literature and religion of Ancient Israel. 

This course is open to graduate students; undergraduate students (who have completed RELC/RELJ 1210) may contact the instructor to discuss permission to enroll. 

Hebrew is not a prerequisite for the course, but advanced students in classical Hebrew may elect to take a translation component.

RELC 5559 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narratives
Spittler, Janet Elizabeth
Several important phenomena in the history of literature coincide in the first centuries CE: the invention of the novel (that is, fictive literature in prose), the adoption of the book (or “codex”) format, and the emergence of Christian literature, specifically the composition of prose narratives about Jesus and his disciples.  In this seminar, we will ask how and to what extent these phenomena are related.  To that end, we will read a wide variety of texts, including the earliest romance novels (e.g. Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirhoe), Jewish novellas (e.g. Joseph and Aseneth) and Christian narratives both canonical (e.g. the Gospel of Mark) and apocryphal (e.g. the Acts of Paul).  In these texts we will read about prison escapes, crucifixions, apparent deaths and resurrections, love at first sight, true love lost, beast fights in the arena, travel to exotic lands, shipwrecks, and pirates—lots and lots of pirates. We will consider questions of definition and genre, but our primary goal will be—through reading both widely and deeply—to increase our understanding of how ancient prose narratives function.  Simply put, we will try to become better readers of these texts.

RELC 5980 Theology of Karl Barth 
Jones, Paul Dafydd
A close examination of the thought of Karl Barth -- arguably the most important European Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. While we will deal with some of Barth’s early work -- specifically, the second edition of *Epistle to the Romans* -- our primary focus will be the mighty *Church Dogmatics*. Topics considered include the role of the Bible in theological reflection, theological epistemology, the doctrine of God, election, human being and human agency, Christology and atonement, sin and evil, and the nature of Christian community. This course is primarily intended for graduate students with interests in Christian theology, western philosophy of religion, theological ethics, and biblical exegesis. Advanced undergraduates who wish to enroll must have significant background in the academic study of Christian thought and should contact the instructor before signing up on SIS.

General Religious Studies

RELG 1010 Intro Western Religious Traditions
Warren, Heather A
Studies the major religious traditions of the Western world; Judaism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.

RELG 2559 Literature and Ethics
Geddes, Jennifer Leslie  &  Bouchard, Larry D
This course explores the intersection between literature and ethics through close readings of literary texts and attentive readings of theoretical works in ethics, literary criticism, philosophy, and theology.

RELG 2630 Business Ethics and Society
TBA
A study of the philosophical and religious frameworks for interpreting and evaluating human activity in the marketplace. This includes major theoretical perspectives, contemporary issues within the marketplace, and corporate ethics.

RELG 2650 Theology,  Ethics and Medicine
Childress, James F
This course examines the ethical principles that commonly guide decisions in health care. It focuses on ethical principles accepted by many Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and humanistic traditions, and embedded in a liberal, pluralistic society, and it examines debates about the implications of these principles for suicide and assisted suicide; terminating life-sustaining treatment; abortion and maternal-fetal relations; artificial reproduction, including human cloning; using human subjects in research; genetic counseling, screening, and engineering; health-care reform; allocating life-saving medical resources; obtaining and distributing organs for transplantation; and public health issues surrounding AIDS, pandemic influenza, Ebola, & possible bioterrorist attacks. The course will use numerous actual and hypothetical cases to highlight moral issues.

RELG      2660       Spirituality in America
Hedstrom, Matthew  
What does “spiritual but not religious” mean, and why has it become such a pervasive self-description in contemporary America? This interdisciplinary course surveys spirituality in America, with a particular eye for the relationship between spirituality and formal religion, on the one hand, and secular modes of understanding the self, such as psychology, on the other. Along the way we’ll study everything from AA to yoga to Zen meditation, with stops in rock and jazz, Beat poetry, Abstract Expressionist painting, spirit photography, the feminist movement, environmentalism, and recent film. The study of spirituality forces us to confront many of the central concerns of modern American life: psychology, self-help, and therapeutic culture; global religious and cultural encounters; gender and sexuality; and consumerism and mass culture. In the end, we’ll come to see spirituality in America as a complex intermingling of the great world religions, modern therapeutic psychology, the politics of movements for social change, and a crassly commercialized, billion-dollar culture industry. Is this the fate of religion in a modern, capitalist, globalized society?

RELG 3200 Martin,  Malcolm,  and America
Hadley, Mark
An intensive examination of African-American social criticism centered upon, but not limited to, the life and thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.  We will come to grips with the American legacy of racial hatred and oppression systematized in the institutions of antebellum chattel slavery and post-bellum racial segregation and we will analyze the array of critical responses to, and social struggles against, this legacy.  We will pay particular attention to the religious dimensions of these various types of social criticism.   

RELG      3215       American Religious Innovation
Flake, Kathleen
Contact professor directly

RELG 3360 Conquests and  Religions
Schmidt,  Jalane
Beginning with Islamic-ruled Spain and the Aztec and Incan empires, the course examines historical changes in the religious practices of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans and European settlers in Latin America and the Caribbean under European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade. Topics include: religious violence, human sacrifice, the Inquisition; missions; race, gender and sexuality; slavery, revolts, revolutions, nationalism

RELG 3559 Moral State of the World
Mathewes, Charles T
What is going on in the world, morally and/or ethically speaking? What are the great moral challenges and moral opportunities? Consider the "moral climate," in which humans live, move, and have their ethical being; is that climate changing? This is a question that has been asked by many of the major religious traditions in the world for millennia.  It has recently begun to be asked by secular institutions as well.  This class studies this question, trying to get a grip on the shape of our world's most prominent moral/ethical issues. It will also reflect, reflexively, on that very question itself, asking why we should care about it, and how historically we have come to care about it in the ways that we typically do.

RELG 3559 Basic Philosophy
Ochs, Peter W
Basic Philosophy for Students of Theology/Religion: Plato to Kant" introduces students to the primary philosophic contributions of Plato/Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoics, Augustine,  Locke, Descartes, Hume, and Kant, with briefer studies in Thomas, Maimonides, Al-Ghazali, and Leibniz. Discussion will focus on thesse thinkers' potential significance for contemporary studies in religion and theology For grads and undergrads.

RELG 3559 Slavery and Liberation: A Theological Inquiry
Nichole Flores
This course examines slavery and human trafficking (both in historical and current manifestations) and their legacies through the lens of Liberation Theology, especially as expressed in Black, Womanist, and U.S. Latino/a theological conversations. Beginning with an overview of Liberation Theology’s themes, methods, and Latin American origins, the course studies slavery in relation to Christian doctrine-- theological anthropology, Trinitarian theology, Christology, soteriology, theological aesthetics—and crucial ethical issues, including racism, labor ethics, food ethics, global economic ethics, environmental ethics, and bioethics.

RELG      3559       Religion and Foreign Affairs
Ochs, Peter  
Approaches  in “religion-on-religion” conflict resolution. Special attention to two approaches developed at UVA (“Hearth to Hearth Conflict Resolution” and “Scriptural Reasoning) and to “Global Covenant of Religions,” an NGO whose research is planned at UVA. Students join research teams comprised of majors in Religious Studies, Systems Analysis, Politics, and Anthropology (and ethno-linguistics). Admission by application to pwo3v@virginia.edu.

RELG 3559 Ethics,  Literature,  Religion
Bouchard, Larry
Geddes, Jennifer Leslie
This course explores ethical questions raised by particular literary texts (mostly prose fiction but also memoir, poetry, drama, and scripture) as well as the narrative, or “storied,” dimensions of ethical thought and expression. By ethical questions, we mean inquiries into what it can mean to be a “good” person and live a “good life”; how we should live with and respond to those around us, especially when involving matters of flourishing and suffering; and what visions of the world we should seek to cultivate and realize. We will explore the following proposals: 1) there are relationships between how we respond to literary texts and how we interact with and respond to persons; 2) narrative precedes principles; 3) human beings are story-telling and story-craving animals; and 4) the stories we read and the stories we tell shape who we are, what we deem important, and what we hold sacred. 

Format: the course is taught as a seminar with guided discussion.  Assignments include very short written responses to select literary and theoretical readings, two critical essays, and a final presentation reflecting back on the course.

RELG 3559 / RELG 5320 Research Seminar in Religion, Conflict, and Peace 
Ochs, Peter
Advanced research on religion, politics and conflict for students of "religion-on-religion" conflict/conflict resolution. Research methods drawn from religious studies, politics, anthropology and linguistics, history, sociology, nursing, philosophy, systems analysis and data science. Topics recommended by current work in the Global Covenant of Religions, the UVA Initiative on Religion in Conflict, and other professional work in the field.

RELG 3375/ENWR Spiritual Writing
Ochs, Vanessa L
This course concerns the  quest for meaning, purpose and direction and explores individual encounters with the sacred.  Half of the class is devoted to the study of contemporary spiritual writing from diverse religious and spiritual traditions in fiction, memoir, diaries, and creative non-fiction.The other half of the class is a writing workshop. Students will write about matters of the spirit (as they understand the term) in various genres and will share their work with classmates. This course fulfills the Second Writing Requirement.

RELG 3630 Idolatry
Biemann, Asher
To the monotheistic traditions, idolatry represents one of the most abhorrent moral transgressions. Permeating both the religious and the secular, the prohibition against idol worship has become deeply ingrained in Western culture delineating the boundaries between "true" and "strange."  Yet, while the religious significance of idolatry seems to have vanished, the idol continues to remain in the vocabulary of our everyday language.  Beginning with Biblical sources and concluding with contemporary texts, this course will examine the philosophical framework of casting idolatry as an unspeakable sin: What is an idol, and why is idolatry so objectionable?  With an emphasis on Judaism, though not exclusively, we will discuss idolatry in the context of representation, election, otherness, emancipation, nationalism, secularism, religious innovation, and messianism.

RELG 3820 Global Ethics & Climate Change
Jenkins, Willis Jackson
Addressing planet-wide problems seems to require a global ethic, but is a global ethic possible in a world of many moral cultures and religious traditions? This seminar takes up the ethical questions posed by climate change as ways into the search for shared grounds of cooperation across human difference. We examine political, philosophical, and religious arguments about justice amidst inequality, fairness across borders, harm across generations, and duties to other species. We also explore relations of science, ethics, and culture in developing practical responsibilities for global environmental change.

RELG 4023 Bioethics Internship Seminar
Marshall, Mary Faith
The course enables students to spend time in medical settings as 'participant-observers,' in order to gain first-hand experience of the subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, and practice of bioethics. Prerequisites: Bioethics Major/Minor

RELG 4220 American Religious Autobiography
Warren,  Heather A
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms. This course counts as a religious studies majors seminar.

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar:  Modern American Marriage in Historical Context
Flake,  Kathleen  
Using a variety of approaches and methods, this course will examine the modern history of Christian marriage and family construction in its cultural context. Equal emphasis will be given to early modern and contemporary American marriage, including gay marriage and polyfidelity. Particular attention will be paid to such issues as the gendered ideologies and practices of marriage, especially in relation to the shift from patriarchal to companionate marriage; the connection between marriage, citizenship and civil rights; and the significance of sex, as the root symbol of marriage. We will trace these issues through the evolution of marriage rites and American law and consider contemporary practical challenges posed to specific religious communities    

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar: Sex, Gender and Religion 
Shuve, Karl
What do sex and the body have to do with religious thought and practice? That is the primary question we will explore in this seminar, through an analysis of sources deriving a number of religious traditions—especially Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. We will consider topics such as purity and defilement; patriarchy and the subordination of women; the link between sexuality and “spirituality”; and definitions of marriage.

RELG      4500       Pilgrimage
Ochs, Vanessa
The Majors’ seminar in Religious Studies gives you an opportunity to step back and consider what you have been studying and how you have been studying it.  Hopefully, this will clarify why you have devoted yourself to the study of religion. One goal of the seminar is to recall that religions are studied through diverse lenses—for example, through the methodologies of different disciplines and through the eyes of particular theorists; these shape the way religion is approached, understood and interpreted. religion. The focus of this seminar is the pilgrimage, emphasizing the diverse ways in which this complex ritual has been experienced, described and understood in diverse traditions. Contemporary pilgrimages we will discuss include the Hajj to Mecca, Israel Birthright, the Camino (to Santiago de Compostella, Spain), and the Rolling Thunder Run to the Wall (via motorcycle, to the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall in DC).

RELG      4500       Religion and Psychology
Portmann, John
Exploration of the will to believe, with attention to religious emotions such as fascination, terror, guilt, wholeheartedness, and ecstasy. What motivates religious conversion?  What keeps someone loyal to the religion of his parents?  What impulse prompts a believer to commit acts of hatred or terrible violence in the name of God?  How does contemporary psychiatry compete with or complement pastoral counseling?  Emphasis on Nietzsche, James, Freud, and Daniel Kahneman.  Requirements: 1) regular and substantive class participation; 2) two brief exams; 3) a class presentation; and 4) a final 15-20-page paper

RELG 4800:  Research Methods in Religious Studies
Elizabeth Shanks Alexander
W 3:30-6:00
This course guides students as they design an advanced research project in Religious Studies.  The seminar treats issues such as how to construct an evidence-based argument, how to work with sources and how to develop a professional voice in nonfiction prose. Students develop both a 10-12 pp proposal outlining their project's research questions, methods, and sources, and an annotated bibliography of key works related to the project.  Prerequisite: 3.4 min GPA.

RELG 5541 Seminar in  Social & Political Thought: Public Health Ethics
Childress, James F
This course will explore both ends and means in public health ethics. On the one hand, it will examine the broad goal of public health and reduction of the social burden of disease and injury. It will consider how this goal, which is grounded in a commitment to social welfare and social justice/equity, can be specified for purposes of guiding both policy and practice. On the other hand, public health’s population-based perspective poses a challenge to the traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven perspectives in the U.S.’s public philosophy. This course will consider when, in a liberal democracy, the broad and specific goals of public health justify overriding liberty, privacy, confidentiality, etc., all of which establish presumptive (but non-absolute) constraints against certain societal and governmental interventions. It will examine the tension between giving priority to voluntary actions by members of the public and employing effective public health interventions, in such contexts as testing and screening, surveillance, quarantine/isolation, vaccination, and allocation of resources. 

RELG 8000 Negativity and Religious Imagination
Bouchard,  Larry
Examines ways in which tragedy (and other forms of imaginative literature), scripture and theology, and hermeneutics and criticism portray and reflect on aspects of suffering and evil.

RELG 8350 Proseminar in SIP
Ochs, Peter W
This one credit seminar introduces students the Scriptural Interpretation and Practice (SIP) program to recent approaches to the comparative study of scriptural sources and scriptural traditions.

RELG  8400 Historiography of American Religion
Hedstrom, Matthew Sigurd
This course provides advanced training in the study of American religious history through a careful analysis of important recent scholarship in the field. It is designed to accommodate graduate students whose primary work is in religious history, as well as students from a variety of fields—history, theology, religious studies, politics, literature, anthropology, art history, law, and others—who might benefit from a thorough grounding in the religious history of the United States. In this way, the course lays the foundation for further advanced study in American religious history and a variety of allied fields.

Our focus throughout will be on the “state of the art”—understood broadly to include recent trends and debates in both subject and method. We will read works by emerging and established practitioners in the field to assess the current shape of the field, and the way religious history dialogues with wider conversations in both religious studies and history. We will examine the assigned texts from multiple angles, including their utility for us as models of scholarship.

In addition to the primary focus on method—a focus that will take us into social history, political history, labor history, and cultural history—the course also covers a variety of religious traditions and subjects, seeking to balance an appreciation of diversity with the search for unifying themes. The majority of the readings covers the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Hinduism

RELH 2195 Theory and Practice of Yoga
Campbell, John R.B.
An investigation of yoga practice throughout history from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Topics include yoga's origins in ancient India, systematic yoga theories in Buddhism and Hinduism, Tantric Yoga, and the medicalization and globalization of Yoga in the modern period. Students' readings and writing assignments are supplemented throughout with practical instruction in yoga.

Islam

RELI 2070 Classical Islam
Nair, Shankar
 Studies the Irano-Semitic background, Arabia, Muhammad and the Qur'an, the Hadith, law and theology, duties and devotional practices, sectarian developments, and Sufism.

RELI 3559 Medieval Scholars and Books
al-Rahim, Ahmed
fewer):A survey of medieval scholarship, book culture, and transmission of knowledge.

RELI 5559 Classical Quranic Commentary
al-Rahim, Ahmed  
This graduate seminar is intended to introduce students to the genres of medieval Arabic quranic commentary. We will examine and compare Israelite and hadith based exegesis, sectarian and mystical exegesis, as well as Quran qua Qurran commentaries.

RELI 5559 Islam in South Asia
Nair, Shankar  
fewer):This course examines Islam in the South Asian context. We will explore the coming of Islam to South Asia and its cultural, political and intellectual development from the classical to the modern periods. Special attention will be given to issues of religious boundaries and identity, particularly as this relates to Muslim-Hindu interactions. The course will also aim to provide advanced exposure to current methodological trends within the subfield.

Judaism

RELJ 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien  
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob,  Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in  the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex  process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELJ/HEBR 1410 Elementary Classical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory Schmidt
Learning a new language can be extremely challenging and immensely fun. This course promises to be both. In this course (in combination with its sequel, HEBR/RELJ 1420) students will develop a basic grasp of classical (biblical) Hebrew grammar and syntax. By the end of the spring semester, students will be able to read and translate narrative prose from the Hebrew Bible. Being able to read the Hebrew Bible in its original language provides a better window into the life and thought of the ancient Israelites, as well as a foundation for interpretation of the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Students who successfully complete this course and its sequel will be able to continue study of classical Hebrew at the intermediate level.

RELJ/HEBR 2410 Intermediate Classical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory Schmidt
In this course, which continues and builds upon HEBR/RELJ 1420, students will develop facility in the reading, comprehension, and translation of biblical Hebrew. Students will review basic grammar, learn to analyze syntax, and build their working vocabulary. As a secondary objective of the course, students will learn to interpret biblical prose. By the end of the course, students will be able to read and translate from Hebrew to English moderately difficult prose passages.

RELJ 3170 Modern Jewish Thought
Biemann, Asher D
This course is a critical survey of the most significant Jewish responses to the experience of the modern era.  Beginning with Spinoza's political and hermeneutic thought, we will explore how Jewish thinkers met the social, cultural, and religious challenges of modernity and, in turn, influenced the transformation of modern Jewry.  Jewish Thought is understood in a broader sense to include philosophers, religious reformers, and political leaders.  Changing and conflicting perspectives on tradition, education, culture, and religion will be in the center of our interest.  

RELJ 3490 Jewish Weddings
Ochs, Vanessa
What makes a wedding Jewish? In this ritual studies course, we will explore how the Jewish wedding ceremony has changed from antiquity to the present day. In particular, will see how notions about love, marriage, gender relations, and the normative family are displayed and challenged. In the modern context, we will be investigate the establishment of innovations in the contemporary Jewish weddings (traditional, liberal, same-sex and interfaith) in America and Israel.

RELJ 3559 Political Theology and Israel
Weinman, Michael
This course investigates the tradition of Political Theology. The course will focus centrally on Spinoza'the Theological-Political Treatise, and will cover precursors-“precursors” to Spinoza, including 1st and 2nd Samuel, Talmudic selections (read with commentary from Levinas), e medieval texts (Rambam/Ibn Sina/Ibn Roschd), “responses” to Spinoza, including Hegel, Schmitt, Benjamin, and Derrida as well as Arendt, Agamben, Butler and Levinas.

RELJ 5100  Ethics and Theology of the  Rabbis
Alexander, Elizabeth S
Though the rabbis do not have a distinct genre in which they discuss ethical and theological questions, we will use these rubrics to deepen our understanding of the rabbinic religious outlook.  In the domain of theology, we will tease out the rabbinic response to questions such as:  What is the nature of divinity?  How is personhood conceived? What is the relationship between God and humanity, and specifically to the people Israel?  How are we to understand evil?  What are the limits of knowledge?  We will also explore the question of why rabbinic literature does not address theological questions in a straightforward manner.  In the area of ethics, we will explore central themes such as obligations to the poor, behavioral norms and cultivation of an ideal self (virtue ethics).  In drawing a rabbinic ethic out of the literature, we will consider the respective value of narrative vs. legal materials.  Throughout the course, we will focus on close readings of primary texts.  The goal of the course is to shed light on theological and ethical matters with the aid of reading strategies attentive to the distinctive character of rabbinic discourse.

RELJ 3052 Responses to the Holocaust
In this course, we will read a wide range of responses to the Holocaust—historical accounts, survivor testimonies, theological responses, and philosophical works—as we explore the following questions: What are the theological and philosophical implications of the Holocaust? After the Holocaust, how have understandings of human nature, religious belief and practice, good and evil, responsibility and ethical action changed? What responses to the Holocaust are possible, important, and/or necessary now?

RELJ 5165 Scripture and Philosophy in Judaism and Beyond
Ochs,  Peter
What happened when classical Jewish traditions of study and learning encountered the Hellenic traditions of philosophy? This course examines instances of encounter between philosophy and Jewish text learning throughout Jewish history, from the days of Philo to today, focusing on contexts of history, text-reading and hermeneutics. The second half of the course will explore implications for studies in Christianity and Islam.

RELJ/C 5291 Genesis
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien 
A seminar of the book of Genesis, its formation, and its subsequent interpretation. We will examine the literary artistry of the book—the dramatic and tangled narrative that opens the Hebrew Bible—by considering its plot, characterization, and compositional history. Using methods of modern biblical scholarship, we will further consider the book in its historical and religious context. And, finally, we will examine the early history of how the book was interpreted. Readings will include not only biblical texts, but other ancient Near Eastern compositions that shed light on Genesis, early biblical interpretation, and secondary scholarship on the history, literature and religion of Ancient Israel. 

This course is open to graduate students; undergraduate students (who have completed RELC/RELJ 1210) may contact the instructor to discuss permission to enroll. 

Hebrew is not a prerequisite for the course, but advanced students in classical Hebrew may elect to take a translation component.

Special Topics

RELS 8995 Research Selected Topics
Instructor: Student's choice
Systematic reading in a select topic under detailed supervision.
Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding his course.

RELS 8998 Non Topical Research
Instructor: Student's choice
For master's research, taken under the supervision of a thesis director.
Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9998 Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research
Instructor: Student's choice
For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected.
Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

RELS 9999 Non-Topical Research
Instructor: Student's choice
For dissertation research, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.
Contact the graduate secretary for details regarding this course.

African Religions

RELA 2850 Afro Creole Religions
Schmidt, Jalane
This survey course investigates African-inspired religious practices in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the U.S., particularly those religions--such as Haitian Vodou, Cuban Regla de Ocha (aka “Santería”), Brazilian Candomblé, and black churches in North America--which are deemed emblematic of local African-descended populations and even entire New World societies. By reading ethnographies, we will compare features common to many of these religions—such as polytheism, initiatory secrecy, divination, possession trance, animal sacrifice—as well as differences—such as contrasting evaluations of the devotional use of material objects, relations with the dead, and the commodification of ritual expertise. We will consider how devotees deploy the history of slavery and re-interpret African influences in their practices, and evaluate practitioners' and anthropologists' debates about terms such as “Africa,” “tradition,” “syncretism,” “modernity,” and “creole.”

Buddhism

RELB 2054 Tibetan Buddhism Introduction
TBA
Provides a systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with a strong emphasis on tantric traditions of Buddhism - philosophy, contemplation, ritual, monastic life, pilgrimage, deities & demons, ethics, society, history, and art. The course aims to understand how these various aspects of Tibetan religious life mutually shape each other to form the unique religious traditions that have pertained on the Tibetan plateau for over a thousand years.

RELB 2100 Buddhism
Kachru, Sonam
Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantrayana Buddhist developments in India.

RELB 2135 Chinese Buddhism
TBA
This course examines the ways in which Chinese Buddhism differs from the Buddhisms of other countries. The first half of the course introduces Buddhism with a focus on the historical development of the tradition.The second half of the course surveys several philosophical schools and forms of practice including Huayan, Chan, Pure Land, and Tantric Buddhism.

RELB 2252 Buddhism in Film 
Schaeffer, Kurtis
This course is an introduction to Buddhism and an exploration of the place of Buddhism within contemporary Asian, European, and North American cultures through film. The goals are 1) to identify longstanding Buddhist narrative themes in contemporary films, 2) to consider how Buddhism is employed in films to address contemporary issues, and 3) to gain through film a vivid sense of Buddhism as a complex social and cultural phenomenon.

RELB 2715 Chinese Religions
TBA
This course serves as a general introduction to the religions of China, including Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and popular religion. By emphasizing the reading of primary texts in translation, we will explore the major ideas and practices of these traditions, making special note of the cultural, historical, political and material contexts in which they were conceived and expressed.

RELB 3408 Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy
Campbell, John
Tibet possesses one of the great Buddhist philosophical traditions in the world. Tibetan Buddhist thinkers composed comprehensive and philosophically rigorous works on human growth according to classical Buddhism, works that surveyed ethics, meditation practice, the nature of personal identity, and enlightenment itself. In this seminar we will read and discuss famous Tibetan overviews of Buddhist philosophy. Pre-Requisites: One prior course in religion or philosophy recommended

RELB 5390 Tibetan Buddhist Tantra Dzokchen
Germano, David

RELB 5470 Literary Tibetan V
TBA
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

RELB 5800 Literary Tibetan VII
TBA
Examines the Yogachara-Svatantrika system as presented in Jang-kya's Presentation of Tenets, oral debate, and exercises in spoken Tibetan. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, 5470, 5480 or equivalent.

RELB 8230 Adv Literary & Spoken Tibetan
Schaeffer, Kurtis
Examines selected topics and techniques of Tibetan education.

Christianity

RELC 1220 Early Christianity & New Testament
Spittler, Janet
Studies the history, literature, and theology of earliest Christianity in light of the New Testament. Emphasizes the cultural milieu and methods of contemporary biblical criticism.

RELC 2050 Rise of Christianity
Shuve, Karl Evan
How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents.

RELC 2215 Mormonism and American Culture
Flake, Kathleen
In the nineteenth century, Mormonism had the distinction of being one of the most overtly persecuted religions in the U.S. Today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the nation's fourth largest religious body and has a reputation for hyper patriotism and middle class mores. In addition to introducing who the Mormons are, their beliefs and religious practices, this seminar will use their story to better understand religion and its adaptive strategies. More specifically, we will be asking what is the American idea of being properly religious? How did conflicts over Mormonism help define the legal limits of religious liberty and, even today, why does it serve as a test of public tolerance for religion? How have Latter-day Saint teachings about modern revelation, gender, race, sex and marriage, as well as controversies about whether or not Mormons are Christian, positioned and repositioned Mormons within American society? We will approach these questions from a variety of perspectives: historical, sociological, ethnographic, and theological.

RELC 2850 Kingdom of God
Marsh Jr., Charles
The course examines the influence of theological ideas on social movements in twentieth and twenty-first century America; and it seeks to answer such questions as:  How do religious commitments shape the patterns of everyday living, including economic, political, and sexual organization, as well as racial perception?  How do our ideas about God shape the way we engage the social order?  What role do nineteenth century European and American Protestant theologies play in informing the American search for “beloved community”, which was the term Martin Luther King Jr. sometimes used interchangeably with the Kingdom of God?  What are the social consequences of religious beliefs?  Although our primary historical focus is the American Civil Rights Movement from 1954-1968, we will also look at counter-cultural movements of the late 1960’s, as well as the faith-based community-development movement and recent community organizing initiatives.

RELC 3056 In Defense of Sin
Portmann, John Edward
Exploration of transgression in Judaism and Christianity with a focus on the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins. Reflection on who determines what is sinful and why. Close reading of texts challenging the wrongfulness of acts and attitudes long considered sinful, with critical attention to the persuasiveness of religious rules.

RELC 3231 Reformation Europe
Lambert, Erin
Surveys the development of religious reform movements in continental Europe from c. 1450 to c. 1650 and their impact on politics, social life, science, and conceptions of the self. Cross-listed as HIEU 3231.

RELC 3470 Christianity and Science
Portmann, John
Christian Europe gave rise to modern science, yet Christianity and science have long appeared mutual enemies. In this course we explore the encounter between two powerful cultural forces and study the intellectual struggle (especially in Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Freud) about the place of God in the modern world.

RELC 5559 Liturgy in Late Antiquity
Shuve, Karl
Liturgy and Self-Fashioning in Late Antiquity”, the description is as follows: This course will explore the role played by "liturgy" in creating and sustaining identities in Late Antiquity (c. 200-800 CE), especially in Christianity, but also in Judaism. Through the study of texts, art, and architecture, we will explore the ways that various rituals and communal experiences helped individuals to locate themselves in the world.

RELC 5559 Contemporary Catholic Theology
Flores, Nichole
The seminar explores crucial developments in late-20th and early-21st century Catholic theology and social thought. First, the course engages debates in theological method, especially in terms of their relationship with themes of enculturation and the public relevance of Catholic thought. The second unit explores major doctrinal trajectories that have emerged in light of these methodological debates. Shifting to a global theological perspective, the course concludes by investigating the role of Catholic theology in relation to crucial ethical concerns today: poverty/economics, human trafficking, immigration, and ecology.

RELC 5559 Continental Philosophy
Yates,  Christopher 
This course will examine the central 19th and 20th century movements and figures in European philosophy that comprise the tradition commonly called Continental Philosophy, particularly in its relationship to matters of meaning and belief. Topics covered will include: transcendental and absolute idealism, phenomenology, fundamental ontology, phil

RELC 7515 Themes & Topics Christian Thought :Through the Middle Ages
Mathewes, Charles
This seminar attempts to acquaint graduate students with major works in Christian thought, in order to provide them with the requisite background both for Comprehensive Examinations in Christian thought and also to orient them to engage various major accounts of the Christian tradition. What are the major debates and concepts that have informed Christian thought historically?  What styles of reasoning and deliberation have been explored, and to what ends? Engaging those questions should open angles of interpretation on what is “Christian” and “theology,” and how they relate to other disciplines. The assigned works are considered many of the most important benchmarks for the larger tradition, in both its Latin Western and Greek Eastern formulations, through the High Middle Ages.

General Religious Studies

RELG 1010 Intro Western Religious Traditions
Warren, Heather
Studies the major religious traditions of the Western world; Judaism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.

RELG 2559 Jerusalem
Andruss,  Jessica
This course traces the history of Jerusalem with a focus on its significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How have these communities experienced and inhabited Jerusalem? How have they imagined the city and interpreted its meaning? How have Jews, Christians, and Muslims expressed their attachments to this contested space from antiquity to modern times? Our exploration will be rooted in primary texts—literary and documentary sources and visual images—and informed by historical and cultural context as well as scholarly approaches to sacred space.

RELG 2650 Theological Bioethics
Flores, Nichole
This course examines the ethical principles that commonly guide decisions in health care. It focuses on ethical principles accepted by many Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and humanistic traditions, and embedded in a liberal, pluralistic society, and it examines debates about the implications of these principles for suicide and assisted suicide; terminating life-sustaining treatment; abortion and maternal-fetal relations; artificial reproduction, including human cloning; using human subjects in research; genetic counseling, screening, and engineering; health-care reform; allocating life-saving medical resources; obtaining and distributing organs for transplantation; and public health issues surrounding AIDS, pandemic influenza, Ebola, & possible bioterrorist attacks. The course will use numerous actual and hypothetical cases to highlight moral issues.

RELG/AAS 3200 Martin, Malcolm, and America
Hadley, Mark
An analysis of African-American social criticism centered upon, but not limited to, the life and thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X

RELG 3360 Conquests and Religions
Schmidt, Jalane
This course examines the history of religions in the colonial Americas—the Caribbean, South, Central, and North America from the late-15th century to the mid-19th century—and attends to signature religious devotions, personalities, institutions, and events in the New World during this historical epoch of intense cultural encounters.  Beginning with Islamic-ruled Spain and the Aztec and Incan empires, and the class studies the historical changes in the religious practices of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans and European settlers in Latin America and the Caribbean under European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade. We will consider issues of historiography—specifically, the problem of interpreting the at times hostile, ex post facto-written extant archival sources about the religious practices of subalterns and the use of such primary data in the writing of secondary literature.  Students will develop their abilities to evaluate primary sources (in English translation), and to identify the interpretive choices which scholars make in the crafting of historical narratives.

RELG 3559 Ethics,  Literature,  Religion
Bouchard, Larry
Geddes, Jennifer
This course explores ethical questions raised by particular literary texts (mostly prose fiction but also memoir, poetry, drama, and scripture) as well as the narrative, or “storied,” dimensions of ethical thought and expression. By ethical questions, we mean inquiries into what it can mean to be a “good” person and live a “good life”; how we should live with and respond to those around us, especially when involving matters of flourishing and suffering; and what visions of the world we should seek to cultivate and realize. We will explore the following proposals: 1) there are relationships between how we respond to literary texts and how we interact with and respond to persons; 2) narrative precedes principles; 3) human beings are story-telling and story-craving animals; and 4) the stories we read and the stories we tell shape who we are, what we deem important, and what we hold sacred. 

Format: the course is taught as a seminar with guided discussion.  Assignments include very short written responses to select literary and theoretical readings, two critical essays, and a final presentation reflecting back on the course.

RELG 3559 / RELG 5320 Research Seminar in Religion, Conflict, and Peace 
Ochs, Peter
Advanced research on religion, politics and conflict for students of "religion-on-religion" conflict/conflict resolution. Research methods drawn from religious studies, politics, anthropology and linguistics, history, sociology, nursing, philosophy, systems analysis and data science. Topics recommended by current  work in the Global Covenant of Religions, the UVA Initiative on Religion in Conflict, and other professional work in the field.

RELG 3630 Idolatry
Biemann, Asher
To the monotheistic traditions, idolatry represents one of the most abhorrent moral transgressions. Permeating both the religious and the secular, the prohibition against idol worship has become deeply ingrained in Western culture delineating the boundaries between "correct" and “false” worship, “true” and "strange" communities.  Even outside religious contexts the “idol continues to remain in the vocabulary of our everyday language.  Beginning with Biblical sources and concluding with contemporary texts, this course will examine the philosophical framework of casting idolatry as an unspeakable sin: What is an idol, and why is idolatry so objectionable? Reading texts from different religious and intellectual traditions, we will discuss idolatry in the context of representation, election, otherness, emancipation, nationalism, secularism, religious innovation, and messianism. Final research paper and project presentation.

RELG 4023 Bioethics Internship Seminar
Marshall, Mary Faith
The course enables students to spend time in medical settings as 'participant-observers,' in order to gain first-hand experience of the subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, and practice of bioethics. Prerequisites: Bioethics Major/Minor

RELG 4220 American Religious Autobiography
Warren,  Heather A
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms. This course counts as a religious studies majors seminar.

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar :Modern American Marriage
Flake, Kathleen
Using a variety of approaches and methods, this course will examine the modern history of Christian marriage and family construction in its cultural context. Equal emphasis will be given to early modern and contemporary American marriage, including gay marriage and polyfidelity. Particular attention will be paid to such issues as the gendered ideologies and practices of marriage, especially in relation to the shift from patriarchal to companionate marriage; the connection between marriage, citizenship and civil rights; and the significance of sex, as the root symbol of marriage. We will trace these issues through the evolution of marriage rites and American law and consider contemporary practical challenges posed to specific religious communities    

RELG 4500 Majors Seminar :God,  Politics and War
Mathewes, Charles
Once upon a time, we lived under kings, who were great warriors and high priests.  Now we largely don't have kings, our rulers are not soldiers, and neither rulers nor soldiers are perceived to possess special theological mojo, whose votaries are elsewhere.  How did this change happen?  This course studies the complicated interactions, both historically and today, between human political and social life, the presence of war and conflict within it, and the role of religion in both politics and war.  We will study how humans have come to distinguish activities they describe as "politics" from "religion," and how they have differentiated both from the use of violence in war.  We will watch films, read plays, and study philosophical, political, sociological and theological texts in pursuit of answers to our questions: how did humans come to distinguish religion, politics, and war, and in what ways do they remain, perhaps despite our best efforts, intertwined?    

RELG 4800 Research Methods in RS
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia 
   This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project.  As a follow-up to this course, students usually take RELG 4900, “Distinguished Major Thesis,” which affords them an opportunity to write the research project that they have conceived in this course.  Whether students plan to write a thesis or not, this course offers an accessible introduction to the craft of advanced research in Religious Studies.
   The course surveys the skills needed for advanced research in Religious Studies: critical and analytic reading, formulating a research problem, crafting an evidence-based argument, and developing a professional voice in non-fiction prose. The course also exposes students to religious studies arguments constructed from different kinds of data, evidence and sources so that students grasp the field’s range.  
   The course is conducted as a workshop in which students submit work-in-progress to their peers for feedback and discussion. They are thus initiated into the culture of advanced research wherein constructive feedback is given and received in a generous spirit.

Prerequisite: 3.4 min GPA.

RELG 5070 Interpretation Theory
Bouchard, Larry
   We will explore various approaches to interpretative activity, with emphases on the nature and problems of understanding, especially in respect to literary, religious, and critical texts. 
   Readings in the first part of the course reflect theories of interpretation often known as “hermeneutical.”  Some views considered include those of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Gadamer, and Ricoeur, who locate meaning in our enacted relations with persons, texts, and other forms of expression—especially when separated by time and culture.  Hermeneutics wagers that to some extent, and in different ways, such distances can be overcome.  But this wager is contestable, as with Habermas’s critique of Gadamer.
   The last half of the course explores elaborations of, alternatives to, and departures from the hermeneutical paradigm, as in the work of Bakhtin and Nussbaum, as well as critical practices associated with Derrida, Foucault, and Judith Butler, who in the late twentieth century began bringing this practice to issues of religion and ethics.
   Requirements: Class participation and a brief presentation of (or response to) select assigned syllabus materials, a take-home essay examination (coming a week or so after the mod term break), and either a paper or a take-home essay final. Undergraduates wishing to enroll in this course are welcome, but need to first consult with the instructor.

RELG 5320 / RELG 3559 Research Seminar in Religion, Conflict, and Peace 
Ochs, Peter
Advanced research on religion, politics and conflict for students of "religion-on-religion" conflict/conflict resolution. Research methods drawn from religious studies, politics, anthropology and linguistics, history, sociology, nursing, philosophy, systems analysis and data science. Topics recommended by current  work in the Global Covenant of Religions, the UVA Initiative on Religion in Conflict, and other professional work in the field.

RELG 7130 American Spirituality
Hedstrom, Matthew
What is “spirituality” and why has it become such a pervasive term in contemporary American culture? This course explores this question through historical interrogation of the category and its development since the early nineteenth century. The encounter of historic religious traditions, especially Protestant Christianity, with the intellectual, cultural, economic, and social currents of modernity will form the larger background for our analysis. We will read primary and secondary texts that investigate religious liberalism, the rise of psychology, secularism and secularization, consumerism, media, and globalization. Students will produce an article-length research paper.

RELG 7360 Study of Religion
Spittler, Janet
Kachru, Sonam

RELG 7559 Aristotle,  Plato and  Scripture: Medieval Theo-Philosophical commentary on the Bible and Qur’an.
Ochs, Peter W
A study of the sources and practice of Medieval Theo-Philosophical commentary on the Bible and Qur’an. Critical study of the texts of Plato and Aristotle most cited in medieval commentaries, followed by critical study of a sample of those commentaries, including Maimonides, Nahmanides, Augustine, Aquinas, Al Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Al Ghazali.

RELG 8350 Proseminar in SIP
Ochs, Peter

Hinduism

RELH 2090 Hinduism
Allen, Michael
Surveys the Hindu religious heritage from pre-history to the 17th century; includes the Jain and Sikh protestant movements.

RELH 2195 Theory and Practice of Yoga
Hubbard, Leslie
An investigation of yoga practice throughout history from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Topics include yoga's origins in ancient India, systematic yoga theories in Buddhism and Hinduism, Tantric Yoga, and the medicalization and globalization of Yoga in the modern period. Students' readings and writing assignments are supplemented throughout with practical instruction in yoga.

RELH 5450 Hindu-Buddhist Debates
Allen, Michael
This course examines philosophical debates of Hindu and Buddhist authors from the time of the founding of Buddhism to the medieval period. Primary sources in translation and secondary, scholarly sources are examined in this course. Prerequisite: Significant prior exposure to Hinduism and/or Buddhism.

Islam

RELI 2070 Classical Islam
Nair, Shankar
Studies the Irano-Semitic background, Arabia, Muhammad and the Qur'an, the Hadith, law and theology, duties and devotional practices, sectarian developments, and Sufism.

RELI 5540 Seminar in Islamic Studies: Special Topics in Islamic Thought
Nair, Shankar

RELI 5540 Seminar in Islamic Studies: Introduction, Islamic Studies
al-Rahim, Ahmed

Judaism

RELJ 1410 Elementary Classical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory
Learning a new language can be extremely challenging and immensely fun. This course promises to be both. In this course (in combination with its sequel, HEBR/RELJ 1420) students will develop a basic grasp of classical (biblical) Hebrew grammar and syntax. By the end of the spring semester, students will be able to read and translate narrative prose from the Hebrew Bible. Being able to read the Hebrew Bible in its original language provides a better window into the life and thought of the ancient Israelites, as well as a foundation for interpretation of the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Students who successfully complete this course and its sequel will be able to continue study of classical Hebrew at the intermediate level.

RELJ 2410 Intermed Classical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory
In this course, which continues and builds upon HEBR/RELJ 1420, students will develop facility in the reading, comprehension, and translation of biblical Hebrew. Students will review basic grammar, learn to analyze syntax, and build their working vocabulary. As a secondary objective of the course, students will learn to interpret biblical prose. By the end of the course, students will be able to read and translate from Hebrew to English moderately difficult prose passages

RELJ 3052 Responses to the Holocaust
Geddes, Jennifer

In this course, we will read a wide range of responses to the Holocaust—historical accounts, survivor testimonies, theological responses, and philosophical works—as we explore the following questions: What are the theological and philosophical implications of the Holocaust? After the Holocaust, how have understandings of human nature, religious belief and practice, good and evil, responsibility and ethical action changed? What responses to the Holocaust are possible, important, and/or necessary now?

RELJ 3170 Modern Jewish Thought
Biemann, Asher
This course is a critical survey of the most significant Jewish responses to the experience of the modern era.  Beginning with Spinoza's political and hermeneutic thought, we will explore how Jewish thinkers met the social, cultural, and religious challenges of modernity and, in turn, influenced the transformation of modern Jewry.  Jewish Thought is understood in a broader sense to include philosophers, religious reformers, and political leaders.  Changing and conflicting perspectives on tradition, education, culture, and religion will be in the center of our interest. 

The following units will guide the course:

1)  Defining the Modern Period for Judaism
2)  Spinoza
3)  Origins of the Jewish Enlightenment
4)  Moses Mendelssohn
5)  Emancipation in Progress
6)  Religious Reform and Restoration
7)  Alternative Models of Reform and Religious Adjustment
8)  Nationalism and Dissimilation
9)  Reinventing Tradition
10)  Judaism as Philosophy
11)  After the Holocaust
12)  Contemporary Questions

RELJ 3490 Jewish Weddings
Ochs, Vanessa
What makes a wedding Jewish? Working from an interdisciplinary perspective,  and consulting a variety of resources including sacred texts, historical sources, artifacts, literary sources, music, dance and films, we will study the ritual of the Jewish wedding  from antiquity to modernity. In particular, we will look at challenges to the traditional Jewish wedding in contemporary times that are raised by interfaith couples,  Orthodox feminists, secular Jews, liberal Jews, same-sex-couples and the marriage laws of teh State of Israel. Students will work together in teams over the course of the semester to present elaborately staged and festive weddings for their classmates and invited guests. 

It does not matter what your starting point is, whether this is your first course in Judaism: you will be helped to chart your own trajectory for learning.  And should you ever attend a Jewish wedding; you will be able to explain everything that is going on—and its history—to the person sitting next to you. 

RELJ 3559 Political Theology and Israel
Weinman, Michael
This course investigates the tradition of Political Theology. The course will focus centrally on Spinoza'the Theological-Political Treatise, and will cover precursors-“precursors” to Spinoza, including 1st and 2nd Samuel, Talmudic selections (read with commentary from Levinas), e medieval texts (Rambam/Ibn Sina/Ibn Roschd), “responses” to Spinoza, including Hegel, Schmitt, Benjamin, and Derrida as well as Arendt, Agamben, Butler and Levinas.

RELJ 5559 Jewish Bible Commentaries
Andruss,  Jessica
The Jewish Bible commentary—a verse-by-verse explication of a biblical book, prefaced by a programmatic introduction—is an innovation from the medieval world that remains familiar to readers today. In this seminar, we will trace the development of the Jewish commentary genre from its origins in the ninth-century Islamic East (Geonic and Karaite exegesis) through its twelfth-century manifestations in the Christian West (the Spanish and French schools of exegesis). We will focus on the exegetical techniques of the commentaries as well as their cultural significance. We will approach the commentaries as serious treatments of the biblical text, as responses to rabbinic literature and institutions, and as engagements with parallel trends in Muslim and Christian intellectual history. Core course readings will come from the commentaries, which were originally written in Arabic or Hebrew and are available in English translation. Our aim will be to appreciate the craft of Jewish commentary writing and to discover what is distinctive about the interpretive project in varied historical circumstances.

African Religions

RELA 2850 Afro Creole Relg in Americas
Schmidt, Jalane
A survey course which familiarizes students with African-derived religions of the Caribbean and Latin America

RELA 3900 Islam in Africa
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia
This course offers an historical and topical introduction to Islam in Africa.  After a brief overview of the central features of the Muslim faith, our chronological survey begins with the introduction of Islam to North Africa in the 7th century.  We will trace the transmission of Islam via traders and clerics to West Africa and learn about the medieval Muslim kingdoms of the Sub-Sahara.  We will also consider the development of Islamic scholarship and the reform tradition, the growth of Sufi brotherhoods, and the impact of colonization, de-colonization and globalization upon Islam.

Readings and classroom discussions provide a more in-depth exploration of topics encountered in our historical survey.  Through the use of ethnographic and literary materials, we will explore questions such as the translation and transmission of the Qur'an, indigenization and religious pluralism; the role of women in Islamic movements, traditions and practice, and African Muslim spirituality. This course meets the Historical Studies requirement, as well as the Non-Western Perspectives requirement.

RELA 5620 Ritual & Remembrance
Schmidt, Jalane
By reading ethnographic accounts of ritual performances in West Africa and its Atlantic diaspora, the seminar considers theories of ritual, discursive and non-discursive forms of remembrance, and the production, malleability and politics of memory amidst the particular challenges that the histories of slavery, colonialism, and collective trauma pose to the development of collective identities in the Afro-Atlantic World.

Buddhism

RELB 2054 Tibetan Buddhism Introduction
TBA
A systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, including aspects of its history, iconography, philosophy, ethics, monasticism, rituals, practices, and social milieu. Special attention will be paid to the various strands of Indo-Tibetan culture that have intertwined to produce the immensely rich tradition we see today, though we will also spend a good bit of time examining the uniquely Tibetan tantric technologies that evolved from this process. Previous knowledge of Buddhism is not necessary, but would be helpful for certain segments of the course.

RELB 2900 Buddhist Meditation Traditions
Braun, Erik 
The goal of this course will be to examine different conceptions of Buddhist meditation and how these different conceptions affect the nature of practice and the understanding of the ideal life within a variety of Buddhist traditions.  Thus, the study of Buddhist meditation traditions reveals not just intricate forms of practice, but reveals the nature of the good life and how one lives it.

RELB 3559 Contemporary Chinese Religions
Heller, Natasha
This course explores religion in contemporary China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  Topics include the revival and reimagination of traditional Buddhist and Daoist practices , the growth of Christianity, the role of Islam, and the emergence of new religious groups.  Course materials will include primary sources in translation, journalistic account, and documentary films.  

RELB 3655 Buddhism in America
Braun, Erik 
This course is a seminar that examines the development of Buddhism in America going from its earliest appearance to contemporary developments.

RELB 5470 Literary Tibetan V
TBA
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

RELB 5490 Religious History of Tibet
Germano, David 
Surveys political, social, religious, and intellectual issues in Tibetan history from the fifth to fifteenth centuries, emphasizing the formation of the classical categories, practices, and ideals of Tibetan Buddhism.

RELB 5800 Literary Tibetan VII
TBA
Investigates the techniques and presuppositions involved in the methods used to study Buddhism, including textual, historical, philosophical, and social scientific methods.

RELB 8230 Adv Literary & Spoken Tibetan
Germano, David 
Readings in various genres, including philosophy, poetry, ritual, narrative, and so forth.

 

Christianity

RELC 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien 
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. This course also provides an introduction to methods of modern biblical scholarship; using these methods, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELC 2050 Rise of Christianity
Shuve, Karl
How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents.

RELC 2215 Mormonism and American Culture
Flake, Kathleen 
This course is designed to add substantive depth to a general understanding of American religious pluralism and insight into the socio-historical context of American religion through the study of Mormonism. In addition to introducing Mormonism's basic beliefs and practices, the course will explore issues raised by Mormonism's move toward the American mainstream while retaining its religious identity and cultural distinctiveness.

RELC 2360 Elements of Christian Thought
Jones, Paul
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought by examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas. Authors considered include Anselm of Canterbury, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Elizabeth Johnson, and many others. The course is suitable for those seeking an academic introduction to Christian theology and those wishing to deepen their understanding of this religious tradition. No previous knowledge of Christian thought is required.

RELC 3056 In Defense of Sin
Portmann, John
Exploration of transgression in Judaism and Christianity with a focus on the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins.  Reflection on who determines what is sinful and why.  Close reading of texts challenging the wrongfulness of acts and attitudes long considered sinful, with critical attention to the persuasiveness of religious rules.  Does religious practice remain focused on pleasing God, or does it now principally fulfill familial / ethnic obligation?  Or has it perhaps become simply a personal quest with indeterminate goals?  What does sin have to do with the modern world?

RELC 3231 Reformation Europe
Lambert, Erin 
Surveys the development of religious reform movements in continental Europe from c. 1450 to c. 1650 and their impact on politics, social life, science, and conceptions of the self. Cross-listed as HIEU 3231.

RELC 3675 Women in Ancient Christianity
Shuve, Karl
Why were women excluded from the priestly hierarchy of the church? How did male clerics subsequently circumscribe women's roles in the church? And how did women respond? These are the questions that we will explore in this course on the intersection between gender and power in pre-modern Christianity.

RELC 4044 Religion and the American Courts
Portmann, John
What is the legal expanse of religion in American society?  This seminar will explore the limits of spiritual convictions in a liberal democracy which guarantees religious freedom. This course will examine:  1) the First Amendment; 2) legal methodology; and 3) the contemporary debate over whether citizens and public officials have a duty to refrain from making political and legal decisions on the basis of their religious beliefs. After surveying the theoretical literature, we will turn to specific legal issues involving the practice of religion in the United States.  The Supreme Court’s understanding of the Religion Clauses changed substantially in the twentieth century, and so we will focus on the second half of the last century. Requirements:  1) oral presentation; 2) final fifteen-page paper; 3) regular class participation; and 4) three short exams.

RELC 5009 Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr and King
Marsh, Charles
The course has four goals: (1) to understand the theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Martin Luther King Jr.; (2) to explore the themes of resistance and reconciliation in their writings and actions; (3) to examine their ambivalent relationships with academic theology; and (4) to consider the promise of lived theology for contemporary religious thought.

RELC 7515 Reformation to the Present
Jones, Paul
This seminar acquaints graduate students with landmark works in Christian thought. In addition to functioning as a survey of major thinkers, it also provides the requisite background for comprehensive examinations in Christian thought. What are the major debates and concepts that have informed Christian thought? What styles of reasoning and deliberation have been employed, and to what ends? Authors considered may include: Martin Luther, John Calvin, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, Sergius Bulgakov, H. Richard Niebuhr, Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Mary Daly, James Cone, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Sarah Coakley.

General Religious Studies

RELG 1010 Intro Western Religious Traditions
Warren, Heather 
An historical survey of the origins and development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Subjects include the origins of monotheism, the rise of Israel as a nation, early Christianity, the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, Christianity during the Enlightenment, and the influence of modern science and industrialism on 19th and 20th century religious life. Requirements: Weekly readings, two tests and a final

RELG 1040 Intro Eastern Religious Traditions
Allen, Michael 
Introduces various aspects of the religious traditions of India, China, and Japan.

RELG 1500 Intro Sem Religious Studies: Religion in America
Mathewes, Charles 
Analysis of different modes of reflecting on religion in America, in ways that throw light on those modes of inquiry, on the category of "religion," and the idea of America.

RELG 1500 Intro Sem Religious Studies: Polytheism
Kachru, Sonam 
This is a course which considers what the study of religion might look like when we do not take Monotheism(s) as  paradigmatic of the meaning of religion. This course explores polytheism as far as possible on its own terms, and not as a foil for monotheism. We shall look to Ancient Greece, Rome and India, and consider the prospect of the return of the gods in European Modernity.

RELG 2210 Religion Ethics & Environment
Jenkins, Willis

Where do ideas of nature come from, and what cultural and political consequences do they carry?  This course interprets humanity’s changing ecological relationships through religious and philosophical traditions. It takes up ethical questions presented by environmental problems, introduces frameworks for making sense of them, considers relations between imagination and behavior, and argues over the implications for personal commitments and public policy. Online discussion sections. 

RELG 2650 Theological Bioethics
Flores, Nichole 
“What is the relationship between bodies, beliefs, and power? This course analyzes challenging ethical issues in religion and health care from Christian (Catholic and Protestant), Jewish, and Islamic theological perspectives. We begin by exploring various bioethical frameworks (narrative, virtue, principles) before applying these methods to a range of practical issues: end of life care, maternal-fetal relations, transplantation ethics, genetics, research ethics, health care, and global health.  In addition to theology and philosophy, the course readings, lectures, and discussions engage the disciplines of politics, law, and public policy.”

RELG 2820 Jerusalem
Andruss, Jessica
This course traces the history of Jerusalem with a focus on its significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How have these communities experienced and inhabited Jerusalem? How have they imagined the city and interpreted its meaning? How have Jews, Christians, and Muslims expressed their attachments to this contested space from antiquity to modern times? Our exploration will be rooted in primary texts--literary and documentary sources, and visual images--and informed by historical and cultural context, as well as scholarly approaches to sacred space.

RELG 3255 Ethics, Literature & Religion
Bouchard, Larry 
Geddes, Jennifer
Explores how ethical issues in religious traditions and cultural narratives are addressed in literature, scripture, essay, and memoir. How do stories inquire into “the good life”? How may moral principles and virtues be “tested” by fiction? How does narrative shape identity, mediate universality and particularity, reflect beliefs and values in conflict, and depict suffering?

RELG 3559 Religion on Fire
Ochs, Peter 
The course examine “religion” as an element of socio-political activity in major conflicts in the past two decades: examining the global phenomenon of irremediable, religion-related violent conflict, recent efforts to diagnose religion-specific sources of both violence and peacebuilding, and prospects for cooperative peacebuilding efforts among governmental, civil society, and religious agencies. Admission by application to pwo3v.

RELG 4023 Bioethics Internship Seminar
Marshall, Mary Faith
The course enables students to spend time in medical settings as 'participant-observers,' in order to gain first-hand experience of the subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, and practice of bioethics. Prerequisites: Bioethics Major/Minor

RELG 4220 Amer Religious Autobiography
Warren, Heather 
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms.

RELG 4500 Religion and Children
Heller, Natasha 
his seminar will focus on children and religion, examining the topic from several theoretical vantage points (e.g. sociological, historical, psychological, ethnographical).  We will draw on different religious traditions to consider ideas about the spiritual development of children, what children represent in religious literature, and materials designed to instruct children in a faith.

RELG 4500 Pilgrimage
Ochs, Vanessa 
Majors’ seminars give in Religious Studies give you an opportunity to step back and consider what you have been studying and how you have been studying it, and hopefully, to better clarify why you have devoted yourself to the study of religion.  One goal, then, of the seminar is to recall that religions are studied through diverse lenses—for example, through the methodologies of different disciplines (for example: anthropology, sociology, history psychology, and material culture) and through the eyes of particular theorists).  The methodologies and theories shape the way we approach, understand and interpret religion. Majors’ seminars also have a distinct focus, and ours will be studying the phenomenon of pilgrimage, emphasizing the diverse ways in which it has been experienced (actually and virtually), described and theorized.

RELG 4800 Research Methods in RS
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia
Designed for students in the Distinguished Majors Program (DMP), this course offers third- and fourth-years the resources they need for conceiving and executing a substantial research project.  Participants will practice essential scholarly skills including: 1) critical and analytical reading; (2) formulating a research topic and questions; (3) crafting an evidence-based argument, and (4) developing a professional voice in non-fiction prose. The course also surveys religious studies arguments constructed from different types of data, sources and evidence so that students get a sense of the range of the field. The class assignments culminate in a prospectus (12-15 pages) and an annotated bibliography (15-20 sources) that will serve as the foundation for the student’s eventual thesis. 

As a follow-up to this course, DMP students are expected to enroll in RELG 4900 (“Distinguished Major Thesis”), which affords them an opportunity to write the thesis they have conceived.  But whether one plans to write a thesis or not, RELG 4800 offers an accessible introduction to the craft of advanced research in religious studies and the humanities more broadly. DMP students from other departments have successfully participated in this course in the past; all researchers are welcome!

The class is conducted as a workshop in which students submit work-in-progress to their peers for feedback and discussion.  An additional aspect of the course, then, entails initiation into the culture of advanced research wherein constructive feedback is given and received in a generous spirit. 

RELG 4810 Poetry and Theology
Hart, Kevin
This seminar focuses on the writings of two important poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Geoffrey Hill. The one is Catholic, and the other questions religion at every level while also remaining open to the possibility of faith. Each poet raises major theological issues: belief, doubt, ecstasy, martyrdom, revelation, transcendence, and theodicy, among them. We will read, as closely as possible, some poems and prose writings by each poet, consider their theological contexts, and examine the ways in which theological issues are folded in their poems. Students will write two essays, one on each poet.  This is not a Majors seminar.

RELG 5559 Theology and Culture
Bouchard, Larry 
Theological assessments of culture, considered as the human-made environment comprising: language and patterns of living; structures of belief, norms, and practices; and forms of work, thought, and expression. Topics include cultures as contexts for identity, secular experience and secularization, critiques of religion as an aspect of culture, cultural conflict and religious plurality, and theological interpretations of culture and nature.

RELG 5775 Religion on Fire
Ochs, Peter 
The course examine “religion” as an element of socio-political activity in major conflicts in the past two decades: examining the global phenomenon of irremediable, religion-related violent conflict, recent efforts to diagnose religion-specific sources of both violence and peacebuilding, and prospects for cooperative peacebuilding efforts among governmental, civil society, and religious agencies.    .

RELG 7360 Study of Religion
Jenkins, Willis
Kachru, Sonam 
Given the multidisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for new scholars to gain a basic sense of theoretical and methodological options in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the formation of religious studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and considers some important contemporary approaches.

RELG 7559 TEC Proseminar
Mathewes, Charles 
Flores, Nichole 
A Proseminar introducing students to the various methods and approaches of inquiry in theological, ethical, and philosophical/cultural dimensions of resaerch

RELG 8350 Proseminar in SIP
Ochs, Peter 
This one credit seminar introduces students the Scriptural Interpretation and Practice (SIP) program to recent approaches to the comparative study of scriptural sources and scriptural traditions.

RELG 8400 Historiography Amer Religion
Hedstrom, Matthew
This course provides advanced training in the study of American religious history through a careful analysis of important recent and classic scholarship in the field. It is designed to accommodate graduate students whose primary work is in religious history, as well as students from a variety of fields—history, theology, religious studies, politics, literature, anthropology, art history, law, and others—who might benefit from a thorough grounding in the religious history and historiography of the United States.

 

Hinduism

RELH 2090 Hinduism
Nemec, John
This course offers a comprehensive survey of the history of the religion from its earliest days up to the time of the British presence in India.  No previous exposure to Hinduism or Indian religions more generally is required of students who wish to enroll in this course.

RELH 5559 Aesthetics
Nemec, John
This course will pursue a detailed and technical understanding of Indian aesthetic theory; it will, that is, pursue a comprehensive study of the Alaṃkāraśāstra, in particular the Kashmiri contributions to the same.  Knowledge of Sanskrit is not required but is a plus; significant knowledge of Hinduism/Indian Religions is required of all who want to enroll in this course.

RELH 5559 Sanskrit
Nemec, John
This is a Sanskrit reading course at the advanced level.  At least 2 years of formal study in Sanskrit is required of all students who wish to enroll in this course.

 

Islam

RELI 2085 Modern Islam
Nair, Shankar
Surveys Islamic history from the "age of the great empires" (Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal) to the colonial period and up to the present day, including Islam in America. Islamic life and thought will be examined from multiple angles -- including popular piety and spirituality, philosophy and theology, law, gender, art, architecture, and literature -- with particular attention paid to the rise of modern Islamic "fundamentalist" movements.

RELI 3120 Sufism
Nair, Shankar
This course will be a historical and topical survey of the development of Sufism from the classical Islamic period through the modern age, paying special attention to the interaction of ideas and the social and political contexts surrounding them.

RELI 3559 Prophecy in Islam and Judaism
Andruss, Jessica 
Prophecy provides the theme for our comparative inquiry into two sacred scriptures (the Qurʾan and the Hebrew Bible) alongside the rich traditions of Muslim and Jewish interpretive literature. We will consider narratives about specific prophets, medieval debates between and within Muslim and Jewish communities about the status and function of prophecy within their traditions, and modern theoretical approaches to prophecy.

RELI 3900 Islam in Africa
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia
This course offers an historical and topical introduction to Islam in Africa.  After a brief overview of the central features of the Muslim faith, our chronological survey begins with the introduction of Islam to North Africa in the 7th century.  We will trace the transmission of Islam via traders and clerics to West Africa and learn about the medieval Muslim kingdoms of the Sub-Sahara.  We will also consider the development of Islamic scholarship and the reform tradition, the growth of Sufi brotherhoods, and the impact of colonization, de-colonization and globalization upon Islam.

Readings and classroom discussions provide a more in-depth exploration of topics encountered in our historical survey.  Through the use of ethnographic and literary materials, we will explore questions such as the translation and transmission of the Qur'an, indigenization and religious pluralism; the role of women in Islamic movements, traditions and practice, and African Muslim spirituality. This course meets the Historical Studies requirement, as well as the Non-Western Perspectives requirement.

 

Judaism

RELJ 1210 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Halvorson-Taylor, Martien 
This course provides an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and the Torah and to Christians as the Old Testament. We will read, for example, the narratives about Abraham & Sarah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esther, Daniel, Job and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. This course also provides an introduction to methods of modern biblical scholarship; using these methods, we will examine the Hebrew Bible in its original ancient Near Eastern context to learn about the major phases in the history and religion of ancient Israel. We will consider the diverse genres and theological themes found in the Hebrew Bible and the literary artistry of its whole. Finally, we will read Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text in order to understand the complex process by which the text was formulated, transmitted and interpreted by subsequent religious communities.

RELJ 1410 Elementary Classical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory 
Studies the essentials of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Includes readings of narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 1410 or the equivalent.

RELJ 2030 Introduction to Judaism
Alexander, Elizabeth 
This course introduces students to the academic study of Judaism.  We will use historical methods to observe change and development in Jewish beliefs and practices over time, we will analyze Jewish texts to learn about Jewish beliefs and practices, and we will observe contemporary Jews engaged in Jewish practice to gain insight into Judaism as lived religion.  Among the topics covered are:  sacred text study, prayer, rituals of daily life, holy day practices and life cycle passages.

RELJ 2410 Intermed Classical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory 
Readings in the prose narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Attention to issues of translation and interpretation. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 1420 or the equivalent.

RELJ 3052 Responses to the Holocaust
Geddes, Jennifer
Responses to the Holocaust

RELJ 3170 Modern Jewish Thought
Biemann, Asher 
This course introduces the medieval Jewish intellectual tradition (9th-13th centuries) in its cultural and historical context. We will explore key themes such as the nature of God, prophecy, exile, the status of Scripture, the history of religions, and the quest for spiritual perfection. Readings will be drawn from philosophical, theological, exegetical, pietistic and mystical texts, including works from Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, and Maimonides.

RELJ 3559 Prophecy in Islam and Judaism
Andruss, Jessica 
Prophecy provides the theme for our comparative inquiry into two sacred scriptures (the Qurʾan and the Hebrew Bible) alongside the rich traditions of Muslim and Jewish interpretive literature. We will consider narratives about specific prophets, medieval debates between and within Muslim and Jewish communities about the status and function of prophecy within their traditions, and modern theoretical approaches to prophecy.

RELJ 3559 Contemporary Jewish Fiction
Ochs, Vanessa 

RELJ 5105 Religion and Culture of Rabbis
Alexander, Elizabeth 
An examination of religion and culture of the rabbinic movement (c. 70-600 CE) in the social and cultural contexts of Greco-Roman antiquity.  Among the issues to be examined: 1) rituals and institutions of the rabbis, 2) social organization within the rabbinic movement and 3) rabbinic engagement with other sectors of Jewish and non-Jewish society.

RELJ 5559 Hermann Cohen
Biemann, Asher 
The  Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen was one of the most influential thinkers of 20th-century religious thought. The seminar traces Cohen's neo-Kanian legacy in Europe and the United States. Apart from Cohen's work, we will cover select topics in Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Ernst Cassirer, Ernst Bloch, Leo Strauss, Mordecai Kaplan, and Steven Schwarzschild.

 

African Religions

RELA 2850            Afro- Creole Religions in the Americas (3.00)
A survey course which familiarizes students with African-derived religions of the Caribbean and Latin America

RELA 3730            Religious Themes in African Literature and Film (3.00)
An exploration of religious concepts, practices and issues as addressed in African literature and film. We will examine how various African authors and filmmakers weave aspects of Muslim, Christian and/or traditional religious cultures into the stories they tell. Course materials will be drawn from novels, memoirs, short stories, creation myths, poetry, feature-length movies, documentaries and short films.

RELA 3890            Christianity in Africa (3.00)
Historical and topical survey of Christianity in Africa from the second century c.e. to the present. Cross listed with RELC 3890. Prerequisite: A course in African religions or history, Christianity, or instructor permission.

Buddhism

RELB 2054            Tibetan Buddhism Introduction (3.00)
Provides a systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with a strong emphasis on tantric traditions of Buddhism - philosophy, contemplation, ritual, monastic life, pilgrimage, deities & demons, ethics, society, history, and art. The course aims to understand how these various aspects of Tibetan religious life mutually shape each other to form the unique religious traditions that have pertained on the Tibetan plateau for over a thousand years.

RELB 2100            Buddhism (3.00)
Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantrayana Buddhist developments in India.

RELB 3150            Seminar in Buddhism and Gender (3.00)
This seminar takes as its point of departure Carolyn Bynum's statements: "No scholar studying religion, no participant in ritual, is ever neuter. Religious experience is the experience of men and women, and in no known society is this experience the same." The unifying theme is gender and Buddhism, exploring historical, textual and social questions relevant to the status of women and men in the Buddhist world from its origins to the present day.

RELB 5470            Literary Tibetan V (3.00)
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

RELB 5490 Religious History of Tibet

RELB 5800            Literary Tibetan VII (3.00)
Examines the Yogachara-Svatantrika system as presented in Jang-kya's Presentation of Tenets, oral debate, and exercises in spoken Tibetan. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, 5470, 5480 or equivalent.

RELB 8230            Advanced Literary and Spoken Tibetan (3.00)
Readings in various genres, including philosophy, poetry, ritual, narrative, and so forth.

RELB 8718            Tutorial in Thalgyur Tantra and Commentary (3.00)
This course is exploring one of the most important scriptures in the history of esoteric Buddhism, the Thalgyur, and its extensive commentary attributed to Vimalamitra. The two texts are over a thousand pages in length, only existent in Tibetan, and extremely difficult to understand. This course explores the texts through detailed philological and interpretative analysis.

RELB 8721            Tutorial in Sanskrit: Buddhist Tantra (3.00)
This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: Buddhist esoteric literature, a.k.a. Buddhist Tantra.

RELB 8724            Tutorial in Classical Tibetan Literature and Religion (3.00)

Christianity

RELC 1210            Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (3.00)
Studies the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel in the light of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Emphasizes methods of contemporary biblical criticism. Cross listed as RELJ 1210.

RELC 2050            The Rise of Christianity (3.00)
This course traces the rise of Christianity in the first millennium of the Common Era, covering the development of doctrine, the evolution of its institutional structures, and its impact on the cultures in which it flourished. Students will become acquainted with the key figures, issues, and events from this formative period, when Christianity evolved from marginal Jewish sect to the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.

RELC 2215            Mormonism and American Culture (3.00)
This course is designed to add substantive depth to a general understanding of American religious pluralism and insight into the socio-historical context of American religion through the study of Mormonism. In addition to introducing Mormonism's basic beliefs and practices, the course will explore issues raised by Mormonism's move toward the American mainstream while retaining its religious identity and cultural distinctiveness.

RELC 2245            Global Christianity (3.00)
The story of Christianity's emergence in the Middle East and its migration into Europe and then North America is just one aspect of Christian history, which also has a rich and long history in Africa, Asia and other parts of the global South. This course looks at the shape Christianity is taking in non-Western parts of the world and how this growth impacts Christianity in the West.

RELC 2360            Elements of Christian Thought (3.00)
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought, examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas.

RELC 3222            From Jefferson to King (3.00)
A seminar focused upon some of the most significant philosophical and religious thinkers that have shaped and continued to shape American religious thought and culture from the founding of the Republic to the Civil Rights Movement, including Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jane Addams, William James, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr. We will explore how their thought influenced the social and cultural currents of their time.

RELC 3559            Biblical Outsiders            

RELC 3559            Jesus in Film      

RELC 3890            Christianity in Africa (3.00)
Historical and topical survey of Christianity in Africa from the second century c.e. to the present. Cross listed with RELA 389. Prerequisite: a course in African religions or history, Christianity, or instructor permission.

RELC 5559            New Course in Christianity (1.00 - 4.00)
Schleiermacher and Tillich

General Religious Studies

RELG 1010            Introduction to Western Religious Traditions (3.00)
Studies the major religious traditions of the Western world; Judaism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.

RELG 1040            Introduction to Eastern Religious Traditions (3.00)
Introduces various aspects of the religious traditions of India, China, and Japan.

RELG 1400            The Art and Science of Human Flourishing (3.00)
This course explores human flourishing, well-being, and resiliency across academic, personal, and professional spheres. The course presents a balance of theory and practice, organized into five domains: self-awareness, well-being, connection, wisdom, and integration. Each week explores a single quality of flourishing through scientific research, humanistic reflection, and artistic expression, as well as a detailed set of contemplative practices.

RELG 1500            Introductory Seminar in Religious Studies (3.00)
Religion, Race and Democracy

RELG 2820            Jerusalem (3.00)
This course traces the history of Jerusalem with a focus on its significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How has Jerusalem been experienced and interpreted as sacred within these religious communities? How have they expressed their attachments to this contested space from antiquity to modern times? Discussion will be rooted in primary texts from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources, with attention to their historical context.

RELG 3325            The Civil Rights Movement in Religious and Theological Perspective (3.00)
The seminar considers the American Civil Rights Movement, its supporters and opponents, in religious and theological perspective. While interdisciplinary in scope, the seminar will explore the religious motivations and theological sources in their dynamic particularity; and ask how images of God shaped conceptions of personal identity, social existence, race and nation in the campaigns and crusades for equal rights under the law.

RELG 3360            Conquests and Religions in the Americas, 1400s-1830s (3.00)
Beginning with Islamic-ruled Spain and the Aztec and Incan empires, the course examines historical changes in the religious practices of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans and European settlers in Latin America and the Caribbean under European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade. Topics include: religious violence, human sacrifice, the Inquisition; missions; race, gender and sexuality; slavery, revolts, revolutions, nationalism.

RELG 3559            New Course in Religious Studies (3.00)
Latino Religions

RELG 3559            New Course in Religious Studies (3.00)
Sustainability and Asceticism

RELG 3559            New Course in Religious Studies (3.00)
Gods, Humans, Robots

RELG 3600            Religion and Modern Theatre (3.00)
Examines the works of several playwrights, some of whom dramatize explicitly religious themes or subjects, and others who are predominantly concerned with secular situations and contexts that imply religious questions and issues.

RELG 3605            Religion, Violence and Strategy: How to Stop Killing in the Name of God (3.00)
This course will teach students to evaluate critically the leadership and strategies of social impact campaigns, and the ways in which governments, religious actors and civil society have tried to reduce violent conflict. Students will be organized into small integrated teams to research the root causes and triggers for religion-related violence across the Middle East and North Africa.

RELG 3630 Idolatry

RELG 4023            Bioethics Internship Seminar (3.00)
The course enables students to spend time in medical settings as 'participant-observers,' in order to gain first-hand experience of the subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, and practice of bioethics. Prerequisites: Bioethics Major/Minor

RELG 4220            American Religious Autobiography (3.00)
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms.

RELG 4500            Majors Seminar (3.00)
Sex, Gender and Religion

RELG 4559            New Course in Religious Studies (1.00 - 4.00)
MLK, Jr.: Power, Love, Justice

RELG 4800            Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies (3.00)
This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project. As a follow-up, students usually take RELG 4900 ("Distinguished Major Thesis"), which affords them an opportunity to write the research project they have conceived in this course. Whether you plan to write a thesis or not, RELG 4800 offers an accessible introduction to the craft of research in Religious Studies.

RELG 4810            Poetry and Theology (3.00)
This seminar seeks to develop a close reading of major religious poetry by two major religious poets

RELG 5320 Research Seminar in Religion, Conflict and Peace

RELG 5321            Proseminar in Religion, Politics & Conflict (1.00)
The Proseminar for MA students in Religion, Politics & Conflict meets monthly each semester to discuss student research, to integrate methods and themes in the field, to facilitate professional development, and to deepen relationships with colleagues.

RELG 5801            Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies (3.00)
This course offers MA students in Religious Studies resources for conceiving and executing a major research project or thesis. By the end of the semester, each participant will have completed a well-organized, detailed prospectus. The prospectus will reflect the guidance of one's thesis advisor as well as the scrutiny of the instructor and input from peers. Each student will thus be poised to begin writing his/her thesis the following semester.

RELG 5821            Proseminar in World Religions, World Literatures (1.00)
This monthly seminar explores methods and issues vital to the combined study of literatures and religions. It brings all MA students together, under faculty guidance, to attend to the broad range of individual projects and to foster a rich conversation that traverses the emergent field of study.

RELG 5835            Ethnography and the Study of Religion (3.00)
This course familiarizes students with a range of ways of studying practice in religions as it is evidenced in sacred texts, religious artifacts, images and locations; as it is chronicled in historical documents; as it is reflected in literary and artistic creations; and as it revealed in contemporary practice.

RELG 7360            Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion (3.00)
Given the multidisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for new scholars to gain a basic sense of theoretical and methodological options in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the formation of religious studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and considers some important contemporary approaches.

RELG 8350            Proseminar in Scripture Interpretation and Practice (1.00)
This one credit seminar introduces students the Scriptural Interpretation and Practice (SIP) program to recent approaches to the comparative study of scriptural sources and scriptural traditions.

RELG 8704            Themes and Topics in Religious Ethics (3.00)
Tutorial on important themes, topics, and figures in religious ethics, both historically and in the present moment.

RELG 8715            Philosophic Resources for Abrahamic Theologies            

RELG 8719            The Frankfurt School (3.00)
This course will focus on key texts of the group of scholars known as the Frankfurt School, including Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, and Jürgen Habermas.

RELG 8723            Tutorial in American Spirituality (3.00)
 

Hinduism

RELH 3559            New Course in Hinduism (3.00)
The History of Yoga

RELH 8722            Tutorial in Sanskrit: Devotional Poetry (3.00)
This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: the stotra genre or that of Indian devotional poetry.

RELH 8725            Tutorial in Sanskrit: Hindu Law (3.00)
 

Islam

RELI 2070              Classical Islam (3.00)
Studies the Irano-Semitic background, Arabia, Muhammad and the Qur'an, the Hadith, law and theology, duties and devotional practices, sectarian developments, and Sufism.

RELI 3110              Muhammad and the Qur'an (3.00)
Systematic reading of the Qur'an in English, with an examination of the prophet's life and work. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

RELI 5540              Seminar in Islamic Studies (3.00)
Topics in Islamic Studies

RELI 8709              Islamic Studies Tutorial (3.00)
Tutorial in Islamic Studies on philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, ethics, and political Islam.

Judaism

RELJ 1210             Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (3.00)
Studies the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel in the light of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Emphasizes methods of contemporary biblical criticism. Cross listed as RELC 1210.

RELJ 1410             Elementary Classical Hebrew I (3.00)
Studies the essentials of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Includes readings of narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible.

RELJ 2410             Intermediate Classical Hebrew I (3.00)
Readings in the prose narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Attention to issues of translation and interpretation. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 1420 or the equivalent.

RELJ 3170             Modern Jewish Thought (3.00)
This course offers an introduction into the major themes of Modern Jewish Thought.

RELJ 3559             New Course in Judaism (1.00 - 4.00)
Biblical Outsiders

RELJ 3559             New Course in Judaism (1.00 - 4.00)
Holocaust Museums

RELJ 3559             New Course in Judaism (1.00 - 4.00)
Israeli Art and Culture

RELJ 5100             Theology and Ethics of the Rabbis (3.00)
This course explores theological and ethical themes in classical rabbinic literature (c. 200-600 CE). Focus is on gaining fluency in textual and conceptual analysis. Questions examined include: How is the relationship between God, humans generally and the people Israel specifically, imagined? What is evil and how is it best managed? What is the nature of one's obligation to fellow human beings? How does one cultivate an ideal self?

RELJ 5559             New Course in Judaism (3.00)
Holocaust Studies

RELJ 8705             Tutorial in Translating Biblical Poetry (3.00)
An advanced tutorial in translating biblical poetry, with several interrelated goals: developing skills in advanced biblical grammar; furthering capacities for biblical interpretation; exploring the dynamics of biblical poetry; understanding how ancient poetry and biblical books formed, developed, and were redacted; evaluating secondary literature as a prelude to developing sound arguments and coherent elegant translations.

RELJ 8714             Tutorial: Scriptural Reasoning in Judaism            

African Religions

RELA 2559 | Introduction to Yoruba Religions
Oludamini Ogunnaike
A survey course which familiarizes students with African-derived religions of the Caribbean and Latin America

RELA 2850 | Afro-Creole Religions in the Americas
Julie Jenkins
A survey course which familiarizes students with African-derived religions of the Caribbean and Latin America

Buddhism

RELB 2054 | Tibetan Buddhism Introduction
Kali Cape knc8mh
Provides a systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with a strong emphasis on tantric traditions of Buddhism - philosophy, contemplation, ritual, monastic life, pilgrimage, deities & demons, ethics, society, history, and art. The course aims to understand how these various aspects of Tibetan religious life mutually shape each other to form the unique religious traditions that have pertained on the Tibetan plateau for over a thousand years.

RELB 2100 | Buddhism
Erik Braun
Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantrayana Buddhist developments in India.

RELB 2900 | Buddhist Meditation Traditions
Erik Braun
The goal of this course will be to examine different conceptions of Buddhist meditation and how these different conceptions affect the nature of practice and the understanding of the ideal life within a variety of Buddhist traditions. Thus, the study of Buddhist meditation traditions reveals not just intricate forms of practice, but reveals the nature of the good life and how one lives it.

RELB 3150 | Seminar in Buddhism and Gender
Kali Cape knc8mh
This seminar takes as its point of departure Carolyn Bynum's statements: "No scholar studying religion, no participant in ritual, is ever neuter. Religious experience is the experience of men and women, and in no known society is this experience the same." The unifying theme is gender and Buddhism, exploring historical, textual and social questions relevant to the status of women and men in the Buddhist world from its origins to the present day.

RELB 5055 | Buddhist Philosophy
Sonam Kachru
Course Topic: Attention Norms in Analytic, Empirically Informed, and Indian Philosophy
Professors: Zac Irving (Philosophy) and Sonam Kachru (Religious Studies)

Can we be responsible for our attention? Can certain patterns of attention be good or bad? Our task tackles these under-explored questions, asking whether there are distinctive norms that govern attention. Our class will take an interdisciplinary approach. We will discuss works in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, which contain rich descriptive theories of what attention is. Yet this literature has largely neglect normative questions about how we should direct, cultivate, and train our attention (though we will discuss some emerging work on this topic in analytic ethics and epistemology). We will complement this work with historical sources in Indian and Buddhist Philosophy, which contain normative theories of the role of attention in human flourishing. These sources conceptualize habitual patterns of attention as a profound source of human suffering, and suggest contemplative attention training (meditation) as a route to flourishing. We will analyze these texts through a philosophical lens, and in light of recent work on the cognitive science of meditation.

Prerequisites: Instructor Permission required

RELB 5470 | Literary Tibetan V
Steven Weinberger
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

RELB 5800 | Literary Tibetan VII
Steven Weinberger
Examines the Yogachara-Svatantrika system as presented in Jang-kya's Presentation of Tenets, oral debate, and exercises in spoken Tibetan. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, 5470, 5480 or equivalent

RELB 8733 | Tutorial in Buddhist Philosophy
Sonam Kachru

RELB 8735 | Tutorial: Pali Reading
Erik Braun

 

Christianity

RELC 1210 | Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martien Halvorson-Taylor
Studies the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel in the light of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Emphasizes methods of contemporary biblical criticism. Cross listed as RELJ 1210.

RELC 2050 | The Rise of Christianity
Rebecca Falcasantos
This course traces the rise of Christianity in the first millennium of the Common Era, covering the development of doctrine, the evolution of its institutional structures, and its impact on the cultures in which it flourished. Students will become acquainted with the key figures, issues, and events from this formative period, when Christianity evolved from marginal Jewish sect to the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.

RELC 2245 | Global Christianity
James Daryn Henry
The story of Christianity's emergence in the Middle East and its migration into Europe and then North America is just one aspect of Christian history, which also has a rich and long history in Africa, Asia and other parts of the global South. This course looks at the shape Christianity is taking in non-Western parts of the world and how this growth impacts Christianity in the West.

RELC 2360 | Elements of Christian Thought
Paul Jones
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought, examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas.

RELC 3040 | Paul: Letters and Theology
Greg Given
Intensive study of the theological ideas and arguments of the Apostle Paul in relation to their historical and epistolary contexts.

RELC 3056 | In Defense of Sin
John Portmann
Exploration of transgression in Judaism and Christianity with a focus on the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins. Reflection on who determines what is sinful and why. Close reading of texts challenging the wrongfulness of acts and attitudes long considered sinful, with critical attention to the persuasiveness of religious rules.

RELC 3559 | New Course in Christianity: Bible in Fiction and Film
Ashley Tate
This course will explore biblical texts in their historical and literary contexts, while also exploring how it has been reinterpreted, reincorporated, and reimagined in both ancient and contemporary fiction, poetry, and film.

RELC 4044 | Religion and the American Courts
John Portmann
What is the nature of religion and its role in American society? This seminar will explore the limits of spiritual convictions in a liberal democracy which guarantees religious freedom. This course will examine: 1) the First Amendment; 2) legal methodology; and 3) the contemporary debate over whether citizens and public officials have a duty to refrain from making political and legal decisions on the basis of their religious beliefs.

RELC 5445 | The Atonement in Christian Thought
Paul Jones
This course engages landmark Christian statements about atonement. For about two-thirds of the semester, we read classic texts by Anselm of Canterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, G. W. F. Hegel, and others. In the remaining third of the course we consider contemporary statements, with an especial focus on liberationist perspectives that examine the possible connections between Christian doctrines, violence, and discrimination. Prerequisite: The course is open to graduate students in Religious Studies and undergraduates who have taken at least three academic classes on Christian thought at the university/college level.

RELC 5559 | Coptic Language and Literature
Greg Given

RELC 8737 | Creation and Providence Tutorial
Paul Jones

General Religious Studies

RELG 1010 | Introduction to Western Religious Traditions
Heather Warren
Studies the major religious traditions of the Western world; Judaism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.

RELG 1400 | The Art and Science of Human Flourishing
Leslie Hubbard
This course explores human flourishing, well-being, and resiliency across academic, personal, and professional spheres. The course presents a balance of theory and practice, organized into five domains: self-awareness, well-being, connection, wisdom, and integration. Each week explores a single quality of flourishing through scientific research, humanistic reflection, and artistic expression, as well as a detailed set of contemplative practices.

RELG 1500 | Introductory Seminar in Religious Studies: Religion Race and Democracy
Larycia Hawkins
These seminars introduce first- and second-year students to the academic study of religion through a close study of a particular theme or topic. Students will engage with material from a variety of methodological perspectives, and they will learn how to critically analyze sources and communicate their findings. The seminars allow for intensive reading and discussion of material. Not more than two Intro Seminars may count towards the Major.

RELG 2190 | Religion and Modern Fiction
Larry Bouchard
Studies religious meanings in modern literature, emphasizing faith and doubt, evil and absurdity, and wholeness and transcendence in both secular fiction and fiction written from traditional religious perspectives.

RELG 2559-001 | New Course in Religious Studies: Religious Bodies
Carolyn Howarter
This seminar takes up questions of responsibility and fairness posed by climate change as ways into a search for shared ground across moral traditions. It investigates the ethical dimensions of climate change as a way to consider broad frameworks for developing responsibilities across national, cultural, and religious borders.

RELG 2559-002 | New Course in Religious Studies: Love, Romance and Religion
Carolyn Howarter
In this course we will investigate the intersection between religion, romance, and love in particular to parse out how and why communities privilege certain marriage configurations over others. Through readings, film, and research exercises, we will explore how different religious communities encourage (or discourage) romantic affections, the ideal practices for choosing a spouse, and how the breakdown of relationships is handled.

RELG 2650 | Theological Bioethics
Eric Hilker
Analyzes various moral problems in medicine, health care, and global health from Christian (Catholic and Protestant), Jewish, and Islamic theological perspectives with reference to salient philosophical influences.

RELG 2820 | Jerusalem
Jessica Andruss
This course traces the history of Jerusalem with a focus on its significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How has Jerusalem been experienced and interpreted as sacred within these religious communities? How have they expressed their attachments to this contested space from antiquity to modern times? Discussion will be rooted in primary texts from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources, with attention to their historical context.

RELG 3559-001 | New Course in Religious Studies: Intro to Black and Womanist Religious Thought
Ashon Crawley

RELG 3559-002 | New Course in Religious Studies: Religion & War in Modern America
Samuel Spencer Wells

RELG 3559-003 | New Course in Religious Studies: Religion and the Black Freedom Struggle
Kai Parker
This course will examine how religion impacted the politics, popular culture, and intellectual history of the black freedom struggle in the United States from the ascent of Jim Crow segregation, through the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power, and on to Black Lives Matter.

RELG 3605 | Religion, Violence and Strategy: How to Stop Killing in the Name of God
Jerry White
This course will teach students to evaluate critically the leadership and strategies of social impact campaigns, and the ways in which governments, religious actors and civil society have tried to reduce violent conflict. Students will be organized into small integrated teams to research the root causes and triggers for religion-related violence across the Middle East and North Africa.

RELG 3820 | Global Ethics and Climate Change
Willis Jenkins
This seminar takes up questions of responsibility and fairness posed by climate change as ways into a search for shared ground across moral traditions. It investigates the ethical dimensions of climate change as a way to consider broad frameworks for developing responsibilities across national, cultural, and religious borders

RELG 4023 | Bioethics Internship Seminar
Mary Faith Marshall
The course enables students to spend time in medical settings as 'participant-observers,' in order to gain first-hand experience of the subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, and practice of bioethics. Prerequisites: Bioethics Major/Minor

RELG 4220 | American Religious Autobiography
Heather Warren
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms.

RELG 4500 | Major's Seminar: Telling Stories in Religious Studies
Natasha Heller
Learning to understand and analyze religious traditions is at the heart of the academic study of religion, but conveying knowledge about religion is equally important. In this course we will explore different ways of telling stories in religious studies, and the scholarly and creative potential of various modes of communication. We will look at examples of memoirs, fiction, videos, podcasts, museum exhibits, literary journalism, apps, etc., and explore how we might use these formats ourselves.

RELG 4800 | Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies
Elizabeth Alexander
This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project. As a follow-up, students usually take RELG 4900 ("Distinguished Major Thesis"), which affords them an opportunity to write the research project they have conceived in this course. Whether you plan to write a thesis or not, RELG 4800 offers an accessible introduction to the craft of research in Religious Studies.

RELG 5195 | Blackness and Mysticism
Ashon Crawley
This course considers the radicalism internal to a European Mystical Tradition but also its delimitation, particularly with how it gets cognized in western thought. We will then investigate a Black Radical Mystical Tradition that cannot be, as Robinson might say, "understood within the particular context of it genesis." It is a lived and living tradition, a tradition against religion, a tradition against western thought and modern Man.

RELG 5320 | Research Seminar in Religion, Conflict, and Peace
Peter Ochs
Advanced research on religion, politics and conflict for students of "religion-on-religion" conflict/conflict resolution. Research methods drawn from religious studies, politics, anthropology and linguistics, history, sociology, nursing, philosophy, systems analysis and data science. Topics recommended by current work in the Global Covenant of Religions, the UVA Initiative on Religion in Conflict, and other professional work in the field.

RELG 5321 | Proseminar in Religion, Politics & Conflict
Peter Ochs
The Proseminar for MA students in Religion, Politics & Conflict meets monthly each semester to discuss student research, to integrate methods and themes in the field, to facilitate professional development, and to deepen relationships with colleagues.

RELG 5559-002 | New Course in Religion:Cultural Specificity of Religious Freedom
Kathleen Flake, Natasha Heller

RELG 5630 | Seminar: Issues in the Study of Religion and Literature
Larry Bouchard
Analyzes, in terms of fundamental theory, the purposes, problems, and possibilities of interdisciplinary work in religion and literary criticism.

RELG 5801 | Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies
Elizabeth Alexander
This course offers MA students in Religious Studies resources for conceiving and executing a major research project or thesis. By the end of the semester, each participant will have completed a well-organized, detailed prospectus. The prospectus will reflect the guidance of one's thesis advisor as well as the scrutiny of the instructor and input from peers. Each student will thus be poised to begin writing his/her thesis the following semester.

RELG 7360 | Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion
Erik Braun
Given the multidisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for new scholars to gain a basic sense of theoretical and methodological options in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the formation of religious studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and considers some important contemporary approaches.

RELG 8350 | Proseminar in Scripture Interpretation and Practice
Peter Ochs
This one credit seminar introduces students the Scriptural Interpretation and Practice (SIP) program to recent approaches to the comparative study of scriptural sources and scriptural traditions.

RELG 8400 | Historiography Seminar in American Religion
Kathleen Flake

RELG 8715 | Philosophic Resources for Abrahamic Theologies
Peter Ochs
This seminar provides some philosophic disciplines needed for theological study today: resources in logic, philosophic reasoning, metaphysics, and epistemology, from classic Greek sources through the contemporary period. Students will examine how these resources inform works in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theology: medieval, modern and contemporary. For 2018, the seminar will focus on sources and uses of claims about the "universal," the "true."

RELG 8734 | Memory, History and Religion
Jennifer Geddes

Hinduism

RELH 2090 | Hinduism
Christopher Hiebert
Surveys the Hindu religious heritage from pre-history to the 17th century; includes the Jain and Sikh protestant movements.

RELH 3745 | The Hindu Epics
Christopher Hiebert
This course involves the close reading of selected passages of the Hindu Epics, the Ramaya¿a and the Mahabharata. Students will read the primary sources in translation (from one or both epics), along with relevant secondary scholarly works. An advanced knowledge of Indian religions and/or Hinduism is presumed of students wishing to enroll in this course

Islam

RELI 2070 | Classical Islam
Ahmed al-Rahm
Studies the Irano-Semitic background, Arabia, Muhammad and the Qur'an, the Hadith, law and theology, duties and devotional practices, sectarian developments, and Sufism.

RELI 3355 | Prophecy in Islam and Judaism
Jessica Andruss
Prophecy provides the theme for our comparative inquiry into two sacred scriptures (the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible) alongside the rich traditions of Muslim and Jewish interpretive literature. We will consider narratives about specific prophets, medieval debates between and within Muslim and Jewish communities about the status and function of prophecy within their traditions, and modern theoretical approaches to prophecy

RELI 5559 | New Course in Islam: What is Love: Reflections from Islamic Tradition
Oludamini Ogunnaike
This seminar will examine some of the most profound and influential writings about love from the Islamic intellectual and poetic traditions. Perhaps more than any other civilization, the literary and philosophical traditions of Islamic civilization have been “love-centric.” In this course we will closely read and discuss various philosophies and theories of love from the mundane to the mystical.

Through readings and discussions of the works of Ibn Hazm, ‘Attar, al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Farid, Rumi, Amir Khusro, Ibn ‘Arabi, Hafez and more, students will become familiar with the various “schools of love” of the Islamic tradition, the role of love in Islamic philosophy, theology, and mysticism, as well as the various social practices and norms surrounding love and its expression in the various Muslim societies. We will also cover the prominent belles-lettres tradition of “love literature” in Arabic and Persian and the influence of this literature on Western literature from the Medieval period to the present day.

RELI 8703 | Advanced Readings in Arabic
Shankar Nair

RELI 8707 | Advanced Readings in Persian
Shankar Nair

RELI 8709 | | Islamic Studies Tutorial
Ahmed al-Rahim

Judaism

RELJ 1210 | Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martien Halvorson-Taylor
Studies the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel in the light of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Emphasizes methods of contemporary biblical criticism. Cross listed as RELC 1210.

RELJ 1410 | Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
Greg Goering
Studies the essentials of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Includes readings of narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible.

RELJ 2410 | Intermediate Biblical Hebrew I
Blaire French
Readings in the prose narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Attention to issues of translation and interpretation. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 1420 or the equivalent.

RELJ 3052 | Responses to the Holocaust
Jennifer Geddes
Responses to the Holocaust

RELJ 3170 | Modern Jewish Thought
Asher Biemann
This course offers an introduction into the major themes of Modern Jewish Thought.

RELJ 3355 | Prophecy in Islam and Judaism
Jessica Andruss
Prophecy provides the theme for our comparative inquiry into two sacred scriptures (the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible) alongside the rich traditions of Muslim and Jewish interpretive literature. We will consider narratives about specific prophets, medieval debates between and within Muslim and Jewish communities about the status and function of prophecy within their traditions, and modern theoretical approaches to prophecy

RELJ 3372 | German Jewish Culture and History
Gabriel Finder, Jeffrey Grossman
This course provides a wide-ranging exploration of the culture, history & thought of German Jewry from 1750 to 1939. It focuses on the Jewish response to modernity in Central Europe and the lasting transformations in Jewish life in Europe and later North America. Readings of such figures as: Moses Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Rahel Varnhagen, Franz Kafka, Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxembourg, Walter Benjamin, and Freud.

RELJ 3490 | Jewish Weddings
Vanessa Ochs
As we study the ritual of the Jewish wedding ceremony from antiquity to the present day, we will see how notions about marriage, gender relations, and the normative family are displayed and challenged. In particular, we will be investigating the establishment of innovations in the contemporary Jewish weddings (traditional, liberal, same-sex and interfaith) in America and Israel.

RELJ 3559-001 | New Course in Judaism: Judaism in Art
Asher Biemann

RELJ 3559-002 | New Course in Judaism: Bible in Fiction and Film
Ashley Tate
This course will explore biblical texts in their historical and literary contexts, while also exploring how it has been reinterpreted, reincorporated, and reimagined in both ancient and contemporary fiction, poetry, and film.

RELJ 5105 | Religion and Culture of the Rabbis
Elizabeth Alexander
An examination of religion and culture of the rabbinic movement (c. 70-600 CE) in the social and cultural contexts of Greco-Roman antiquity. Among the issues to be examined: rituals and institutions of the rabbis, social organizations within the rabbinic movement, engagement with other sectors of Jewish and gentile society.

RELJ 5559-001 | New Course in Judaism: Second Temple Judaism
Greg Goering

African Religions

RELA3000  |  Women and Religion in Africa
Hoehler-Fatton,Cynthia Heyden
This course examines women’s religious activities, traditions and spirituality in a number of different African contexts.  Drawing on ethnographic, historical, literary, and religious studies scholarship, we will explore a variety of themes and debates that have emerged in the study of gender and religion in Africa.  Topics will include gendered images of sacred power; the construction of gender through ritual; sexuality and fertility; and women’s agency in indigenous religious movements, Muslim communities and Christian congregations in Africa.   Readings include works by religious studies scholars, historians, anthropologists and novelists. Main requirements: a brief “issue paper”, midterm and final exams, a 10-page research paper, and active participation in class discussion.

RELA3559  |  New Course in African Religion: Religion Witchcraft & Modernity in Africa and Diaspora
Skora, Kara
 

RELA3730  |  Rel in African Lit & Film
Hoehler-Fatton,Cynthia Heyden
This seminar examines the ways in which religious ideas, practices and issues are represented, and addressed, in African literature and film. How do African authors and filmmakers interweave aspects of Muslim, Christian and traditional religious cultures into the stories they tell? To what extent are questions of religious belief, spirituality, or conflict incorporated into their literary and cinematographic projects? How does “religion” serve as a lens through which to explore various relationships—social, political, emotional—in the works of these artists? The literary (and oral) genres covered in the class include creation myths, novels, memoirs, short stories and plays. The movies—both feature films and “shorts”—are made by African directors and producers. The course offers a sampling of classic works that depict precolonial, colonial and early postcolonial experiences, as well as recent works by a new generation of African writers and filmmakers who engage contemporary contexts and issues.   Requirements: class presentations, short writing assignments, quizzes, midterm and final exams.

Buddhism

RELB1559  |  Buddhist Ethics
Kachru,Sonam
 

RELB2054  |  Tibetan Buddhism Introduction
Taylor,Andrew Steven
Provides a systematic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with a strong emphasis on tantric traditions of Buddhism - philosophy, contemplation, ritual, monastic life, pilgrimage, deities & demons, ethics, society, history, and art. The course aims to understand how these various aspects of Tibetan religious life mutually shape each other to form the unique religious traditions that have pertained on the Tibetan plateau for over a thousand years.

RELB3495  |  Early Buddhism in South Asia
Kachru,Sonam
This course explores the origins and development of Buddhism in South Asia. It assumes students have no prior knowledge of Buddhism. The goal is to understand the complex of teachings, practices, and relationships that would become known later as Buddhism and, simultaneously, how such a complex has developed within specific cultural contexts.

RELB3655  |  Buddhism in America
Braun,Erik C
"We will also examine the places of story and imagination in modern life and religious traditions. Is fiction “only” fiction; are metaphors “just” figures of speech; are symbols or symbolic actions “merely” myths and symbols? Are certain forms of fiction especially suited to exploring religious and moral questions? Does fiction ever disclose religious answers?  The course will blend lecture and discussion. There will be two guided essays with flexible prompts on assigned material (about 2000 words each), short quizzes, and a short paper on assigned material (about 8 pages, 2400 words) in lieu of a final exam. The course can meet the 2nd writing requirement, upon request."

RELB5470  |  Literary Tibetan V
Weinberger,Steven Neal
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

RELB5800  |  Literary Tibetan VII
Weinberger,Steven Neal
Examines the Yogachara-Svatantrika system as presented in Jang-kya's Presentation of Tenets, oral debate, and exercises in spoken Tibetan. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, 5470, 5480 or equivalent.

Christianity

RELC1210  |  Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Halvorson-Taylor,Martien A
Studies the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel in the light of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Emphasizes methods of contemporary biblical criticism. Cross listed as RELJ 1210.

RELC2050  |  Rise of Christianity
Karl Shuve
This course traces the rise of Christianity in the first millennium of the Common Era, covering the development of doctrine, the evolution of its institutional structures, and its impact on the cultures in which it flourished. Students will become acquainted with the key figures, issues, and events from this formative period, when Christianity evolved from marginal Jewish sect to the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.

RELC2245  |  Global Christianity
Henry,James Daryn
The story of Christianity's emergence in the Middle East and its migration into Europe and then North America is just one aspect of Christian history, which also has a rich and long history in Africa, Asia and other parts of the global South. This course looks at the shape Christianity is taking in non-Western parts of the world and how this growth impacts Christianity in the West.

RELC2360  |  Elements of Christian Thought
Jones,Paul Dafydd
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought by examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas. Authors considered include Augustine of Hippo, Karl Barth, Leonardo Boff, John Calvin, Elizabeth Johnson, Delores Williams, and many others.   The course is suitable for those who seek an academic introduction to Christian theology and those who wish to deepen their understanding of this religious tradition. No previous knowledge of Christian thought is required.

RELC3030  |  Jesus and the Gospels
Spittler, Janet
This course focuses on Jesus of Nazareth as an historical figure, that is, as he is accessible to the historian by means of historical methods. Our most important sources of information on Jesus are the canonical Gospels, and so much of the course will involve reading and attempting to understand these texts. We will attempt to reconstruct at least the broad outlines of Jesus activity and teachings, keeping in mind the limits of our sources.

RELC3090  |  Plagues, Pestilence, Pox and Prophecy
Goering,Gregory Wayne Schmidt
This course examines the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). Each primary text will be considered in its historical, cultural, and political contexts

RELC3222  |  From Jefferson to King
Hadley,Mark Andrew
A seminar focused upon some of the most significant philosophical and religious thinkers that have shaped and continue to shape American religious thought and culture from the founding of the Republic to the Civil Rights Movement, including Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jane Addams, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

RELC3625  |  Christ
Hart,Kevin John
This course is an introduction to Christology, that part of Theology concerned with the claim that Jesus is the Christ. How is this doctrine built up from Scripture, Church Councils, and the Fathers? What roles do heresies and creeds play in the construction? What events in the life and death of Jesus are most relevant to Christological claims? Particular attention is given to Jesus's preaching of the Kingdom of God.

RELC4044  |  Religion and American Courts
Portmann,John Edward
What is the nature of religion and its role in American society? This seminar will explore the limits of spiritual convictions in a liberal democracy which guarantees religious freedom. This course will examine: 1) the First Amendment; 2) legal methodology; and 3) the contemporary debate over whether citizens and public officials have a duty to refrain from making political and legal decisions on the basis of their religious beliefs.

RELC5559  |  Christian America: Religion and Nationalism in US
Hedstrom,Matthew Sigurd
This course examines the complex interactions between religion and nationalism in the United States, past and present. Considerable attention will be paid to both hegemonic and counterhegemonic cultural formations across a wide range of religious traditions. Topics will include, as examples, civil religion; black nationalism; settler colonialism and empire; and cosmopolitan, diasporic, and internationalist critiques of nationalism.

RELC5730  |  Theology and Culture
Bouchard, Larry D
Theological assessments of culture, considered as the human-made environment comprising: language and patterns of living; structures of belief, norms, and practices; and forms of work, thought, and expression.  Topics include cultures as contexts for identity, secular experience and secularization, critiques of religion as an aspect of culture, cultural conflict and religious plurality, and theological interpretations of culture and nature.

RELC5980  |  The Theology of Karl Barth
Jones,Paul Dafydd
This seminar engages the thought of Karl Barth, arguably the most important Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. While we will deal with some of Barth’s early work – specifically, The Word of God and Theology and the second edition of The Epistle to the Romans – our primary focus will be the Church Dogmatics. Topics considered include the role of the Bible in theological reflection, theological epistemology, the doctrine of God, election, Christian ethics and political life, the human being, sin and evil, Christology and atonement, and the Christian community.

RELC7515  |  Themes and Topics in Christian Thought: Ecotheology
Jenkins, Willis
Advanced seminar on relation of contemporary Christian theologies to environmental thought. Surveying environmental formulations of Catholic (including magisterial and liberationist), Protestant (including evangelical and anabaptist), and Eastern Orthodox traditions, as well as projects to ecologically reconstruct Christianity (ecofeminism and creation spirituality), this seminar assumes previous training in systematic theology.

General Religion

RELG1010  |  Intro Western Religious Trads
Warren, Heather
Studies the major religious traditions of the Western world; Judaism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam

RELG1400  |  The Art and Science of Human Flourishing
Hubbard, Leslie
 

RELG1500  |  Introductory Seminar in Religious Studies: Religion and Gender
Tate, Ashley

RELG2190  |  Religion and Modern Fiction
Bouchard,Larry D
Are there intrinsically “religious” or “spiritual” questions? Modern fiction—in the 20th and 21st centuries—often raises questions that appear to be religious, spiritual, or ethical in character. Fiction may ask about “human spirit” and “human nature,” evil and suffering, identity and community, reason and revelation, grace and transformation. We will explore writers who pursue such questions, and how they imagine traces of the sacred or transcendent through their works’ distinctive language, forms, imagery, and experiences.   The writers in this course collectively tell a story of late modernity, from the early 20th century into the 21st. Some of them (such as Elie Wiesel, Shusaku Endo, Marilynne Robinson) write fictions that explicitly reflect religious traditions they identify with. Others (Hermann Hesse, Kamila Shamsie) write mostly or apparently secular narratives that nonetheless have religious, spiritual, or ethical implications. Others (N. Scott Momaday, Toni Morrison, Yann Martel) employ a variety of traditions to create new and distinctive spiritual visions.

RELG2559  |  Bullets Ballots and Bibles
Parker,Kai
This course will examine how religion has inspired debates on strategies for achieving black liberation, including nonviolent direct action, the use of force, self-defense, voting, riot, and revolution. Authors and figures discussed may include Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Pauli Murray, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frantz Fanon, Marcus Garvey, Walter Benjamin, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown.

RELG2630  |  Business Ethics and Society
Petra Turner; Charles Mathewes
A study of the philosophical and religious frameworks for interpreting and evaluating human activity in the marketplace. This includes major theoretical perspectives, contemporary issues within the marketplace, and corporate ethics

RELG2650  |  Theological Bioethics
Henry, James Daryn
Analyzes various moral problems in medicine, health care, and global health from Christian (Catholic and Protestant), Jewish, and Islamic theological perspectives with reference to salient philosophical influences.

RELG3325  |  The Civil Rights Movement in Religious and Theological Perspective
Marsh, Charles
The seminar considers the American Civil Rights Movement, its supporters and opponents, in religious and theological perspective. While interdisciplinary in scope, the seminar will explore the religious motivations and theological sources in their dynamic particularity; and ask how images of God shaped conceptions of personal identity, social existence, race and nation in the campaigns and crusades for equal rights under the law.

RELG3405  |  Intro to Black and Womanist Religious Thought
Crawley,Ashon Thomas
Is thought always already racialized, gendered, sexed? This Introduction to Black and Womanist Thought course argues that thought does not have to submit itself to modern regimes of knowledge production, that there are alternative ways to think and practice and be in the world with one another. An introduction to major thinkers in both religious thought traditions with attention to theology, philosophy and history.

RELG3485  |  Moral Leadership
Portmann,John Edward
This course introduces students to the moral frameworks of Aristotle, Maimonides, Machiavelli, and Jeff McMahon and then examines pressing moral issues in contemporary America.

RELG3559  |  Black Philosophy and Religion
Crawley,Ashon Thomas
This course is about the major themes, thought traditions and modes of reflection in Black Religion and Philosophy. Students will read from major thinkers that have informed this tradition and write about their influences in both religion and philosophy as disciplines. 

RELG3559  |  Black Music, Black Faith
Parker,Kai Perry
This course examines the intersection of religion and music in African American culture and politics from the antebellum era to the present. Topics will include how religion inhabits seemingly secular genres such as R&B, jazz, and hip-hop; the role of spirituals in the development of black politics; gospel's discourse on world affairs; and the sacred music of abolition and civil rights. No background in music theory or practice is required.

RELG3605  |  Religion, Violence & Strategy
White,Gerard B
This course will teach students to evaluate critically the leadership and strategies of social impact campaigns, and the ways in which governments, religious actors and civil society have tried to reduce violent conflict. Students will be organized into small integrated teams to research the root causes and triggers for religion-related violence across the Middle East and North Africa.

RELG4220  |  Amer Religious Autobiography
Warren,Heather A
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms.

RELG4500  |  Majors Seminar: Scripture
Alexander,Elizabeth S
Capstone seminar on the subject of scripture

RELG4800  |  Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies
Spittler,Janet Elizabeth
This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project. As a follow-up, students usually take RELG 4900 ("Distinguished Major Thesis"), which affords them an opportunity to write the research project they have conceived in this course. Whether you plan to write a thesis or not, RELG 4800 offers an accessible introduction to the craft of research in Religious Studies.

RELG5225  |  The Civil Rights Movement in Religious and Theological Perspective
Marsh, Charles
The seminar considers the American Civil Rights Movement, its supporters and opponents, in religious and theological perspective. While interdisciplinary in scope, the seminar will explore the religious motivations and theological sources in their dynamic particularity; and ask how images of God shaped conceptions of personal identity, social existence, race and nation in the campaigns and crusades for equal rights under the law.

RELG5320  |  Research Religion and Conflict
Ochs,Peter W
Advanced research on religion, politics and conflict for students of "religion-on-religion" conflict/conflict resolution. Research methods drawn from religious studies, politics, anthropology and linguistics, history, sociology, nursing, philosophy, systems analysis and data science. Topics recommended by current work in the Global Covenant of Religions, the UVA Initiative on Religion in Conflict, and other professional work in the field.

RELG5321  |  Relg, Pol, Conflict Proseminar
Ochs,Peter W
The Proseminar for MA students in Religion, Politics & Conflict meets monthly each semester to discuss student research, to integrate methods and themes in the field, to facilitate professional development, and to deepen relationships with colleagues.

RELG5801  |  Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies
Spittler,Janet Elizabeth
This course offers MA students in Religious Studies resources for conceiving and executing a major research project or thesis. By the end of the semester, each participant will have completed a well-organized, detailed prospectus. The prospectus will reflect the guidance of one's thesis advisor as well as the scrutiny of the instructor and input from peers. Each student will thus be poised to begin writing his/her thesis the following semester.

RELG5821  |  Prosem World Relig World Lit
Ochs,Peter W
This monthly seminar explores methods and issues vital to the combined study of literatures and religions. It brings all MA students together, under faculty guidance, to attend to the broad range of individual projects and to foster a rich conversation that traverses the emergent field of study.

RELG7360  |  Themes and Methods in the Study of Religion
Heller,Natasha L
Given the multidisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for new scholars to gain a basic sense of theoretical and methodological options in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the formation of religious studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and considers some important contemporary approaches.

RELG7528  |  Topics in Modern Religious Thought: Political Theology
Mathewes, Charles
Examination of a major topic in modern religious thought--e.g., religious imagination, ethical and religious subjectivity, metaphor and religious language, religious and ethical conceptions of love.

Hinduism

RELH2090  |  Hinduism
Nemec,John William
This course serves as a general introduction to Hinduism in its classical, medieval and colonial forms. By reading primary texts in translation (along with key secondary sources), and by taking note of the cultural, historical, political and material contexts in which they were composed, we will explore Hinduism from its earliest forms to the period of the “Hindu Renaissance” in the nineteenth century. In other words, we will take a sweeping look at the religious and cultural life of the Indian sub-continent from the second millennium B.C. (B.C.E.) to the nineteenth century.

RELH3105  |  Hinduism and Ecology
Allen,Michael S
This course will explore Hindu views of the relationship between human, natural, and divine worlds, as well as the work of contemporary environmentalists in India. We will read texts both classical and modern, from the Bhagavad Gītā to the writings of Gandhi, and will consider case studies of Hindu responses to issues such as wildlife conservation, pollution, deforestation, and industrial agriculture.

RELH3725  |  Travel Writing and India
Nemec,John William
"This course examines (Western) encounters with India by reading the fiction and travel writing of Europeans, Americans, and Expatriated Indians in India or, conversely, in the West. The selected works were in the main written by Western writers for Western audiences, and they thus provide a window on Western attitudes towards South Asia. (In many cases, they can tell us a good deal about India, as well.) Among the novelists we will read are Mark Twain, Herman Hesse, and Rudyard Kipling, as well as expatriated Indian writers such as V.S. Naipaul and Suketu Mehta, who have lived outside India for decades and have recorded their experiences on returning to the subcontinent. The goal of this course is to explore how it is we come to know a place other than home, and how encounters with “the other” inspire, challenge, transform, or confirm our own notions of self, society, religion, and way-of-life."

RELH5559  |  The Rise of Vedanta
Allen,Michael S
 

Islam

RELI2070  |  Classical Islam
Nair,Shankar Ayillath
A general introduction to the origins, development, teachings, and practices of the Islamic tradition. Studies the Irano-Semitic background, Arabia, Muhammad and the Qur'an, the Hadith, law and theology, duties and devotional practices, sectarian developments (Sunnism and Shi'ism), and Sufism or "Islamic mysticism."

RELI5540  |  Seminar in Islamic Studies
Nair,Shankar Ayillath
 

Judaism

RELJ1210  |  Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Halvorson-Taylor,Martien A
Studies the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel in the light of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Emphasizes methods of contemporary biblical criticism. Cross listed as RELC 1210.

RELJ1410  |  Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
Goering,Gregory Wayne Schmidt
First half of a year-long introduction to biblical Hebrew, using an innovative language-learning approach. Through communicative activities in an immersive environment, students acquire oral and aural capacities naturally, in Hebrew. These capacities enable students to internalize the language and thus achieve the overall course goal: read simple biblical Hebrew prose with immediate comprehension. Students begin reading Jonah by semester's end

RELJ2410  |  Intermediate Biblical Hebrew I
Schwartz, Avram
Readings in the prose narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Attention to issues of translation and interpretation. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 1420 or the equivalent.

RELJ3052  |  Responses to the Holocaust
Geddes,Jennifer Leslie
Responses to the Holocaust

RELJ3090  |  Israelite Prophecy
Goering,Gregory Wayne Schmidt
This course examines the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel. We will read in translation most of the stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament about prophets (Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha), as well as the books attributed to prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve). Each primary text will be considered in its historical, cultural, and political contexts.

RELJ3170  |  Modern Jewish Thought
Biemann,Asher D
This course offers an introduction into the major themes of Modern Jewish Thought

RELJ3320  |  Judaism: Medicine and Healing
Ochs,Vanessa L
Jewish tradition integrates a respect for the skill and knowledge of the physician along with an awareness that there are spiritual and relational components of the healing process. In this course we will study: multiple Jewish ways of understanding why we get sick, suffer, heal and find meaning again; Jewish healing practices (ancient and contemporary) in ritual and prayer; and specific Jewish medical-ethical perspectives concerning the body and healing. Readings will include ancient sacred writings in Torah, Mishna and Talmud as well as modern and contemporary texts (serving as case studies) that reflect how medicine, suffering and healing are variously constructed and reflected in Jewish culture.  This course will stress close readings of texts, analyses of living traditions, and encounters with those whose lives and experiences are perfused by Jewish models of healing    

RELJ3372  |  German Jewish Culture and History
Finder, Gabriel; Grossman, Jeffrey
 

RELJ3390  |  Jewish Feminism
Ochs,Vanessa L
Jewish Feminism

RELJ3885  |  Judaism in Art
Biemann, Asher
 

RELJ5100  |  Theology/Ethics of Rabbis
Alexander,Elizabeth S
This course explores theological and ethical themes in classical rabbinic literature (c. 200-600 CE). Focus is on gaining fluency in textual and conceptual analysis. Questions examined include: How is the relationship between God, humans generally and the people Israel specifically, imagined? What is evil and how is it best managed? What is the nature of one's obligation to fellow human beings? How does one cultivate an ideal self?

RELA

RELA 2559 | New Course in African Religions
Crawley, Ashon

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
2:00PM - 4:30PM

DESCRIPTION
This is an introductory survey course in which we will together explore the topic of Africana religions generally——including the practices of spirituality of black people in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and on the continent of Africa. Particular attention will be paid to the relations between these various locations, the similarities and differences. We will listen to music, watch film, read fiction, poetry, sacred texts and works of critical nonfiction.

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RELA 3000 | Women and Religion in Africa
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
This course examines women's religious activities, traditions and spirituality in a number of different African contexts. Drawing on ethnographic, historical, literary, and religious studies scholarship, we will explore a variety of themes and debates that have emerged in the study of gender and religion in Africa. Topics will include gendered images of sacred power; the construction of gender through ritual; sexuality and fertility; and women.

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RELA 3559 | New Course in African Religions
Ogunnaike, Oludamini

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
Historical and topical survey of Christianity in Africa from the second century c.e. to the present. Cross listed with RELC 3890. Prerequisite: A course in African religions or history, Christianity, or instructor permission.

RELB

RELB 2100 | Buddhism
Kachru, Sonam

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday
9:00AM - 9:50AM

DESCRIPTION
Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantrayana Buddhist developments in India.

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RELB 2900 | Buddhist Meditation Traditions
Braun, Erik

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
2:00PM - 2:50PM

DESCRIPTION
The goal of this course will be to examine different conceptions of Buddhist meditation and how these different conceptions affect the nature of practice and the understanding of the ideal life within a variety of Buddhist traditions. Thus, the study of Buddhist meditation traditions reveals not just intricate forms of practice, but reveals the nature of the good life and how one lives it.

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RELB 3150 | Seminar in Buddhism and Gender
Heller, Natasha

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
12:30PM - 1:45PM

DESCRIPTION
This seminar takes as its point of departure Carolyn Bynum's statements: "No scholar studying religion, no participant in ritual, is ever neuter. Religious experience is the experience of men and women, and in no known society is this experience the same." The unifying theme is gender and Buddhism, exploring historical, textual and social questions relevant to the status of women and men in the Buddhist world from its origins to the present day.

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RELB 3495 | Early Buddhism in South Asia
Braun, Erik

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
9:30AM - 10:45AM

DESCRIPTION
This course explores the origins and development of Buddhism in South Asia. It assumes students have no prior knowledge of Buddhism. The goal is to understand the complex of teachings, practices, and relationships that would become known later as Buddhism and, simultaneously, how such a complex has developed within specific cultural contexts.

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RELB 5470 | Literary Tibetan V
Weinberger, Steven

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
2:00PM - 3:15PM

DESCRIPTION
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, or equivalent.

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RELB 5495 | The Buddhist Canon in Tibet: Structure, Scope, and Research
Schaeffer, Kurtis

DAY & TIME
Monday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This course introduces the structure, scope, and contents of the Tibetan-language Buddhist canonical collections. We will read and discuss selections in both English and Tibetan from the 5000 works in the Scripture (Bka' 'gyur) and Treatise (Bstan 'gyur) collections, as well as reference aids and current research on the canons. The course goal is to develop a firm basis for all research involving Tibetan-language canonical literature.

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RELB 5715 | Seminar on Chinese Religion and Society
Heller, Natasha

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
Studies Chinese religion and society within the context of a specific period of Chinese history, or in terms of a specific theme. Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and popular religion will be covered (along with other forms of religion, as appropriate).

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RELB 5800 | Literary Tibetan VII
Weinberger, Steven

DESCRIPTION
Examines the Yogachara-Svatantrika system as presented in Jang-kya's Presentation of Tenets, oral debate, and exercises in spoken Tibetan. Prerequisite: RELB 5000, 5010, 5350, 5360, 5470, 5480 or equivalent.

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RELB 8706 | Tutorial in the Buddhist Canon in Tibet
Schaeffer, Kurtis

DESCRIPTION
This course is exploring one of the most important scriptures in the history of esoteric Buddhism, the Thalgyur, and its extensive commentary attributed to Vimalamitra. The two texts are over a thousand pages in length, only existent in Tibetan, and extremely difficult to understand. This course explores the texts through detailed philological and interpretative analysis.

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RELB 8718 | Tutorial in Thalgyur Tantra and Commentary
Germano, David

DESCRIPTION
This course is exploring one of the most important scriptures in the history of esoteric Buddhism, the Thalgyur, and its extensive commentary attributed to Vimalamitra. The two texts are over a thousand pages in length, only existent in Tibetan, and extremely difficult to understand. This course explores the texts through detailed philological and interpretative analysis.

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RELB 8721 | Tutorial in Sanskrit: Buddhist Tantra
Nemec, John

DESCRIPTION
This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: Buddhist esoteric literature, a.k.a. Buddhist Tantra.

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RELB 8724 | Tutorial in Classical Tibetan Literature and Religion
Germano, David

DESCRIPTION
This course explores classical Tibetan literature and religious systems through a variety of genres in the original Tibetan texts.

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RELB 8735 | Tutorial - Pali Reading
Braun, Erik

DESCRIPTION
In this course students will read a selection of Pali canonical and commentarial texts.

RELC

RELC 1220 | New Testament & Early Christianity
Spittler, Janet Elizabeth

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday
2:00PM - 2:50PM

DESCRIPTION
Studies the history, literature, and theology of earliest Christianity in light of the New Testament. Emphasizes the cultural milieu and methods of contemporary biblical criticism.

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RELC 2245 | Global Christianity
Henry, James Daryn

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
12:30PM - 1:45PM

DESCRIPTION
The story of Christianity's emergence in the Middle East and its migration into Europe and then North America is just one aspect of Christian history, which also has a rich and long history in Africa, Asia and other parts of the global South. This course looks at the shape Christianity is taking in non-Western parts of the world and how this growth impacts Christianity in the West.

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RELC 2360 | Elements of Christian Thought
Jones, Paul

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
2:00PM - 2:50PM

DESCRIPTION
This course considers the complex world of Christian thought, examining various perspectives on the nature of faith, the being and action of God, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of the Bible in theological reflection, and the relationship between Christian thought and social justice. Students will read various important works of Christian theology and become acquainted with a range of theological approaches and ideas.

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RELC 2559 | New Course in Christianity
Crawley, Ashon

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
2:00PM - 4:30PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of ChristianityA text-focused class that will read the entire City of God, supplementing that work with several other of Augustine's smaller texts (particularly letters and sermons) to attempt to understand that work's argument, paying attention to the various audiences to which it was addressed, and to Augustine's larger thought as captured in that one great and difficult book

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RELC 3240 | Medieval Mysticism
Hart, Kevin

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
9:30AM - 10:45AM

DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to the flourishing of contemplative (or “mysticial”) writing from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. We will converge on The Cloud of Unknowing and Julian of Norwich’s Showings of Divine Love; but we will begin with the amazing treatise The Mystical Ark by Richard of St. Victor, which teaches its readers how to contemplate God in nature. Aquinas disapproved of the treatise, and we’ll find out why when we read his account of it in the Summa theologiæ. Is mysticism a matter of the mind or the heart or both? Is it directed solely to God or can one contemplate anything at all?

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RELC 3245 | Religion, Law, & Culture
Flake, Kathleen

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
An examination of the legal evolution, philosophical underpinnings, and political application of the First Amendment religion clauses. Analysis of specific controversies and court opinions will be supported by attention to such key concepts as "secularism," "tolerance," "civilization," "gender" and "race" in the application of these clauses domestically and in U.S. foreign policy.

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RELC 3469 | Survey of Apocryphal Christian Literature
Spittler, Janet

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
There are four gospels, one book of "acts," and one "apocalypse" (that is, "revelation") in the canonical New Testament -- but early Christian authors produced far more literature than that. In this course, we will read a wide range of "apocryphal" (or "noncanonical") gospels, acts, and apocalypses, focusing on texts that, despite their noncanonical status, were widely read and highly influential in the history of Christianity.

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RELC 5009 | Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr and King: Resistance and Reconciliation
Marsh, Charles

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
The course has four goals: (1) to understand the theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Martin Luther King Jr.; (2) to explore the themes of resistance and reconciliation in their writings and actions; (3) to examine their ambivalent relationships with academic theology; and (4) to consider the promise of lived theology for contemporary religious thought.

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RELC 5970 | Schleiermacher and Tillich: Theology and Culture
Bouchard, Larry

DAY & TIME
Monday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
A comparative study of key works by F. D. E. Schleiermacher and Paul Tillich, two of the most important Protestant thinkers of the last two hundred years. The course attends particularly to both authors' attitudes to the category of "religion," the nature and meaning of cultural production, and the vexed category of "experience." It also engages both authors' perspectives on central issues in the fields of Christian thought and religious ethics.

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RELC 8701 | Tutorial in Christian Apocrypha
Spittler, Janet

DESCRIPTION
In this tutorial, students will work with manuscripts to produce an edition of a Greek text, an English translation of that edition, and a short commentary on the text. Students will also assemble an annotated bibliography.

RELG

RELG 1010 | Introduction to Western Religious Traditions
Warren, Heather A.

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday
1:00PM - 1:50PM

DESCRIPTION
Studies the major religious traditions of the Western world; Judaism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.

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RELG 1040 | Introduction to Eastern Religious Traditions
Allen, Michael

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
Introduces various aspects of the religious traditions of India, China, and Japan.

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RELG 1500 | Introductory Seminar in Religious Studies
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
These seminars introduce first- and second-year students to the academic study of religion through a close study of a particular theme or topic. Students will engage with material from a variety of methodological perspectives, and they will learn how to critically analyze sources and communicate their findings. The seminars allow for intensive reading and discussion of material. Not more than two Intro Seminars may count towards the Major.

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RELG 2559 | Introductory Seminar in Religious Studies
Hoehler-Fatton, Cynthia

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Religious Studies.

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RELG 2820 | Jerusalem
Andruss, Jessica

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
2:00PM - 3:15PM

DESCRIPTION
This course traces the history of Jerusalem with a focus on its significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How has Jerusalem been experienced and interpreted as sacred within these religious communities? How have they expressed their attachments to this contested space from antiquity to modern times? Discussion will be rooted in primary texts from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources, with attention to their historical context.

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RELG 3255 | Ethics, Literature & Religion
Geddes, Jennifer L.

DAY & TIME
Thursday
2:00PM - 4:30PM

DESCRIPTION
Explores how ethical issues in religious traditions and cultural narratives are addressed in literature, scripture, essay, and memoir. How do stories inquire into "the good life"? How may moral principles and virtues be "tested" by fiction? How does narrative shape identity, mediate universality, and particularity, reflect beliefs and values in conflict, and depict suffering?

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RELG 3559 | New Course in Religious Studies
Parker, Kai

DAY & TIME
Monday
2:00PM - 4:30PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Religious Studies.

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RELG 3605 | Religion, Violence & Strategy
Niblock, Elliott

DAY & TIME
Monday
5:00PM - 7:30PM

DESCRIPTION
This course will teach students to evaluate critically the leadership and strategies of social impact campaigns, and the ways in which governments, religious actors and civil society have tried to reduce violent conflict. Students will be organized into small integrated teams to research the root causes and triggers for religion-related violence across the Middle East and North Africa.

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RELG 3820 | Global Ethics & Climate Change
Jenkins, Willis

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
2:00PM - 3:15PM

DESCRIPTION
This seminar takes up questions of responsibility and fairness posed by climate change as ways into a search for shared ground across moral traditions. It investigates the ethical dimensions of climate change as a way to consider broad frameworks for developing responsibilities across national, cultural, and religious borders.

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RELG 4220 | American Religious Autobiography
Warren, Heather A.

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
Multidisciplinary examination of religious self-perception in relation to the dominant values of American life. Readings represent a variety of spiritual traditions and autobiographical forms.

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RELG 4500 | Majors Seminar: What Is Going On with American Religion?
Mathewes, Charles

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
Introduces the study of religion as an interdisciplinary subject, utilizing methods in history of religions, theology, sociology, depth psychology, and literary criticism. The seminars are thematic and topics will vary according to the design of the instructor. Limited to twenty religious studies majors.

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RELG 4800 | Crafting a Research Project in Religious Studies
Alexander, Elizabeth S.

DAY & TIME
Thursday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project. As a follow-up, students usually take RELG 4900 ("Distinguished Major Thesis"), which affords them an opportunity to write the research project they have conceived in this course. Whether you plan to write a thesis or not, RELG 4800 offers an accessible introduction to the craft of research in Religious Studies.

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RELG 5321 | Proseminar in Religion, Politics & Conflict
Ochs, Peter

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
6:00PM - 7:30PM

DESCRIPTION
This monthly seminar explores methods and issues vital to the combined study of literatures and religions. It brings all MA students together, under faculty guidance, to attend to the broad range of individual projects and to foster a rich conversation that traverses the emergent field of study.

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RELG 7360 | Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion
Geddes, Jennifer

DAY & TIME
Friday
2:00PM - 4:30PM

DESCRIPTION
Given the multidisciplinary character of religious studies, it is imperative for new scholars to gain a basic sense of theoretical and methodological options in the field. By way of an examination of landmark texts, this course surveys the formation of religious studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and considers some important contemporary approaches.

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RELG 8006 | Major Christian Thinker
Mathewes, Charles

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
12:30PM - 1:45PM

DESCRIPTION
Tutorial on important themes, topics, and context of one or more major Christian Thinkers.

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RELG 8220 | American Religious Autobiography
Warren, Heather

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
Examination of twentieth-century American religious autobiography.

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RELG 8400 | Historiography Seminar in American Religion
Parker, Kai

DAY & TIME
Tuesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
Examines current historiographical issues in the interpretation of religion in American history. Prerequisite: instructor permission.

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RELG 8715 | Philosophic Resources for Abrahamic Theologies
Ochs, Peter

DESCRIPTION
This seminar provides some philosophic disciplines needed for theological study today: resources in logic, philosophic reasoning, metaphysics, and epistemology, from classic Greek sources through the contemporary period. Students will examine how these resources inform works in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theology: medieval, modern and contemporary. For 2018, the seminar will focus on sources and uses of claims about the "universal," the "true."

RELH

RELH 3140 | The Jain Tradition
Nemec, John William

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
2:00PM - 3:15PM

DESCRIPTION
Examines Jain history, belief, and practice. Prerequisite: RELG 1040, RELH 2090, 2110, or instructor permission.

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RELH 3559 | New Course in Hinduism
Kachru, Sonam

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Hinduism.

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RELH 5559 | New Course in Hinduism
Kachru, Sonam

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Hinduism.

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RELH 8722 | Tutorial in Sanskrit: Devotional Poetry
Nemec, John William

DESCRIPTION
This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: the stotra genre or that of Indian devotional poetry.

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RELH 8743 | Tutorial in Sanskrit: Philosophy
Nemec, John William

DAY & TIME
Thursday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This course examines philosophical debates of Hindu and Buddhist authors from the time of the founding of Buddhism to the medieval period. Primary sources in translation and secondary, scholarly sources are examined in this course.
Prerequisite: Significant prior exposure to Hinduism and/or Buddhism.

RELI

RELI 2070 | Classical Islam
Nair, Shankar Ayillath

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday
10:00AM - 10:50AM

DESCRIPTION
Studies the Irano-Semitic background, Arabia, Muhammad and the Qur'an, the Hadith, law and theology, duties and devotional practices, sectarian developments, and Sufism.

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RELI 3335 | Prophecy in Islam and Judaism
Andruss, Jessica

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
Prophecy provides the theme for our comparative inquiry into two sacred scriptures (the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible) alongside the rich traditions of Muslim and Jewish interpretive literature. We will consider narratives about specific prophets, medieval debates between and within Muslim and Jewish communities about the status and function of prophecy within their traditions, and modern theoretical approaches to prophecy

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RELI 3559 | New Course in Islam
Ogunnaike, Oludamini 

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
12:30PM - 1:45PM

DESCRIPTION

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Islam.

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RELI 5415 | Introduction to Arabic and Islamic Studies
al-Rahim, Ahmed

DAY & TIME
Monday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This graduate seminar provides a comprehensive survey of the subjects and areas addressed in the field of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

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RELI 5559 | New Course in Islam
Salomon, Noah

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Islam.

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RELI 8559 | New Course in Islam
Ogunnaike, Oludamini 

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
12:30PM - 1:45PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Islam.

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RELI 8707 | Advanced Readings in Persian
Nair, Shankar

DESCRIPTION
Advanced readings in Persian philosophical, theological, mystical, and literary texts. Course readings will be in Persian.

RELJ

RELJ 1410 | Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:00AM - 10:50AM

DESCRIPTION
First half of a year-long introduction to biblical Hebrew, using an innovative language-learning approach. Through communicative activities in an immersive environment, students acquire oral and aural capacities naturally, in Hebrew. These capacities enable students to internalize the language and thus achieve the overall course goal: read simple biblical Hebrew prose with immediate comprehension. Students begin reading Jonah by semester's end.

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RELJ 2410 | | Intermediate Biblical Hebrew I
Goering, Gregory

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday
2:00PM - 3:15PM

DESCRIPTION
Readings in the prose narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Attention to issues of translation and interpretation. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 1420 or the equivalent.

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RELJ 3170 | Modern Jewish Thought
Biemann, Asher

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
12:30PM - 1:45PM

DESCRIPTION
This course offers an introduction into the major themes of Modern Jewish Thought.

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RELJ 3350 | Judaism and Ethics
Alexander, Elizabeth

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
An exploration of ethical thinking using the resources of the Jewish tradition.

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RELJ 3355 | Prophecy in Islam and Judaism
Andruss, Jessica

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
Prophecy provides the theme for our comparative inquiry into two sacred scriptures (the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible) alongside the rich traditions of Muslim and Jewish interpretive literature. We will consider narratives about specific prophets, medieval debates between and within Muslim and Jewish communities about the status and function of prophecy within their traditions, and modern theoretical approaches to prophecy.

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RELJ 3372 | German Jewish Culture and History
Grossman, Jeffrey

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
3:30PM - 4:45PM

DESCRIPTION
This course provides a wide-ranging exploration of the culture, history & thought of German Jewry from 1750 to 1939. It focuses on the Jewish response to modernity in Central Europe and the lasting transformations in Jewish life in Europe and later North America. Readings of such figures as: Moses Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Rahel Varnhagen, Franz Kafka, Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxembourg, Walter Benjamin, and Freud.

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RELJ 3490 | Jewish Weddings
Ochs, Vanessa

DAY & TIME
Monday, Wednesday
1:00PM - 1:50PM

DESCRIPTION
As we study the ritual of the Jewish wedding ceremony from antiquity to the present day, we will see how notions about marriage, gender relations, and the normative family are displayed and challenged. In particular, we will be investigating the establishment of innovations in the contemporary Jewish weddings (traditional, liberal, same-sex and interfaith) in America and Israel.

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RELJ 3885 | Judaism in Art
Biemann, Asher

DAY & TIME
Wednesday
3:30PM - 6:00PM

DESCRIPTION
This course is organized around great works in the history of art whose thematic content and historical context intersect with the Jewish experience. Each session focuses on one representative artwork from antiquity to the present to reveal something about Jewish history. Textual sources (biblical, poetic, literary, scholarly) help interpret the artwork.

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RELJ 5350 | Judaism and Ethics
Alexander, Elizabeth

DAY & TIME
Tuesday, Thursday
11:00AM - 12:15PM

DESCRIPTION
An exploration of ethical thinking using the resources of the Jewish tradition.

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RELJ 8752 | Tutorial: Theopolitics Modern Judaism II: Mendelssohn & the Enlightenment
Biemann, Asher

DESCRIPTION
Tutorial 2 in sequence of 3. Mendelssohn's book Jerusalem, or on Religious Power (1783), the center of our discussion and a response to Hobbes, Spinoza, and Locke, is both a theory of government & a novel interpretation of Judaism, but also a program of enlightenment and modernization that has to be seen in the context of Jewish emancipation in the 18th century. The course introduces texts by Kant, Lessing, Herder, Friedlander, & Schleiermacher.

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