����AV��Ƶ

RELIGIOUS STUDIES COURSES

FALL 2025

RELG 101 - Religions of the World - Gen Ed: G, H
Cross listed: JUST 100 / AFST 180E / ANTH 180C
Time: MWF  2:45 - 3:45pm
Instructor: Douglas Jones

What does it mean to study various religions from an academic perspective? How do we, as outsiders at a public university, discuss different traditions responsibly? Answering questions like these and developing our skills as scholars of religion is of no small importance in an increasingly global society. This class will take a thematic approach to a number of traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Prominent themes include the history of Religious Studies as a discipline, religion and popular culture, religion and violence, the history of utopian thought, and the status of new and controversial movements across the globe.

RELG 180A - Intro to Judaic Studies - Gen Ed: D, H
Cross listed: JUST 101
Time: TR  9:45 - 11:15am
Instructor: Randy Friedman

This survey course, appropriate for first and second year students, engages sociology, religious studies, philosophy of religion and Biblical studies. The course is broken into four sections: 1) Race, Ethnicity, People, Nation, Religion: Are Jews and Judaism a race? An ethnicity? What is a religion? 2) Gods, Sources, Interpretations, Traditions: What is God? Who wrote the Bible? How does a scholar read the Bible? What is Biblical commentary? What is Rabbinic Judaism? 3) Faith, Suffering, and Justice: We will read through two difficult Biblical stories, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22), and portions of the Book of Job. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there suffering in the world? 4) From Exodus to Passover. We will offer a close reading of the story of the Israelite slavery and liberation from Egypyt, and explore how the holiday of Passover emerges from the story and its interpretations.​

RELG 180B - Judaism, Christianity & Islam - Gen Ed: C, G, H
Cross listed: JUST 180F / MDVL 180P
Time: TR  3:15 - 4:45pm
Instructor: Michael Kelly

This course introduces you to the historical, theological and religious origins, characters and beliefs of three intimately entangled systems: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Students will learn by reading the primary texts of the religions across a mix of lectures and seminars. No previous knowledge of Christianity, Judaism, Islam or foreign languages is required.

RELG 180D - Intro to African Religion - Gen Ed: H, W
Cross listed: AFST 171 / ANTH 280L / SOC 180A
Time: TR  9:45 - 11:15am
Instructor: Anthony Ephirim-Donkor

E. A. Wallis Budge defined African religion as “the worship of the souls of the dead, commonly called Ancestor Worship.” Also, Diodorus, a Greek historian of the 1st Century BCE, stated that blacks or Ethiopians, “were the first of all men, and the proofs of this statement, they say, are manifest. For that they did not come into their land as immigrants from abroad but were natives of it, and so justly bear the name of ‘autochthones’ is, they maintain, conceded by practically all men…. And they [i.e., the Greek historians relied on by Diodorus] say that they [i.e., the black peoples] were the first to be taught to honor the gods and to hold sacrifices and processions and festivals and other rites by which men honor the deity; and that in consequence their piety has been published abroad among all men, and it is generally held that the sacrifices practiced among the Ethiopians [i.e., the black peoples] are those which are the most pleasing to heaven.” Thus, students are introduced to the nature and phenomenon of African religion, conceptions of God and gods and goddesses, ancestors and ancestor worship, elders, sacrifices and symbols, and rituals that offer meaning to the lives of Africans.

RELG 280A - Jewish History Ancient to 1500 - Gen Ed: G, N, W
Cross listed: JUST 201 / HIST 285D / MDLV 280J
Time: TR 1:30 - 3:00pm
Instructor: Michael Kelly

This course offers an introduction to Jewish history from the Bible to the end of the Middle Ages. It surveys some of the major issues that defined Judaism, including the nature and development of biblical texts; the effort of small Jewish states in the age of great ancient empires; the impact of (Greek culture) Hellenism on Judaism and the rise of Christianity from it; the emergence of the Diaspora; and Jewish life under and interaction with medieval Islam and Christendom. The course's two major themes are: 1) the evolution and development of Judaism, and 2) the shifting character of Jewish identity and peoplehood. No previous knowledge of Jewish history and religion is required or assumed. This course satisfies the core and survey requirements for Judaic Studies majors and minors.

RELG 280B - Muslim Peoples Of The World - Gen Ed: W
Cross listed: AFST 236 / HIST 285E
Time: TR 11:45am -1:15pm
Instructor: Moulay Ali Bouanani

Islam as the last Abrahamic revelation appeared amongst the Arabs in Mecca with Mohammed who would tirelessly fight for its survival at the beginning. It would have its book, the Qur’an compiled during the Rashidun Khulafa’s time and as Muslims believe, is a correcting force of the Abrahamic texts before it. Islam would spread across Arabia in a very short time and cross to Persia and the Byzantine provinces between 632 and 640. Cross-disciplinary survey of selected Muslim peoples and organizations in Asia (including “the Middle East”), Africa, Europe, Oceania and the United States and Latin America. The course will discuss Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim majority states and the Modern Islamic diaspora in the West, including Australia and New Zealand. Chronologically, the course covers the period from the 7th to the 21st century.

RELG 280C - The End! Apocalyptic Narrative - Gen Ed: H, O, W
Cross listed: COLI 280S / ENG 200N / ENVI 280B / GERM 281B / PHIL 280G
Time: MW  3:15 - 4:45pm
Instructor: Alexander Sorenson

“Apocalypse” is often equated with destruction and catastrophe, calling to mind familiar images of chaos, fiery judgment, stars falling from the sky, and other ends of the world. From ancient Mesopotamian flood stories to contemporary novels, from religious visions of the end of the world to our contemporary moment of climate catastrophe and global pandemic, the apocalypse has long offered a potent way of thinking about the interconnections and fragility of social, cultural, theological, ecological, and political orders. As such, apocalyptic narratives have been able to provide us with “the sense of an ending.” And yet the literal meaning of “apocalypse” is “unveiling”: that is, it can also signify re-definition, renewal, and recognition. This class explores apocalyptic narratives across cultures and historical periods in both of those senses: as stories not only about endings, but new beginnings as well. Together we will engage with a variety of apocalyptic fictions and thought, including materials from multiple cultural traditions and media, such as visual art, philosophy, theatre, music, and film.

RELG 280J - Afro-Braz & Carib Religions - Gen Ed: D, H, W
Cross listed: AFST 203 / ANTH 280T / LACS 280F
Time: TR  11:45am - 1:15pm
Instructor: Anthony Ephirim-Donkor

In a journey more than geographic, Africans in the New World lost all symbolic means of their religious expressions. Still, African religions and cultures survived to play critical roles in forging new religions. How? For answers, students explore the hermeneutical ways in which African descended groups contextualized their environment and created syncretistic religions like Candomblé, Santeria, Voodoo, Obeah, and Rastafari.

RELG 311 - Faith and Reason - Gen Ed: C, H
Cross listed: JUST 311 / PHIL 311
Time: TR  11:45am - 1:15pm
Instructor: Randy Friedman

This reading-intensive seminar will explore some fundamental questions in philosophy of religion, focusing on the work of Maimonides, Spinoza and Kant. Topics will include the nature of divinity, metaphysics, the supernatural, creation, revelation, religious experience, and feminist philosophy of religion. Some questions will include: what is God? How does one know about God? How do we account for and understand revelation? What is the relation between God and morality and the good. In addition to the content of this course, students will practice the process skills of reading and writing critically. Students will be expected to read the texts carefully and to come to class prepared to ask and answer questions. The course will require at least 100 pages of reading each week. This course meets Judaic Studies major/minor survey requirement.

RELG 320 – Protestant Christianity - Gen Ed: C, H, T
Time: MWF  11:00am - 12:00pm
Instructor: Douglas Jones

This course considers the Protestant tradition within Christianity from its origins in the Renaissance and Reformation to its unique expression in the United States. Along the way, we explore some of Protestantism's major themes, including justification by faith, the literal sense of scripture, and the priesthood of all believers. We also consider some of the social and political ramifications of reform, starting with the Peasants' Revolt in the 1520s and ending with the role of evangelicalism in contemporary political discourse. Other themes include the role of women in ministry, the lives of LGBTQ Christians, the rise of various forms of sectarianism and nondenominationalism, and, finally, the global phenomenon of the contemporary prosperity gospel. Note: If you have taken RELG 120 you will not receive credit for taking RELG 320.

RELG 380A - Race Festivals in the Americas - Gen Ed: G, I, N, T, W
Cross listed: AAAS 380V / AFST 381B / HIST 384M / LACS 384F
Time: MW  1:30 - 3:00pm
Instructor: Ramaesh Bhagirat

This course examines the racial politics of festival culture in North and South America, with an emphasis on South Asian- and African-diasporic festivals in the Caribbean since the nineteenth century. Festivals serve as battlegrounds for racial representation, national inclusion, and cultural identity amongst marginalized communities who value oral and performative traditions. At the same time, festivals reflect, challenge, and reinforce racialized power structures, and thus serve as a lens to understanding society as a whole. We will explore hemispheric iterations of Carnival, the most famous festival that emerged within the slave societies of Brazil, Trinidad, and Louisiana. Then we will analyze a range of national, religious, commemorative, folk, and popular festivals as they have changed over time. Case studies include but are not limited to: Latin American patron saint festivals (fiestas patronales); South Asian religious festivals and commemorations such as Divali, Ramleela, and Hosay; race-conscious festivals like the Caribbean Festival of Arts and the Harlem Cultural Festival; representations of South Asians and East Asians in Carnival; and Afro- and Indo-diasporic festival music from jazz to chutney soca.

RELG 380D - Theological Origins of Mod Lit Film - Gen Ed: C
Cross listed: ENG 380P
Time: TR 11:45am - 1:15pm
Instructor: Joseph Church

The course proposes that Western modernity, often seen as a radical break from religion and a triumph of secularism, in fact has deep roots in theological disputes of the late medieval and early modern periods, primarily in the Realist-Nominalist debates that questioned the nature of universals and their relationship to God, the world, and human beings. Realists held that universals (Platonic-like forms) really did exist and enabled us to rationally know God; Nominalists denied the substantive existence of such forms (they were just names) and affirmed the ultimate unknowability of God and the primacy of human individuality. These divisive theological arguments eventually influenced key thinkers such as Descartes, Luther, Hobbes, Kant, and Nietzsche and thereby helped lay the groundwork for modern philosophical and aesthetical developments. This course will thus consider these earlier religious debates over divine authority and human nature as inseparable from our modern emphasis on individual autonomy, human freedom, and the search for meaning. Far from being purely secular, modernity will be seen as an ongoing reinterpretation of theological controversies, especially regarding spiritual transcendence, skepticism, and existential freedom. We’ll have three interrelated aims: understanding the early theological debates and their intellectual effects, assessing their expression in modern life via fiction and film, and determining their pertinence to our own lives.