Religion and Popular Culture
This course explores the complex ways in which religion and popular culture relate to each other as they circulate around the globe.
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Original Sin: Religion, Psychology, and Behavior
Are we born bad? Selfish and greedy? Do we have a difficult time understanding why we do what we do? In this class we’ll demonstrate the enduring relevance of religious texts to contemporary questions of human psychology.
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Death
This course will explore several issues under the broad topic of ‘death.’
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Introduction to Religion
What is religion? Where does it come from? What does it do? How should we study it? This course introduces students to the many different ways that theorists and scholars of religion have tried to answer these questions.
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Religion, Ethics, and Public Life
In this course we look the foundational role of religion in ethical thought, and the effects of this thought on public life in the US and around the world.
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Introduction to Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
This course will equip students with working knowledge of the contents of the Hebrew Bible, and the historical contexts of its composition and will introduce students to the diverse claims and concerns of the ancient Jewish communities who produced, edited, and interpreted this collection.
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Introduction to Buddhism
This course surveys the development of Buddhism, from its origins in India to its subsequent expansion across the globe, including its presence in the United States.
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Introduction to Hinduism
Our goal is to gain a basic understanding of Hinduism as a religious tradition, to expand our own ideas of what it means to be human, and to broaden our understanding of what “religion” is.
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Introduction to Christianity
This course will teach you new things about a familiar religion, from Jesus and his followers’ healings and exorcisms in the first century up through the global expansion of Christianity in the modern world.
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Introduction to Islam
This class examines the Islamic Tradition from the perspective of the History of religions. particularly focusing on those elements in Islamic history that continue to have importance for how contemporary Muslims understand their tradition and how they (in all of their plurality) hope to see Islam develop in the future.
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East Asian Buddhism
This discussion-oriented course introduces students to Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan, and the East Asian diaspora.
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African American Religions
This course will examine the religious ideas and expression of African-descended people in the Americas, and particularly the United States (and former English colonies), from the 17th century to today.
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Songs of Ecstasy
The devotional literatures of India which cut across religious boundaries present us with a wide range of views of the Divine, and can help us to appreciate the richness and diversity of Indian civilization and culture.
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Being Human
This course invites students to explore various ideas and visions of what it means to be human, as well as a set of problems and questions related to being human, through a close reading of religious, philosophical, and literary texts.
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Embodying Nirvana
This course investigates these divergent accounts of buddhahood, asking how Buddhists across time and space have understood what it means to be a buddha.
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The College of Arts