Current Courses

This course will examine the use of myths and rituals in the formation and structuring of religious worlds.  The study will trace these forms of religious expression from pre-modern to postmodern periods using films and classroom presentations.  Several assumptions will be made in this study: (1) There are various definitions of myths and rituals. (2) There are many voices that speak in myths and rituals. (3) Myths provide a language to put form on religious concepts. (4) Rituals form reality through performance.  (4)  Secularism and modernity have both challenged and supported myths and rituals. The students will be required to show competence through knowledge of assigned readings, writing a scholarly paper on an assigned myth, and preparing and presenting a PowerPoint presentation.  

This survey introduces students to the major intellectual, institutional, and popular developments within Christian culture in Europe and the Mediterranean from the first to the fourteenth century. Primary texts will include martyrdom accounts, saints lives, the literature of monasticism, records of miracles and pilgrimage, documents of major ecclesiastical councils and controversies, liturgical poetry and drama, Crusade accounts, Jewish-Christian theological debate, heresy trials, and the theological writings of monastic and scholastic figures. A central course goal is the close observation of the ways in which different historical societies and individuals have received, expressed and defined a complex and not always (or obviously) consistent nexus of beliefs, ideas and practices. Organizing concepts and emphases of the course include: the dynamism of historical Christianity, the almost perpetual presence of movements, reforms and revivals in its long history, and the diversity of perspectives that characterize Christianity at any given time. This encounter with ancient and medieval Christianity aims to keep participants poised between an increasingly informed sense of identity and disjunction. Those who regard themselves as part of one of the many Christian traditions should gain a palpable sense of the otherness of historical Christianity, which may, in turn, serve them amid the diversity of religious positions encountered nationally and globally today. A course dealing with the period from the 14th through the 18th centuries will be offered in Spring 07.

The goal of this foreign cultures course is to introduce students to India and its recent past. This class will introduce students to the cultural, artistic, religious, and political implications of the birth of the modern nation-state of India. The class will begin by exploring the late colonial period and the role that colonialism played in the development of Indian nationalism and the Indian state. This will be followed by an examination of visual culture, literature, and religion in post Independence India. In each of these different spheres we will examine the legacies and problems of nationalism, of colonialism, and of modern consumer culture.

Despite legal separation between church and state in America, religion and politics have been profoundly intertwined throughout American history.  This course will examine the relationship between religion and politics in American history and in contemporary culture.  By examining specific cases of engagement, students will become familiar with some of the major figures and issues.  A research component will allow students to explore an issue in which they have particular interest.

For centuries, trade, migration, exploration, and imperialism have blurred the boundaries between beliefs and practices. Yet the speed of globalization has increased in the last two centuries. This course examines several important trends within globalization and their implications for “Religion” in the present. In particular, we will examine how “local” religious traditions interact with global processes. How does the mixing of local and global traditions produce new forms of consciousness and religious expression? How does the expansion of capitalism and global media create new conditions for religious expression and experience? How have these processes produced new forms of conflict and political identification? How do religious conflicts in one part of the globe affect relations in another?

This course explores the relationship between science and religion.  We will ask if there is any common ground between these two fields, how that mutual ground might be uncovered, and why it is necessary for us to plow this earth.  We will begin our investigation with an historical introduction moving from Aristotle through Galileo and Darwin to the Scopes trials.  We will then investigate a variety of positions from the perspective of scientists and theologians.  Topics will include subjects as varied as the Big Bang theory and Intelligent Design, bio-ethics and chaos theory.