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Division of Religion Main PageTexts: Primary Sources: David Hume, The Natural History of Religion ; F. Max Mueller, The Origin and Growth of Religion; James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough; E. B. Tyler, Primitive Culture; James Mill, The History of India; Selections from the Rg Veda, Samkhyakarika, Manavadharmashastra, Bhagavatapurana, Brhadaranyakaupanishad, and Kathopanishad. (Texts read in translation. Students studying Sanskrit will have special opportunity to read portions of these texts in the original.) Selections from the Qur'an, Hadith, A'in-i-Akbari. (Texts read in translation. Students studying Arabic will have special opportunity to read portions of these texts in the original.)
Secondary sources: Frank Manuel, The Eighteenth Century Confronts the Gods; Edward Said, Orientalism; David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance; Peter Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India; Barnard Cohn, Colonial Knowledge
Particulars: Students in the seminar will present summaries of
readings and identify questions and issues they want the seminar to discuss.
An article-length research paper will be required by the end of the course.
Students will have the opportunity to integrate this paper into their larger
research objectives within their program.
Content: Sacred biographies, the lives of religious founders, such as Muhammad, and Jesus, and hagiographies, the stories of saints or their equivalents, convey through their narratives and through their symbols the fundamental truths, value systems and teachings of their religious traditions. Using the development of the biography of Muhammad as the primary example, this course will examine the interplay between history and myth in the formation of sacred biography. Comparative examples will be drawn from the Hindu and Christian traditions. The examination will use methods of History, History of Religions, Anthropology, Psychology and Literary Criticism.
Texts:
Brodie, F.M. (1971). No Man Knows My History.
Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Dilthy, W. (1962). Pattern and Meaning in History: Thoughts on History
and Society.
Erikson, E.H. (1958). Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis
and History.
Newby, G.D. The Making of the Last Prophet
Robbins, Vernon K. (1996). Exploring the texture of texts: A Guide
to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation.
Other readings on reserve.
Particulars The course will be in seminar format. Students will
be expected to participate in seminar discussions, be co-presenters of
the weekly topics, and write a research paper at the end on some aspect
of the material covered by the course. Students will be evaluated on seminar
attendance and participation and on the quality of the co-presentation
and the final paper. Prerequisites: Graduate standing in the Graduate Division
of Religion, the Department of History, or permission from the instructor.
Content: This seminar will explore the book of Daniel in the
historical and cultural context of Second Temple Judaism, focusing both
on the development of the Jewish Diaspora novel (relevant to Daniel 1-6)
and the origins and first flourishing of apocalyptic literature (relevant
to Daniel 7-12). Development of non-canonical (Qumran) and deuterocanonical
(LXX) Daniel traditions will be a secondary focus. Knowledge of biblical
Hebrew is required as a prerequisite. Biblical Aramaic will be taught in
conjunction with the seminar. (The language portion of the seminar
will be conducted on Tuesdays; see RLBL 704.) Students who wish to take
biblical Aramaic for 2 credit hours but who do not wish to take the Daniel
seminar should sign up for RLBL 704.
Content: An examination of the history of interpretation
of the Hebrew Scriptures (with some attention to New Testament studies)
from the days of the early synagogue and church until the early 20th century.
A mixture of readings from primary and secondary texts.
Texts: Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel; Froelich, Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church; Augustine, On Christian Doctrine; Evans, The Language and Logic of the Bible: The Earlier Middle Ages; Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, etc., plus the major works of W.F. Albright, Hermann Gunkel, Yehezkel Kaufmann, Sigmund Mowinckel, Martin Noth, and Julius Wellhausen.
Particulars: Seminar attendance and participation as well as
reading of textbooks required; some occasional reports.
Content: This course considers some of the chief ideas and
authors that represent Christian Neoplatonism in the Patristic and medieval
periods and inquiries what features of thought or method in this context
are the chief distinguishing features of Neoplatonism, and what sets it
apart from other perspectives. After some introductory readings in Plato,
Plotinus and Proclus, we proceed to such Christian writers as Augustine,
Gregory of Nyssa, the ps.-Dionysius, John Scott Eriugena, Meister Eckhart,
Bonaventure and Nicholas of Cusa. The seminar is partly arranged around
the particular interests of the students, each of whom chooses one author
or text for study in depth.
Content: This seminar will explore crucial passages in Kant's
Critique
of Pure Reason, Critique of Judgement and
Religion Within
the Limits of Reason Alone. We will then assess the development of
Kantian themes in Ritschl, Durkheim, Troeltsch, Muller, Otto, and James
with particular attention to their interpretations of "religion." We will
further attempt to define the values implicit in the Kantian framework
and to discern the modes through which "Neo-Kantian" thinking continued
to transmit these values (albeit in oftentimes unacknowledged ways.)
Content: The seminar will examine important texts in the development
of theology in America, including 17th-century Puritan thinker,
Jonathan Edwards, the Edwardian tradition, Unitarianism, Transcendentalism,
Old School Calvinism, Catholic scholasticism, the Mercersburg theology,
the New Haven theology, the Oberlin theology, and democratizing theological
movements. We will look at several of the prominent interpretations of
American religious thought during this period, including those by Sydney
Ahlstrom, Bruce Kuklick, and Paul Conkin. In addition, the seminar will
examine and criticize the instructor's manuscript history of the period's
thought. Each student will have the opportunity to explore a topic in the
period in a research paper that will be discussed in the seminar.
Content: This seminar takes up the relation between theology
and the New Testament in three ways. First, it asks how the theological
texture of New Testament compositions can be engaged and assessed. Second,
it considers, through the critical analysis of several classic examples,
the possibilities and perils of the discipline called "New Testament Theology."
Third, it addresses the question of how the NT might be employed in Theology,
properly so designated, once more through discussion of several contemporary
samples.
Particulars: In addition to the usual reading and critical evaluation
of secondary literature (probably 6 books), participants will prepare a
theological reading of a specific NT composition, and will also write a
major seminar paper.
Content: This seminar covers the entire spectrum of interpretation
of the New Testament from the sixteenth century to the present. It will
begin with an exploration of forces at work in New Testament interpretation
during the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter Reformation.
After this, it will investigate the overall context of analysis and interpretation
of history, myth, philosophical truth, and biblical theology in which the
literary-historical methods of text, source, form, tradition, and redaction
criticism emerged. Then the seminar will turn to some of the most recent
modes and methods for interpreting the New Testament. An overall goal of
the seminar is to gain an understanding of the contexts that gave rise
to literary-historical methods and to assess the relation of those methods
to other approaches to interpretation of the New Testament.
Participants in the seminar will read certain secondary sources as guides to the primary interpretive literature. The emphasis, however, will be on primary interpretive sources. Specific examples of interpretation will be especially important.
Texts:
William Baird, History of New Testament Research, Volume 1
John K. Riches, A Century of New Testament Study
Eldon Jay Epp and George W. MacRae, The New Testament and Its Modern
Interpreters
Heiki Raisanen, Beyond New Testament Theology
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
Wayne A. Meeks, Writings of St. Paul
Particulars: In addition to regular reports on reading, seminar
participants will write a major paper following the history of the interpretation
of a gospel and an epistle through the centuries from the Reformation to
the present.
Content: From the Holocaust to the tragedies of everyday life, there is ample evidence that a fundamental dimension of being human is the inevitable necessity of making moral judgments. This course considers changes in social-moral development during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in the formulation and resolution of ethical dilemmas. It also considers how this development can be promoted through education. We begin with the classic theories of Emile Durkheim and Jean Piaget, proceed to an intensive study of the work of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan, and then focus on the work of other social-developmental psychologists which point toward expanded conceptions of morality.
Texts: Durkheim, E. (1925). Moral Education. New York: Free Press. Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kuhmerker, L. (1991). The Kohlberg Legacy for the Helping Professions. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press. Piaget, J.(1932). The Moral Judgment of the Child. New York: Free Press. Kohlberg, L. (1984). The Psychology of Moral Development: Essays on Moral Development, Volume II. Snarey, J. (Ed.) Collected Kibbutz Studies on Moral Education. Manuscript. Snarey, J. & Siddle Walker, V. (Eds.) African-American Voices on Care, Justice, and Moral Formation. Manuscript.
Particulars: Prerequisite: Doctoral student or psychology honors
program. A weekly 2-page reflection paper and an end-of-the-term paper.
No exams.
Content: This seminar provides an introduction to the comparison
of Christian theological understandings of human beings to a selection
of important twentieth century theories of personality, drawing continuously
on a particular theological anthropology of the individual student's choosing.
Students will also concentrate on two psychological theorists of their
choice and will read shorter selections from or overviews of the others.
Each personality theory will be read critically and dialogically in relation
to theological (and other) criteria, with efforts made to locate points
of convergence and divergence, and possible incompatibility or mutual critique
and construction, between the psychological and theological perspectives.
Texts: Selections from L.S. Hearnshaw's The Shaping of Modern Psychology, and Ian Burkitt's Social Selves: Theories of the Social Formation of Personality will be required of all students. Readings in personality theories will vary with student interest, but will include choices from among such theorists as Freud, Jung, Hartmann, Erikson, Fairbairn, Winnicott, Kohut, Maslow, Rogers, Kelly, Festinger, G.H. Mead, Lacan, Foucault, and Vygotsky. Salvatore Maddi's Personality Theories: A Comparative Analysis (5th ed.) or similar works are suggested as general secondary references. Theological choices may be drawn from such theologians as Pannenberg, Tillich, Barth, Cobb, Reinhold Niebuhr, Rahner, Macquarrie and others. Niebuhr's Nature and Destiny of Man, read in dialogue with feminist critiques (e.g. Suchocki, Plaskow), is recommended but not required, and will be the "default" choice. Students may choose to work in small groups on common theorists and theologians.
Particulars: An initial paper of 4-5 pages programmatically focusing
key aspects of one's chosen theology relevant to personality theory, plus
two papers of 12-17 pages each, presented to the class in draft form, focusing
(respectively) on aspects of each of the two personality theories chosen
for concentration and their relation to the student's theologian. Some
flexibility in the structuring of writing assignments is possible in relation
to particular student needs and interests, but writing, like class discussions,
will include mutual engagement between the psychological and theological
perspectives. There will be no examinations. There are no formal prerequisites,
though previous work in theology or religious studies is assumed; students
without this background will need to do supplementary reading. Grading
will be based on seminar contribution as well as written work.
Content: The seminar will explore systems of knowledge related to the Enlightenment and subsequent criticisms of such systems from a variety of perspectives. We will also focus on the relation between epistemologies of modernity and social conditions, with particular attention to developments in the study of religion and religious experience. In addition, the seminar will provide an opportunity for students to study examples of the way religion is studied in our own period in general, and at Emory more specifically.
Texts: A variety of readings will be discussed, covering such areas as philosophy, history of religions, and cultural history.
Particulars: To be determined
Content: RLR 705 meets the TATTO course requirement for students in the Division of Religion and normally is taken in the first semester of the second year of class work. During the semester students will reflect on their teaching assistantships and explore a range of theoretical and praxis issues in the relationship of teaching context, theory, practice, and identity in the religion or theology classroom.
Texts: Everyone will read three or four designated articles on teaching. All other reading will be drawn from the seminar bibliography and will be related to individual student questions.
Particulars: Students will each write 1) a brief paper articulating
a philosophy/theology of teaching; 2) four reports from their teaching
assistantship for peer reflection; and 3) develop a syllabus for a course
they would like to teach.
Content: This seminar is designed to explore the major qualitative
research traditions, particularly as they are represented in research in
religion and morality. Recent published qualitative research in religion
will be analyzed as to design, data collection and analysis, and narrative
presentation. During the semester attention will be given to both contemporary
debates and issues related to qualitative methods, such as reflexivity,
ethics, research-involvement, and to careful examination of particular
methods, such as interviewing, focus groups, content analysis, and participant
observation.
Texts: Including Becker and Eiesland, Contemporary American Religion; Bell, Childerly: Nature and Morality in a Country Village; Burawoy et al, Ethnography Unbound; Davidman, Tradition in a Rootless World; Denzin and Lincoln, ed. Handbook of Qualitative Research; Lofland and Lofland, Analyzing Social Settings; Orsi, Thank You, St. Jude; Warner, New Wine in Old Wineskins; Witten, All Is Forgiven
Particulars: Semester-length research project, including design,
field journal, reports on three methods, and narrative account.
Content: On the possibility of doing "Biblical theology"
in light of contemporary scholarship. As presently conceived, the seminar
will explore: (1) apocalyptic in Schweitzer, Barth, Bultmann and
Kasemann; (2) recent scholarly reconsiderations of apocalyptic; (3) idolatry
critique and the apocalyptic theme of "crisi" in twentieth century theology;
(4) the necessity of a nonsupercessionist view of the people of Israel,
and reconsideraation of "the delay of the parousia"; (5) interpretation
of specific texts, especially the epistle to the Galatians.
Texts: Texts will likely include Barth, The Epistle to the Romans; Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament; L. Martyn, The Epistle to the Galatians; and J. Collins (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Apocalyticism (3 vol.). For further background to the seminar, please see a brief essay by the instructor in Modern Theology, January 1999.
Particulars: Seminar participants will be responsible for leading
significant portions of the discussion; and will write perhaps three short
papers in the course of the seminar, rather than a single final paper.
Content: This course sets out to examine carefully and critically
the emergence and development of Liberation theologies in Latin America,
United States, Asia and the Caribbean. Particular attention will be given
to the relation between theological reflection and socio-political location
of the theologians. We will forge a conversation with Feminist/Womanist
and Black theological perspectives.
Texts: Selected works of Gutierrez, Bell Hooks, Rosemary Ruether, Choan Seng Song, Emilie Townes, James Cone, Jose Miguez Bonino, Karl Marx, Leonardo Boff, and Jose Miranda.
Particulars: Active participation in seminar discussion; at least one seminar presentation; a 20 page paper.
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