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Content: This seminar will provide
a context for historically-oriented research on the contacts, representations,
discourses, persons, institutions, theologies, and ideologies that shaped
and defined "Hinduism" and "Christianity" in India and England during the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (1756-1857). Current historiography
on this period has been profoundly shaped by critiques of "Orientalism",
nationalist ideologies, gender studies, and post-colonial theories. As
important as these contemporary interpretive frameworks are, this seminar
will attempt to focus as much as possible on documents produced by those
who lived during the period under study--the primary sources.. The central
question that will shape our work is: how did the initial encounter between
Hindu and Christian happen? Who were the 'players'? What were their interests,
goals, and anxieties? How did each group represent the other? What were
the institutions and media through which the encounter took place? What
were the consequences and legacies?
Particulars: Initially, the seminar
will 'surf around' for materials from the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries available in the Woodruff and Pitts Library collections. Emory
is fortunate to have a number of items: memoirs, institutional reports,
newspapers and magazines, fiction, plays, etc., mostly in Special Collections.
We will dispatch ourselves to survey some of these materials to get a 'look
and feel' for the period, and report back on what we have found.
Next, the members of the seminar will undertake
a more detailed study of (1) a person, one British/Christian, one
Indian/Hindu or Muslim and research her or his life.(2) an institution,
e.g., school, organization, movement, and develop a profile of its formation,
mission, and accomplishment.(3) a media, e.g., newspaper, scholarly
journal, pamphlet series, report, visual media, theater, and assess its
modes of communication, audiences, and effectiveness. (4) a theological
or ideological perspective; e.g., Orientalism, Evangelicalism, Neo-Vedanta,
Modernism, Utilitarianism, etc., and assess its articulations, influence,
limits, and legacies.
Each week one member of the seminar will
take careful notes of the discussion and write up the minutes and submit
them for review at the next session. The seminar will maintain a web page
for collecting these materials and archiving visual images discussed in
the course.
Individual Research Projects: The
latter half of the seminar will evolve into individual research projects
that grow out of the collective work of the first half. Students will present
a brief research project: its core question, methods of research, sources,
and expected outcomes. Initial drafts will be read by members of the seminar
for feedback.
Texts: J. P. Losty, Calcutta: City of Palaces
C. A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire
S. Banerjea, The Parlour and the Streets
David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance
Lata Mani, Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India
Content: The purpose of this seminar
is to analyze the problem of Islam in modern history, especially since
the collapse of the Ottoman, Safavid and Moghul empires and the subsequent
histories of colonialism and post-colonial nationalism. The focus will
be on religious responses to these events. Among the problems to be studied
are the West as a political reality in recent Islamic history as well as
a concept, secularism and Post-Enlightenment modernism, Islamic modernism
and traditionalism, reform movements, and Islamic liberalism.
Texts: Among the texts we will read
are Fazlur Rahman, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual
Tradition; Islam and Modernity: Muslim Intellectuals Respond, edited
by John Cooper et al; Sayyid Qutb, Signposts along the Way; Muhammad `Abduh,
Theology
of Unity; Charles Kurzman, ed., Liberal Islam, and Robert Hefner,
Civil Islam, as well as texts that will be available electronically
or handed out in class.
Particulars: Prior course work on
Islamic history and thought will be helpful, but not required. (A weekly
hour of reading some of the texts in the original Arabic will be available
for students of Arabic.) Each weekly seminar will be planned around a theme
and readings, which the entire class will be asked to discuss briefly on
Learnlink prior to the meeting of the seminar. Students will take turns
leading aspects of the discussion each week. A term paper drawn from the
themes and problems discussed in the seminar will be developed throughout
the semester and due at the end of the semester.
RLE 701R: Seminar in Social Ethics:
Social Philosophy Gunnemann W 2:30 - 5:30 MAX: 12
Content: The seminar will read social
philosophy from Machiavelli to the nineteenth century, including Hobbes,
Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Kant, Hegel, and Marx. We will attend particularly
to the religious and theological dimensions explicit or implicit in the
various texts.
Particulars: Each student will be
expected to lead discussion of 1-2 seminar sessions during the semester,
engage in critical discussion of the reading, and write a critical research
paper of about 5000 words.
Content: This seminar critically examines four ethical themes in works by five significant theologians from the Christian past. We trace, that is, the conceptions of love, liberty, sin, and salvation in selected writings by
Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Julian
of Norwich, Martin Luther, and Soren Kierkegaard. In addition, secondary
works on these figures by contemporary scholars (e.g., feminists, virtue
theorists, secularists) will be read and discussed.
Particulars: The course is designed primarily for doctoral students, but it is open to advanced Candler students with a background in moral theology, numbers permitting.
RLHB 720J: Isaiah Hayes Th 2:30 - 5:30 MAX: 12
W 2:30 - 5:30 MAX: 12
Content: This course will consider the development of Christian belief in the Greek east between Origen and the end of the fourth century controversies, as far as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed and the corpus of Gregory of Nyssa. This period is central to the development of the classical Christian accounts of Trinitarian theology and Christology. It has also been the subject of much revisionary scholarship in the past three decades which should seriously alter standard narratives o f and many common assumptions about the nature of theology during this period.
Throughout the course the relationship between the development of belief
and developments in exegesis will be fundamental. In common with other
recent post-Harnackian perspectives, the course will explore developments
in Christian teaching as a development in exegesis. Thus, the course will
reflect no only on the development of belief itself, but also more widely
on methods of exegesis, the understanding of the function of Scripture
in theology and the relationship between exegesis and the use of non-Christian
philosophical models and resources during this period. The course will
begin by considering Origen's thought and his legacy for the later third
and fourth century, with a special focus on Christology, trinitarian theology
and hermeneutics. The bulk of the course will then focus on Christology,
trinitarian theology and hermeneutics. The bulk of the course will then
focus on belief and exegesis during the fourth century Trinitarian and
christological controversies.
Tu 2:00 - 5:00 MAX: 12
Content: This seminar will trace the history of the celebration
of the Eucharist and the intendant development of eucharistic theology
from late antiquity through the early 20th century. Crucial
"moments" in this history will receive special attention. Among these are
the interplay of Hellenistic and Jewish culture in the first centuries,
the Post-Constantinian era, the Early Medieval, the Carolingian, the High
Medieval, the Early Modern and Reformation, the 17th century,
19th century Romanticism and the modern Liturgical Renewal.
Particulars: Materials in the course will be primary texts, both
liturgical and theological, augmented by archeological data and some secondary
historical material.
MAX: 8 (Same as HIST 585 002)
Content: This seminar will investigate
the emergence of piety movements in Europe during the 17th and
18th centuries. The primary case study will be on German Pietist
movements in Germany, but attention will also be given to parallel movements
such as Puritanism, Quietism, and Jansenism. The seminar will explore the
relationship of Pietism to modernity, the problem of "piety" as a historical
concept, the theological background of Pietism, the role of women in piety
movements, and their social and political contexts. The course readings
will be divided between historiographical and primary texts. Seminar participants
will be encourage to develop their own focus during the course of the semester.
Texts: Ernst Troeltsch, Protestantism and Progress
Dale Brown, Understanding Pietism
Albrecht Ritschl, History of Pietism
Johann Arndt, True Christianity
Philipp Jacob Spener, Pia Desideria, Spiritual Priesthood
Miguel de Molinos, Spiritual Guide
Madame Guyon, Short and Easy Method Prayer
Louise Gottsched, Pietism in Petticoats
Peter Erb, Pietists
Tu 9:00 -12:00 MAX: 6
(Same as RLAR 731) See description under RLAR 731
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.
Particulars: 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 course introduces students to the Jewish milieu of early Christianity, exploring various historical, literary, cultural, and religious issues, especially through the analysis of a range of selected primary texts.
Particulars: Each student will be
1) assigned a chapter from the assigned reading to write up a 2-3 page
summary and lead a discussion of it; 2) give six in-class
presentations on primary texts of their choice; 3) write a 8-10 page dissertation
prospectus, to serve on the basis of a one hour, in class presentation.
Texts: Will include the following (among others):
J. Hayes and S. Mandell, The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity
J. Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora
J. Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
F. Garcia Martinez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated
F. Colson, et al., Philo
J. Neusner, The Mishnah: A New Translation
RLNT 770: History of the Interpretation of the New Testament II Robbins Tu 1:30 - 4:30
MAX: 12
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: We will examine carefully
and critically the life and writings of psychologist-philosopher William
James. The course aims to forge a conversation between his psychological,
religious, and philosophical perspectives.
Texts: Primary Texts: The Principles
of Psychology (2 vols.); Talks to Teachers; The Varieties of Religious
Experience; Pragmatism; A Pluralistic Universe
Particulars: Active participation
in seminar discussions; seminar presentations; a final 15-page term paper.
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.
1)Jordan; 2)Patton/Newby/Robbins; 3)Laderman M 6:30 -9:30
(Open only to first-year students in
the GDR)
Content: This seminar engages all
first-year students of the GDR on questions and projects that cross the
boundaries defining the GDR's seven Programs. The seminar comprises three
smaller sections that encourage students from closely related Programs
to work intensively on common texts and topics. The seminar also meets
regularly as a whole to consider issues that span the GDR's diverse disciplinary
approaches to the study of religion.
1) The "constructive and normative" section,
taught by Mark Jordan, seeks both to understand and to reconceive the task
of theological or religious writing. It considers both contemporary accounts
of constructive writing and particular practices of writing in selected
ancient, medieval, and modern texts.
2) The section on "comparative sacred texts,"
taught by Laurie Patton, Gordon Newby, and Vernon Robbins, examines the
critical study of sacred texts with special emphasis that comparative study
can bring. The class will focus on Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
It begins by setting the texts of each tradition within their indigenous
locations, then moves toward their comparative analysis by using the tools
of philology, history of religions, social analysis and argumentative reasoning.
The course ends by treating recent theories on the practices of reading
and writing religion.
3) The section on "religion and the human
sciences," taught by Gary Laderman, explores the historical and social-scientific
study of religion as a separate academic domain and the establishment of
authority within it. Readings include classics in these approaches, but
concentrate on recent works that disturb conventional boundaries dividing
the humanities from the social sciences.
Texts: Vary by section.
Particulars: Vary by section.
MAX: 20
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.
Content: The aim of this seminar
is to analyze the imperatives and objectives of the womanist theological
enterprise and to assess its contribution to the academy, church and society.
Students will consider definitive voices in womanist religious thought
by examining the development of womanist scholarship in theological studies
as well as womanist historical and sociological approaches to the study
of religion. Particular emphasis will be placed upon sources and method
in womanist theological reflection and their relevance to major themes
and theoretical issues in Black theological and religious studies. Among
the authors explored are pioneers such as Katie Cannon, Jacquelyn Grant,
Renita Weems and Delores Williams in addition to more recent scholars such
as Joan Martin, Linda Thomas, Karen Baker-Fletcher and JoAnne Terrell.
Texts: Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920
James Cone & Gayraud Wilmore, Black Theology: A Documentary History, Vol. 1: 1966-1979
James Cone & Gayraud Wilmore, Black Theology: A Documentary History, Vol. 2: 1980-1992
Jacquelyn Grant, White Women's Christ And Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response
Kelly Brown Douglas, The Black Christ
Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God Talk
Joanne Terrell, Power in the Blood?: The Cross in the African American Experience
Katie Cannon, Black Womanist Ethics
Joan Martin, More Than Chains and Toil: A Christian Work Ethic of Enslaved Women
Emilie Townes ed., A Troubling In My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering
Emilie Townes ed., Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation
Evelyn C. White, The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, If It Wasn't for the Women . . . : Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community
Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women's Relationships in the Bible
Iyanly Vanzant, The Value in the Valley: A Black Woman's Guide Through Life's Dilemmas
Traci West, Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence and Resistance Ethics
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