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RLAR 701 Performance and Ethnography in West and South Asia Flueckiger
Th 10:00-1:00 MAX 10
Content: This course examines textual and nontextual performative traditions of West and South Asia as they are represented in recent ethnographies. We will examine the ways in which ethnographic and performance studies expand the boundaries of both "who and what counts" in the study of religion. The course will introduce theoretical frameworks and analytic tools from performance studies and ethnography with which to analyze both the traditions under consideration and the ethnographic enterprise of fieldwork and writing. Students will be required to engage in some level of fieldwork (for their major or short paper) focused on performative and/or ritual traditions, depending on their interest. This course is one of the core seminars for students in the West and South Asia program, but is relevant to those interested in ethnographic and performative analyses of ritual and expressive culture.
Texts: May include Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin
Stories; Flueckiger and Sears, Boundaries of the Text: Performing
the Epics in South and Southeast Asia; Sax, Dancing the Self:
Personhood and Performance in the Pandav Lila of Garhwal;Gold, Fruitful
Journeys: The Ways of Rajasthani Pilgrims; Gold and Raheja, Listen
to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India;
Macleod,
Accomodating Protest: Working Women, the New Veiling,
and Change in Cairo; Narayan, Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels:
Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching; Bowen, Muslims Through
Discourse: Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society; Ewing, Arguing
Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis, and Islam; Flueckiger,
Gender
and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India; Gold, In the Time of
Trees and Sorrow: Nature, Power, and Memory in Rajasthan.
RLAR 710 Seminar on Islamic Theology
Martin Tu 2:00-5:00 Max: 12
Content: The seminar will examine the early and medieval development of problems in Islamic religious thought, especially in the discursive (kalam) tradition. Special attention will be given to those problems, such as the role of reason versus revelation, that have worried various schools of thought down to the present. We will begin with the only available texts on the earliest period of kalam activity, ca. 700, namely, the heresiographical texts, and progress each week through Mu`tazili, Ash`arite, and some Shi`i and Sufi texts, down to al-Ghazali and perhaps a little beyond.
Texts: (for purchase and/or on reserve)
Michael Cook, Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought
A. Kevin Reinhart, Before Revelation: The Boundaries of Muslim Moral Thought
A general history of Islamic philosophy and theology (Perhaps W.M. Watt's work by that title)
Theological texts in translation.
Particulars: Over the summer, students should read Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, volume 1, with special attention to pp. 315 "The Shar`i Islamic Vision, c. 750-945" to the end of the volume. His lectures on forms of Muslim personal piety and "Speculation: Falsafah and Kalam" are excellent background to the range problems and approaches theological and philosophical reflection in early and medieval Islam. 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.
RLAR 725 Textual Studies in West and South Asian Religions: Seminar on the Puranas Courtright Monday 2:00 - 5:00 Max: 12
Content: The work of the seminar will be to engage in a 'rapid reading' of several of the major puranas: the Visnu, Bhagavata, Siva, Kurma, and Kalika puranas in order to get a sense of the overall organization of narrative and didactic materials. The seminar will also identify major clusters of narrative material that appears in variants within these puranas in order to see how the 'same' story is told differently depending on the sectarian or theological perspective of the purana. Finally, the seminar will take up various themes or topics that has strong resonance in the puranic corpus, such as pilgrimages, shrines, ritual practices, sacred geographies, media, and theologies.
Particulars: Students will take turns leading seminar discussions
on various texts and their linkages with related themes and issues. Final
paper.
RLE 701R: Seminar in Social Ethics: Social Justice and Social Theory Gunnemann
W 2:30 - 5:30 Max: 12
Content: The seminar will read contemporary theories of justice,
including Rawls, Walzer, MacIntyre, and Habermas, and critical responses
to these, such as Benhabib, Fraser, and Young. Several important themes
and questions will guide our reading: the social-theoretical perspective
implied in each normative theory; the explicit or implied understanding
of religion in each; the possibilities and limits of appropriation of secular
theories of justice in theological ethics; questions of adequacy in relation
to specified critical norms. Some background in social philosophy and/or
social theory (e.g., 18th century moral and social philosophy,
including social contract theory; Marxist theory; classical theories of
justice) is recommended although not required.
RLE 701T: Religion and Human Rights
An-Na'im Tu and Th 10:15 - 11:30
(Crosslisted with LAW 750, 10A)MAX:
5
Content: This course will explore
the problematic, yet unavoidable, relationship between religion and human
rights in global comparative perspectives. The course will begin with a
preliminary discussion of two main themes of religion and human rights.
On the one hand, these opening sessions will seek to clarify the relationship
between religion, broadly defined, and culture, ideology, state and politics
in different contexts. On the other hand, these early sessions will also
examine the nature, origins and development of human rights in philosophical,
political and legal terms. Against this background, we will focus on possibilities
of mediating the tension between religion and human rights in general,
mainly in terms of debates about the universality and cultural/contextual
relativity of human rights. The rest of the course will be devoted to a
series of thematic studies of such issues as the human rights of women,
scope and implications of freedom of religion in national and international
contexts. While attempting to maintain a broad, comparative perspective
on several major religious traditions in both Western and non-Western settings,
the course will have a special focus on Islam and Islamic/African societies.
Particulars: The final grade will consist of 20% for two commentary papers reflecting on specific parts of the readings, 10% for class participation and 70% for a final paper. The detailed outline of the course will identify from the start the subject and due date of each of the two short commentary papers, and describe the procedure for agreement on topic and process for preparing the final paper.
Texts: TBA
RLE 759: Law and Theology: Issues
in Moral Responsibility Alexander Tu 3:15 - 5:15
(Cross-listed with LAW 845, 03A) MAX:
2
Content: This seminar is designed to provide an opportunity to explore moral assumptions concerning human nature and the nature of community as reflected in the purpose and function of law. We will explore the moral assumptions in basic schools of thought in legal philosophy and in theology. We will survey the classic schools of jurisprudence (natural law, legal positivism and legal realism (Austin, Hart, Fuller, Finnis, Weinreb, Cohen, Horwitz), and look at key issues in classic Christian theology (biblical texts, Augustine, Luther, Calvin) and the Jewish tradition (Cover, Elon). We will also focus on the interaction of common moral assumptions in both law and theology (Reinhold Neibuhr, Holmes, Calabresi).
Particulars: Each student will be expected (a) to participate in class discussions based upon assigned (photocopied) reading materials, (b) to prepare a major seminar research paper, and (c) to teach a portion of a class using the research and analysis of the paper.
Permission of the professor is required.
Texts: Photocopied Course Materials
RLHB 720V Song of Songs Buss Monday 2:00 - 5:00 Max: 12
Content: In this seminar we will
deal with the Song of Songs, with the following concerns in mind: language
(including syntax), literary structure (various aspects), psychology, sociology,
comparative culture/religion, relations to other parts of the Hebrew Bible
(including Hosea). For each aspect, we will pay attention to issues of
principle as well as to the details of specific texts. Not every member
of the class will focus equally on every angle.
RLHB 792 Issues in Hebrew Bible Studies Hayes W 2:00 - 5:00 Max: 12
Content: A survey of the various issues in the study of the HB pursued in terms of the canonical divisions of the text.
Texts: Multiple and varied readings
from both classical and modern treatments.
RLHT 701R Theology and the Uses of History: The Trinity in Historical Context Ayres Tu 2:00-5:00 MAX:12
Content: In this course we will look at two pivotal periods in the history of Trinitarian theology (the 4th century and Hegel and his aftermath) as case studies for reflecting on how narratives of the history of Trinitarian theology have been constructed and used as part of the arguments for particular contemporary proposals in theology. At the same time the course will consider some theoretical historiography (from Gadamer and Jauss to Hayden White). This investigation will be intended to stimulate reflection on the nature of historical investigation and on the relationship between historical and systematic theology in a post-modern era.
RLHT 741G Kant and the Neo-Kantians Pacini F 9:00-12:00 Max: 12
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.)
RLHT 735H American Religious History
Holifield Th 2:30-5:30 Max: 12
(Crosslisted with HIST 533)
Content: The seminar will examine two contrasting overviews of American religious history and then look at books and articles that represent varying approaches and methods for the study of religion in America from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. In the final three sessions, the class will read research papers written by the students, with close attention to the rhetoric of historical writing, the use of sources, and the construction of historical arguments.
Texts: May include Catherine Albanese, America: Religion and Religions, George Marsden, Religion and American Culture, Peter Burke, History and Social Theory, Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity, Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith, Jon Butler and Harry S. Stout, Religion in American History: A Reader, and a variety of articles representing different ways of studying topics in the history of religious movements.
RLL704 Aramaic: Readings in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic GildersTu 2:00-5:00 Max: 15
Content: This is an intermediate level course in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (JPA), also known as Targumic Aramaic, the common tongue of the majority of Jews residing in the Land of Israel from the 5th century BCE at least until the 5th century CE. The course is intended for students with some previous study of Aramaic (or Syriac), either through course work or self-study. Those who have not previously studied Aramaic may prepare for the course by working through a grammar of Biblical Aramaic and reading the Aramaic portions of Daniel and Ezra before the semester begins, and should consult with the professor.
We will read selected JPA texts, giving attention both to the literary content of the documents and to linguistic, grammatical, and syntactic features of JPA. While we will look at a variety of materials, most of our attention will be devoted to selections from three of the Targumim (Jewish Aramaic translations) of Genesis.
Texts: Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature; William B. Stevenson, Grammar of Palestinian Jewish Aramaic; Aramaic texts will be distributed in class
Particulars: Prior study of Aramaic is required. Students will be evaluated with quizzes, short writing assignments, and a final translation test.
RLNT 721H 1st Corinthians Johnson Th 1:00 - 4:00 Max: 12
Content: This is an exegesis course devoted to the close reading of the Greek text of Pauls' first letter to the church in Corinth. In the process of working through the letter a variety of special issues having to do with rhetoric, early Christian experience and history, and even theology, will be engaged. Research activities will include responding to critical articles and commentaries on 1st Corinthians.
Texts: Required reading is Margaret Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation.
Particulars: Reading knowledge of
koine Greek is required.
RLNT 770 History of the Interpretation of the New Testament I O'Day W 2:30-5:30 Max: 12
Content: Beginning with the ways in which the New Testament itself interprets Torah and with Torah becomes the canon of the Christian religion, this seminar surveys the premises and processes of interpretation between the first and sixteenth centuries, with specific attention to patristic, medieval, and reformation.
Texts: May include: James Kugel and Rowan Greer, Early Biblical Interpretation; Robert M. Grant and David Tracy, A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible; The Cambridge History of the Bible, vols. 1-2.
RLPC 710D Developmental Psychologies of Religion Snarey M 2:30 - 5:30 Max: 12
Content: This seminar will be organized around a careful reading of publications across the history of American psychology that bring a developmental perspective to the individual and his or her religion. Students will read the classic texts for themselves, review parallel research methods, and conduct an empirical research project.
Texts: Selected readings from E.
Starbuck, W. James, E. T. Hall, E. Harms, G. W. Allport, E. H. Erikson,
R. Goldman, L. Kohlberg, J. Fowler, F. Oser, and others.
RLPC 730C Constructive Practical
Theology Fowler/Moore W 2:30 - 5:30
RLR 700 Mapping the Landscapes of
Religion Colloquium Laderman Tu 11:00 - 1:00
(Required for first-year students of the
GDR)
Content: This colloquium will explore
current issues in the study of religion.
RLR 705 Teaching Religion Brelsford Tu 11:00 - 1:00
Content: This course meets the Graduate
School TATTO course requirement for students in the Division of Religion.
The seminar is designed to engage students in a program of study and practice
aimed at improving teaching effectiveness in areas of religion and theology.
The course introduces students to some of the philosophical, theological,
ethical, methodological and practical aspects of teaching religion and
theology in higher education.
RLR 725: Comparative Sacred Texts: Quran and the Bible Robbins/Newby Th 1:30-4:30
Content: The Quran contains significant information about more than twenty people who play an important role in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament), and all of these people also are important for the New Testament. In addition, the Quran contains significant information about five people (including Jesus and Mary) who play an important role in the New Testament but not in the Hebrew Bible. This course will lead the student into interactive interpretation of the presentation and valuation of these people in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran.
The broader context of importance for interactive interpretation of the Quran and the Bible lies in Old Textament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, NT Apocryphal Gospels and Apocalypses, the Diatessaron, Rabbinic Talmud and Midrash, and other lesser known writings and fragments of writings known by certain groups in Late Antiquity. The seminar will use collections of material (some in parallel columns for comparison) that instructors and research assistants have been compiling at Emory University for research on the Quran and the Bible.
Texts: Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, The Glorious Quran (English and Arabic)
James Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
J. Keith Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament
Gordon D. Newby, A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam
Gordon D. Newby, The Making of the Last Prophet
Gordon D. Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia
Vernon K. Robbins, Exploring the Texture of Texts
Particulars: In addition to regular
contributions to the ongoing work of the Seminar, each student will write
a major paper on some aspect of the relation of the Quran and the Bible.
RLSR 730 Sociology of Religion: Classical & Modern Theories Tipton Tu 7:00-10:00 pm (crosslisted with SOC 725) Max: 12
Content: What do religious phenomena mean to their participants, seen as members of society? The seminar explores answers to this question in the work of classical social thinkers (e.g. Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Freud) and contemporary theorist (Bellah, Geertz, Berger, Meyer, Bourdieu). Topics include the social functions of ritual, myth and religious experience; the culturally constitutive meaning of religion as symbolic representation, theodicy and soteriology; religious evolution, social modernization, and political revolution; contemporary religious fundamentalism, politicization, secularization, class differences, and cultural conflict.
Particulars: Required: term paper plus short paper and presentation for class discussion.
RLTS 710Q Theology and Praxis: Queer
Theory Jordan Tu 4:00 -7:00 Max: 4
(cross-listed with WS 585, ILA 790
and CPLT 791)
Content: This seminar is a sort of boot-camp (all puns half-intended) in the assortment of theories, protests, strategies, tropes, and gestures now known as "queer theory." Its main purpose is to think through some of the best known texts behind the assortment. It may also touch on questions about relations of "theory" to activism or historiography, about what it takes to get respect in academia, and about the disconcerting relations between the constructs "lesbian" and "gay male."
Texts: The readings will include at least some early lesbian/gay manifestos, essays by Gayle Rubin, Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality 1, Eve Kosofky Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet, David Halperin's One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, Judith Butler's Gender Trouble, together with more recent work by Carolyn Dinshaw, Michael Warner, and Douglas Crimp.
Particulars: Members of the seminar will be expected to read the assigned texts carefully and to discuss them constructively. They will be asked to write three or four short interpretive exercises and a final paper of medium length. There will be no examinations. There will be prizes for best boots.
RLTS 750K Religious Epistemology Farley F 9:30 - 12:30 Max: 12
Content: The 'knowledge' of God will be explored with particular emphasis on the question of relationships between discursive reasoning and contemplation. This will mean attending to different faculties of mind and the way in which they combine in religious knowledge: reason, intellect, desire, volition, virtue, prayer, intersubjectivity and so on. This approach underscores essential ways in which theological anthopology and doctrine of God, reason and practice are intertwined in the desire for truth. If possible, there may also be a section on how this issue is treated in Tibetan Buddhism.
Texts: will include, for example, Plato's Republic, Phaedrus, Symposium, and/or Sophist; Bonaventure, Mind's Road to God; Teresa of Avilla, The Interior Castle; St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel; Schleiermacher's Christmas Eve, et al.
Particulars: In addition to reading and discussing texts and writing papers, the class will include study of at least one method of contemplative discipline.
RLTS753G Phenomenology of Black Religion:Theoretical
Issues in the Study of Black Religion Stewart
Th 11:30-2:30 Max: 12
Content: The primary aim of this course is to interrogate the history of ideas comprising the study of Black religion. Beginning with W. E. B. Du Bois at the turn of the twentieth century and ending with Donald Matthews at the turn of the twenty-first century, the class will trace the theoretical motifs, ideological debates and paradigmatic categories that have defined the contours of Black religious studies over the past century, namely its guiding questions and assumptions, and the strengths and limitations of the corpus of scholarship devoted to the study of Black religion in the Americas and the Caribbean across disciplines such as sociology, history, anthropology, and theology. As we examine the criteria each scholar establishes to determine the nature, content and social significance of black religious traditions, students will be encouraged to develop their own theoretical perspectives or, at the very least, a set of criteria for developing an interpretive theory within Black religious studies. Other major thinkers examined include Carter G. Woodson, Benjamin E. Mays, E. Franklin Frazier, Melville Herskovits, Zora Neale Hurston, Albert Raboteau, George Simpson, Mervyn Alleyene, Sidney Mintz, Richard Price, Charles Long, James Cone, Gayraud Wilmore, Josiah Young, Delores Williams, and Theophus Smith.
Texts: Texts or book chapters to be examined include:*
W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk
Zora Neale Hurston, The Sanctified Church
E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Church in America
Benjamin E. Mays, The Negro's God
Melville Herskovits, The Myth of the Negro Past
Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion
Mervyn Alleyene, The Roots of Jamaican Culture
Josiah Young, A Pan-African Theology: Providence and the Legacies of the Ancestors
Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness
Theophus Smith, Conjuring Culture
Donald Matthews, Honoring the Ancestors:
An African Cultural Interpretation of Black Religion and Literature
*Definitive articles in Black religious studies will also be assigned covering the research of scholars such as Carter G. Woodson, George Simpson, Sidney Mintz, Richard Price, Charles Long, James Cone and Gayraud Wilmore.
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