Fall 2005 Course Atlas

 

CPLT 750: Literary Theories
Marder, Wednesday, 1:00-4:00
(Same as FREN 770)

An introduction to literary theoretical thinking, focusing on twentieth century structuralism, post-structuralism and contemporary theory. Readings include influential texts by: Saussure, Derrida, Lacan, Barthes, Foucault, Cixous, Irigaray, de Man and Benjamin.

RLAR 731: Religious Transformations in Colonial India
Courtright, Monday, 10:00-1:00

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 its consequences and legacies?

Texts:

• C. A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire
• P. Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance
• S. Banerjea, The Parlour and the Streets
• J. P. Losty, Calcutta: City of Palaces
• B. Cohn, Colonial Knowledge
• P. Courtright, Sati: The Goddess and the Dreadful Practice
• 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: Standing in the Graduate Division of Religion, or permission from the instructor.

RLAR 737: Buddhism: Taking Root in American Soil
Doyle, Thursday, 3:00-6:00

Content: Since Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment in India, the Buddhist tradition has taken root in numerous cultures, both transforming and being transformed by the societies it has encountered. In America this process began in the late 19th century, with the arrival of thousands of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. During this period, American intellectuals, artists, and wealthy dilettantes also became interested in Buddhism, mostly through exposure to Orientalist works of scholarship. From the 1960s onwards the number of Asian-American Buddhists and interest in Buddhism among non-Asian Americans has escalated dramatically, resulting in the establishment of a wide range of Buddhist temples, meditation centers, and institutions. Buddhism is thus now a vital part of America's religiously plural, rapidly changing demographic landscape. In this course, we will trace this complex historical and sociological process, focusing particularly on Buddhist groups within easy reach of Emory. Films, discussions, fieldtrips to temples, and meetings with Buddhist teachers are integral to this course. We will also investigate issues of Orientalism, identity formation, immigration, conversion, and pluralism in order to understand the various Buddhisms that exist today in the U.S.A.

Texts may include:

• Seiger, American Buddhism
• Glassman, Bearing Witness
• Numrich, Old Wisdom in the New World
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace
• a photocopy sourcebook of articles

Particulars: Two response papers, ethnography of a local Buddhist temple or meditation center, and a final research paper on socially engaged Buddhism.

RLAR 738L: Islamic Law
An-Na'im, Monday and Wednesday, 8:30-10:00am (Note: Law school classes begin August 29)
(Same as LAW 651-08A, RLE 741L)

Content: The objective of this course is to introduce students to the nature, sources and techniques of Islamic Law (Shari'a), and its main concepts, principles and rules. However, class discussions will focus on the relationship between Shari'a and modern legal systems, as well as its social and cultural impact on present Islamic societies.

Following a discussion of the nature, sources and early development of Shari'a, we will review the main substantive aspects of this legal tradition, namely, property and transactions, family law, criminal law, and constitutional law and inter-communal, international law. The last section of the course will examine the relationship between Shari'a and the legal systems of modern states, especially in relation to international terrorism and international and humanitarian law in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Texts may include:

• Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and International Law (Syracuse University Press, 1990, soft-cover edition 1996)
• ---------, Islamic Foundations of Pluralism, Human Rights and Citizenship (2005 book manuscript)
• Course Materials, Emory Law School distribution center by the Reception area.

Particulars: Evaluation for the course will consist of the following components:

• 25% for a 3000 to 4000 words paper on the nature and development of Shari'a in relation to issues of its modern application. This essay is due by Friday, Oct. 7, 2005.
• 75% for a 7000-8000 words paper on a topic agreed with the instructor. This final paper is due by first day of Law School examination period.

RLE 701G: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Rights
An-Na'im, Monday, 2:00-5:00 (Note: Law school classes begin August 29)
(Same as LAW 819-02A, POLS 585, IH 590R)

Description: This graduate seminar, open to students from the Law School, Graduate School and School of Public Heath, examines the theory and practice of global human rights from an interdisciplinary perspective. In addition to issues of the history, origins and legitimacy of universal human rights, the seminar will discuss standards, institutions and processes of implementation. The seminar will also examine human rights across a variety of substantive issues areas, including; conflict, development, globalization, social welfare, religion, race and ethnicity, public health and rights of women and other vulnerable groups. Evaluation will be based on seminar participation, an analytical essay, a survey paper and major research paper. Students will also make brief presentations of their final papers.

Goals: To understand the interdisciplinary nature of human rights To appreciate how conceptions of human rights vary across disciplines To develop the ability to evaluate human rights policies and practices across a variety of disciplines To appreciate some of the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in human rights To understand human rights methods and approaches

Course Materials: We have set up a course webpage at http://humanrights.emory.edu/iphr.html which contains links to many of the readings for the class along with other helpful materials.

Grading: Class Participation and Weekly Questions 20%; Analytical Essay 20%; Survey Paper 20%; Major Paper/project 40%.

Class Participation and Weekly Question

The class participation grade will be based on attendance, participation in discussion, and your weekly question. Students are expected to attend each and every session. Observance of religious holidays will be considered an excused absence.

Your weekly question is due every Sunday by 5 p.m. and should address the readings assigned for the following Tuesday. Please email a copy to each instructor. The questions will allow us (your instructors) to grasp your understanding and reaction to the materials, and they are an opportunity raising issues that you would like us to explore in greater depth.

Analytical Essay

Students are required to write a short (5-8 pages, double spaced) analytical essay on a topic assigned by the instructors. More details on the topic will follow.

Survey Paper

Students will also write a short interdisciplinary survey paper on a particular facet of human rights or a specific human rights problem of the students choosing. The paper will allow students to appreciate how different disciplines approach the same human rights issues. The paper should include: a general overview of the particular human rights area or issue, a discussion of how the particular topic is approached in different disciplines, a specification of the major human rights challenges or problems, a discussion of some of the ways in which these challenges are addressed in different disciplines, and some conjecture regarding possible remedies and recommendations. The paper should be 5-8 pages long. The survey paper will be due March 30th.

Major Project

Forty percent of your grade will be determined by your major project. We envision that your project will take one of four primary forms, although we are flexible and willing to consider alternative projects. You will need to get your project approved by the instructors by the third week of class, to allow you maximum time for preparation and consultation with instructors, etc.

First, you can design and (time and data permitting) conduct original research on some facet of human rights. Original research generally involves conducting interviews, administering and analyzing surveys, archival/textual analysis, analysis of secondary data, and/or other types of statistical studies. You will need to develop a research question and a set of testable hypotheses that will be set within the context of the existing scholarly debate. You will then propose a research strategy for collecting and examining empirical evidence to assess the validity of the hypotheses. You will need to complete the research design portion of the project and hopefully it will be possible for you to complete the analysis portion of the project. The final version of the project will look quite similar to an academic article.

Second, you can design an advocacy/investigation project. A project in this area might include some or all of the following steps: articulate a human rights problem and identify the nature and extent of violations, (e.g., a lack of awareness of individuals of their rights, or a set of biased or discriminatory policies), identify goals, develop alternative strategies for addressing the problem, choose the best strategy, and lay out a plan of action for achieving your goals. This project can be undertaken in conjunction with an actual HR organization (for instance in the Atlanta area you could work with an organization like The Carter Center, Amnesty International, or the Southern Center for Human Rights) or you can design the program for a hypothetical NGO or government agency.

Third, you can conduct a descriptive research project in which you examine some aspect of human rights in greater detail. Projects in this area might
include: surveying in detail debates about the nature of specific rights across disciplines or within a discipline over time, examining the philosophical origins and emergence of sets of rights in different disciplines, a detailed comparison of the strategies of several different HR organizations in their advocacy campaigns or investigations, or any of a number of other projects.

Fourth, Students may opt for legal analysis of international human rights law and institutions. Students from the Law School, Graduate School and School of Public Health may also adopt any of the above approaches. If you have any concerns about this, or need further clarification, please contact either instructor.

RLE 701R: Social Justice and Justice Theory
Gunnemann, Tuesday, 2:30-5:30

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. Central themes and questions will include the following: 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 ethics, social philosophy and/or social theory (e.g., 18th century moral and social philosophy, including social contract theory; Marxist theory; sociological theory; classical theories of justice) is highly recommended.

RLE 732: History of Christian Theological Ethics
Jackson, Wednesday, 2:30-5:30

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.

RLE 741L: Islamic Law
An-Na'im, TBA
(Same as RLAR 738L)

RLHB 791: History of Interpretation
Hayes, Friday, 9:00-12:00

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 may include:

• 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
• 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.

RLHB 792: Critical Methods of Hebrew Bible Study
Petersen, Wednesday, 2:00-5:00

Content: Analysis of selected Hebrew Bible texts in order to establish competence in the use of diverse methods and perspectives (e.g., textual criticism, redaction criticism, literary criticism, post-critical perspectives) within the field of biblical studies.

Texts: (Readings will be drawn from monographs [a sample is listed below], commentaries, and journal articles)

• R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative
• R. Rendtorff, The Problem of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch
• A. Rofé, The Prophetical Stories
• E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
• E. Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible

Particulars: The course is a seminar in which students are expected to complete assigned readings prior to the session, to participate in class discussions, and to write a research paper using a clearly articulated method or perspective. Prerequisites: Graduate standing in the Graduate Division of Religion or permission of the instructor, good reading knowledge of classical Hebrew.

RLHT 710G: Christian Ascetics
Bondi, Wednesday, 1:30-4:30

Content: This course will examine some the fascinating key texts related to the rise of monasticism, especially in Egypt, from the fourth through the sixth century. The emphasis will be on the ascetic theology more than the specific practices, but it will include both. Note: most of these texts have been extremely influential in the west.

Texts will include:

• The Life of Saint Anthony
• The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Alphabetical collection
• Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer
• The Macarian Homilies
• The Lives of Macrina and Syncletica
• Theodoret's History of the Monks of Syria

RLHT 712R: Theology of Augustine
Ayres, Thursday, 2:30-5:30

Content: This course will look at the basic dyanmics of Augustine's theology with particular reference to his methods (intertextuality in reading the scriptural text, what does he mean by "author," "literaly sense," "allegory" etc), his account of the distinction between God and world (and hence his account of the creation's participation in the Word and his trinitarian theology), his Christology and theology of grace (including his account of the will) and predestiantion. Quite a bit of time will be spent thinking about his philosophical sources and his methods of using those sources. We will also consider the place of asceticism in Augustine's thought and how this shapes his picture of Christian existence.

RLHT 735: American Religious Diversity
Laderman, Friday, 9:00-12:00

Content: This seminar offers students an opportunity to investigate the historical and cultural implications of religious diversity in American history. Rather than rehearse the well-known historical narratives beginning with Puritan New England and focusing on the rise of Protestant culture through the experiences of white males in proliferating denominational settings, this seminar takes a different tack that seeks to reappraise such thematic conventions and methodological limitations. The cultural study of religious diversity in America is vast and still largely uncharted terrain; it must be grounded in critical methodological reflection and anchored by a topic that embodies and illuminates the realities of religious diversity in the US. This year, our topic will be healers and healing, and the seminar readings will highlight the contestations, contradictions, collaborations, and creative innovations at the intersections of medicine, religion, and culture.

Texts may include the following:

• Alvord, Lori Arviso, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing (Bantam, 1999)
• Barnes, Linda L. and Susan S. Sered, eds., Religion and Healing in America (Oxford UP, 2005)
• Csordas, Thomas, Body/Meaning/Healing (Palgrave, 2002)
• Fadiman, Anne, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1997)
• Fett, Sharla M., Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations (University of Carolina Press, 2002)
• McGuire, Meredith, Ritual Healing in Suburban America (Rutgers UP, 1994)

Particulars: Students will be expected to participate in seminar discussions, be presenters of weekly topics, write book reviews, and write a final research grant proposal.

RLHT 750: African American Women: Religious Thought and Practice
Dianne Stewart, Tuesday, 1:00-4:00

Content: The aim of this seminar is to examine the experiences of women of African descent across diverse Black religious cultures. In so doing we will identify salient theoretical insights and methodological approaches to the study of Black religious cultures in America that may serve to expand and enhance the canon of womanist religious thought. Thus the texts will cover "lived religion" as well as theological reflection and theoretical analysis, especially Black feminist analysis, postcolonial theory, and other relevant discourses. Among the many questions to be considered are: (1) How do our analyses of women/gender in Black religious cultures shift major debates and established assumptions about African American religion? (2) Is it possible to identify essential interdisciplinary tools and methods toward the development of a womanist religious method? Among the authors explored are Katie Cannon, Karen Brown, Delores Williams, Marta Vega, Rosetta Ross, Marla Frederick, Linda Thomas, Irma McClaurin, Dianne Stewart, Carolyn Rouse and Yvonne Chireau.

Texts include:

• McClaurin, Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics
• Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
• Vega, The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santería
• Frederick, Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith
• Stewart, Three Eyes for the Journey: African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religious Experience
• Thomas, Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and Spiritual Resilience in South Africa
• Rouse, Engaged Surrender: African American Women and Islam

RLL 704: Aramaic
Gilders, MW, 9:30-11:00

Content: This course provides an intensive introduction to Aramaic, beginning with the Aramaic of the Bible (Ezra and Daniel), and moving on to the dialect(s) of the Targums (Jewish renderings of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, often with considerable interpretive elaboration). The purpose of this course is to provide both breadth and some depth of knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of Aramaic, which students may use in a variety of ways in biblical and Jewish studies. Students who have previously studied Aramaic may enroll in this course, but should consult with the instructor before doing so.

Texts:

• Frederick E. Greenspahn, An Introduction to Aramaic (2nd ed.)
• Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature

Particulars: Careful preparation and active participation will be essential to success in this course. Formal grading will be based on several short quizzes, a "mid-term" examination on biblical Aramaic, and a final comprehensive examination.

Pre-requisite: Prior study of Hebrew.

RLNT 740: Jewish Backgrounds
Holladay, Wednesday, 2:30-5:30

Content: An intensive introduction to Second Temple Judaism primarily for Ph.D. students in New Testament. Emphasis on reading primary sources, mostly in English translation, relating to Jewish history and literature from about 200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. Attention to connections with Christian origins and early Christian literature.

RLNT 770: History of Interpretation II: Reformation to the Present
V. Robbins, Monday, 1:30-4:30

Content: This seminar covers 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, the Catholic Counter Reformation, and new developments during the eighteenth century. After this, it will investigate the nineteenth and twentieth century contexts 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 late twentieth century 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 approaches and to assess their relation to additional approaches that emerged during the last three decades of the twentieth century.

Participants in the seminar will read secondary sources as guides to 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, Volumes 1-2
• Werner Georg Kümmel, Introduction to the New Testament
• Werner Georg Kümmel, The New Testament: the history of the investigation of its problems
• Wayne A. Meeks, Writings of St. Paul
• Heiki Raisanen, Beyond New Testament Theology (Second edition, 2000)
• John K. Riches, A Century of New Testament Study
• Vernon K. Robbins, The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse
• Udo Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings
• Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
• Anthony C. Thiselton, New Horizons in Hermeneutics

Particulars: In addition to regular reports on the readings, seminar participants will write a series of short papers on the history of the interpretation of various NT writings through the centuries from the Reformation to the present.

RLPC 720G: Intercultural Pastoral Counseling
Lartey, Tuesday, 2:00-5:00

Content: Pastoral counseling, like other forms of counseling, is culturally embedded. This course will examine the influence of race, ethnicity, class, gender, culture and religion on theories and practices of pastoral counseling. By examining the writings of selected counseling practitioners who address these issues, cross-cultural, multi-cultural, intercultural and other approaches will be explored. Particular attention will be paid to how cultural analysis may assist the counseling process.

Texts may include:

• Augsburger, D.W. (1986), Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures
• Boyd-Franklin, N. (2003) Black Families in Therapy (2nd Ed)
• Burke, M.T. et al, (2005), Religious and spiritual issues in counseling
• Dalal, F. (2002), Race, Colour and the processes of Racialization
• Dupont-Joshua, A.(ed), (2003), Working Inter-culturally in Counselling Settings
• Foster, R. P. et al (1996), Reaching across Boundaries of Culture and Class
• Lartey, E.Y. (2003), In Living Color (2nd Ed)
• McGoldrick, M.(1998), Re-Visioning Family Therapy
• Mishne, J. (2002), Multiculturalism and the Therapeutic Process

Particulars: Course will include student led seminars, lectures, lecture-discussions, group work and role play. Course is open to Th.D. students. Two papers will be required: an examination of a selected approach and a final essay outlining the student’s own methods and approach to the subject. Students will also be evaluated on class participation.

Prerequisite: Some exposure to clinical counseling practice.

RLPC 790R: Dynamics of Religious Community: Gender, Culture, and Change
Moore, Thursday, 2:30-5:30

Content: This seminar explores social and theological dynamics of religious community life, with particular attention to gender, culture, and change. Focusing on case studies from different historical eras, religious communities, and parts of the world, we will engage in sociological, anthropological, and theological analysis. Students will have an opportunity to study one community in depth, drawing interpretive conclusions for anthropological theory and ethical practice, particularly as regards human communal life.

Text may include: (some primary and some specialized)

• Vine Deloria, Jr., For This Land: Writings on Religion in America
• Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures
• Ernest Gellner, Muslim Society
• Gluck & Patai, Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History
• David Halberstam, The Children
• Keith Hartman, Congregations in Conflict: Battle over Homosexuality
• Samuel Heilman, Synagogue Life: A Study of Symbolic Interaction
• Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Continuing La Lucha: Mujerista Theology
• Elaine Lawless, Holy Women, Wholly Women
• Joseph M. Murphy, Santeria: African Spirits in America
• Hannah Naveh, ed., Gender and Israeli Society: Women’s Time
• Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
• Victor Turner, Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure
• Antionette Clark Wire, The Corinthian Women Prophets

Particulars: The seminar will explore diverse methods for studying religious community, especially ethnographic, ethogenic, and oral history methods. Weekly assignments include readings (common and specialized), two short reflection papers and seminar discussion. Students will also develop a methodology and employ it in studying a religious community - developing a proposal, collaborating with seminar colleagues, conducting the study, and analyzing and interpreting the research in a major paper.

RLR 700: First Year Colloquy
TBA, Tuesday, 11:00-1:00

RLR 705: Teaching Religion
Kirkham Hawkins, Tuesday, 11:00-1:00

Content: This course examines pedagogical theories and practices of pedagogical reflection, particularly as these relate to teaching religious and theological studies. We will explore various theories and models of effective teaching, and various theories and models of learning. We will also discuss "practical" elements of teaching including syllabus design, preparing and executing class plans, setting up and facilitating discussions, designing and grading writing assignments and tests, etc.

Texts may include:

• Bean, John D. Engaging Ideas
• Brookfield, Stephen. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher
• Brookfield, Stephen and Stephen Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching
• hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress
• Seldin, Peter. The Teaching Portfolio
• Shor, Ira. Empowering Education
• Walvoord, Barbara, et al. Effective Grading

Particulars: This course fulfills the pedagogy requirement for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences TATTO program. The course will be in seminar format, with students required to bring short written reflections to each class session as discussion starters. Students will begin to develop a pedagogical philosophy statement, a syllabus for a course they would like to teach, and several assignments for that course (e.g., a paper assignment; a presentation assignment, etc.).

RLR 725L: Levinas
J. Robbins, Thursday, 1:00-4:00
(Same as CPLT 751)

Content: This course centers on a reading of Levinas’s 1961 Totality and Infinity. Our reading will be cross-referenced with Levinas’s writing from the late forties (Time and the Other, Existents and Existence), and the key philosophical essays, "Philosophy and The Idea of Infinity" (1957), "God and Philosophy" (1975), and "Useless Suffering" (1982). We will attend closely to interpretations of Levinas by Derrida, Blanchot and Lyotard.

Texts:

• Levinas, Totality and Infinity
• Levinas, Existents and Existence
• Levinas, Time and the Other
• Levinas, Collected Philosophical Papers
• Derrida, "Violence and Metaphysics"
• Blanchot, The Infinite Conversation

RLSR 730: Sociology of Religion
Tipton, Thursday, 7:00-10:00pm
(Same as SOC 725)

Content: What do religious phenomena mean to their participants, seen as members of society? The seminar explores answers to this question over successive generations of development in the work of classical social thinkers (e.g. Weber, Durkheim, Du Bois, Marx, Freud) and contemporary theorists (Bellah, Geertz, Douglas, Bourdieu, Abu-Lughod). Topics include the culturally constitutive meaning of religion as symbolic action and embodiment, theodicy and soteriology; the social and moral functions of ritual, myth, and religious experience; religious evolution, social modernization, globalization and nationalism; contemporary religious fundamentalism, politicization, secularization, class differences, and cultural conflict. Particular attention is given to the Black Churches, American Evangelicalism, global Catholicism, U.S. mainline Protestantism, and meditation as a social practice.

Texts include:

• Weber, The Sociology of Religion
• Geertz, Islam Observed
• Douglas, How Institutions Think
• Asad, Genealogies of Religion
• Colin Campbell, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Consumerism
• Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion
• Smith, American Evangelicalism
• Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World
• Lincoln & Mamiya, The Black Church in the African-American Religious Experience
• Charles Taylor, Varieties of Religion Today
• Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice

Requirements: Active participation in seminar discussion; one short paper and class presentation; term paper.

RLTS 750: Philosophical Theology
Farley, Thursday, 9:00-12:00

Content: Postmodernism has been accused of lacking a sufficient basis for ethics, even as it is often driven by ethical commitments to various forms of difference. This class will reach back to the generation of continental philosophy shaped by the traumas of WWII to explore a different way of linking critique of totality with ethical existence. It is characteristic of these thinkers to believe that the way we think has a great deal with what we do, not only (or even primarily) as individuals but as societies. It is also characteristic of these thinkers to dwell at a border where the differences between philosophy and theology blur. In both of these ways, they tend to obscure "the traditional opposition between theory and practice" (Levinas).

Texts will include, for example:

• Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences
• Gabriel Marcel, Man Against Mass Society or The Existential Background of Human Dignity
• Karl Jaspers, Reason and Anti-Reason in Our Time
• Simone Weil Reader
• Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity or Collected Philosophical Papers
• Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, The Origins of Totalitarianism

 

Other courses of interest:

 

JS 730R: Ethnography of Religious Experience: A Critical Introduction
Seeman, Thursday, 3:00-6:00
(Same as ANT 585)

Content: "Experience" is an under-theorized concept in both anthropology and the study of religion. This course asks how both disciplines can be transformed through the ethnographic study of religious experience in its lived contexts. What constitutes experience, and how can it be described cross-culturally? What are the strengths and limitations of ethnography as a research methodology in the study of religion? What are the theoretical as well as practical and stylistic tools needed to fashion compelling ethnographies that get to the heart of what it means to be human in different social and religious settings, from spirit possession in Northern Sudan to charismatic healing in Catholic America? What is at stake for people in these settings?

Course description: This seminar is a critical introduction to theory and methodology in the anthropology of religion. We will read full-length ethnographies that focus on a variety of religious settings, as well as William James, Clifford Geertz and at least one work of fiction. How does ethnography ask and answer questions differently than any other methodology in the study of religion? What are its strengths and limitations? And how do recent trends in the anthropology of human experience promise to transform both anthropology and the study of religion as academic disciplines? Case studies that include the ethnography of Charismatic Christian healers in America, Muslim women in Sudan and Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel will be read alongside ethnographies of Haitian spiritualists and African diviners. Films will be shown four times during the semester at an additional meeting. Students will write a critical book review of two or more books and will conduct their own mini-ethnography.

Texts Available for Purchase:

• Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti
• Janice Boddy, Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan
• Geoffrey Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka
• Thomas Csordas, Language, Charisma and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement
• Elenore Smith Bowen, Return to Laughter
• Unni Wikan, Tomorrow, God Willing: Self Made Destinies in Cairo
• Vincent Crapanzano, Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan
• Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity
• Gananath Obeyesekere, Medusa's Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience
• William James, Varieties of Religious Experience
• Robert Desjarlais, Sensory Biographies: Lives and Deaths Among Nepal's Yolmo Buddhists

Texts Available in Class:

• Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System" and "Thick Description," both from The Interpretation of Cultures
• Don Seeman, Tainted Hearts: Being "Felashmura" in Israel
• Rudolph Otto, The Holy
• Arthur Kleinman, "Everything that Really Matters," Harvard Theological Review 1998

Particulars: This course will be run in seminar format. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions and to take turns presenting material and leading class discussions. We will average one full ethnography per week. There will be one short paper (possibly a mini-ethnography or interview assignment) and one longer paper (possibly a critical book review). Students who are currently conducting ethnographic research projects may petition to write about their own ethnography.