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Division of Religion Main PageContent: This course examines both life history narratives and the ethnographic, theoretical frameworks and methodological methods for eliciting, recording, publishing and analyzing such narratives. We will read life history narratives from several different cultural contexts that will help us to identify the cultural constructions of both narrative and "lives." We will give particular consideration to indigenous contexts for "telling a life" in each of the considered traditions.
Texts may include: Alter, Knowing Dil Das: Stories of a Himalayan
Hunter
Behar, Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story
Crapanzano, Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan
Gluck & Patai, Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral
History
Grima, The Performance of Emotion Among Paxtun Women Kendall,
The
Life & Hard Times of a Korean Shaman
Langness & Frank, Lives: An Anthropological Approach to Biography
Lawless, Holy Women, Wholly Women
Menchu, et al., I, Rigoberta Menchu
Rosenwald & Ochberg, Storied Lives
Particulars: Two short papers: a book or film review of a life history and an essay addressing what life history methodologies and narratives can add to the student's discipline of study. A final paper will consist of either a research proposal for a life history project or a life history narrative elicited by the student and analysis. Every student will be expected to conduct fieldwork for either format of the paper.
RLAR 737M Topics in Asian Religions: The Buddhist Body
Reinders
M 9:30 - 12:30
(Crosslisted with RLHT 738K)
Max: 6
Content: This seminar will examine aspects of the body in Buddhism and in Chinese religions, in dialogue with contemporary body theory (especially Foucault, Bourdieu, Bell, Sharf, and Merleau-Ponty). We will discuss original sources in translation, and some exemplary recent studies, focusing on: monasticism as a technology of the self, problems of theorizing body practices, bodies as icons / icons as bodies, obeisance and the objectification of the cultural other, and embodied memory. No previous study of Buddhism is required; all welcome.
Texts: Readings will include: Zito & Barlow,
eds., Body, Subject & Power in China; Buswell, The Zen Monastic
Experience; selections from the Lotus Sutra, Pure Land sutras, the
Platform Sutra, & Vimalakirti sutra; Dogen’s Pure Standards for
the Zen Community; selections from Foucault, Bourdieu, Bell, Sharf,
& Merleau-Ponty; Faure, Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese
Buddhism; and Jing, The Temple of Memories: History, Power, and
Morality in a Chinese Village.
RLE 720 Ethics of Thomas Aquinas Reynolds
Tu 2:00-5:00 Max: 6
(Crosslisted with RLHT 721S)
Content: This seminar introduces students to the teleological and eudemonist basis of Thomas's ethics, to the chief philosophical and theological problems that arise (e.g., freedom and causality), to his general vision of the good life, and to his style as a Christian ethicist working in a particular historical and theological context. It also helps students to understand and explicate scholastic writing. Topics include: the notion of human action; happiness; freedom, voluntariness and the causes of human action; merit; moral good and evil; habits, virtues, vices and sin; love and hate; the varieties of law; grace; the theological and cardinal virtues.
Texts: Emphasis throughout the course is on close reading and detailed exposition of primary texts, mainly taken from the first part of the second part of Thomas's Summa theologiae (which students may study either in Latin or in English translation).
Particulars: Short presentations in seminars; three short written
expositions of articles from the Summa; a 15-page final paper; an annotated
index of the sources that Thomas cites and exploits.
RLE 736 U.S. 20th Century Christian Social Ethics Bounds W 10 - 1 MAX:12
Content: This seminar will explore some intersecting conversations in U.S. 20th Century liberal social ethics, beginning with the Social Gospel and ending with the emergence of feminist and black social ethics. While the majority of the authors covered will be liberal Protestants, some attention will be paid to parallel Catholic conversations. Moving chronologically, this seminar will engage key conversations in 20th Century Christian social ethics through the study of representative authors. The approach will be contextual. Questions will include: how does the author understand the urgent social issues of the day? What does s/he see as the role of
Christian social ethics in addressing these problems? What is the method in the doing of Christian ethics, in particular, what kind of use of social science is made? Who are the major dialogue partners from both the present and the past?
Texts: Rauschenbusch, Reinhold Niebuhr, Ward, H. Richard Niebuhr, Ramsey, Murray, Adams, Bennett, Gustafson, Curran, Yoder, Jones, Hauerwas, Harrison.
Particulars: leadership paper, response paper, choice of research
paper or other final project.
RLHB 720S The Book of Job Newsom Th 2:30-5:30 MAX: 10
Content: This exegesis course on the book of Job will focus on literary methodologies. Selected readings in genre theory, metaphor, intertextuality, and dialogics will be employed in close study of selected texts and problems of interpretation in Job.
Texts: May include: K. Burke, Language as Symbolic Action; M. M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination and Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics; S. Sacks, ed., On Metaphor; Jean-Marie Schaeffer, "Literary Genres and Textual Genericity" and A. Fowler, "The Future of Genre Theory" in R. Cohen, ed., The Future of Literary Theory. Commentaries on Job: D. Clines, Job 1-20; N. Habel, The Book of Job; C. Newsom, Job in The New Interpreter's Bible.
Particulars: A reading knowledge
of Biblical Hebrew is required.
RLHB 791 History of Interpretation BussTu 1:00 - 4:00 MAX: 12
Content: The seminar will deal with the history of the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible until about 1980 CE. It will cover three major spheres: formal/structural (literary/social/psychological), historical, and theological (the spheres overlap, of course). Attention will be given to both Jewish and Christian interpretations and to a limited extent to interpretations that have come from outside those two traditions.
Texts: Items recommended for purchase will be announced prior to the first meeting.
Particulars: In order to work with
the extensive materials, we will proceed in two ways. (1) There will be
readings that provide overviews of the major kinds of interpretation that
are listed. (2) Some special figures or topics will be pursued in depth;
these special items will be handled for the most part, although not entirely,
through individual reports, which can incorporate a variety of individual
interests. Students who need to write a lengthy "annual paper" can do so
(a) by choosing a history of interpretation topic, pieces or version of
which will be presented from time to time, or (b) by using limited reports
during the semester as probes toward their paper on any topic (including
an exegesis). If it seems appropriate, someone writing an annual paper
can postpone part of the common work of the seminar, to be done with formal
or informal direction during the summer, after being present for class
discussion of it. (Note: It will help my planning the course, if I know
ahead of time what
your situation is. Thus, please speak
with me.)
RLHT 710G Ascetic Theology in Late Roman Empire Bondi W 2:00-5:00 MAX: 12
Content: For the early church, Christianity has fundamentally to do with the development of human character for the living out of the Christian life. During the fourth and fifth centuries an enormous number of men and women believed that they could only realize this goal if they abandoned the ordinary life of the world. Nevertheless, these men and women were not cut off from their world. Appealing to the imagination of the Roman Empire, they assumed a place of central importance in it. Theirs was the ethos in which the great trinitarian and christological debates took place, and unless the perspectives of the monastics are understood, these debates will never make more than partial sense to the modern reader.
These questions will be addressed during the semester in the context of the discussion of the primary sources we shall use: (1) what is the goal of the Christian life? (2) what is its context? (3) how does the author think about the Christian life in relation to what he affirms about God, Christ, and the world? (4) what is the view of the self found in these documents? (5) what are the virtues and vices relevant to the Christian vision found in these texts?
Texts: Athanasius, The Life of St. Anthony; Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses; Evagrius Pontikus, The Praktikos; Centuries on Prayer, The Macarian Homilies; Dorotheos of Gaza, Homilies and Sayings; Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Fathers; Peter Brown, The Body and Society, Derwas Chitty, The Desert a City, Andrew Louth, Vision of God in the Early Church; Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Mystical Theology and the Divine Names; Susanna Elm, Virgins of God.
Particulars: Short paper weekly
and a research paper
RLHT 721S Ethics of Thomas Aquinas
Reynolds Tu 2:00-5:00
Max: 6
(Crosslisted with RLE 720)
Content: This seminar introduces students to the teleological and eudemonist basis of Thomas's ethics, to the chief philosophical and theological problems that arise (e.g., freedom and causality), to his general vision of the good life, and to his style as a Christian ethicist working in a particular historical and theological context. It also helps students to understand and explicate scholastic writing. Topics include: the notion of human action; happiness; freedom, voluntariness and the causes of human action; merit; moral good and evil; habits, virtues, vices and sin; love and hate; the varieties of law; grace; the theological and cardinal virtues.
Texts: Emphasis throughout the course is on close reading and detailed exposition of primary texts, mainly taken from the first part of the second part of Thomas's Summa theologiae (which students may study either in Latin or in English translation).
Particulars: Short presentations in seminars; three short written expositions of articles from the Summa; a 15-page final paper; an annotated index of the sources that Thomas cites and exploits.
RLHT 738K Topics in the Histoy of Religions: The Buddhist
Body Reinders
M 9:30 - 12:30
(Crosslisted with RLAR 737M)
Max: 6
Content: This seminar will examine aspects of the body in Buddhism and in Chinese religions, in dialogue with contemporary body theory (especially Foucault, Bourdieu, Bell, Sharf, and Merleau-Ponty). We will discuss original sources in translation, and some exemplary recent studies, focusing on: monasticism as a technology of the self, problems of theorizing body practices, bodies as icons / icons as bodies, obeisance and the objectification of the cultural other, and embodied memory. No previous study of Buddhism is required; all welcome.
Texts: Readings will include: Zito & Barlow, eds., Body, Subject & Power in China; Buswell, The Zen Monastic Experience; selections from the Lotus Sutra, Pure Land sutras, the Platform Sutra, & Vimalakirti sutra; Dogen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community; selections from Foucault, Bourdieu, Bell, Sharf, & Merleau-Ponty; Faure, Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism; and Jing, The Temple of Memories: History, Power, and Morality in a Chinese Village.
RLL 704 Aramaic Strawn W F 1:00 - 2:30 MAX: 12
Content: Language study.
RLNT 760 New Testament Theology Johnson W 1:00-4:00 MAX: 12
Content: We will examine the relationship between the New Testament and theology in three distinct ways. First, we will ask what it means to speak of the "theological voice" of a New Testament composition. Does the expression, "the theology of John," make sense, and if so, how? Second, we will consider several classic examples of the intellectual experiment called "New Testament Theology," and by analysis of the several outstanding examples of the genre, discover the possibilities and limits of the exercise. Third, we will give some attention to the "use of the New Testament in theology," by interacting with some examples of contemporary theological discourse.
Texts: A bibliography of secondary readings will be made available. Four books will be purchased: H. Boers, What Is New Testament Theology (xerox); A. Schlatter, New Testament Theology (2 Vols); G. Caird, New Testament Theology; R. Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament
Particulars: Weekly reading and
periodic seminar reports; final paper.
RLNT 711N Seminar in the Gospels
Holladay Tu 2:30-5:30
MAX: 12
RLPC 740G Theology of Christian Spirituality
Moore Tu 1:30 -
4:30 MAX: 12
(Cross-listed with RLTS 757G)
Content: The seminar is an exploration of historical and contemporary currents in Christian spirituality. Particular attention will be given to movements in the theology and practice of spirituality during the twentieth century and to ways in which people draw upon, critique, reshape, and use historical spiritual traditions in response to changing social contexts. The purposes of the course will be to: (1) explore theologies of spirituality in diverse religious and cultural communities; (2) focus on the interrelationship of spiritual theory and practice; (3) explore the varied textures of Christian spirituality through descriptive-analytic studies of particular persons and religious communities; and (4) interpret the dynamics of social and religious construction that are found in spiritual traditions and in the continual process of reclaiming, critiquing and reshaping those traditions. The first third of the course is a study of contemporary readings of history; the second third, an exploration of contemporary theologies of spirituality; and the last third, a constructive dialogue of students' seminar papers.
Texts: Several books will be the focus of study, including: Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love; selections from Augustine's Confessions; Margaret Miles' Desire and Delight: A New Reading of Augustine's Confessions; Gustavo Gutierrez's The God of Life; Grace M. Jantzen's Power, Gender, and Christian Mysticism; Jung Young Lee's The Trinity in Asian Perspective; Peter J. Paris' The Spirituality of African Peoples; and Howard Thurman's With Head and Heart.
Particulars: Requires participation
in seminar discussions, an oral exam, and a major seminar paper (20-30
pages), which is a theological description and analysis of a person or
religious community.
RLPC 750G The Development of Modern Homiletics Long Th 2:30-5:30 MAX: 12
Content: The seminar will trace the development of theory and theology in contemporary Christian homiletical thought, beginning with the period of "sacred rhetoric" in the late 19th century and moving to the pluralistic and multi-faceted situation of today. The seminar will proceed, essentially chronologically, through the critical reading key pieces of homiletical literature, with an emphasis upon the textbooks and monographs that have significantly influenced homiletical practice. At each point along the way, this literature will be placed in both theological and cultural context.
Texts: Readings will be from books that represent the major homiletical works of the last 100 years.
Particulars: Students will be required
to read approximately 150-200 pages per week, to make weekly reports on
their reading to the seminar, and to prepare a major final paper (of approx.
20 pages).
RLPC 780 Marriage: Religious and
Legal Perspectives Witte
/ Browning
W 3:15- 5:30
(Cross-listed with Law 802, 03A) MAX:
5
Content: The purpose of this class is to investigate issues pertaining to the nature and purpose of marriage as it is being defined within and between selected contemporary expressions of the disciplines of law and theology. Our goal will be to submit a variety of texts to close reading, analysis, and comparison and to provide the student with an initial perspective on how these respective disciplines are approaching the institution of marriage. After examining a few historical treatments on the interaction of law and religion in the development of marriage theory in Western societies, we will turn to more contemporary statements. These texts will represent important positions in the present cultural debate over the nature and purpose of marriage. Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish perspectives will be examined as well as a variety of points of view in current legal theory. The basic questions to be pursued are: How does a particular text define the nature and purpose of marriage? How does it argue for its view of marriage? In what way, if any, does religion influence its understanding of marriage? How does the text understand the functions of marriage? How does it relate the private and consensual aspects of marriage to the legal or public dimensions? What is the role of sexuality in marriage, i.e., sexual pleasure, procreation, intimacy? And how does the text understand the relation of informal communal regulations of marriage to legal, religious, and private regulations? The course will be a discussion class based on the critical analysis of texts around these basic questions.
Texts:
John Witte, From Sacrament to Contract:
Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition
Michael J. Broyde, Marriage, Divorce,
and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law
Nancy Cott, Public Vows: A History
of Marriage and the Nation
Helmut Thielicke, The Ethics of Sex
Adrian Thatcher, Marriage after Modernity:
Christian Marriage in Postmodern Times
Eric Posner, Law and Social Norms
Lisa Sowle Cahill, Gender, Sex, and
Christian Ethics
Karl Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Love
and Responsibility
Andrew Sullivan, Virtually Normal
Martha Nussbaum, Women and Human Development:
A Capabilities Approach
Particulars: By permission only.
Students must submit a written100 word note stating why they want to take
the seminar.
RLSR 767 Morality and Society
Tipton T 7:00-10:00
pm MAX: 6
(Cross-Listed with Sociology 720)
Content: This seminar studies the relationship between the moral ideals and experience of society and its institutional arrangements, including the moral implications of social modernization for conceiving persons individually and evaluating their globally structured relations. It maps diverse cultural logics and constituencies across traditions seen as continuities of conflict over socially shared ways of life. It probes the social processes of producing, distributing, receiving and contesting moral meaning; and its role in inspiring social action and justifying social institutions to shape social conflict as well as order. The course charts the sociology of morality as a field by marshaling thematically related works in sociology and social theory, moral and political philosophy, comparative religious ethics and anthropology to span classical theories and recent empirical studies of contemporary American moral life, including racial and gender inequality, public participation, religious conflict, and romantic love.
Texts: Readings include works by Plato, Adam Smith, Rousseau; Marx, Weber, Durkheim; John Meyer, Bourdieu, Habermas, Benhabib, Geertz, Bellah, Mary Douglas, Ann Swidler, and William Julius Wilson.
Particulars: Ph.D. seminar; term
paper, class presentations.
RLTS 710C Theological Problems: Negative
Theologies Jordan
T 9:00-12:00 MAX: 8
(cross-listed with CPLT 751)
Content: Catholic theology claims a long tradition of "negative theology," of theological writing that describes or registers how unspeakable divine truths are. This seminar will be concerned to trace the constitution of that tradition, the ways in which it has been ignored, and the possibilities it offers for writing theology in the present. The first part of the seminar will consider influential works from the beginning of the tradition into early modernity. The second part of the seminar will turn to contemporary appropriations and modifications of the tradition.
Texts: The first part of the seminar will consider works by Ps-Dionysus, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, John of the Cross, and Pascal. The second part of the seminar will consider at least works by von Balthasar, Rahner, Klossowski, Kristeva, and Derrida.
Particulars: Members of the seminar
will be expected to read the assigned texts attentively and to discuss
them constructively. They will also be asked to write five short exercises
of about five pages each. The topics for the exercises will be both interpretive
and constructive. There will be no examinations.
RLTS 710N Black Women, Religion/Spirituality and Literature Jacquelyn Grant Th 6:00 - 9:00 Max: 12
Content: We will be exploring matters of religion and spirituality through the experiences of Black Women as reflected in their (Black Women's) literature. The context of Black Women's experiences extends far and wide. Though African American women (Black Women in the United States) will be our primary focus, we will be looking also at African and Caribbean women writers. Our purpose is to determine ways in which and the extent to which literature can be used to chart, illustrate, explain, and resource Black Women's understandings and experience of religion and spirituality.
The underlying question of our study is, how can Black Women's literature function as a source for womanist analysis?
Invited guest lecturers include: Dianne Stewart, Emory University; Yolanda Pierce, ITC (University of Kentucky); Valerie Smith, Princeton University; Noel Erskine, Emory University and others.
Texts: Readings will come from the writings of: Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Tina Ansa McElroy, Ernal Broder, and others.
Particulars: 2 short critical essays (5-8 pages), 2 short story essays (5-8 pages)
RLTS 710P The Doctrine of Sin: Classical and Contemporary Approaches McDougall Th 9:00- 12:00 Max: 12
Content: Whatever happened to the doctrine of the sin? This seminar will explore the transformations of the doctrine of sin in contemporary theological discourse. We will focus on diverse challenges to the doctrine raised by critiques of the notion of Original Sin, by our therapeutic and crime/punishment culture and by the changing subjects of theological discourse, e.g., women, voices from the "socio-economic underside" and nature. The first part of the seminar will consider classical approaches to the doctrine and representative twentieth-century theologians' positions. The second part of the seminar will turn to contemporary reconstructions of the doctrine in light of issues of gender, collective violence (structural sin) and human responsibility, and different views of nature. Throughout the course we will be exploring the possibility of a common theological language for sin that would respect the complexity and heterogeneity of the human situation.
Texts: The first part of the seminar will consider works by Augustine, Athanasius, Calvin, Barth, R. Niebuhr and Rahner, The second part of the seminar will include works by G. Gutierrez, Moltmann, Plaskow, S. Jones and Suchocki.
Particulars: Members of the seminar will
be expected to read the assigned texts carefully and to write short weekly
papers. There will be a final paper of approximately 20 pages.
RLTS 710S The Word of God: Romanticism
and Reason in Modern Theology Lowe
(Cross-listed with CPLT 752) W 7:00-10:00
pm MAX: 8
Content: Appropriations of romanticism in modern theology have been highly influential but sometimes uncritical. The course will examine briefly texts from the English romantic poets, with particular attention to gnostic and apocalyptic themes. Lines of connection will be drawn from romanticism through existentialism to postmodernism, in both theology and philosophy. We will draw upon deconstruction and contemporary trauma theory for critical leverage. Theologies will be assessed with reference to their ability to sustain a "twofold vision" or sense of indeterminacy. Emphasis upon the effort to do creative theological reflection -of whatever variety--in light of the seminar's findings.
Texts: Readings are to include W. Blake, F. Schleiermacher, S. Kierkegaard, P. Tillich, E. Levinas, J. Derrida and J.-L. Marion. Some modifications may be made in this list; please feel free to contact the instructor at wlowe@emory.edu.
Particulars: Participants will lead portions of discussion and write a final paper of 15-20 pages.
RLTS 756 Liturgical Theology Saliers W 2:00-5:00 Max: 12
Content: An exploration of the aims and methodologies peculiar to liturgical theology, focusing especially on the development and usages of the eucharistic prayer as a paradigm of liturgy as source and norm for theology. Attention will be given to the modes and interrelations of praying, ritual enactment, and believing (lex orandi, lex credendi) and to the critical function of liturgical theology in ecumenical contexts.
Texts: Primary sources from the history of Christian liturgy (Jewish backgrounds) and contemporary reformed eucharistic rites; secondary and critical readings from Schmemann, Kavanagh, Bouyer, Saliers, Wainwright, and Lathrop.
Particulars: Full seminar preparation and discussion; at least one class presentation, and a term project (20-25 pages).
RLTS 757G Theology of Christian Spirituality
Moore
Tu 1:30 - 4:30
MAX: 6
(Cross-listed with RLPC740)
Content: The seminar is an exploration of historical and contemporary currents in Christian spirituality. Particular attention will be given to movements in the theology and practice of spirituality during the twentieth century and to ways in which people draw upon, critique, reshape, and use historical spiritual traditions in response to changing social contexts. The purposes of the course will be to: (1) explore theologies of spirituality in diverse religious and cultural communities; (2) focus on the interrelationship of spiritual theory and practice; (3) explore the varied textures of Christian spirituality through descriptive-analytic studies of particular persons and religious communities; and (4) interpret the dynamics of social and religious construction that are found in spiritual traditions and in the continual process of reclaiming, critiquing and reshaping those traditions. The first third of the course is a study of contemporary readings of history; the second third, an exploration of contemporary theologies of spirituality; and the last third, a constructive dialogue of students' seminar papers.
Texts: Several books will be the focus of study, including: Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love; selections from Augustine's Confessions; Margaret Miles' Desire and Delight: A New Reading of Augustine's Confessions; Gustavo Gutierrez's The God of Life; Grace M. Jantzen's Power, Gender, and Christian Mysticism; Jung Young Lee's The Trinity in Asian Perspective; Peter J. Paris' The Spirituality of African Peoples; and Howard Thurman's With Head and Heart.
Particulars: Requires participation
in seminar discussions, an oral exam, and a major seminar paper (20-30
pages), which is a theological description and analysis of a person or
religious community.
RLTS 774 Theologies of Liberation Erskine Tu 7-10 MAX:15
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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