RLAR 703M: Theories of Myth in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Patton, Wednesday 7-10 pm, MAX: 12
(Cross-listed with CPLT 751)
Content: Historian of religion Ivan Strenski has characterized the concept of "myth" as "an idiosyncratic oddity of cultural history." This course will take up Strenski's critique, and consider the treatment of myth in a number of intellectual contexts--literary, philosophical, and historical. We will examine, among others, the writings of philosophers Ernst Cassirer, Leszek Kolakowski, and Paul Ricoeur; literary critics Northrop Frye, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, and Marcel Detienne, and historians of religion Charles Long, Ivan Strenski, Bruce Lincoln, Sam Gill, Wendy Doniger, and Robert Ellwood. Each section of the course will also involve essays from collections of essay on myth published in the last decade, which attempt to break new ground in each of these areas. Special attention will be paid to the following themes: 1) myth as an ontological category; 2) myth as a function of religious experience; 3) the role of myth in the study of literature; 4) the relationships between mythical and historical narratives; and 5) myth as a political category of analysis. Previous work in the modern study of religion, the anthropology of religion, the philosophy of religion, or comparative literature is most helpful.
Texts:
RLAR 737D: Destruction, Iconoclasm and the Other
Reinders, Monday 9:30-12:30, MAX: 12
(Cross-listed with RLHT 738, CPLT 752)
Content: The seminar will consider destruction as historical force, performance, and creative act. What is created by destruction? And what is destroyed by our efforts to preserve? How do the disciplines of Religious Studies, Art History, and Theology deal with iconoclasm differently? Is "iconoclasm" a useful term, does it refer to one thing? How is destruction displayed? How are displays (and cultures of display) destroyed? Are there "traditions" of destruction? What are the relations of material destruction and destruction of the body? What do we do with our terminology: icon, iconoclasm, idol, idolatry, image, fetish, superstition, statue? We will explore these questions and others with attention to a variety of historical cases, primarily the Protestant Reformation, Indian icons and iconoclasm, and Chinese and Japanese iconoclasm; but also touching on the "Vandalism" of the French Revolution, the destruction of art in museums, and the exhumation of corpses in the Spanish Civil War. Probable topics for discussion: ironies and ambiguities of iconoclasm; the powers of images; icons as living beings; semiotics of Buddhist cosmology; the move to 'sanitize' obeisance to icons; missionaries as agents of iconoclasm, and reactions against missionary discourses; Biblical, Reformation, & Modernist rhetoric against idolatry; "Protestant Buddhism;" iconoclasm and violence on the body; persecutions and cultural revolutions; iconoclasm and memory; Art History, museums and the international art market as agents of iconoclasm. And: your own questions.
Texts:
RLE 733: Love and Justice
Jackson, Wednesday 6:30 - 9:30 pm, MAX: 12
Content: Few concepts are more central to ethics than love and justice, but none is more subject to varying interpretation than these two. The course seeks to clarify several philosophical and theological accounts of love and justice, with particular emphasis on how they interrelate. Is love ideally indiscriminate and/or sacrificial and therefore antithetical to justice? Is justice a single virtue equally binding on all human beings? Does God possess either virtue? How are we to conceive (and act on) such related values as rationality, creativity, human rights, and civil liberties? These will be some of the central concerns of our common reflection. Readings are selected from a broad range of perspectives, spanning historical, racial, and gender diversity. Readings include works by Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Niebuhr, Rawls, West, Shklar, and Nussbaum. This course is designed for graduate students and presupposes some knowledge of ethical theory; it is, however, open to advanced undergraduates and Candler students.
Particulars: Substantial readings per week, class participation,
and two 12-15 page papers.
RLE 735: Feminist Ethics
Bounds, Thursday 6:00 - 9:00 pm, MAX: 12
Content: This course provides an advanced introduction to contemporary feminist religious and philosophical ethics. Special attention will be paid to the following issues: 1) feminist methodologies; 2) contextualization (race, class, nationality); 3) challenges of postmodern feminisms
Texts: Readings will include works by Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Lisa Cahill, Drucilla Cornell, Nancy Fraser, Ivone Gebara, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Martha Nussbaum, Uma Narayan, Caroline Ramazanoglu, Dorothy Roberts, Joan Tronto, Traci West, Iris Marion Young.
Particulars: Each student will participate once as 1) discussion
leader (with preparation of a short 3-page position paper to be distributed
the week before); 2) respondent (with preparation of a 1-page position
paper to be distributed before class; and 3) class recorder. For a project,
students can choose among: 1) multiple short papers; 2) a research paper;
and 3) a "mock" preliminary exam.
RLHB 720G: Hebrew Bible Exegesis: Genesis
Petersen, Wed 1:30-4:30, MAX: 12
Content: "Genesis" is an exegetical seminar in which students interpret the biblical text using appropriate methods and perspectives. Such approaches include, but are not limited to, textual criticism, higher critical methods, literary criticism, and social scientific analysis. A good working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew is required.
Texts: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; H. Gunkel, Genesis; G. von Rad, Genesis: a Commentary; C. Westermann, Genesis 12-36: A Commentary; M. Brett, Genesis: Procreation and the Politics of Identity.
Particulars: Most seminars will address several chapters of biblical
text, with one pericope receiving focused attention. Students will be responsible
for both helping lead and participating in the discussions, preparing short
position papers, writing one critical book review, and composing an exegetically-oriented
paper, which is due at the end of the semester.
RLHT 710H: Classical Christology
Bondi, Wed. 2 - 5, MAX: 12
Content: This course provides an examination of classical patristic Christology from the Arian controversy of the fourth century through the monophysite reaction to the council of Chalcedon of 451.
Particulars: Two class presentations on primary authors and a
final research paper.
RLHT 724: Marriage, Sex, and the Medieval Church
Reynolds, Wed. 9 -12, MAX: 12
(Cross-listed with HIST 585)
Content: Scholastic theologians of the high Middle Ages developed an enduring model of marriage: that of marriage as a sacrament. The purpose of this course is to explicate the sacramental model in its historical context, to uncover some of its cultural, philosophical, and theological presuppositions (e.g., regarding sacredness, sexuality, and symbolism), and to situate it in the broader context of other voices and intellectual traditions. The course is designed to coincide with the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion's project on Sex, Marriage and the Family, and especially with this project's conference in March, 2003.
Texts: The course uses a wide selection of primary texts in translation and secondary literature. There is no "textbook" for the course, nor do students need to purchase any books.
Particulars: Emphasis is on close reading of primary sources.
These are available in translation, but students with knowledge of Latin
are encouraged to study the material in the original. In each week, all
participants read a few of the texts, but other texts are divided among
the students, so that each student can take responsibility for reporting
back to the group. In some seminars, especially those considering "other
voices," the choice of texts will depend partly on the students' particular
interests and specialties. Assignments and assessment: three concise expositions
of primary texts discussed in class (15%); a paper on one of the "other
voices" (40%); and either a research paper or a translation, with commentary,
of a primary text (45%).
RLHT 738: Destruction, Iconoclasm and the Other
Reinders, Monday 9:30-12:30, MAX: 12
(Cross-listed with RLAR 737D, CPLT 752)
(See description under RLAR 738)
RLL 702: Ugaritic (and Selected Topics in "Canaanite" Religion)
Strawn, Th 1-4 pm, MAX: 12
Content: The course will be roughly divided between two foci: 1) an introduction to the grammar and literature of the Ugaritic language (including readings in the original language); and 2) selected topics in Ugaritology and its bearing on the reconstruction of "Canaanite" religion, particularly with reference to how that is recounted in and pertinent to the study of the Hebrew Bible.
Texts: Language works to be utilized include S. Segert, A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language; D. Sivan, A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language; C. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook; J. Huehnergard, Ugaritic Vocabulary in Syllabic Transcription; J. Tropper, Ugaritische Grammatik; G. del Olmo Lete and J. Sanmartin, Diccionario de la lengua Ugaritica I-II; and others.
Texts on Ugaritology and Canaanite Religion will include: G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit; idem, Mitos y leyendas de Canaan; S. Parker, ed., Ugaritic Narrative Poetry; D. Pardee, Ritual and Cult at Ugarit; W. Watson and N. Wyatt, Handbook of Ugaritic Studies; A. Caquot et al., Textes ougaritiques; J. Gray, The Legacy of Canaan; F. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic; and others.
Particulars: Prior knowledge of another (Northwest) Semitic language
is not required but is strongly recommended (especially Hebrew). Knowledge
of German, French, and Spanish is useful, but a student need not have all
three. Approximately half of the course will be devoted to Ugaritic grammar
and reading selected texts in the original cuneiform with transcription
and normalization via comparative Semitic evidence. The goal of the first
half of the course is to achieve basic competency in reading Ugaritic texts
as well as gaining insight into the historical Hebrew grammar via the development
of other Northwest Semitic languages. The second half of the course will
take the form of a readings seminar where students will be divided up and
assigned reports each week on a selected topic (e.g., the archaeology of
Ras Shamra and Ras Ibn Hani) or issue/text (ritual texts, the goddess Anat).
These reports will be distributed to all members of the class and discussed.
The goal of this part of the course is to gain an overview of the field
of Ugaritic studies, to reflect on the pertinence of this data to the field
of Hebrew Bible (esp. Israelite religion), and to inquire after the methodological
accuracy of applying Ugaritic data to "Canaanite" (i.e., southern Levantine)
regions. Each half of the course will have a final project (e.g., a language/reading
exam for the first half; a paper for the second).
RLNT 711: The Gospels and Acts
Holladay, Tuesday 2 - 5, MAX: 12
Content: This is an exegetical seminar focusing on the Acts of
the Apostles. We will read the Greek text of Acts and discuss text-critical,
philological, historical, literary, and theological issues arising from
the text. Sessions will focus on exegetical discussion but will also treat
relevant comparative texts from the Greco-Roman world.
RLNT 745: Greco Roman Backgrounds
Brown, Thursday 1-4, MAX: 12
RLPC 710: Religion, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights
Smith, Thursday 2-5, MAX: 12
Content: The point of departure for this course is a working hypothesis: that every religious tradition conveys its own distinctive resources for conflict resolution and human rights advocacy. However, even if this were true we are also discovering that each tradition needs other traditions in order to deconstruct (or simply recognize) its own intractable conflicts and chronic human rights violations.
While no single religious tradition or cultural institution has ever demonstrated adequate competence or proficiency with regard to its own chronic conflicts and inhumanity, collectively these wisdom traditions convey an invaluable supplement to each other’s (and secular society’s) conflict resolution and human rights resources. By the end of this course class members will produce an interreligious collation of such resources through focused surveys of the world religions and of selected indigenous religions.
Sample texts:
Particulars:
RLPC 711G: Religious Practices: Confronting False Consciousness
Mahan, Wed. 7-10 pm, MAX: 12
Content: David Tracy claims that, "despite their own sin and ignorance, religions at their best always bear extraordinary powers of resistance. When not domesticated as sacred canopies for the status quo nor wasted by their own self-contradictory grasps at power, the religions live by resisting." Similarly, Edith Wyschogrod observes that "the world's religious traditions have in the past addressed the problem of the wretched of the earth in the person of saints, those who put themselves totally at the service of the Other."
But the advisability of putting oneself totally at the service of the Other is itself problematic. Are the disciplines, the ascetic practices, and theological underpinnings associated with the formation of "saints" perhaps not better understood as themselves both embodying and inscribing elements of "false consciousness"?
This course invites students to reflect critically upon the thesis that Christian religious practices can offer powerful resistance to "false consciousness," where false consciousness is understood through the lenses of such interpretive categories as ideology, neurosis, sin, attachment, mimetic desire, self-deception, concupiscence, resentment, etc. The course will also invite students to conceptualize less disjunctive ways of judging the efficacy or inefficacy of Christian practices of resistance than those characterized by uncritical idealization or reflexive dismissal.
Texts: Included among the texts to be read in part or in their entirety are: St. Ignatius Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises; Juan Luis Segundo, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola; Martha Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire; Bernard Lonergan, Insight: An Essay in Human Understanding; William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience; Cornel West, The American Evasion of Philosophy; Friederich Nietzsche, The Geneology of Morals; Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic; Max Scheler, Resentment; Michel Foucault, Religion and Culture (collected interviews and brief essays treating religion); Margaret Miles, Practicing Christianity; Michel de Certeau, A Certeau Reader; Simone Weil, Waiting for God.
Particulars: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola and the practices and literature (both theoretical and practice-centered) engendered by the Exercises will provide a shared case study.
Each student will take responsibility for the preparation for a segment of one class period. Several sessions will be given over to parallel readings. Here, different authors treating similar subject matter will be reviewed during the same class.
There will be a short mid-term paper (7-10 pages) in which students
will name a central question to be addressed in the final term paper. Each
student will be asked to bring a one-page reflection to each class session.
The term paper will be approximately 15-20 pages in length, double-spaced,
exclusive of bibliography.
RLSR 752: Black Religion and Politics
Pollard, Wednesday 2:30 - 5:30, MAX: 12
Content: In the post-civil rights era important shifts have occurred in the social and political role of the African American Church. The purpose of this course is to investigate the chief means and pragmatic forms that black church apprehension of today's social struggles are taking, from social services ministry and the revitalization of communities to education and expanding economic opportunities. Specific examples of black church efforts at economic revitalization and political change will be studied as well as questions of government accountability and religious involvement in general in the public square.
Texts: Among the texts selected for the course are Andrew Billingsley, Mighty Like A River; Fredrick Harris, Something Within; Bob Holmes, The Status of Black Atlanta 2002; R. Drew Smith, occasional papers from The Public Influences Project, and Marcellus Andrews, The Political Economy of Hope and Fear; Adolph Reed, Stirrings in the Jug; Gayraud Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism, Rondald Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth Century Atlanta and essays made available either electronically or via handout.
Particulars: Some prior knowledge of African American social
and political history is helpful but not required. The first half of the
semester will focus on historical and theoretical perspectives in black
religious and political struggle. Students will take turns leading the
discussion via submission of a critical paper and set of questions relating
to the text/topic for the week. The second half of the semester will turn
principally to case study analyses of local black faith-based institutions
in public matters. A term paper or case study based on themes addressed
in the seminar will be submitted at mid-semester and due at the end of
the term.
RLSR 700J: Research in Religion
Eiesland, Thursday 9:00 - 12:00, MAX: 12
(Cross-listed with SOC 726)
Content: This course will introduce you to the styles of research, analysis, and epistemology associated with qualitative research in the social scientific study of religion and morality. Qualitative research is a multi-method approach to the study of social interactions in various settings. The use of qualitative methods is indicated when an imaginative construction of theory or an elaboration of extant theory seeks to engage contextual social reality.
Qualitative research involves the collection and analysis of empirical information from multiple sources such as first-person accounts, life histories, visual records, semi-structured and open-ended interviews, informal and formal observations, biographical and autobiographical materials, among others. Through triangulation of methods, the researcher attempts to interpret phenomena in terms of the theoretical questions that prompt the study as well as the meanings people bring to them.
General Objectives: This course is intended to engage you with
a variety of qualitative research methods and styles from different research
traditions. The material in the course is divided into three parts: Approaches
to assessing qualitative research methods; Methodological and theoretical
issues in qualitative research design and data collection; and analysis
and presentation of research findings.
RLTS 710T: Theological Problems: Basic Christianity
Lowe, Tuesday 2:30-5:30, MAX: 12
Content: The seminar aims to gain a better understanding of fundamental dimensions of Christianity by attending to two instances of "the Other" which have been suppressed and misunderstood in much of Christian tradition. These are the Jewish tradition, and apocalyptic. The course will also deal with notions of the self in Western philosophy and the abiding challenge of making the vital connection between biblical exegesis and theology. The course proceeds through three phases:
RLTS 710W: Theodicy: Womanist and Black (Theological) Perspectives on Suffering,
Evil and Sin
J. Grant, Friday 9:30-12:30, MAX: 12
Content: Why do Black People suffer so? Why do Women suffer so? Why do Black Women suffer so? Why do I suffer so? Interdisciplinary explorations into theological and ethical issues related to the personal and political realities of Blackness. The course focuses on a range of themes, concepts and questions that include both personal and political dimensions of suffering, evil and sin.
RLTS 750: Theology and Aesthetics
Saliers, Wednesday 2-5, MAX: 12
Content: Beginning with selected Platonic dialogues, the "ascent of human desire" and its critique, this seminar explores relations between beauty and desire as both problematic yet necessary to Christian theology. How may we speak of the beauty/glory of God and religious desire now? What "theological poetics" are possible for this task? Special attention will be devoted to the dialogue between Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar on the beauty of God and the possibility of a "kenotic aesthetic." More recent work by Edward Farley and Martha Nussbaum will provide particular points of departure, animated by "touchstones" provided by a select range of poets, liturgical texts and musical compositions. Specific proposals will be advanced concerning theological aesthetics and the poetics of theological discourse.
Texts: Among the texts to be read are: Plato: Philebus, Phaedo, Phaedrus; Augustine, Confessions, (selections); Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II/1 (selected passages) and IV/l #59; Hans Urs von Balthasar, Herrlichkeit, especially Vol. I, Seeing the Form, and The Heart of the World; Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought; Edward Farley on beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins (selected poems); Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem."
Particulars: Research and writing projects for the seminar will
focus on the topic "Beauty and Desire", depending upon the participant's
point of departure and engagement with the proposals advanced. Several
brief "focus papers" on the assigned readings are required. Participants
will be assigned individually and in teams to initiate discussion and critique.
The following are two courses that are either 2 or 3 credit hours;
however, you may register for them as a Directed Study for 4 hours and
do additional work to make it 4 credit hours:
The Philosophy of Nagarjuna: The Dialectics of Emptiness
Geshe Palden Drakpa (2 credits)
A six week seminar offered by the Tibetan lama Geshe Palden Drakpa, translated and assisted by Geshe Lobsang Negi
In this seminar, Geshe Palden Drakpa will present key concepts of Prasangika Madhyamaka School of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, a movement that is often said to represent the highest and most subtle interpretation of the Buddhist doctrine of reality/emptiness, and serves as the foundation of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He will lead students on an intellectual exploration of some of the quintessential Buddhists ideas that seem to harmonize with modern attitudes. Topics will include relativity and infinity, the nature of the self, the status of causality, an analysis of space and time, perception and its impact upon experience, and the characteristics of valid cognition.
In presenting these concepts Geshe Drakpa will utilize the Madhyamaka methodology of dialectics, or prasanga, a technique for deconstructing ideas and philosophical positions, such as those of materialists and idealists. He will base his presentation on the Mula-madhyamaka-karika-shastra, or Root Treatise on the Middle View, by the second century Indian master Acharya Nagurjuna, as elucidated by Nagarjuna's disciple Acharya Chandrakirti in his Madhyamaka-avatara, or Guide to the Middle View.
Geshe Palden Drakpa is one of the greatest living Tibetan scholars of Madhyamaka Philosophy. He was born in the Tehor region of Kham, Eastern Tibet and became a monk of Drepung Loseling while in his early teens. He excelled in his studies, and eventually was awarded the Geshe Lharam, the highest academic degree offered in the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as scholar in residence at Tibet House in New Delhi for many years, and has represented Tibet in the Mind and Life Conferences held at the Dalai Lama's residence in Dharamsala bi-annually as an interface of western contemporary sciences with the Tibetan wisdom tradition. He has also served as Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He currently lives and teaches at Drepung Loseling Monastery in India.Sex, Marriage, and Family: Legal, Religious, and Cultural Dimensions
Traditional forms and norms of marriage and the family are in trouble today. During the last quarter of the twentieth century in America, roughly one-quarter of all pregnancies were aborted; one-third of all children were born to single mothers; one-half of all marriages ended in divorce; two-thirds of all juvenile offenders came from broken homes. The statistics are comparable in many other developed countries in the world.
This course will take stock of these dramatic changes in America and beyond, and ponder various pathways of legal, religious, and cultural reform. The course will be deliberately interdisciplinary in methodology, and will include candid discussions of controversial subjects such as domestic violence, same sex-unions, and abortion.
This is a course designed to take special advantage of a major international conference on the Emory University campus, Thursday to Saturday, March 27-29, 2003. The conference, which features 80 leading scholars, is described in greater detail in brochures in the GDR office or on the CISR website - www.law.emory.edu/cisr.
Students will be required to attend the entire conference on March 27-29, and to attend four additional lectures, one each in January, February, March, and April - to be scheduled at an open time in the spring class schedule.
Students will be required to prepare a reflection paper of 2,500 words
due the last day of the examination period.
