Graduate Division of Religion - Spring 2008 Course Atlas

MESAS 570R: The Wrathful God: Religious Extremism in Comparative Perspective
Cornell Wednesday 5:30-8:30, MAX: 12

Content: The aim of this seminar is to map the culture of religious extremism through the comparative study of discourses of violence, intolerance, and triumphalism in world religions. Particular attention will be devoted to the monotheistic or “Abrahamic” traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as posing the greatest potential for violence toward the religious other and as challenging liberal or secular ideologies of pluralism and self-determination.
At times, varieties of non-Abrahamic religious extremism, such as Hindu and Buddhist extremism will also be examined for comparative purposes.

Texts: (Possible Reading List)

Gabriel Almond, R. Scott Appleby, and Immanuel Sivan, Strong Religion: the Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World
(University of Chicago ress, 2003)
Peter Berger, ed., The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics
(Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing, 1999)
Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004)
Robert Pape, Dying to Win: the Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House, 2006)
Walter Reich and Walter Laquer, eds., Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind
(Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998)
Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh (University of California Press, 1984)
Bruce Lawrence and James Howarth, Messages to the World: the Statements of Osama Bin Laden (Verso, 2005)
Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh: Memoir in Nasir’s Prison (The Islamic Foundation, Leicester, U.K., 1994)
Seyyid Qutb, Milestones (Dar al-Ilm, Damascus, n.d.)
Kimberly Blaker, ed., The Fundamentals of Extremism: the Christian Right in America
(New Boston Books, 2003)
Aviezer Ravitsky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
Lise Mckean, Divine Enterprise: Gurus and the Hindu Nationalist Movement (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (University of California Press, 1998)

Particulars: The seminar will be conducted in tandem with the international conference, “The Wrathful God: Discourses of Extremism in the Abrahamic Traditions.” Participants in the seminar will be expected to attend the conference, participate in informal sessions with visiting scholars, and write a 25-30 page research paper on a topic related to issues discussed in the conference or in class sessions.

RLAR 731: Religious Transformations in Colonial India
Paul Courtright Thursday 2-5 MAX: 12

Content: This seminar will begin by laying out the historical landscape of society, culture and religion in British India from 1790-1830, principally the urban center of Calcutta [Kolkata] and Bengal. The main project of the course will be to trace continuities and changes in three religious traditions—Hindu, Muslim, and Christian--in the colonial context. Categories such as ‘reform,’ ‘orthodoxy,’ print media, institutional formations, religious leadership and authority, conversion, polemics, and emerging notions of nationhood and empire. Attention will also be given to the place of India and religion in early nineteenth British society, politics, and imagination. Readings will be drawn from primary sources and recent scholarship.

Texts:

C. A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire
S. Chattopadhyay, Representing Calcutta
S. Banerjea, The Parlour and the Streets
P. Van der Veer, Colonial Encounters
B. Hatcher, Bourgeois Hinduism
T. Sarkar, Hindu Wife: Hindu Nation
B. Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented?
H. Urban, Economies of Ecstasy
A. Sen, Social and Religious Reform
Other readings on reserve

Particulars: The course will follow a 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 000Topics in Asian Religions: Buddhist Contemplative Theory in the Context of "Mindfulness"
John Dunne Monday 4:00-7:00 MAX: 12

Content: Nearly every Buddhist tradition maintains that the attainment of one's highest goal necessarily requires some form of contemplative practice. Such claims are rooted in assumptions ranging over various aspects of mind and body, and they likewise rest upon detailed theoretical accounts of mind, cognition, and spiritual transformation. Focusing especially on key concepts such as "Shamatha" (quiescence), "Insight" and "Mindfulness," this course will examine th implicit assumptions and explicit constructs that explain and articulate contemplative practice in

classical Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Topics will include theoretical models of cognition, the role of the affective in relation to the cognitive, the problem of identity, the role of intention, and the aporias that arise when contemplative practice is brought into the context of "ultimate reality." The last third of the course will turn to the notion of "mindfulness" in contemporary American Buddhism and psychology, and itwill focus on recent attempts within contemporary psychology at unpacking the mechanism of mindfulness, especially in terms of the theoretical and cultural assumptions involved therein.

Texts will include:
•John Dunne, Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy.
• Daniel Siegel, The Mindful Brain.
• Stuart Sarbacker, Samadhi.
• Selections from The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness.
• B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science.
• Jon Kabat-Zinn, Coming to Our Senses.
• Unpublished selections from various Buddhist primary sources.
•Various journal articles from contemporary psychology by authors such as S. Shapiro, L.
• Carlson, Z. Segal, K. Warren Brown and others.

RLAR 737 Topics in Asian Religions: Ramayana Traditions in South Asia
Narayana Rao Wednesday 10-1 MAX: 12

Content: This course examines the world of the Ramayana in South Asian languages and arts. The main aim of the course is study the narrative as a carrier and creator of culture. Without necessarily accepting that the Valmiki text is the original which spread across the subcontinent and beyond, we will study the various Ramayana tellings and their cultural, political, aesthetic, and ideological expressions. The seminar will cover Ramayana traditions in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and in the Indian Diaspora.

Topics will include:

Ramayana as an epic, nature of Asian epics, and comparison with other epics of the world.
The power of Sanskrit and the name of Valmiki played in the cultural history of South and Southeast Asia and regions beyond.
The ideological role the Ramayana tellings, the role of patronage in sustaining hegemonic tellings and the power of aesthetics in the life of these tellings.
Valmiki’s text and its role as the first poem in Sanskrit, which in turn influences the kavya tradition, Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Murari and the later Ramayana writers.
Ramayana in the political imagination of South and Southeast Asian cultures
. Ramayana in the Bhakti (devotional) traditions focusing on Ramacaritmans of Tulsidas.
Ramayana in performance traditions of theater, and dance, film and other genres.
Counter Ramayana traditions of Jains and women and modern narratives of colonial writers, Dravidianists, Marxists, feminists, and Dalits.

Texts:

•Goldman, Robert P., ed., and Sheldon I. Pollock, trans., The Ramayana of Valmiki: An
• Epic of Ancient India , Volume II, Ayodhyakanda, and Volume III, Aranyakanda.
•Goldman, Robert P. and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, trans., The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India , Volume V, Sundarakanda
• Lefeber, Rosalind, trans., The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume IV, Kiskindhakanda.
• Dutt, Michael Madhusudan, The Slaying of Meghanada: a Ramayana from Colonial Bengal, translated by Clinton B. Seely
•Hart, George L. and Hank Heifetz, trans., The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan.
•Hill, William Douglas Penneck, trans., The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama.

Particulars : Presentation of an assigned book or books; participation as an assigned discussant and critic of a colleague’s paper; presentation of final paper. Students will read texts to the extent they can in South Asian languages. Students interested in reading Valmiki text in original Sanskrit can meet with me as a separate group once a week.

RLAR 752R: Advanced Readings in Literary Tibetan
Sara McClintock Day and Time: TBA MAX: 12

Content: The goal of this course is to further expand the ability to read classical literary Tibetan texts while also deepening knowledge about Tibetan religion and culture through a sustained encounter with a primary text from one or more Tibetan traditions. Primary objectives include: increasing the vocabulary over which students have internal mastery, solidifying knowledge of grammatical structures, increasing exposure to diverse genres of literary production, deepening comprehension of foundational ideas of Tibetan religious culture, and developing techniques for reading that increase both speed and accuracy.

RLE 735 / PHIL 789: Contemporary Virtue Ethics
Pamela Hall Wednesday 9:00-12:00 MAX: 7

Content: The last 40 years have seen a strong revival of interest in ethics of the virtues. Many philosophers and theologians have pursued questions concerning: the nature of the virtues; their connections (if any) with human flourishing; their connections with specific social and political forms; the importance of moral psychology to the question of moral pedagogy; virtue ethics’ confrontation of moral luck and tragedy.

In this seminar, we will read and discuss together a range of work from recent and contemporary reflection on the virtues bearing on these questions. Authors will include:

Essays by G.E.M Anscombe, Simone Weil
Iris Murdoch The Sovereignty of Good and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (in part)
Alasdair MacIntyre =s After Virtue (in part) and Dependent Rational Animals
Essays by Martha Nussbaum, Rosalind Hursthouse, Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, Susan Wolf.

Requirements include several short reflection papers, one 12 page paper, and one oral presentation. Please, no audits

RLE 732 History of Christian Theological Ethics
Timothy P. Jackson Wednesday 2:30 to 5:30 MAX: 16

Content: This course provides a critical look at a broad range of Christian moral theologies and theologians up through the middle of the Nineteenth Century. It is meant to be a companion course to RLE 730, "Contemporary Theological Ethics," which looks exclusively at Twentieth and Twenty-first Century figures. We begin with St. Augustine and read selectively from Thomas Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and Soren Kierkegaard. Diversity of perspective will be provided, in part, by secondary essays -- feminist, pragmatist, liberationist, deconstructionist, etc. -- on these figures reported on by students.

Some of the enduring questions that concern us are:

• How are we to understand human nature and its virtues and vices?
• What specifically is the relation between Christ-like love, personal prudence, and social justice?
• What is the relation between God's providence and human freedom?
• What is the nature of sin and the place of Jesus Christ in overcoming it?
• Is the Kingdom of God, a.k.a.”eternal life,” open in principle to everyone or only to the elect few?

No claim is made to be comprehensive; the object is to hit a few influential high points in a very rich tradition, noting continuity and change, as well as insight and error, as we go along. The format is seminar, but I will lead off each new Part with an orienting lecture.

Required Books:
Treatise on the Virtues , by Thomas Aquinas
Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas , ed. by Anton Pegis
Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love , by St. Augustine
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers , 1st Series, Volume V (" Saint Augustine: Anti- Pelagian Writings"), ed. by Philip Schaff
Revelations of Divine Love , by Julian of Norwich
The Concept of Anxiety , by S oren Kierkegaard
Works of Love , by S oren Kierkegaard
Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings , ed. by John Dillenberger

Course Requirements: In addition to course readings and class participation, each student is responsible for leading off discussion once during the semester. Part of this assignment is to research and report on a critique of the week's material from a feminist, pragmatist, liberationist, deconstructionist, or other distinctive vantage point. Two 12-15 page papers are also required: the first is to be on Part I, II, or III of the class; the second is to be on Part IV or V. All written material presented is to be the original work of individuals; no plagiarism, please.

There are no specific course prerequisites, and the only option is letter grading.

RLHB 720P: Accommodation, Resistance, Rebellion: Judaism in the Persian and Hellenistic Empires
Carol Newsom Wednesday: 1:00-4:00 MAX: 10

Content: Whether in Yehud or in diaspora, Jews had to negotiate their relation to the Persian and Hellenistic empires in complex ways in which accommodation and resistance were often intermingled. At a crucial moment in history resistance took the form of armed rebellion in the Maccabean revolt. The book of Daniel uniquely provides insight into some of the complexities of this negotiation and renegotiation of relationship with Gentile empires. The Persian and early Hellenistic era narratives of Daniel 1-6 manifest the ambivalent strategies employed to facilitate participation in and resistance to Gentile imperial power structures. In so doing they engage Gentile thought forms to construct a theory of political history that has been powerfully influential in western thought. The apocalypses in Daniel 7-12 revise and radicalize this earlier analysis of Gentile imperial power under the pressure of the Antiochene persecutions. The result is a canonical book that is a conflicted and unresolved reflection on the relations among divine sovereignty, the politics of empire, and the difficult location of those who find themselves subject to both forms of authority.

Texts: Readings required for the course may include material from the following, as well as other sources:

• Berquist, J. Judaism in Persia's Shadow
• Briant, P., From Cyrus to Alexander
• Collins, J., Daniel
• Schaefer, P., The History of the Jews in Antiquity
• Wills, L. The Jew in the Court of the Foreign King

Prerequisites : Intermediate knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic; elementary knowledge of Greek.
Course requirements : regular participation, seminar presentations, research paper.

RLHB 792 Issues in Hebrew Bible Studies: Diachronic Approaches
David Lambert Monday 1:00-4:00 MAX: 12

Content: This course will consider the benefits of broadly tracing the origin and development of key Western religious practices and concepts from the Hebrew Bible into ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Examination of multiple epochs can serve as a control in the analysis of the worldview of ancient cultures and help overcome the interpretive difficulty of understanding the pre-history of concepts that have since become commonplace in the West. The idea of “repentance” will be used to illustrate methods for how such a research agenda may be pursued. In the process, we will consider questions of philology, ritual, theology, and the history of biblical interpretation.

Texts: TBA.

Particulars: Students will be expected to produce a significant research paper involving a diachronic study of some concept or topic of their own choosing.

Prerequisites : This course requires familiarity with biblical Hebrew and Greek. It is primarily intended for doctoral students in Hebrew Bible but may be of interest to students of early Christianity as well.

RLHT 735C Topics in American Religious History: The Sacred and American Religious Cultures
Gary Laderman Thursday 9:00-12:00 MAX: 12

Content: This seminar will proceed in two steps: first, we will focus on more theoretical and historical issues surrounding the category of the sacred, reading and discussing the work of Durkheim, Eliade, and others; second, we will look at particular case studies in the study of American religion that utilize and emphasize the concept of the sacred in cultural, historical, sociological, ethnographic, and comparative analyses. Students will be expected to participate in seminar conversations and lead one or two of the sessions; review one book; give one presentation; and write one 15-20 page final paper.

RLHT 736 Ancient Contemplative Theory and Practice
Richard Valantasis Thursday 1:00-4:00 MAX: 12

Content: The course will study ancient contemplative theories and practices, primarily in the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition, Hellenistic Jewish traditions, Late Antique Neo-Platonism and Theurgy, as well as the Eastern Christian anthology called the Philokalia. Students will learn the theory, replicate the practices, and learn the inter-relationship of religious and philosophical contemplation at the foundation of theWestern religious tradition.

RLL 702: Ugaritic
Joel LeMon Tuesday 1:00–4:00 MAX: 12

Content:The course introduces the language, literature, and culture of Ugarit. During the first half of the semester, students will learn Ugaritic grammar and translate Ugaritic texts from original cuneiform alphabetic script and in transliteration. The second half of the course covers select topics in Ugaritology, with special attention to how Ugaritic language, texts, and iconography inform scholarship on the Hebrew Bible. .

Texts: Language works will 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 OlmoLete and J. Sanmartin, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition (2drev. ed.; trans. W. G. E. Watson);
Resources on Ugaritology will include G. del Olmo Lete, 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 ;
M. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s
W. Schniedewind and J. Hunt, An Ugaritic Primer: Language, Culture, and Literature .

Particulars. Students will be evaluated by means of a midterm language examination that will demonstrate competence in reading Ugaritic and describing its relationship to historical Hebrew grammar. The second half of the semester will assume the format of a reading seminar that surveys the field of Ugaritic studies. Each student will complete a seminar paper every week on a select topic in Ugaritology, such as the archaeology of Ras Shamra, the iconography of Ugarit, Levantine cultic institutions, and specific Ugaritic texts (e.g., ritual texts, narrative poetry). Students will distribute their papers to classmates for discussion at each class. A twenty-page research paper focusing on one of these topics serves as the final evaluative exercise.

Knowledge of another Northwest Semitic language—especially Classical Hebrew—is strongly recommended. Further, reading knowledge of modern research languages (German, French, and Spanish) will be particularly useful.

RLNT 711J: The Sermon on the Mount
Walter Wilson Tuesday 4:00-7:00 Max: 12

Content: An exegetically-guided investigation of Matthew 5-7 with particular attention to: [1] the content, forms, sources, background, and construction of the SM itself, [2] the contribution of the SM to the evangelist's presentation of Jesus in the gospel as a whole, [3] possibilities for the genre of the SM, considered in comparison with various modalities of ancient discourse, [4] ways in which the text reflects the socio-ethical dynamics of Matthew's community, including its relationship with formative Judaism. Our focus throughout is on the SM as the evangelist presented it, as opposed to, say, its relationship to the historical Jesus or its history of interpretation. In addition to translating relevant passages from the synopsis, students will be asked to write a major research paper.

Principal texts: Kurt Aland, ed., Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum (13th rev. ed.; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1986); Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995); W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, Matthew 1-7(ICC; London: T.& T. Clark, 1988).

RLNT 770: History of Interpretation II -- Reformation to the Present
Vernon Robbins Monday 1:30-4:30 Max: 12

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 710G: Restorative Justice: The 'Great Desideratum' of Western Religions (Cross Listed with ILA 790)
Thee Smith Thursday 2:00 -5:00 Max: 12

Content : desideratum [ di-sid-uh-rey-tuh m ] Definition: something wished for,or considered desirable; something aspired to Latin past participle of
desiderare, to desire (plural: desiderata) Cf. Max Ehrmann's Desiderata(1927): "Go placidly . . . and remember what peace there may be . . ."
Application to Religious Studies: "The theme which myths and fairy tales sing of, the force which impels masses into movement, the desideratum of founders of religions, what philosophers have brooded over, the object of the enquiries of scientists, the visionings of poets, the achievements or aspirations of statesmen and revolutionaries . . ." Josef Weber, "The Great Utopia" (1950)

The Course: We will explore restorative justice as distinguished from retributive justice or from conventional forms of distributive justice-distributing compensations to victims and penalties to offenders.Restorative justice seeks more broadly to restore social comity and civic honor to entire communities rather than litigate conflicts only-thus deploying conflict transformatively (cf. conflict transformation). In that connection it repristinates the humanity of both victim and offender in the context of a skilled and inclusive society (cf. Royce and King on "beloved community").
This course will examine how such an expansive vision of justice constitutes the great desideratum of all three Abrahamic faiths and of their founders: Judaism (of Moses), Christianity (of Jesus), and Islam (of Muhammad). Our key question is: How is restorative justice the defining desideratum of these linked religions, of their historic origins, and of their enduring interconnections as co-prophetic faith traditions?

Texts:

• Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Reconciliation, Justice, and Co-existence:Theory and Practice
• Paula M. Cooey, et al., eds. After Patriarchy: FeministTransformations of the World Religions
•Marc Goping, Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking
• John de Gruchy, Reconciliation: Restoring Justice
• Michael Hadley, ed., The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice

Recommended:

• James Heft, ed., Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
•Daniel Philpot, ed. The Politics of Past Evil: Religion,Reconciliation, and the Dilemmas of Transitional Justice
•Omid Safi, Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism
•Jessica Sterns, Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
•James Williams, ed. The Girard Reader

Particulars: (1) 2 class presentations on course readings; (2) a midterm practicum or media presentation (sample practicums available in course); (3) a final term paper incorporating elements of the above and major themes of the course.

RLPC 750G: Prophetic Voice: Speaking Truth to and with Power
Teresa Fry Brown Thursdays 9-12 Max: 12

Content : This course examines contextualization of the preached word, prophetic and pastoral preaching, and critical engagement of contemporary social issues and “isms” in the preaching moment. Socio-political issues covered will include racism, ethnocentrism, white privilege, heterosexism, sexism, domestic violence, marriage and family human rights, global issues, health, disease, ableism (handicappism), criminal justice, capital punishment, denominationalism, classism, economic justice, just war, resistance, militarism, environmental and ecological issues.

The course will include examination of the social location, worldview, and theology of preaching. It will explore the definition of transformation in preaching praxis. The difference between prophetic and pastoral and the relevance of each in specific social contexts will
be discussed. The course will distinguish between preaching
liberation and liberatively preaching that involve use of language, metaphor, and images. Finally the course will focus on proactive verses reactive prophetic voice as a to means of individual and social transformation..

Text (possible reading list) :

Kathy Black, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability Abingdon, 1996.
Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., Preaching the Just Word Yale University Press, 1996.
Charles L. Campbell, The Word Before the Powers: An Ethic of Preaching Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.
James M. Childs, Jr. Preaching Justice: The Ethical Vocation of Word and Sacrament Ministry
Trinity Press International 2000
James H. Harris, Preaching Liberation Fortress Press, 1995.
Dieter T. Hessel, Dieter T. Hessel, For Creation's Sake: Preaching Ecology and Justice
Presbyterian Pub. Corp., 1985 Presbyterian Pub. Corp., 1985
André, Resner, ed. André, Resner, ed. Just Preaching: Prophetic Voices for Economic Justice.
St. Louis: Chalice, 2003.
Christine M. Smith, Preaching as Weeping, Confession, and Resistance: Radical Responses to Radical Evil
Westminster John Knox Press, 1992
Christine Smith, ed., Preaching Justice: Ethnic and Cultural Perspectives United Church Press, 1998.
Christine Smith, Risking the Terror: Resurrection in This Life. Cleveland: Pilgrim, 2001.
J. Philip Wogaman, Speaking the Truth in Love: Prophetic Preaching to a Broken World
Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.

Particulars : Two class presentations and one 20-25 page research paper incorporating major course themes and methodology for engagement of prophetic voice.

RLPC 790R: Dynamics of Religious Community: Gender, Culture and Peacemaking
Mary Elizabeth Moore Wednesday 2:00 – 5:00 Max: 12

Content : This seminar explores social and theological dynamics of religious community life, with particular attention to gender and culture in relation to conflict and peacemaking. 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 social scientific theory and ethical practice, particularly as regards human communal life.

Text may include (some primary and some specialized) :

Akbar S. Ahmed and Hastings Donnan, eds., Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity
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
Hannah Naveh, ed., Israeli Family and Community: 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
Kathryn Tanner, Theories of Culture

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.

RLPC 779 Religious Imagination and Religious Knowing
Theodore Brelsford Friday 2:00-5:00 MAX: 12

Content: This course takes an interdisciplinary approach in examining classic problems of epistemology—what is knowledge, how do we come by it, what is truth?—in relation to modern and emerging postmodern understandings of patterns and practices of religious knowing with special attention to religious imagination. Developments over the last century in cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis, and semiotics have problematized epistemology nearly to the point of extinction and made theology nearly obsolete as an intellectual enterprise. Recent work in evolutionary psychology and cognitive science further complexifies meanings of human knowledge and knowing and opens new perspectives on the religious imagination. This course explores understandings of religious knowing with respect to theories of imagination, cognition, and meaning from varying disciplinary perspectives (philosophy, psychology, anthropology, comparative religion, cognitive studies, theology). Orienting questions include: how do experience, practice, belief and knowledge inter-relate? What are meanings and functions of myth, ritual and doctrine in religious knowing? What are the roles of community/society, human biology, and the world of experience in the construction of religious knowledge? What are meanings and functions of religious knowing (as embodied in belief, ritual and myth) in relation to experiences from which they may arise and truths they may purport?

Readings may be selected from among (subject to change):

Doniger, Wendy. 1998. The Implied Spider: politics and theology in myth.
Douglas, Mary. 1996 (1970). Natural Symbols: explorations in cosmology.
James, William. Essays in Radical Empiricism.
Kaufman, Gordon. 1993. In Face of Mystery.
Kearney , Richard, 1998. Poetics of Imagining: modern and postmodern. OR The Wake of Imagination: Toward a Postmodern Culture. 1988.
Kristeva, Julia.1984. Revolution in Poetic Language
Neville, Robert Cummings. 1996. The Truth of Broken Symbols.
Newberg and D’Aquili. 2001. Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief.
Ricoeur, Paul. 1995. Figuring the Sacred: religion, narrative, and imagination, OR Essays in Ideology and Utopia.
Veyne, Paul. 1988. Did the Greeks Believe their Myths? An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination.

RLR 700R: Introduction to the Interdisciplinary Study of Religious Practices
Elizabeth Bounds and Joyce Flueckiger : Wednesday 1:00-4:00 MAX: 12

Content: This course serves as an introduction to the study of religion through an examination of religious practices. We will look comparatively at a variety of approaches and lenses, within religious and theological studies, reading both work describing theory and method and works studying religious practices. Throughout we will keep trying to be attentive to how religions are lived and practiced and how best we can understand these practices. As their major project, students will study one religious practice, drawing upon one or more of the theoretical and methodological frameworks presented

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 prepare a research project.

RLTS 710P The Doctrine of Sin: Classical and Contemporary Approaches
Joy McDougall Tuesday 9:30-12:30 MAX: 12

Content: This seminar engages in a conversation between classical and contemporary approaches to the Christian doctrine of sin. The first part of the seminar traces a historical trajectory of the doctrine in the Christian West, focusing particularly on the themes of Original sin, the bondage of the will, and root notions of sin such as pride, unfaithfulness, the lie/falsehood, and sloth. Against this historical backdrop, the second part of the seminar examines contemporary retrievals and reconstructions of the doctrine in light of issues of gender, collective violence (structural sin), and human responsibility. We will trace various “migrations” of the doctrine of sin that have been prompted by critiques of the notion of Original Sin, by our “therapeutic” and “crime/punishment” culture, and by the changing subjects of theological discourse, in particular, the voices of women.

Texts: The first part of the seminar will consider central works by Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Barth. The second part of the seminar will include a range of contemporary proposals for reconstructing the doctrine, such as those of D. Hampson, E. Jüngel, S. Jones, D. Kelsey, A. McFadyen, W. Pannenberg, and C. Plantinga.

Particulars : Members of the seminar will be expected to do one class presentation as well as to write brief weekly papers. There will be a final paper of approximately 20-25 pages.

RLTS 740 000 Contemplative Theology
Wendy Farley Monday 9:30-12:30 MAX: 12

Content: This seminar will explore contemplative literature as a theological genre, attending to the distinctive versions of Christian loci (doctrine of God, the passion of Christ, the human condition) that emerge from it. As a way of bringing into view some issues of epistemology and method, we will begin by comparing a text from Tibetan Buddhism with the writings of Plotinus. Otherwise, the class will be primarily dedicated to the writings of medieval women, with some attention to their modern interpreters. Because practice is central to understanding this literature, each class will begin with a brief meditation.

Particulars: Three short (3-5 pages) analytical papers on the primary texts, one long (15-20) page paper which uses the material from the class to extend each student’s research interests.

Tentative list of texts:

• The Gelug/Kaghu Tradition of Mahamudra , His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• Essential Writings , Plotinus
• Flowing Light of the Godhead , Mechthild of Magdeburg
• Complete Works , Hadewijch
• Mirror of Simple Souls , Marguerite Porete
• Showings , Julian of Norwich

RLTS 740 001 Major Theologians: Aquinas and Incarnation
Mark JordanWednesday, 10:00-1:00 MAX: 12

Content: How are Christian practices of theological writing related to the deep structures of divine manifestation? What is the connection between hopes for theological knowledge and doctrines about incarnation or sacramentality? The seminar will follow these questions through portions of the pedagogical dialectic of the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas. It will strive to read these texts neither as relics for the antiquarian nor as authorizations for the church police.

Texts: The principal readings will be selected from all three parts of Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, though most will fall the tertia pars. Some parallel texts will be drawn from his other large-scale works and those of his contemporaries.

Particulars: Members of the seminar will be expected to read the assigned texts carefully and to discuss them constructively. They will be asked to prepare a sequence of short and specific exegetical exercises. A much less constrained final paper of 15-20 pages will be due at the end of the semester.

RLTS 752 Color Symbolism: Womanist and Black Interpretations
Jacquelyn Grant Thursday, 6-9 pm MAX: 12

Content: We will explore the uses and functions of color symbolism in religion and art as they relate to understandings of the humanity of Black people. What are the essential meanings of blackness and the impact of color symbolism upon Black women and men (the Black Church and community)?

With gender and race analyses as primary tools, we will explore the religious, social, cultural, and political ramifications of negative color symbolism. Womanist and Black Theologies will be the interpretative framework for examining a variety of sources and genres.