Course Listings
Spring 2010
Introduction to the Religions of Asia
Religious Studies 001-601
W 4:30-7:30PM
Instructor: Fleming (LPS)
History & Tradition (All Classes)
This course will introduce the major religions of South and East Asia, including Hinduism, Jainism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism. We will focus on the emergence of these traditions and their interactions with one another, exploring their myths, rituals, art, poetry, and philosophy. Key themes will include the emergence of pan-Indian forms of Hinduism as well as the spread of Buddhism and its adaptation to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultural contexts. By means of readings from primary sources in translation, we will sample some of the rich variety of religious expression within these traditions. Throughout the course, primary sources will be supplemented with considerations of art and architecture. In addition, the continued vitality of these religions, both in Asia and the West, will be explored through films, comic books, and contemporary illustrative traditions.
Women and Religion
Religious Studies 005-401
(Folk 029, GSOC 109)
MW 3:30-5
Instructor: Comeau
lecomeau@sas.upenn.edu
Humanities & Social Science Sector
This course will look at issues of gender in Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. By using historical, psychoanalytical and anthropological tools, we will explore the various ways in which religion shapes gender roles and vice-versa. Aspects considered will include the representation of the divine, the role of women in religious institutions, and rules regarding the human body, marriage and sexuality. We will also take into consideration conltemporary women's self-repreentation in religious literature, art, and film.
Religion and Science
Religious Studies 102-601
MW 6-9PM
Instructor: Peterson (LPS)
This course is designed to present students with historical and present-day perspectives on cooperation and conflict between religion and science. We will begin with chapters that present, in stark difference, the methodology of science vs. the methodology of religious studies. Materials in the course will begin with a short historical overview of the developing relationship between religion and science, largely from a western perspective. To broaden our perspective, we will be reading essays discussing both religion and science from less familiar cultural perspectives. The problem of consciousness is key to current attempts to reconcile religion and science. We will compare the phenomenology of religious experience and practical attempts to reduce religious experience to something that can be reproduced in the scientist's laboratory, or seen through advanced technology. Students will learn the continuing challenges religion poses to science, and that science poses to religion, from an historical background as well as particular modern case of different approaches to the phenomenon of consciousness. Students will be challenged to explore deeper issues that underlie the oversimplified presentations of religion and science about the means, methods, and beliefs of each other. They will be better able to place new issues and discoveries in the broader context of the relationship between religion and science. Classes are a mix of lecture, discussion, and audio-visual presentation. Class interaction is encouraged, based on the readings. To that end, students will provide analytical response papers to each reading, and be ready to discuss the basis for their response. Two short papers (4 to 6 double-spaced pages) are also required; they would analyze a particular issue in the readings. Based on the first short paper, students will be encouraged to develop their own paper topic for the second paper, and consult on appropriate research.
Music of Africa
Religious Studies 115-401
(COML 053, MUSC 053)
TR 12-1:30PM
Instructor: Muller
Come to know contemporary Africa through the sounds of its music: from South African kwela, jazz, marabi, and kwaito to Zimbabwean chimurenga; Central African soukous and pygmy pop; West African fuji, and North African rai and hop hop. Through reading and listening to live performance, audio and video recordings, we will examine the music of Africa and its intersections with politics, history, gender, and religion in the colonial and post-colonial era.
African American Religion
Religious Studies 117-401
(AFRC 117)
MWF 1-2PM
Instructor: Butler
The unique history and experiences of African Americans can be traced through religion and belief. Through the mediums of literature, politics, music, and film, students will explore the religious experience of people of the African Diaspora within the context of the complex history of race in American history. The course will cover a broad spectrum of African American religious experience including Black Nationalism, urban religions, the "black church" and African religious traditions such as Santeria and Rastafarianism. Special attention will be paid to the role of race, gender, sexuality, and popular culture in the African American religious experience.
Introduction to Islamic Religion
Religious Studies 143-401
(NELC 136, SAST 139)
TR 10:30-12NOON
Instructor: Elias
This course is an introduction to Islam as a religion as it exists in societies of the past as well as the present. It explores the many ways in which Muslims have interpreted and put into practice the prophetic message of Muhammad through historical and social analyses of varying theological, philosophical, legal, political, mystical and literary writings, as well as through visual art and music. The aim of the course is to develop a framework for explaining the sources and symbols through which specific experiences and understandings have been signified as Islamic, both by Muslims and by other peoples with whom they have come into contact, with particular emphasis given to issues of gender, religious violence, and changes in beliefs and behaviors which have particular relevance to contemporary society.
History, Culture and Religion of Early India
Religious Studies 164-401
(SAST 003)
MW 1:30-3PM
Instructor: Ali
This course surveys the culture, religion, and history of India from 2500 BCE to 1200 CE. The course examines the major cultural, religious, and social events that shaped the course of early Indian history. The following themes will be covered: the rise and fall of Harappan civilization, the Aryan invasion and Vedic India, the rise of cities, states and the religions of Buddhism and Jainism, the historical context of the growth of classical Hinduism, including the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the development of the theistic temple cults of Saivism and Vaisnavism, processes of medieval agrarian expansion and cultic incorporation as well as the spread of early Indian cultural ideas in Southeast Asia. In addition to assigned secondary readings, students will read select primary sources on the history, religion, and culture of early India, including Vedic and Buddhist texts, Puranas and medieval temple inscriptions. Major objectives of the course will be to draw attention to India's early cultural and religious past and to assess contemporary concerns and ideologies in influencing our understanding and representation of that past.
Introduction to Buddhism
Religious Studies 173-401
(SAST 142)
MWF 11-12NOON
Instructor: McDaniel
This course seeks to introduce students to the diversity of doctrines held and practices performed by Buddhists in Asia. By focusing on how specific beliefs and practices are tied to particular locations and particular times we will be able to explore in detail the religious institutions, artistic, architectural, and musical traditions, textual production and legal and doctrinal developments of Buddhism over time and within its socio-historical context. Religion is never divorced from its place and its time. Furthermore, by geographically and historically grounding the study of these religions we will be able to examine how their individual ethic, cosmological and soteriological systems effect local history, economics, politics, and material culture. We will concentrate first on the person of the Buddha, his many biographies and how he has been followed and worshipped in a variety of ways from Lhasa, Tibet to Phrae, Thailand. From there we touch on the foundational teachings of the Buddha with an eye to how they have evolved and transformed over time. Finally, we focus on the practice of Buddhist ritual, magic and ethics in monasteries and among lay communities in Asia and even in the West. This section will confront the way Buddhists have thought of issues such as "Just-War," Women's Rights and Abortion. While no one quarter course could provide a detailed presentation of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, my hope is that we will be able to look closely at certain aspects of these religions by focusing on how they are practiced in places like Nara, Japan or Vientiane, Laos.
Buddhist Art of East Asia: Sources, Iconography, and Styles
Religious Studies 175-401
(EALC 115, EALC 515)
MWF 2-3:30PM
Instructor: Chance F.
Discover the art produced by one of the world's great religions, and trace its development across China, Korea, and Japan. Develop analytic skills to understand Buddhist icons and other works.
We will start with a brief overview of the origins and ideas behind Buddhism, while looking at early monuments in India. Further study will follow the image of the Buddha as it traveled from India to Afghanistan to China, and finally to Korea and Japan. After dazzling our senses with the myriad of forms created to express Buddhist ideas across Asia, we will settle into the serene severity of Zen and seek the essential elements of Buddhism, and indeed of all religious experience.
Bible in Translation: Genesis
Religious Studies 224-401
(COML 380, JWST 255, NELC 250, NELC 550)
TR 4:30-6:30PM
Instructor: Tigay
Careful textual study of a book of the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") as a literary and religious work in the light of modern scholarship, ancient Near Eastern documents, and comparative literature and religion. The book for Spring '10 is Genesis.
Modern Jewish Thought: Levinas
Religious Studies 227-401
(JWST 227, PHIL 255)
M 2-5PM
Instructor: Aronowicz
annette.aronowicz (at) fandm.edu
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) is considered by many to have been the greatest Jewish philosopher in the second half of the 20th century. Besides his philosophical writings, he also left a good many essays specifically on the Jewish tradition and on the Jewish situation in modernity. It is these latter writings, referred to as his Jewish writings, that we will be studying. They reveal his attitude on a multitude of topics: approaches to the Talmud and to the Bible, Jewish education, Jews and Israel, Jews and Christians, among others. We will study him primarily through a close reading of is own texts in translation but also, in the latter part of the course, in the context of a few other Jewish thinkers with whom he was contemporary or near contemporary.
Body, Power and Society in Early India
Religious Studies 260-401
(ANTH 289, SAST 288)
MW 2-3:30PM
Instructor: Ali
The course will focus on the social history of the body, widely conceived, in early Indian society. Doctrines of the body will be placed against the context of wider traditions of thinking about ethics and selfhood and viewed in both cultural and historical contexts. Themes will include the evolution of religious doctrines and rituals, the history of emotions and interpersonal relations, the evolution of state and society, and urban and rural cultures. Specific topics treated will include theories of physiology, health, and illness; gesture and movement; sartorial codes, sumptuary regulations, and "body culture"; gender and sexuality; and the representation of the body in art and literature. In addition to contextual and thematic readings, the course will expose students to a wide variety of primary sources (translated from Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil), including religious and ritual texts, courtly literature, art (painting, sculpture, material culture), as well as inscriptions and normative treatises.
Honors Thesis Seminar
Religious Studies 309
TBA
Permission needed from instructor
Required of honors majors. See department for section numbers.
Religion in American History: 1877-2005
Religious Studies 315-401
(HIST 325)
TR 1:30-3PM
Instructor: Gordon
History & Tradition (All Classes)
This course will explore major themes in religious history that have shaped the development of the nation since the Civil War era. The approach will be chronological, but also topical. The course will move through time from the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, from Native American religions to Evangelicalism, African-American religions, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, Scientology, and more. It will also connect past evetns to issues and problems that continue to affect religious beliefs and practices in our own culture, including the revival that has characterized American religious life for the past three decades. Rather than debating religious truth, the course explores and analyzes the many religious perspectives that have shaped American history. This exploration includes looking at things that many students would not consider "religious" at first glance, and thus thinking deeply about how we have defined religion. At times, the course will use a "case study" approach to explore specific events and ideas that have a wider applicability, rather than trying to cover every significant religious development with every religious group.
The course will meet twice a week, with both lecture and discussion and will satisfy the post-1800 lecture course requirement for history majors and the University's undergraduate history requirement. Course requirements include a mid-term examination, a short (5 pages) review paper, and a final examination.
Course materials include a reader, web sites, music, film, and a religious history walking tour of Philadelphia.
Book Bible: Ezra - Nehemiah
Religious Studies 322-401
(HEBR 350, HEBR 550 JWST 351)
TR 12-1:30PM
Instructor: Tigay
The book of Ezra-Nehemiah describes the return of the Jews from Babylonian Exile and the reestablishment of Jewish life in and around Jerusalem under the Persian Empire, including the building of the Second Temple, the canonization of the Torah, and the first explicit record of Biblical exegesis. This course will be a close study of the Hebrew and Aramaic text of these books and their historical-archaeological background.
This course is designed primarily for undergraduates who have previously studied the Bible in Hebrew either in high school or college. It presupposes fluency in reading Biblical Hebrew, including a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew grammar.
The Philosophy of Yoga: An Introduction
Religious Studies 360-401
(SAST 350)
TR 12-1:30
Instructor: Sharma
Yoga is a classical school of India philosophy that consists of a unique metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Yoga in the contemporary context usually refers to a system of physical and spiritual exercises that draw from this philosophy. In this course, we will read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (in English translation from the original Sanskrit), with commentary. We will go over all central concepts, technical terms, and historical developments in the philosophy of Yoga. We will also discuss the philosophy of Hatha Yoga in the context of its historical and practical developments. No prior knowledge of Indian philosophy is required for this course.
Undergraduate Independent Study
Religious Studies 399
Permission Needed From Department
Time and topic arranged
Instructor: Staff
Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.
Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe
Religious Studies 429-401
(COML 584, HIST 490, JWST 490)
T 3-6PM
Instructor: Ruderman
This course attempts to define and describe a distinct era in Jewish cultural and social history roughly between 1500-1800. Early modernity for Jews represents more than a transition from the Middle Ages to Modernity and needs to be viewed as a critical stage in the formation of Jewish civilization. The course focuses on five markers of the period: enhanced mobility of communities and individuals; communal cohesiveness and laicization; a knowledge explosion engendered by the printing press and the University; a crisis of authority precipitated by radical messianism; and the blurring of religious, social, and cultural boundaries, especially between Jews and Christians. The course looks at these trends by studying comparatively the Jewish communities of Italy, the western Sephardim, the Germanic communities, and those of Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire. The course is suited for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Reading knowledge of Hebrew is recommended but not required. Please contact the instructor for more course information.
Topics in Jewish History: Thought, Text, and Action in Early Hasidism
Religious Studies 429-402
W 3:30-6:30
Instructor: Teller
This course examines the interplay of the theological idea and the social act through the mediation of the written (and spoken) text in 18th and 19th century Hasidism. We will focus on the kabbalistic roots of the thought of some of the early Hasidic masters such as the Ball Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, the Elimelekh of Lezan and Nahman of Braclaw. We will then examine the ways their thought was given expression in stories, letters, sermons, prayer, and polemical literature. Finally, we will relate Hasidic social activities and forms, in the realms of social organization, religious practice and custom to the textual expressions of Hasidic theology in order to see how this modern socio-religious movement was able to create itself and from within the Jewish tradition.
Christian Thought 1000-1800
Religious Studies 434-301
T 2-5PM
Instructor: Matter
This course will trace the development of Christian thought (including philosophy, theology, spirituality and mysticism) from the early Scholastic period to early Methodism. Readings will be from both primary and secondary sources. A research paper will be required of each student.
Folk and Unorthodox Health Systems
Religious Studies 505-401
(FOLK 533, HSSC 533)
T 1:30-4:30PM
Instructor: Hufford
This course will offer students the opportunity to critically examine representative complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health beliefs and practices found within the United States and their cultural position in American society. These will range from cosmopolitan systems such as chiropractic and traditional Chinese medicine to fold medicine. The philosophical and theoretical premises behind these health systems will be analyzed and compared to the premise of conventional, Western medicine and to one another. This will include a description and discussion of current models for understanding health behavior. Ethical issues and practical applications of this knowledge will also be discussed. The materials and methods of the course will draw on the literatures of social sciences, history, philosophy, the allied health professionals and medicine.
Civil Religion
Religious Studies 510-401
(PSCI 536)
T 3-6PM
Instructor: Linker
In the first half of the course, we will examine the theoretical question of whether modern liberal societies need a civil religion - an idea first proposed in the late eighteenth century by writers who feared that without some unifying ideal or principle the centrifugal forces at work in modern societies would lead them to disintegrate. We will examine various authors who have defended the idea of civil religion in these terms (including J.J. Rousseau, J.G. Herder, and G.W.F. Hegel) as well as several who (implicitly or explicitly) have rejected the argument (Max Weber, Michael Oakeshott, Daniel Bell, and Niklas Luhmann). In the second half of the class, we will turn to the American context and explore the way these arguments have played themselves out from the time of the constitutional frames to today. In this part of the class, we will read and discuss excerpts from the Federalist Papers and Tocqueville's Democracy in America, selected presidential speeches, nineteenth- and twentieth-century debates surrounding Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism, John Dewey/Richard Rorty's proposal for a religion of democratic "common faith," and the neoconservative case for a civil religion of "national greatness." Along the way we will also have occasion to examine sociological treatments of civil religion by such authors as Emile Durkheim, Robert Bellah, and Seymour Martin Lipset.
Topics in American Religion: Pentecostalism
Religious Studies 517-401
(AFRC 578, FOLK 517)
W 2:00-5:00PM
Instructor: Butler
From Marvin Gaye, to Tammy Faye Baker, to Sarah Palin and James Baldwin, Pentecostalism has influenced many, including politicians, preachers, writers, and the media. One of the fastest growing religious movements in the world, Pentecostalism continues to have a profound effect on the religious landscape. Pentecostalism's unique blend of charismatic worship, religious practices, and flamboyant, media-savvy leadership, has drawn millions into this understudied and often controversial religious movement. This course will chronicle the inception and growth of Pentecostalism in the United States, giving particular attention to beliefs, practices, gender, ethnicity, and Global Pentecostalism.
Buddhist Healing and Magic
Religious Studies 571-401
(EALC 718)
M 2-5PM
Instructor: McDaniel
Buddhist Studies is replete with controversies and contentious scholars. These intellectual arguments and debates emerge from textual variants, logical inconsistencies, spotty historical records, ethical conundrums, as well as the varied and many questions indigenous and foreign scholars have posed to themselves and the tradition. In this course, we will explore the intellectual history of some of these controversies not necessarily to solve problems, but to understand their permutations, motivations, and contingencies. This semester's theme will be Buddhist practices of magic and healing. We will read about this controversial issue in the study of Buddhism drawing on work in Japanese, Thai, Tibetan, Chinese, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian, Korean, and other Buddhist traditions. In general, this course will first review the intellectual history of the study of Buddhist magic and healing and compare and contrast that with the monastic practice and study of Buddhism in Asia. We ask: are the same debates that pervade the "Western" scholarly community reflective of centuries old monastic debates or is there a great "insider-outsider" divide? Included in this historical approach will be a study of the influence of colonialism, globalism, and print and media technology on the study and reception of Buddhism locally and translocally. From there major debates are investigated and critically engaged with systematically. Scholars such as Schopen, Harrison, Payutto, Sivaraksa, Nattier, Skilling, Hirakawa, Hallisey, Satha-Anand, Trainor, Gombrich, Bizot, Obeyesekere, and Buddhadasa will be consulted. The primary objective of this course is to provide a sophisticated approach to the study of Buddhist magic and healing (and Buddhism in general) in light of larger intellectual debates in post-colonial, textual, anthropological, cultural, and gender studies.
The Power of Representation
Religious Studies 601-402
(SAST 701)
W 2-5PM
Instructor: Viswanath
This course, first, investigates the relations between power and representation as they have been construed in historiography, social theory, literary criticism and political thought. From this basis, we ask what the historical and discursive relations are, for example, between literary and historical representation, between political representation and representation of politics ("ideology" for instance) and between ideology and religion. Readings comprise theoretical works (from among Hobbes, Bernard Manin, Talal Asad, Foucault, Marx, Althusser, Zizek, Charles Taylor, and Raymond Geuss) and we will consider the case studies primarily from South Asia.
The Persian Intellectual Tradition
Religious Studies 742-401
(NELC 782, SAST 763)
T 2-5PM
Instructor: Elias
This seminar focuses on readings from a variety of sources from across the Persianate world with the aim of providing an advanced introduction to thought and history in some of the most influential societies of the Islamic world. The course will cover a variety of historical, theological, mystical and literary texts in prose as well as poetry. A reading knowledge of modern Persian (Farsi/Dari/Tajik) is required.
Dissertation
Religious Studies 995-000
Permission Needed from Department
Time to be arranged
Instructor: Staff
Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.
Graduate Independent Study
Religious Studies 999-000
Permission Needed from Department
Time to be arranged
Instructor: Staff
Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.