Course Offerings, Spring 2003, Religious Studies, Penn

Department of Religious Studies
Course Offerings: Spring, 2003

Religions of Asia

Religious Studies 001
W 6:00-9:10
Instructor: Fuller (CGS)
Jdfuller@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto - the essential beliefs, doctrines, institutions, and practices of the major religious traditions (or traditional worldviews) of Southern and Eastern Asia. Historical backgrounds and development will be surveyed briefly to provide context for the course’s central focus: understanding the distinctive worlds of meaning created and maintained and expressed in these religions. Reading and discussion of representative primary texts in translation will be emphasized in this effort to understand basic attitudes and beliefs. Particular attention will be devoted to answering questions about the persisting influence and vitality of these religious traditions - about the nature and significance of change and about the importance of these great religions in shaping the sense of identity, aspirations, and expectations of their adherents in the face of the technological and ideological challenges of the contemporary world.

Requirements: No prerequisites. Moderate reading load. Optional paper.
In-class midterm and final examinations.

Religions of the West

Religious Studies 002
(JWST 122)
MW 11:00-12:00 plus 1 hour recitation
Instructor: Matter/Fishman
amatter@ccat.sas.upenn.edu/tfishman@sas.upenn.edu
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

This course introduces students to the academic study of religion through consideration of the major religious traditions of the Western world. The religious expressions of the Ancient Near East will set the context of the living and intertwined belief systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Special emphasis will be placed on the historical and conceptual development and variety within each of these monotheistic traditions. The modern representations of these religions will be examined comparatively and in relation to the role of religion in modern society and the nature of institutional change and syncretism. There will be two lectures a week, which will make use of film, music, and art. An added dimension will be the use of the extensive resources available on the Internet and the World Wide Web. The course fulfills a General Requirement in History and Tradition.

Religion and Literature

Religious Studies 003
(COML 242)
T 6:00-9:10
Instructor: Delauter (CGS)
delauter@pobox.upenn.edu
General Requirement III: Arts and Letters

Topic for Spring 2003: Adventure, Fantasy, Quest, and Romance

This course explores formulaic fictions and their intersections with religious, cultural, historical, and psychological concerns. We will read a wide, cross-cultural selection of narratives, including folk and fairy tales, quests, adventure stories and travelers’ tales, romances, and science fiction. A few short theoretical texts introducing elements of critical analysis will also be read. Requirements for the course include three short papers (5 pp. each, 60%), a journal (15%), and a final paper analyzing a narrative of the student’s choice (12 pp., 25%). Cap: 60 students.

Women and Religion

Religious Studies 005
(WSTD 109, FOLK 029)
MW 12:00-1:00 plus 1 hour recitation
Instructor: von Schlegell
bvon@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
General Requirement I: Society

For the last three decades religion has been at the top of some women’s lists of organizations that have worked against women. In answer to this, some women continued to follow their family religious tradition while remaining feminists. Many women worked toward gender equity in leadership of their religions. Others dropped out altogether from religion or formed their own, woman-centered religions. A new movement has been building for the last ten years. Women with the power to make a choice to leave traditional religions have chosen to stay. Why?

This course examines gender and religion, in speaking of God, in creation narratives, in family structures, in attitudes toward the body, in the history of religious movements. We look at the new ways of reading foundational religious texts that attempt to expose and counter sexism in religious texts and social structures. While we will consider women in non-western religions for comparison, primary attention is directed toward women in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions.

Writing About Ritual

Religious Studies 009
TR 9:00-10:30 AM
Instructor: Marks
markssus@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Fulfills College Writing Requirement

Rites exist at the heart of religion. Yet how does one study ritual? Students will consider the relationship between writing about ritual and the performances, acts, and gestures that make up our subject. This course emphasizes writing and revision and as an important way of exploring complex ideas.

As students engage in different types of writing, they will discover different aspects of ritual studies. The term “ritual” comes into being in the modern world. A variety of theories use the word “ritual” in order to insinuate a variety of value judgements about the relationship of “ritual” and “belief”. Students will research and write about the hidden assumptions and conceptual insights of competing models of practice.

Students will also use descriptions of ritual in order to write of their own observations and their own lives. Experience will be an important tool for reflecting upon the strengths and weaknesses of competing theoretical frameworks. Students will write, discuss, and review their work with each other in a workshop and seminar environment, in both small group and larger class settings.

India in the Traveller’s Eye

Religious Studies 010
(SARS 010)
M 2:00-5:00
Instructor: Behl
abehl@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Distribution II: History and Tradition

Historically, India has held a prominent yet paradoxical place in the Western imagination – as a land of ancient glories, a land of spiritual profundity, a land of poverty, social injustice and unreason. In this course, we examine these and other images of India as presented in European and American fiction, travel literature, news reportage, and film. We will consider the power and resonance of these images, how they have served Western interests, and how they may have affected Indian self-understanding.

The English Bible

Religious Studies 015
(ENGL 073)
TR 10:30-12:00
Instructor: Kraft
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Freshman Seminar
Distribution III: Arts and Letters

This course is intended as a general introduction to “the English Bible” as a phenomenon in western culture – its overall makeup and constituent parts, the cultural settings it represents or assumes, the basic contents, and its interpretations and influences through the ages to the present. Students will be expected to read representative portions of Jewish scriptures (also known as “Old Testament” among Protestant Christians), the Jewish Apocrypha (also known as “deutero-canonical” writings), and the Christian New Testament, in various English versions and to understand problems associated with their origins and transmission as well as their acquired significance. No prior knowledge is assumed, and discussions will include such matters as “where did this stuff come from?”, “who put it all together?”, why have people thought it important?”, and “what value can it bring for me?” The focus will be especially historical and “secular” (this will not be a "Sunday school” type class), but without ignoring literary and religious perspectives. The course aims at providing the students with a good basis for subsequent investigation in related areas, and with an awareness of the problems inherent in all such historical and literary research.

Religion in Culture—Culture in Religion: History of Religion in the Ancient Near East

Religious Studies 023
(AMES 248, AMES 548)
T 1:30- 4:30
Instructor: Pongratz-Leiste

The geographical setting for this course is the region corresponding roughly to modern Iraq, Syria, and the Levant from the fourth through the first millennia BCE. Religion represents an essential part of the cultural system of the civilizations of the Ancient Near East. We will explore concepts such as the world view, cosmologies, concepts of divinity and mankind, destiny, morality, ethics, official and personal cults, religious ceremonies, the position of the king as mediator between the gods and the people in the ancient Near East. We will read primary sources in English translation such as the Gilgamesh Epic and a range of scholarly literature from ancient Near Eastern studies and discuss them from the perspective of cultural anthropology. Archaeological finds will complete the picture.

Archaeology and the Bible

Religious Studies 024
(AMES 155, ANTH 124)
TR 1:30-3:00
Instructor: Routledge

This Hebrew Bible (Tanoak) and archaeological research provide distinct, and at times conflicting, accounts of the origins and development of ancient Israel and its neighbors. Religion, culture and politics ensure that such accounts of the past have significant implications for the world we live in today. In this course we will discuss the latest archaeological research from Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan as it relates to the Bible, moving from Creation to the Babylonian Exile. Students will critically engage the best of both biblical and archaeological scholarship, while being exposed to the interpretive traditions of Anthropology as an alternative approach to the available evidence. Open discussions of the religious, social, and political implications of the material covered will be an important aspect of the course.

Science and the Sacred

Religious Studies 102
R 6:00-9:10
Instructor: Griswold (CGS)
Xan3210@cs.com
Distribution I: Society

Topic for Spring 2003: Truth and Consequences

Evolution, Creation, Creationism, Atheism, the supernatural, Skepticism, miracles, scientific truth, and ultimate reality. This course explores differing, sometimes competing understandings of truth in science and religion, and the consequences of the differences. While the apparent separation of science and religion has accelerated since the publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution, the split was already well established long before that. We will explore the historical roots of the division between science and the sacred in the West, and some of the contemporary complications. We will also explore creation stories from different religions in relation to scientific accounts of evolution, and competing and complimentary ideas of health and medicine.

Major Western Religious Thinkers

Religious Studies 113-401
(AMES 133)
M 2:00-5:00
Instructor: von Schlegell
bvon@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Freshman Seminar
WATU Credit Optional
Distribution II: History and Tradition

Topic for Spring 2003: Muhammad

For Muslims, the Prophet Muhammad is the genealogical and spiritual heir to Abraham, the founder of monotheism. He was chosen to bring the final revelation, the Qur’an, to the world. His life inspires millions with its perfections. Secular historians look at the conditions of the Middle East in the seventh-ninth centuries. For them, the Qur’an and the teachings of Muhammad combined with unprecedented political and military successes to produce an Islamic world empire that then shaped the way Muhammad’s life story would be told. In modern times Muhammad has been fashioned as the exemplar for a variety of movements: revolutions, democratic state formation, rationalistic religion, mysticism, even feminism. This seminar is an examination of translated sources and biographies from Muslim and non-Muslim observers of Muhammad and his mission. We also read recent critical academic studies of “the historical Muhammad.” Guided discussion questions on the readings, occasional short response papers, and one long paper.

Major Western Religious Thinkers

Religious Studies 113-402
(AFAM 113)
T 1:30-4:30
Instructor: Dyson
mdyson@sas.upenn.edu
Distribution II: History and Tradition

Topic for Spring 2003: Searching for Black Jesus: Tupac Shakur, Black Masculinity and the Politics of Race.

Tupac Shakur was one of the most gifted and controversial figures of this generation. Poet, hip hop artist, actor, social critic and urban griot, he was a ghetto saint who evoked adoration and attack, nearly in the same breath. This course will examine the cultural, racial and religious significance of Shakur’s life and thought. We will also probe the artistic, aesthetic and rhetorical dimensions of his craft. We will use Shakur as lens through which to explore the issues of racial identity and black masculinity in hip-hop culture and the broader black culture. We will also probe the political, spiritual and social implications of Shakur’s life and art, and reflect on these issues as they relate to hip-hop culture in general. Finally, we will investigate the moral and cultural consequences of memorializing Tupac in the wake of his violent death.

Science, Magic, and Religion

Religious Studies 116
(HIST 025, HSSC 025)
TR 12:00-1:30
Instructor: Haq
nhaq@sas.upenn.edu
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

The Western World once had its share of witches, alchemists, astrologers, and magicians. They are thin on the ground these days, only to be replaced by New Age or cult-like movements. This course examines the complex phenomenon of overlaps, interplay, competition, and disjunction between science, magic, and religion over a wide sweep of history, from the Middle Ages through the rise of science in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to contemporary America, with side trips into the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Characteristically, the course traces the vicissitudes of certain key notions, such as the natural and the supernatural, occultation, color, space, and time; while at the same time looking at the debate between science, magic, and religion, not as a product of purely intellectual or spiritual processes, but instead as part of a cultural dialogue and cultural construction.

History of Jewish Civilization I: From the Biblical Period to the Early Middle Ages - (course has been cancelled)

Religious Studies 120
(AMES 156, HIST 156)
TR 3:00-4:30
Instructor: Goldenberg
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

A broad introduction to the history of Jewish civilization from its Biblical beginnings until the Middle Ages, with the main focus on the formative period of classical rabbinic Judaism and on the symbiotic relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Themes in the Jewish Tradition

Religious Studies 129-401
(AMES 252, JWST 100)
TR 10:30-12:00
Instructor: Ben-Amos
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

Topic for Spring 2003: Saints, Holymen, and Women

Course topics will vary; have included the binding of Isaac, Responses to Catastrophes in Jewish History, and Concepts of Jewishness from Biblical Israel to the Modern State. Throughout Jewish history, charismatic personalities, saints, holy men and women, took an active part in social life. At times they were central figures in religious cults, at times, they were ascetic figures renown for their righteousness and piety. They became the subject of legends and stories about them occur in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmuds, Midrashic books, medieval and modern literature. This course will examine the patterns into which the narratives about their lives evolve, and the cults that emerged worshiping them after their death.

Themes in the Jewish Tradition

Religious Studies 129-402
(AMES 252, JWST 100)
TR 10:30-12:00
Instructor: Stern
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

Topic for Spring 2003: Catastrophe and Continuity in the Jewish Tradition

Course topics will vary; have included the binding of Isaac, Responses to Catastrophes in Jewish History, and Concepts of Jewishness from Biblical Israel to the Modern State. Why has God’s chosen people been made to undergo and suffer so many catastrophes? This question has been asked repeatedly throughout the history of the Jews, from the Biblical period through the Holocaust (and beyond), and in this course, we will consider the many different answers – theological, historical, and literary – that have been offered in response. Readings will include Biblical and Rabbinic texts from the ancient world; martyrologies, historical chronicles, philosophical and legal treatises, and prayers from the medieval period; stories, poems, and novels from the modern period. As we will see, the history of the Jewish responses to catastrophe itself constitutes a literary and theological tradition. By tracing the development of these responses – both in their rise and in their decline – we will also study the very nature of Tradition in Jewish culture and civilization. All readings will be in English.

Christian Origins

Religious Studies 135
T 4:30-7:40
Instructor: Schwarz (CGS)
sschwarz@sas.upenn.edu
Distribution II: History and Tradition

Christianity did not begin in a vacuum – indeed it emerged from the complex Jewish world of which we catch a glimpse in the "Dead Sea Scrolls" and it blossomed into a multitude of forms among the "mystery religions" of the Greco-Roman world around the Mediterranean Sea and farther east. In this course we will explore those developments in the first two centuries of the Common Era, with special focus on the evidence preserved in the earliest surviving Christian writings, including the "New Testament" collection. The goal of the course is neither conversion nor its opposite, but understanding as best we can from this distance what the participants in the various developments thought was happening, and how they shaped and were shaped by the complex worlds in which they lived. We will explore what can be known about the period, and how much we as interpreters contribute to any resulting "historical" picture. This is an excellent opportunity to explore the roots of western society and to understand how Christianity formed in the midst of its ancient context.

Karma and Rebirth Indian Thought Second Culture

Religious Studies 165
(AMES 105, SARS 105)
MW 3:00-4:30
Instructor: Stoker
vstoker@sas.upenn.edu
Distribution II: History and Tradition

A comprehensive exploration of the Indian conceptions of Karma and rebirth and their roles and applications in Indian history, culture, and religion.

American Religious History

Religious Studies 217
TR 1:30-3:00
Instructor: Callahan
ldcallah@sas.upenn.edu

This course is a survey of religious figures and movements in United States from the colonial period until the present. Particular attention will be given to religious diversity and the formation of new religious traditions in the American context. Although the course seeks to be inclusive, it is by no means exhaustive. Students will have the opportunity to do independent exploration and study.

Studies in the Hebrew Bible

Religious Studies 220
(AMES 256, JWST 256)
TR 1:30-3:00
Instructor: Carasik

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the critical methods and reference works used in the modern study of the Bible. To the extent possible, these methods will be illustrated as they apply to a single book of the Hebrew Bible that will serve as the main focus of the course.

The course is designed for undergraduates who have previously studied the Bible in Hebrew either in high school or college. It presupposes a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew grammar.

The Devil’s Pact in Literature, Music, and Film

Religious Studies 236
(COML 241, FILM 252, GRMN 256)
MW 12:00-1:00 plus one hour recitation
Instructor: Richter
General requirement III: Arts and Letters

For centuries the pact with the devil has signified humankind’s desire to surpass the limits of human knowledge and power. From the reformation chap book to the rock lyrics of Randy Newman’s Faust, from Marlowe and Goethe to key Hollywood films, the legend of the devil’s pact continues to be useful for exploring our fascination with forbidden powers.

From Mecca to the Taj Mahal

Religious Studies 245
(AMES 235)
TR 3:00-4:30
Instructor: Haq
nhaq@sas.upenn.edu
Distribution II: History and Tradition

This course surveys the variegated multiplicity of ethnicities, linguistic groups, and cultures that constitute the large body of the peoples of the Islamic world. More particularly, it concentrates on the Muslim sectarian diversities and legal-doctrinal pluralisms, their historical roots, and their theological and political ramifications.

Media and Religion in South Asia

Religious Studies 268

(SARS 208)
TR 3:00-4:30
Instructor: Novetske
cln@sas.upenn.edu

In this course, we will explore how religious life and ideals are expressed through various media, and how these media have affected cultural life in general in India. Our aim is twofold: to acquire a familiarity with a variety of intriguing media forms-including traditional architecture, devotional poetry-music, visual-sensorial worship, modern film, recorded music, and television- and to situate these media within cultural fields- religion primarily, but also politics, popular culture, and global culture. Though much of our study will immerse us in India’s past, our aim is to understand contemporary India and its religious culture through media.

Computing and Humanities

Religious Studies 302
(CLST 303, ENGL 205)
TR 4:30-6:00
Instructor: Treat
jtreat@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

This course is an introduction to the use of computers in Humanities. The focus will be on issues and techniques involved in developing IT resources for use in the Humanities student’s field of study. Major projects will include the creation of a web site and programming related to the student’s major. The class will utilize a combination of lectures, discussion, presentations, and practical lab experience. Techniques will include intermediate HTML (forms, presentations with Cascading Style Sheets), graphics, and programming CGI scripts. The course will also consider methodological issues such as accessibility, copyright, and other ethical and legal problems. Enrollment is limited and preference is given to students who have completed COLL 110.

Honors Thesis Seminar

Religious Studies 309
TBA
Permission Needed from Instructor

Required of honors majors. See department for section numbers.

Independent Study - Undergraduate

Religious Studies 399
Time and topic arranged
Instructor: Staff
rstudies@sas.upenn.edu

Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Religious Studies 427
(AMES 456, JWST 456)
R 3:00-6:00
Instructor: Berlin

We will read selections from the major Hebrew texts of the Dead Sea scrolls, accompanied by some of the secondary literature. Emphasis will be on: the contents of the texts; the interpretive issues that surround them; and what they tell us about the development of canonical literature, early interpretation of the Bible, and the religious ideas and practices of the Qumran community. Knowledge of biblical Hebrew is required. Undergraduates must have permission from the department or the instructor.

Prerequisite: Reading knowledge of Hebrew and ability to read unpointed texts.

The Life and Letters of Paul

Religious Studies 436
(COML 591)
T 3:00-6:00
Instructor: Kraft
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Distribution III: Arts and Letters

Paul thought himself Jewish. Others have credited/blamed him as the real founder of Christianity! The purpose of this course is to learn how to understand a noted author/thinker of the past on his own terms and in relationship to his own world. The specific subject matter is PAUL, a Jewish adherent and spokesman for the “Jesus movement,” in the Greco-Roman world during the first century of the Common Era (CE). The larger historical context is Judaism and Christianity in their first two centuries CE.

This is a seminar. Intelligent class participation will be important. Each student will also prepare at least one carefully researched written paper of about 3000-4500 words based mainly on information culled from ancient sources by or about PAUL, and at the end of the course each student will participate in an oral evaluatory encounter (approximately 30 minutes) with the teacher, dealing with everything covered in the course. Access to the internet is crucial.

Introduction to Tantra

Religious Studies 461
(SARS 401)
TR 10:30-12:00
Instructor: Isaacson

Despite increasing popular interest in them, the Indian religious traditions (Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Buddhist) that are commonly called Tantra or Tantric, and that are often associated with transgressive practices such as the ritual consumption of alcohol and ritual sexual intercourse, have until recently received relatively little attention from Indologists and historians of religion. This course will examine the rise of these traditions, their development, and their transactions with each other. Reactions to and criticism of Tantra from the side of non-tantric Indian religious traditions will also be considered.

Topics in the History of Islam In South Asia

Religious Studies 466
(SARS 416)
TR 12:00-1:30
Instructor: Syed
asyed@gmx.de

Topic for Spring 2003: Islamic Mysticism in South Asia

This course explores the mystical dimensions of Islam in South Asia through various institutions of the Sufis such as Dargah, Qawwali, Zikar, and Langar. In addition to these, the concept and practice of Sufism will be discussed. Sufi texts, poetry, and discourse with history and Shariat through various phases of history will constitute an important part of this course.

Folk and Unorthodox Health Systems

Religious Studies 505
(FOLK 533, HSOC 505)
W 12:00-2:00
Instructor: Hufford
dhufford@psu.edu

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 folk medicine. The philosophical theoretical 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 the social sciences, history, philosophy, and the allied health professions and medicine.

Topics in American Religious History

Religious Studies 517
(AFAM 518)
R 3:00-5:00
Instructor: Callahan
ldcallah@sas.upenn.edu

Topic for Spring 2003: Martin Luther King, Jr.

This course is an exploration of the life, thought, and memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., through his own speeches and writings and the interpretation of his biographers. The course will have a historical approach; however, the theological, ethical, and social import of King’s life and teachings in context will be considered.

Studies in Medieval Jewish Culture

Religious Studies 523
(AMES 541, HIST 523, JWST 523)
M 2:00-5:00
Instructor: Fishman
tfishman@sas.upenn.edu

Topic for Spring 2003: “Custom: Ritual and Performance in Medieval Jewish Culture”

Bringing contemporary writings in ritual theory and performance theory together with rabbinic texts from the geonic period and the European Middle Ages, this seminar will examine articulations of the relationship between law and custom, and changing Jewish attitudes toward custom (including the rise in its legal status in medieval Ashkenaz). It will also explore the evolution of particular customs within a cross-cultural context, and reflect on changes in their social and religious meanings.

Primary source readings from a broad array of medieval Jewish genres. Reading knowledge of Hebrew
texts required. Undergraduates must have instructor’s permission.

Postmodern Religious Thought

Religious Studies 538
M 2:00-4:00
Instructor: Wallace
mwallac1@swarthmore.edu
Distribution II: History and Tradition

Is religious belief possible in the absence of a “transcendental signified?” Some commentators have argued there is little possibility for dialogue between postmodernism and theology, while others envision postmodernism or deconstruction as potential allies of religious thought and commitment. Recently, Jacques Derrida has written that deconstruction is best understood not as a weapon in the war against faith but as an exercise in philosophical hygiene that pursues theology of its desire for metaphysical security. In a move similar to Karl Barth’s early 20th century theology, Derrida calls for the preservation of the freedom of God beyond metaphysics, to liberate religious thought from its “philosophical ego” in order to set free “a faith lived in a venturous, dangerous, free way,” as he puts it. If Derrida’s perspective is viable, could postmodernism be understood today as a resource both for criticizing the nostalgia for unmediated presence in theology, on the one hand, and for articulating the possibility of God without the security of a philosophical foundation, on the other? Topics for this seminar will include metaphysics and theology, the death of God, apophatic mysticism and deconstruction, interreligious dialogue, erasure of the stable self, ethics without foundations, naming God as woman, breakdown of metanarratives, and the question of God beyond Being. Readings will include primary source material authored by Kierkagaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Barth, Nishitani, Levinas, Derrida, Kristeva, Irigaray, and Girard.

Media and Religion in South Asia

Religious Studies 568
(RELS 268. SARS 208)
TR 3:00-4:30
Instructor: Novetzke
cln@sas.upenn.edu

If the course is taken on the 500 level, additional work will be required.

Seminar in Judaism and/or Christianity in he Hellenistic Era

Religious Studies 735
(JWST 735)
Instructor: Kraft
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upnn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html
Permission needed from instructor

Topic for Fall 2002 and Spring 2003: "Parabiblical Literature"

Prerequisite: Knowledge of Hellenistic Greek is required.
Online course materials can be accessed through the instructor’s home page.

Latin Palaeography

Religious Studies 736
(HIST 736)
M 3:00-5:00
Instructor: Matter/ Waldman
amatter@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Class will meet in Van Pelt Library, Rm. 303

This course will introduce students to the basics of working with medieval manuscript materials. Students will learn to identify and read the major hands of the west. Attention will be given to problems of codicology and textual editing such as describing a manuscript, tracing provenance in medieval and modern manuscript catalogues and lists, and diplomatic and critical editing. Guest speakers will describe the manuscript archives of various European countries. Although the focus of the course will be on Latin texts, there will also be opportunity for students to work in medieval vernacular hands. Use will be made of the manuscripts in the Annenberg Rare Book Library at Penn.

Independent Study - Graduate

Religious Studies 999
Time and topic arranged
Instructor: Staff
Rstudies@sas.upenn.edu

Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.

Department of Religious Studies Course Offerings: Spring, 2003

Department of Religious Studies
Course Offerings: Spring, 2003