Department of Religious Studies
Course Offerings: Spring, 2000
Hinduism, Buddhism, Tanism, Conflicianism, and Shinto - the essential beliefs, doctrines, institutions, and practices of the major religious traditions (or traditional world views) of Southern and Eastern Asia. Historical backgrounds and development wi ll 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 b e 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. Gptional paper. In-class midterm and final examinations.
Introduction to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: the three major traditions that originated in the Middle East. Attention to sacred scriptures, historical development, and modern expressions. This course will make use of a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, including film and the resources of the World Wide Web. There will be an email/internet component to the course requirements.
One debate that has raged since the late 19th century pits those who believe that the universe was created by God against those who subscribe to the scientific theory that all life has evolved from microorganisms. This seminar uses that debate in order to explore different ways is which people interpret their lives and world. Our emphasis will be upon understanding the conceptual foundations of different positions in this debate rather than upon the history of the debate or the scientific details of th eories of evolution. (BIO 230 is not a prerequisite!) Likewise, students will not be expected to take a side in the debate, but simply to dig out the presuppositions and ramifications in the various positions. Again, the course is about interpretation, and the test case for this semester is conflicting interpretations of creation and the theory of evolution.
Requirements: one 7 page paper, one 10 page paper.
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 work ed 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 tr aditional 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 attemp t 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.
One of the great triumphs of the last century and a half, has been the rediscovery of the ancient civilizations of what is now the Middle East. Some of these, like ancient Egypt, are household names. Others, though less known, still offer valuable cont ributions to our understanding of historical, cultural, and religious milleux which eventually gave rise to a number of faiths, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
The course will survey the religions of the ancient Middle East, situating each in its historical and socio-cultural context and focusing on the key issues of concern to humanity: creation and birth, the place of humans in the order of the universe, de ath and destruction. The course will cover not only the better-known cultures from the area, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, but also some lesser known traditions, such as those of the Hurrians, or of the ancient Mediterranean town of Ugarit. Religion will not be viewed merely as a separate, sealed-off element of the ancient societies, but rather as an element in various cultural contexts - for example, the relationship between religion and magic and the role of religion in politics will be recurring topics in the survey. Background readings for the lectures will be drawn not only from the modern scholarly lite rature, but also from the worlds of the ancients themselves in the form of their myths, rituals, and liturgies. Course assessment will be based on midterm and final examinations.
Religious systems, beliefs, practices and experiences are given divers representations in film. In this seminar, we will study some of these representations, with particular attention to critical issues in the interpretation of both religion and film, and references to major themes in the relevant religious traditions and literatures. Among the films we may consider for Spring 2000, are The Name of the Rose, The Education of Duddy Kravitz, Agnes of God, The Seventh Seal, The Last Temptation of Christ, Hester Street, Little Buddha, The Handmaid's Tale, Wituess, The Mission and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Introduction to the different ways in which religion is represented in film. Attention to references to major themes in relevant religious literatures, cinematic techniques, and critical issues in the interpretation of both religion and film. Although most films deal with only one religious tradition, the selection of films will always include at least two traditions.
Topic: Modern Cross-Cultural Religious Thought
This course introduces the student to contemporary religious and philosophical thought from around the world. The authors studied critically engage the question of Euro-American modernity and the role of alternative traditions in the contemporary discu ssion. From the treatment of religion and postmodernism found in the work of Mark C. Taylor to that of "nothingness" in the work of the Kyoto School of Zen Buddhism's Keiji Nishitani, the course will explicitly engage in a multi-cultural dialogue. The juxtaposition of issues raised by each thinker will in turn shed light on the varying concerns and orientations in a pluralistic encounter. There are no pre-requisites.
This course is designed to discover Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish ethics, their contribution to the values and practices of the citizenry, as they relate in creative tension, competitive values, or confficts of interest with contemporary medical, le gal, educational, and social questions bearing upon such personal, interpersonal, and social issues as sex, abortion, euthanasia, marriage, divorce, child abuse, civil rights, care of the dying, fetal research, test tube babies, political conscience, war and peace. Students will be able to work through their own understanding of a critical issue through the development of a problem-oriented paper bearing down upon the perspectives and teachings of Jewish ethics in relation to an ethical problem, or an ind ividual Judeo-Christian ethicist in relation to a moral problem.
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. The course examines magic as it once was, explores the rise of science in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, looks at Mesmerism and thesophy within the framework of radical political movements culminating in the rise of Fascism, and for twentieth century America explores the nature of post-War Big Science and various anti-science movements. No prerequisites.
Survey of major periods of development of mystical speculation and experience within Judaism. Mystical symbolism as a basis for thesophical interpretations of Torah, Immanentist theologies, mystical ethics. Types of experiences and practices which were cultivated by Jewish mystics in order to achieve intimate communion with the Divine and to facilitate a sacred transformation of themselves and the world. Includes "Riders of the Chariot," the Zohar (Book of Splendor), Lurianic Kabbalah, Hasidism.
In this course we will be reading works that represent very different formulations of Jewish identity. Readings will include selections from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, Josephus, philosophical texts of the Medieval period as well as works that deal with modern conceptions of the Jewish people, including works of the Jewish Enlightenment and of the Labor Zionist movement, and of the American Jewish and Israeli literature. The course will focus on explicit and implicit formulations of the Jews/H ebrews/Israelis as a people with a distinct identity. Special attention will also be paid to the manner in which these literary, religious and philosophical works formulate such an identity.
A survey of the classical Christian traditions (Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicisim, Protestant groups). The basic perspective is phenomenological, but historical and folkloric considerations are also raised. Topics include the symbols of Christian faiths, p erspectives on human nature, and views of evil.
The transformation of the Middle East into an Islamic civilization and its historical development from the time of Mohammed to the establishment of Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires in the sixteenth century. Rise of Islam, the early Islamic empire, political fragrnentation and cultural continuity in Muslim societies from Spain to North India. Within this chronological and geographical framework we will focus on the role of Islamic thought, institutions, and identities in a limited number of particul arly revealing historical contexts. Primary sources in translation complement two course books.
Requirements: Take-home midterm, class presentation, and a final.
A comprehensive exploration of the Indian conceptions of Karma and rebirth and their roles and application in Indian history, culture, and religion.
An examination of the fundamentals of Buddhist thought and practice. In addition to reading and discussing selected primary Buddhist sources (in English translation), we shall review the history and development of Buddhism from its Indian origin throug h its spread to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan. Primary sources and historical materials will be supplemented by some ethnographic readings dealing with the actualities of Buddhist life in contemporary Southeast and East Asia . This course provides basic background for more advanced courses on Buddhism.
Ghosts, near-death experiences, faith healing, gospel music, angels, and apparitions of the Virgin Mary: a wide range of experiences, from the commonplace to the "never-did-you-see...," are studied as folk religion. These or similar forms are found in virtually every culture, yet they are frequently ignored in academic scholarship. In this class we will enco unter and explore some of these forms through written accounts, scholarly literature, popular media, documentary media and fieldwork.
This course will survey the archaeological history of the southern Levant (Israel, West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, southern Lebanon and Syria) from the early complex societies of the Chalcolithic through the demise of the biblical states of the Iron Age. It will focus in particular on the changing organization of society through time, using excavated evidence from burials, houses, temples and places to track changes in heterogeneity, hierarchy and identity. I n following the general themes of this course, students will have opportanity to familiarize themselves with geographical features, major sites and important historical events of the southern Levant. Class material will be presented in illustrated lecture s and supplemented by the study of artifacts in the University Museum's collections. Anyone interested in a better understanding of the land that has given us both the "Old Testament'/TaNaK and so much of our daily news, should find much of interest in th is course.
With an eye towards the recent eruption of renewed interest in these materials, which were discovered in the Judean desert over fifty years ago, we will explore the identification and history of the people responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls found nea r the ruins of Qumran, their institutions and religious life, in relation to other known Jewish groups at that time (the beginning of the common era). The focus will be on detailed description and analysis of the writings (in English translation) found in the caves around the sit3-sectarian writings, "Apocrypha" and "Pseudepigrapha," biblical texts and interpretations. Computer network access is essential.
Topic: Midrash and Folklore
The topic for the course this semester are points of intersection between Midrash and Folklore, with special emphasis on views of women and other suppressed/submerged topics in Rabbinic literature. No previous background in Midrash is required, but stu dents must be able to read an unpointed Hebrew text. Primary readings will be in Hebrew; secondary ones in English.
The relationship between religion and society in the Middle East is significantly different from other parts of the world, and especially from the West. It is perhaps the single most significant factor that distinguished the Middle East from other part s of the world. The study of this relationship is therefore an excellent way to enter the study of the Middle East in general. Since it is a relationship which anthropology specializes in, it is a particularly useflil anthropological gateway to religion.
This course is an introduction to the use of computers in the humanities and the effect of computer technology on humanistic thought and scholarship. Methodological issues such as the interplay between technological potential and ideals of humanistic research will be addressed, along with ethical/legal problems (e.g. copyright, fair use) and practical applications of various sorts. Students will learn whatresources are available and how to use them responsibly. Each student will develop a humanities project (e.g. a web site, new electronic texts, images, etc.) that can contribute to study in the student's major field. The class will utilize a combination of lectures, discussion, student presentations, and practical lab experience -- including a brie f introduction to simple programming concepts using JavaScript and Perl as well as an understanding of basic HTML for web applications and XML for advanced applications with textual markup.
Course web page: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~kbanner/rs302
Required for honors majors. See departrnent for section numbers
.Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.
A study of the various ways of interpreting religion as a phenomenon in human life. Analysis of the presuppositions involved in psychological, sociological, and phenomenological approaches. Authors include James, Weber, Freud, Otto, Eliade, and contemp orary writers offering historical, anthropological and philosophical perspectives.
An examination and discussion of the anthropological literature on religious conversion. Theories of conversion in different cultural contexts.
An introduction to the world and work of Augustine of Hippo approached by unfamiliar paths: letters, serrnons, controversial pamphlets. Augustine is too well known, even to people who have never read him. His Confessions and a handful of other widely-r ead works have decisively shaped an image of him that he would, by and large, be proud to recognize. The goal of this course is to approach Augustine without being dominated by his strategies of self-presentation. Provision will be made for students with good backgrounds in Latin to read texts in the original, but Latin is not required for the course,
This course is designed to present students with the vast amount of data regarding the relationship between the body and spirit in an attempt to break down the traditional dualism between them. Students who traditionally do not have access to such rese arch will explore the many aspects relating to the body and spirit. They will learn how to critically review research reports on topics related to body function and spiritual experience. Thus, they will learn what scientific modalities are currently avail able to study the relationship between the body and the spirit. They will also learn the limitations of these modalities and consider ways in which to improve them. Such modalities will include both the use of scientific measuring instruments, other measures related to spirituality and physiology, and study design. The course will explore the relationship between the brain, the mind, and spiritual experience and will consider the most up-to-date theories on their relationship. The course will challenge students to develop new approaches to their own fields of study so that they may utilize such knowledge in their future end eavors. Faculty will also be invited to attend so that those not typically in touch with existing scientific methods from the biological and health sciences may have access to the data.
An examination of theories concerning the origin and function of folk beliefs, and investigation of the expression of folk beliefs in legend, folk art, custom, and ritual. Ritual is the focal genre for explanatory purposes, and introduction to the soci al symbolic approach to analysis and interpretation is primary for exploration and application.
An etlinography of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its role today as an emerging world religion, and its historical origins as an American revitalization movement. Considers world view, social organizition, conversion, acculturation, life-course development, belief and disbelief, and the use of advanced technology in the administrative direction of the Church's culture. A research paper is required (20-25 page limit).
A survey of the known groups and perspectives that emerged in the first 150 years or so of the development of "Christianity" from its roots in Judaism and the heflenistic world(s), with special attention to the primary sources (especially literary) and to modern attempts at historical synthesis.
Topic: Durkheim and Durkheimians
This course will survey the archaeological history of the southern Levant (Israel, West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, southem Lebanon and Syria) from the early complex societies of the Chalcolithic through the demise of the biblical states of the Iron Age. It will focus in particular on the changing organization of society through time, using excavated evidence from burials, houses, temples and places to track changes in heterogeneity, hierarchy and identity. In following the general themes of this course, st udents will have opportunity to farniliarize themselves with geographical features, major sites and important historical events of the southern Levant. Class material will be presented in illustrated lectures and supplemented by the study of artifacts in the University Museum's collections.
This course focuses on social and cultural processes in those parts of the Middle East in which the majority of the population is Muslim (whether or not the respective national government is explicitly styled "Islamic Republic"). It deals with the basi c conditions of everyday life, and explores ideas and institutions that may distinguish these Middle Eastern societies from other parts of the world. Finally, it investigates how Islamic ways of thinking are reflected differently in the day-to-day life of culturally different communities in various parts of the Middle East from Morocco to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Selected recent anthropological monographs will be discussed.
Topic: Ritual Theory and Religious Activities in Hellenistic Egypt
Permission of instructors is required.
Online course materials can be accessed through the instructor's home page.
This course will teach advanced students the techniques needed to decipher western historical scripts dating from approximately 500 to 1500 CE. The focus will be on the scripts in which most of the extant manuscripts are written: Carolingian, Gothic, a nd Chancery hands. Students will also learn the basics of manuscript description, codicology and types of illumination, and will be introduced to some of the major maunscript repositories in Europe such as the Vatican Library, the British Library and the National Library in Paris. Working knowledge of Latin is required. The course will be taught in a workshop format, with weekly assigrunents from photocopy and microfilm. Each student will prepare a transcription as a fmal project.
Please obtain section numbers from the department office or from the faculty member with whom you will be working.
Please note: many of these offerings are cross-listed with other departments. Please consult the SAS Spring 2000 Course Roster for cross-listings.
