RELIGION AND CULTURE
RLGN 101
T/TH: 10:00-11:15
Liang
This course introduces students to the study of religion by examining religious practices within a variety of cultural and historical contexts around the world. The course invites students to think comparatively and critically about the role of religion within broader cultural discourses (e.g., gender, politics, and the environment). Instead of surveying what were formerly called the "world's great religions," this course builds religious literacy by examining religious practices within particular geographical and thematic areas. Through comparative case studies drawn from a diverse range of "non-western" cultures, students will learn about religions and spiritualities across the globe. These cultural touchstones will build core literacy in other cultures, positioning students to engage more fully in the religious and cultural diversity that they will encounter in their own lives and careers. Alongside these geographic case studies, the course will also examine key themes in the study of religion, such as diasporic transnationalism, liberation theology, and ritual practice. We will use these themes to tease out and debate some of the core theoretical and methodological challenges in the study of religion, including postcolonial critiques of the origin and history of the field of religious studies itself. To be clear, religion is our subject, not our approach. Although students will find opportunities to reflect on their own spirituality/disbelief, the course does not presume any particular religious or non-religious perspective. Indeed, the study of religion is itself concerned not only with the world's religious traditions, but also with contemporary questions of skepticism, science, disbelief, and secularity. Evaluation will be based on class preparation and participation, regular short papers, a midterm exam, and a final take-home essay exam.
INTRODUCING ISLAM
RLGN 172
TH: 4:00-6:30
Islambouli
This "topics" course offers an introduction to the academic study of the beliefs, practices, sacred texts, and intellectual traditions of Islam. Whether approached through a particular theme or as a general historical introduction, each section of this course provides students with a general introduction to the academic study of religion and basic religious literacy in Islamic tradition, including investigations into how Muslim institutions developed in relation to diverse socioeconomic and cultural conditions, including Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Europe. Section topics could include, but are not limited to: Women and Gender, Faith, Politics, and Modernity, Pilgrimages, Prophecy, and Sacred Places. Students may repeat the course for credit (up to 6 credits), provided that the two sections are different.
RELIGION AND ECOLOGY
RLGN 206
TH: 4:00-6:30
Beal
Cross-religious and cross-cultural introduction to the interdisciplinary field of religion and ecology. Ecological ideas and practices from Indigenous religions, South and East Asian religions, and monotheistic religions will be examined and compared as they relate to ecology and environmental ethics in our contemporary context. Themes include: climate crisis and climate justice in the Anthropocene, human exceptionalism, ideas of the wilderness, human-animal relations, and ecological interdependence.
HINDUISM
RLGN 216
T/TH: 1;00-2:15
Sarma
We will survey the basic beliefs and practices of Hinduism(s) as found in India and across the world, with an emphasis on primary sources and contemporary complexities. The class will focus on the religion(s) of cultures outside the United States. It will address in a substantive way ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, or other cultural practices outside the United States, so as to provide students with fresh perspectives on their own cultural assumptions, traditions, and experiences. Our study will range from close readings of classical texts, to observing and reflecting on contemporary practices and movies, to careful study of images and artifacts on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art. We will apply a variety of methods and tools to investigate class materials, from a number of different disciplines, including sociology, history, theology, anthropology, and psychology. Students will build a very strong foundation in the primary sources in this class.
JEWISH ART AND ARCHITECTURE
RLGN 220
M/W: 3:20-4:35
Cooper
Over the course of their long history, Jews have contended with diaspora, boundary-crossing, minority status and anti-Semitism. Along the way, art and architecture have given shape to Jewish reflections on their complex social positionalities, ethical convictions, and religious longings. This course explores the critical role architects and Jewish artists have played in narrating and giving expression to these experiences. Critically, we will also examine the powerful position that artists of Jewish heritage have had in influencing the the course of modern art. Finally, we will study the ways in which Jews have been represented by others, both in anti-Semitic propaganda as well as in more sympathetic portraits, shaping popular ideas and attitudes about Jews and Jewish culture. Offered as ARTH 220, JDST 220, and RLGN 220.
WORLD CHRISTIANITY
RLGN 242
T: 4:00-6:30
Tan
This course introduces students to the academic discipline of World Christianity, with a focus on diversity and plurality within the Christian tradition as a world religion. Students will explore the global perspectives of Christianity, in recognition of the fact that more than two-thirds of the world's Christian population today are from the Majority or Two Thirds World, the so-called Global South. Students will also consider the challenges posed by, as well as the possibilities offered by the increasing diversity and plurality within the Christian tradition, as they examine the wider social, cultural, ethical, economic, and political dimensions of Christianity, and themes of community-making, identity constructions, and social movements in regions beyond Europe and North America, through both historical and contemporary perspectives. Students will also investigate the impact and implications of missionary expansion, religious reception, colonialism and imperialism, globalization, transnational migration, postcolonialism, and multiple belonging on the transformation of Christianity from a Eurocentric religious tradition to a truly global world religion.
BOLLYWOOD AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: CONTEMPORARY BOLLYWOOD MOVIES WITH A SOCIAL MESSAGE
RLGN 243
T/TH: 11:30-12:45
Sarma
India, where over-the-top, melodramatic films dominate, produces more than 1,000 films a year. With lavish action sequences punctuated by periodic songs in picturesque locales, these films, popularly referred to as Bollywood, traditionally have been known for depicting imaginary worlds, very far from reality. Among these are movies that are deeply immersed in issues of religion, religious conflict, caste, and social injustice. These issues range from ones concerning purity and the class system and Hindu-Muslim conflict, to women's rights and human trafficking. This class will be looking at a number of Bollywood films with focal points of matters pertaining to social justice. Students will learn about the foundations of these inequalities and intolerances so that they can more completely understand the themes addressed in the movies. The class will thus focus on the religion(s) of cultures outside the United States. It will address in a substantive way ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, or other cultural practices outside the United States, so as to provide students with fresh perspectives on their own cultural assumptions, traditions, and experiences. Offered as ETHS 243 and RLGN 243.
GHOSTS, ZOMBIES, AND MONSTERS: WHAT WE FEAR AND LOATHE IN RELIGIONS
RLGN 244
T/TH: 1:00-2:15
Liang
Our religious imaginations are constantly haunted by myriad frightening and loathsome beings. In this class, we will explore the many ways in which ghosts, zombies, and monsters have symbolized and personified the issues, concerns, hopes, and fears that have shaped our lives. Combining the two threads of eschatology (theological considerations about death and "the end") and monster theory, it brings to the fore what is commonly demonized, marginalized, or unseen in religious traditions across the globe and asks what it is about the ghosts, zombies, and monsters that appalls and arrests us. To understand the diverse cultural traditions and their imagination of ghosts, zombies, and monsters, the majority of the course content is dedicated to these fearsome beings in Asian contexts -- China, Japan, Tibet, Thailand, to name a few. Offered as ASIA 244 and RLGN 244.
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY IN CHINA
RLGN 253
T/TH: 10:00-11:15
Tan
This course critically examines the three principal religious and philosophical traditions of China: the Confucian, Daoist, and Chinese Buddhist traditions. Through a combination of assigned print and online readings, video clips and documentaries, class discussions, and written assignments, students explore the origins and historical developments, principal thinkers, central religious and doctrinal themes, ethics, spirituality, popular devotions, social movements, and contemporary developments of these three major religious and philosophical traditions of China. Students will consider the wider social, cultural, ethical, economic, and political dimensions of Chinese religions and philosophies generally, and themes of community and society, identity constructions, personal experiences, movements, as well as their socio-cultural reproductions in contemporary China, and where appropriate, the Chinese Diaspora in North America. Offered as CHIN 253C, ETHS 253C, PHIL 253 and RLGN 253.
THE CRUSADES
RLGN 319
M: 5:30-8:00
Haydar
This course is a survey of the history of the idea of "crusade," the expeditions of Western Europeans to the East known as crusades, the Muslim and Eastern Christian cultures against which these movements were directed, as well as the culture of the Latin East and other consequences of these crusades. Offered as HSTY 319 and RLGN 319.
AFROFUTURISM AND THE BLACK IMAGINARY: LEGACIES AND FUTURES
RLGN 365
T/TH: 11:30-12:45
Berger
This course explores the theoretical, literary and cultural expressions of Afrofuturism. The term Afrofuturism was developed in 1993 by scholar Mark Dery and is an all-encompassing term used to describe creative work - literature (especially science fiction), music, art - that focuses on Afro-diasporic ways of being and knowing. The course explores the multiple meanings and expressions of Afrofuturism and how it expands various literary traditions. Traditional speculative fiction canons have often distorted and/or erased the existence of people of color in the future. This course recenters these experiences. Readings will delve into the legacies of slavery, colonialism, entrenched inequalities to understand their impact on real and imagined technological futures. Students will spend time exploring how Afrofuturist writers and cultural workers imagine new possibilities that expand our sense of liberation and justice. Recommended preparation: Academic Inquiry Seminar (AIQS) or SAGES First Seminar. Offered as AFST 365F, ENGL 365F, ETHS 365F, RLGN 365F, WGST 365F and WLIT 365F.
JEWS UNDER CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM
RLGN 371
M/W: 12:45-2:00
Geller
This course examines the social and political status of Jews under Muslim and Christian rule since the Middle Ages. Themes include interfaith relations, Islamic and Christian beliefs regarding the Jews, Muslim and Christian regulation of Jewry, and the Jewish response. Offered as HSTY 371, JDST 371 and RLGN 371.