Religious Studies

This course offers a practical and theoretical overview of the main meditation techniques. It focuses primarily on classical India, while also discussing contemporary forms of meditation and modern approaches to self-care. Topics include: the Yoga of Patanjali; Upanishads and the Samkhya philosophical school; Bhagavad Gita; Buddhist meditation-- Theravada, Mahayana, and Zen; modern meditation-- Nisargadatta Maharaj; meditation and the psychedelic experience.

The course introduces the concepts of textuality and method, studying classical definitions of theology from Gregory of Nyssa, Anselm and Aquinas through to, and concentrating on, more recent formulations of theology’s task from modern theologians such as Jurgen Moltmann, Elizabeth Johnson, and Willie James Jennings. The different methodological approaches to the study of religion and the different ways of conducting the task of theology are introduced. The course draws attention to patterns of continuity or discontinuity, agreement and conflict in the texts studied. The course trains students to integrate critical, conceptual and historical skills in the reading of theological texts.

This course offers an introduction to the history of women in medieval Islamic societies (600 - 1500 AD), through their experiences and representations in art and literature. The course aims at finding the boundaries that divided the worlds of women and men in the economic, legal, and spiritual spheres. It does so by looking at a variety of texts, including the Qur'an, Prophetic traditions, marriage contracts, travelers' accounts, and the tales of the Arabian Nights. By comparing sources from diverse cultural perspectives, students consider the development of a cultural, economic, legal, and spiritual female identity in the Middle Ages, and critically examine medieval and modern discourses on women and Islam.

Employing literary sources as well as inscriptions, funerary art and ancient iconography, and other archaeological finds, this course investigates the religious beliefs and practice of the various peoples and civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean from ancient Egypt to Imperial Rome, focusing on the study of ancient rituals (e.g., burial customs, animal and human sacrifice) and on Mediterranean myths and mythologies (e.g., dying-and-rising deities in Egypt, Syria and ancient Greece). Students reflect on the methodological challenges of studying ancient religions, focusing on the problem of interpreting fragmentary evidence, understanding ancient definitions of religion and magic, and distinguishing between private and public devotion in ancient societies. The course provides an opportunity to think about such questions as: "Did people in antiquity believe in their myths?",  "Why did the Egyptians mummify their dead?", "What is the significance of the ancient myths of Osiris, Gilgamesh and Baal?", and "Did the ancient Phoenicians and Carthaginians practice human sacrifice?"

This course surveys the topic of gods’ minds: how (we think) they think, what (we think) they want and know, and why they might matter for human relationships. Drawing from many fields including theology, philosophy, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, this course examines human fascination with the gods from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives.

This course examines both traditional and exoteric religious practices from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. 

The course explores the historic and contemporary links between religion and terror and helps students understand the complexity of religious violence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, especially in relation to terrorism and the so-called “war against terror.” The course addresses the re-emergence of religious nationalism and the threats it presents to modern states. The course investigates legal and other definitions of terrorism and the development of modern doctrines of terror. It examines topics such as religious motivation, and the justification and legitimization of the use violence in a number of major religious belief systems. It identifies the differences between mainstream and extremist teachings. It analyzes significant acts of religiously motivated violence, and explores background issues such as secularization, modernism and globalization, as well as more personal ones, such as the nature of religious conviction and its influence on behavior.

This course provides an an overview of the most influential philosophical traditions that originated in China and India and spread through Asia: Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.