Religious Studies

This lecture analyzes the three basic factors that have influenced modern Jewish identity: enlightenement, anti-Semitism, and Zionism. It examines the changes of how Jewish identity is understood. A special focus is placed on the differentiation of cultural or national and religious identity with an emphasis on feminism and queerness. Gender relations are examined within their respective religious, cultural, and social contexts. Social history and the history of the common man is discussed and a special focus is placed on the active participation of Jewish women in society as well as the intellectual and artistic life within European nation states.

This course focuses on the role of women in five of the world’s major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It examines the traditional theological principles and the practical laws that have directly impacted, for better or for worse, upon the lives of women within these religious traditions. It also explores historical and contemporary challenges to doctrines and practices that are seen to undermine women’s equality and freedom. Rather than study each religion in serial fashion, the course adopts a comparative, thematic methodology, tracing key themes across the religions concerned. Those themes include femininity and divinity, historical founders’ attitudes to women, key scriptural texts and their interpretation, life-cycle rituals, marriage and divorce, sex and procreation, clothing and social freedom, worship and purity, and leadership and authority.

This course focuses on the influence of Islam in Southeast Asia. It examines how Islam as a religion, and a political one at that, has played a role in the development of countries such as Indonesia, Birma, the Philippines, and Thailand.

This course investigates the modern field of popular beliefs and practices known as 'new spiritualities'. It describes, contextualizes, and explains key features of this field with reference to their content and structure, and to its distribution in the population at large. The course focuses on new age and holistic expressions. It has three overall goals: to explore the theoretical value of studying new spiritualities, to explain their international/transcultural appeal for practitioners, and to critically assess their social, public, and political significance in modern societies.

Defining major concepts: African, indigenous, religions, development. Indigenous beliefs and practices, concepts of development. Attitudes towards African Indigenous Religions, knowledge systems and their roles in modern concepts of development. Impact and problems. Emerging trends: leadership systems e.g. priest and priestesses, Nkכsuoכhene, chiefs, queen-mothers and other traditional leaders and local government in relation to community development.