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Course Descriptions
- RLGS 1101 Religious Lives: Jesus (4 credits)
- This is an introductory course to the academic study of religion, focusing on Jesus
of Nazareth. Because Jesus did not pen any writings of his own, we must attempt to
discern his religious sensibilities by attending to the impressions he made on his
earliest followers. Early memories about Jesus came to be enshrined in numerous religious
texts, including the "gospels." The gospels are not biographies in the modern sense;
therefore, we must follow clues and draw conclusions from texts that were not interested,
primarily, in objective, non-partisan, historical description. Rather, they sought
to underscore the ultimate meaning and significance of Jesus' life for individuals
and communities who identify with him. This course, then, constitutes both an introduction
to Jesus' life and teaching and an entree to the study of religious texts, their contexts,
the context in which they were produced, their use by readers for whom they are authoritative,
and the potential they hold for historical reconstruction.
- RLGS 2001 Theory & Method for Rlgs Stds (4 credits)
- This course provides a historical and theoretical introduction to issues, thinkers,
and texts in the academic study of religion. Topics covered include the development
of religious studies as distinct from Christian theology; definitive questions and
problems within the discipline; and the study of religions in relation to race, class,
and gender realities.
- RLGS 2101 Exploring Religion in America (4 credits)
- What do Americans believe? Is there a singular religion, or set of religious beliefs
that bind together the varieties of American faith traditions and ethnic cultures
into a common national identity? E pluribus unum - from the plurality a unity is formed
- is one of three official mottoes adapted in 1782 to define and represent the U.S.
To what extent is this true, both today and in the past? Americans are faced with
the difficult task of creating a harmonious society from the encounter, repulsion,
and attraction of discrete civilizations. At the vanguard of modern republican democracy,
the U.S. is the central playing field upon which cultural/religious pluralism is negotiated,
defined, and legislated. The course explores the evolution of the American nation
as a pluralistic belief or faith community and explores the meaning and potential
for a singular national religious community.
- RLGS 2102 Judaism, Christianity & Islam (4 credits)
- This course introduces students to the three major monotheistic religious traditions:
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the process of tracing the long and rich histories
of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we examine the beliefs and practices that became
central and definitive for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We begin with the ancient
heritage of each religion (scriptures; founders; early institutions). Then we explore
how these foundational traditions were preserved and re-invigorated in response to
centuries of social change and critical moments of political upheaval. Most significant,
in this regard, is the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim encounter with their respective
holy Scriptures - as generation after generation of adherents have attempted to understand
the revealed words of God, to proclaim their continual relevance for all places and
all times, and to inscribe them upon their bodies and hearts through prayer, worship,
and daily life.
- RLGS 2103 Religions of China & Japan (4 credits)
- This is an introduction of some of the major East Asian religious and ethical traditions,
focusing on Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto. By examining both translations
of sacred texts as well as scholarly analyses, we explore the basic ideas, practices,
and historical development of these varied and interconnected traditions. Special
attention is paid to how people incorporate East Asian religious and ethical ideas
and beliefs into contemporary life and how gender shapes the experience of religion.
- RLGS 2104 The Bible as Literature (4 credits)
- This course is an analytical/critical study of selected books of the Bible with an
emphasis on its literary qualities, genres and influence. We read the Bible, one of
the most important works in all of Western culture, as a masterpiece of literature.
Rather than focusing on theological questions about this work as inspired scripture,
we instead focus on its rich literary qualities and explore some ways in which these
stories have influenced modern society. Reading select passages, we discuss its literary
genres, forms, symbols and motifs, many of which are important in modern literature,
such as hero stories, origin stories, parables, apocalyptic literature, the loss of
Eden and the Promised Land.
- RLGS 2105 Works and Lives (4 credits)
- This course is an introduction to the study of religion through the examination of
religious works and lives. For purposes of our exploration, we think of religion as
a system of relationships between major ideas and everyday life practices that orients
people to a view of the whole of existence. "Works" is a term that covers two major
aspects of religions: rituals and moral codes. The term "works" has to do with behaviors,
whether they are the behaviors involved in a specifically religious situation (often
rituals), or the behaviors in everyday life that are addressed by religious commands
and prohibitions (often morals). We also consider stories of lives and guidelines
for "lives." Some of these lives are clearly related to daily life within the religious
traditions. Some are stories of lives that seem utterly fantastic. We question why
such lives are written, what the reader can take from them, and what points they might
make.
- RLGS 2106 Religs & Social Justice:Vienna (4 credits)
- This special travel course provides an opportunity for students to learn how certain
major religions are globally engaged in the promotion of social justice through humanitarian
relief work and cultural exchanges. In addition to a brief survey of the historical
relationship between the beliefs, teachings, and social practices of the major Western
traditions, the course offers hands-on experience and interaction with Jewish, Catholic,
and Protestant relief agencies as well as other non-governmental organizations in
Vienna, Austria, which has become the international center for UN-directed human services
and humanitarian relief efforts as well as global headquarters for leading NGOs. Students
discover how the culture, history, and geography of Vienna have nurtured the vast
global human services "economy" to which these religious organizations contribute
and which are built around the work of the United Nations.
- RLGS 2107 Culture/Conscience in Vienna (4 credits)
- This study-abroad course focuses on the cultural and social history of the city of
Vienna as the hub of politics, culture, and religion for Central Europe with special
attention to its religious heritage as the seedbed for its rich cultural traditions.
The course examines how its religious heritage, particularly Judaism, shaped its rich
cultural heritage and the birth of modernism.
- RLGS 2108 Islam in the United States (4 credits)
- A historical introduction to the presence of Islam and Muslims in the United States,
from an examination of the first Muslims in North America, to the substantive influence
of the minority Indian evangelical Ahmadiyya movement, to Islam in African American
communities; and contemporary Muslim communities in the U.S. and the ways in whcih
ritual and faith are today developing with "American" accents.
- RLGS 2109 Religions of Tibet (4 credits)
- This course explores the religious terrain of Tibet by looking at the historical and
cultural development of the four main Tibetan Buddhist traditions: Nyingma, Sakya,
Kagyu and Geluk, as well as the indigenous religion called Bon. Topics include the
sacred landscape of Tibet; key doctrinal features; cultural artifacts like sacred
biographies, art, and poetry; the 20th century spread of Tibetan Buddhism from the
Himalayas to North American communities; and the future of Tibetan Buddhism in exile;
China and the West.
- RLGS 2110 Buddhism in the U.S.A. (4 credits)
- Exploration of different viewpoints on complex issues related to the assimilation,
acculturation and reinvention of Asian Buddhist traditions both locally and globally
in the past one hundred and fifty years. Students consider the "two-way traffic" between
recent developments in various traditions of newly Americanized Buddhism and their
respective cultures of origin through the processes of globalization and transnationalism.
- RLGS 2201 Hebrew Bible (4 credits)
- The legacy of the Hebrew Bible has been great for both western and world culture.
In this course, we read the books of the Hebrew Bible critically as literature, as
religious text and as a course of sociological knowledge. The students gain a general
overview of the narrative and historical development of the text while simultaneously
being introduced to the various modes of biblical interpretation. Emphasis is placed
on situating the literature and religious expression of the Bible within its ancient
Near Eastern milieu.
- RLGS 2202 New Testament (4 credits)
- Origins of the Christian movement and development of its beliefs, practices, and institutions
in the first century. Primary source is the New Testament, with due attention to non-Christian
sources from the same environment.
- RLGS 2401 Social Justice in Global Cntxt (4 credits)
- Theories of social justice, beginning with the ancient Hebrews and Greeks and running
up through the modern era. The religious sources of these ideas, drawn primarily from
the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are profiled.
- RLGS 2501 Islam on Film (4 credits)
- This course uses the medium of film to introduce students to the history, faith, practice,
culture(s), and politics of Islam. Focusing on feature films and documentaries, it
employs film to open up a broad spectrum of questions relating to personal piety,
gender equity, generational conflicts, social class, governmental repression, and
ritual practice. Proceeding thematically along a broad historical frame, the course
focuses on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, presenting a balanced
picture of life in Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority countries and highlighting
the complex picture of Muslim life today.
- RLGS 3001 Judaism (4 credits)
- A literary and historical journey through Judaism. This course examines the "Jewish
story" from its roots to its modern-day manifestations, focusing on select, classic
Jewish texts in their historical contexts. From them, students will explore Jewish
tradition and practice and will actively engage with and in the vivid interpretive
imagination of the authors of Judaism throughout the ages.
- RLGS 3151 Dead Sea Scrolls (4 credits)
- Dead Sea Scrolls in their historical, literary and religious context in English translation,
together with some relevant scholarly research.
- RLGS 3192 Christian Classics (4 credits)
- Reading and discussion of influential historic books pertaining to Christian life
and devotion.
- RLGS 3203 Christianity (4 credits)
- RLGS 3204 Christianity in British Isles (4 credits)
- A study of Christianity in the British Isles -- its origins, earliest forms of expression,
reformation, and subsequent development -- approached as a distinct chapter in the
history of religion.
- RLGS 3212 Development of New Testement (4 credits)
- Using a variety of critical methods, this course explores the social, political, and
religious influences that shaped the New Testament as it was written, copied, edited,
canonized, and translated into its current forms. Students will perform a variety
of exercises in class to illustrate the complicated process by which the New Testament
was formed.
- RLGS 3300 Psychology of Religion (4 credits)
- Beliefs, feelings and actions representing human religious response of experience;
function of religion in individual life.
- RLGS 3302 Islamic Fundamentalism (4 credits)
- This course examines the rise and appeal of Islamic Fundamentalism. Why and when did
the fundamentalist movements begin? Why do many Muslims find the fundamentalist movements
appealing? In documenting the growth and appeal of fundamentalist religious tenets
among segments of the Islamic community, it becomes apparent that the fundamentalist
enterprise has become or seeks to be a potent force on the geo-political stage. The
course also compares and contrasts the diverse movements. It will be argued that there
are more differences than similarities between the fundamentalist movements. No prior
knowledge of Islam is required.
- RLGS 3315 Rlgn & Moral Psychology (4 credits)
- Philosophical foundations and research strategies of psychological studies of moral
thought; Aristotelian, Kantian and utilitarian thought included, as well as religious
dimensions of morality.
- RLGS 3318 Jesus on the Silver Screen (4 credits)
- RLGS 3350 Culture, Psyche, and Religion (4 credits)
- RLGS 3370 Freud, Psychology, & Religion (4 credits)
- Readings, discussion, and papers help students learn about the life, intellectual
and social environment, and clinical and theoretical work of Sigmund Freud. Attention
is given to the influence of Freud's work on the understanding of religion at the
beginning of the 21st century.
- RLGS 3381 Religion & Psychobiography (4 credits)
- Use of different psychological theories to understand life and religious experience
of individuals known through historical records.
- RLGS 3400 Philosophy of Religion (4 credits)
- Inquiries into nature of religion, religious experience, language, methods of thinking.
- RLGS 3452 Political Theology (4 credits)
- RLGS 3460 Nietzsche & the Death of God (4 credits)
- This course will involve an intensive reading and discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche's
'Thus Spake Zarathustra,' together with relevant associated materials, especially
'The Gay Science.'
- RLGS 3465 Derrida and Postmodernism (4 credits)
- RLGS 3475 Deleuze and Semiotics (4 credits)
- Examines the development of the thought of the famous French postmodern thinker Gilles
Deleuze with special attention to his cultural and semiotic theory to the degree that
it is relevant to the philosophy of religion. The course also investigates how Deleuze's
work has shaped, and is beginning to push in new directions, contemporary postmodern
philosophy. Prerequisite: must be at least junior standing and have completed at least
two undergraduate courses in philosophy.
- RLGS 3500 Islam (4 credits)
- Introduction to the history, faith, practice, culture(s), and politics of Islam, starting
with the Judeo-Christian Near Eastern context in which it emerged and tracing its
theological development and geographic spread around the world. Proceeding thematically
along a broad historical frame, the course ends with an examination of the numerous,
often competing, trends in contemporary Muslim communities.
- RLGS 3501 Pilgrimage in Islam (4 credits)
- Introduction to the ideas and practices of pilgrimage in Islam, focusing on the hajj
as Islam's paradigmatic form of pilgrimage and the one to which all others are compared,
but also considering other local or "lesser" pilgrimages, often known as ziyarat or
visits. The course excavates the history of the practice of pilgrimage, situating
it within the social, political, economic and cultural contexts that have helped frame
Muslims' understandings of the spiritual and social meanings of various kinds of pilgrimages
at different times and places across the Muslim world. The course includes consideration
of the hajj experiences of non-Arab Muslims through documentary and news programs,
investigates contemporary re-thinkings of the meaning of "hajj", and reflects on the
key geo-political and religio-political issues that may surround Muslim pilgrimage
in the 21st century.
- RLGS 3502 Muslim Modernities (4 credits)
- This course introduces students to the broad array of approaches to and practices
of Islam around the world in the contemporary era. It considers changes that relate
to political systems and forms of governance, styles of education, labor and professional
work, changes in daily life habits such as timing and organization, changes in gender
relations, and changes in ordinary believers' relationships with religious authority
figures. It also pays attention to the ways in which faith and practice are articulated
through cultural practices like pop music and film.
- RLGS 3503 Quran and Hadith (4 credits)
- This writing-intensive course introduces students to the key texts of Islam - the
Qur'an and hadith - including their origins and meaning as well as how they have been
interpreted by Muslims over time, and focusing on case studies that highlight issues
of crucial relevance for today and the future. No prerequisites.
- RLGS 3604 Faith & Ethics-Rlgn Biography (4 credits)
- Modes of reconciling private (faith) and public (ethics) in thought and careers of
selected modern individuals.
- RLGS 3641 Religion and Race in America (4 credits)
- Explores the relationship between racism and religious activism by focusing on the
biographies of activists.
- RLGS 3680 American Religious Experience (4 credits)
- RLGS 3693 Religion and the Media (4 credits)
- Interactions between religion and all forms of communications media in American life.
- RLGS 3701 Topics in Religious Studies (4 credits)
- RLGS 3740 Bodies and Souls (4 credits)
- This course examines the unique place of the body in biblical religion. We ask how
the Bible and its interpreters have shaped current views on sex and the gendered body
in Western society. How has the Bible been (mis)used in relation to current understandings
of the physical body? Is the saying that a "human" does not have a body, but is a
body as true for the Hebrew Bible as the Christian New Testament? How has Judaism
and Christianity (de)valued sexuality, procreation, and celibacy? How do the biblical
traditions shape our modern opinions about the ideal physical body and body modifications?
How can we understand "out-of-body" experiences and notions of death and afterlife
in Western religion? Students are encouraged to interpret the Bible and their own
beliefs from a uniquely embodied perspective.
- RLGS 3760 Globalization and Religion (4 credits)
- This course explores how religious movements around the world both affect, and are
affected by, the process of globalization. A major segment of the course is devoted
to various theories of globalization and how they account for the increasingly important
role of religion. Focus is largely on the relationship between Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam.
- RLGS 3813 Ritual (4 credits)
- Classical and contemporary theories about the meaning, functions, and processes of
ritual, and its relationship to "religion."
- RLGS 3814 Modern Hinduism (4 credits)
- Doctrines, practices and history of South Asian Hinduism; conceptions of Gods and
gods; image worship and temples; and the influences of caste and gender of the experience
of Hinduism.
- RLGS 3816 Hinduism Through Texts (4 credits)
- History of ancient and medieval Hinduism, viewed through the lens of religious texts.
- RLGS 3820 Buddhism (4 credits)
- Buddhist life and thought from origins to present in India, Tibet, Japan and China.
- RLGS 3890 Religion and Diaspora (4 credits)
- When forced to leave a homeland, displaced communities frequently turn to religion
to maintain identity and adapt to - or resist - new surrounding culture(s). This course
examines the role of religion and identity in three Jewish and Christian communities
living in diaspora and poses questions such as: What is the relationship between religion
and (home)land? How have the biblical themes of exodus, diaspora, promise and restoration
been applied to contemporary experiences? And how have our American stories been interpreted
through the lens of the Bible? As part of the service learning component, students
have the opportunity to work with religious and immigrant aid organizations in the
Denver community.
- RLGS 3891 Justice: Biblical Perspective (4 credits)
- This is a service learning course designed for Religious Studies undergraduate majors,
though non-majors are welcome to enroll.
- RLGS 3899 Intn'l Srvc Lrning Colloquium (4 credits)
- The colloquium is the service learning core of the Vienna faculty-led study abroad
program. Undergraduate students must sign up concurrently with RLGS 2401. In conjunction
with the colloquium, students perform a total of approximately 60-75 hours of service
learning as well as weekly "dialogue" sessions of two hours each. Dialogue sessions
focus among students on common experiences, insights, problems, and challenges they
have met in an intercultural and international service learning setting. A number
of these sessions are conversations with representatives of, or visits to, different
United Nations agencies of NGOs pertaining to social justice work and global issues.
Dialogue sessions are scheduled in accordance with the availability of personnel and
their relevance to the topic at hand.
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