Degree Programs

AASR 30100. Anthropology of Christianity. 100 Units.

This seminar explores conversations and debates in the anthropological study of Christianity. What social institutions and cultural features distinguish Christianity as a particular religious tradition and moral authority? What difference does the study of Christianity make for the study of culture, society, and politics? These two questions prompt our course's consideration of Christianity's specificity (compared to other styles of organizing social and moral life) and the study of Christianity's contribution to more general categories of social scientific thought such as social structure, individualism, schism, political economy, mediation, and language ideology.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35040

AASR 30232. Sociology of Religion. 100 Units.

What is religion? How can religion be studied sociologically? How did religion's significance change as the world enters the modern age? What affects the different importance and position of religions in different societies? How do we account for the growth and decline of religious groups? What social factors and processes influence individuals' religious beliefs, commitments, practices, conversions, and switching? In what ways can religion impact economy, politics, gender, and race relations in modern times? These are the core questions that this course intends to deal with. The course is designed to cultivate in students an understanding of the distinctively sociological approach to studying religion and familiarize students with the important theoretical approaches as well as major findings, problems, and issues in the field.

Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 20232, SOCI 30232

AASR 30501. Magic, Science, and Religion. 100 Units.

The relationship between the categories of magic, science, and religion has been a problem for modern social science since its inception in the nineteenth century. In the first half of this course, we will critically examine some of the classical and contemporary approaches to these concepts. In the second half, we will explore a number of detailed historical and ethnographic studies about modern phenomena that call some of the fundamental assumptions behind these categories into question.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 28900, RLST 28900, ANTH 23906, HLTH 28900

AASR 32900. Classical Theories of Religion. 100 Units.

This course surveys the development of theoretical perspectives on religion and religions in the 19th and early-20th centuries, and the institutional and historical contexts within which they developed. Thinkers to be studied include Kant, Hume, Schleiermacher, Feuerbach, Marx, Muller, Tiele, Comte, Tylor, Robertson Smith, Frazer, Durkheim, Weber, Nietzsche, Freud, James, Otto, van der Leeuw, Boas, Radcliffe-Brown, Wach, and Eliade.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course fulfills the elective requirement for a new MAPSS concentration on the Formation of Knowledge https://ifk.uchicago.edu/mapss/. This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 35005, ANTH 35005, HREL 32900

AASR 33000. Problems in the Anthropology of Religion. 100 Units.

We examine some of the central problems in the anthropology of religion. Topics include: definitions of religion, belief, performativity, mediation, embodiment, power, ethics, and authority.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35051

AASR 33005. The Spirit of Reality TV in East Asia. 100 Units.

Over the last several decades, reality television has become a central ingredient in media diets all across the world. One can practically trace a line from early hits like Survivor and Big Brother, which were quickly formatted for global circulation, to the recent viral success of Squid Game, a fictionalized account of a death-game tournament that spawned its own reality show. Why do audiences everywhere find reality TV so entertaining? What moral lessons do viewers take away from these shows? And what might scholars learn by taking this popular aesthetic form, in all its cultural variation, seriously? This course brings together media studies, aesthetic criticism, area studies, and the sociology of religion to try to answer some of these questions. The course will help students to think about the moral and spiritual beliefs embedded in popular cultural forms, but also to understand how these forms are now circulated and consumed in our contemporary media environment and what they tell us about late-stage global capitalism. Course readings will introduce students to scholarship in television studies, aesthetic criticism, religious studies, and cultural studies, providing them with the necessary foundations to analyze reality TV from multiple disciplinary perspectives. We will also screen examples of reality TV and its offshoots, with a specific focus on East Asian shows and the competition or elimination format.

Equivalent Course(s): EALC 33005, RLST 27005, EALC 23005

AASR 33100. Problems in the Anthropology of Religion II: Anthropology and Theology. 100 Units.

This is the second half of a two-quarter sequence examining some of the key problems in the anthropology of religion. The topic for this quarter is anthropology's relationship with theology.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Problems in the Anthropology of Religion I, or by permission.
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35052

AASR 33404. Religion in Modern Iran. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 33704, ISLM 33404

AASR 34410. Anthropology of Religion I. 100 Units.

This course surveys various methods and topics in the study of religion in the social sciences. We will begin with social evolutionist models, moving to the interpretive cultural turn and genealogical approaches. Classic analytics raised in the field of anthropology include ritual and tradition, semiotics, arts and performance, embodiment, authority and agency. We will also engage recent debates around the sociology of conversion, secularisms, the idea of 'world religions', and politics of religious difference, religious violence and global religious movements.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35031, HREL 34410

AASR 34411. Anthropology of Religion. 100 Units.

How do anthropologists study religion? This course is an introduction to classic concepts that have defined the social scientific study of religion such as ritual, taboo, transcendence, embodiment, and enchantment. To grasp how fieldwork is paired with theory, we will engage ethnographic writings on Orthodox Christianity in northern Ethiopia, Afro-Caribbean Santería in Chicago, and Islamic jinn veneration in Delhi India. We will further examine various themes in the socio-cultural inquiry of contemporary religion including asceticism, sexuality, sectarianism, and political theology.

Instructor(s): A. Heo     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27650, ANTH 23911

AASR 35305. Anthropology of Food and Cuisine. 100 Units.

Contemporary human foodways are not only highly differentiated in cultural and social terms, but often have long and complicated histories. Anthropologists have long given attention to food. But, until quite recently, they did so in an unsystematic, haphazard fashion. This course explores several related themes with a view towards both the micro- and macro-politics of food by examining a range of ethnographic and historical case studies and theoretical texts. It takes the format of a seminar augmented by lectures (during the first few weeks), scheduled video screenings, and individual student presentations during the rest of the course.

Instructor(s): Stephan Palmie
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 25305, ANTH 35305, KNOW 25305

AASR 35500. Money and Morality. 100 Units.

In this course we will study anthropological perspectives on economic behaviors and the moral ideas that guide them. We will ask how material conditions and specific cultural contexts shape religious and moral attitudes towards the exchange of various things (e.g., human body parts, heirlooms, and commodity goods). This course will be of benefit to students interested in bringing the theoretical tools of economic anthropology to bear on the study of religious practice and ideology, as well as those more broadly interested in critical perspectives on capitalism and social theories of gift and commodity exchange. Students are expected to be adept at reading and applying social theory.

Instructor(s): Elham Mireshghi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment by Consent Only. Students must email the professor one to two paragraphs explaining how their academic interests and research relate to the course, and their level of preparedness to read and apply anthropological theory.
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35107, KNOW 35501

AASR 36311. Aspirations of Justice. 100 Units.

This class thinks through questions of what justice means, what justice promises, what justice betrays, and what possibilities for politics are opened by aspirations of justice at moments of radical rupture. It does so through a focus on critical conceptual terms that also become the frameworks for praxis and institutionalization after war/violence/trauma/revolution/colonialism/slavery/casteism: terms such as transition, transformation, restoration, reconstruction, and repair. The readings will be comparative but grounded out of South Africa's experience of transition from apartheid, a process that remains frictioned, fractured and far from finished. At the core of the class are two concerns. First: how does one think about non-retributive forms of justice, and what aporias of forgiveness lie at their core? Second, how do these imaginaries and forms of justice get constituted and instituted, out of different histories of foundational violence, different transitional processes, at different moments in time? How, in the process, do histories themselves get rewritten through a process of rewriting wrongs?

Instructor(s): Kaushik Sunder Rajan
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 26311, ANTH 36311, RDIN 22311, CRES 22311, CCCT 36311, CHSS 36311

AASR 37570. Bodies, Gifts, and Commodities. 100 Units.

This course presents a survey of anthropological theories of gifts and commodities and how they have been used to explain exchanges involving the human body. We will consider various forms of labor, including sex work and paid surrogacy, exchanges enabled by modern biotechnologies, such as organ and tissue donation, as well as other contexts where the body is objectified and fragmented, such as in the discovery and marketing of genetic materials and processes.

Instructor(s): Elham Mireshghi     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 25208, RLST 27570, GNSE 27570

AASR 38101. Iblis: Muslim Perspectives on the Devil. 100 Units.

This course examines a range of Muslim perspectives on the Devil. Is Iblis a personification of evil, an archetype of arrogant rebellion against divine command, a perfect monotheist and tragic lover of God, or an ally of humankind and teacher of freedom and creativity? Our readings will include selections from the Qur'an and hadith, Sufi poetry, modern political and theological writing, and others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28101, ISLM 38101

AASR 39700. Theological Genealogies of Modernity. 100 Units.

Narratives about the origins of modernity typically attribute a key role to religious and theological considerations, although their significance is understood in various ways. The different roles ascribed to religious factors most often relate to whether the emergence of Western modernity is imagined to be a story of progress or decline. This seminar will explore the general form of genealogical approaches to modernity and how they serve to vindicate or critique aspects of the present. Indicative sources are works by Löwith, Blumbenberg, MacIntyre, Merchant, Taylor, Milbank, and Gregory. We will consider such questions as the extent to which secular conceptions of history continue to draw upon covert theological principles; whether secular modernity lacks normative foundations; the nature of secularization and secularism; the historical relations between science and religion and their respective roles in the trajectory of the modern West.

Instructor(s): Peter Harrison (visiting fellow)     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates may enroll themselves after obtaining instructor permission.
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28710, RETH 39700, THEO 39700

AASR 40302. Islam and Modern Science. 100 Units.

Since the nineteenth century, the rise of the modern empirical sciences has provided both challenges and opportunities for Muslim-majority societies. In this seminar, we examine the epistemological, institutional, and biopolitical transformations that have come about in these societies through encounters with a range of natural and social scientific disciplines (astronomy, medicine, psychology, psychical research, psychoanalysis, eugenics, economics, sociology, anthropology, and others). Readings are from anthropology, history, and science studies.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 42520, KNOW 40302, ISLM 40302

AASR 40700. Religion and Economy. 100 Units.

The two main concepts driving our seminar are "religion" and "economy." Centered on theories proposed by Marx, Mauss, and Weber, we will explore how ethnographers engage concepts of value, charity, and profit toward comparative and global perspectives on religion and capitalism. Our aim is to decipher what work the concepts of "religion" and "economy" do in the argument and analysis of each text.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 42418

AASR 41300. Anthropology of History. 100 Units.

Anthropologists have long been concerned with the temporal dimension of human culture and sociality, but, until fairly recently (and with significant exceptions), have rarely gone beyond processual modeling. This has dramatically changed. Anthropologists have played a prominent role in the so-called "historic turn in the social sciences", acknowledging and theorizing the historical subjectivities and historical agency of the ethnographic "other", but also problematizing the historicity of the ethnographic endeavor itself. The last decades have not only seen a proliferation of empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated historical ethnographies, but also a decisive move towards ethnographies of the historical imagination. Taking its point of departure from a concise introduction to the genealogy of the trope of "historicity" in anthropological discourse, this course aims to explore the possibilities of an anthropology of historical consciousness, discourse and praxis - i.e. the ways in which human groups select, represent, give meaning to, and strategically manipulate constructions of the past. In this, our discussion will not just focus on non-western forms of historical knowledge, but include the analysis of western disciplined historiography as a culturally and historically specific form of promulgating conceptions of the past and its relation to the present.

Instructor(s): S. Palmié
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 41200, HIST 44901

AASR 41440. Fundamentalism. 100 Units.

Is fundamentalism a useful term that allows us to compare anti-modern movements across a range of religious traditions? Or is it a hopelessly problematic term that lumps together vastly different phenomena? This course will use the troubled career of "fundamentalism" as a window onto the modern history of religion-and the people who study it. We will begin by focusing on the origins of fundamentalism: as a description of the political mobilization of conservative Protestants in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. From there, we will broaden our perspective, considering how the term "fundamentalist" has been applied to Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu movements, as well as to secular phenomena like Marxism and nationalism. At each step of the way we will consider not only "fundamentalism" itself but also the people who study it and those who mobilize against it. Ultimately, we will ask: is fundamentalism an idea whose time has come again, or one whose time has come and gone?

Instructor(s): William Schultz     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 41440, RAME 41440, HIST 28006, HIST 38006, RLST 21440

AASR 42211. Spirits of Capitalism. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 42211

AASR 42214. Transnational Religious Movements. 100 Units.

This course examines the transnational reach of various religious traditions drawing mainly from literature in anthropology, history, and cultural studies. Topics that will be considered include diasporic nationalism, refugees and migrant communities, cultural politics of humanitarianism, and post-socialist capitalism.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 42214

AASR 42407. Comparative and Global Christianities. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 42407

AASR 42410. Material Religion. 100 Units.

This course examines approaches to the material study of religion. What are the gains of studying religion through bodily practices and sensory perceptions? How have various scholarly disciplines examined ritual art, objects, things and the organization of space and time? What analytic directions for understanding the social life of religion has a materialist orientation enabled? The course will include readings on mediation, technology and public culture.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLIT 42410

AASR 42501. Experiments in the Study of Religion, Solidarity, and Hope. 100 Units.

The title of this course takes its inspiration from the way Vincent Harding (UChicago PhD, 1965) described his monumental work of black history, There Is a River, which was produced, he writes, in the "creative tension" between his responsibility as a historian and his commitment to human liberation. What might it mean to begin the study of religion from this experimental space? This course begins with that question and proceeds to read recent works in and adjacent to religious studies that operate from a place of solidarity with liberation struggles and everyday resistance. We will consider a variety of approaches-oral history, speculative theory, ethnography, history from below-which will be supplemented by theories and methods deriving from social movements. Throughout, we will also consider the possibilities and limits of university-based scholarship in the struggle to create a more just society.

Equivalent Course(s): RAME 42500

AASR 42514. Witchcraft. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 42514, HREL 42514

AASR 42802. Ethnographies of the Muslim World. 100 Units.

n examination of contemporary theoretical issues in the anthropology of Islam through close readings of recent ethnographic monographs. Topics may include ethical self-formation, state-making, embodiment and the senses, therapeutic spiritualities, indeterminacy and religious aspiration, and globalization.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Class limit to 15 students
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 42802, ANTH 55030

AASR 42907. Contemporary Theories of Religion. 100 Units.

Despite its often and always prematurely announced demise, religion continues to play a fundamental role in our communal and individual lives. Yet the specific conditions of late modernity have sharpened the theoretical and methodological problems involved in thinking about "religion." In this course we will explore recent developments in the study of religion from the Marburg Declaration of 1960 to the present. Participants will attend to the recent history of the field, intellectually and institutionally; to the analysis of select theoretical developments in this period, their prospects, accomplishments, and challenges; and to the social location(s) of the study of religion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: HREL 32900 / AASR 32900 "Classical Theories of Religion"
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 42907, HREL 42907

AASR 42908. Moral Geographies. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 42445

AASR 43005. Is Modernity Disenchanted? 100 Units.

One of the dominant topoi in twentieth-century social science was what Max Weber famously called the "disenchantment of the world," the idea that with industrialization, the entrenchment of capitalism, the dominance of the modern bureaucratic state, and the rise of modern science, religion and "magicality" would gradually wither away. This course examines such arguments in relation to the pervasive evidence that magicality persists around precisely those sites most intimately associated with modernity's rationality and progress: the market, science and technology, and the state. Readings will be from anthropology, history, religious studies, and social theory.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Class limit to 15 students
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 43005

AASR 43202. Revelation or Revolution? The Question of Interior Worlds. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 43202, RAME 43202

AASR 43310. Feminism and Islamic Studies. 100 Units.

The goals of this course are three-fold: 1- To examine the (geo)politics of feminism as a Euro-American emancipatory project as it pertains to Muslim-majority societies; 2- to probe the conceptual work made possible by the categories of "woman" and "gender" as pioneered by feminist scholars specifically in relation to the history and anthropology of Islam; and 3- to study and evaluate self-consciously reformist projects engaging with the Islamic tradition in the modern period and the complexities of their relationship with Euro-American feminism. Rather than treating these goals in a strictly chronological manner, we will keep them in tension throughout the course.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): By permission only. Students should write a one-paragraph statement about why they would like to take this course and what kind of prior preparation they have.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 23010, ANTH 42450, GNSE 43310, ISLM 43310, RLST 23310

AASR 43500. Islamic Jurisprudence, Reason, and the State. 100 Units.

This course will explore social scientific approaches to the study of Islamic jurisprudence. We will be reading historical, legal, and anthropological literature on Islamic law, as well as introducing/revisiting anthropological theories of the state, public policy, governmentality and scientific knowledge production, in order to produce novel questions and analytics. Much of this work will be experimental and tentative as we collaboratively build on existing literature and supply our collective theoretical and conceptual toolbox.

Instructor(s): Elham Mireshghi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students must have familiarity with social scientific theory.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 42815, NEHC 43500, ISLM 43500

AASR 44400. Anthropology of Public Policy and Bureaucracy. 100 Units.

This course offers anthropological approaches to the study of policy formation and bureaucratic administration. We will take policy as an assemblage of actors, material things, ideas, and moralities that come together through at times ad hoc and contested processes, rather than coherent and pre-given administrative rules. We will also engage larger theoretical questions on modern governance, the violence and necessity of bureaucratic rational administration, and the role of objectivity and expertise in secular and religious forms of governance.

Instructor(s): Elham Mireshghi     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition the instructor for permission to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 44440, ANTH 44400

AASR 45000. Religion and Revolution. 100 Units.

Modern social and political theory emerged in a world wracked by revolutions. While religion has occupied a complicated place in modern revolutionary movements (and counterrevolutionary reaction) from the very beginning, it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that many theorists began to imagine religion as anything but an obstacle for radical political change. In this seminar, we consider theories of religion and revolution in light of historical studies of revolutionary movements around the world. On the side of theory, we will read selected texts from some or all of the following: Ibn Khaldun, Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Michael Walzer, David Scott. Our case-studies of revolutions may include Mesmerism in France, Voodoo in Haiti, Puritanism in England, and Shi'i Islam in Iran.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo, Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent only. To enroll, students must submit a one-page description of their interest in the course and prior preparation.
Note(s): Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 45000

AASR 46635. Liberatory Violence. 100 Units.

From 18th century slave rebellions in the Americas to 20th and 21st century anticolonial revolutions, oppressed peoples' struggles for liberation have often incorporated violent tactics, even against non-combatants. This course examines anticolonial violence in light of the work of the Martiniquan revolutionary Frantz Fanon and some of his interlocutors. We study specific freedom movements: Nat Turner's slave rebellion, the Haitian and Algerian revolutions against French colonialism, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers' mobilization against white supremacy and police violence, and the ongoing Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. Throughout, we will pay attention to how revolutionaries evaluated the place of violence in their own movements, including religious criteria for justifiable and unjustifiable use of force.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26635

AASR 48448. American Apocalypse: Visions of the End(s) of the World. 100 Units.

Apocalyptic thought and millenarian movements have had a powerful and enduring influence in the US. This course starts with the Millerite movement of the mid-19th century and moves through a number of case studies in the 20th century. We explore theories of the widespread appeal of apocalyptic thought in the US and interpretations of key sacred texts and recurring ideas that inform and shape the contours of debates about the end of the world. Given the significant role that Christianity has played in discussions about the nature of an imminent apocalypse in the US context, most of the examples will be from the Christian tradition. Theoretical approaches to millenarian movements, practices, and rhetoric, however, are drawn from multiple religious traditions. A number of themes will be examined including the language of violent endings alongside visions of peace and harmony in conceptions of the end, the tensions between human agency and divine action in hastening the apocalypse, and understandings of and interactions with "the world" in view of fervent hopes for and prophecies of its imminent demise, among other things.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 48448, RAME 48448, RLST 28448

AASR 49000. Secularism. 100 Units.

This seminar explores theories and ethnographies of secularism with an emphasis on the global reach of secular ideals and their various historical materializations. We will engage a wide range of topics such as tolerance and religious difference, the legal regulation of customs and traditions, relations between liberalism and socialism, the politics of art and architecture, and technological cultures of life and death.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

AASR 49003. Islam Beyond the Human: Spirits, Demons, Devils, and Ghosts. 100 Units.

This seminar explores the diverse spiritual and sentient lifeforms within Islamic cosmology that exist beyond the human-from jinn, angels, and ghosts to demons and devils. We will focus on theological, scientific, philosophical, anthropological, and historical accounts of these creatures across a variety of texts, as well as their literary and filmic afterlives in contemporary cultural representations. In so doing, we consider the various religious, social, and cultural inflections that shape local cosmological imaginaries. We ask how reflecting on the nonhuman world puts the human itself in question, including such concerns as sexuality and sexual difference, the boundaries of the body, reason and madness, as well as the limits of knowledge.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar and Hoda El Shakry     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment by Consent Only (for both grads and undergrads). Students should send the instructors a paragraph explaining their interest and prior preparation or familiarity with the themes in the course.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 49003, CMLT 29003, ISLM 49003, CMLT 49003, RLST 29003, GNSE 29003, NEHC 29003, GNSE 49003, ANTH 49003, NEHC 49003, ANTH 29003

AASR 50000. Sacred Geographies: Religion in Chicago. 100 Units.

This course is designed as a Brauer Seminar and entitled "Sacred Geographies: Religion in Chicago." Focusing primarily though not exclusively on African American religion, the seminar will take up the history of Chicago through an examination of the relationship between the city's religious history and its natural and built environments. We will consider theories of religion, space, and place alongside readings that explore the overlapping and conflicting ways Chicago's pastoral and urban landscapes have shaped religious identities and traditions-and how Chicago itself has been transformed by religious practices and imaginations. The seminar will also examine privately and publicly funded attempts to preserve, publicize, and capitalize on Chicago's distinct religious history and the ways that has shaped historical memory. To this end, we will also inquire into the relationship between tourism, museums, public art, and creation of archives to the making of Chicago's sacred geographies. The purpose of the seminar is to provide students with a deeper understanding of how religion takes place by exploring the unique religious history that surrounds them. We hope the seminar fosters new questions and connections about not only what we study, but also about where the Divinity School's study of religion takes place.

Equivalent Course(s): RAME 50000

AASR 50092. Sem: Religion and Politics. 100 Units.

In this seminar we will consider meanings of religion and politics, and examine their interactions from a comparative perspective. After digesting alternative theoretical understandings of the relationship between religion, states, and political processes, we will turn to empirical accounts that illuminate historical and local issues at points around the globe. Among other phenomena, students will explore patterns of secularization, religious nationalism, fundamentalisms, and policy-oriented religious social movements.

Instructor(s): O. McRoberts     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 50092

AASR 50207. Christianity and Korea. 100 Units.

Selected readings on the topics pertaining to the joint study of Christianity and of Korea.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 50207

AASR 50213. Historical Sociology of Religion - After Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. 100 Units.

In the writings of the European classics of sociology the universal history of religion was absolutely crucial. Strangely, and although the reputation of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim has constantly grown over time, this area of their interests later became marginal in the discipline. After briefly suggesting a possible explanation of this phenomenon, this class will deal with the exceptions, scholars who have contributed significantly to the sociological study of the history of religion (H. Richard Niebuhr, Will Herberg, Werner Stark, David Martin Marcel Gauchet, Robert Bellah, Jose Casanova). Additional scholars and my own writings in this area can be included if there is an interest in tracing a tradition that should have received new attention after the end of the intellectual hegemony of the secularization thesis.

Instructor(s): Hans Joas     Terms Offered: Spring. May be taught Winter 2021 or Spring 2022.
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 50124, SCTH 50213

AASR 50500. Commodity Aesthetics: Critical Encounters. 100 Units.

Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno's classic writings on the relationship between cultural production, capitalism and aesthetic experience, value and embodiment are back on the anthropological agenda. Why should this be the case? What relevance does the cultural critique of the Frankfurt School hold for contemporary ethnographic projects? Although this seminar in a sense hinges on the work of Benjamin and Adorno, it is above all an attempt to locate the questions they asked in relation to a longer philosophical genealogy: broadly, German critical responses to capitalist modernity and its particular claims on the senses. Readings will include excerpts from key texts by Kant, Hegel, Marx, Lukacs, Weber,Simmel, Balasz, Kracauer, Adorno, and Benjamin.

Instructor(s): William Mazzarella     Terms Offered: Winter. Winter 2023
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 50500

AASR 50750. Dis/Enchantments. 100 Units.

In a time of planetary crisis, anthropologists and other scholars are trying to think beyond the human, beyond the Enlightenment subject, beyond the anthropocentrism of received social theory. The premise of this seminar is that the human has gone beyond the human all along, albeit in ways that are not often recognized in today's posthumanist debates. We will explore other, older genealogies of thinking and being that have at once desired and tried to harness the explosive potential of self-loss as a modality of self-knowledge. Examples will include 'participant observation' as fieldwork method, theologies of participation and consubstantiality, transference and telepathy in psychoanalysis, and more. The aim is to productively derail us from prevailing cliches, so that we may better draw on archives that are at once stranger and more intimate than they at first appear.

Instructor(s): William Mazzarella
Prerequisite(s): No
Equivalent Course(s): CCCT 50750, ANTH 50750, SCTH 50750

AASR 51000. ASR Proseminar. 100 Units.

This course is an intensive reading and writing seminar designed to strengthen skills of close interpretation, argument-driven discussion, and research writing. We will engage classic texts in the social sciences of religion and workshop student papers relevant to dissertation development.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to PhD students in the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion only.

AASR 52132. Advanced Seminar: Science / Fiction / Theory. 100 Units.

Science fiction has enjoyed an extraordinary and still growing resurgence in popularity over the last two decades - through literature, film, video games, and even universities, where it is the subject of ever more courses being taught. Why has science fiction become so popular? Does it express the anxieties of a way of life that can't be sustained, is in decline, and might soon end, in the face of intractable war, lurching financial crises, recurrent pandemics, and unchecked climate change? Does it speak to the senses of radical hope and irreparable despair about the future that seem to characterize our time? If so, then science fiction today is grappling with traditionally theological themes: fate and finitude, immortality and the nature of divinity, the place of the human within a cosmic scale, and the possibilities for redemption and messianic rupture. This advanced seminar will explore these themes by pairing sci-fi literature and film with readings of philosophy, ethnography, science and social theory. Throughout, we will ask how science fiction's propensity toward the theological allows it to grapple with the unique forms of hope and despair in our time.

Instructor(s): Hussein Ali Agrama
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 52132

AASR 52200. Problems in the History of Religions. 100 Units.

A research seminar for students either in the PhD program in the History of Religions (allgemeine Religionswissenschaft, la science des religions) or doctoral students working in related fields in the scientific study of religions (anthropology, sociology, history, area studies, e.g.). Participants will both present an original written work-in-progress of their own and give a formal oral response to the paper of another. Students typically present (e.g.) colloquium (="second-year conference") papers, orals statements for the Qualifying Examination, or dissertation chapters.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to doctoral students in HREL, AASR, RAME, SALC, EALC, HIST, ANTH, e.g.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 52200, HREL 52200

AASR 52808. Sovereignty, Intimacy, and the Body. 100 Units.

A close exploration of relationships between state power and everyday forms of embodied sociality, ethics, and intimacy. Readings will include selections from some or all of the following authors: Asad, Berlant, Foucault, Kantorowicz, Santner, Siegel, and various ethnographies.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor, and at least 1 previous course in ANTH or AASR
Note(s): Class limit to 10 students
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 52808

AASR 53817. Charisma in the Age of Trumpism. 100 Units.

Everyone knows what 'charisma' feels like - but who can explain it? Today, the word is everywhere. It describes politicians and leaders, celebrities and crooks. It's light and it's dark - how are we supposed to tell the difference? It's secular and it's theological. Liberal political theory struggles with its implications, tending to dismiss it as the sort of unreason ill befitting a mature democracy. And yet those same political theorists are only too happy to ascribe it, condescendingly, to those 'other polities' in the Global South, the ones that anthropologists have traditionally tried to theorize. In the age of Trumpism, this kind of boundary drawing between the politics of the West and those of the rest, always dubious, is no longer credible. So what tools do we have for making sense of charisma in the present? Is it, as some insist, a fuzzy stand-in for a serious concept, or can we do serious work with it? In this seminar, we'll engage Max Weber's seminal work on charismatic authority. But we will not presume that the matter begins or ends there. Instead, we will trace genealogies backwards and forwards from Weber's canonical intervention, exploring theological, ethnological, literary, and psychoanalytic perspectives.

Instructor(s): William Mazzarella
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 53817, CCCT 53817

AASR 54000. Ethnographic Methods. 100 Units.

This is a writing-intensive seminar for graduate students wishing to explore ethnography as a method and genre of social-cultural analysis. Over the course of the quarter, students will work individually and in groups to develop their ethnographic projects. The final writing assignment is an ethnographic essay that will grow out of a range of research and writing exercises.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): By permission only. First preference will be given to PhD students.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 53530

AASR 58505. Rethinking Alienability: Landscapes of Attachment and Dispossession. 100 Units.

This course will survey environmental, religious, and phenomenological approaches to landscape in anthropology, political ecology, critical race studies, legal history, and religious studies in order to attend to the interplay of attachment and alienation, spatial boundedness and racialized dispossession. The aim is to develop new ways of thinking about the constraints and possibilities of mobility and traffic over space and time. We will consider various cases of so-called "unpropertied" relations to land and material livelihoods to ask what challenges they pose to alienability as an arc of inexorable cultural loss or as a foundational condition of human absence (terra nullius). Suspending alienability as an explanatory framework allows us to instead track its genealogy as a legal and ethical paradigm and, moreover, to consider practices and histories of attachment to place (including through narrative, nostalgia, spirit possession, and ritual) that do not take possessive ownership as their goal. In dialogue with these interdisciplinary debates, we will consider how phenomenological and affective attachments to land, spirits, and object worlds differentially construct landscapes and thereby unsettle more familiar secular heuristics of environment, labor, and natural resources.

Instructor(s): Mareike Winchell
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 58505

AASR 70000. Advanced Study: Anthropolgy & Sociology of Religion. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Anthropolgy & Sociology of Religion

BIBL 30149. Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean: First Millennium BCE. 100 Units.

This course will offer a survey of religious traditions and innovations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the first millennium BCE. Following a comparative, cross-cultural approach, we will cover practices and religious expressions among Phoenicians, Israelites, and Greeks (among others), featuring themes such as communication across divine spheres from "above" and "below," divine participation in the political arena, and divine roles in family life and the funerary realm. We will examine artifacts, iconography, architecture, literature, and documentary sources.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20149, HREL 30149

BIBL 30600. Judaic Civilization-1. 100 Units.

TBD

BIBL 30668. Introduction to Aggadic Literature of the Rabbinic Period. 100 Units.

We will make acquaintance with midrash, the idiosyncratic rabbinic method of textual interpretation of the Bible, concentrating on midrash aggadah, which deals with non-legal material (biblical narrative and ethical teachings). We will deal with questions of interpretation (how did the rabbis interpret the biblical text?), relevancy (in what ways did they view the ancient text as relevant to their lives?), and literature (an appreciation of the literary aspects and genres of midrash aggadah). Rabbinic readings will be compared with biblical interpretations of the Second Temple period (in Philo, Josephus, Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls). Texts will be read in the original Hebrew and Aramaic with English translation.

Instructor(s): Paul Mandel (visiting professor)     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Basic reading skills in biblical Hebrew desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20668, HIJD 30668, JWSC 20668

BIBL 30700. Advanced Readings in Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) 100 Units.

In this course we will read excerpts from literature written in Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez), such as Enoch, Jubilees, Kebra Nagast, Beauty of Creation, and others, and review some basic grammatical structures of the language. Students will need a good grasp of the basic grammar of Ge'ez in order to take the class.

Instructor(s): Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Elementary Geez 1-3 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 17700, GEEZ 30700, GEEZ 20700, LING 22700, LING 32700

BIBL 31000. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

The course introduces the Jewish/Hebrew Bible as a literary treasury with a material history. We will survey the genres and the different works, review scholarly theories about the texts and about ideas in them, and situate them in the history of Israel and Judea and in the culture of ancient Southwest Asia. We will also engage theories of history, literature, and narrative. The course includes a weekly Discussion Section for mixed-modes activities and conceptual discussions.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course counts as a Gateway course for RLST majors/minors.
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 20120, RLST 11004, HIJD 31004, FNDL 11004, NEHC 30504, NEHC 20504

BIBL 32500. Introduction to the New Testament: Texts and Contexts of Interpretation. 100 Units.

This class introduces students to the texts that make up the New Testament through close readings of representative examples. Through course lectures and readings, students will gain familiarity with the historical, geographical, social, religious, cultural, and political contexts of New Testament literature and the events they narrate. We will also learn about the central literary genres found within the collection of texts that came to form the canonical New Testament, including "gospels," "acts," "letters," and "apocalypses"), and we will examine how awareness of genre conventions enhances our reading of these works. Students will also learn about the distinctive theological and cultural viewpoints contained within various New Testament texts. As we learn about the history of biblical scholarship, especially the goals and methods of biblical interpretation, we will practice refining our questions. Assignments and discussion will allow students to develop their skills as attuned readers of both ancient texts as well as modern biblical scholarship. PQ: No prior knowledge of biblical literature, the ancient world, or Christianity is expected. The only expectation is commitment to engaged discussion about the challenges of interpretation with classmates holding various viewpoints.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Interest in this literature, and willingness to enter into conversation with like-minded and non-like-minded others on the texts and the issues involved in their interpretation.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course counts as a Gateway course for RLST majors/minors.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 12000, MDVL 12500, FNDL 28202

BIBL 32602. Introduction to the New Testament. 100 Units.

This is an introductory course to the history, literature, and interpretation of the New Testament. Our primary focus will be to read select texts of the New Testament, with an emphasis on their literary nature, their historical problems and sources, their theological visions, their history of interpretation, and their historical, geographic, social, political, religious and cultural contexts in early Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds. One will have the opportunity to situate one's own questions about and approaches to these texts in light of the history of scholarly research and through critical reflection about the methods and goals of interpretation in conversation with rhetorical, narrative, postcolonial, intercultural, feminist, and queer hermeneutics, and the history of sexuality. Discussions groups will meet on Fridays.

Instructor(s): Jeff Jay     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 28205, RLST 12602

BIBL 32700. Biblical Law. 100 Units.

This course will examine the laws in the Torah/Pentateuch and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for their legal, social, and moral reasoning; their style; their meaning in literary works, as literature; and their historical setting. It will compare them to laws in other ancient works like the Hammurabi monument(s).

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 22700, HIJD 32700, NEHC 32700, JWSC 22702, RLST 22700

BIBL 32906. The Book of Ezekiel. 100 Units.

A seminar for reading the Book of Ezekiel (in English; optional reading group for those who read biblical Hebrew), the Bible's most bizarre and challenging Prophetic work. It features Ezekiel's close encounters with a brutal divine, instantaneous transportation to future spaces and faraway places, dream-scenes that become real, mortifying dramatizations, and surreal sensory overload. Ezekiel says he played the role of a crude mime, a confounding cryptic, and an erotic singer. This charged and disturbing work generated a variety of literary and speculative Jewish and Christian traditions, like the Apocalyptic and the Mystical. Modern Bible critics discount its retrospective frame, consider it a repository of historical materials, and probe Ezekiel for personality disorders. We will engage it the way it presents itself to us, as literature, in a which a character tells his glorious and troubled story, and explore its frame, content, poetics, Judean literary traditions, contemporary Babylonian scene, and historical message.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22906, HIJD 32906, NEHC 32906, NEHC 22906, JWSC 22906

BIBL 33000. Muses and Saints: Poetry and the Christian Imagination. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction to the poetic traditions of early Christians and the intersection between poetic literature, theology, and biblical interpretation. Students will gain familiarity with the literary context of the formative centuries of Christianity with a special emphasis on Greek and Syriac Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean from the fourth through the sixth centuries. While theology is often taught through analytical prose, theological reflection in late antiquity and early Byzantium was frequently done in poetic genres. This course introduces students to the major composers and genres of these works as well as the various recurrent themes that occur within this literature. Through reading poetry from liturgical and monastic contexts, students will explore how the biblical imaginations of Christians were formed beyond the confines of canonical scripture. How is poetry a mode of "doing" theology? What habits of biblical interpretation and narration does one encounter in this poetry? This course exposes students to a variety of disciplinary frameworks for studying early Christian texts including history, religious studies, feminist and literary critique, as well as theology. Students will also analyze medieval and modern poetry with religious themes in light of earlier traditions to reflect on the poetry and the religious imagination more broadly.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Open to undergraduate and graduate students; Graduate students may choose to attend weekly translation group
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 33000, HCHR 33000, ENGL 33809, GNSE 34104, CLAS 36119, RLST 23000, MDVL 23000, GNSE 24104, CLCV 26119

BIBL 33221. Israel and Judah under Empire: Archaeology and History of the Assyrian and Babylonian Periods. 100 Units.

In the late 8th century BCE Israel, Judah and the other polities of the southern Levant came under Assyrian hegemony, and then under the Babylonian and Persian empires. The seminar will review the demographic and economic situation in the region before the arrival of the first empire in the late 8th century BCE, and the subsequent changes during the 7th-6th centuries BCE in an attempt to use the unparalleled data available from this region to (1) reconstruct life in the provinces and client kingdoms and (2) use the detailed information to learn about imperial encounters at large, and the impact of imperial control on the life of the peoples under its yoke.

Instructor(s): Avraham Faust     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 43221, HIJD 43221

BIBL 33829. Foundational Readings in Christian Anthropology. 100 Units.

What is necessary for humans to flourish? How do the soul, body, and intellect relate? How did early Christians understand the human person, the effects of sin, and the nature of revelation? This course introduces students to the ways Origen, Augustine, Ephrem the Syrian, and Gregory of Nyssa approached these foundational questions and set trajectories for the subsequent development of Christian thought. We will pay particular attention to their interpretation of scripture, especially Genesis 1-3 and the Pauline Epistles. These theologians' interpretations of scripture shaped Christian thinking about social structures, gender, class, and freedom in ways that continue to have an influence. For those unfamiliar with the intellectual history of early Christianity, this class will offer an opportunity to read consequential texts (in translation) from Latin, Greek, and Syriac authors that represent the diversity inherent within Christian literature. By the end of the course, students will have the skills to discern how these formative voices continue to shape Christian ethics and theology. For those interested in reading these authors in their original languages, I will offer optional weekly translation sessions in Latin, Greek, and Syriac.

Instructor(s): Erin Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23829, THEO 33829, HCHR 33829

BIBL 33900. Introductory Biblical Hebrew I. 100 Units.

This course is the first of a two-quarter sequence designed to introduce students to the language of biblical Hebrew, with special emphasis on the fundamentals of its morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. The course follows a standard textbook supplemented by lectures, exercises, and oral drills aimed at refining the student's grasp of grammatically sound interpretation and translation. At the conclusion of the two-quarter sequence students will be prepared to take a biblical Hebrew reading course in the spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Tyler J. Harris     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 13900

BIBL 34000. Introductory Biblical Hebrew II. 100 Units.

This course is the second of a two-quarter sequence designed to introduce students to the language of biblical Hebrew, with special emphasis on the fundamentals of its morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. The course follows a standard textbook supplemented by lectures, exercises, and oral drills aimed at refining the student's grasp of grammatically sound interpretation and translation. At the conclusion of the two-quarter sequence students will be prepared to take a biblical Hebrew reading course in the spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Tyler J. Harris     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 33900 in Autumn Quarter.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 14000

BIBL 34210. Jonah and Joel (Biblical Hebrew III) 100 Units.

A classic text-course covering prose narrative and poetic prophecy, attends to grammar, semantics, genre, and history.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew I-II
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 34210, NELC 30062

BIBL 34400. Greek Prose Composition. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to write accurate sentences and paragraphs in classical Attic Greek. We are not concerned here with stylistic imitation, but rather to write Attic prose clearly and correctly. The most obvious benefits of this exercise will be thorough review of basic morphology and syntax as well as fine-tuning one's grasp of the more subtle nuances of the Greek language. Another important benefit is cultivating Attic prose as a kind of linguistic standard or canon by which we are able to better understand other Greek styles of writing and types of diction. The vantage point of a standard allows us to analyze and understand other styles on their own terms and merits, whether Herodotos, epic, tragedy, New Testament, etc.

Instructor(s): David Martinez     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 34400

BIBL 34601. Prophecy in Ancient Israel. 100 Units.

This course examines the idea, practice, and literature of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible and contextualizes these issues by comparing biblical prophecy with its ancient Near Eastern analogues. Students will read and analyze biblical and extra-biblical prophetic texts as well as other texts related to prophecy in order to understand the purposes of ancient Near Eastern prophecy as well as the practices of the prophets themselves (such as analogical ritual performance, divination, and magic). The issues of the preservation of prophetic literature as well as the cessation of prophecy in ancient Israel will also be explored.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert
Prerequisite(s): A critical Introduction to teh Hebrew Bible (all biblical texts will be read in English).

BIBL 34723. Guardians of knowledge: scribes and books from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Books have been a fundamental part of the transmission of knowledge and more generally, human communication. They collect thoughts, experiences, feelings, knowledge and ideas into a material artifact that is distributed to an audience of readers. The work of scribes and scholars is the silent agent of this millennial enterprise. The process of book-production involves a large number of different skills from these artisans: material manufacture, preparation of writing surfaces and inks, writing skills, calligraphy, binding, distribution. In this course students will study the history of books, from Antiquity to the invention of the printing press, and their makers. The topics covered will include scribal training, book manufacture, circulation and trade of books, readership, and other such topics around the world of books and scholars. The course will focus on books as artifacts, as transmitters of knowledge and literary creativity.

Instructor(s): Sofía Torallas Tovar.      Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 34723, NEHC 23723, RLST 22723, CLCV 24723, NEHC 34723

BIBL 35100. Introductory Koiné Greek I. 100 Units.

In this two-course sequence, students will learn the basic mechanics of Koine Greek and begin reading texts from the Greek New Testament and Septuagint. The autumn course and the first three-fourths or so of the winter course will introduce the vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and style of the Greek New Testament, and to a limited degree those of the Septuagint, after which point we will focus on reading and interpreting a New Testament document in Greek at length. Upon the conclusion of the sequence, students will be able to read and comprehend entire passages of Koine Greek text with the aid of a dictionary. This sequence aims to prepare students to successfully participate in a Greek exegesis course.

Instructor(s): Richard Zaleski     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 14100

BIBL 35204. Love and Eros in the New Testament and Ancient World. 100 Units.

TBD

BIBL 35300. Introductory Koiné Greek II. 100 Units.

In this two-course sequence, students will learn the basic mechanics of Koine Greek and begin reading texts from the Greek New Testament and Septuagint. The autumn course and the first three-fourths or so of the winter course will introduce the vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and style of the Greek New Testament, and to a limited degree those of the Septuagint, after which point we will focus on reading and interpreting a New Testament document in Greek at length. Upon the conclusion of the sequence, students will be able to read and comprehend entire passages of Koine Greek text with the aid of a dictionary. This sequence aims to prepare students to successfully participate in a Greek exegesis course in Spring quarter or thereafter.

Instructor(s): Doug Hoffer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Must have taken BIBL 35100 in Autumn quarter.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 14200

BIBL 35400. Introductory Koine Greek-3. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

BIBL 35900. The Parables of Jesus: Language and Meaning. 100 Units.

An exegesis course in Greek on these rich little narrative nuggets-the parables of Jesus-in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Each week we will dedicate the first half of class to translating one parable focusing on philology as well as rehearsing basic Koine grammar and common grammatical paradigms. We will then devote the second half of class to interpretation, discussing different hermeneutical approaches to the parables in conversation with a variety of interpreters with the week's text at the forefront for our consideration. For the final project, students will choose one parable, for which they will provide an annotated translation and write an interpretive essay.

BIBL 35901. Joseph and His Brothers: The Biblical Accounts. 100 Units.

Close reading of the "Joseph Cycle" in Genesis 37-50. Detailed examination of the literary form, content, theology and composition of the Biblical text, with the aim of identifying the questions it poses and evaluating the methods employed and the solutions proposed by commentators and critics in their attempts to answer them. This course is designed for students who have some familiarity the critical study of the Hebrew Bible (i.e., for those who have taken Introduction to the Hebrew or equivalent). Knowledge of Biblical Hebrew is desirable but not required. If you have any question as to whether you qualify, please consult the instructor. This course is open to undergraduates.

Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 25901, RLST 20912

BIBL 36000. The Johannine Epistles. 100 Units.

The Johannine Epistles raise fascinating theological and interpretative questions. In this course students will read the Greek text closely, examining the composition, genre, structure, theology, and purpose of these letters. Readings will also include New Testament and early Christian texts that help illuminate the hermeneutical questions and place of the Johannine epistles. Special attention will be paid to the questions surrounding the texts' authorship and reception within later Christian traditions.

Instructor(s): Erin Walsh     Terms Offered: Spring. new course
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students who have completed classes I and II of the Koine Greek sequence or equivalent. Various levels can be accommodated; please feel free to consult with instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22036

BIBL 36010. The Book of Psalms (Biblical Hebrew III) 100 Units.

The Book of Psalms is a collection of about 150 poems of varying genres, themes, motifs, lengths, and styles, written in ancient Hebrew, coming from ancient Israel, Judea, and possibly Babylon during the Iron Age (11th-6th cents. BCE) and the Persian period (6th-4th cents. BCE), nearly all about the deity Yahweh. We will read select psalms in Hebrew for their varied voicing, topoi, prosody, poetics, and religious ideas. This course will serve students interested in the literary and religious aspects of the Hebrew Bible. For students who have taken Biblical Hebrew I & II, this course will serve as Biblical Hebrew III.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew I-II

BIBL 36020. The Gospel of John. 100 Units.

This is the third course in the Introductory Koine Greek Sequence of the Divinity School. This course will use what students have learned in terms of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in the first two quarters and will apply these skills to the translation and exegesis of specific Biblical passages.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): One year of Koine Greek, or equivalent (BIBL 35100, 35300). Various levels can be accommodated; please feel free to consult with instructor.
Note(s): This is the introductory Koine Greek exegesis course.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22020, CLAS 36020, CLCV 26020

BIBL 36500. The Radiant Pearl: Introduction to Syriac Literature and its Historical Contexts. 100 Units.

After Greek and Latin, Syriac literature represents the third largest corpus of writings from the formative centuries of Christianity. This course offers students a comprehensive overview of the dominant genres and history of Syriac-speaking Christians from the early centuries through the modern day. Moving beyond traditional historiography that focuses exclusively on early Christianity within the Roman Empire, this class examines Christian traditions that took root in the Persian and later Islamic Empires as well. Through studying the history and literature of Syriac-speaking Christians, the global reach of early Christianity and its diversity comes to the fore. Syriac-speaking Christians preached the Gospel message from the Arabian Peninsula to early modern China and India. Syriac writers also raised female biblical figures and holy women to prominent roles within their works. Students will broaden their understanding of the development of Christian thought as they gain greater familiarity with understudied voices and visions for Christian living found within Syriac literature. Special attention will be paid to biblical translation, asceticism, poetry, differences between ecclesial communities as well as the changing political fortunes of Syriac-speaking populations. No previous knowledge or study expected.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 26505, GNSE 36505, RLST 16500, HCHR 36500, NEHC 36500, NEHC 26500

BIBL 37213. Partings, Encounters, and Entangled Histories: The Formation of Judaism and Christianity. 100 Units.

When did the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity emerge? This course explores this question by examining the formation of Judaism and Christianity within the world of the Ancient Mediterranean. What religious views, texts, and practices did Jews and Christians hold in common? How did early writers construct communal boundaries and project "ideal" belief and practice? What role did the changing political tides of the Roman and Persian empires play? We will explore continuities and growing distinctions between Jews and Christians in the areas of scriptural interpretation, ritual practices, and structures of authority. Special attention will be paid to debates around gender and sexuality, healing, and views of government and economics. We will approach these issues through material evidence and close readings of early literature in light of contemporary scholarship. Students interested in modern histories of Judaism and Christianity will gain a firm foundation in the pivotal debates, texts, and events that set the trajectories for later centuries.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisite knowledge of the historical periods, literature, or religious traditions covered is expected.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 37213, NEHC 27213, RLST 27213, JWSC 27213, NEHC 37213, HIST 31600, CLCV 24021, HCHR 37213, CLAS 34021

BIBL 37303. The Four-Fold: Studies in Jewish Exegesis. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the emergence of the four-fold method of Jewish Bible interpretation in the medieval period (known as PaRDes), in light of internal Jewish features since and antiquity and comparative Christian exegesis. Particular attention will be placed on the work of the great medieval Spanish commentator Rabbi Bahya ben Asher (13th century). Consideration of modern adaptations of this method will be taken up at the end (notably, in M. Fishbane's commentary on the Song of Songs and in his theological writings).

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 37303

BIBL 37612. Literary Theory and the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

Readings in literary theory and in select works of the Hebrew Bible, with special attention to voice and genre. Seminar-style presentations and discussion.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 21860, RLST 21860, KNOW 37612

BIBL 39300. Asceticism: Forming the Self. 100 Units.

In recent decades scholars of the pre-modern period have turned to the body as a site of renewed historical inquiry. Within the study of religion, this shift has reanimated discussions around asceticism as a particularly potent technē for self-fashioning. Nevertheless, scholars have struggled to theorize asceticism across religious traditions. This signature course, taught by two scholars working in disparate historical periods and religious traditions (early Christianity and medieval Indian religious literature), explores how gender theory has engaged ascetic practices for understanding the body and human potential. Students will engage asceticism as a series of techniques or forms of life that envision the sexed and gendered human body as the horizon of corporeal expression and personal imagination. Asceticism serves as a neat conceptual device, allowing us to toggle between the mind and body while tackling questions that fall within the liminal space between them, including debates around gender, sexuality, sovereignty, and biopower. Students along with the instructors will contend with the challenges and opportunities of transnational and transhistorical feminist and queer inquiry as we traverse across the boundaries of tradition, language, and culture. While drawing on rich historical and religious archives, we will anchor our discussions around the interplay of two principal authors: Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor and Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 39300, GNSE 39303, SIGN 26074, RLST 29300, GNSE 29303, HREL 39300, RLVC 39300

BIBL 39402. Language Contact: Greek and the World's Languages. 100 Units.

How do languages get into contact? How long do they stay in contact? What is contact-induced language change, and which are the mechanisms that govern it? What do arachnophobia, myalgia, geology, heterophagy mean? In this course we will study language contact and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate contact-induced changes. We will examine a wide range of language contact phenomena from both general linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, and survey current approaches to all of the major types of contact-induced change (e.g. borrowing). Having Greek (but also other languages) as an example, we will consider linguistic and social aspects of the contact context as well as look into how the particular language has shaped the savant vocabulary of science, philosophy, arts, etc. More precisely, we will offer a brief overview of the history of the Greek language with special emphasis on the Greek vocabulary that Greek language landed or borrowed at different stages of its history as a result of its linguistic contact with other nations and languages. We will start with the Pre-Hellenic phase of Greek and then we focus in Proto-Hellenic, Ancient Greek, Koine, Medieval Greek and finally Modern Greek.

Instructor(s): Zoi Gavriilidou     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 34922, RLST 29402, LING 29402, LING 39402, CLCV 24922

BIBL 40018. Varieties of the Sublime in Ancient Greek and Roman Thought. 100 Units.

When one thinks about the "Sublime", one ancient text stands out as foundational: Longinus' On the Sublime. This text had a profound influence on modern aesthetics. It is, however, only part of a rich tradition of ancient ideas about sublimity. This seminar will examine this tradition, which embraces philosophy, religion, and art. The aim of the class is to disentangle various strands of the sublime and examine their interrelationships. Our readings will take us from Plato to the Neoplatonists. They will include: Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus; selections from the Epicurean Philodemus and the Stoics; Apuleius' Story of Cupid and Psyche and book 11 of his Metamorphoses; and selections from Plotinus, Porphyry, and Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Republic. The topics will include: religious initiation, the use of allegory, and theories of visual and literary beauty. Knowledge of Greek and Latin is not required; but special sessions will be arranged for those who wish to read Greek or Latin texts. Open to undergraduates with the permission of the instructor.

Instructor(s): E. Asmis     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 40018

BIBL 40300. The Gospel Of Luke. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): NTEC 40300

BIBL 40350. The Composition of the Torah. 100 Units.

Detailed textual study of selected passages from the narrative portions of Torah (i.e. in Genesis, Exodus and Numbers) with the aim of illustrating the literary basis for the hypothesis that the Torah has been created by merging four pre-existing sources into one continuous text. Consideration will also be given to the diverse approaches employed by exegetes and critics, whether prior to the rise of the documentary hypothesis or subsequent to and in opposition to it. This course is designed for students with a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew who have already had a critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible, including the critical approaches to the Torah. If you have any question as to whether you qualify, please consult the instructor.

BIBL 40360. Debating Christians and Other Adversaries: Greek and Syriac Dialogues in Late Antiquity. 100 Units.

This course will examine the composition and significance of dialogues for Christian polemic and identity formation. The quarter will begin with an overview of dialogues from Classical Antiquity before examining the new directions Christian writers followed as they staged debates with pagans, Jews, Manichaeans, and alleged "heretical" Christians. Reading these works in light of modern scholarship and with an eye to late antique rhetoric, students will gain insights into the ways theological development took place in the crucible of debate.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20360, CLAS 33820, HCHR 40360, CLCV 23820

BIBL 40400. Ekphrasis: Art & Description. 100 Units.

This course explores the rich tradition of ekphrasis in Greco-Roman and Christian antiquity - as it ranges from vivid description in general to a specific engagement with works of art. While the prime focus will remain on texts from Greece and Rome (both prose and verse) - in order to establish what might be called the ancestry of a genre in the European tradition -- there will be opportunity in the final paper to range beyond this into questions of religious writing about art, comparative literature, art (history) writing and ekphrasis in other periods or contexts. The course is primarily intended for graduates - and a reading knowledge of Greek and Latin could not be described as a disadvantage! The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Instructor(s): J. Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 40400, ARTH 40400, CLAS 42600, NTEC 40400

BIBL 40490. The Plagues in Egypt: Tradition and Composition. 100 Units.

This course will pursue an in-depth investigation of the plagues in Egypt as presented at length in Exodus 7-12 and Psalms 78 and 105 and in brief in several other biblical texts. It will focus especially on source-critical and tradition-historical issues in these texts. All texts will be read in their original languages.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20490

BIBL 40600. Deuteronomy. 100 Units.

This course is an exegetical study of selected texts from the Deuteronomic source of the Torah (Deut 1:1-32:47). We will focus on the setting of this text within the larger pentateuchal plot, its legal revision, its historical context, and the purpose of its authors in relation to their source texts. This course will serve as the reading course for students coming out of the first year Hebrew sequence, but all students with facility in biblical Hebrew are welcome. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20600

BIBL 40617. Sem: Epictetus/Aurelius. 100 Units.

Both Epictetus' Discourses and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations have been philosophical best sellers ever since antiquity. Both humanize ancient Stoicism. In this seminar, we will look closely at the Greek text to investigate each author's unique response to Stoic doctrine. The focus of the seminar will on the creativity of each author in reshaping Stoic doctrine. We will also look at the reception of these authors in the Renaissance and later. Prerequisite: the equivalent of two years of Ancient Greek.

Instructor(s): E. Asmis.     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 40617

BIBL 41000. Amos. 100 Units.

This course is an exegetical study of the biblical book of Amos in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Strong Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

BIBL 41400. 2 Corinthians. 100 Units.

An exegesis course on one of the most puzzling of Pauline texts, the letter known as 2 Corinthians, which includes such famous passages as "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" and "we are ambassadors for Christ," as well as biting satire against opponents as "false apostles," a report of a journey of "a man I know" to "the third heaven," and even two fund-raising appeals. How can one account for the shifts in tone, topics and tenor of Paul's relationship with these Christ-believers in the Roman rebuilt city of Corinth? In addition to road-testing literary theories that the canonical letter represents a later compilation of what were originally two, three, or five separate letters, we shall try to reconstruct from various clues the historical circumstances of an unfolding conflict, and explore how Paul's letters themselves-and their variable meanings-contributed to it, as he and his earliest readers struggled to control the meaning of words, bodies and persons in the context of suspicion, misunderstanding and dissent.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 32500 Introduction to the New Testament or equivalent is recommended but not required. Greek skills are not required, but for those who have them, there will be ample opportunity for their use.
Note(s): Undergraduates welcome with permission of instructor. This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

BIBL 41508. I & II Chronicles. 100 Units.

This course is an exegetical study of the biblical book of chronicles (in Hebrew).

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew

BIBL 41780. Poetry of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

The course will survey poetic genres of the Hebrew Bible, their elements and tropes, scholarship on biblical poetry specifically, and approaches to poetry in general.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Introductory Biblical Hebrew I–III (BIBL 33900–34000 + Text course) or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 21780, HIJD 41780, RLST 21780, NEHC 41780

BIBL 41900. Priestly Texts in the Book of Numbers. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the Priestly texts in the book of Numbers and their relationship to the rest of the pentateuchal Priestly source. We will attend to issues of compositional history as well as the religious imagination of the Numbers texts. All texts will be read in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Strong Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

BIBL 42010. Ancient Sexualities and Early Christianity. 100 Units.

A study of ancient Greek and Roman and early Jewish and Christian attitudes toward sex and constructions of sexuality, especially homosexuality and lesbianism, as well as sexuality as it relates to gender, prostitution, marriage, and virginity. We will closely examine and discuss many of the most important primary sources for these issues from the non-Christian world, including texts by Aeschines, Plato, Lucian, Ovid, Juvenal, Martial, Musonius Rufus, and Philo. In light of the map that emerges by examining these forms of erotic subjectivity in the premodern cultures of Greece and Rome, we will then focus on analyzing several Christian primary sources, including parts of Paul's epistles and the Gospel of John, and selections from Clement of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, and others. We will have the opportunity to think about Michel Foucault's revolutionary complication of the whole notion of "sexuality" as it relates to conceptions of desire, pleasure, and the self as we interpret and analyze several of the primary sources with which Foucault himself worked. We will also have the opportunity to assess the scholarship of several leading scholars in this area, including the work of John Boswell, Arnold Davidson, K.J. Dover, David Halperin, Martha Nussbaum, Craig Williams, Daniel Boyarin, Bernadette Brooten, Dale Martin, etc.

Instructor(s): J. Jay     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 42010

BIBL 42021. The Gospel According to John. 100 Units.

A Greek exegesis course on the text known since the third century as the pneumatikon euangelion, "spiritual gospel." Students will learn the characteristic diction and vocabulary by which this author sought to craft the story of the heavenly legate, Jesus, the "man from heaven" who comes down to earth to draw believers back up there with him. We shall engage with the literary form and flow of this enigmatic text, in its combination of narrative and extended monologues. Our close readings will confront us with this text's cosmological and theological claims, and in particular the vexing question of whether it maintains that the cosmic destiny of human beings is predetermined, or if change is possible. This course serves as the third quarter of the Koine Greek sequence, even as various levels of Greek skills are welcome.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 35100 and 35300 (Koine I and II) or equivalent; please contact the instructor with questions.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates are welcome to enroll by emailing instructor.

BIBL 42035. The Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Pastoral Epistles. 100 Units.

In the early second century there were bitter battles over the legacy of Paul and his preserved letters in terms of gender, sexuality, family life, asceticism, church administration, and theological vision. We can see these well by reading the narrative text The Acts of Paul and Thecla alongside the "Pastoral Epistles" (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), the former championing a female, cross-dressing ascetic Christ-missionary and the latter, in pseudepigraphical epistolary texts written in the dead Paul's name, insisting on patriarchal family life and women's adherence to traditional roles. In this course we shall read both sets of texts carefully in Greek, noting points of similarity and contestation, and test various models of how these sources-each of which seeks to "fix" the Pauline legacy in its own way-are related to one another. Time allowing, we shall also look at the later reception of the cult of Saint Thecla and late antique interpretations of "the apostle," Paul, on these issues of sexuality and gender roles, and their perduring influence in contemporary debates.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one year of Greek, or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 22035, GREK 37423, GREK 27423, FNDL 22035, RLST 22035, GNSE 42035, HCHR 42035

BIBL 42210. The Gospel of John. 100 Units.

This is an exegesis course on the Gospel of John, which we will read in its entirety in Greek in conversation with select scholarship and commentators. In addition to philological analysis, we will forefront narrative criticism as a methodological lens for interpreting John as a story with close attention to the narrative functions of the narrator, settings, plot, characters, audience, irony, and metaphor.

Instructor(s): Jeff Jay     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Greek; Introductory Koine Greek in the Divinity School, or equivalent.

BIBL 42215. Athanasius on the Incarnation. 100 Units.

Athanasius was born and reared in Alexandria where he received a thorough classical education. He eventually became secretary to the bishop Alexander, with whom he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 and whom he succeeded as bishop of Alexandria in 328. For the rest of his life, both in his theological writings and in his turbulent ecclesiastical career, he was a fervent advocate for the Nicene formulations, resisting Arianism at every turn. His most famous work, the De Incarnatione, expounds how Jesus the Word, by becoming flesh, restores to fallen humans the image of God in which they were created. We will read a good part (about 60 pages) of this celebrated treatise with attention to Athanasius' straightforward Greek style, his portrait of the logos, and his enduring contribution to Trinitarian theology.

Equivalent Course(s): GREK 34124, GREK 24124, RLST 22215

BIBL 42220. What is a "Gospel": The Gospel in Literary Context. 100 Units.

A critical examination of different scholarly proposals for understanding the genre and literary context of the four New Testament gospels, which we will read in comparison with several kinds of ancient literature, including Greco-Roman biographies (of Aesop, Cicero, Apollonius, Antony, etc.), "Jewish novels," the Greek romances, aretologies, comedies, tragedies, and works of ancient historiography. Grounding our inquiry in theories of literary genre and mode, as well as in approaches to thinking about the nature of literary dependency, development, and creativity, we will consider among other issues: How and when does the term "Gospel" come to denote written texts? In what way do "Gospels" constitute the emergence of a "new" kind of literature? How is it best to characterize the authors of the Gospels-as collectors, editors, redactors, or creative writers in their own right? Is a Gospel best described as "high" or "low" literature? How do select "apocryphal" or non-canonical "Gospels" fit into this literary picture? Overall, this course provides a step toward understanding, characterizing, and situating early Christian literary culture in terms of the emergence and development of "Gospel" literature.

BIBL 42222. Lesser Known Gospels. 100 Units.

An introduction to the apocryphal gospels. Our primary task will be to read and discuss the primary texts in translation-gospel writings outside of the four canonical New Testament gospels in conjunction with recent scholarship. We will focus on (among others) the Gospels of Peter, Thomas, Mary, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, the Proto-Gospel of James, as well as other select Jewish-Christian and Nag Hammadi gospel texts.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Jay     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22222

BIBL 42230. Gospel According to Luke. 100 Units.

An exegesis course in Greek on this rich and intricate text. Each week we will dedicate the first class to translating, focusing on philology as well as parsing and rehearsing basic Koine grammar and common grammatical paradigms. We will then devote the second class to interpretation, discussing the issues in Luke to which our texts for the week speak. These include both traditional and more contemporary issues in Lukan exegesis, focusing, e.g., on Luke's composition, redaction of Mark, narrative unity, and attitudes toward history, Christology, and eschatology, as well as Lukan constructions of masculinity, the role Luke gives to women, the problem of wealth and economics, and Luke's posture toward imperial Rome. For the final project, students may choose one Lukan pericope, for which they will provide an annotated translation and write an interpretive essay.

Instructor(s): J. Jay     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Greek skills (Koine); 2 quarters of the Koine sequence in the Divinity School or equivalent.

BIBL 42240. Jesus in History and Memory. 100 Units.

An inquiry into the historical figure of Jesus. What can we know historically about this person, his place of origin in first-century Galilee, his life and death, his teachings (e.g., on law, love, marriage and divorce, family, eschatology), his self-understanding, healings, exorcisms, hopes, or failures? How can we situate Jesus culturally and religiously vis-à-vis early first-century Mediterranean and Palestinian societies, Second Temple Judaisms, imperial Rome, or Greco-Roman philosophies? We will examine a variety of scholarly approaches, methods, and answers to these questions, which in turn require serious hermeneutical reflection and decision about the nature and limits of historical knowledge and the hairbreadth lines between written and oral sources, the remembrance of things past, and history (to the degree it is accessible) wie es eigentlich gewesen. We will work carefully with the canonical gospels, "Q," the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, and other valuable non-canonical sources. We will also critically examine the works of major scholars in this area, including Rudolf Bultmann, Albert Schweitzer, Norman Perrin, E.P. Sanders, Gerd Theissen, John Dominic Crossan, John P. Meier, Sean Freyne, James D. G. Dunn, and Daniel Boyarin.

Instructor(s): J. Jay     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Introduction to the New Testament or equivalent will be helpful but is not required; Greek reading skills are not necessary, but opportunity will be provided for their rigorous use for credit.

BIBL 42404. Gospel of Mark. 100 Units.

TBD

BIBL 42600. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible: Introduction. 100 Units.

Critical survey of texts of prophetic commissioning or of direct interaction with the deity, in prose and in poetry.

Instructor(s): S. Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter

BIBL 42610. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

Introduces the materials, tools, methods, and ideas connected with the world of manuscript differences in the Hebrew Bible. Engages the Dead Sea scrolls, the Septuagint, the Masoretic Text, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. Examples range across the Hebrew Bible.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew and Greek

BIBL 42910. Gender and Sexuality in Late Antiquity: Precursors and Legacies. 100 Units.

In this course students will trace how gender was theorized and normative behavior was prescribed and enforced in the ancient world. We will begin with materials from the Greco-Roman world, Hebrew Bible, and the Second Temple Period. As the quarter progresses, we will turn our attention to early and late ancient Christian authors, focusing on the way asceticism and emergent ecclesial institutions shaped the lives of women and gender non-conforming individuals. Throughout the course students will learn to navigate the pitfalls and opportunities the study of gender affords for understanding the development of biblical interpretation, the transformation of classical Graeco-Roman culture, and the formation of Christian doctrine. How did Christianity challenge and preserve norms for female behavior? How did Rabbinic and early Christian authors approach questions of sexuality differently? Along the way we will bring 20th-century theorists of sexuality and gender into our conversations to illuminate pre-modern discourses of virginity, sexual experience, and identity. Primarily we will approach texts through a historical lens while paying attention to the theological and ethical issues involved. At the end of the course we will examine the legacy of late ancient debates, tracing how earlier teaching about gender and sexuality co-exists with, challenges, and informs modern secular worldviews.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): No languages are required, but there will be ample opportunity for students with skills in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Hebrew to use them.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22910, GNSE 42910, CLAS 35319, CLCV 25319, GNSE 22910

BIBL 43102. History and Narrative in the First and Second Book o Maccabees. 100 Units.

The first two Books of Maccabees, composed by Jews in antiquity but preserved only via the Christian canon, in Greek, narrate the events of a critical and formative period of Jewish history in the second century BCE-a period of Hellenization, persecution, rebellion, and state-building. But they reflect very different points of view and ways of life. 1 Maccabees, originally in Hebrew, is a Judean work, the dynastic history of the sovereign Judean rulers of the Hasmonean state. 2 Maccabees, in contrast, is an originally Greek work and reflects the world of Judaism in the Hellenistic Diaspora, subjects of Hellenistic monarchs. In this seminar we will focus on the two books both as evidence for events in Judaea and as evidence for the respective contexts that they reflect. The seminar is open to students with at least basic proficiency in ancient Greek.

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 43100

BIBL 43220. Biblical Law in its Near Eastern Context. 100 Units.

This course will consider biblical legal texts in relation to other legal material from the ancient Near East. We will address issues such as the origin of biblical laws, their relation to real legal practice, their similarities to and differences from other Near Eastern laws, their relation to the narratives in which they are embedded, and their legal reasoning.

Instructor(s): J. Stackert     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Hebrew required; facility with other ancient Near Eastern languages desirable
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 43220

BIBL 43300. Introduction to Papyrology. 100 Units.

This course will concentrate on the methods and perspectives of the discipline of papyrology, including the "hands on" experience of working with photographed and scanned texts of various collections. No previous knowledge of the field is assumed; we will begin from the ground up. Approximately the first six weeks of the course will be devoted to an introduction to the study of papyri, in which our concerns will include the following: 1. transcription and analysis of different paleographic styles, including literary hands and documentary Ptolemaic scripts. 2. extensive reading of edited papyrus texts from the Pestman and Loeb editions and elsewhere; 3. careful attention to the linguistic phenomenon of koine Greek with regard to phonology, morphology, and syntax; how the koine differs from the classical language and the relationship of the idiom of the papyri to that of other koine documents, such as the New Testament; the importance of koine linguistics to textual criticism. 4. investigation of the contribution of papyrology to other areas of the study of antiquity such as literature, social history, linguistics, textual criticism, and religion.

Instructor(s): David Martinez     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Three years of Greek
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition only.
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 36100

BIBL 43502. Ignatius of Antioch. 100 Units.

We will closely read in Greek the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, with special attention to questions of authenticity and date, his rhetoric in the context of the Second Sophistic, his theology of suffering and martyrdom, as well as his general importance as a source for understanding early Christian history, theology, and interpretation.

Instructor(s): Jeff Jay     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate Greek skills (Koine)

BIBL 43600. The Pastoral Epistles. 100 Units.

A Greek exegesis course on three short letters addressed to Paul's trusted envoys (1 and 2 Timothy; Titus), which will focus on the following questions: the nature, significance, dynamics and authority of Pauline pseudepigraphy; the forms of ethical argumentation in these letters and their relation to Hellenistic philosophy; the social history of Greco-Roman households and their role in early Christian formation; historical reconstruction of the roles of women in the Paulinist communities addressed by these letters (including a reading of the later work, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, which may represent the viewpoint the author is attacking), and the history of interpretation and outsize influence of this small body of texts on Christian thought and practice, down to the present.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Greek skills (Koine and/or Attic)

BIBL 43801. Ritual, Cult and Magic in the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

This course will explore the variety and nature of religious practice in ancient Israel and the wider ancient Near East. We will consider topics such as sacrifice, purity and holiness, temple cult, priesthood, analogical ritual, and popular and enigmatic rites. We will reflect on all of these subjects in light of modern theories of religion and ritual.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Students should have taken a critical Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20811

BIBL 43803. Biblical Notions of Covenant. 100 Units.

This is a reading course in biblical texts that engage the notion of covenant. Covenant is a central religious idea in many biblical texts, even as different authors conceptualized it in very different ways. In this course, we will examine the ways that covenant is understood in a selection of texts from the Hebrew Bible. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew. This course serves as the third quarter of the Hebrew language sequence in the Divinity School, but it is also open to other students with the proper language preparation.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 33900 and 34000 Introductory Biblical Hebrew I and II, or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

BIBL 43804. Deuteronomy 1-4: Composition, Redaction, Textual Transmission. 100 Units.

This course will examine the complex compositional and textual history of Deuteronomy 1-4. We will consider the role these chapters play in the pentateuchal Deuteronomic source, their relationship with corresponding texts in Exodus and Numbers, and the relevance of the ancient witnesses for understanding their composition and redaction.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Autumn

BIBL 44100. Reading the Psalms. 100 Units.

In this course, we will read closely a selection of biblical psalms, paying special attention to their genre and poetry. We will also consider the import of these psalms for understanding ancient Israelite religious thought. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew. This course is meant especially for students who have taken the fall-winter biblical Hebrew sequence in the Divinity School.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): At least one year of biblical Hebrew or equivalent (BIBL 33900 and BIBL 34000 Introductory Biblical Hebrew)
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.

BIBL 44500. Philo of Alexandria. 100 Units.

In this course we will read the Greek text of Philo's de opificio mundi, with other brief excerpts here and there in the Philonic corpus. Our aim will be to use this treatise to elucidate the thought and character of one of the most prolific theological writers of the first century. We will seek to understand Philo as a Greek author and the nature and origins of his style, Philo as a proponent of middle Platonism, and Philo as a Jew in the context of Alexandrian Judaism. We will also examine his use of the allegorical method as an exegetical tool, and its implications for pagan, Jewish and early Christian approaches to sacred texts.

Instructor(s): David Martinez     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least 2 years of Greek.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23314, GREK 34600, GREK 24600, FNDL 22314

BIBL 44600. Zion and Zaphon: Biblical Texts and Memory Studies. 100 Units.

The course will engage memory studies to analyze how ancient authors responded to the campaigns of Assyria against Judea and Israel in the 8th-7th cents BCE. Sources will include ancient art, archaeological finds, and literature of many genres in the Hebrew Bible and outside it.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Introductory Biblical Hebrew sequence (BIBL 33900–34000 + Text course) or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 44600, RLST 21865, KNOW 44600, NEHC 21865, HIJD 44600

BIBL 44602. Song of Songs. 100 Units.

In this text-course we will read the entire poetic composition, drawing on theory of literature in general and poetry in particular, tracing its unique forms of continuity, and analyzing its biblically distinctive forms of gender characterization.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): prerequisite: 1 year biblical Hebrew/ BIBL 33900 and BIBL 34000
Note(s): This is the Biblical Hebrew exegesis course.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24602, GNSE 44603, HIJD 44602, NEHC 44602, GNSE 24603

BIBL 44700. The Book Of Samuel: MT-LXX-DSS. 100 Units.

Introduction to textual criticism (= manuscript analysis) of the Hebrew Bible through comparison of the book of Samuel in the Hebrew Massoretic Text (MT), the Greek Septuagint (LXX), the Dead Sea scrolls, and parallels in the book of Chronicles.

Equivalent Course(s): NELC 30061

BIBL 44800. Words of the Wise: Proverbs and Qohelet. 100 Units.

Text-course (text in biblical Hebrew only) covering the literary genres, discursive styles, and philosophical ideas of Proverbs and Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), with attention to voicing, double-voicing, and intertextuality.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): One year of Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 44800, NEHC 24801, RLST 22304, NEHC 44801

BIBL 44900. Lecture: Paul's Letter to the Romans. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

BIBL 44904. Paul's First and Last Letters-The Macedonian Correspondence. 100 Units.

A Greek exegesis course on 1 Thessalonians and Philippians, likely (though not uncontestedly) Paul's first and last letters. We shall engage in close reading of these letters with attention to lexicography, grammar, syntax, and style, and put these philological skills to work on the study of key issues such: as Paul's mode of writing and argumentation, his development of a Christian "idiolect" (in-group language), his opponents and modes of response to them, and his theology and ethics. We shall also ask whether one can see evolution in his thought from his first to likely final letter, Philippians, written from Rome as he contemplates his death. This course serves as the third quarter exegesis course in the Introduction to Koine Greek sequence, even as various levels of Greek skills are welcome.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 35100 and 35300 Introductory Koine Greek I and II, or equivalent (please contact the instructor with questions; undergraduates welcome).
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

BIBL 45100. Innerbiblical Exegesis. 100 Units.

This course will explore the phenomenon of literary revision in the Hebrew Bible and, to a limited extent, its precursors and successor texts. In addition to analyzing various examples of innerbiblical exegesis, we will consider the theoretical issues related to literary revision, including the question of criteria for determining literary dependence and direction of dependence and the intents of texts that reuse source material. All biblical texts will be read in their original languages.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Strong Biblical Hebrew
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 21550

BIBL 45250. Christians" and "Jews", Rhetoric and Reality. 100 Units.

A critical assessment of different scholarly positions on the relationship between "Christians" and "Jews" in the imperial period up until the end of the fourth century (e.g., "the siblings model," "the parting of the ways," the "wave theory model," the "ways that never parted," and others) as tested against close analysis of such literary sources as the letters of Paul, the gospels of Matthew and John, Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, Melito of Sardis' Peri Pascha, Tertullian's "Against the Jews," various works of Origen, and John Chrysostom's 8 homilies "Against the Jews/Judaizing Christians." Our goal is careful methodological and historiographical analysis of whether or how from such sources we might discern and reconstruct historical reality - local and/or trans-Mediterranean - about persons and groups, and their identities, viewpoints, practices and interactions.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 45250

BIBL 45300. Disability Studies and Biblical Studies. 100 Units.

This course will consider the application of disabilities studies theory in the interpretation of biblical texts. It will introduce students to the recent history of scholarship in this subspecialty and the various ends pursued by those studying disability in ancient literary representations. While focused mainly on the Hebrew Bible, students of the New Testament/early Christianity or ancient Judaism may choose to take the course and write their paper on a relevant text.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert and Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26330

BIBL 45400. Second Isaiah. 100 Units.

This course is a reading course on Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-66). It is meant both for students who have completed the first year Hebrew sequence in the Divinity School and others who would like to read Second Isaiah in Hebrew. We will focus on interpreting texts by attending to their grammatical, literary, and historical features.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): One year of Biblical Hebrew
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22303

BIBL 45602. Giving and Receiving. 100 Units.

Emphasis will be on care of the indigent. The focus will be textual (classical biblical and rabbinic sources, also some medieval legal codes), but will include comparative issues drawn from anthropology. The larger concern of this course will be on theological matters.

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 45600

BIBL 46000. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

In this course, students will learn the basic concepts, methods, theories, resources, and scholarly history of the textual criticism of the books making up the Hebrew Bible. They will practice comparing the Massoretic Text with relevant other manuscripts and text-traditions in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic; evaluating variants; and considering unattested emendations. Students will explore the overlap between composition-history and manuscript-history. At the conclusion of this course, students will have the knowledge and tools to embark on their own text-critical examination of passages in the Hebrew Bible.

Instructor(s): Sarah Yardney     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Students need to have working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, especially Hebrew and Greek.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

BIBL 46200. Prophetic Vision and Divine Visitation. 100 Units.

Readings in literary theory, followed by a critical survey of texts of prophetic commissioning or of direct interaction with the deity, in prose and in poetry, across the Hebrew Bible.

Instructor(s): S. Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: One year of Biblical Hebrew

BIBL 46399. The Apocalypse of John: Conflict of Interpretations. 100 Units.

We will examine various and sometimes conflicting hermeneutical strategies for decoding this enigmatic work and accessing its complex symbolism and imagery. The first task will be to gain some purchase on how the Apocalypse of John (a.k.a. Revelation) works as an example of ancient apocalyptic writing in comparison with near-contemporary Jewish apocalypses. We will also examine how this text portrays the Roman imperial regime, with special attention to its critique of the imperial cult and other ways it intersects with and addresses Greco-Roman history, religion, politics, and society. On the other side of this literary-historical analysis we will discuss the contemporary reception of the Apocalypse, focusing on how its critical and subversive theological grammars have been redeployed in modern contexts of political struggle and oppression, for example, in South Africa during Apartheid, as well as its interpretation in critical theories, intercultural interpretations, and environmental ethics. The overall logic of this course forces serious hermeneutical reflection and discussion about the relationship between literary, historical, and constructive readings, as well as between interpretive strategies that forefront history, suspicion, or retrieval, examples of which we will juxtapose and vigorously discuss.

BIBL 46503. The Controversial Apostle. 100 Units.

Was Paul "the founder of Christianity?" a devout rabbi? a religious fanatic? an intellectual? a foe of "religion"? a universalist before his time? a Jewish apostate who vilified his own people? a prophet to the Gentiles like Jonah? a misogynist? an anti-imperial agitator? a clever religious free-lancer? a covenantal theologian? This course will examine scholarly portraits of "the apostle Paul" (as he is known to history) from the 20th and 21st centuries, including also perhaps some forays into the graphic arts and cinema. Students will learn tools for critically analyzing these portraits, their methodologies, their own poetics, and their implications for larger questions about "Christianity," "Judaism," "religion" and "politics," in past and present.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Note: open to undergraduates with permission of instructor.

BIBL 46800. Tragedy and the Tragic Vision in Early Jewish and Christian Literature. 100 Units.

We will start by studying the tragic theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, George Steiner, Simone Weil, and David Tracy, with special attention to how each theorist construes the contested relationship between tragedy and the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is viewed variously as hostile or responsive to tragedy, incapable of anything approaching "authentic tragedy" or productive of the best examples of its kind. In light of this conflict of interpretations we will then study, discuss, and closely interpret a variety of early Jewish and Christian texts where tragic drama is appropriated, interpreted, and/or composed, and where the tragic vision in some form is (arguably) alive. Authors to be studied include (among others): Ezekiel the Tragedian (who dramatizes the Exodus in the form of Greek tragic drama), Philo of Alexandria, Paul, Mark, John, Origen, Lucian, and Pseudo-Gregory's Christus patiens (which is an adaptation of poetic material from Euripides' Bacchae for a presentation of Christ's passion and resurrection).

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 46800

BIBL 46900. Readings in Plutarch's Demonology. 100 Units.

We will read sections of Plutarch's Moralia dealing with the topic of daimones, particularly from the treatise De defectu oraculorum ("On the Decline of the Oracles"). We will also read the major demonological passages from the Greek New Testament and compare the perspectives on the origen, nature, and activities of the daimon.

Instructor(s): David Martinez     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): At least two years of Greek required.
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 36918

BIBL 47012. Readings in Rabbinic Midrash: Theology and Homily in Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana. 100 Units.

The Midrash Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana (4-5th cent. CE) is a classic collection of homilies on the Jewish holiday cycle, integrating earlier exegesis and sources. The course will examine several major homiletic units to understand the interplay of theology, homily, and hermeneutics. Opening classes will provide and introduction to Midrash; subsequent sessions will focus on learning how to read and interpret a classic rabbinic homiletical work.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Basic proficiency in Rabbinic Hebrew (translation will be supplemented).
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 47012, THEO 47012

BIBL 48002. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. 100 Units.

This is a reading and exegesis course on the prophetic texts of Haggai, Zechariah (chs. 1-8), and Malachi. All texts will be read in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): J. Stackert     Terms Offered: Winter

BIBL 48116. Seminar: Cicero Orator. 100 Units.

Cicero's culminating essay on oratory is compared with Aristotle's Rhetoric, other rhetorical writings by Cicero, and some of the speeches with the aim of identifying distinctive preoccupations of Latin oratory at the end of the Republic. Topics considered include the influence of philosophy on rhetoric, practice versus theory, teleology in the history of Roman oratory, the construction of Roman auctoritas, and the relation of live performance to publication Ident. CLAS 48116. Peter White. ARR.

Equivalent Course(s): LATN 48116

BIBL 48402. The Book of Judges. 100 Units.

A text-course (text in biblical Hebrew only). It will cover the book's concept of a "judge," its themes, plot, and values, its sources and formation, the real beginning and end of the book, and its historical referents. Framed by theory of history and of narrative.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): One year Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22302, HIJD 48402, NEHC 48402, NEHC 28402

BIBL 48900. Reading Course: Modern Hebrew. 100 Units.

This course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content of the advanced level. The main objective is literary fluency. By the end of the course, students should have an excellent command of Hebrew. The course concentrates on the written language, especially scientific writing, as well as elements of Biblical Hebrew, literature from earlier periods and sophisticated journalistic writing. Students read the various Israeli daily newspapers as well as Israeli literature, scientific articles and legal documents (with the help of a dictionary) of varying lengths. They have a good command of synonyms and idiomatic Hebrew, and also understand the subtle differences between words. Their already substantial vocabularies now include many words from a wide variety of genres. Students considerably improve their ability to write long essays in Hebrew on a wide range of topics, incorporating idiomatic language.

Instructor(s): Ehud Har-Even     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Students should have at least four years of Modern Hebrew studies and/or passing grade of a reading exam and/or graduated the Reading Hebrew for Research Purposes.
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 29920, HEBR 49900, HEBR 29900

BIBL 49800. Origen of Alexandria. 100 Units.

It is difficult to conceive of doing justice to the vast scope of Origen's work in one quarter, but we will do our best to sample generous selections from the Greek text of his exegetical, homiletic, and doctrinal writing, including a substantive selection from his Treatise on Prayer and perhaps the section of the Dialogue with Heracleides preserved among the Tura papyri. We will of course focus on Origen as the greatest exponent of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation and its Platonic underpinnings. We will also consider carefully the style of his Greek and his position as a Christian apologist.

Equivalent Course(s): GREK 37114

BIBL 49900. The Corpus Hermeticum. 100 Units.

According to Clement of Alexandria Hermes Trismegistus authored 42 "fundamental books" on Egyptian religion. The writings under his name which are extant, dating between the first and third centuries AD, incorporate many styles and genres, including cosmogony, prophecy, gospel, popular philosophy, anthropology, magic, hymn, and apocalypse. The first treatise in the collection well represents the whole. It tells how the god Poimandres manifests to his follower a vision, revealing the origin of the kosmos and humanity, and how archetypal man descends to his fallen state and may be redeemed. We will begin with the Poimandres and then read other sections of this strange but absorbing body of material (we will read the following treatises in this order: 1, 3, 4, 7, 13, 10, 5, 11, 16).

Instructor(s): David Martinez     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): At least two years of ancient Greek.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 37123, GREK 27123

BIBL 49999. Race and the Bible. 100 Units.

The course will cover race in the Bible, race in the ancient world of the Bible, American use of the Bible on race, and the critique of race as a formative and constructed concept.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh and Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 31000 (Introduction to the Hebrew Bible) or BIBL 32500 (Introduction to the New Testament). BIBL 32500 can be taken concurrently.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 29109, NEHC 29989, HIJD 49999, NEHC 49989, CRES 27699, HCHR 49999

BIBL 50400. Early Christian Rhetoric. 100 Units.

An examination of the rhetorics (persuasive strategies) of early Christian literature, and how they were rooted in the ancient paideia (educational system) and forms of public life in the Greco-Roman world. We shall focus on significant points of intersection with the Greco- Roman rhetorical tradition in terms of style, invention, arrangement, memory and delivery, by triangulated close readings each week in Greek of selected early Christian writings, Greco-Roman rhetorical compositions, and samples of rhetorical theory. The early Christian texts will range from the Pauline letters to the fourth century, and may include: 1 Thessalonians; Acts 22; 2 Corinthians 10-13; 1 Clement; Irenaeus, Adversus haereses; Justin Martyr, apologiae; Gregory of Nazianzus, Funebris in laudem Caesarii fratris oratio; Gregory of Nyssa, in diem natalem salvatoris; and John Chrysostom's de laudibus sancti Pauli.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Strong Greek Skills
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 50400

BIBL 50902. The Books of Kings: Critical Review. 100 Units.

Students read the entire Book of Kings to learn its shape, scope, and character. Read scholarship on major and local aspects to learn the field. Lay groundwork to write seminar paper in winter course BIBL 52800.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): One year Biblical Hebrew + one text course. Expectation participants will take BIBL 52800 The Book of Kings: Seminar in the winter.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 40902, HIJD 50902

BIBL 51000. Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds. 100 Units.

This course comprises an introduction to Greek papyrus texts with a view to their contributions to Biblical and early Christian backgrounds. We will read and discuss examples of different genres of documentary papyri, including private letters, marriage contracts, adoption agreements, leases, receipts, and many others. We will also examine documents which directly illustrate religious practice, such as oracles and formal decrees regulating and prohibiting religious activity. In general we will address topics such as the important contribution of papyrology to the language of the New Testament, the form of papyrus letters compared with the NT "epistle," and the contribution of historical, social, and religious insights gleaned from the papyri to the early Christian context.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 51001, CLAS 45200, GREK 45400, RLST 21101

BIBL 51401. The Documentary Hypothesis. 100 Units.

This course will be an in-depth study of the Documentary Hypothesis for the composition of the Pentateuch/Torah. We will begin with analysis of pentateuchal texts, which is the starting point for understanding the theory and its value. Only after working with the texts will we engage the scholarly discussion of pentateuchal theory, including the development of the Documentary Hypothesis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, objections raised against it, and its current revision and reinvigoration among Neodocumentarians. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Strong Biblical Hebrew language skills required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

BIBL 51602. Josephus and the New Testament. 100 Units.

TBD

BIBL 51620. The Priestly Religious Imagination. 100 Units.

In this seminar, we will examine the major religious ideas of the pentateuchal Priestly source and related texts in the Hebrew Bible as a window on the ancient Israelite religious imagination. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): J. Stackert     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Strong Hebrew language skills

BIBL 51800. Exegesis Seminar: 2 Corinthians. 100 Units.

An exegesis course on the Greek text of 2 Corinthians, in which we shall critically test one theory of literary partition through a close reading in succession of each of the five letter fragments now contained in the redacted canonical epistle. This allows for a fresh historical reconstruction of an unfolding conflict, and for due attention to how Paul's letters and their multiple meanings contributed to it, as he and his earliest readers struggle to control meaning in the context of suspicion, misunderstanding and dissent. Focal themes: epistolary theory and practice; the nature, logic and limitations of Pauline rhetoric; the cultural and religious repertoire upon which Paul draws in these letters (e.g., on boasting, reconciliation, military imagery, anthropology, consolation, heavenly journeys, fund-raising and gift-giving); the purpose and art of interpretation and its audiences.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate Greek skills (Koine)
Equivalent Course(s): NTEC 51800

BIBL 52100. Galatians and James: Traditions in Conflict? 100 Units.

Is salvation by faith or by works (or by some combination of the two)? This seminar will involve a close exegetical analysis of two early Christian documents, both purportedly letters by first generation Christians, which use suspiciously similar vocabulary and even invoke the same exemplum (Abraham) to debate this religious question. First we shall study the historical context, religious world-view, rhetorical purpose and theology of each document on its own terms, and then test various theories of their literary and historical relationships with one another, while simultaneously engaging κατὰ πρόσωπον with the long and intertwined history of reception of both. Ongoing discussion of the nature, purpose, meaning and challenges of a biblical canon, its authority and negotiability in Christian traditions of thought and practice over time.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Greek skills (Koine)
Equivalent Course(s): NTEC 52100, HCHR 52100

BIBL 52101. Reading the Psalms with Ancient Christian Biblical Interpreters. 100 Units.

A hugely significant source for ancient Christian interpreters, the Psalms (as read in Greek translation) also posed perplexing problems of language and diction, and of speaking voice and referents. This course will engage in close readings of Athanasius' Epistula ad Marcellinum, which argues that the Psalter is a garden that resounds with all of scriptural wisdom, set to song; on the fascinating Greek homilies by Origen of Alexandria on the Psalms from the mid-third century (newly discovered and published in 2015); and the Commentary/Homilies by John Chrysostom on the Psalms from the late fourth century.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Greek is not required, but there will be ample opportunity for those with Greek skills to exercise them.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 52101

BIBL 52304. The Priestly God in the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

TBD

BIBL 52907. Lamentations. 100 Units.

TBD

BIBL 53500. Early Christian Biblical Interpretation. 100 Units.

This year the Early Christian Biblical Interpretation seminar will focus on two caches of untranslated Greek homiletic texts: the Greek homilies on the Psalms by Origen of Alexandria (discovered in 2012, published in a critical edition in 2015), and homilies by John Chrysostom on "problem passages" in the Pauline epistles. Reading Origen and Chrysostom alongside one another will allow us to test the accuracy of the traditional divide between "Alexandrine allegory" and "Antiochene literalism," while also focusing on the various ways that each employs the traditional school form of problemata kai lyseis ("problems and solutions") in his interpretive work and its rhetorical presentation.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Greek skills (Attic and Koine)
Equivalent Course(s): NTEC 53500, HCHR 53500

BIBL 53510. Early Jewish Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

Explores Jewish ideas and hermeneutics at Exodus 19-20 and select other biblical texts, in sources from the Septuagint and Dead Sea scrolls through Targumim and Rabbinic literature to Medieval Jewish commentaries.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew; Biblical Greek or Aramaic; Professor Approval
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20510, HIJD 53510, NELC 30063

BIBL 54404. Dion of Prusa and the New Testament. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

BIBL 54700. Critical Methods in the Study of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

This course will consider the development and application of critical methods in the study of the Hebrew Bible. We will focus especially upon the questions that each critical method is meant to address and what kinds of conclusions can plausibly be drawn from their use. We will apply these methods to texts from the book of Exodus. However, this is not a course on Exodus, and we will actually read very little of Exodus together during this quarter.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Strong biblical Hebrew required; other biblical and ancient Near Eastern languages desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

BIBL 55100. Hebrew Bible Colloquium. 100 Units.

The course focuses on academic argumentative writing generally, with specific application to the field of Hebrew Bible. The course offers students the opportunity to revise and further develop a previously written paper into a significant piece of original research through the help of peer review.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Students must have a paper min. 15–20pp written for a PhD-level course, and they must have it approved by this course's Instructor in advance. The course is open to Bible Area students focusing on the New Testament who read biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

BIBL 55110. Sources of the Pentateuch. 100 Units.

Seminar for hands-on experience in identifying, "separating," and interpreting sources within the Pentateuch (and Joshua) through varied examples.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew and Greek
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 30027

BIBL 55118. The Book of Job. 100 Units.

A critical, multifaceted exploration of this influential and provocative work on justice in God's world.

BIBL 55800. Novellas of the Hebrew Bible: Jonah, Ruth, Esther, Job. 100 Units.

Seminar using theory of narrative to interact with scholarship on biblical narrative and analyze four narrative works in the Hebrew Bible.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 1 yr Biblical Hebrew + 1 text course.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 55800, HIJD 55800

BIBL 55900. Biblical Historical Texts. 100 Units.

This is a reading course in biblical texts that narrate the past. We will consider the nature of biblical historiography as we read a selection of historical texts from across the biblical canon. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): One year of Biblical Hebrew

BIBL 56101. The Philosophical Interpretation of Scripture in the Middle Ages: The Problem of Evil and the Book. 100 Units.

One of the major genres of philosophical writing during the Middle Ages was the commentary, both on Aristotle and other canonical philosophers and on Scripture. This course will examine philosophical discussions of the problem of evil by three medieval philosophers through close reading and analysis of both their discursive expositions of the problem of evil and providence and their commentaries on the Book of Job. The three philosophers will be Saadia Gaon, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas. Apart from close analysis of their different conceptions of the problem, their theodicies, and accounts of providence, we will also be concerned with ways in which the thinkers' 'straight' philosophical discursive expositions differ from their commentaries, the sense in which Scripture might be a philosophical text that deserves philosophical commentary, and how the scriptural context influences the philosophy by which it is interpreted? (IV)

Instructor(s): J. Stern     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 56101, PHIL 56101

BIBL 70000. Advanced Study: Biblical Studies. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Biblical Studies

CHRM 35100. Arts of Ministry: Worship and Preaching. 100 Units.

CHRM 35102. Arts of Ministry: Ritual, Worship, Preaching, and Teaching. 100 Units.

This course is the first of a three-quarter sequence introducing students to essential aspects of religious leadership; the sequence is required for second-year MDIV students and complements their work in field education. In this course, students have the opportunity to visit and observe religious practice in several religious communities, as they are reading ritual theory and researching their own traditions' practices. Weekly "practice labs" offer students the opportunity to practice speaking to and on behalf of religious communities, instruct students on ritual performance, and invite students to engage their classmates in a life cycle ritual of their own construction.

Instructor(s): Cynthia Lindner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Second year M.Div students, or by permission from instructor.

CHRM 50202. Advanced Preaching Seminar. 100 Units.

CHRM 50401. Advanced Seminar in Spiritual Care: Defining Health Multidisciplinary Explorations. 100 Units.

CHRM 50402. Advanced Seminar in Spiritual Care: Selves, Families, Communities. 100 Units.

The seminar will delve into systems theory, as so many individuals, organizations and communities are struggling for coherence and effectiveness in a polarized cultural context. We will examine some of the more recent theoretical developments, such as "internal family systems", as well as 'traditional' family systems; couples work; group work; congregations and communities-as-systems. Regular labs will explore cases and work on skills for couples and family work, and negotiating group conflict. Students will develop and workshop their own projects.

Instructor(s): Cynthia Lindner     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Arts of Ministry: Spiritual Care and Counseling; or, permission of instructor

CHRM 70000. Advanced Study: Ministry. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Ministry

HCHR 30200. History of Christian Thought II: The Middle Ages. 100 Units.

This second class in the History of Christian Thought sequence deals with the period from Late Antiquity until the end of the Early Middle Ages, stretching roughly from 450 through 1350. The following authors and themes will be analyzed and discussed: 1. The transition from Roman antiquity to the medieval period: Boethius and Cassiodorus 2. The rise of asceticism in the West: the Rule of St. Benedict and Gregory the Great 3. Connecting East and West: Dionysius the Areopagite and John Scottus Eriugena 4. Monastic and Scholastic paragons: Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard 5. High-medieval monastic developments: Cistercians (Bernard of Clairvaux) and Victorines (Hugh and Richard of St. Victor), beguines (Hadewijch) and mendicants (Bonaventure). 6. Scholastic synthesis and spiritual alternatives: Thomas Aquinas, Marguerite Porete and Eckhart.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 30200, HIST 31902

HCHR 30300. History of Christian Thought III. 100 Units.

This is the third course in the History of Christian Thought sequence, covering foundational Reformation-era thinkers from Catholic, Protestant, and 'radical' traditions. We will cover 1) the rise of Christian humanism in the Northern European Renaissance; 2) key texts and ideas within the German Lutheran, Swiss Reformed, and Genevan (Calvinist) Reformations; 3) important developments within Counter-Reformation thought, including the rise of the Jesuit Order, Spanish Catholic mysticism, as well as shifts within Catholic understandings of temporal and spiritual authority; and 4) seminal writings within Baptist, rationalist and anti-trinitarian thought. Classes will be based closely around the readings of primary texts representing important intellectual and theological developments, while remaining grounded thoroughly within the historical context of the period and paying attention to the debates historians have had over their influence, significance, and legacy.

Instructor(s): Paul C.H. Lim     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 30300

HCHR 30400. History of Christian Thought IV. 100 Units.

This fourth class in the History of Christian Thought sequence deals with the period from the Council of Trent to the mid-18th Century (1550-1750). Themes to be discussed include the rise of modern theology, the relationship between theology and philosophy, the relationship between faith and reason, and the increasing diversification of modes of theological discourse.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 30400

HCHR 31410. American Religion Since 1865. 100 Units.

Why is religion more vital in the United States than in almost any other industrialized nation? This course will address that question by tracing the religious history of America from Reconstruction to the present. We will examine how religion has influenced every aspect of American society, from everyday life to presidential politics. We will look at religion's role in major events like World War I, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. And we will explore how in recent decades the United States has become a nation of incredible religious diversity. This course is grounded in secondary literature; its goal is to introduce students to both the history and historiography of religion in the modern United States.

Instructor(s): Will Schultz     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 21410, HIST 27717, AMER 31410, RLST 21410, RAME 31410, HIST 37717

HCHR 32106. Introduction to the Study of Iconography. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 32106, ARTH 22106, RLST 28320, RLIT 32106

HCHR 32418. The Scopes Trial in Historical Perspective. 100 Units.

This course will explore in depth and in detail the 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, especially in light of its centennial. We will examine the transcript of the trial, newspaper editorials, cartoons, scholarly analyses, and various contemporary observations on the meaning and significance of the trial. Among the topics covered are the fundamentalist/modernist controversy of the 1920s and its consequences, interpretations of the origins and tenacity of the anti-evolution campaign, and broader debates about science and religion and the contested authority of experts in American society. Though much of the historical analysis will focus on the 1920s, some attention will be paid to the implications of this highly publicized trial and what it came to signify about larger cultural, political, and religious divisions in the United States.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may enroll themselves only after getting approval from the instructor (cjevans@uchicago.edu).
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 32418, AMER 32418, RLST 22418, AMER 22418

HCHR 32604. The Reformation in Britain, 1450-1660. 100 Units.

The Reformation in Britain is one of the most contested areas in early modern history. Was it mostly a political event, triggered by Henry VIII's desire for a divorce? Was it an organic movement from the ground up, inspired by the enthusiasm of ordinary believers in the same way as many reform movements in continental Europe? Did it have a distinctive theology of its own: can we call this 'Anglicanism'? Should we be studying the 'British Reformation' on its own terms at all, or should it be viewed simply as an offshoot of the continental European Reformations? And did the puritans really want to cancel Christmas? This course will give students a thorough grounding in the Reformation in Britain c.1450-1660, paying especial attention to the complex historiographical issues that still plague the topic to this day. Students will have the opportunity to study a range of key primary texts from the era, from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs to the letters of Queen Elizabeth I, as well as to examine the modern-day legacies of English reform.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22604

HCHR 33000. Muses and Saints: Poetry and the Christian Imagination. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction to the poetic traditions of early Christians and the intersection between poetic literature, theology, and biblical interpretation. Students will gain familiarity with the literary context of the formative centuries of Christianity with a special emphasis on Greek and Syriac Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean from the fourth through the sixth centuries. While theology is often taught through analytical prose, theological reflection in late antiquity and early Byzantium was frequently done in poetic genres. This course introduces students to the major composers and genres of these works as well as the various recurrent themes that occur within this literature. Through reading poetry from liturgical and monastic contexts, students will explore how the biblical imaginations of Christians were formed beyond the confines of canonical scripture. How is poetry a mode of "doing" theology? What habits of biblical interpretation and narration does one encounter in this poetry? This course exposes students to a variety of disciplinary frameworks for studying early Christian texts including history, religious studies, feminist and literary critique, as well as theology. Students will also analyze medieval and modern poetry with religious themes in light of earlier traditions to reflect on the poetry and the religious imagination more broadly.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Open to undergraduate and graduate students; Graduate students may choose to attend weekly translation group
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 33000, ENGL 33809, BIBL 33000, GNSE 34104, CLAS 36119, RLST 23000, MDVL 23000, GNSE 24104, CLCV 26119

HCHR 33829. Foundational Readings in Christian Anthropology. 100 Units.

What is necessary for humans to flourish? How do the soul, body, and intellect relate? How did early Christians understand the human person, the effects of sin, and the nature of revelation? This course introduces students to the ways Origen, Augustine, Ephrem the Syrian, and Gregory of Nyssa approached these foundational questions and set trajectories for the subsequent development of Christian thought. We will pay particular attention to their interpretation of scripture, especially Genesis 1-3 and the Pauline Epistles. These theologians' interpretations of scripture shaped Christian thinking about social structures, gender, class, and freedom in ways that continue to have an influence. For those unfamiliar with the intellectual history of early Christianity, this class will offer an opportunity to read consequential texts (in translation) from Latin, Greek, and Syriac authors that represent the diversity inherent within Christian literature. By the end of the course, students will have the skills to discern how these formative voices continue to shape Christian ethics and theology. For those interested in reading these authors in their original languages, I will offer optional weekly translation sessions in Latin, Greek, and Syriac.

Instructor(s): Erin Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 33829, RLST 23829, THEO 33829

HCHR 34523. The Ecumenical Church Councils and the Making of Christian Doctrine. 100 Units.

The Church Councils of late antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries) were huge conferences of bishops, priests, monks, secular officials, and emperors, who met to decide on the rules that would govern the Church and the doctrines that all Christians had to believe. They combined philosophical debate, criminal trials, committee meetings, and Senate procedure. Some were rowdy and acrimonious, while others were meticulously organized in advance, usually by the court. Some remain obscure, while others are the most thoroughly documented events in all ancient history and reveal in detail how the later Roman government operated. In this course we will read, in Greek, a number of fascinating narratives and official acts stemming from the most important Councils, including Nicaea I (325), Ephesos I (431), and Chalcedon (451). We will also discuss the Councils from a historical perspective to understand the complex negotiations that gave rise to Christian doctrine and canon law.

Instructor(s): Anthony Kaldellis      Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 34523, GREK 24523, RLST 20523

HCHR 34900. The Age of Walter Rauschenbusch: The Social Gospel. 100 Units.

This course is a critical evaluation of the theological and social thought and the historical contributions of the Social Gospel, which is regarded as a relatively distinct effort to reform the American social, economic and political order from the 1880s to the 1920s. We will explore a number of themes that preoccupied leading thinkers, including but not limited to the Kingdom of God, a critique of individualism, social solidarity, revisions of divine immanence or God's relation to the world, the person and ethics of Jesus, and human progress. These themes will not be treated abstractly, but as theological and social ideas regarded as instruments of concrete engagement with and attempts to transform America's increasingly urban, industrial and pluralistic society. Particular emphasis is placed on the work and writings of Walter Rauschenbusch, a prominent Baptist preacher and church historian who provided a sustained revision of Christian social thought, a radical critique of capitalism and the growing power and influence of corporations in US economic and political life. Although primary focus will be on Protestant Christianity as the exponent of Social Gospel reform, some effort is made to understand how Catholics challenged and reflected some of these critiques of American society.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 47602, RAME 34900

HCHR 35700. The Christian Right. 100 Units.

From the Gilded Age to the age of Donald Trump, conservatives Christians have played a major role in shaping American politics and culture. This course will use primary and secondary sources to explore the development of the Christian Right in the United States. We will answer essential questions about the movement: Who joins it? Who leads it? And who funds it? We will examine how conservative Christians approach not only "moral" issues like abortion but also issues like economic regulation and foreign policy. Finally, we will seek to answer the question: What is the future of the Christian Right in an increasingly diverse America?

Instructor(s): William Schultz     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 35700, HIST 37719, AMER 22667, RAME 35700, HIST 27719, RLST 22667

HCHR 36001. Religion and Visual Culture in the Late Antique Mediterranean. 100 Units.

In this seminar, we examine sacred sites and artifacts of early Christians and their neighbors in the regions around the Mediterranean from the third century to about 750 CE. Case studies will illustrate the wealth of religious art and architecture associated with different religions that existed side by side-Christianity, Judaism, polytheism, and emerging Islam. This course has five main objectives: (1) to examine how the designs of religious spaces, buildings, and objects respond to specific spiritual or ritualistic needs; (2) to gain familiarity with typical features characterizing the arts of each religion or sect; (3) to identify elements of a common visual language that result from shared traditions or artistic cross-pollination; (4) to examine different ways in which material artifacts were employed as means of ideological propaganda; and (5) to study art and architecture as evidence of doctrinal competition and conflict. While this course foregrounds the study of material culture, written sources (in translation) complement the analysis of the visual evidence.

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 36001, RLST 26001

HCHR 36500. The Radiant Pearl: Introduction to Syriac Literature and its Historical Contexts. 100 Units.

After Greek and Latin, Syriac literature represents the third largest corpus of writings from the formative centuries of Christianity. This course offers students a comprehensive overview of the dominant genres and history of Syriac-speaking Christians from the early centuries through the modern day. Moving beyond traditional historiography that focuses exclusively on early Christianity within the Roman Empire, this class examines Christian traditions that took root in the Persian and later Islamic Empires as well. Through studying the history and literature of Syriac-speaking Christians, the global reach of early Christianity and its diversity comes to the fore. Syriac-speaking Christians preached the Gospel message from the Arabian Peninsula to early modern China and India. Syriac writers also raised female biblical figures and holy women to prominent roles within their works. Students will broaden their understanding of the development of Christian thought as they gain greater familiarity with understudied voices and visions for Christian living found within Syriac literature. Special attention will be paid to biblical translation, asceticism, poetry, differences between ecclesial communities as well as the changing political fortunes of Syriac-speaking populations. No previous knowledge or study expected.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 26505, GNSE 36505, RLST 16500, BIBL 36500, NEHC 36500, NEHC 26500

HCHR 37106. Race and Religion: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 100 Units.

What does race have to do with religion? This course will explore how racial concepts - ideas about the transmission of characteristics through blood and lineage - emerged in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, often in response to episodes of large-scale conversion. The word "race" was itself first applied to humans in response to one of these episodes: the mass conversions of Jews and Muslims to Christianity in late medieval Spain. We will study this and other episodes, beginning with early Christianity and early Islam, and concluding with conversions to Islam in South Asia, and of enslaved Africans and native peoples to Christianity in the New World, in order to ask how these episodes of conversion influenced the mapping of culture (religion) onto reproduction (nature, biology). Did they effect the racialization of religion? and what influence did these mappings have on racial concepts in modernity?

Instructor(s): David Nirenberg     Terms Offered: Winter. Course to be taught Winter 2020
Prerequisite(s): Undergrads by consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 37106, ISLM 37106, SCTH 37106, HIST 42102

HCHR 37213. Partings, Encounters, and Entangled Histories: The Formation of Judaism and Christianity. 100 Units.

When did the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity emerge? This course explores this question by examining the formation of Judaism and Christianity within the world of the Ancient Mediterranean. What religious views, texts, and practices did Jews and Christians hold in common? How did early writers construct communal boundaries and project "ideal" belief and practice? What role did the changing political tides of the Roman and Persian empires play? We will explore continuities and growing distinctions between Jews and Christians in the areas of scriptural interpretation, ritual practices, and structures of authority. Special attention will be paid to debates around gender and sexuality, healing, and views of government and economics. We will approach these issues through material evidence and close readings of early literature in light of contemporary scholarship. Students interested in modern histories of Judaism and Christianity will gain a firm foundation in the pivotal debates, texts, and events that set the trajectories for later centuries.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisite knowledge of the historical periods, literature, or religious traditions covered is expected.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 37213, NEHC 27213, BIBL 37213, RLST 27213, JWSC 27213, NEHC 37213, HIST 31600, CLCV 24021, CLAS 34021

HCHR 37500. Spirituality of the 16th Century. 100 Units.

The Spirituality of the Sixteenth century examines both Protestant and Catholic thinkers who wrote treatises that allow us to see how theological doctrines were experienced spirituality. Three of the main themes are the role of experience, "spiritualism" of various forms, including mysticism and appeals to the inner authority of the Spirit. We will look at writings by Luther, Calvin, the German Theology, Thomas Müntzer, Carlstadt, Franck. the Anabaptists, and Catholic thinkers such as Juan de Valdės, Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila.

Instructor(s): Susan Schreiner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 37500

HCHR 38016. Religion and Politics in the United States. 100 Units.

This graduate course will focus primarily on the complex evolution of religion and politics from the early 20th century to the present. The class will involve a mix of historical/chronological approaches to grasp broad changes over time, case studies that give attention to close analysis of practice and meaning on the ground, and theoretical works that interrogate the meanings, overlaps, and constraints of the political and the religious. The aim of the course is to raise a number of questions that we will try to answer and explore together: why have certain theological and religious traditions tended to support positions labeled "conservative" or liberal? How have engagements with and understandings of race, gender, and sexuality changed over time and altered the intersections of religion and politics? In what ways do religious commitments, local practices, and theological visions shape views of the common good and national identity?

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 38016, RLST 28016

HCHR 39200. Latin American Religions, New and Old. 100 Units.

This course will consider select pre-twentieth-century issues, such as the transformations of Christianity in colonial society and the Catholic Church as a state institution. It will emphasize twentieth-century developments: religious rebellions; conversion to evangelical Protestant churches; Afro-diasporan religions; reformist and revolutionary Catholicism; new and New Age religions.

Instructor(s): D. Borges     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 29000, HIST 39000, RLST 21401, MAPS 39200, HIST 29000, LACS 39000, CRES 29000

HCHR 39300. Asceticism: Forming the Self. 100 Units.

In recent decades scholars of the pre-modern period have turned to the body as a site of renewed historical inquiry. Within the study of religion, this shift has reanimated discussions around asceticism as a particularly potent technē for self-fashioning. Nevertheless, scholars have struggled to theorize asceticism across religious traditions. This signature course, taught by two scholars working in disparate historical periods and religious traditions (early Christianity and medieval Indian religious literature), explores how gender theory has engaged ascetic practices for understanding the body and human potential. Students will engage asceticism as a series of techniques or forms of life that envision the sexed and gendered human body as the horizon of corporeal expression and personal imagination. Asceticism serves as a neat conceptual device, allowing us to toggle between the mind and body while tackling questions that fall within the liminal space between them, including debates around gender, sexuality, sovereignty, and biopower. Students along with the instructors will contend with the challenges and opportunities of transnational and transhistorical feminist and queer inquiry as we traverse across the boundaries of tradition, language, and culture. While drawing on rich historical and religious archives, we will anchor our discussions around the interplay of two principal authors: Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor and Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 39303, BIBL 39300, SIGN 26074, RLST 29300, GNSE 29303, HREL 39300, RLVC 39300

HCHR 40200. Religion and American Capitalism. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to the intersection of religion and capitalism in the United States. Through a variety of primary and secondary readings, we will explore how religious people and institutions have interacted with, affirmed, and challenged American capitalism. We will pay particularly close attention to the alternative moral economics envisioned by religious communities in the United States.

Instructor(s): William Schultz     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 37716, RLST 21430, AMER 21430, RAME 40200, AMER 40200, HIST 27716

HCHR 40204. A Proto-History of Race? Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Spain and North Africa (1200-1600) 100 Units.

This course focuses on phenomena of mass conversion and the emergence of ideologies of lineage and purity of blood in the western Mediterranean, more specifically, the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. The rivalry between Islam and Christianity (with Judaism a frequent go-between) in this region produced many distinctive cultural formations. Among those formations were ideas about the limits of conversion that may be compared to modern concepts of race. The word "race" was itself first applied to humans in Iberia during this period, to designate Christians descended from Muslims or Jews, and similar concepts emerged in Islamic North Africa. We will explore these ideas in the Christian Iberian kingdoms, with frequent excursions into Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid and Nasrid Islamic polities. Our goal will be to produce a Mediterranean archaeology of some of the concepts with which Christian and Muslim colonizers encountered the New World and sub-Saharan Africa in the sixteenth century.

Instructor(s): David Nirenberg     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Spanish reading proficiency recommended, but not required.
Note(s): This course counts as a history graduate colloquium.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 40204, CRES 40204, SCTH 40204, SPAN 40204, HIST 60904, ISLM 40204

HCHR 40360. Debating Christians and Other Adversaries: Greek and Syriac Dialogues in Late Antiquity. 100 Units.

This course will examine the composition and significance of dialogues for Christian polemic and identity formation. The quarter will begin with an overview of dialogues from Classical Antiquity before examining the new directions Christian writers followed as they staged debates with pagans, Jews, Manichaeans, and alleged "heretical" Christians. Reading these works in light of modern scholarship and with an eye to late antique rhetoric, students will gain insights into the ways theological development took place in the crucible of debate.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20360, CLAS 33820, CLCV 23820, BIBL 40360

HCHR 40401. The Contours of Twentieth Century Thought I: Between Dialectical Theology and Analogical Imagination. 100 Units.

Well into the twenty-first century it seems a good time to look back with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and take stock of the major theological developments of the twentieth century. Aside from the enormous impact of major historical events like the communist revolution and two World Wars, there is also the event of Vatican II and the civil rights struggle in the US. Throughout it all we see the profile of some extraordinary individual theologians (Barth, Lubac, Balthasar, Tracy a.o.) embedded in a larger story marking the end of some major theological movements (neo-scholasticism) and the beginning of others (dialectical theology and nouvelle théologie). This first of what is intended as a two-sequence course on twentieth-century theology will focus on the work of a number of Catholic and Protestant theologians, who struggle with the legacy of the Enlightenment and the need to reconceptualize theological thought in a fast secularizing and globalizing world.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Some knowledge of German and/or French will be helpful. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 40401, HIST 66701

HCHR 40608. Becoming Modern: Religion in America in the 1920's. 100 Units.

Terms such as "acids of modernity" and the "modern temper" were commonly used in the 1920s to describe a new phenomenon in American history. Historians still regard the 1920s as a significant moment in US History, even while revising older narratives that viewed such changes as leading to a decline in church attendance and religious practice. In the 1920s, the nation struggled with the effects of massive immigration, decades of urbanization, and significant cultural and social changes that had profound implications for religious practice and belief. This course takes an extended look at the 1925 Scopes Trial, the fundamentalist modernist controversy, and the intellectual and cultural challenges to traditional religious beliefs and practices.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 40608

HCHR 40902. Religion in America from the Revolution to the Civil War. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 40902

HCHR 41102. Dialogue in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Dialogue was a crucial part of religious pedagogy in the Middle Ages, and was used in a wide range of genres, including hagiography, anti-Jewish polemic, and philosophical conversation. This class will investigate the practice of written dialogue across a broad range of texts, covering the period from Gregory the Great's Dialogues to later medieval scholastic disputation. We shall also consider the relationship between written dialogue and public performance. Reading knowledge of Latin is helpful but not required.

Instructor(s): Lucy Pick     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 41102

HCHR 41290. Blake's Theopoetics. 100 Units.

Study of William Blake's unique combination of poetry-making and print-making, with special attention to its service to his theology.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27290, RLVC 41290

HCHR 41315. Narratives of American Religious History. 100 Units.

How do we tell the story of religion in America? Is it a story of Protestant dominance? Of religious diversity? Of transnational connections? Of secularization? This course examines how historians have grappled with such questions. We will read the work of scholars who have offered narratives explaining American religious history, including figures like Sydney Ahlstrom, Albert Raboteau, Mark Noll, Ann Braude, Catherine Albanese, and Thomas Tweed. This course will introduce students to key historiographical questions in the study of American religion, as well as to classic texts which have shaped the field's development.

Instructor(s): William Schultz and Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 27304, KNOW 41315, RDIN 41315, HIST 47304, AMER 21315, RDIN 21315, CRES 22315, AMER 41315, RAME 41315, RLST 21315

HCHR 41401. Gender, Power and Religion in Medieval Europe (800-1100) 100 Units.

This course will examine the intersection of religious and secular power and the way these were reflected in and shaped by the gender systems of early medieval Europe. Topics to be studied include Kantorowicz's notion of "the king's two bodies," royal men and women, women and memorial culture, lineage and gender, marriage, and monastic culture. We will examine the Carolingian world and its aftermath, Ottonian Germany, Anglo-Saxon England, Hungary, and the early Spanish kingdoms.

Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 41400, HIST 42701

HCHR 41440. Fundamentalism. 100 Units.

Is fundamentalism a useful term that allows us to compare anti-modern movements across a range of religious traditions? Or is it a hopelessly problematic term that lumps together vastly different phenomena? This course will use the troubled career of "fundamentalism" as a window onto the modern history of religion-and the people who study it. We will begin by focusing on the origins of fundamentalism: as a description of the political mobilization of conservative Protestants in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. From there, we will broaden our perspective, considering how the term "fundamentalist" has been applied to Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu movements, as well as to secular phenomena like Marxism and nationalism. At each step of the way we will consider not only "fundamentalism" itself but also the people who study it and those who mobilize against it. Ultimately, we will ask: is fundamentalism an idea whose time has come again, or one whose time has come and gone?

Instructor(s): William Schultz     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 41440, HIST 28006, HIST 38006, AASR 41440, RLST 21440

HCHR 41604. The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond. 100 Units.

The cult of relics played a vital role in Byzantine culture and, consequently, left a strong imprint on the artistic production. Not only did the veneration of relics find expression in personal devotion, but the image of the Byzantine court was largely modeled on the claim that the emperors possessed the most precious of all sacred remains, first and foremost those associated with the Passion of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The outstanding treasure of relics housed in the imperial palace significantly contributed to the understanding in the medieval Christian world of Constantinople as the "New Jerusalem. We will begin our investigation in the ancient Near East, where major centers of pilgrimage developed from the fourth century on. These sites considerably fueled the early Byzantine cult of relics and the associated artistic production. The chief focus of the seminar will be on the major urban centers of the Byzantine Empire, especially the capital city of Constantinople. We will closely study different types of reliquaries manufactured in the Byzantine Empire over the centuries and investigate how their design responded to devotional needs, ritual practice and political claims. Historical developments and primary texts (in English translation) will be addressed throughout to better understand the circumstances of the acquisition of relics and the motivations guiding their veneration.

Instructor(s): Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 41604, ARTH 41602

HCHR 41700. Calvin's Institutes. 100 Units.

This course examines the key concepts of Calvin's theology through his major work: the definitive 1559 edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 41300, FNDL 23113, RLST 20702

HCHR 41968. The Religious and Social Thought of Martin Luther King Jr. 100 Units.

This graduate seminar is an intensive study of the religious life and social/religious thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. We will be reading a wide range of King's writings and speeches from his Crozier seminary years to his major speeches up to his assassination in 1968. We will also explore some of the classic and more recent scholarship that examines the influences on and sources of King's thought. Prominent themes in the course will include but will not be limited to King's ethical and social critique of American society, especially its racism, his social and moral evaluation of economic inequality, his commitment to nonviolence, his conception of the beloved community, and his evolving roles as preacher, social activist, and public intellectual.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 41968

HCHR 42010. Ancient Sexualities and Early Christianity. 100 Units.

A study of ancient Greek and Roman and early Jewish and Christian attitudes toward sex and constructions of sexuality, especially homosexuality and lesbianism, as well as sexuality as it relates to gender, prostitution, marriage, and virginity. We will closely examine and discuss many of the most important primary sources for these issues from the non-Christian world, including texts by Aeschines, Plato, Lucian, Ovid, Juvenal, Martial, Musonius Rufus, and Philo. In light of the map that emerges by examining these forms of erotic subjectivity in the premodern cultures of Greece and Rome, we will then focus on analyzing several Christian primary sources, including parts of Paul's epistles and the Gospel of John, and selections from Clement of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, and others. We will have the opportunity to think about Michel Foucault's revolutionary complication of the whole notion of "sexuality" as it relates to conceptions of desire, pleasure, and the self as we interpret and analyze several of the primary sources with which Foucault himself worked. We will also have the opportunity to assess the scholarship of several leading scholars in this area, including the work of John Boswell, Arnold Davidson, K.J. Dover, David Halperin, Martha Nussbaum, Craig Williams, Daniel Boyarin, Bernadette Brooten, Dale Martin, etc.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 42010

HCHR 42035. The Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Pastoral Epistles. 100 Units.

In the early second century there were bitter battles over the legacy of Paul and his preserved letters in terms of gender, sexuality, family life, asceticism, church administration, and theological vision. We can see these well by reading the narrative text The Acts of Paul and Thecla alongside the "Pastoral Epistles" (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), the former championing a female, cross-dressing ascetic Christ-missionary and the latter, in pseudepigraphical epistolary texts written in the dead Paul's name, insisting on patriarchal family life and women's adherence to traditional roles. In this course we shall read both sets of texts carefully in Greek, noting points of similarity and contestation, and test various models of how these sources-each of which seeks to "fix" the Pauline legacy in its own way-are related to one another. Time allowing, we shall also look at the later reception of the cult of Saint Thecla and late antique interpretations of "the apostle," Paul, on these issues of sexuality and gender roles, and their perduring influence in contemporary debates.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one year of Greek, or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 22035, GREK 37423, GREK 27423, FNDL 22035, RLST 22035, GNSE 42035, BIBL 42035

HCHR 42200. Religion in the Enlightenment: England and America. 100 Units.

Study in the historiographies of the Enlightenment in England and in America, with special attention to the "trans-Atlantic" communication of ideas regarding the nature of the person, religion, and the role of the political order.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22110, RAME 42100, RLVC 42100, AMER 42100, HIST 27510, AMER 22110, HIST 47510

HCHR 42202. Black Religious Protest in the U.S. 100 Units.

This course examines African American religious protest against the American nation for its actual history and its ideals in view of black oppression. The course begins with David Walker's Appeal (1829) and ends with debates around Jeremiah Wright's "God damn America" sermon. The course situates black religious protest amidst discussions of the American Jeremiad, a particular critique of the nation in relation to the divine, American exceptionalism, and racial injustice. We attempt to trace continuity and discontinuity, hope versus pessimism, and visions of a more perfect union in these public critiques of the nation.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22202, AMER 22202, HIST 47416, AMER 42202, HIST 27416, RDIN 23202, RAME 42202

HCHR 42300. Readings in Luther's Theology. 100 Units.

This course concentrates on the development of Luther's thought and includes several genres, including disputations, exegetical works, and theological treatises. By means of these readings we will follow Luther as he delves into the doctrine of human nature, the nature of sin, the theology of the cross, justification by faith and the role of the Spirit in his polemics against the "enthusiasts." We will also be analyzing his underlying concerns and presuppositions about such issues as the nature of reality, the concern with deception and the certainty of salvation.

Instructor(s): Susan Schreiner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 42300

HCHR 42407. Comparative and Global Christianities. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): AASR 42407

HCHR 42800. Christianity and Judaism in Early Modern Europe. 100 Units.

Early modernity has long been recognized as a crucial stage in the history of Western Europe. Beginning with the Reformation and ending with the Enlightenment, it is to this period that historians have attributed the rise of modern political thought; the growth of religious toleration; as well as the formation of radically historical biblical criticism. Recently, however, historians have realized that many of these developments did not originate solely within Christian intellectual traditions, but from the exchanges, conflicts, and interactions between Christianity and Judaism, with a particularly important role granted to the phenomenon commonly known as 'Christian Hebraism'. This course will examine some of the most significant of these interactions with a focus on four areas: 1) interpersonal relations between Jews and Christians; 2) biblical criticism; 3) political thought; and 4) mysticism and Christian Kabbalah. It will explore questions such as how sixteenth-century Jewish writings fueled a seventeenth-century Christian crisis in the Bible's authority; why the ancient Jewish commonwealth became an unlikely source of inspiration for early modern political theorists; how to understand the relationship between Jewish mysticism and 'Christian Kabbalah'; and how interfaith millenarianism fed into debates over the readmission of Jews into England.

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 42800

HCHR 42901. Christianity and Slavery in America, 1619-1865. 100 Units.

This seminar will examine the relationship between Christian thought and the practice of slavery as they evolved historically, especially in the context of European enslavement of peoples of African descent in the colonies of British North America and in the antebellum South. Emphasis will be placed on the ways in which Christianity functioned as an ideological justification of the institution of slavery and an amelioration of practices deemed abusive within slave societies. The following questions will be addressed in some form: Why did some Christians oppose slavery at a specific time and in a particular historical context? In other words, why did slavery become a moral problem for an influential though minority segment of the United States by the early 19th century? What was the process by which and why did white evangelical Christians, especially in the South, become the most prominent defenders of slavery as it was increasingly confined to the South? What were some of the consequences of debates about slavery in regard to efforts to engage broader social reform? What role did race play in the historical development of slavery? How did people of African descent shape and practice Christianity in British North America and the Southern States of the United States? Although our focus is on what became the United States of America, we also linger on discussions about the broader international dimensions of slavery and slavery's importance in the development of the Americas.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course fulfills the elective requirement for a new MAPSS concentration on the Formation of Knowledge https://ifk.uchicago.edu/mapss/. This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 21303, RAME 42901, KNOW 42901, CRES 21303, KNOW 21303, HIST 47102

HCHR 42999. The Religious Thought of Emerson and W. James. 100 Units.

This seminar focuses on late nineteenth-century American religious thought, centering on R.W. Emerson and William James, to see how their thought can be used productively today in light of contemporary constructive theological pressures. The theme will be on the interplay of nature and human nature, both in Emerson's view of nature, moral perfectionism and religion, and in James' view of religion. The work of Stanley Cavell (for Emerson) and Charles Taylor (on W. James) among others will help guide our discussions.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 62208, THEO 42999

HCHR 43000. Loss And The Study Of Lives. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): DVSR 43000

HCHR 43101. The Catholic Reformation. 100 Units.

This course analyzes early modern Catholicism and covers the years from 1400-1600. The readings include treatises on the nature of the church, the role of dissent, the polemics against the Protestants, and the spirituality of this era. The requirement for the course is a take-home examination.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 43101

HCHR 43103. Interpreting the Gospel According to Matthew. 100 Units.

An exegesis course on "the church's gospel," which will seek to create a constructive conversation between modern redaction-critical readings of Matthew as a document forged in heated interaction with a specific historical context (particularly defined by inter-/intra-Jewish polemics and the emergence of the "ekklesia" as distinct from the synagogue) and the history of interpretation and effects of this gospel in the ancient church and up to the present, including in film and other media. Each student will select an interpreter or interpretation--ancient, medieval, modern, post-modern--to impersonate in class discussions.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 43100

HCHR 43104. The Second Great Awakening. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 43104

HCHR 43200. Colloquium on Ancient Christianity. 100 Units.

A critical reading of influential narratives--both ancient and modern--of "the 'rise' of 'Christianity'" in the first four centuries, and the sources from which they are composed, asking the question: can such a narrative be told (if it can be told) in a way other than as a romance or a tragedy? Each week we shall analyze select primary sources (textual, artistic, architectural, on which students will give presentations) that illuminate crucial issues (e.g. demographics, conversion, race, persecution, martyrdom, asceticism, gender, ecclesiological and ritual structures, intellectual lineages, orthodoxy and heresy), personalities (e.g., Ignatius, Perpetua and Felicitas, Irenaeus, Antony, Melania the Elder and Melania the Younger, Eusebius, desert Fathers and Mothers, Constantine, Macrina, Augustine) and events. On-going reflection on the nature of historiography as a science and an art, involving both discovery and invention.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

HCHR 43301. Religion in Modern America, 1865 to 1920. 100 Units.

This course is a general history of religion in America from the Civil War to the 1920s. Special emphases include religious practice, interreligious encounters and conflicts, race, confrontation with modernity, and the changing social and public dimensions of religion in the U.S.

Equivalent Course(s): RAME 43301

HCHR 43302. Comparative Mystical Literature: Islamic, Jewish and Christian. 100 Units.

The mysticisms of the three monotheistic faiths share many features that invite comparison. All three deal with sacred texts that overlap in instances, and all three responded in different ways to the philosophical mysticisms inherited from Classical antiquity. While there are a number of influences, both direct and indirect, among these traditions, there are far more instances of similar structural motifs shared by the three. This course is designed to explore the history and structural dynamics of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticisms through the careful reading of primary sources across the traditions. The Class will be limited to 20 students on a first-come, first-serve basis. Each student will be expected to demonstrate reading competence in the language of one of the mystical traditions (e. g., Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, or one of the Christian vernaculars).

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 43301, ISLM 43301, CMLT 43301, RLIT 43303

HCHR 43303. Becoming Modern: American Religion in the 1920s. 100 Units.

Terms such as "acids of modernity" and the "modern temper" were commonly used in the 1920s to describe a new phenomenon in American history. Historians still regard the 1920s as a significant moment in US History, even while revising older narratives that viewed such changes as leading to a decline in church attendance and religious practice. In the 1920s, the nation struggled with the effects of massive immigration, decades of urbanization, and significant cultural and social changes that had profound implications for religious practice and belief. This course takes an extended look at the 1925 Scopes Trial, the fundamentalist modernist controversy, and the intellectual and cultural challenges to traditional religious beliefs and practices. Some attention is devoted to increasing religious and cultural diversity as a challenge to Protestant dominance.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 37117, RAME 43302, AMER 43302

HCHR 43900. Luther And The Old Testament. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 43900

HCHR 43959. Varieties of Dominican Mysticism: Albert the Great, Meister Eckhart, and Catherine of Siena. 100 Units.

This seminar will focus on three major Dominican mystical theologians: Albert the Great, Meister Eckhart and Catherine of Siena and, through a study of their thought, map out developments in late medieval mysticism and intellectual history. The focus will be on the mystical path towards union with God, with a sub focus on the mediating role of nature and natural philosophy on the one hand and of the church and sacraments on the other.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Latin and/or German is recommended but not required
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 43959, HIST 60612

HCHR 43995. Comparative Issues in Monotheistic Mystical Traditions. 100 Units.

The mysticisms of the three monotheistic faiths share many features that invite comparison. All three deal with sacred texts that overlap in instances, and all three responded in different ways to the philosophical mysticisms inherited from Classical antiquity. While there are a number of influences, both direct and indirect, among these traditions, there are far more instances of similar structural motifs shared by the three. This course is designed to explore the history and structural dynamics of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticisms through the careful reading of primary sources across the traditions.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 43995, ISLM 43995, RLIT 43995, HIJD 43995

HCHR 44004. The Veneration of Icons in Byzantium: History, Theory, and Practice. 100 Units.

In order to appreciate the pivotal religious significance icons had in Byzantium for private devotion, in the liturgy, in civic ritual, and in military campaigns, we will survey the visual evidence along with a vast array of written sources. We will explore the origins of the Christian cult of icons in the Early Byzantine period and its roots in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Through the close analysis of icons executed over the centuries in different artistic techniques, we will examine matters of iconography, style, and aesthetics. We will also have a close look at image theory, as developed by Byzantine theologians and codified in the era of Iconoclasm. Typically, meetings will consist of both lecture and interactive discussion sections. Students are expected to prepare the mandatory readings for each week, which serve as a basis for an informed, and thus productive, classroom discussion.

Instructor(s): Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 44004, ARTH 44014

HCHR 44600. Renaissance and Reformation. 100 Units.

This class examines points of convergence and divergence during the era of the Renaissance and the Reformation spanning the time between Cusa and Bruno. The issues analyzed will go beyond strictly theological debates. We will examine views of reason and human nature, the revival of Platonism, the rise of historical thought, the study of law and philology, and the implications regarding the development of perspective on both thought and art. We will also examine the role of rhetoric, poetry, and moral philosophy; the rise of skepticism, the appeal to certitude, curriculum reform, and the reform of art as exemplified by Michelangelo.

Instructor(s): Susan Schreiner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 44601

HCHR 44804. Virginity and the Body in Late Antiquity & Early Middle Ages. 100 Units.

What did virginity mean to Christians in Late Antiquity, and how did this change and develop in the early medieval period? What notions of the body and bodilyness did an ideal of virginity encourage and support? We will begin by reading Peter Brown's classic, The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, together with some of the primary sources Brown uses to make his case, and selected recent studies. We will take this theme into the early Middle Ages through a reading of monastic rules, hagiographies, and other texts.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 44804, GNSE 44804, HIST 60606

HCHR 45050. Social Christianity in the US: Origins and Legacies. 100 Units.

This course is an intensive analysis of the origins, development, and historical significance of the Social Gospel (as it was called during its emergence) as a religious and social reform movement in America. We begin the course with one of the major works of Walter Rauschenbusch in the early 20th century. But we look at the development and influence of Social Christianity later and in the Civil Rights movement (and beyond) to grasp its enduring influence. Some attention will be devoted to the relationship between theological innovation, historical criticism of the Bible, and social reform. One of the aims of the course is to explore the impetus for social and political reform in light of a more expansive and this-worldly conception of Christian teaching on the Kingdom of God.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 45050, HIST 47500

HCHR 45200. The Holy Land in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

This course will examine written and visual material that testifies to the medieval encounters of the Abrahamic religions in a sacred landscape where the histories of Jews, Christians, and Muslims overlap. While bearing witness to the cultural wealth and religious pluralism that characterize the Holy Land during the Middle Ages, texts and visual artifacts likewise testify to religious competition, conflict, loss, and exclusion. Among the primary textual sources we will read (in English translation) are accounts by pilgrims and other travelers to the Holy Land, extracts from medieval chronicles, and eye-witness accounts from the period of the Crusades. In addition to the textual material, we will study art and architecture created for different religious communities (e.g., synagogues and their richly decorated mosaic floors, sites and souvenirs of Christian pilgrimage, major works of Islamic art and architecture). We will also investigate phenomena of the reception of the Holy Land's sacred sites and dynamic history in medieval Europe (e.g., replicas and evocations of the Holy Sepulchre, narratives of the "Holy Grail" and associated artifacts).

Instructor(s): Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 45200, RLVC 45200, ARTH 42205

HCHR 45250. Christians" and "Jews", Rhetoric and Reality. 100 Units.

A critical assessment of different scholarly positions on the relationship between "Christians" and "Jews" in the imperial period up until the end of the fourth century (e.g., "the siblings model," "the parting of the ways," the "wave theory model," the "ways that never parted," and others) as tested against close analysis of such literary sources as the letters of Paul, the gospels of Matthew and John, Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, Melito of Sardis' Peri Pascha, Tertullian's "Against the Jews," various works of Origen, and John Chrysostom's 8 homilies "Against the Jews/Judaizing Christians." Our goal is careful methodological and historiographical analysis of whether or how from such sources we might discern and reconstruct historical reality - local and/or trans-Mediterranean - about persons and groups, and their identities, viewpoints, practices and interactions.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 45250

HCHR 45401. A Scandal for Gentiles and Jews. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 45401, HIST 66601

HCHR 45570. Three Medieval Women: Fate and Voice in Heloise, Hildegard, and Hadewijch. 100 Units.

The current interest in the theological voice of medieval women is largely concentrated on the contribution of the beguines, their thought often uncovered with the aid of contemporary philosophy. What we learn from beguine scholarship also reflects back on the contribution of earlier medieval women, which may affect our view of them, even as how we read these earlier texts can likewise aid us in how we contextualize and think about the beguines. This course focuses on the fate of three medieval women in the 12th and 13th century: Heloise, Hildegard of Bingen, and Hadewijch of Brabant. The attempt to listen to their voice allows us to develop a new and richer perspective on the purpose of the ascetic life, the goal of exegesis, and the power of poetry.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course is open to undergraduates with permission of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 45570, HIST 42303

HCHR 46705. Suffering and the History of the Interpretation of Job. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 46705

HCHR 47717. Seminar: Augustine Confessions. 100 Units.

This seminar is based an in-depth reading of the Confessions, with use of the Latin text. Topics to be covered will be determined by consensus during the first week, but they may include the genesis of the work in relation to Augustine's life and literary oeuvre (e.g. vis-à-vis the partly contemporary De Doctrina and De Trinitate); its structure (including the relationship between books I-X and XI-XIII) and narrative technique; its meditative versus dialogical character; Augustine's representation of the self and his method of Biblical exegesis; Manichean and Neoplatonic influences; and ancient (Pelagius) and postmodern readings of the Confessions (Lyotard, Marion). Once-weekly meetings will consist of discussions, lectures, and reports.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 47717, HIST 64301, THEO 47717, CLAS 47717

HCHR 47722. Evangelicals and Race. 100 Units.

This graduate seminar will examine the complex ways, overtly and in more subtle, implicit ways, that Protestant evangelical Christianity has shaped race, the lived experience of race, and conversations about race in the US in the 20th and 21st centuries. Roughly half of the course will engage historical, sociological, and anthropological works on evangelicalism and race as a way of understanding how evangelicals have constructed, supported, and (in rarer instances) challenged racial categories and racism in the US. The course will also spend some time looking at primary sources where key evangelical figures write about and self-consciously reflect on race matters as theological and social phenomena. Some attention will be given to African American Protestants who identify as evangelical or who are regarded as such in scholarly studies. While a host of topics will be addressed, some of the more prominent will include evangelical individualism and resistance to structural understandings of racism, color-blindness as a response to the decline of legal segregation and a way of avoiding or critiquing attention to race in contemporary American life, and the continuing and enduring salience of race in evangelical political practices and voting preferences.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27722, RAME 47722, CRES 27722

HCHR 48448. American Apocalypse: Visions of the End(s) of the World. 100 Units.

Apocalyptic thought and millenarian movements have had a powerful and enduring influence in the US. This course starts with the Millerite movement of the mid-19th century and moves through a number of case studies in the 20th century. We explore theories of the widespread appeal of apocalyptic thought in the US and interpretations of key sacred texts and recurring ideas that inform and shape the contours of debates about the end of the world. Given the significant role that Christianity has played in discussions about the nature of an imminent apocalypse in the US context, most of the examples will be from the Christian tradition. Theoretical approaches to millenarian movements, practices, and rhetoric, however, are drawn from multiple religious traditions. A number of themes will be examined including the language of violent endings alongside visions of peace and harmony in conceptions of the end, the tensions between human agency and divine action in hastening the apocalypse, and understandings of and interactions with "the world" in view of fervent hopes for and prophecies of its imminent demise, among other things.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 48448, RAME 48448, RLST 28448

HCHR 48700. Late Medieval Women: Sanctity, Gender, Authorship and Authority. 100 Units.

The position of women in the late Middle Ages is often found connected to the problem of female authorship. Initially, female authorship was treated emphatically if not exclusively in the context of vernacular theology, which was seen as complementing and complicating the more traditional division of medieval intellectual texts into monastic and scholastic theology. Furthermore, the consistent focus on the emancipatory power of female authorship led to a situation whereby texts written by women were put in stark opposition to texts written by male authors on women; as a result, gender became the dominant category of interpreting texts written by late medieval women. This course will focus on the position of late medieval women especially, most if not all of them authors, while some others are known to have been in conversation with male confessors. The seminar aims to analyze the remarkable religious and theological texts written by them and about them. In the process we will also analyze some paradigmatic titles related to modern historiographical and theoretical scholarship both to draw on them and to show how the approach to late medieval women authors and women saints has changed over the last decades, most recently because of the interest in nonbinary gender.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Undergraduates may petition to enroll. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 48701, THEO 48701, HIST 60909

HCHR 48900. Priesthood, Philosophy, and Power. 100 Units.

This course will explore the central theme of priesthood as imbuing a distinct philosophy and power to its inhabitants. From the Pastoral Epistles, with their division between episkopos and paratheke, through the "upstarts" (a term invented by Robert Bellah) that explains the power and community-building skills of third and fourth-century bishops like Tertullian, Cyprian and Gregory of Nazianzen, through some medieval figures and ending with a late Romantic German author like Herder, this course will focus on the ways in which power is given to priests, and received by them. The course will set up a dialogue between early Christian and medieval priests and later writings on the priesthood by Weber, Nietzsche and Foucault. We will try to as much as possible to read these sources "side by side," joining the historical and the theoretical/theological sides.

HCHR 49401. The Theology of the Late Augustine I. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 49401

HCHR 49999. Race and the Bible. 100 Units.

The course will cover race in the Bible, race in the ancient world of the Bible, American use of the Bible on race, and the critique of race as a formative and constructed concept.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh and Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 31000 (Introduction to the Hebrew Bible) or BIBL 32500 (Introduction to the New Testament). BIBL 32500 can be taken concurrently.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 29109, NEHC 29989, HIJD 49999, NEHC 49989, CRES 27699, BIBL 49999

HCHR 50000. Theological Criticism: Creation and Gender. 100 Units.

The seminar on theological criticism aims to explore the problem of how constructive theology can best make use of historical sources and do so in responsible fashion. While simply adhering to one's confessional tradition yields uncritical positions, an eclectic attitude towards historical sources may not be a wise alternative. Without forcing theologians to become historians, this seminar deals with the larger issue of how to select and use one's source material in such a way that the historical work is methodologically sound and the theological end product accessible and informative, while remaining properly constructive. The seminar starts with the use of premodern sources but other, later sources will also be brought to the discussion. As the seminar is in large part student-driven, students are invited to bring in sources of their choice to the table as well. This year's theological critical focus will be on gender and creation and is loosely structured around Otten's Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 66004, GNSE 50000, THEO 50000

HCHR 50400. Early Christian Rhetoric. 100 Units.

An examination of the rhetorics (persuasive strategies) of early Christian literature, and how they were rooted in the ancient paideia (educational system) and forms of public life in the Greco-Roman world. We shall focus on significant points of intersection with the Greco- Roman rhetorical tradition in terms of style, invention, arrangement, memory and delivery, by triangulated close readings each week in Greek of selected early Christian writings, Greco-Roman rhetorical compositions, and samples of rhetorical theory. The early Christian texts will range from the Pauline letters to the fourth century, and may include: 1 Thessalonians; Acts 22; 2 Corinthians 10-13; 1 Clement; Irenaeus, Adversus haereses; Justin Martyr, apologiae; Gregory of Nazianzus, Funebris in laudem Caesarii fratris oratio; Gregory of Nyssa, in diem natalem salvatoris; and John Chrysostom's de laudibus sancti Pauli.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Strong Greek Skills
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 50400

HCHR 50500. Origen's Contra Celsum. 100 Units.

A seminar on the eight-book work of apologetics that Origen of Alexandria composed ca. 244-249 to offer a detailed rebuttal to the arguments made against the illegality, crudity and irrationality of Christians that had been published decades before by Celsus "the Epicurean" in his Alēthēs logos (The True Word). We shall combine close reading of the Greek text of significant sections of the work with investigation of larger critical questions such as a) the identity of "Celsus" and the reconstruction of his text, b) the placement of both Celsus and Origen in the history of ancient philosophy; c) the reality or fiction of the figure of "Celsus' Jew" who appears in books 1 and 2; d) the possible social facts about ancient Christians that may be embedded in these debates; e) the rhetoric of apologetic and invective, and its conventional and creative employment in both works; f) the logic and rhetorical power or weaknesses (and anxieties) of Origen's argumentation.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Strong Greek skills (and, ideally, HCHR 50400 Early Christian Rhetoric - Autumn '21, but not required)
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

HCHR 51001. Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds. 100 Units.

This course comprises an introduction to Greek papyrus texts with a view to their contributions to Biblical and early Christian backgrounds. We will read and discuss examples of different genres of documentary papyri, including private letters, marriage contracts, adoption agreements, leases, receipts, and many others. We will also examine documents which directly illustrate religious practice, such as oracles and formal decrees regulating and prohibiting religious activity. In general we will address topics such as the important contribution of papyrology to the language of the New Testament, the form of papyrus letters compared with the NT "epistle," and the contribution of historical, social, and religious insights gleaned from the papyri to the early Christian context.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 51000, CLAS 45200, GREK 45400, RLST 21101

HCHR 51510. Idolatry: Historical and Modern Perspectives. 100 Units.

This seminar examines the concept of idolatry as formulated in the Reformation disputes. We will analyze the way idolatry was understood by Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. We will also look at the occurrences of iconoclasm and religious violence in the 16th century; at the development of the concept of the modern ideas of idolatry, partly as a legacy of Francis Bacon; and at the view of idolatry in Karl Barth, Jacques Ellul and Nicholas Lash.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 51510

HCHR 51703. Theological Criticism: Christology. 100 Units.

The seminar on theological criticism aims to explore the problem of how constructive theology can best make use of historical sources and do so in responsible fashion. While simply adhering to one's confessional tradition yields uncritical positions, an eclectic attitude towards historical sources may not be a wise alternative. Without forcing theologians to become historians, this seminar deals with the larger issue of how to select and use one's source material in such a way that the historical work is methodologically sound and the theological end product accessible and informative, while remaining properly constructive. The seminar concentrates especially but not exclusively on the use of premodern sources but other, later sources will also be brought to the discussion. As the seminar is in large part student-driven, students are invited to bring in sources of their choice to the table as well. This year's theological critical focus will be on Christology and is loosely structured around Kathryn Tanner's Christ the Key. Authors to be included are Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Aquinas, Eckhart, Calvin, Schleiermacher, Barth, Rahner.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 51703, HIST 66003

HCHR 52100. Galatians and James: Traditions in Conflict? 100 Units.

Is salvation by faith or by works (or by some combination of the two)? This seminar will involve a close exegetical analysis of two early Christian documents, both purportedly letters by first generation Christians, which use suspiciously similar vocabulary and even invoke the same exemplum (Abraham) to debate this religious question. First we shall study the historical context, religious world-view, rhetorical purpose and theology of each document on its own terms, and then test various theories of their literary and historical relationships with one another, while simultaneously engaging κατὰ πρόσωπον with the long and intertwined history of reception of both. Ongoing discussion of the nature, purpose, meaning and challenges of a biblical canon, its authority and negotiability in Christian traditions of thought and practice over time.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Greek skills (Koine)
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 52100, NTEC 52100

HCHR 52101. Reading the Psalms with Ancient Christian Biblical Interpreters. 100 Units.

A hugely significant source for ancient Christian interpreters, the Psalms (as read in Greek translation) also posed perplexing problems of language and diction, and of speaking voice and referents. This course will engage in close readings of Athanasius' Epistula ad Marcellinum, which argues that the Psalter is a garden that resounds with all of scriptural wisdom, set to song; on the fascinating Greek homilies by Origen of Alexandria on the Psalms from the mid-third century (newly discovered and published in 2015); and the Commentary/Homilies by John Chrysostom on the Psalms from the late fourth century.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Greek is not required, but there will be ample opportunity for those with Greek skills to exercise them.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 52101

HCHR 53500. Early Christian Biblical Interpretation. 100 Units.

This year the Early Christian Biblical Interpretation seminar will focus on two caches of untranslated Greek homiletic texts: the Greek homilies on the Psalms by Origen of Alexandria (discovered in 2012, published in a critical edition in 2015), and homilies by John Chrysostom on "problem passages" in the Pauline epistles. Reading Origen and Chrysostom alongside one another will allow us to test the accuracy of the traditional divide between "Alexandrine allegory" and "Antiochene literalism," while also focusing on the various ways that each employs the traditional school form of problemata kai lyseis ("problems and solutions") in his interpretive work and its rhetorical presentation.

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Greek skills (Attic and Koine)
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 53500, NTEC 53500

HCHR 57900. Brauer Seminar: Theology of Nature and Nature of Theology. 100 Units.

This Brauer seminar will explore historical, ethical, legal and theological conceptions of "nature" and extrapolating from these reflect on the "nature of theological reflection" and so connect the various meanings of the seminar's title. The question of nature-human and non-human-is hotly debated today. This is true in the face of the global environmental crisis but no less so in important matters brought before the Supreme Court, which might lead to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or the undoing of same-sex marriage and are often grounded in appeals to "nature" and the natural. The topic has occupied thinkers throughout Western history ranging from natural law ethics, moral naturalism, definitions of the existence and essence of God and, for Christians, the "nature", i.e., hypostatic union of the Christ, questions about creation and the natural order, and the possibility and task of natural theology. Even current questions about transhumanism and posthumanism find historical forerunners in ideas about theosis or divinization of human nature as well as in debates about resurrection and the possibility of mystical self-transcendence. Each of these topics implies something about nature and also about the nature and task of theological thinking. The seminar will explore these matters with a focus on and shifting understanding of human and divine nature, sustained throughout by a deep interest in the question of "natural religion," "natural law," and "natural theology."

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten and William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Course admission is based on application.
Note(s): There is a stipend for admitted students. More information about Brauer Seminar classes can be found here: https://divinity.uchicago.edu/martin-marty-center/brauer-seminar. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 56903, THEO 57900, RETH 57900

HCHR 70000. Advanced Study: History of Christianity. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: History of Christianity

HIJD 30175. Jewish Law from the Hebrew Bible to Jesus. 100 Units.

This course explores the key role of law in the development of Second Temple Judaism and the place of Jesus traditions within this charged sphere. Debates concerning the interpretation and purpose of biblical law, as well as the issues of tradition, revelation and authority shaped the image of Jewish society and marked the dividing lines between ideological parties (e.g. Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes). The emergence of distinct legal ideologies nurtured the development of both rabbinic Judaism and the Jesus movement towards the end of the period. The course will consist of three sections: (1) Survey of the history of legal discourse during this period and acquaintance with the relevant works on law from Qumran (2) A thorough investigation of scholarly trends on Jesus and the law and close readings of major sources on law in the Gospels (3) Introduction to the study of early rabbinic literature and its relevance for the study of Second Temple traditions. Meetings will consist of introductory lectures, discussions of scholarship and readings of select ancient sources (in translation).

Instructor(s): Yair Furstenberg (staff)     Terms Offered: not being taught again; removing LLSO crosslist because they are removing old crosslists and no longer crosslisting outside other departments
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20175

HIJD 30402. Poetics of Midrash. 100 Units.

An introduction to the modern literary study of classical rabbinic Midrash; its styles and genres. Particular attention will be given to issues of hermeneutics and theology.

Instructor(s): M. Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 30402, RLIT 30402, JWSC 21402

HIJD 30668. Introduction to Aggadic Literature of the Rabbinic Period. 100 Units.

We will make acquaintance with midrash, the idiosyncratic rabbinic method of textual interpretation of the Bible, concentrating on midrash aggadah, which deals with non-legal material (biblical narrative and ethical teachings). We will deal with questions of interpretation (how did the rabbis interpret the biblical text?), relevancy (in what ways did they view the ancient text as relevant to their lives?), and literature (an appreciation of the literary aspects and genres of midrash aggadah). Rabbinic readings will be compared with biblical interpretations of the Second Temple period (in Philo, Josephus, Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls). Texts will be read in the original Hebrew and Aramaic with English translation.

Instructor(s): Paul Mandel (visiting professor)     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Basic reading skills in biblical Hebrew desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20668, BIBL 30668, JWSC 20668

HIJD 31004. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

The course introduces the Jewish/Hebrew Bible as a literary treasury with a material history. We will survey the genres and the different works, review scholarly theories about the texts and about ideas in them, and situate them in the history of Israel and Judea and in the culture of ancient Southwest Asia. We will also engage theories of history, literature, and narrative. The course includes a weekly Discussion Section for mixed-modes activities and conceptual discussions.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course counts as a Gateway course for RLST majors/minors.
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 20120, RLST 11004, FNDL 11004, BIBL 31000, NEHC 30504, NEHC 20504

HIJD 31100. A Medieval Menagerie: Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

In contemporary philosophy, ethics, and literature, a subject attracting more and more attention is animals - human animals, non-human animals, and the complex relation between these paradigmatic others. The aim of this course is to consider many of the same problems and questions raised in modern discourse from the perspective of ancient and medieval sources. Drawing from a diverse corpus of texts - Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim - the course will explore the richness of the medieval traditions of animal symbolism, and the complexity of medieval human beings' understanding of themselves in relationship to their familiar and immanently present confreres in the world of nature.

Instructor(s): James Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 26252, RLVC 41100, HREL 41101, MDVL 21100, ISLM 41100, RLST 22406

HIJD 32700. Biblical Law. 100 Units.

This course will examine the laws in the Torah/Pentateuch and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for their legal, social, and moral reasoning; their style; their meaning in literary works, as literature; and their historical setting. It will compare them to laws in other ancient works like the Hammurabi monument(s).

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 22700, NEHC 32700, JWSC 22702, RLST 22700, BIBL 32700

HIJD 32906. The Book of Ezekiel. 100 Units.

A seminar for reading the Book of Ezekiel (in English; optional reading group for those who read biblical Hebrew), the Bible's most bizarre and challenging Prophetic work. It features Ezekiel's close encounters with a brutal divine, instantaneous transportation to future spaces and faraway places, dream-scenes that become real, mortifying dramatizations, and surreal sensory overload. Ezekiel says he played the role of a crude mime, a confounding cryptic, and an erotic singer. This charged and disturbing work generated a variety of literary and speculative Jewish and Christian traditions, like the Apocalyptic and the Mystical. Modern Bible critics discount its retrospective frame, consider it a repository of historical materials, and probe Ezekiel for personality disorders. We will engage it the way it presents itself to us, as literature, in a which a character tells his glorious and troubled story, and explore its frame, content, poetics, Judean literary traditions, contemporary Babylonian scene, and historical message.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22906, NEHC 32906, NEHC 22906, BIBL 32906, JWSC 22906

HIJD 33906. French Jewish Thought. 100 Units.

This seminar will introduce students to the tradition of French Jewish Thought from the 1860's through the early 2000's with particular attention to the issues of universalism and particularism, the relationship between Judaism and French philosophy, and French-Jewish responses to major historic events during the period: the Dreyfus affair, World War II, the Algerian War, the Six-Day War and contemporary anxieties surrounding the New anti-Semitism. Some French reading knowledge is a must.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 53900, DVPR 53900

HIJD 34210. Jonah and Joel (Biblical Hebrew III) 100 Units.

A classic text-course covering prose narrative and poetic prophecy, attends to grammar, semantics, genre, and history.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew I-II
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 34210, NELC 30062

HIJD 34304. Readings in Hasidic Texts: Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

HIJD 34592. Jewish and Islamic Ethics in al-Andalus. 100 Units.

This course will include readings in Jewish and Islamic ethics from al-Andalus and the Maghrib with a focus on the writings of Maimonides (d. 1204) -- especially his "Eight Chapters" and Commentary on Avot (completed in the 1160s) and Ibn al-Mar'a of Malaga (d. 1214) -- especially his commentary on Ibn al-'Arif.

Instructor(s): Jim Robinson and Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 34592, RLST 24592, JWSC 24592, NEHC 24592, RETH 34592, NEHC 34592, MDVL 24592

HIJD 35004. Readings in Ibn Tufayl's Hayy b. Yaqzan. 100 Units.

A study of Ibn Tufayl's twelfth-century philosophical/mystical romance about a boy spontaneously generated on a desert island who achieves knowledge of God through empirical study of nature. The many themes in Hayy ibn Yaqzan will be studied in relation to the philosophical literature that formed it and in light of recent modern scholarship about it.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 15004, FNDL 25105, RLST 25105, ISLM 35004, NEHC 35004

HIJD 35113. Jewish Superheroes. 100 Units.

There has been much recent discussion about Jewish influence on the modern superhero. Many of the comic book artists were Jewish and the superheroes themselves inspired by Jewish themes, for example, Superman has a biography similar to Moses', while the Incredible Hulk seems the perfect Golem. This course will read this modern literature to help frame our discussion of the premodern inspirations of it. We will focus on superheroes and supervillains found in classical and medieval sources, from Samson, Elijah and Elisha in the Bible to the wonder Rabbis of the Talmud to the many messiahs and mystics of the Middle Ages, identifying their superpowers and exploring the roles they played within traditional Jewish culture.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 35113, RLST 20513

HIJD 35300. The Question in Jewish Religious and Theological Culture. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 35300

HIJD 35350. Cultivation of Character in Jewish Moral/Spiritual Literature. 100 Units.

This course will survey classical texts and practices in Jewish religious literature from antiquity to the modern period. Selections will include key portions from: Book of Proverbs; Ethics of the Fathers; Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan; Dererch Eretz; Maimonides' 'Eight Chapters'; Bachya ben Asher's moral proems; Asher ben Yechiel's 'Orchot Hayyim'; Moshe Cordovero's 'Tomer Devorah'; Jewish Ethical Wills (diverse periods); Tracts of Spritual Practices (Safed and modern Hasidism); Moshe Hayyim Luzatto, 'Mesilat Yesharim'. Contemporary literature on moral and spiritual self-formation and practice will be considered; and pertinent comparisons will be made to classical Catholic sources.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Texts in Hebrew with English translations.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 35350

HIJD 35500. Introduction to Kabbalah. 100 Units.

A general introduction to the origins and development of Kabbalah, focusing on the classic period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We will read samples from the major texts and most important movements, including the Bahir and Isaac the Blind in Provence, the Gerona circle (Ezra, Azriel, Nachmanides), and developments in Castile, from Ibn Latif and Ibn Sahula to Abraham Abulafia and Joseph Ibn Gikatilla to Moses de Leon and the Zohar.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 24650, RLST 21205, MDVL 25500

HIJD 35503. Midrash and Revelation. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the presentation of the event of revelation at Sinai in midrashic sources from several periods (especially, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana; Exodus Rabba; Song of Songs Rabba; and Tanhuma), as well as pertinent cases in the contemporary liturgical poetry. Particular attention will be given to the types, forms and content of exegetical theology involved.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Hebrew desired, but English translations will be provided.
Equivalent Course(s): RLIT 35503

HIJD 35505. Jewish Hermeneutical Theology. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 35505

HIJD 35806. The Political Theologies of Zionism. 100 Units.

The relationship between nationalism and religion has throughout history been a stormy one, often characterized by antagonisms and antipathy. In this course we will examine from various aspects the complex nexus of these two sources of repeated ideological and political dispute within Judaism, and more specifically within Zionism as its political manifestation. Zionism has mostly been considered a secular project, yet recently, Zionist theory is scrutinized to identify and unearth its supposedly hidden theological origins. In nowadays Israel, a rise in religious identification alongside an increasing religionization of the political discourse calls for the consideration of new theopolitical models of Zionism applicable in a post-secular environment. The aim of this course is to explore this complex intertwining of politics and religion in Israel from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The first part of the course will outline the theoretical foundation of post-secular and political-theological discourses. The second part will address the explicit and implicit political theologies of Zionism. The third part will outline contemporary aspects of political-theological thought in Israel, and their actual appearance in the political sphere.

Instructor(s): David Barak-Gorodetsky     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 39403, NEHC 25806, RLST 25806, JWSC 27940, THEO 35806

HIJD 35915. The Jewish Question in the 21st Century. 100 Units.

In these early decades of the 21st century, how does the history of the "Jewish Question" continue to reverberate through current discussions of religion and race, religion and post-coloniality, liberal, neo-liberal and post-liberal constructions of political identity? This course will take the contemporary context as its initiation point, but will consider it along with the history of the Jewish Question going back to late 18th century debates surrounding emancipation, and its 20th century manifestations both in Europe and the American context. We will compare the rhetoric of contemporary sources on race and religion to earlier articulations, and will ask in what ways Jewishness can and cannot be understood as exemplary for other marginalized communities and traditions. Contemporary theorists such as Fred Moten, J. Lorand Matory, Houria Bouteldja and Christina Sharpe will be considered alongside sources such as Moses Mendelssohn, Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Some examples from fiction will also be included.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25915, DVPR 35915, JWSC 25915

HIJD 36400. Mystical Theology of Hasidism: The Circle of the Maggid of Mezeritch. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to the mystical and spiritual theology of early modern Hasidism (late eighteenth century), centering around the first major teacher of the movement and the significant figures who gathered around him (and later founded their own spiritual dynasties). We shall focus of the Scriptural teachings of the Maggid and his circle, emphasizing the hermeneutical insights and daring of these spiritual masters - particularly such issues as radical non-dualism, divine immanence, the contemplative self, service of God through corporeal life, and the unique role of language as the inner-structure of existence. The great masters of this circle include Rabbis Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Yehuda Aryeh Leib of Gur, and Menachem Mendel of Chernobyl.

Instructor(s): M. Fishbane     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Texts will be studied in English with the Hebrew originals provided. The course is suitable for students in the College and for Divinity School Students in the areas of Jewish Studies, Religion and Literature, and Theology.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25810, THEO 36400

HIJD 36500. Jewish Ethics: Arendt, Susman, Rand, Peixotto. 100 Units.

The history of modern Jewish ethics is often taught through the work of seminal thinkers Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Gershom Scholem. But each of these men were in conversation with women contemporaries who, during the interwar years in Europe, were writing, publishing and organizing. While Hannah Arendt became well known, and while Jessica Peixotto was recognized for her government service, Rosa Rand, and Margaret Susman fell into obscurity. This course will introduce the student to these thinkers and explore their contribution to Jewish thought and Jewish ethics.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can enroll via petition.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 36500, GRMN 36521, GNSE 36502

HIJD 36702. Arabic into Hebrew: Translation and Cultural Change during the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26702, ISLM 36702, HREL 36702

HIJD 36805. Philosophy as Resistance. 100 Units.

This course will explore the thinking of Adorno, Horkheimer, Levinas and Arendt on the question of the possibility of philosophy after Auschwitz. These philosophers in particular, each in their own way and with varying forcefulness, had the courage, the strength, the perception, or sometimes simply the desperation to strive to understand what happened, to allow themselves to be questioned by the event and by the shock that it produced, to face questions, which by their very nature challenged their own right to exist as philosophical questions. Moreover, these sometimes greatly differing authors shared a vehement sense of the necessity of testifying to the suffering and death imposed on the victims of the gas chambers, the necessity of subjecting their personal thoughts to the ordeal of this scandal and facing this danger. They felt the urgent need to deal in their thinking with the agony of those who died at Auschwitz. It is with attention to this injury that we will explore and compare these texts to find out how for each a philosophy after Auschwitz is only possible as testimony and as resistance.

Instructor(s): Orietta Ombrosi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 26805, RLST 26805

HIJD 37106. Race and Religion: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 100 Units.

What does race have to do with religion? This course will explore how racial concepts - ideas about the transmission of characteristics through blood and lineage - emerged in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, often in response to episodes of large-scale conversion. The word "race" was itself first applied to humans in response to one of these episodes: the mass conversions of Jews and Muslims to Christianity in late medieval Spain. We will study this and other episodes, beginning with early Christianity and early Islam, and concluding with conversions to Islam in South Asia, and of enslaved Africans and native peoples to Christianity in the New World, in order to ask how these episodes of conversion influenced the mapping of culture (religion) onto reproduction (nature, biology). Did they effect the racialization of religion? and what influence did these mappings have on racial concepts in modernity?

Instructor(s): David Nirenberg     Terms Offered: Winter. Course to be taught Winter 2020
Prerequisite(s): Undergrads by consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 37106, ISLM 37106, SCTH 37106, HIST 42102

HIJD 37213. Partings, Encounters, and Entangled Histories: The Formation of Judaism and Christianity. 100 Units.

When did the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity emerge? This course explores this question by examining the formation of Judaism and Christianity within the world of the Ancient Mediterranean. What religious views, texts, and practices did Jews and Christians hold in common? How did early writers construct communal boundaries and project "ideal" belief and practice? What role did the changing political tides of the Roman and Persian empires play? We will explore continuities and growing distinctions between Jews and Christians in the areas of scriptural interpretation, ritual practices, and structures of authority. Special attention will be paid to debates around gender and sexuality, healing, and views of government and economics. We will approach these issues through material evidence and close readings of early literature in light of contemporary scholarship. Students interested in modern histories of Judaism and Christianity will gain a firm foundation in the pivotal debates, texts, and events that set the trajectories for later centuries.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisite knowledge of the historical periods, literature, or religious traditions covered is expected.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 27213, BIBL 37213, RLST 27213, JWSC 27213, NEHC 37213, HIST 31600, CLCV 24021, HCHR 37213, CLAS 34021

HIJD 37303. The Four-Fold: Studies in Jewish Exegesis. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the emergence of the four-fold method of Jewish Bible interpretation in the medieval period (known as PaRDes), in light of internal Jewish features since and antiquity and comparative Christian exegesis. Particular attention will be placed on the work of the great medieval Spanish commentator Rabbi Bahya ben Asher (13th century). Consideration of modern adaptations of this method will be taken up at the end (notably, in M. Fishbane's commentary on the Song of Songs and in his theological writings).

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 37303

HIJD 37652. Broken Mirrors: Writing the Other from Herodotus to the Jewish/Christian. 100 Units.

How are Others represented in Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian canons? Is the Other purely a mirror of the self who represents it? Or do self and Other interact? Can we trace and compare patterns of representation and taxonomies for human difference across cultures, genres, regions, periods, and sciences? How can we develop new critical frameworks and concepts for this task, if we refuse to take for granted the categories and conventions of today's academic disciplines? What might this new approach to the Other help us to learn, or unlearn, about the making of "the West"? In order to answer those questions, our course will survey the most influential literary models of the Other, from Herodotus to the early medieval "Life of Jesus" polemic tradition. Beyond developing a new framework for exploring and connecting these diverse sources, it has three historical aims. First, to interrogate the limits of modern anthropology as the institutionalized site for writing and knowing the Other. Second, to reveal the centrality of the figure of the Jew in the prehistory of anthropology, where it plays a neglected but crucial role in the European history of human difference in general. Finally, to expose the premodern roots of "scientific" categories-"primitive," "civilized," "Oriental," "Aryan," "Semite," etc.-where racial, linguistic, religious, and cultural differences still intersect today.

Instructor(s): James Adam Redfield     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 31922, CLCV 21922, RLST 27652, CMLT 37652, JWSC 26603, HREL 37652

HIJD 38607. Lament and Lamentation in Jewish Literature I. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the theme of lament and lamentation in ancient Jewish literature. It will begin with theories of lament and comparative sources from antiquity. It will then take up some representative Psalms from Scripture; portions of the book of Lamentation; selections from the Midrash on Lamentation (both from the proem and the commentary); and related material from contemporary liturgical poetry (Piyyut).

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Hebrew required (or consent of instructor)
Equivalent Course(s): RLIT 38607

HIJD 38880. Modern Jewish Religious Thought: An Introductory Survey. 100 Units.

In broad strokes we will trace the trajectory of modern Jewish religious thought from an apologetic accommodation to the regnant European philosophical and secular, that is, anthropocentric sensibilities - a tendency that characterized eighteenth and nineteenth century Jewish philosophy - to an affirmation of Jewish theological discourse as a mode of theocentric reflection that increasingly marks Jewish thought since the early twentieth century. In our deliberations we will pursue a systematic historical review of the writings of the major figures of modern Jewish thought, from Barukh (Bendictus) Spinoza and Moses Mendelssohn to Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, and latter twentieth century thinkers, such as Arthur A. Cohen, Yeshajahu Leibowitz, Emil Fackenheim, Joseph Dov Soloveitchik and Emmanuel Levinas. As ambitious as this introductory survey is, we are cognizant of its many lacunae; to name but three topics: Reconstructionism, Religious Zionism, and Jewish Feminism are glaringly and shamefully omitted. Needless to say, thinkers and topics that are not covered in the lectures and assigned readings may be chosen as a theme of a seminar paper.

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Open to undergrads by permission.

HIJD 39300. Law and Culture in Rabbinic Literature. 100 Units.

An introduction to the legal genres of classical rabbinic Judaism by applying the standard tools of source-, form-, redaction-, and literary criticism. Having established a working vocabulary, a map of the sources, and some facility with the tools, we will proceed to complicate the boundaries between law and aggadah (non-legal tradition) in its various forms (aphorism, parable, narrative cycle, case-law, ethical instruction, and more.) Having appreciated how law and aggadah interact in rabbinic literature to produce meaning, we will work on contextualizing their dialectic in light of multiple branches of a specific theory of meaning, culture, with a special focus on interpretive/symbolic anthropology.

Instructor(s): James Adam Redfield     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 39400, RLST 26676, JWSC 29300

HIJD 40204. A Proto-History of Race? Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Spain and North Africa (1200-1600) 100 Units.

This course focuses on phenomena of mass conversion and the emergence of ideologies of lineage and purity of blood in the western Mediterranean, more specifically, the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. The rivalry between Islam and Christianity (with Judaism a frequent go-between) in this region produced many distinctive cultural formations. Among those formations were ideas about the limits of conversion that may be compared to modern concepts of race. The word "race" was itself first applied to humans in Iberia during this period, to designate Christians descended from Muslims or Jews, and similar concepts emerged in Islamic North Africa. We will explore these ideas in the Christian Iberian kingdoms, with frequent excursions into Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid and Nasrid Islamic polities. Our goal will be to produce a Mediterranean archaeology of some of the concepts with which Christian and Muslim colonizers encountered the New World and sub-Saharan Africa in the sixteenth century.

Instructor(s): David Nirenberg     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Spanish reading proficiency recommended, but not required.
Note(s): This course counts as a history graduate colloquium.
Equivalent Course(s): CRES 40204, SCTH 40204, SPAN 40204, HIST 60904, HCHR 40204, ISLM 40204

HIJD 40506. Martin Buber's Conception of Religion and Judaism. 100 Units.

Martin Buber was a major philosopher of religion and Judaism. His contributions range from conceptual studies, poetic theology (I and Thou), studies on general and Jewish religiosity (especially Hasidism), and studies in the Bible. This course will focus on his book 'I and Thou', selected writings from 'Eclipse of God' and 'Moses'; and his correspondence with F. Rosenzweig on religious commandments. The course will include lectures and close readings of primary sources in translation. Students will be expected to write several short prompt papers and a final essay.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 40506, RLST 20506, HREL 40506

HIJD 40902. Reading the Bible: How and Why did Midrash develop in the Rabbinic Period? 100 Units.

We will analyze early rabbinic methods of reading Scripture against the backdrop of Christian and Pagan readings. Emphasis will be placed on non-legal commentary, aggadic midrash, which so excited late 20th century literary criticism.

Instructor(s): M. Hirshman     Terms Offered: Spring

HIJD 41600. The Nature of the Good: Levinas's Philosophical Ethics. 100 Units.

Emmanuel Levinas is perhaps the most important Jewish philosopher of the late 20th Century. His work is critical in both Jewish thought, and in post-WWII phenomenology. This seminar will explore Levinas's work by closely reading two of his critical philosophic texts as a way to examine the complexities of philosophy as it confronted the problem of evil.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 41600

HIJD 41780. Poetry of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

The course will survey poetic genres of the Hebrew Bible, their elements and tropes, scholarship on biblical poetry specifically, and approaches to poetry in general.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Introductory Biblical Hebrew I–III (BIBL 33900–34000 + Text course) or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 21780, RLST 21780, BIBL 41780, NEHC 41780

HIJD 41800. The Nature of Judgement: Hannah Arendt's Political Writing. 100 Units.

Hannah Arendt wrote vividly about the way that societies are organized and threatened, about the political dynamics of power that resulted in the great evils of the 20th century. She also considered the relationships between responsibility and judgement; the social and the political, and the nature of truth, The seminar consider how her experience as a Jew and a refugee shaped her political writings.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Advanced undergraduates can petition into the course. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 41800

HIJD 42700. Interactions b/w Jewish Phil. and Lit.in Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Any study of Jewish philosophy that focuses on a small collection of systematic summas tells only half the story. In this seminar, the emphasis will be shifted from canonical theologies to lesser-known works of literature. Each class will examine the way a different genre was used to defend philosophy and teach it to the community at large. Emphasis will be on literary form and style, rhetoric, methods of teaching and argumentation, all in relation to questions about reception and dissemination, progress and creativity, science and religion.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 42700, NEHC 28504, MDVL 22700, JWSC 22701, RLVC 42700, ISLM 42700, RLST 28504

HIJD 42800. Christianity and Judaism in Early Modern Europe. 100 Units.

Early modernity has long been recognized as a crucial stage in the history of Western Europe. Beginning with the Reformation and ending with the Enlightenment, it is to this period that historians have attributed the rise of modern political thought; the growth of religious toleration; as well as the formation of radically historical biblical criticism. Recently, however, historians have realized that many of these developments did not originate solely within Christian intellectual traditions, but from the exchanges, conflicts, and interactions between Christianity and Judaism, with a particularly important role granted to the phenomenon commonly known as 'Christian Hebraism'. This course will examine some of the most significant of these interactions with a focus on four areas: 1) interpersonal relations between Jews and Christians; 2) biblical criticism; 3) political thought; and 4) mysticism and Christian Kabbalah. It will explore questions such as how sixteenth-century Jewish writings fueled a seventeenth-century Christian crisis in the Bible's authority; why the ancient Jewish commonwealth became an unlikely source of inspiration for early modern political theorists; how to understand the relationship between Jewish mysticism and 'Christian Kabbalah'; and how interfaith millenarianism fed into debates over the readmission of Jews into England.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 42800

HIJD 43100. History and Narrative in the First and Second Book o Maccabees. 100 Units.

The first two Books of Maccabees, composed by Jews in antiquity but preserved only via the Christian canon, in Greek, narrate the events of a critical and formative period of Jewish history in the second century BCE-a period of Hellenization, persecution, rebellion, and state-building. But they reflect very different points of view and ways of life. 1 Maccabees, originally in Hebrew, is a Judean work, the dynastic history of the sovereign Judean rulers of the Hasmonean state. 2 Maccabees, in contrast, is an originally Greek work and reflects the world of Judaism in the Hellenistic Diaspora, subjects of Hellenistic monarchs. In this seminar we will focus on the two books both as evidence for events in Judaea and as evidence for the respective contexts that they reflect. The seminar is open to students with at least basic proficiency in ancient Greek.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 43102

HIJD 43108. Judaism, Islam, and the Study of Religion. 100 Units.

The Seminar will deal with the religious and intellectual contexts of the study of Judaism and Islam in modern Europe. It will focus upon the difficult birth, in the nineteenth century, of a comparative approach to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and will analyze the complex interface between theology, orientalism, secularization, colonialism, and the rise of racist anti-Semitism.

Instructor(s): Guy Stroumsa     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): 28 September: The scholarly discovery of religion in modern times 5 October: The comparative study of religion and its history 12 October: Yom Kippur, No class 19 October: Three rings and three impostors 26 October: Ex oriente numen: the other oriental Renaissance 2 November: Renan on Judaism and Islam 9 November: Wellhausen and Robertson Smith on Judaism and Islam 16 November: Islam in the mind of Europe: Geiger, Goldziher, Massignon 23 November: Jewish students of Jesus 30 November: Bergson’s Two Sources and its sources
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 43108

HIJD 43220. Biblical Law in its Near Eastern Context. 100 Units.

This course will consider biblical legal texts in relation to other legal material from the ancient Near East. We will address issues such as the origin of biblical laws, their relation to real legal practice, their similarities to and differences from other Near Eastern laws, their relation to the narratives in which they are embedded, and their legal reasoning.

Instructor(s): J. Stackert     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Hebrew required; facility with other ancient Near Eastern languages desirable
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 43220

HIJD 43221. Israel and Judah under Empire: Archaeology and History of the Assyrian and Babylonian Periods. 100 Units.

In the late 8th century BCE Israel, Judah and the other polities of the southern Levant came under Assyrian hegemony, and then under the Babylonian and Persian empires. The seminar will review the demographic and economic situation in the region before the arrival of the first empire in the late 8th century BCE, and the subsequent changes during the 7th-6th centuries BCE in an attempt to use the unparalleled data available from this region to (1) reconstruct life in the provinces and client kingdoms and (2) use the detailed information to learn about imperial encounters at large, and the impact of imperial control on the life of the peoples under its yoke.

Instructor(s): Avraham Faust     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 43221, BIBL 33221

HIJD 43301. Comparative Mystical Literature: Islamic, Jewish and Christian. 100 Units.

The mysticisms of the three monotheistic faiths share many features that invite comparison. All three deal with sacred texts that overlap in instances, and all three responded in different ways to the philosophical mysticisms inherited from Classical antiquity. While there are a number of influences, both direct and indirect, among these traditions, there are far more instances of similar structural motifs shared by the three. This course is designed to explore the history and structural dynamics of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticisms through the careful reading of primary sources across the traditions. The Class will be limited to 20 students on a first-come, first-serve basis. Each student will be expected to demonstrate reading competence in the language of one of the mystical traditions (e. g., Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, or one of the Christian vernaculars).

Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 43301, CMLT 43301, RLIT 43303, HCHR 43302

HIJD 43875. The Animal, The Other? The Question of Animality. 100 Units.

The so-called "animal" question is ever more present in our philosophical space, to the point that we could even say it is "one of the principal dimensions of the metaphysical unthought of our epoch" - a fact that is borne out by the plethora of publications on this matter in the last 15 years. In this course we will turn our attention specifically to the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, We will begin with the preliminary question: "What animal? The other," as Derrida writes. In other words, the question of the alterity of the other or the "wholly other", the most other, goes hand in hand with the animal question in its various declensions or formulations, and above all, if we follow Derrida, brings with it the epochal question (since it is the most urgent of our epoch) of animal suffering and death. We will turn our attention to and reflect on the alterity of this other - the animal - which in some way disarms and questions us, and will also draw on Derrida's criticism of Levinas regarding the alterity of the animal and its possibility (or impossibility) of having or being a face - in the words and in the sense of Levinas. We will consider as well, thus, the Jewish question and its relation to alterity as it circulated between them. Finally, following the last seminars of the philosopher at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, we will consider the question of the relationship between animality and sovereignty (of human being and also of man), as it relates to politics.

Instructor(s): Orietta Ombrosi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 43875

HIJD 43995. Comparative Issues in Monotheistic Mystical Traditions. 100 Units.

The mysticisms of the three monotheistic faiths share many features that invite comparison. All three deal with sacred texts that overlap in instances, and all three responded in different ways to the philosophical mysticisms inherited from Classical antiquity. While there are a number of influences, both direct and indirect, among these traditions, there are far more instances of similar structural motifs shared by the three. This course is designed to explore the history and structural dynamics of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticisms through the careful reading of primary sources across the traditions.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 43995, ISLM 43995, RLIT 43995, HCHR 43995

HIJD 44290. The Messiah and Messianism. 100 Units.

The course will consider the place of Messianism, perhaps the most enduring feature of Jewish thought in the modern period, the writings of Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, and Jacques Derrida.

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Autumn

HIJD 44500. Religion in European Enlightenment: Spinoza to Kant. 100 Units.

Readings in primary texts that constitute the historical phenomenon denominated "the Enlightenment", with particular comparison of English with continental traditions, centrally Hobbes with Spinoza; Locke with Mendelsohn; and Hume with Lessing. Major themes addressed include the status of the Bible as sacred and/or historical; conceptions of truth as revealed, as natural, and/or as revealed by nature; the category of the miraculous, and its relation to conceptions of providence and natural orders; and the place of religion in emerging political structures that have their basis in conceptions of citizenship and rights.

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 44500

HIJD 44600. Zion and Zaphon: Biblical Texts and Memory Studies. 100 Units.

The course will engage memory studies to analyze how ancient authors responded to the campaigns of Assyria against Judea and Israel in the 8th-7th cents BCE. Sources will include ancient art, archaeological finds, and literature of many genres in the Hebrew Bible and outside it.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Introductory Biblical Hebrew sequence (BIBL 33900–34000 + Text course) or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 44600, RLST 21865, KNOW 44600, BIBL 44600, NEHC 21865

HIJD 44602. Song of Songs. 100 Units.

In this text-course we will read the entire poetic composition, drawing on theory of literature in general and poetry in particular, tracing its unique forms of continuity, and analyzing its biblically distinctive forms of gender characterization.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): prerequisite: 1 year biblical Hebrew/ BIBL 33900 and BIBL 34000
Note(s): This is the Biblical Hebrew exegesis course.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24602, BIBL 44602, GNSE 44603, NEHC 44602, GNSE 24603

HIJD 44603. The Bible in Arabic. 100 Units.

An introduction to the Arabic translations of the Bible produced during the early Middle Ages (850-1200). The focus will be on the Judeo-Arabic versions, though the Christian-Arabic translation tradition will be considered as well (in order to provide comparative perspective). The translations will be explored from multiple perspectives, ranging from the terminology used and method of translation to the intellectual world of the translators themselves. Each week we will read samples from the Arabic translations, as much as possible texts in manuscript that have never before been published.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson
Prerequisite(s): Good knowledge of Arabic and/or Hebrew
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 44603

HIJD 44750. Contemporary Jewish Theology: Types of Theological Writing in America. 100 Units.

This course is intended to introduce students to four figures who wrote theology for American audiences - thoroughly engaged with the classic rabbinic tradition but simultaneously seeking a new voice of religious expression. The first two, Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel, who came from Eastern European rabbinic dynasties and also trained at the University of Berlin, came to America and stimulated a renaissance after the Holocaust and its religious-cultural catastrophe. The second two, Arthur Green and Michael Fishbane, were born in America and influenced by these and other contemporary theologians, and were part of the renaissance of American Jewish religious life from the late 1960s on. We shall read essays and books by these theologians and assess their modes of composition, reinterpretation of the classical Jewish tradition, and visions for the renewal of Jewish life in contemporary times and circumstances.

Instructor(s): M. Fishbane     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This course is suitable for student in the College and Divinity School students in the areas of Jewish Studies, Theology and Religion and Literature. There is no language requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25820

HIJD 44800. Words of the Wise: Proverbs and Qohelet. 100 Units.

Text-course (text in biblical Hebrew only) covering the literary genres, discursive styles, and philosophical ideas of Proverbs and Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), with attention to voicing, double-voicing, and intertextuality.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): One year of Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 24801, BIBL 44800, RLST 22304, NEHC 44801

HIJD 44900. Martin Buber's I and Thou. 100 Units.

Martin Buber's I and Thou. An analysis of the foundational text of Buber's philosophy of dialogue and religion.The close reading - explication de texte -- will supplement by reference to Buber's lectures "Religion as Presence" and "Zwiesprache" (Dialogue).

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 44900

HIJD 44908. The "Science of Letters" in Judaism and Islam. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 44908, HREL 44908, FNDL 25120, RLST 25120

HIJD 45101. History and Memory in Jewish Thought. 100 Units.

The course will explore the relationship between culture memory and history in the religious and secular Jewish imagination. We will begin our deliberations with some reflections on the role of memory in traditional Jewish literature; consider how critical historiography and modern historical consciousness affect cultural memory; discuss Zionist reconstructions of the past; read 20th-century Jewish thinkers on the problem of "historicism"; and probing the limits of representation of traumatic history.

Instructor(s): P. Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Autumn

HIJD 45300. Traditions and Transmission: The Aggadic Tale. 100 Units.

The Rabbis of the Talmudic period were authors and transmitters of numerous short tales and anecdotes (aggadot), both historical and ahistorical, through which they presented their views of historical/political events and persons, religious values, family relationships and the nature of mankind. We will study these tales from a literary and historical perspective, following their retelling in the major works of the Rabbinic period (Mishnah, Tosefta, Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds and aggadic midrashim), including study of the textual transmission in medieval manuscripts. Texts will be read in the original Hebrew and Aramaic with English translation.

Instructor(s): Paul Mandel (visiting professor)     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate level of classical Hebrew. Elementary reading ability of any form of classical Aramaic desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition to enroll.

HIJD 45302. Franz Rosenzweig's Shorter Writings. 100 Units.

Among Rosenzweig’s shorter writings, we will read his epistolary exchange with Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “Judaism despite Christianity”; his programmatic essay “The New Thinking”; his satirical elaboration of his critique of philosophical idealism, Understanding the Sick and the Healthy, and his commentary on the poetry of Jehuda Halevy.

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Winter

HIJD 45400. Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. 100 Units.

A careful study of select passages in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, focusing on the method of the work and its major philosophical-theological themes, including: divine attributes, creation vs. eternity, prophecy, the problem of evil and divine providence, law and ethics, the final aim of human existence.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 45400, FNDL 24106, JWSC 21107, NEHC 40470, MDVL 25400, HREL 45401, RLVC 45400, RLST 21107, NEHC 20471

HIJD 45600. Giving and Receiving. 100 Units.

Emphasis will be on care of the indigent. The focus will be textual (classical biblical and rabbinic sources, also some medieval legal codes), but will include comparative issues drawn from anthropology. The larger concern of this course will be on theological matters.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 45602

HIJD 46010. Martin Buber's Philosophy of Religion. 100 Units.

The course will consider Buber's extensive writings on the relation between religion and philosophy, particularly as it bears upon his conception of God and faiths.

Instructor(s): P. Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Autumn

HIJD 46100. Franz Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption. 100 Units.

A close exegetical reading of Rosenzweig's magnum opus, focusing on his deconstruction of German Idealism; the realignment of philosophy and theology; the revalorization of cardinal theistic concepts (Creation, Revelation, and Redemption); the religious phenomenology of the Jewish and Christian liturgical calendar; and "Messianic politics."

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Autumn

HIJD 47012. Readings in Rabbinic Midrash: Theology and Homily in Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana. 100 Units.

The Midrash Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana (4-5th cent. CE) is a classic collection of homilies on the Jewish holiday cycle, integrating earlier exegesis and sources. The course will examine several major homiletic units to understand the interplay of theology, homily, and hermeneutics. Opening classes will provide and introduction to Midrash; subsequent sessions will focus on learning how to read and interpret a classic rabbinic homiletical work.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Basic proficiency in Rabbinic Hebrew (translation will be supplemented).
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 47012, BIBL 47012

HIJD 47200. Modern Jewish Intellectual History. 100 Units.

A diachronic and synchronic survey of the major figures and themes of modern Jewish thought. With due regard to the distinctive dynamics of modern Jewish history, we will examine how various Jewish thinkers from the 17th century on confronted the challenges to theistic faith posed by modern epistemologies and conceptions of the good. We will conclude with a critical reading of Hilary Putman, Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life. Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein (2008).

HIJD 47600. Gershom Scholem: The Theologian and Social Critic. 100 Units.

With the objective of determining whether Scholem's scholarship on mysticism and antinomianism reflects a theological and ideological agenda, we will examine his diaries, memoirs, correspondence, especially with Walter Benjamin on how to read Kafka, Zionism, his poetry, and occasional essays on theology.

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Winter

HIJD 47724. Diasporism in Modern Judaism. 100 Units.

This course will consider the fate of arguments for Diasporic Jewish Identity and thought in the 20th and 21st centuries in philosophical and literary sources and will consider the relationship between debates within Jewish thought and correlates in Black Studies and Post-colonial Studies. Thinkers to be read include Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacob Gordon, Jacques Derrida, Sarah Kofman, Susan Taubes, Philip Roth, Fred Moten, Christina Sharpe and others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27724, RLVC 47724, DVPR 47724

HIJD 48200. Leo Strauss and Judaism. 100 Units.

A systematic examination of Strauss's Jewish writings, beginning with his early essays on Judaism and Zionism, his volume on Spinoza's Critique of Religion (including the autobiographical introduction to the English translation), his programatic essay on Philosophy and Law.

HIJD 48402. The Book of Judges. 100 Units.

A text-course (text in biblical Hebrew only). It will cover the book's concept of a "judge," its themes, plot, and values, its sources and formation, the real beginning and end of the book, and its historical referents. Framed by theory of history and of narrative.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): One year Biblical Hebrew.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22302, NEHC 48402, BIBL 48402, NEHC 28402

HIJD 48501. Jewish Neoplatonism. 100 Units.

Although Aristotle was the name that dominated medieval philosophy - he was the "Philosopher" par excellence and figure the religious traditions needed to contend with -- the more dominant philosophical-theological-literary trend in the early Middle Ages, at least, was Neoplatonism, or rather the unique synthesis of Plato with Aristotle and Ptolemy that developed out of and through the thought of Plotinus. This course will introduce the Jewish tradition of Neoplatonism, beginning with foundations in the Arabic adaptions of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, and working from Isaac Israeli in tenth-century Kairouan to a host of Andalusi philosophers, poets, and exegetes in the eleventh and twelfth.

Instructor(s): James Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 48501

HIJD 48610. Jewish Sufism. 100 Units.

During the Middle Ages the Jews in the Muslim world developed a robust synthesis of Jewish Spirituality and Islamic Sufism. Even those who did not subscribe to a Sufi pietistic Judaism nevertheless introduced Sufi language and ideas into their Jewish thought. This course will introduce several important figures in this Jewish Sufi movement, from Bahya ibn Paquda in 11th-century Spain to Maimonides and his descendants in 12th14th century Egypt. There will be a section for Arabists to read Bahya's "Duties of the Hearts" in Arabic, and a section for Hebraists to read the twelfth-century Hebrew translation of it.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 28611, RLST 28611, NEHC 48610, ISLM 48610, JWSC 28610, RLVC 48610, MDVL 28610

HIJD 48900. Maimonides, Eight Chapters and Commentary on Avot. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 48900

HIJD 49700. Readings in Abraham ibn Ezra. 100 Units.

Close readings of select texts from the diverse corpus of Abraham Ibn Ezra: medieval poet, linguist, biblical exegets, neoplatonic philosopher, and astrologer. The emphasis will be on his biblical commentaries, but the commentaries will be read together with his philosophical, linguistic and astrological writings.

Instructor(s): James Robinson

HIJD 49999. Race and the Bible. 100 Units.

The course will cover race in the Bible, race in the ancient world of the Bible, American use of the Bible on race, and the critique of race as a formative and constructed concept.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh and Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BIBL 31000 (Introduction to the Hebrew Bible) or BIBL 32500 (Introduction to the New Testament). BIBL 32500 can be taken concurrently.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 29109, NEHC 29989, NEHC 49989, CRES 27699, BIBL 49999, HCHR 49999

HIJD 50200. Readings in Arabic Religious Texts. 100 Units.

Texts to be covered include the 27th Sura of the Qur'an, selections from the Adab work Muhadarat al-Abrar of Ibn `Arabi, and examples of the Hadith Qudsi genre (hadiths that report divine, non-Qur'anic messages given to the Prophet).

Instructor(s): Michael Sells     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 50200, NEHC 40604

HIJD 50902. The Books of Kings: Critical Review. 100 Units.

Students read the entire Book of Kings to learn its shape, scope, and character. Read scholarship on major and local aspects to learn the field. Lay groundwork to write seminar paper in winter course BIBL 52800.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): One year Biblical Hebrew + one text course. Expectation participants will take BIBL 52800 The Book of Kings: Seminar in the winter.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 40902, BIBL 50902

HIJD 52555. Narrating the Law: Levinas and the Talmud. 100 Units.

This is a seminar that will closely read the Jewish writings of Emmanuel Levinas, in particular, the talmudic exegesis that he undertook for the French Jewish Community in the 1990s. Levinas explicates his ethical theories via the recovery of a series of texts from the Babylonian Talmud, the classic text of Jewish law, literature, and theo-philosophic interpretation.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 52555, RETH 52555

HIJD 53360. Topics in the Philosophy of Judaism: Soloveitchik Reads the Classics. 100 Units.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was one of the most important philosophers of Judaism in the twentieth century. Among his many books, essays and lectures, we find a detailed engagement with the Bible, the Talmud and the fundamental works of Maimonides. This course will examine Soloveitchik's philosophical readings and appropriation of Torah, Talmud, and both the Guide and the Mishneh Torah. A framing question of the course will be: how can one combine traditional Jewish learning and modern philosophical ideas? What can Judaism gain from philosophy? What can philosophy learn from Judaism?

Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 47002, DVPR 53360, PHIL 53360

HIJD 53361. The Philosophy of Modern Orthodox Judaism:Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. 100 Units.

The thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik is the philosophical foundation of Modern Orthodox Judaism. In this course, we will examine R. Soloveitchik's conception of halakhic method, his elaboration of the notion of masorah (tradition), and his idea of halakhic morality. The most significant subsequent development of the philosophy of Modern Orthodox Judaism can be found in the writings of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. Among other topics, we may consider R. Lichtenstein's views on the relation between religion and morality, his discussion of character refinement, his conception of serving God and his analysis of the meaning of "mitzvah" as well his response to critiques of Modern Orthodox Judaism. The course will aim to provide a detailed philosophical and theological characterization of Modern Orthodox Judaism, and we will draw some contrasts with both Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Reform Judaism.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): All students interested in enrolling in this course should send an application to jbarbaro@uchicago.edu by 12/11/2020. Applications should be no longer than one page and should include name, email address, phone number, and department or committee. Applicants should briefly describe their background and explain their interest in, and their reasons for applying to, this course. Advanced undergraduates may also apply.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 53361, PHIL 53361

HIJD 53510. Early Jewish Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. 100 Units.

Explores Jewish ideas and hermeneutics at Exodus 19-20 and select other biblical texts, in sources from the Septuagint and Dead Sea scrolls through Targumim and Rabbinic literature to Medieval Jewish commentaries.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Biblical Hebrew; Biblical Greek or Aramaic; Professor Approval
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20510, BIBL 53510, NELC 30063

HIJD 55800. Novellas of the Hebrew Bible: Jonah, Ruth, Esther, Job. 100 Units.

Seminar using theory of narrative to interact with scholarship on biblical narrative and analyze four narrative works in the Hebrew Bible.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 1 yr Biblical Hebrew + 1 text course.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 55800, NEHC 55800

HIJD 70000. Advanced Study: History of Judaism. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: History of Judaism

HREL 30149. Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean: First Millennium BCE. 100 Units.

This course will offer a survey of religious traditions and innovations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the first millennium BCE. Following a comparative, cross-cultural approach, we will cover practices and religious expressions among Phoenicians, Israelites, and Greeks (among others), featuring themes such as communication across divine spheres from "above" and "below," divine participation in the political arena, and divine roles in family life and the funerary realm. We will examine artifacts, iconography, architecture, literature, and documentary sources.

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 30149, RLST 20149

HREL 30200. Indian Philosophy I: Origins and Orientations. 100 Units.

This course introduces some of the early themes and textual traditions that set much of the agenda for the later development of Indian philosophy. Particular attention will be paid to the rivalry that was perhaps most generative throughout the history of Indian philosophy: that between the Hindu schools of thought rooted in the Vedas, and the Buddhists who so powerfully challenged them.

Instructor(s): Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 30901, SALC 20901, RLST 24201, DVPR 30201

HREL 30300. Indian Philosophy II: The Classical Traditions. 100 Units.

This course follows the first module on Indian philosophy by exploring the debates between several classical "schools" or "viewpoints" (darśanas) of Indian philosophy. In addition to expanding upon the methods of systematized reasoning inaugurated by the Nyāya and Buddhist epistemological traditions, particular attention will be given to systems of scriptural hermeneutics -- Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta -- and their consequences for the philosophy of language, theories of cognitive error, and even poetics.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan, Andrew Ollett      Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 30302, MDVL 24202, SALC 20902, RLST 24202, SALC 30902

HREL 30926. Wonder, Wonders, and Knowing. 100 Units.

In wonder is the beginning of philosophy," wrote Aristotle; Descartes also thought that those deficient in wonder were also deficient in knowledge. But the relationship between wonder and inquiry has always been an ambivalent one: too much wonder stupefies rather than stimulates investigation, according to Descartes; Aristotle explicitly excluded wonders as objects of inquiry from natural philosophy. Francis Bacon called wonders "broken knowledge." Since the sixteenth century, scientists and scholars have both cultivated and repudiated the passion of wonder; On the one hand, marvels (or even just anomalies) threaten to subvert the human and natural orders; on the other, the wonder they ignite inquiry into their causes. Wonder is also a passion tinged with the numinous, and miracles have long stood for the inexplicable in religious contexts. Above all, wonders demand attention and interpretation. This seminar will explore the long, vexed relationship between wonder, knowledge, and belief in the history of philosophy, science, and religion.

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 20926, RLST 28926, SCTH 20926, PHIL 30926, SCTH 30926, HIST 35318, KNOW 30926, CHSS 30936, HIST 25318

HREL 30927. Knowledge as a Platter: Comparative Perspectives on Knowledge Texts in the Ancient World. 100 Units.

In various ancient cultures, sages created the new ways of systematizing what was known in fields as diverse as medicine, politics, sex, dreams, and mathematics. These texts did more than present what was known; they exemplified what it means to know - and also why reflective, systematic knowledge should be valued more highly than the knowledge gained from common sense or experience. Drawing on texts from Ancient India, Greece, Rome, and the Near East, this course will explore these early templates for the highest form of knowledge and compare their ways of creating fields of inquiry: the first disciplines. Texts include the Arthashastra, the Hippocratic corpus, Deuteronomy, the Kama Sutra, and Aristotle's Parva naturalia.

Terms Offered: Not offered in 21-22.
Prerequisite(s): Lorraine Daston
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 30927, KNOW 31415, SALC 30927, SCTH 30927

HREL 31100. The Foundation of Buddhist Thoughts. 100 Units.

The foundation of Buddhist thought is the Buddha's teachings preserved in the extant Buddhist scriptures such as Pali Nikāya and Chinese Āgama. As Buddhism spreaded cross the vast and culturally-diverse regions of Southeast, Central, and East Asia, Buddhist thought evolved and expanded in order to meet the needs of these varied societies. Each Buddhist tradition highlights its own distinctive aspects of Buddhist thought accordingly. This course aims to give students a solid foundation in the early Buddhist doctrines so that they will have a better capacity to decipher the subsequent development of theories and doctrines by other Buddhist schools. This perspective provides the students with a clear road map of the progression of the Buddha's teachings. The course includes the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha and critical terms and concepts of Buddhism, such as Dependent Origination, the Four Noble Truth, the Doctrine of Non-self, The Doctrine of Karma. These will be elaborated, and it will be shown how these teachings are interrelated doctrinally and practically forming a systematic whole.

Instructor(s): Ven. Dhammadipa Sak     Terms Offered: Autumn

HREL 31110. The Foundation of Buddhist Thoughts. 100 Units.

Objectives: The foundation of Buddhist thought is the Buddha's teachings preserved in the extant Buddhist scriptures such as Pali Nikāya and Chinese Āgama. As Buddhism spreaded cross the vast and culturally-diverse regions of Southeast, Central, and East Asia, Buddhist thought evolved and expanded in order to meet the needs of these varied societies. Each Buddhist tradition highlights its own distinctive aspects of Buddhist thought accordingly. This course aims to give students a solid foundation in the early Buddhist doctrines so that they will have a better capacity to decipher the subsequent development of theories and doctrines by other Buddhist schools. This perspective provides the students with a clear road map of the progression of the Buddha's teachings. Course Organization: The course includes the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha and critical terms and concepts of Buddhism, such as Dependent Origination, the Four Noble Truth, the Doctrine of Non-self, The Doctrine of Karma. These will be elaborated, and it will be shown how these teachings are interrelated doctrinally and practically forming a systematic whole.

Instructor(s): Ven. Dhammadipa Sak     Terms Offered: Autumn

HREL 31500. The Globalization of Japanese Religions: From the 19th Century to the Present. 100 Units.

This course will explore the processes that led to the present situation of Japanese religions both within and outside of Japan. It focuses on the encounter and exchanges between Japanese and non-Japanese actors in order to question overly simplified models of globalization and modernization from the point of view of a global history of religions. We will first consider the formation of the concept of "religion" itself in the second half of the nineteenth century in both Europe and Japan. Building on these considerations, we will consider a selection of primary sources to trace the main developments of Japanese religious traditions and institutions into the present. Particular attention will be paid to both the inculturation of "foreign" religious traditions in Japan and the spread of "Japanese" religious traditions outside of Japan. If possible, the course will also incorporate field trips to Japanese religious groups in the Chicago area.

Instructor(s): Stephan Licha     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 31500, HIST 34109

HREL 31700. Reading Religion in South Asia. 100 Units.

This course alternates between primary source texts from South Asia in translation and secondary scholarship. All course materials will be drawn from premodern Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain contexts and from a range of languages. This course structure provides students with the opportunity to see how scholars have interpreted South Asian literature as well as to practice textual interpretation. We will think through the particular constraints of South Asian literary scholars from new historicism to post-colonial critique.

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 31700

HREL 31880. The Birth of the Gods: A Close Reading of Hesiod's Theogony. 100 Units.

In this course we will read in Greek the Theogony by Hesiod, one of the earliest preserved literary pieces in ancient Greek and a text that became a point of reference for cosmogonic literature and thought in later centuries. We will conduct a close reading, commenting on both poetic/literary aspects and mythical tropes, and will read (in English) comparative materials from other Greek and Near Eastern cosmogonies, as well as some interpretive essays. Exams will be based on translation work as well as engagement in discussions.

Instructor(s): Carolina Lopez-Ruiz     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Two years of Greek (intermediate level) required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 34923, RLST 21880, FNDL 21880, GREK 24923

HREL 31990. Towards Ecumenical Buddhism. 100 Units.

There are many Buddhist traditions around the world which can be categorized into three major traditions: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Each of these traditions claims the legitimacy of their teachings, directly passed down from the Buddha, which holds the supreme authority and is the purest form of Buddhism. This seminar will give students an understanding of the ideals of these three traditions by studying their cultural, ethnic, political, and scriptural contents. Based on the ideology of these traditions on their doctrines, they may more simply be classified into two: Bodhisattva Path and Arahant Path. The seminar will aim at helping the participants to identify similarities among them, to foster a clearer picture of the core teachings of the Buddha, and offers itself as one way among many of disclosing certain aspects of the field, possibly the missing link of each other to form a uniformity. The seminar will be arranged into two parts, a discussion of the reading list and presentations. The readings and discussion will be organized to focus on the concept of the Buddha, monasticism, rituals, salient Buddhist norms such as emptiness, nirvana, perfect beings and even their possibly cultural or political influences on each on the emergence of Buddhism, to foster the understanding of core Buddhist teachings.

Instructor(s): Ven. Dhammadipa Sak     Terms Offered: Autumn

HREL 32204. The Veda and its Interpreters. 100 Units.

What, according to the Veda, is required of us? What is our response to it? What is the Veda, why does it matter, and to whom? This course seeks to cultivate an understanding of how scriptural commentators have grappled with notions of authority, obligation, ritual action, and liberating knowledge. We are primarily interested in the reception of Vedic figures, themes, and ideas among its many interpreters, scholastic, literary, and political. Particular attention is given to the hermeneutical tradition of Vedānta, in both its premodern and modern incarnations.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22204

HREL 32400. Zen Before Zen: Chan Buddhism in China. 100 Units.

This course is part of a two-sequence series, to be followed by a course on Japanese Zen Buddhism taught by Professor Stephan Licha in Winter 2025. "Chan" is a partial Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word "Dhyana," meaning meditation practice; the same Chinese character is pronounced "Zen" in Japanese. This course will consist of the close reading (in English translation) and discussion of both the Indian Buddhist scriptures and indigenous Chinese sources that form the core of the tradition spanning Chan and Zen, with a few secondary descriptions of Chan institutions and cultural influences. Our focus will be on the development of ideas concerning the nature of sentience and the implications this has for understanding the existential predicament of sentient beings, touching on central themes of dependent co-arising, non-self, Emptiness, consciousness-only, Buddha-nature and original enlightenment, and the methods of realization (doctrinal, non-doctrinal, and indeed anti-doctrinal) proposed to redress this existential predicament at each stage of Chan history. This will be done both with an eye to the historical continuity of these sometimes seemingly contradictory forms thought and practice, and also to extract from them whatever transhistorical philosophical and spiritual valences we care to derive from the texts.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22401, DVPR 32402

HREL 32402. Japanese Zen Buddhism. 100 Units.

What is Zen? Impossibly, seemingly, everything to everybody. In this course, we will explore Zen's protean transformations through a close reading of primary sources in translation. Rather than asking what Zen is, we will focus on how in these materials the Zen traditions are continually de/re-constructed as contingent religious identities from medieval Japan to the contemporary United States and Europe. The focus of the course will be the premodern Japanese Zen tradition, its background in Chinese Chan, and its reception in the West. The course will include field trips to Zen communities in the Chicago area. Students wishing to take this course are strongly encouraged to also take Prof. Ziporyn's course on Chan during the fall quarter.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22402

HREL 32900. Classical Theories of Religion. 100 Units.

This course surveys the development of theoretical perspectives on religion and religions in the 19th and early-20th centuries, and the institutional and historical contexts within which they developed. Thinkers to be studied include Kant, Hume, Schleiermacher, Feuerbach, Marx, Muller, Tiele, Comte, Tylor, Robertson Smith, Frazer, Durkheim, Weber, Nietzsche, Freud, James, Otto, van der Leeuw, Boas, Radcliffe-Brown, Wach, and Eliade.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course fulfills the elective requirement for a new MAPSS concentration on the Formation of Knowledge https://ifk.uchicago.edu/mapss/. This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 35005, AASR 32900, ANTH 35005

HREL 33001. Confucian Philosophy and Spirituality. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to introduce you to the central themes and texts of classical Confucian and Neo-Confucian traditions, both as philosophical works to be evaluated and digested for their doctrinal content and as literary artifacts from a perhaps unfamiliar cultural sphere. This will call for the development of two distinct but related sets of skills, namely, the ability to think through and comprehend philosophical arguments and ideas, and the equally crucial ability to reflect on one's own assumptions as they come into play in one's reaction to and evaluation of those ideas. Readings will include, from the classical period, the Four Books (Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects of Confucius, Mencius), Xunzi, the Book of Changes, and from Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian writings of Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, the Cheng Brothers, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 33201, DVPR 33001, RLST 23001, EALC 23201

HREL 33202. Li Zhi and 16th Century China: The Self, Tradition, and Dissent in Comparative Context. 100 Units.

The 16th century Chinese iconoclast Li Zhi (Li Zhuowu) has been rightly celebrated as a pioneer of individualism, one of history's great voices of social protest, an original mind powerfully arguing for genuine self-expression, and more. He was a Confucian official and erudite in the classics, yet in his sixties he takes the Buddhist tonsure, and late in life befriends the Jesuit Matteo Ricci. He sought refuge in a quiet monastery devoting his life to scholarship, yet invited constant scandal. His A Book to Burn "sold like hotcakes," and attracted enough trouble that reportedly readers would surreptitiously hide their copies tucked up their sleeves, and was later banned by the state soon after his death. In this seminar, we will place Li both within the context of the history of "Confucian" thought, and within the literary, religious, and philosophical conversations of the late Ming. Using his writings as a productive case study, we will think about topics including "religion," tradition and innovation, "spontaneity" and "authenticity," and the relationship between "classics" and commentaries. Throughout, we will bring our discussions into comparative analysis, considering views of thinkers and traditions from other times and places. Chinese not required; for those interested, we will read select essays of Li's in Chinese and students may choose translation as a final project.

Instructor(s): Pauline Lee     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 34519, FNDL 23202, EALC 23202, RLST 23202, EALC 33202, DVPR 33202, HIST 24519

HREL 33400. Contemporary Topics in the Study of South Asian Religion. 100 Units.

This course is a research-oriented seminar dealing with topics in the scholarly study of South Asian religion. It focuses on contemporary themes and methodologies in the field. Readings come from prominent books and/or articles in the field published in the last five to six years. Themes explored will include art and artifice, caste, class, and capital, faith and friendship, and memory and modernity.

HREL 33700. Special Topics in Hinduism. 100 Units.

This course is a research-oriented seminar that focuses on contemporary themes and methodologies in the study of Hinduism. Readings come from prominent books in the field published in the last five to ten years. Themes explored will include Hinduism and politics, ritual theory, wonder, modernity, yoga, gender, caste, class, sexuality, pluralism, and bhakti. Students will develop research projects of their own choosing in close consultation with the instructor.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 33700, SALC 33701

HREL 33705. Special Topics in Hinduism. 100 Units.

This course will be tailored to the individual students who register and will be an opportunity for students with experience in the study of Hinduism to gain greater depth and knowledge in a seminar context. Each student will be asked to select a classic monograph in the field (e.g., Kunal Chakrabarti's Religious Process: The Purāṇas and the Making of a Regional Tradition; 2001) as well as a book published in the last five years (e.g., Caleb Simmons, Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India; 2019). The remainder of the syllabus will be created by the professor and built around the specific interests of the students in the class.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

HREL 33900. Esoteric Buddhism in East Asia. 100 Units.

The tantric or esoteric traditions exerted a profound if often covert influence on the development of East Asian Buddhism as a whole and on Japanese Buddhism in specific. In this course, we will trace their development through a close reading of selected sources in translation, focusing on the Ben kenmitsu nikyô ron attributed to Kūkai (774-835), the first systematizer of esoteric Buddhist thought in Japan. We will pay especially close attention to how the label of the "esoteric" or "tantric" is used to define specific religious identities. Students wishing to take this class should have a grounding in (East Asian) Buddhist thought.

HREL 33907. Gandhi and His Critics. 100 Units.

The moral and political writings of M.K. Gandhi constitute one of the most influential archives of ethics in the twentieth century. For a man so devoted to periodic vows of silence and withdrawal, he nevertheless left over ninety volumes of public speeches, personal correspondence, and published essays. A modernist arrayed against the brutalities of modernity, Gandhi's thought encompassed concepts of sovereignty, the state, self and society, religion, civilization, and force. His insistence on cultivating technologies of the self as a response to both colonial and intimate violence was inspired by an eclectic range of source material. Generations of critical thinkers from around the world, including Black, feminist, Communist, and Dalit political activists, engaged with his ideas. This course explores several themes in Gandhi's ethical thought and the responses they have generated.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CRES 23907, FNDL 23907, RETH 33907, RLST 23907

HREL 33908. Bergson and China: Buddhist and Confucian Reboots. 100 Units.

This course will explore Henri Bergson's philosophy as set forth in Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, and Creative Evolution, and its reception in late Imperial and early Republican China (late 19th and early 20th centuries). Of special interest will be the role played by Bergsonian ideas in the Yogacara revival and the formation of New Confucianism during this period, with particular focus on figures like Zhang Taiyan, Xiong Shili and Liang Shumin. This will require us to deeply engage Bergson's idea of "duration" (durée) and its interpretation, particularly in relation to a reconsideration of the Yogacara Buddhist notion of ālaya-consciousness (storehouse consciousness) and the Confucian idea of ceaseless generation and regeneration (shengsheng bu xi) as derived from interpretive traditions centered on the Book of Changes (Yijing).

Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 33908, RLST 23908

HREL 34300. Buddhist Poetry in India. 100 Units.

The substantial Buddhist contribution to Indian poetry is of interest for what it teaches us of both Buddhism and the broad development of Indian literature. The present course will focus upon three phases in this history, with attention to what changes of language and literary genre tell us of the transformations of Indian religious culture from the last centuries B.C.E. to about the year 1000. Readings (all in translation) will include the Therīgāthā, a collection of verses written in Pali and the most ancient Indian example of womens' literature, selections from the work of the great Sanskrit poets Aśvaghoṣa, Āryaśūra, and Mātṛceta, and the mystical songs, in the Apabhraṃśa language, of the Buddhist tantric saints.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): General knowledge of Buddhism is desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 34300, RLST 26250, SALC 34300, MDVL 26250, DVPR 34300

HREL 34350. Introduction to Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. 100 Units.

Complementing the course on Buddhist Poetry in India, we will be reading a celebrated verse scripture, the Prajñā-pāramitā-ratnaguṇa-sañcaya-gāthā ("Verses Gathering the Jewel-like Qualities of the Perfection of Wisdom") in both its Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit original and its Tibetan translation. (Students are required to have had at least two years of either Sanskrit or Tibetan - it will not be necessary to do both.) Those wishing to take the course for Sanskrit credit should enroll in SALC.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students must have had two years of Tibetan OR Sanskrit.
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by petition.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 34350, DVPR 34350

HREL 34358. Hindu Goddesses and the Deification of Women. 100 Units.

This course has two focuses. The first is to examine how and why representations of goddesses in her iconic, aniconic and symbolic forms are embraced by various religious traditions (Buddhist, Saiva, Vaishnava and Jaina) of India. The second focus includes: 1) an examination of the manner in which the power of the feminine has been expressed socially, mythologically, and theologically in Hinduism; 2) how Hindu women have expressed their religiosity in social and psychological ways; 3) how and why women have been deified, a process that implicates the relationship between the goddess and women; and 4) how various categories of goddesses can be seen or not as the forms of the so-called "Great Goddess" (Mahadevi), and how these goddesses reflect varying relationships with human women.

Instructor(s): Sree Padma Holt     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course is open to undergraduates with permission of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 34358, GNSE 24358, RLST 14358

HREL 34410. Anthropology of Religion I. 100 Units.

This course surveys various methods and topics in the study of religion in the social sciences. We will begin with social evolutionist models, moving to the interpretive cultural turn and genealogical approaches. Classic analytics raised in the field of anthropology include ritual and tradition, semiotics, arts and performance, embodiment, authority and agency. We will also engage recent debates around the sociology of conversion, secularisms, the idea of 'world religions', and politics of religious difference, religious violence and global religious movements.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35031, AASR 34410

HREL 34419. What Is Authority. 100 Units.

The aim of the seminar is to clarify the notion of authority in its (historically shifting) relation to neighboring concepts such as power, violence, domination, law, obedience, among others. Readings will be drawn from literature (Shakespeare, Kafka), philosophy (Hegel, Derrida, Agamben), psychoanalytic theory (Freud, Lacan), political and cultural theory (Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt), anthropology (Geertz), and sociology (Weber, Durkheim).

Instructor(s): Eric Santner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 34419

HREL 34441. Theravada Buddhism: History and Philosophy. 100 Units.

This course studies the history and philosophy of Theravada Buddhism in India and other Southeast Asia countries. We first introduce the life of the Buddha and his major teachings within the context of the social and cultural environments in which Buddhism emerged about 2500 years ago. Having thus grasped some fundamental knowledge on Buddhism based on Pali texts, we then embark on examining its philosophical and historical developments from primitive Buddhism to sectarian Buddhism, and to the ramification of Theravada Buddhism in various countries such as Sri Lanka and Thai Land throughout its long history. Towards the end of the quarter, the class briefly discusses the revival of Theravada Buddhism in Indian in connection with the arising of Protestant Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the early 20th century. It is hoped that students having completed this course will be equipped with sufficient knowledge on general history, major philosophy and outstanding cultural tradition of Theravada Buddhism.

Instructor(s): Yu Xue     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20441, SALC 24441, SALC 34441

HREL 34519. Dreams in the Ancient World. 100 Units.

Dreams belong to the universals of human existence as human beings have always dreamt and will continue to dream across time and cultures. The questions where do dreams come from and how to unravel a dream have always preoccupied the human mind. In this course we will focus on dreams in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultural environments. We will cover dreams from three complementary perspectives: dreams as experience, dream interpretation and dream theory. The reading materials will include: (a) a selection of dream narratives from different sources, literary texts as well as documentary accounts of dreams; (b) texts which document the forms and contexts of dream interpretation in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultures and (c) texts which represent attempts to approach dreams from a more general perspective by among others explaining their genesis and defining dream-types.

Instructor(s): S. Torallas.      Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 34519, CLCV 24519, NEHC 30613, RLST 24503, NEHC 20613, ANCM 44519

HREL 34600. Buddhist Meditation: Tradition, Transformation, Modernization. 100 Units.

From the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta of the Pāli canon to the "mindfulness" boom of recent years, Buddhism and meditation often appear inseparable. The aim of this seminar is to historicize and critically question this seemingly natural intimacy, for while it certainly cannot be denied that the various Buddhist traditions have always had on offer a plethora of techniques for mental (and physical) cultivation, it is far from clear how or even if all these could be subsumed under the in its current usage relatively recent category of "meditation". Drawing on Buddhist meditation literature from various traditions, historical periods, and literary genre, in this seminar we will take up a twofold question: First, how has the encounter with Buddhist techniques of cultivation shaped the modern understanding of "meditation", and second, up to which extend, and at what cost, has this very modern understanding conversely conditioned us to see Buddhism as a "meditative religion" par excellence?

Instructor(s): Stephan Licha     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 34600, HIST 34122, RLST 24600, EALC 24609, SALC 24600, EALC 34600, HIST 24122

HREL 35100. Indian Buddhism. 100 Units.

This course is designed to serve as an introductory survey of the history, doctrines, institutions, and practices of Buddhism in India from its origins through the present. Readings will be drawn both from primary sources (in translation) and secondary and tertiary scholarly research.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48306

HREL 35113. Jewish Superheroes. 100 Units.

There has been much recent discussion about Jewish influence on the modern superhero. Many of the comic book artists were Jewish and the superheroes themselves inspired by Jewish themes, for example, Superman has a biography similar to Moses', while the Incredible Hulk seems the perfect Golem. This course will read this modern literature to help frame our discussion of the premodern inspirations of it. We will focus on superheroes and supervillains found in classical and medieval sources, from Samson, Elijah and Elisha in the Bible to the wonder Rabbis of the Talmud to the many messiahs and mystics of the Middle Ages, identifying their superpowers and exploring the roles they played within traditional Jewish culture.

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 35113, RLST 20513

HREL 35200. Tibetan Buddhism. 100 Units.

This course is designed to serve as an introductory survey of the history, doctrines, institutions, and practices of Buddhism in Tibet from its origins in the mid-first-millennium through the present. Readings will be drawn both from primary sources (in translation) and secondary and tertiary scholarly research.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedmeyer     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 39001

HREL 35809. Reinterpretations of Time and Death. 100 Units.

This class will explore philosophical, religious and literary reimaginings and reconceptualizations of the nature of time and of death. Of special concern will be both conceptual and imaginative speculations that contravene commonsensical notions such as 1) time as a sequence of nonconsecutive and nonoverlapping "moments," 2) time as unidirectional, 3) time as uninterrupted, 4) time as synordinate, 5) time as nonrepeating, 6) death as either the end of individual consciousness or the continuation of individual consciousness, 7) death as either leading to consequences of the life lived or having no such consequences, and so on. Readings may include the following: Borges, "A New Refutation of Time," Amis, Time's Arrow; Baker The Fermata; Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five; Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra; Eagleman, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives; and Ziporyn, Death Time Perception (in progress), among others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28509, CMLT 28509, DVPR 35809

HREL 35840. Philosophical Approaches to Peace of Mind: The Zhuangzi in Dialogue. 100 Units.

Philosophical activity across cultures and times has been closely associated with the management of affective states. One common goal is to minimize negative emotions by changing how events are interpreted and appraised. This course will focus on three strategies that appear across different traditions. The first argues that events are outside of our control, in some cases appealing to fate but in other cases appealing to chance. The second strategy is a skeptical approach that attacks our ability to judge any event as bad or good. The third strategy undermines the ontological status of the kinds of things we become attached to, either by rejecting the ultimate reality of individual substances or arguing that diverse things form a single whole. All of these strategies appear prominently in the classical Chinese text the Zhuangzi. The core of this course will consist of a close reading of parts of the Zhuangzi, considering these strategies as they intersect with and shed light on its various philosophies. We will also read in a comparative context. The other traditions used will be guided by student interest, but the most likely choices would be Stoicism and Epicureanism (for the first strategy), Sextus Empiricus (for the second), and arguments appearing South Asian Buddhist philosophies (for the third). Aside from better understanding the Zhuangzi, the goal of the course is to consider how similar strategies function in significantly different cultural contexts.

Instructor(s): Frank Perkins     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25840, EALC 25840, KNOW 35840, DVPR 35840, EALC 35840

HREL 35900. Feeling Religious or Emotions as a Variety of Religious Experience. 100 Units.

This course takes up the methodological tension between Donovan O. Schaefer's Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature and as a starting point to think religion and emotion. We will then follow the boom of recent scholarship on this topic to think about the variety of ways that scholars have theorized and understood emotion or affect as central to the study of religion. The course also asks: Why emotion? Why right now? In asking these questions, the students will become familiar with this strand of scholarship within religious studies, but also how it fits in with the larger theoretical turn in the humanities.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 35900

HREL 36000. Second-Year Sanskrit II. 100 Units.

This sequence begins with a rapid review of grammar learned in the introductory course, followed by readings from a variety of Sanskrit texts. The goals are to consolidate grammatical knowledge, expand vocabulary, and gain confidence in reading different styles of Sanskrit independently. The winter quarter will be a reading of the Mahabharata.

Instructor(s): Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): SANS 20100 or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48400, SANS 20200

HREL 36001. Second-year Sanskirt: Rdgs.in Mahabharata. 100 Units.

TBD

HREL 36260. Buddhism in Early Theravada Literature. 100 Units.

A critical examination of important canonical (Buddhavacana--attributed to the Buddha) and non-canonical Pali literature central to the religious "imaginaire" of Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Literary texts include Vinayapitaka (Book of Monastic Discipline), Dhammapada (didactic verses attributed to the Buddha), Mahaparinibbana Sutta (sermon recounting the final 3 months of the Buddha's career), Vessantara Jataka (epic narrative of the Buddha's next-to-last rebirth as a king), the Edicts of Asoka (proclamations of the 3rd c. BCE Indian emperor), Anagatavamsa Desana (prophecy of the future Buddha Metteyya), Mahavamsa (the monastic "Great Chronicle" recounting the history of Buddhism) and royal inscriptions and paintings from the late-medieval period.

Instructor(s): John Holt     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26260, HIST 36703, SALC 26260, SALC 36260

HREL 36265. Comparative Study of Humanistic Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism. 100 Units.

This course is designed for students who would like to explore further social philosophy and implication of Humanistic Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism, the two mainstreams of Buddhist development in modern world. We first examine historical background for the arising of Humanistic Buddhism from Mahayana tradition in China and Buddhist revivalism or Protestant Buddhism, the forerunner of Engaged Buddhism in Sri Lanka almost simultaneously at the beginning of 20th century, and their subsequent developments respectively. Having then briefly reviewed some prominent figures such as Taixu (1898-1947), Dhammapala (1864-1933), and their major advocates, we undertake thorough comparative studies of the two Buddhisms by exploring several topics, including modern education and science, environment and ecology, human rights and feminism, politics and violence, suffering and happiness, and others. While discussing these topics, we also examine how Buddhism has transformed itself from the religion of other world to that of this world, how Buddhists have reinterpreted Buddhism in order to fit the idea and practice of modernity, an how new cultures have thus been recreated to cater for the needs of contemporary life both in the East and West. Toward the end of the quarter, discussion may be extended to compare other new religious movements so that students may have a broader vision on religions and their social advocates in contemporary world.

Instructor(s): Yu Xue     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Some knowledge on the general history and basic philosophy of Buddhism.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26265, SALC 36265, SALC 26265

HREL 36702. Arabic into Hebrew: Translation and Cultural Change during the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26702, HIJD 36702, ISLM 36702

HREL 37440. Buddha Then and Now: Transformations from Amaravati to Anuradhapura. 100 Units.

The Buddhist sculptures in Amaravati are arguably the earliest to influence the early Buddhist art of the other parts of the sub-continent as well as south and southeast Asia. The course begins with the discussion of the context in which the Buddha images were made in Amaravati and the factors including Buddhist doctrinal developments that contributed to the spread of these images to various parts of Sri Lanka. Then it traces the course and function of Buddhist iconography in Sri Lanka until into the 21st century to assess the role of geopolitical factors. The positionality and portrayals of the images of Buddha are also considered and analyzed. The course traces the trajectories that transformed the image of the Buddha from a symbol of peace to jingoist assertiveness. Through the study of the images of the Buddha, the aim is to comprehend the ways Buddhism has changed over centuries from an inclusive posture which helped it sustain and spread to different parts of the world only later to become exclusionary.

Instructor(s): Sree Padma Holt     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 36704, RLST 27440, SALC 37440, ARTH 37440, RLVC 37440, ARTH 27440, SALC 27440

HREL 37490. Art as Buddhism in Ancient India: Explorations in the Stupa of Amaravati and Other Monuments. 100 Units.

This course will examine the visual construction of early Buddhism in India, focusing in particular on stūpas and especially on the art of the great stūpa (mahachaitya) at Amarāvatī in Andhra Pradesh. We will examine questions of Buddhology, of the diversity and range of conversations within early Buddhism, leading to the rise of the Mahāyāna, in relation to the visualization of Buddhist theory and narrative in the extensive and extraordinary decorations of the major sites. The course will introduce those taking it to the rich visual, material and epigraphic culture of the Buddhist stūpas as well as the vibrant textual world of Indian Buddhist writing - from stories to suttas to commentaries. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own final papers in relation to this material or comparatively with other material in which they also retain an interest (not necessarily only Buddhist).

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 27490, SALC 37490, ARTH 37490, RLVC 37490, RLST 27490, ARTH 27490

HREL 37652. Broken Mirrors: Writing the Other from Herodotus to the Jewish/Christian. 100 Units.

How are Others represented in Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian canons? Is the Other purely a mirror of the self who represents it? Or do self and Other interact? Can we trace and compare patterns of representation and taxonomies for human difference across cultures, genres, regions, periods, and sciences? How can we develop new critical frameworks and concepts for this task, if we refuse to take for granted the categories and conventions of today's academic disciplines? What might this new approach to the Other help us to learn, or unlearn, about the making of "the West"? In order to answer those questions, our course will survey the most influential literary models of the Other, from Herodotus to the early medieval "Life of Jesus" polemic tradition. Beyond developing a new framework for exploring and connecting these diverse sources, it has three historical aims. First, to interrogate the limits of modern anthropology as the institutionalized site for writing and knowing the Other. Second, to reveal the centrality of the figure of the Jew in the prehistory of anthropology, where it plays a neglected but crucial role in the European history of human difference in general. Finally, to expose the premodern roots of "scientific" categories-"primitive," "civilized," "Oriental," "Aryan," "Semite," etc.-where racial, linguistic, religious, and cultural differences still intersect today.

Instructor(s): James Adam Redfield     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 31922, CLCV 21922, RLST 27652, HIJD 37652, CMLT 37652, JWSC 26603

HREL 37702. Music and Love in South Asia. 100 Units.

This course explores the relationship between the musical arts and forms of love in South Asian history. We will trace the complex and ambivalent contours of love in several genres including premodern poetry, stage performance, and Bollywood movies. We will examine issues such as poetics and theology, opposition to orthodox social conventions, the intensity of emotion expressed through multiple senses, the social sites of forbidden love, women and gender as poets and performers, and the intersection of sexuality and spirituality.

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 37702, RLST 27702

HREL 38219. Understanding Buddhism Through Meditation. 100 Units.

This course studies succinct theories and systematic practices of Buddhist meditation based on both Theravada and Mahayana texts and traditions; it is divided into 4 parts: 1. Theories and practices of meditation in Pali texts and Theravada tradition-we examine idea and practice of Samadha and Vipassana mainly based on the Satipatthana Sutta and Visuddhimagga; 2. Chinese Texts and Zen Buddhism-The Great Concentration and Contemplation, and the Platform Sutra, two of the most important texts in Chinese Buddhism will be read and discussed; 3. Scientific studies and understanding of Buddhist meditation, and dialogue between Buddhist meditation and science-we read and discuss research papers and experimental reports on mediation practice by modern scholars through neuroscience and psychotherapy in the West. A special attention is paid to the discussion on the Western derivatives of Buddhist meditation for different purposes other than the final enlightenment of Buddhism, and on arising of variety of meditation practices such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Loving-Kindness Meditation, Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, Compassion Cultivation Training; and 4. Meditation session-the course instructor or meditation masters will provide instructions for students to practice meditation based on theories and methods discussed in the class and through readings.

Instructor(s): Yu Xue     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Some basic knowledge of Buddhism recommended.
Note(s): This course meets the CS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 38219, RLST 28219, SALC 28219

HREL 38499. How Did The Ancients Interpret Their Myths? 100 Units.

How did the ancient Greeks interpret their own narratives about the gods? How did their encounter with Near Eastern mythologies shape their own story-telling, and how did their understanding and use of myths evolve with time? In this course, we will explore the ancient interpretation of myth from the archaic Greek to the Roman periods. First, we will focus on the cross-cultural adaptations of Near Eastern traditions in Greek epic (Homer and Hesiod), as a form of interpretation itself. Then we will discuss how ancient poets and thinkers interpreted and reinterpreted divine narratives, paying attention to their philosophical, literary, and cultural strategies, from Orphism and Plato to the Stoics and later philosophical schools, including Euhemerism and its engagement with Phoenician mythology.

Instructor(s): Carolina López-Ruiz     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28499, CLAS 38422, NEHC 28499, NEHC 38499, CLCV 28422

HREL 39300. Asceticism: Forming the Self. 100 Units.

In recent decades scholars of the pre-modern period have turned to the body as a site of renewed historical inquiry. Within the study of religion, this shift has reanimated discussions around asceticism as a particularly potent technē for self-fashioning. Nevertheless, scholars have struggled to theorize asceticism across religious traditions. This signature course, taught by two scholars working in disparate historical periods and religious traditions (early Christianity and medieval Indian religious literature), explores how gender theory has engaged ascetic practices for understanding the body and human potential. Students will engage asceticism as a series of techniques or forms of life that envision the sexed and gendered human body as the horizon of corporeal expression and personal imagination. Asceticism serves as a neat conceptual device, allowing us to toggle between the mind and body while tackling questions that fall within the liminal space between them, including debates around gender, sexuality, sovereignty, and biopower. Students along with the instructors will contend with the challenges and opportunities of transnational and transhistorical feminist and queer inquiry as we traverse across the boundaries of tradition, language, and culture. While drawing on rich historical and religious archives, we will anchor our discussions around the interplay of two principal authors: Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor and Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 39300, GNSE 39303, BIBL 39300, SIGN 26074, RLST 29300, GNSE 29303, RLVC 39300

HREL 40010. Contemporary Topics in the Study of South Asian Religion. 100 Units.

This course takes up theoretical problems in religious studies, issues specific to the study of South Asia, and the intersections between the two. It foregrounds history, that is, the historical lives of religion in the subcontinent. Theory, in both the sense of conceptualizing religion and the concepts of religious actors themselves, is treated as an historical object, as emerging from and participating in history. Topics covered in the course range between: religious encounter and shared practices; sexuality and spirit-possession; epics and everyday ethics; poverty and plenitude; hospitality and healing; colonial systems of classification; caste and regimes of unfree labor.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 40010

HREL 40130. Textual Amulets in the Ancient Mediterranean. 100 Units.

Amulets with inscribed texts were used broadly by individuals and households and across ancient Mediterranean cultures for protection against evils, for curing disease, and for obtaining advantage over adversaries in all walks of life. In this course, we will survey a broad range of such amulets coming from the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Phoenician-Punic world, Greece and southern Italy, and inscribed on such varied materials as sheets of gold and silver, papyri, ostraca and gems, while scrutinizing their material aspects, their cultural context, and their shared and distinctive features.

Instructor(s): Carolina Lopez-Ruiz, Sofia Torallas-Tovar, Christopher Faraone     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Classical or Near Eastern languages recommended but not required.
Note(s): THis course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20130, NEHC 20130, CLCV 27923, CLAS 37923, NEHC 40130

HREL 40205. Schelling's Relation to Spinoza: A Love-Hate Romance. 100 Units.

Schelling's philosophical career can appear to be a bewildering tale of sharp reversals, disparate phases, abandoned systems, massive overhauls, heroic overreach, tragic defeats, and extravagant creativity. One thing that remains constant throughout this fabled career is his obsession with Spinoza, whether pro and con. This course will attempt, after a few weeks working with Spinoza's Ethics itself, to track the many stances Schelling takes to Spinoza, as both inspiration and irritant, in his early, middle and late phases, his shifting interpretations and assessments, and the role these play in his various philosophical endeavors. All readings will be in English.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 40205

HREL 40301. The Discovery of Paganism. 100 Units.

How do we know what we know about ancient religions? Historians of religion often begin by turning to texts: either sacred texts, or, in the absence of such scriptures, descriptions of belief and practice by observers from outside the faith. Archaeologists focus their attention on the spaces and traces of religious practice-or at least those that survive-while art historians begin by examining images of deities and religious rites. Yet we often fail to see the extent to which the questions which we ask of all of these diverse sources are conditioned by Christian rhetoric about pagan worship. In this course, we compare two moments when Christians encountered "pagans": during the initial Christian construction of a discourse on paganism (and, more broadly, a discourse on religion) during the late Roman empire and during the Spanish discovery of the New World. Our course examines silences and absences in the textual and material records, as well as the divergences between texts and objects, in order to further our understanding of ancient religious practice. We will begin to see the many ways in which, as scholars of religion, we are in effect still Christian theologians, paving the way for new approaches to the study of ancient religion.

Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 44916, KNOW 40301, HIST 64202, ANCM 44916, CDIN 40301, LACS 40301, ARTH 40310

HREL 40440. Pure Land Buddhism. 100 Units.

This course will explore the motif of the "Pure Land" in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and its attendant applications to Buddhist practice, faith, devotional, and doctrine. We will examine the textual sources on the bodhisattva vows and specific entailments of various pure lands in Indic Mahāyāna scripture, and then the development of Pure Land thought and practice in China and Japan, including its expression in Tiantai and Jodo Shinshu traditions.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20440, DVPR 40440

HREL 40450. Polemic, Betrayal and Dung Beetles in the Pure Land:Zhili, Renyue and the Miaozongchao Controversies. 100 Units.

This course will focus on a close reading of the Foshuo guanwuliangshoufojing shuji (known for short as the Miaozongchao), written by the great Tiantai thinker Siming Zhili (960-1028) in 1021. For the previous 20 years, Zhili had been the main spokesman and theoretician of the Shanjia ("Home Mountain") faction in the heated doctrinal debates with the Shanwai ("Off Mountain") faction of the Tiantai school, and this work brought those controversies to a new fever pitch, making the most radical of the Shanjia doctrinal claims aggressively and provocatively clear. Among these positions, the Shanjia ideas of "the ultimate dung beetle" and "all that exists is mind alone, but also matter alone" aroused perhaps the fiercest opposition, but the contentions concerning the nature and relations of the Three Bodies of the Buddha (trikaya) with respect to Amitabha Buddha in this subcommentary to a Pure Land sutra were also highly inflammatory, and a Shanwai attack soon followed. Zhili's disciple Jingjue Renyue (992-1064), his ablest and most ferocious attack dog during much of the previous 20 years of debate, quickly wrote a closely argued defense. But soon thereafter, Renyue suddenly reversed his position, turning against many of the key Shanjia positions that he himself had so powerfully defended in years past, writing increasingly virulent polemics against his former teacher, thereby initiating the final phase of the Shanjia-Shanwai debate-now between Zhili and his former heir apparent.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Strong reading proficiency in Classical Chinese required. Previous knowledge of Buddhism and some experience with Buddhist Chinese is recommended.
Note(s): This class will be a close reading of the key texts in this debate: the Miaozongchao itself and Renyue’s defense and subsequent attack of that text. All readings will be in classical Chinese. Discussion will be in English.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 40460, DVPR 40450

HREL 40506. Martin Buber's Conception of Religion and Judaism. 100 Units.

Martin Buber was a major philosopher of religion and Judaism. His contributions range from conceptual studies, poetic theology (I and Thou), studies on general and Jewish religiosity (especially Hasidism), and studies in the Bible. This course will focus on his book 'I and Thou', selected writings from 'Eclipse of God' and 'Moses'; and his correspondence with F. Rosenzweig on religious commandments. The course will include lectures and close readings of primary sources in translation. Students will be expected to write several short prompt papers and a final essay.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 40506, HIJD 40506, RLST 20506

HREL 41100. Readings in the History of Religions: The Chicago School. 100 Units.

This course will be devoted primarily to the close, critical reading and historical assessment of representative works of the most famous names associated with the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. The course will begin by considering some prior historiography of the "Chicago School" and the work of A. Eustace Haydon, before looking closely at the work of Joachim Wach, Mircea Eliade, Joseph M. Kitagawa, Charles H. Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Wendy Doniger, and Bruce Lincoln. Students will develop and present a research paper over the course of the term, and are encouraged to consult the archived papers of Wach and Eliade, or other relevant documents in the university library system.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 41101

HREL 41101. A Medieval Menagerie: Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

In contemporary philosophy, ethics, and literature, a subject attracting more and more attention is animals - human animals, non-human animals, and the complex relation between these paradigmatic others. The aim of this course is to consider many of the same problems and questions raised in modern discourse from the perspective of ancient and medieval sources. Drawing from a diverse corpus of texts - Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim - the course will explore the richness of the medieval traditions of animal symbolism, and the complexity of medieval human beings' understanding of themselves in relationship to their familiar and immanently present confreres in the world of nature.

Instructor(s): James Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 26252, HIJD 31100, RLVC 41100, MDVL 21100, ISLM 41100, RLST 22406

HREL 42211. Spirits of Capitalism. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): AASR 42211

HREL 42214. Transnational Religious Movements. 100 Units.

This course examines the transnational reach of various religious traditions drawing mainly from literature in anthropology, history, and cultural studies. Topics that will be considered include diasporic nationalism, refugees and migrant communities, cultural politics of humanitarianism, and post-socialist capitalism.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 42214

HREL 42308. Phoenician Religion (In Their Own Words And Those of Their Neighbors) 100 Units.

The Phoenicians were a Canaanite people who maintained their language, religion, and culture until Roman times. One of the main challenges facing the study of the Phoenician religion (and culture in general) is that most of their literature is lost. This course gathers together a variety of emic sources in the Phoenicians' own language or stemming from the Phoenician realm but written in Greek or Latin, as well as sources written by others about the Phoenicians, with a special focus on cult and religious identity. The texts we will read and discuss range from royal, votive, and funerary inscriptions, to the views about the Phoenicians in the Hebrew Bible, and Greek and Roman writers. This course is partly a text-based, reading course, and partly a thematic, culture course.

Instructor(s): Carolina López-Ruiz     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate knowledge (2 years) of a Semitic language (e.g., Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Arabic) OR of ancient Greek and/or Latin.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 22322, NEHC 42308, NEHC 22308, RLST 22308, CLAS 32322

HREL 42514. Witchcraft. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 42514, AASR 42514

HREL 42907. Contemporary Theories of Religion. 100 Units.

Despite its often and always prematurely announced demise, religion continues to play a fundamental role in our communal and individual lives. Yet the specific conditions of late modernity have sharpened the theoretical and methodological problems involved in thinking about "religion." In this course we will explore recent developments in the study of religion from the Marburg Declaration of 1960 to the present. Participants will attend to the recent history of the field, intellectually and institutionally; to the analysis of select theoretical developments in this period, their prospects, accomplishments, and challenges; and to the social location(s) of the study of religion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: HREL 32900 / AASR 32900 "Classical Theories of Religion"
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 42907, AASR 42907

HREL 42910. Gender and Sexuality in South Asian Religions. 100 Units.

From Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra to debates around widow remarriage in the colonial period, the nexus of gender and sexuality fundamentally shapes religious practices and beliefs as well as the lives of women and gender non-conforming people. The central questions guiding this course are: How do South Asian religious traditions incorporate sexual practice and/or restraint into a vision of ethical life? When does one's gender become dangerous or unethical? How do histories of imperialism interfere with and transform the study of gender and sexuality in South Asian religions? In pursuing these questions through a range of methodological approaches to the field, students will gain a deep familiarity with practices of religious asceticism, the place of erotics within religious discourse, new perspectives on queer and trans theory, emic feminisms, and sexual ethics.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 42910, RLVC 42910, GNSE 42911

HREL 42999. Buddhist/Muslim Conflicts in Southeast Asia. 100 Units.

The past 20 years have witnessed the rise of serious tensions and violence between Theravada Buddhists and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand respectively. This course provides an analytical, diachronic and comparative overview of the various social, economic, political and religious dynamics that have contributed to the recent outbreak of these conflicts.

Instructor(s): John Holt     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22999

HREL 43456. Settler Religion: Searching for Indians. 100 Units.

This course examines the study of religion as a settler practice through the intertwined histories of Indians, both of the Americas and in the subcontinent. It demonstrates how the motif of the "Indian" has been central to the history of religious studies. The course explores religion itself as a settler colonial enterprise, through the spread of Christianity in the Americas at the nexus of race and religion, and missionary forms of political Hinduism in colonial and postcolonial India. By tracing the figure of the Indian across time and place, this course uncovers an alternative history of indigenous and subaltern resistance alongside histories of cultural appropriation and genocide that are absorbed, elided, and challenged by the consolidation of the study of religion.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan and Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 43456, RLVC 43456, RAME 43456

HREL 43497. Ethnographies of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. 100 Units.

A study of the ways in which contemporary Theravada Buddhist practice has been observed and analyzed in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia by anthropologists and historians of religions. Among the topics considered in relation to Buddhist traditions: death rites, spirit cults, monastic ordination, social hierarchies, gender, and rites celebrating the efficacy of sacred texts. Lecture and discussion formats.

Instructor(s): John Holt     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23497

HREL 43555. Buddhist Scholasticism and Its Practical Path Structures. 100 Units.

It is always a question whether there is only one path (mārga) structure or many prescribed by the Buddha. The period of Abhidhamma and Abhidharma represent the historical stage when Buddhist scholasticism systematically formed. A foundational knowledge of the two traditions under the same umbrella as Śrāvakayāna ("Vehicle of Hearing" in contrast to Mahāyāna) will enable the participants to acquire an integrated perspective on the Buddhist development with regards to path structures. No prior acquaintance with the doctrines of either tradition is assumed. The course will examine the fundamental path structure of Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda doctrines pertaining to spiritual praxis. Where appropriate, corresponding or parallel textual materials from the Yogācāra tradition will also be discussed with comparative studies. The course is designed to foster a clear and comprehensive understanding of the meditative system of both schools (Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda) and to provide clear perspectives on the development of the doctrines and practices in the diverse forms of meditative praxis found in Abhidhamma/Abhidharma sources. Reading in Chinese Abhidharma texts will be conducted if required.

Instructor(s): Ven. Dhammadipa Sak     Terms Offered: Spring

HREL 43987. Comparative Reading Pāli and Chinese Buddhist Texts. 100 Units.

Pāli language is the sole surviving Indic language used to document the Theravada Buddhist canon. Pāli is regarded by the Theravadin tradition as the language spoken by the Buddha himself, although linguistic scholars have argued that Pāli is only one of the many vernacular languages spoken in northern India during the middle period of Indian linguistic evolution. This course is designed to provide a platform for the students to engage in reading selected Pāli suttas, commentaries, and literature. Students will be expected to analyze the sentence patterns and read sentences aptly. The selection of texts and literature will help the students develop their understanding of the core Pāli teachings. In addition, reading similar texts in ancient Chinese translated from probable Indic Languages between the 2nd and 11th centuries will provide participants a better sense of the transformation and contextualization of early Buddhist texts. The course provides the participants with skills in reading and comprehending Pali suttas and commentaries. The sessions will be highly focused on the discussion of the teachings and implications. Chinese parallels to the Pali texts will be given to read for comparative studies.

Instructor(s): Ven. Dhammadipa Sak     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Basic knowledge of either Pali or Sanskrit is required.

HREL 44608. Shamans, Witches, and Werewolves. 100 Units.

HREL 44701. Ritual in South Asian Buddhism. 100 Units.

This course will explore some ritual practices and theories of South Asian Buddhists in light of current theorization of ritual. What is it that Buddhists "actually" (physically and verbally) do? And, what do they say about what they do? Does what they do "mean" anything? If so, how? And, what significance might this have for anyone else? What happens when we consider these possibly meaningful forms of expression as "ritual?" Exemplaria will be drawn from India, Nepal, Burma and Tibet, with some comparative perspectives considered along the way.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Some prior study of South Asian religions
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 44701

HREL 44908. The "Science of Letters" in Judaism and Islam. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 44908, HIJD 44908, FNDL 25120, RLST 25120

HREL 45401. Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. 100 Units.

A careful study of select passages in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, focusing on the method of the work and its major philosophical-theological themes, including: divine attributes, creation vs. eternity, prophecy, the problem of evil and divine providence, law and ethics, the final aim of human existence.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 45400, FNDL 24106, JWSC 21107, NEHC 40470, MDVL 25400, RLVC 45400, RLST 21107, NEHC 20471, HIJD 45400

HREL 45702. Sources and Methods in the Study of Chinese Buddhism. 100 Units.

A graduate-level introduction to the study of Chinese Buddhism and to the field of Chinese Buddhist studies, mainly as it has been practiced in North America and Europe over the last 50 years.

Instructor(s): P. Copp     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Working ability in literary Chinese helpful but not necessary.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 45700

HREL 45705. Sources and Methods in the Study of Chinese Religion. 100 Units.

A survey of recent work in the study of premodern Chinese religion, with an emphasis on questions of method. This quarter we'll focus on methods for the use of archaeological reports in the study of ritual and other forms of religious practice, from Eastern Han tombs to excavations of sites in Gansu and the Tarim Basin dating to later periods. A significant percentage of the readings will be in (modern) Chinese, so reading competence in that language is required.

Instructor(s): P. Copp     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Working ability in literary Chinese helpful but not necessary.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 45705

HREL 45801. Manuscripts, Material Culture and Ritual Practice. 100 Units.

An introduction to the practice of religion in ancient and medieval China using manuscript sources and archaeological materials, and applying sociological and anthropological methodologies to the examination of the evidence. Reading ability in modern and literary Chinese is required.

Equivalent Course(s): EALC 45801

HREL 45803. Dunhuang Studies. 100 Units.

This year we will read ritual texts from the Dunhuang cache--yuanwen, zhaiwen, huanwen, etc--in the context of relevant archaeological finds.

Instructor(s): P. Copp     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Reading ability in Literary Chinese
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 45803

HREL 45820. Chinese Buddhist Texts and Thought. 100 Units.

This course is intended as an introduction to the major textual and philosophical currents of Chinese Buddhism for Ph.D. students of Chinese art, history, and literature (though it is in principle open to anyone who can read literary Chinese). We will read sections from important scriptures such as the Vimalakirti, Lotus, and Heart sutras, as well as from Chan literature, with the primary goal of understanding basic Buddhist doctrines (such as "expedient means," "emptiness," "conditioned arising," "Buddha-nature," etc), as well as to gain familiarity with the language and styles of Chinese Buddhist texts and thought

Instructor(s): P. Copp     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): What you need to know about Buddhist thought and practice to be a scholar of East Asian Art, History, or Literature.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 45820

HREL 46412. American Mythologies: Screwball Comedies. 100 Units.

TBD

HREL 46518. Sem: Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. 100 Units.

We will read in Greek and slowly discuss Hesiod's Theogony, the proem to the Works and Days and the four longer Homeric Hymns to Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter and Hermes. Students will be evaluated on their in-class translations and a seminar paper.

Instructor(s): C. Faraone & B. Lincoln     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ANCM 36518, GREK 46518

HREL 47001. Pahlavi Language and Literature. 100 Units.

TBD

HREL 47270. Being Buddhist in Southeast Asia. 100 Units.

A study of the various ways in which lay and monastic Buddhists practice and express their understanding of the Theravada religious path in Sri Lanka and SE Asia (Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia). Ethnographic and historical readings will focus on social (ritual) articulations of Buddhist practice and identity in contemporary cultural contexts. A term paper on topic in consultation with instructor is required.

Instructor(s): John Holt     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Some familiarity with Buddhism is helpful.
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 47270, ANTH 42615

HREL 47518. Praising the Gods: Greek Hymnic Poetry and Its Context. 100 Units.

In this course we will read a broad range of Greek hymnic poetry, starting with Hesiod's invocation to the Muses in the Theogony, followed by a selection from the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic hymns, and later literary or philosophical hymns by Callimachus and Proclus. Close readings will explore matters of language, genre, and literary tropes, as well as the evolving religious and cultural context of the hymns through the long chronological span in which the genre was productive in Greek antiquity.

Instructor(s): Carolina López-Ruiz     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Two years of Greek.
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 27522, RLST 27518, CLAS 37522, GREK 37122, GREK 27122

HREL 47717. Seminar: Augustine Confessions. 100 Units.

This seminar is based an in-depth reading of the Confessions, with use of the Latin text. Topics to be covered will be determined by consensus during the first week, but they may include the genesis of the work in relation to Augustine's life and literary oeuvre (e.g. vis-à-vis the partly contemporary De Doctrina and De Trinitate); its structure (including the relationship between books I-X and XI-XIII) and narrative technique; its meditative versus dialogical character; Augustine's representation of the self and his method of Biblical exegesis; Manichean and Neoplatonic influences; and ancient (Pelagius) and postmodern readings of the Confessions (Lyotard, Marion). Once-weekly meetings will consist of discussions, lectures, and reports.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 47717, HIST 64301, THEO 47717, CLAS 47717

HREL 48203. Buddhist Narratives. 100 Units.

This course will read and discuss stories translated mostly from Pali (with some from Sanskrit), on the topics of the Buddha's (extended) (Auto)biography, and the Past Lives of the Buddha (Jātakas) culminating in an analysis of various versions of the Vessantara (Viśvantara) Jātaka. Such stories will be considered also in light of the theory of the Ten Excellencies (Perfections. pāramī). It will also study some works on Narrative Theory, and on the difference between narrative and systematic thought, asking what different textual form makes to Buddhist ideas, ideals and values.

Instructor(s): S. Collins     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Previous knowledge of Buddhism (at least one course)
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48203

HREL 48790. Chinese Responses to Christianity in the Ming Dynasty. 100 Units.

This course will focus on close readings of primary texts in Chinese concerning the polemics around the introduction of Christianity into China in the Ming Dynasty, starting with Matteo Ricci's introduction of Catholic doctrine in his 天主實義 and the polemical responses to it from mainly Confucian and Buddhist authors, with special attention to the metaphysical premises of the conflicting traditions, and more generally what might be at stake in them.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Chinese.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 48790, EALC 48790

HREL 48910. Readings in Tibetan Buddhist Texts. 100 Units.

Readings in selected Buddhist doctrinal writings in Tibetan.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to students reading Tibetan at an advanced level.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48501, DVPR 48910

HREL 50000. The Divinity School, The Study of Religion, and Society in the Long American 20th Century. 100 Units.

This Brauer Seminar will explore the historical development of the study of religion in the United States, with particular attention to the establishment and growth of university divinity schools and departments of religion. Students will engage historical perspectives on religion in America, the history of the American university, and specifically the growth of university divinity schools and departments of religion in North America. Attention will be directed to economic and demographic factors, state management of religion and its study, social movements, juridical and legislative developments, and processes of professionalization/credentialing in the American workplace. Students will also be encouraged to engage in (and present) their own granular-level inquiries of curriculum, degree requirements, faculty and student demographics, and similar aspects of the internal ecosystems of centers of the non-sectarian, academic study of religion(s). The seminar will host a visit from an expert on the historical development of universities and their divinity schools. Students will develop their own research projects centered on primary source material to present in the closing weeks of the term.

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 50000

HREL 50105. Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law. 75 Units.

This seminar will explore the relationship between Buddhism and constitutional law in contemporary Asia. It will begin with a review of precolonial Asia and an exploration of the traditions of monastic law. It will then examine current Buddhist practices and constitutionalism in a variety of Asian countries, including those of the Theravada tradition (Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka) and those in the Mahayana (Northeast Asia) as well the Himalayas. The emphasis is on how legal and religious institutions have mutually informed and transformed each other throughout different periods in history. This comparative study is especially significant as Buddhist actors are playing increasingly important roles in the design, interpretation, and reformation of Asian constitutional law. In addition, while existing literature explores legal practices in secular, Islamic, and Christian contexts, few studies provide such comparative analysis in a Buddhist context. The format of the seminar will include discussions led by the professors as well as several guest presentations of papers by other participants in a joint research project, with backgrounds in history, politics, law, religion, and anthropology. Students will prepare a series of reaction papers to these presentations, due a week before the respective session. Grading will be on the basis of these papers and class participation. The course is open to interested students from throughout the university.

Instructor(s): Tom Ginsburg and Ben Schonthal     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This class will begin the week of January 4, 2021.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 50105

HREL 50204. Destruction of Images, Books & Artifacts in Europe and S. Asia. 100 Units.

The course offers a comparative perspective on European and South Asian iconoclasm. In the European tradition, iconoclasm was predominantly aimed at images, whereas in South Asian traditions it was also enacted upon books and buildings. The combination of these traditions will allow us to extend the usual understanding of iconoclasm as the destruction of images to a broader phenomenon of destruction of cultural artifacts and help question the theories of image as they have been independently developed in Europe and South Asia, and occasionally in conversation with one another. We will ask how and why, in the context of particular political imaginaries and material cultures, were certain objects singled out for iconoclasm? Also, who was considered to be entitled or authorized to commit their destruction? Through a choice of concrete examples of iconoclasm, we will query how religious and political motivations are defined, redefined, and intertwined in each particular case. We will approach the iconoclastic events in Europe and South Asia through the lenses of philology, history, and material culture. Class discussions will incorporate not only textual materials, but also the close collaborative study of images, objects, and film. Case studies will make use of objects in the Art Institute of Chicago and Special Collections at the University Library.

Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 50204, ARTH 40204, CDIN 50204, CMLT 50204, SALC 50204

HREL 50207. Christianity and Korea. 100 Units.

Selected readings on the topics pertaining to the joint study of Christianity and of Korea.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 50207

HREL 51415. Readings in Later Daoist Thought. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to read and explore primary sources (in classical Chinese) in Daoist philosophical thought written after the founding documents of the classical period (i.e., the Daodejing and Zhuangzi). Texts to be read will most likely be selected from such sources as the Liezi 列子，the Yinfujing 陰符經，and the Guanyinzi 關尹子 （文始真經).

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Classical Chinese proficiency required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 51415, EALC 21415, RLST 25845, EALC 51415

HREL 52200. Problems in the History of Religions. 100 Units.

A research seminar for students either in the PhD program in the History of Religions (allgemeine Religionswissenschaft, la science des religions) or doctoral students working in related fields in the scientific study of religions (anthropology, sociology, history, area studies, e.g.). Participants will both present an original written work-in-progress of their own and give a formal oral response to the paper of another. Students typically present (e.g.) colloquium (="second-year conference") papers, orals statements for the Qualifying Examination, or dissertation chapters.

Instructor(s): Christian Wedemeyer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to doctoral students in HREL, AASR, RAME, SALC, EALC, HIST, ANTH, e.g.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 52200, AASR 52200

HREL 52201. Discourse & Practice: History of Religions Classic Researches. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Bruce Lincoln     Terms Offered: Autumn

HREL 52402. Readings: Advanced Tibetan III. 100 Units.

Readings: Advanced Tibetan is for students who have successfully completed the third year and a fourth-year or equivalent with a placement test. The sequence is meant to expose students to a range of genres in Tibetan literature, including religious, historical, philosophical, scientific, and literary works. Instruction includes guided readings with continuing grammar review, practice in speaking, and application of philological methods.

Instructor(s): Karma Ngodup     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Students must have had two years of Tibetan.
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by petition.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48316, TBTN 47902

HREL 52808. Sovereignty, Intimacy, and the Body. 100 Units.

A close exploration of relationships between state power and everyday forms of embodied sociality, ethics, and intimacy. Readings will include selections from some or all of the following authors: Asad, Berlant, Foucault, Kantorowicz, Santner, Siegel, and various ethnographies.

Instructor(s): Alireza Doostdar     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor, and at least 1 previous course in ANTH or AASR
Note(s): Class limit to 10 students
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 52808

HREL 56000. Dissertation Seminar. 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): Bruce Lincoln     Terms Offered: Autumn

HREL 70000. Advanced Study: History of Religions. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: History of Religions

DVPR 30201. Indian Philosophy I: Origins and Orientations. 100 Units.

This course introduces some of the early themes and textual traditions that set much of the agenda for the later development of Indian philosophy. Particular attention will be paid to the rivalry that was perhaps most generative throughout the history of Indian philosophy: that between the Hindu schools of thought rooted in the Vedas, and the Buddhists who so powerfully challenged them.

Instructor(s): Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 30200, SALC 30901, SALC 20901, RLST 24201

DVPR 30302. Indian Philosophy II: The Classical Traditions. 100 Units.

This course follows the first module on Indian philosophy by exploring the debates between several classical "schools" or "viewpoints" (darśanas) of Indian philosophy. In addition to expanding upon the methods of systematized reasoning inaugurated by the Nyāya and Buddhist epistemological traditions, particular attention will be given to systems of scriptural hermeneutics -- Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta -- and their consequences for the philosophy of language, theories of cognitive error, and even poetics.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan, Andrew Ollett      Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 24202, SALC 20902, RLST 24202, SALC 30902, HREL 30300

DVPR 31400. Introduction to the Philosophy of Religions. 100 Units.

Open to graduate and undergraduate students, this course introduces major works and topics in Philosophy of Religions, with particular emphasis on works from doctoral qualifying exam bibliographies in the area.

Instructor(s): Daniel Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25130

DVPR 31500. Comparative Philosophy of Religions. 100 Units.

This course will introduce work in "philosophy of religions," with attention to Buddhist philosophy serving to complicate our understanding of what counts as such.

Instructor(s): Daniel Arnold     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergraduates must petition for admission to the course (d-arnold@uchicago.edu).

DVPR 32402. Zen Before Zen: Chan Buddhism in China. 100 Units.

This course is part of a two-sequence series, to be followed by a course on Japanese Zen Buddhism taught by Professor Stephan Licha in Winter 2025. "Chan" is a partial Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word "Dhyana," meaning meditation practice; the same Chinese character is pronounced "Zen" in Japanese. This course will consist of the close reading (in English translation) and discussion of both the Indian Buddhist scriptures and indigenous Chinese sources that form the core of the tradition spanning Chan and Zen, with a few secondary descriptions of Chan institutions and cultural influences. Our focus will be on the development of ideas concerning the nature of sentience and the implications this has for understanding the existential predicament of sentient beings, touching on central themes of dependent co-arising, non-self, Emptiness, consciousness-only, Buddha-nature and original enlightenment, and the methods of realization (doctrinal, non-doctrinal, and indeed anti-doctrinal) proposed to redress this existential predicament at each stage of Chan history. This will be done both with an eye to the historical continuity of these sometimes seemingly contradictory forms thought and practice, and also to extract from them whatever transhistorical philosophical and spiritual valences we care to derive from the texts.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22401, HREL 32400

DVPR 32700. Introduction to Hermeneutics. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 32700

DVPR 33001. Confucian Philosophy and Spirituality. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to introduce you to the central themes and texts of classical Confucian and Neo-Confucian traditions, both as philosophical works to be evaluated and digested for their doctrinal content and as literary artifacts from a perhaps unfamiliar cultural sphere. This will call for the development of two distinct but related sets of skills, namely, the ability to think through and comprehend philosophical arguments and ideas, and the equally crucial ability to reflect on one's own assumptions as they come into play in one's reaction to and evaluation of those ideas. Readings will include, from the classical period, the Four Books (Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects of Confucius, Mencius), Xunzi, the Book of Changes, and from Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian writings of Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, the Cheng Brothers, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 33001, EALC 33201, RLST 23001, EALC 23201

DVPR 33200. Faith: A Conceptual History. 100 Units.

A close examination of the concept of faith in Christian theological sources and in modern European philosophy: what is faith? How does its meaning change over time? What are the major models of faith among recent and contemporary Christian theologians? To what extent is theology the "self-understanding of faith"? In this course we will ask these and other questions while reading closely thinkers including Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Bultmann, Barth, and Gutierrez, among others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23200, THEO 33200

DVPR 33202. Li Zhi and 16th Century China: The Self, Tradition, and Dissent in Comparative Context. 100 Units.

The 16th century Chinese iconoclast Li Zhi (Li Zhuowu) has been rightly celebrated as a pioneer of individualism, one of history's great voices of social protest, an original mind powerfully arguing for genuine self-expression, and more. He was a Confucian official and erudite in the classics, yet in his sixties he takes the Buddhist tonsure, and late in life befriends the Jesuit Matteo Ricci. He sought refuge in a quiet monastery devoting his life to scholarship, yet invited constant scandal. His A Book to Burn "sold like hotcakes," and attracted enough trouble that reportedly readers would surreptitiously hide their copies tucked up their sleeves, and was later banned by the state soon after his death. In this seminar, we will place Li both within the context of the history of "Confucian" thought, and within the literary, religious, and philosophical conversations of the late Ming. Using his writings as a productive case study, we will think about topics including "religion," tradition and innovation, "spontaneity" and "authenticity," and the relationship between "classics" and commentaries. Throughout, we will bring our discussions into comparative analysis, considering views of thinkers and traditions from other times and places. Chinese not required; for those interested, we will read select essays of Li's in Chinese and students may choose translation as a final project.

Instructor(s): Pauline Lee     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 34519, FNDL 23202, EALC 23202, RLST 23202, HREL 33202, EALC 33202, HIST 24519

DVPR 33600. Historical and Theoretical Limits of the Concept of "Metaphysics" 100 Units.

Many contemporary debates, both in continental and in analytical philosophy, deal with the issue of "metaphysics." Most of the time, arguments are immediately raised in favour or in opposition to it. However, what often remains unclear is what is meant by this term, and which concepts might be entailed by its usage. This class will try to clarify the issue by (a) giving an historical outline of the actual constitution of the system of metaphysics, (b) pointing out the achievements and the limitations of this system, (c) explaining what it may mean to overtake them.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23660

DVPR 33750. The End of Metaphysics and the Future of Philosophy. 100 Units.

The issue of how philosophy may enter in a crisis and end up remains obscure and confused, as long as some preliminary questions are not asked. First : why philosophy has an history and should never developp without relying on this history ? Second : which are the procedures of this historical pratice of philosophy ? What does it mean to refer to or deny any "tradition" in (history) of) philosophy ? Third : was ever "metaphysics" an established and stable form of philosophy ? Has ever "metaphysics" deserved the title of a science of Being ? Four : How the "end of metaphysics" and the "destruction of the history of ontology" re-opens, according to Heidegger, both history of philosophy and the question of Being ? - On this basis can be ask the question of whether "metaphysics" could and should be overcome and how far philosophy could start again.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23750

DVPR 33812. Descartes on the Self and God, and His Opponents. 100 Units.

On the basis of Meditations on First Philosophy, with Objections and Replies, one will study how Descartes's positions were understood both by his contemporaries (Hobbes, Pascal, etc.) as well as by later philosophers (Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc.). Emphasis will be put on the misunderstandings of the ego, of the so-called "dualism" and of the definitions of God.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 33812

DVPR 33908. Bergson and China: Buddhist and Confucian Reboots. 100 Units.

This course will explore Henri Bergson's philosophy as set forth in Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, and Creative Evolution, and its reception in late Imperial and early Republican China (late 19th and early 20th centuries). Of special interest will be the role played by Bergsonian ideas in the Yogacara revival and the formation of New Confucianism during this period, with particular focus on figures like Zhang Taiyan, Xiong Shili and Liang Shumin. This will require us to deeply engage Bergson's idea of "duration" (durée) and its interpretation, particularly in relation to a reconsideration of the Yogacara Buddhist notion of ālaya-consciousness (storehouse consciousness) and the Confucian idea of ceaseless generation and regeneration (shengsheng bu xi) as derived from interpretive traditions centered on the Book of Changes (Yijing).

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23908, HREL 33908

DVPR 34000. Franz Rosenzweig's Concept of Revelation. 100 Units.

Franz Rosenzweig's Concept of Revelation

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20900, GRMN 24500, GRMN 34500

DVPR 34001. Modern European Philosophy of Religion: 17th Century to the Present. 100 Units.

This course will examine the historical emergence of the philosophy of religion, in the European context, as a discrete area of inquiry. Thinkers to be considered include Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Arendt. No prerequisites.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24001, THEO 34001

DVPR 34300. Buddhist Poetry in India. 100 Units.

The substantial Buddhist contribution to Indian poetry is of interest for what it teaches us of both Buddhism and the broad development of Indian literature. The present course will focus upon three phases in this history, with attention to what changes of language and literary genre tell us of the transformations of Indian religious culture from the last centuries B.C.E. to about the year 1000. Readings (all in translation) will include the Therīgāthā, a collection of verses written in Pali and the most ancient Indian example of womens' literature, selections from the work of the great Sanskrit poets Aśvaghoṣa, Āryaśūra, and Mātṛceta, and the mystical songs, in the Apabhraṃśa language, of the Buddhist tantric saints.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): General knowledge of Buddhism is desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 34300, HREL 34300, RLST 26250, SALC 34300, MDVL 26250

DVPR 34350. Introduction to Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. 100 Units.

Complementing the course on Buddhist Poetry in India, we will be reading a celebrated verse scripture, the Prajñā-pāramitā-ratnaguṇa-sañcaya-gāthā ("Verses Gathering the Jewel-like Qualities of the Perfection of Wisdom") in both its Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit original and its Tibetan translation. (Students are required to have had at least two years of either Sanskrit or Tibetan - it will not be necessary to do both.) Those wishing to take the course for Sanskrit credit should enroll in SALC.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students must have had two years of Tibetan OR Sanskrit.
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by petition.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 34350, SALC 34350

DVPR 34619. Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer Project. 100 Units.

The seminar will attempt to work through the nine (mostly short) volumes that constitute Agamben's effort to articulate a theory of the ways in which human life is "politicized," comes to be inscribed relations of power and authority. Special consideration will be given to Agamben's recourse to literature-above all, to the work of Kafka--in the elaboration of his theory.

Instructor(s): Eric Santner and Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergrads welcome with permission of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 34619, THEO 34619

DVPR 34800. Descartes:My Body/Other Bodies. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 22302, SCTH 40610, PHIL 34512

DVPR 35100. Theologies of Education. 100 Units.

This class will consider a handful of classic and contemporary theologies of education, including those of John Henry Newman, Simone Weil, Willie James Jennings, Keri Day, and Mark Jordan, with an eye to helping students develop their own philosophy of education.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 35100

DVPR 35122. Modern Philosophy of Religion: A Historical Perspective. 100 Units.

The course will start by looking at the intellectual connections of several major figures in 18th and 19th century philosophy of religion. We will examine David Hume's "Essay on Miracles" and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, John Stuart Mill's "The Utility of Religion," Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality, and selections from William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience. In the last third of the course we will examine more recent writers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Emmanuel Levinas. The goal of the course is to present and to assess different ways in which philosophers have conceived of and argued for or against religious belief. (IV)

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25122, PHIL 35122, PHIL 25122

DVPR 35305. Continental Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 35305

DVPR 35501. Saints and Other Exemplars. 100 Units.

This course will consider recent work on the nature and significance of spiritual & moral exemplars, and will then use this work as a framework with which to analyze the lives of exemplars such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Oscar Romero.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 35501, RLST 25501

DVPR 35809. Reinterpretations of Time and Death. 100 Units.

This class will explore philosophical, religious and literary reimaginings and reconceptualizations of the nature of time and of death. Of special concern will be both conceptual and imaginative speculations that contravene commonsensical notions such as 1) time as a sequence of nonconsecutive and nonoverlapping "moments," 2) time as unidirectional, 3) time as uninterrupted, 4) time as synordinate, 5) time as nonrepeating, 6) death as either the end of individual consciousness or the continuation of individual consciousness, 7) death as either leading to consequences of the life lived or having no such consequences, and so on. Readings may include the following: Borges, "A New Refutation of Time," Amis, Time's Arrow; Baker The Fermata; Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five; Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra; Eagleman, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives; and Ziporyn, Death Time Perception (in progress), among others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28509, CMLT 28509, HREL 35809

DVPR 35840. Philosophical Approaches to Peace of Mind: The Zhuangzi in Dialogue. 100 Units.

Philosophical activity across cultures and times has been closely associated with the management of affective states. One common goal is to minimize negative emotions by changing how events are interpreted and appraised. This course will focus on three strategies that appear across different traditions. The first argues that events are outside of our control, in some cases appealing to fate but in other cases appealing to chance. The second strategy is a skeptical approach that attacks our ability to judge any event as bad or good. The third strategy undermines the ontological status of the kinds of things we become attached to, either by rejecting the ultimate reality of individual substances or arguing that diverse things form a single whole. All of these strategies appear prominently in the classical Chinese text the Zhuangzi. The core of this course will consist of a close reading of parts of the Zhuangzi, considering these strategies as they intersect with and shed light on its various philosophies. We will also read in a comparative context. The other traditions used will be guided by student interest, but the most likely choices would be Stoicism and Epicureanism (for the first strategy), Sextus Empiricus (for the second), and arguments appearing South Asian Buddhist philosophies (for the third). Aside from better understanding the Zhuangzi, the goal of the course is to consider how similar strategies function in significantly different cultural contexts.

Instructor(s): Frank Perkins     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 35840, RLST 25840, EALC 25840, KNOW 35840, EALC 35840

DVPR 35915. The Jewish Question in the 21st Century. 100 Units.

In these early decades of the 21st century, how does the history of the "Jewish Question" continue to reverberate through current discussions of religion and race, religion and post-coloniality, liberal, neo-liberal and post-liberal constructions of political identity? This course will take the contemporary context as its initiation point, but will consider it along with the history of the Jewish Question going back to late 18th century debates surrounding emancipation, and its 20th century manifestations both in Europe and the American context. We will compare the rhetoric of contemporary sources on race and religion to earlier articulations, and will ask in what ways Jewishness can and cannot be understood as exemplary for other marginalized communities and traditions. Contemporary theorists such as Fred Moten, J. Lorand Matory, Houria Bouteldja and Christina Sharpe will be considered alongside sources such as Moses Mendelssohn, Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Some examples from fiction will also be included.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25915, HIJD 35915, JWSC 25915

DVPR 36269. Religious Authority in Comparative Perspective. 100 Units.

When somebody tells us about the nature of God or the gods, about what such beings want from us, about our experiences before this life or our destinies after it-why should we believe them? With equal and opposite force, why shouldn't we believe them? Are the standards of acceptable belief entirely independent of what we're told by religious authorities, or is it impossible to arrive at any such standards without presuming something we've been told? When confronted with diverse claims about the divine, should we try to ascertain which ones are true, should we combine or harmonize them in some way, or should we dismiss the entire conversation as wrongheaded? In this course, we'll think through these questions with the help of influential texts drawn from the Buddhist, Hindu, Platonic, and classical Chinese traditions.

Instructor(s): Stephen C. Walker     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 26269, RLST 26269

DVPR 36524. Hannah Arendt's Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy. 100 Units.

This seminar is a study of Arendt's lecture course on Kant's aesthetics - a text that Arendt did not live to turn into the book titled Judging that was supposed to conclude the trilogy The Life of the Mind. We will consider the conception of the political that Arendt proposes in the lecture. What does it mean to be free? Why is freedom found only in our relating to one another? How can I include an other in my view? What is it to be a citizen of the world? Can we conceive of a planetary right to pay visits? We will also include other text by Arendt that help to understand the lecture, and we will read the texts by Kant on which Arendt draws: selections from the Critique of the Power of Judgment and from the Anthropology, and the essays Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim, and On Eternal Peace. The class is designed for Arendt novices and returning readers alike. Readings and discussion in English. Undergraduates by permission only.

Instructor(s): Florian Klinger     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 36524, GRMN 26524

DVPR 37326. Leo Strauss' Philosophical "Autobiography" 100 Units.

Leo Strauss did not write an autobiography. However, he did mark out his path of thought through autobiographical reflections on the decisive challenges to which his oeuvre responded. The philosophically most demanding confrontation that Strauss presented on the question of how he became what he was is the so-called Autobiographical Preface of 1965, which he included in the American translation of his first book, "Spinoza's Critique of Religion" (originally published in 1930). Two decades earlier, in the lecture The Living Issues of German Postwar Philosophy (1940), he made a first autobiographical attempt to publicly ascertain himself and determine his position. And in 1970 he published the concise retrospective A Giving of Accounts. The seminar will make these writings - which illuminate the significance of Nietzsche and Heidegger for Strauss and address his early engagement with revealed religion and politics, in a constellation ranging from Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig to Karl Barth and Carl Schmitt - the subject of a close reading. Selected letters to Karl Löwith, Gershom Scholem and others will be used as supplementary texts.

Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 37326, PHIL 37326, SCTH 27326, FNDL 27007, CLAS 37423, PHIL 27326, CLCV 27423

DVPR 38100. Whitehead's Process and Reality. 100 Units.

A close reading of Alfred North Whitehead's seminal work.

Instructor(s): Daniel Arnold; Tom Pashby     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 38100

DVPR 38505. What is Transcendence? 100 Units.

What is transcendence? In this course we will explore the meaning of transcendence and the transcendent in a variety of ancient, medieval, and modern sources. We will pay particularly close attention to the Kantian and Husserlian legacies.

Instructor(s): R. Coyne     Terms Offered: Winter

DVPR 38750. Philosophizing with a Hammer: Nietzsche, Freud, Kofman. 100 Units.

Jacques Derrida said of Sarah Kofman that she read Nietzsche and Freud inside and out, pitilessly and implacably, like no one else in the century. In this course, Kofman will not only be a guide to our own rigorous reading of Freud and Nietzsche, but we will also explore the version of deconstruction that she both derives from these writers and applies to them. In the process we will consider the means by which all three thinkers attempt to avoid the ruse of mastery in their work and the moments in which they succumb to its lure. We will consider as well the roles of gender and autobiography in their writings. In sum, Kofman will help us examine the relationship between religion, literature, and philosophy in the Twentieth Century, and the status of these discourses after Auschwitz.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag and Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 38750, GNSE 38750

DVPR 39702. Studies in Chan (Zen) Buddhism: Yunmen, Chaozhou, et al. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVPR 39703. Chinese Contemplative Traditions. 100 Units.

In this course we will examine Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian self-cultivation traditions, including readings of "Inner Training" chapter of the Guanzi and related classical Chinese texts, medieval Quanzhen Internal Alchemy texts from Zhang Boduan and others, meditation manuals from the Tiantai and Chan traditions of Chinese Buddhism, and Neo-Confucian discussions of "quiet sitting" and "reverential attention." All readings in English, with possible supplementary sessions reading the original classical Chinese texts.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring

DVPR 40002. Time and Eternity: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives. 100 Units.

Does modern philosophy succeed in divorcing the question of time from that of eternity? Does it reject eternity as a theological remnant of a bygone era? Not at all: since Nietzsche, philosophers -- no less than their counterparts in theology -- have been obsessed with the connection between time and eternity. In this course we will adopt two perspectives on this obsession: first, we will examine ancient and medieval sources on the issue (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, etc.). Second, we will focus our attention on the enigma of eternity, its strangely resilient character, in three thinkers: Spinoza, Nietzsche, Heidegger. We will then use these thinkers to ask how eternity is conceived in more recent philosophical and theological sources.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Undergraduates may petition the instructor to enroll.
Note(s): This course meets the Constructive Studies Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 40002

DVPR 40200. Can One Say Yes to Finitude. 100 Units.

What is finitude? Does it refer primarily to the situation of a being that can and must die, and that knows something about death? Or is finitude somehow irreducible to this capacity for and knowledge of dying? Is it ever possible to say yes to finitude? If so, is it ever permissible? Or even necessary? This course will consider the role of finitude in modern European philosophy from Nietzsche to the present. Taking our cue from Nietzsche's "philosophy of the morning," we will then examine the conceptualization of finitude in the writings of Heidegger, Sartre, Levinas, Bataille, Blanchot, Deleuze, and Derrida among others.

DVPR 40205. Schelling's Relation to Spinoza: A Love-Hate Romance. 100 Units.

Schelling's philosophical career can appear to be a bewildering tale of sharp reversals, disparate phases, abandoned systems, massive overhauls, heroic overreach, tragic defeats, and extravagant creativity. One thing that remains constant throughout this fabled career is his obsession with Spinoza, whether pro and con. This course will attempt, after a few weeks working with Spinoza's Ethics itself, to track the many stances Schelling takes to Spinoza, as both inspiration and irritant, in his early, middle and late phases, his shifting interpretations and assessments, and the role these play in his various philosophical endeavors. All readings will be in English.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 40205

DVPR 40440. Pure Land Buddhism. 100 Units.

This course will explore the motif of the "Pure Land" in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and its attendant applications to Buddhist practice, faith, devotional, and doctrine. We will examine the textual sources on the bodhisattva vows and specific entailments of various pure lands in Indic Mahāyāna scripture, and then the development of Pure Land thought and practice in China and Japan, including its expression in Tiantai and Jodo Shinshu traditions.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 40440, RLST 20440

DVPR 40450. Polemic, Betrayal and Dung Beetles in the Pure Land:Zhili, Renyue and the Miaozongchao Controversies. 100 Units.

This course will focus on a close reading of the Foshuo guanwuliangshoufojing shuji (known for short as the Miaozongchao), written by the great Tiantai thinker Siming Zhili (960-1028) in 1021. For the previous 20 years, Zhili had been the main spokesman and theoretician of the Shanjia ("Home Mountain") faction in the heated doctrinal debates with the Shanwai ("Off Mountain") faction of the Tiantai school, and this work brought those controversies to a new fever pitch, making the most radical of the Shanjia doctrinal claims aggressively and provocatively clear. Among these positions, the Shanjia ideas of "the ultimate dung beetle" and "all that exists is mind alone, but also matter alone" aroused perhaps the fiercest opposition, but the contentions concerning the nature and relations of the Three Bodies of the Buddha (trikaya) with respect to Amitabha Buddha in this subcommentary to a Pure Land sutra were also highly inflammatory, and a Shanwai attack soon followed. Zhili's disciple Jingjue Renyue (992-1064), his ablest and most ferocious attack dog during much of the previous 20 years of debate, quickly wrote a closely argued defense. But soon thereafter, Renyue suddenly reversed his position, turning against many of the key Shanjia positions that he himself had so powerfully defended in years past, writing increasingly virulent polemics against his former teacher, thereby initiating the final phase of the Shanjia-Shanwai debate-now between Zhili and his former heir apparent.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Strong reading proficiency in Classical Chinese required. Previous knowledge of Buddhism and some experience with Buddhist Chinese is recommended.
Note(s): This class will be a close reading of the key texts in this debate: the Miaozongchao itself and Renyue’s defense and subsequent attack of that text. All readings will be in classical Chinese. Discussion will be in English.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 40460, HREL 40450

DVPR 40501. What is Onto-Theology? Heidegger and the Case of Descartes. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 43410, THEO 40501

DVPR 40506. Martin Buber's Conception of Religion and Judaism. 100 Units.

Martin Buber was a major philosopher of religion and Judaism. His contributions range from conceptual studies, poetic theology (I and Thou), studies on general and Jewish religiosity (especially Hasidism), and studies in the Bible. This course will focus on his book 'I and Thou', selected writings from 'Eclipse of God' and 'Moses'; and his correspondence with F. Rosenzweig on religious commandments. The course will include lectures and close readings of primary sources in translation. Students will be expected to write several short prompt papers and a final essay.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 40506, RLST 20506, HREL 40506

DVPR 41025. Otherwise than God: Creatorless Religiosity East and West. 100 Units.

This course will workshop an in-progress manuscript in the philosophy of religions entitled Otherwise Than God, which explores alternatives to monotheism in the philosophy of religion, mainly in Europe, India and China, centered around the alternative consequences of of the assumption of a purposeless or a purposeful cosmos. The main touchpoints in both the course and the book are (on the European side) Spinoza, Schopenhauer, early Schelling and Hegel, Nietzsche and Bataille, with sideswipes at Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as the villians of the piece, various Buddhist texts and thinkers on the Indian side, and classical Confucianism and Daoism philosophy in China. Some familiarity with Tiantai Buddhist thought would be helpful but is not required.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition

DVPR 41100. Anglo-American Philosophy of/and Religion. 100 Units.

This course will examine key texts and figures in twentieth-century Anglo-American philosophy, with particular attention to their implications for the study of religion. The course is thus meant to correlate with, and prepare students for, the PR2 Exam, though exam-preparation is not its primary goal.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can enroll via petition.
Equivalent Course(s): RAME 41100

DVPR 41500. Readings: Advanced Sanskrit-III. 100 Units.

An advanced Sanskrit reading course focusing on the development of skills in either classical belles lettres (kāvya) or scholastic, commentarial prose (śāstra). In the former, emphasis is on the ability to re-arrange complex poetic forms into digestible prose word order. In the latter, students learn both the stylistic conventions of scholastic Sanskrit and the technical vocabulary of the relevant intellectual discipline.

Instructor(s): Whitney Cox     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SANS 47902

DVPR 41602. Zhuangzi and Early Daoist Thought. 100 Units.

Close readings of Zhuangzi and other early Daoist philosophical texts. Classical Chinese preferred but not essential.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Winter

DVPR 41700. Readings in Madhyamaka. 100 Units.

This course will involve close philosophical attention to a representative range of Indian Madhyamaka texts.

Instructor(s): Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Some Tibetan or Sanskrit is expected. Exceptions with consent of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48317

DVPR 41800. The Buddha-Nature: Mahayana Sutras/Zhanaran's Diamond Scalpel. 100 Units.

In this course we will trace the development of the idea of the Buddha-Nature or Tathāgatha-garbha (womb or embryo of the Buddha) through several Mahāyāna Sūtras (Tathāgatha-garbha Sūtra, Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Mahāyāna Parinirvāna Sūtra), with special attention to the ways each text handles the apparent reneging of the basic Buddhist tenets of Non-Self and Emptiness suggested by this concept, and the "anxiety of influence" concerning Upanishadic notions of Ātman and Brahman, here as previously hotly denounced in spite of the apparent similarity of these ideas to the Buddha-Nature idea. Is this mere polemical sectarian posturing, or is there a genuine philosophical issue at stake? Or? We will also explore the philosophical implications of this idea in Chinese Buddhist schools, in particular the Chan School's identification of Buddha-nature with sentience per se, and the Tiantai School's insistence on the "Threefold" Buddha-Nature and the resultant claim that "Insentient Beings have the Buddha-Nature." The latter ideas will be explored at length through a close reading of Jingxi Zhanran's classic polemical work, The Diamond Scalpel (Jin'gangpi金剛錍). All readings will be in English.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn

DVPR 41900. Nietzsche as Metaphysician: Non/Self, Recurrence, Eternity. 100 Units.

An exploration of the themes of Will-to-Power and Eternal Recurrence as presented in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, supplemented by readings from other works, with special attention to the posthumously published notes critiquing commonsensical and scientific notions of causality, things, selves, atoms, will, and forces. Of particular interest will be the comparative horizon of the anti-substantialist and anti-essentialist Buddhist notions of Non-Self and Emptiness; in both cases we will be focusing on how these extreme forms of anti-essentialism, denying that any entity from atoms to forces to humans possess a substantial existence, nonetheless both end up lending themselves to some form of the idea of immanent "deep eternity" for all things, and on whether and to what extent these two parallel explorations have any convergences or divergences that will help illuminate both, or even, better yet, illuminating substancelessness and eternity. All readings in English.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn

DVPR 42410. Proust: The first volume. 100 Units.

This course will undertake in-depth readings of the first volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. While we will use a translation, any student who can read the French is strongly encouraged to do so (alongside the English, to facilitate class discussion). By doing close readings, we will explore the famous Proustian world, its textual and cultural complexities, the literary style it inaugurates, as well as the belle époque it depicts. The course will thus consider social, literary, historical, and critical approaches to this seminal text.

Instructor(s): Françoise Meltzer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): The course is intended for graduate students, but advanced undergraduates (third or fourth years) can take the course with the permission of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 42410, FREN 32410, FREN 22410, RLST 28410, CMLT 22410

DVPR 42602. Alfred North Whitehead: Metaphysics. 100 Units.

An introduction to Whitehead's metaphysics. Principal attention given to his book, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, with attention also given to his book, Adventure of Ideas.

Instructor(s): Franklin Gamwell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 42602, RETH 42601

DVPR 43002. Technê and Technique. 100 Units.

In European thought, the relationship between technê (craft or art) and epistêmê (knowledge) has long been a fraught one. Crucially, the practical knowledge associated with skill or art in making is often subordinated to more abstract forms of knowledge production such as mathematics or philosophy itself; and in the sphere of art, poets and critics often make a distinction between 'mere' technique and higher or unmediated forms of artistic expression. In this course, we will examine philosophical and artistic assumptions and arguments about technê, technics, and technique by staging a broad conversation between poets and philosophers; and we will consider recent discussions of technê and the impact that modern scientific technology has on the nature of thinking and artistic making. Readings will be drawn from philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Heidegger, and from poetic works ranging from ancient epics to Wallace Stevens and beyond. Final projects may include critical essays, creative projects, or creative/critical works.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23002

DVPR 43200. Indian Philosophy of Language. 100 Units.

In this course, we will consider representative topics and thinkers in the history of Indian philosophy, with a particular focus on developments in the latter half of the first millennium.

Instructor(s): Daniel A. Arnold and Andrew Ollett     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This class presupposes some philosophical understanding, as well as some acquaintance with South Asian intellectual history.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 43200

DVPR 43816. Hope in Theological, Philosophical, and Political Perspective. 100 Units.

What is hope? What role does it play in our lives? What role can it play in our politics? Is it a virtue-theological or otherwise? When is hope problematic? What happens when people lose hope? To address questions like these, this course will consider a wide range of recent work on the topic, from authors including Gabriel Marcel, Josef Pieper, Adrienne Martin, Cheshire Calhoun, Katie Stockdale, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Michael Lamb.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23816, THEO 43816, KNOW 23816

DVPR 43830. Simone Weil: Spirituality, Metaphysics, and Politics. 100 Units.

Simone Weil, one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, developed her thought as an extension of her spirituality and her political commitments. In this course, then, we will read her principal works together in order to see how these three themes hang together: spirituality, metaphysics, and politics.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23830

DVPR 43875. The Animal, The Other? The Question of Animality. 100 Units.

The so-called "animal" question is ever more present in our philosophical space, to the point that we could even say it is "one of the principal dimensions of the metaphysical unthought of our epoch" - a fact that is borne out by the plethora of publications on this matter in the last 15 years. In this course we will turn our attention specifically to the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, We will begin with the preliminary question: "What animal? The other," as Derrida writes. In other words, the question of the alterity of the other or the "wholly other", the most other, goes hand in hand with the animal question in its various declensions or formulations, and above all, if we follow Derrida, brings with it the epochal question (since it is the most urgent of our epoch) of animal suffering and death. We will turn our attention to and reflect on the alterity of this other - the animal - which in some way disarms and questions us, and will also draw on Derrida's criticism of Levinas regarding the alterity of the animal and its possibility (or impossibility) of having or being a face - in the words and in the sense of Levinas. We will consider as well, thus, the Jewish question and its relation to alterity as it circulated between them. Finally, following the last seminars of the philosopher at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, we will consider the question of the relationship between animality and sovereignty (of human being and also of man), as it relates to politics.

Instructor(s): Orietta Ombrosi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 43875

DVPR 44302. Pragmatism and Religion. 100 Units.

C.I. Lewis famously described pragmatism as "the doctrine that all problems are at bottom problems of conduct, that all judgments are, implicitly, judgments of value, and that, as there can be ultimately no valid distinction of theoretical and practical, so there can be no final separation of questions of truth of any kind from questions of the justifiable ends of action." This course will examine key texts of post-WWII American pragmatism-including Richard Rorty, Cheryl Misak, Cornel West, and Eddie Glaude--in order to assess their implications for theology and the philosophy of religions.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24302, FNDL 25211, THEO 44302

DVPR 44920. Platonic Theologies. 100 Units.

This course will examine the platonic theologies of Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, and Robert Adams, with an eye to answering questions such as the following: what qualifies a theology as 'platonic'? What is the role of contemplation in such theologies? How do they approach metaphysics, ethics, and politics?

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24920, THEO 44920

DVPR 45505. Heidegger: Religion, Politics, Writing. 100 Units.

Religion, Politics, Writing: three concepts that are relatively marginal in Martin Heidegger's philosophy, but which converge in strange and unexpected ways to play a central role during the most controversial period of his career, from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. In this course we will explore this convergence in key texts during this period, paying particular attention to the Black Notebooks. We will consider Heidegger's interpretations of figures such as Plato, Nietzsche, and Hölderlin. And while exploring crucial themes during this period - e.g. Being as Event, the critique of technology, the flight of the gods - we will also consider the effect that various writing practices (e.g. notebook entries, esoteric treatises, seminar and lecture protocols, dialogues, published essays, poetry) have on their meaning.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25505, THEO 45505, FNDL 23006

DVPR 45590. Memory, Identity, and Religion. 100 Units.

This course will consider recent scientific and philosophical work on memory and its relation to personal identity, and then use this work to think about religious approaches to memory (and vice versa).

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25590, THEO 45590

DVPR 46150. Heidegger and the Poets. 100 Units.

An investigation of the role(s) that poetry plays in Martin Heidegger's thinking. We will begin by focusing our attention on Heidegger's reading of the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin. We will then consider his interpretations of figures such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Stefan Georg, and Georg Trakl. We shall conclude by examining poetic responses to Heideggerian thought by figures such as René Char and Paul Celan, among others.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne and Eric Santner     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 46150, THEO 46150, GRMN 46150

DVPR 46477. Coherence in Chinese Philosophy: Confucius to Tiantai. 100 Units.

This course will undertake a history of Chinese philosophy from its beginnings to the advent of Neo-Confucianism in the Song dynasty, focusing on the evolution of notions of "coherence," eventually coming to converge around the concept of "Li" as it plays out in Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and hybrid traditions. Li will be viewed as a variable term indicating a subject-object Gestalt structured around dyadic bipolarities as generative of continuities with designated values and desires, as conceived variously by the various sub-traditions. The role played by this conception of continuity in logic and epistemology, as well as metaphysics and ontology, will be contrasted with philosophical conceptions rooted in traditions that dichotomize sameness and difference through conceptions such as universals, particulars, essences, substances, attributes, God, design, and truth. The course will consist of the close reading of the two-volume series, Ironies of Oneness and Difference, and Beyond Oneness and Difference.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 46477

DVPR 46502. Studies in Atheist Spirituality. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVPR 46616. Religion and Reason. 100 Units.

The quarrel between reason and faith has a long history. The birth of Christianity was in the crucible of rationality. The ancient Greeks privileged this human capacity above all others, finding in reason the quality wherein man was closest to the gods, while the early Christians found this viewpoint antithetical to religious humility. As religion and its place in society have evolved throughout history, so have the standing of, and philosophical justification for, non-belief on rational grounds. This course will examine the intellectual and cultural history of arguments against religion in Western thought from antiquity to the present. Along the way, of course, we will also examine the assumptions bound up in the binary terms "religion" and "reason."

Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 46616, KNOW 40201, HIST 66606, PHIL 43011, CHSS 40201

DVPR 47004. Religious Diversity as a Philosophical Problem. 100 Units.

The manifest diversity of religious traditions, many of which advance doctrinal claims that evidently contradict the claims of other traditions, raises significant philosophical problems - especially epistemological and ethical problems - regarding truth and justification, tolerance and exclusion, etc. Many take the competing and mutually exclusive claims of the world's religious traditions as evidence of the falsity of some or all of them, or as recommending skepticism, relativism, or other such ways of accommodating the conflicting claims. This course will explore some of these issues, focusing particularly on issues of truth, justification, and toleration. In keeping with the theme of diversity, the course will consider not only some modern Western attempts to address the various philosophical problems, but also some examples of philosophical thought reflecting India's historically different experience of religious diversity.

Instructor(s): Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Spring 2017

DVPR 47300. Philosophical Traditions in Indian Buddhist Thought. 100 Units.

In this seminar, we will consider representative texts from what traditional doxographical schemas take to be the principal schools of Buddhist thought in India in the first millennium CE.

Instructor(s): Daniel Arnold     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Some background in Buddhist thought and/or classical Buddhist languages is desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 47300

DVPR 47607. Buddhist Sutras Reading in Traditional Tiantai. 100 Units.

Buddhist Sutras Reading in Traditional Tiantai "Classification of Teachings" Rather Than Historical Order. Buddhist sutra literature is vast and complex, representing many historical periods and many diverse and even conflicting conceptions of Buddhist doctrine. A historical development of ideas can be traced in these texts by treating them in their historical order, each subsequent period responding to and developing ideas from previous periods.  But Chinese Buddhist schools such as Tiantai understood the divergences of these texts to be part of a different order: the order in which they were traditionally regarded to have been preached by the Buddha, which stands in sharp contrast to their actual dates of composition. By reading them in the order stipulated by the Tiantai "classification of teachings," as carefully designed parts of a five-part pedagogical program utilized by the Buddha, we come to have a clearer conception of how Tiantai understood the relation between provisional and ultimate truth, and the process of teaching and comprehending ideas, from which a different picture of Buddhism emerges. In this class we will read portions of the following sutra or classes of sutras, in the following order: 1) Avataṃsaka; 2) Āgamas, 3) Vaipulya (Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa and others); 4) Prajñāparamitā; 5) The Lotus Sutra and The Nirvana Sutra.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): All readings will be in English.

DVPR 47724. Diasporism in Modern Judaism. 100 Units.

This course will consider the fate of arguments for Diasporic Jewish Identity and thought in the 20th and 21st centuries in philosophical and literary sources and will consider the relationship between debates within Jewish thought and correlates in Black Studies and Post-colonial Studies. Thinkers to be read include Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacob Gordon, Jacques Derrida, Sarah Kofman, Susan Taubes, Philip Roth, Fred Moten, Christina Sharpe and others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27724, RLVC 47724, HIJD 47724

DVPR 47900. The Philosophical Career of Vasubandhu. 100 Units.

In this course we will take some soundings in the huge corpus of the Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (c. 4th century C.E.), who produced works influentially expressing what have been taken as several different schools of Buddhist thought - in particular, the Sarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika trends of Abhidharma literature, and the Mahāyāna philosophical program of Yogācāra. Canvassing examples of many of Vasubandhu's major writings, we will particularly consider the sense it makes for all of these works to have been written by the same person; we will consider, that is, the philosophical coherence of the diverse body of work that's generally attributed to this one thinker.

Instructor(s): Daniel A. Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This class presupposes some understanding of Buddhist doctrine.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48404

DVPR 48790. Chinese Responses to Christianity in the Ming Dynasty. 100 Units.

This course will focus on close readings of primary texts in Chinese concerning the polemics around the introduction of Christianity into China in the Ming Dynasty, starting with Matteo Ricci's introduction of Catholic doctrine in his 天主實義 and the polemical responses to it from mainly Confucian and Buddhist authors, with special attention to the metaphysical premises of the conflicting traditions, and more generally what might be at stake in them.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Chinese.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 48790, HREL 48790

DVPR 48910. Readings in Tibetan Buddhist Texts. 100 Units.

Readings in selected Buddhist doctrinal writings in Tibetan.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to students reading Tibetan at an advanced level.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 48501, HREL 48910

DVPR 48912. Comparative Experiments with Buddhist Thought. 100 Units.

Reading one or several recent works written in English attempting to put some aspect of Buddhist thought into dialogue with modern philosophical concerns, particularly those of the European continental traditions. Our likely texts will be Stephen Laycock, The Mind as Mirror and the Mirroring of Mind; Brook Ziporyn, Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments with Tiantai Buddhism; David Loy, Transcendence and Lack.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring

DVPR 49002. Ekphrasis: Description, Vision and Imagination in Art and Religion. 100 Units.

This course explores the rich traditions of the description - ekphrasis -- from Greco-Roman antiquity to modernity. It tackles texts (both prose and verse) in order to establish the ramifications of a genre in the European tradition, and its applications in particular to visual culture and religion. There will be opportunity in the final paper to range beyond these into questions of comparative literature, art (history) writing, religious imagination and ekphrasis in all periods or contexts, as well as into the use of images or films as themselves forms of descriptive response. The course is primarily intended for graduates but interested undergraduates are welcome. The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner and Francoise Meltzer     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Note: Consent of instructor required for undergraduates; email Professors Meltzer and Elsner a paragraph long description about what you bring and what you hope to get out of this seminar. (CDI seminar enrollment is capped at 18 students.)
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 40401, RLVC 49002, CMLT 49002, CDIN 49002

DVPR 49300. Love as a Philosophic Question. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 49902

DVPR 49630. Madhyamaka in India and China. 100 Units.

This seminar will consider exemplary texts from the Madhyamaka school(s) of Buddhist philosophy, particularly focusing on notable points of divergence and/or concord between the Indian schools with which the tradition originated, and the various Chinese schools that reflect China's distinctive appropriation of the tradition.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn and Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 49630, SALC 49630

DVPR 50007. Michel Foucault: Les aveux de la chair. 100 Units.

The last volume of Foucault's history of sexuality has finally been published after more than a 30 year wait. In this volume Foucault moves from his previous focus on Greco-Roman culture to early Christianity, and his account culminates in an extensive discussion of Saint Augustine. This seminar will consist of a close reading of Les Aveux de la chair, supplemented by a few other texts from the later Foucault. We will also try to draw some general methodological and philosophical conclusions from our reading.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Good reading knowledge of French and familiarity with the previous volumes of Foucault's "Histoire de la sexualité". All students interested in enrolling in this course should send an application to wweaver@uchicago.edu by 12/14/2018. Applications should be no longer than one page and should include name, email address, phone number, and department or committee. Applicants should briefly describe their background and explain their interest in, and their reasons for applying to, this course.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 50007, FREN 40007, CMLT 50007

DVPR 50100. Dialectics and its Afterlives: Hegel and Derrida. 100 Units.

We will never be finished with the reading or the re-reading of Hegel, and, in a certain way, I do nothing other than attempt to explain myself on this point," Derrida once famously remarked. And yet, despite his extensive efforts (or perhaps because of them), the relationship Derrida establishes between deconstruction and dialectics remains a tortured one. Its implications for the history of philosophy are still unclear, especially as they concern the philosophy of religion. In this seminar we will reconsider the relation in light of more recently published material, including Derrida's seminars and lecture courses. We will read closely Hegel's early theological writings and analyze their relation to the rest of his corpus. We will also read closely Derrida's major attempts to come to terms with Hegel (e.g. in Glas). We will also situate Derrida's work on Hegel alongside his contemporaries and his inheritors, including figures such as Kojève, Hyppolite, Ricoeur, Adorno, and Butler.

DVPR 50112. Deconstruction and Religion. 100 Units.

In this seminar we will carefully consider selected works by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. We will address the emergence of religious themes in his early work and reconsider the relation between deconstruction and theology as divergent modes of discourse. We will then examine the roles of messianism, belief, and confession in his later work.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23112, THEO 50112, FNDL 25306

DVPR 50115. Seminar on the Black Notebooks: Heidegger & the Problem of Evil. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 50115

DVPR 51204. Readings in Madhyamaka. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVPR 51315. Reading Daoist Philosophical Texts: the Liezi and the Huainanz. 100 Units.

Reading the rich original texts of "second-tier" Daoist philosophical works, the Liezi and/or Huananzi, with special attention to their relations to the "first-tier" classics, the Daodejing and Zhuangzi. All readings in classical Chinese.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): All readings in classical Chinese.

DVPR 51404. The Pantheist Controversy: Spinoza to Hegel. 100 Units.

This course focuses on Spinoza's system of thought and its reception in late 18th and early 19th century Germany. The first five weeks will be a careful reading of Spinoza's Ethics, supplemented by selections from his Principles of Cartesian Philosophy, Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being, and Emendation of the Intellect. The second half of the class will examine the interpretation and reception of and response to Spinoza's ideas, mainly in Jacobi's Letters on Spinoza, and the response to this response from Schelling and Hegel, above all in Hegel's Faith and Knowledge. Time permitting, we will examine Hegel's changed views on Spinoza in his mature works (post-1807). Our focus will be the on understanding the thought of both Schelling and Hegel in the early 1800s as a kind of Kantian Spinozism, a seeming oxymoron, and the consequences of their later abandonment of this position.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring

DVPR 51410. Neo-Confucianism of the Song to Ming Dynasties. 100 Units.

This course will consist of close readings of the works of the key Neo-Confucian thinkers of the Song and Ming dynasties (11th to 17th centuries): Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming and perhaps others, focusing on their metaphysical and ethical ideas, especially Li (sometimes translated as "principle," or as "pattern," or as "coherence" or as "productive compossibility"), Qi (sometimes translated as "vital force" or "material force"), ren ("benevolence," "humaneness,"), xin ("heart-mind") and zhong ("center, the unexpressed, equilibrium").

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Some classical Chinese reading ability and some familiarity with classical Confucianism Desirable.

DVPR 51415. Readings in Later Daoist Thought. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to read and explore primary sources (in classical Chinese) in Daoist philosophical thought written after the founding documents of the classical period (i.e., the Daodejing and Zhuangzi). Texts to be read will most likely be selected from such sources as the Liezi 列子，the Yinfujing 陰符經，and the Guanyinzi 關尹子 （文始真經).

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Classical Chinese proficiency required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 51415, EALC 21415, RLST 25845, EALC 51415

DVPR 51610. Logos, Reason and Philosophy According to Tertullian. 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): J. Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 53146, THEO 51610

DVPR 51611. Reading of Saint Augustine's The City of God as an Apology. 100 Units.

The particular characteristics and special concern of this special book, compared to the rest of Augustine's production, can well, if not only be explained by referring the whole De Civitate Dei to the tradition of the "Apology for the Christians", initiated by (among some few others) Justin in Rome, and rehearsed a century later by Tertullian in Africa. Bibliography -De Civitate Dei, ed. B. Dombart (either in Teubner, or in "Corpus Christianorum -Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, trans. H. Benttenson, Penguin Books, 1972. -J.-L. Marion, In the Self's Place. The approach of saint Augustine, trans. J.L. Kosky, Stanford University Press, 2012 (Au lieu de soi. Approche de saint Augustin, Paris, PUF, 2008)

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 51611

DVPR 51700. Yogacara. 100 Units.

This seminar, which presupposes a basic knowledge of Indian and/or Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, will consider some of the foundational texts of the Yogacara tradition of thought, with particular reference to the works of Vasubandhu. In addition to close readings of assorted primary sources, we will consider contemporary scholarly debates regarding the interpretation of Yogacara (e.e., concerning the question whether this is aptly characterized as an "idealist" school of thought).

Instructor(s): Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Some knowledge of Sanskrit or Tibetan is preferred.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 49006

DVPR 52009. Death, Time, Perception: Against Being Here Now. 100 Units.

Workshopping a manuscript in the Philosophy of Religions, this course is focused on a cross-cultural examination of the philosophies of temporality, finitude, perception and death. Authors and traditions addressed in the core text include Epicurus, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, William James, Borges, Heidegger, Levinas, Zhuangzi, Dogen and Tiantai Buddhism.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn

DVPR 52010. The Philosophies of the Yijing (Book of Changes) 100 Units.

A reading of the Yijing, its commentaries, and the uses to which it is put in Confucianist, Daoist and Buddhist traditions.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 52010

DVPR 52601. Heidegger on Presence and the Thing. 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): Marion
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 52601

DVPR 53309. Saint Augustine: Apology and Eschatology, The City of God. 100 Units.

The City of God, although central to the theology of St. Augustine, does not seem, in his style and themes, exactly on line with his other greatest works. This can be explained if we read it as a follow up of the former attempts to perform theology as an apology - according to Justin and Tertullian (among others). In that view, one can understand better why and how St. Augustine has addressed political and historical as well as spiritual and biblical issues - they all focus on explaining how time (and times) should be understood from the view point of the eternity of God, which means eschatology.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Recommended reading: The City of God, trans. H. Bettenson, Penguin, 2003. De Civitate Dei, eds. G.E. McCracken et al, Loeb, 7 Volumes <these volumes are available online via Hathi Trust at Regenstein Library>
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 53309

DVPR 53310. Questions about the Conception of Revelation. 100 Units.

Although the concept of Revelation is widely admitted as central, most of all in the biblical tradition, it remained unexplained, if not absent, in the first centuries of Christian theology. And, its more recent establishment in dogmatic theology comes mostly from the philosophical polemic of the Enlightenment. A more precise concept of Revelation could be worked out by using categories borrowed from phenomenology and applying them to the most relevant testimonies of Revelation in some biblical texts.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 53310

DVPR 53315. Elements for a Theological Concept of Revelation. 100 Units.

See Divinity website for a complete course description

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 53315

DVPR 53330. Revelation, Temporality, and Being. 100 Units.

Following up the previous seminars (Spring term 2019) on the history of the concept of Revelation and its alternative models (metaphysical, phenomenological, biblical, a.s.o.), this class will be devoted to a reverse interrogation. Provided that the concept of Revelation, in a christian perspective, can only be understood from a trinitarian viewpoint (Barth and Balthasar, Basile of Cesarea and Augustine); provided then that the most crucial issues about Revelation should be addressed from this trinitarian viewpoint; therefore it follows that one may try to understand Trinity neither on the basis of the philosophical concepts of time and history (as Hegel and Schelling did); nor on the basis of the concept of being (as Thomas Aquinas and Heidegger did); but in reverse order, to consider being and time on the basis of Trinity and according to the logic of agapê. This implies a reinterpretation of time as eschatology or krisis, and of being as givenness.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

DVPR 53360. Topics in the Philosophy of Judaism: Soloveitchik Reads the Classics. 100 Units.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was one of the most important philosophers of Judaism in the twentieth century. Among his many books, essays and lectures, we find a detailed engagement with the Bible, the Talmud and the fundamental works of Maimonides. This course will examine Soloveitchik's philosophical readings and appropriation of Torah, Talmud, and both the Guide and the Mishneh Torah. A framing question of the course will be: how can one combine traditional Jewish learning and modern philosophical ideas? What can Judaism gain from philosophy? What can philosophy learn from Judaism?

Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 47002, PHIL 53360, HIJD 53360

DVPR 53361. The Philosophy of Modern Orthodox Judaism:Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. 100 Units.

The thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik is the philosophical foundation of Modern Orthodox Judaism. In this course, we will examine R. Soloveitchik's conception of halakhic method, his elaboration of the notion of masorah (tradition), and his idea of halakhic morality. The most significant subsequent development of the philosophy of Modern Orthodox Judaism can be found in the writings of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. Among other topics, we may consider R. Lichtenstein's views on the relation between religion and morality, his discussion of character refinement, his conception of serving God and his analysis of the meaning of "mitzvah" as well his response to critiques of Modern Orthodox Judaism. The course will aim to provide a detailed philosophical and theological characterization of Modern Orthodox Judaism, and we will draw some contrasts with both Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Reform Judaism.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): All students interested in enrolling in this course should send an application to jbarbaro@uchicago.edu by 12/11/2020. Applications should be no longer than one page and should include name, email address, phone number, and department or committee. Applicants should briefly describe their background and explain their interest in, and their reasons for applying to, this course. Advanced undergraduates may also apply.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 53361, PHIL 53361

DVPR 53900. French Jewish Thought. 100 Units.

This seminar will introduce students to the tradition of French Jewish Thought from the 1860's through the early 2000's with particular attention to the issues of universalism and particularism, the relationship between Judaism and French philosophy, and French-Jewish responses to major historic events during the period: the Dreyfus affair, World War II, the Algerian War, the Six-Day War and contemporary anxieties surrounding the New anti-Semitism. Some French reading knowledge is a must.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 53900, HIJD 33906

DVPR 53990. Renunciation: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Approaches. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 53990

DVPR 53991. Religion and Psychoanalysis. 100 Units.

Freud postulated that many cultural activities with no apparent connection to sexuality, including religious practice and belief, have their origin in the sexual instincts. Sublimation, which describes the process by which the sexual instincts are diverted to nonsexual aims or objects, plays a crucial role in Freudian metapsychology. And yet Freud never managed to articulate a coherent account of this process, and thus he failed to provide a concept of sublimation as such. In this class we will study the role of sublimation in Freudian metapsychology with specific reference to the theme of religiosity. In examining how sublimation is taken up by others (e.g. Klein, Lacan) we will also consider whether this concept affords a novel understanding of religion.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 53991, CHSS 53991, THEO 53991

DVPR 54300. Logos, Reason & Philosophy According to Justin and Other Apologists. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 53415, THEO 54300

DVPR 54500. Brauer Seminar: Time and Temporality. 100 Units.

Attending to a range of historical and contemporary readings, this seminar will center on philosophical questions raised by reflection on the reality and nature of time. Particular focus will be given to exploration of the difference between scientifically measured time, on one hand, and, on the other, temporality, or subjectively experienced time as that is integral to the structure of human experience. Ought one or the other of these ought to be thought more 'real'? What's at stake in asking as much? How are the issues implicated in this discussion related to questions in epistemology, phenomenology, and/or philosophy of mind? These are among the many questions to be explored in this seminar. Since this is a Brauer Seminar, enrollment requires permission of the instructors, which will be granted based on short statements to be submitted by prospective students. Such statements should concisely discuss the student's overall interests, and the ways in which these related to the issues of the seminar.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne and Dan Arnold     Terms Offered: Winter

DVPR 55111. Reading Religion Philosophical. 100 Units.

We will examine the question of what it means to read religious texts and practices from a philosophical point of view.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment requires the consent of the instructor and the course is only open to advanced graduate students who are writing a thesis or preparing comprehensive exams. For more information contact the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 55111

DVPR 56101. The Philosophical Interpretation of Scripture in the Middle Ages: The Problem of Evil and the Book. 100 Units.

One of the major genres of philosophical writing during the Middle Ages was the commentary, both on Aristotle and other canonical philosophers and on Scripture. This course will examine philosophical discussions of the problem of evil by three medieval philosophers through close reading and analysis of both their discursive expositions of the problem of evil and providence and their commentaries on the Book of Job. The three philosophers will be Saadia Gaon, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas. Apart from close analysis of their different conceptions of the problem, their theodicies, and accounts of providence, we will also be concerned with ways in which the thinkers' 'straight' philosophical discursive expositions differ from their commentaries, the sense in which Scripture might be a philosophical text that deserves philosophical commentary, and how the scriptural context influences the philosophy by which it is interpreted? (IV)

Instructor(s): J. Stern     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 56101, BIBL 56101

DVPR 58804. Seminar: Dissertation Methodology. 100 Units.

A two-week seminar on the methodology of advanced research and writing for Ph.D. students in the dissertation stage of their program. Each student will present a selection from their current work, with special additional discussion focused on the concept of revelation related to their dissertation topics, followed by a response from Prof. Marion and a discussion-format critique. The presentations will be reserved primarily for students in ABD status. Those not yet dissertating but in the final stage of their qualifying exams and proposal submissions are encouraged to engage in the discussion portion of the seminar

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): The seminar will be scheduled over 2-3 hour sessions each week from January 24 to February 2, 2017. Some sessions may be evening or weekend hours to accommodate all participants. Enrollment by application to Dean Owens.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 58804

DVPR 70000. Advanced Study: Philosphy of Religions. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Philosphy of Religions

DVSR 43000. Loss And The Study Of Lives. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 43000

DVSR 70000. Advanced Study: Psychology & Sociology of Religion. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Psychology & Sociology of Religion

RLIT 30000. Introduction to Religion and Literature. 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): R. Rosengarten, S. Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28210, ENGL 30100

RLIT 30402. Poetics of Midrash. 100 Units.

An introduction to the modern literary study of classical rabbinic Midrash; its styles and genres. Particular attention will be given to issues of hermeneutics and theology.

Instructor(s): M. Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 30402, HIJD 30402, JWSC 21402

RLIT 32106. Introduction to the Study of Iconography. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 32106, ARTH 22106, HCHR 32106, RLST 28320

RLIT 32900. Tolstoy's Late Works. 100 Units.

This course examines the works written by Tolstoy after Anna Karenina, when he abandoned the novel as a form and gave up his copyright. Readings include his influential writings on non-violence and vegetarianism, his challenges to church and state authority, as well as later literary works, which some believe surpass the famous novels he had renounced. We will also explore the particularities of Tolstoy's charisma in these years, when he came to be viewed as a second Tsar in Russia and as a moral authority throughout the world.

Instructor(s): William Nickell     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28501, FNDL 22850, REES 20000, REES 30000

RLIT 35503. Midrash and Revelation. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the presentation of the event of revelation at Sinai in midrashic sources from several periods (especially, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana; Exodus Rabba; Song of Songs Rabba; and Tanhuma), as well as pertinent cases in the contemporary liturgical poetry. Particular attention will be given to the types, forms and content of exegetical theology involved.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Hebrew desired, but English translations will be provided.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 35503

RLIT 36700. Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 26703, REMS 26703, ITAL 36703, FNDL 26705, REMS 36703

RLIT 37502. The Demons. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 21502, REES 20014, RLST 28701

RLIT 38607. Lament and Lamentation in Jewish Literature I. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the theme of lament and lamentation in ancient Jewish literature. It will begin with theories of lament and comparative sources from antiquity. It will then take up some representative Psalms from Scripture; portions of the book of Lamentation; selections from the Midrash on Lamentation (both from the proem and the commentary); and related material from contemporary liturgical poetry (Piyyut).

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Hebrew required (or consent of instructor)
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 38607

RLIT 40010. Ruins. 100 Units.

Ruins" will cover texts and images, from Thucydides to WWII, via the Reformation. We will include films (e.g. Rossellini's "Germany Year Zero"), art (e.g. H. Robert, Piranesi) archaeology, and the museum (Soane). On ruins writing, we will read Thucydides, Pausanias from within antiquity, the Enlightenment responses to the destruction and archaeological rediscovery of Pompeii, Diderot, Simmel, Freud on the mind as levels of ruins (Rome) and the analysis as reconstructive archaeologist as well as on the novel Gradiva and the Acropolis, the Romantic obsession with ruins, and the firebombing in WWII. We will also consider the photographing of ruins, and passages from the best-known works on photography (Benjamin, Sontag, Ritchen, Fried, Azoulay). The goal is to see how ruin gazing, and its depictions (textual, imagistic, photographic, etc.) change from the ancients (Greek and Roman), to the Romantic use of ruins as a source of (pleasurable) melancholy, to the technological "advances" in targeting and decimating civilian populations that describe the Second Word War.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 40010, ARTH 40010, CDIN 40010

RLIT 40300. Islamic Love Poetry. 100 Units.

The focus of this course is classical Islamic love poetry, Arabic and Persian love lyric will be covered, as well as some Ottoman love lyric (at least in translation). In the past we have incorporated Urdu, Punjabi, Bangla, Bosnian, and Turkish traditions, and-for comparative and historical purposes-Hebrew poetry from medieval Andalus. Because none of us are proficient in the all these languages, students who are proficient a given language are asked to provide a guide (including text, translation, explanation of key vocabulary, etc.) for selected poems from in that language. Each member of the class will be asked to present one poem guide, in addition to a final assignment. Among the poets commonly included in the course are Ibn Zaydun, Ibn al-Farid, Ibn al-`Arabi, Rumi, Hafiz, Baba Fighani, Na'ili, Mir Dard, Bulleh Shah, and Ghalib.

Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 40100, CMLT 40100, NEHC 40600

RLIT 41400. Hist Of Criticism: 16-19th. 100 Units.

This course examines the practices of interpretation as they emerge in modernity, and will cover selected foundational figures in the emergent modern practices of biblical criticism, literary criticism, and aesthetics. The course is built around comparisons of figures within particular practices (e.g., Luther and Spinoza for biblical criticism; Sidney and Johnson for literary criticism; Lessing and Kant for aesthetics; ), and among terms that span those practices (e.g., "mimesis," "nature," "image"). Readings are all taken from the RL1 exam list (and students scheduled/planning to take that exam should take this course).

RLIT 41504. Blake's Theology in Poetry and Prints. 100 Units.

It has been well remarked of William Blake (1757-1827) that he was assuredly a Christian – and that he was a church of one.&#160;&#160; The course aims to approach Blake’s emphatic if idiosyncratic religiosity via particular attention to the remarkable interrelations of his poetry with his prints.

RLIT 42205. Religion and Literature in France 1954-1972. 100 Units.

TBD

RLIT 42410. Material Religion. 100 Units.

This course examines approaches to the material study of religion. What are the gains of studying religion through bodily practices and sensory perceptions? How have various scholarly disciplines examined ritual art, objects, things and the organization of space and time? What analytic directions for understanding the social life of religion has a materialist orientation enabled? The course will include readings on mediation, technology and public culture.

Instructor(s): Angie Heo     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 42410

RLIT 43301. Theory and Texts. 100 Units.

Study of the writing and the performance, as well as the receptions and the theories, of tragic drama as practiced in ancient Greece, Elizabethan England, and early twentieth-century Europe.

RLIT 43303. Comparative Mystical Literature: Islamic, Jewish and Christian. 100 Units.

The mysticisms of the three monotheistic faiths share many features that invite comparison. All three deal with sacred texts that overlap in instances, and all three responded in different ways to the philosophical mysticisms inherited from Classical antiquity. While there are a number of influences, both direct and indirect, among these traditions, there are far more instances of similar structural motifs shared by the three. This course is designed to explore the history and structural dynamics of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticisms through the careful reading of primary sources across the traditions. The Class will be limited to 20 students on a first-come, first-serve basis. Each student will be expected to demonstrate reading competence in the language of one of the mystical traditions (e. g., Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, or one of the Christian vernaculars).

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 43301, ISLM 43301, CMLT 43301, HCHR 43302

RLIT 43500. Baudelaire. 100 Units.

This course will consider the major poems of Baudelaire as well as the chaotic political landscape that he inhabited.

Instructor(s): Françoise Meltzer
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 43300, CMLT 23310, FREN 43300

RLIT 43995. Comparative Issues in Monotheistic Mystical Traditions. 100 Units.

The mysticisms of the three monotheistic faiths share many features that invite comparison. All three deal with sacred texts that overlap in instances, and all three responded in different ways to the philosophical mysticisms inherited from Classical antiquity. While there are a number of influences, both direct and indirect, among these traditions, there are far more instances of similar structural motifs shared by the three. This course is designed to explore the history and structural dynamics of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticisms through the careful reading of primary sources across the traditions.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 43995, ISLM 43995, HCHR 43995, HIJD 43995

RLIT 44600. T. S. Eliot. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 44100

RLIT 49200. Journey to the West II. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): CHIN 21306, CMLT 28500, CHIN 31306, CMLT 38500

RLIT 52010. Religion and American Civil War Literature. 100 Units.

This course reexamines the literary critical discourse on the subject of American Civil War literature from the disciplinary vantage of religious studies. In so doing, it considers whether due attention to the theological underpinnings of expressions of postwar American literary nationalism recommends a reimagining of the generic category (i.e., America Civil War literature) and its canon. Though not without significant exceptions, we'll concentrate our attentions on the period from 1865 to 1905. Our literary and critical interlocutors include (among others) Daniel Aaron, John William De Forest, William Dean Howells, Walt Whitman, Horace Bushnell, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Thomas Dixon, Frederick Douglass, and Alexander Gardner. Master's and doctoral students in the Divinity School have first priority for registration; there is no "pass/fail" option for the course.

Equivalent Course(s): RAME 52010

RLIT 70000. Advanced Study: Religion & Literature. 300.00 Units.

RLVC 30101. Introduction to Religion, Literature, and Visual Culture. 100 Units.

This course will be a synoptic examination of a series of case studies concerning the evolution of modes of representation of religions by its practitioners, toward the articulation of the complementarity - inherent for the religions, necessary to be recognized and addressed by the scholar - of literary and visual cultures. Materials will be drawn chiefly from Buddhist, Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian materials. The course will meet in person on an intensive schedule in the first five weeks of the quarter, with the final three weeks devoted to the research and writing of a scholarly paper on a selected "case" of this complementarity.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten and Jaś Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26000

RLVC 31700. Reading Religion in South Asia. 100 Units.

This course alternates between primary source texts from South Asia in translation and secondary scholarship. All course materials will be drawn from premodern Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain contexts and from a range of languages. This course structure provides students with the opportunity to see how scholars have interpreted South Asian literature as well as to practice textual interpretation. We will think through the particular constraints of South Asian literary scholars from new historicism to post-colonial critique.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 31700

RLVC 32104. Hymns. 100 Units.

The course will track hymns from the early modern period through the late eighteenth century. We'll examine the evolution of the hymn as a literary form, focusing on obsolescence and adaptation in literary transmission. We'll start with the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible, and analyze psalters (such as the one produced by Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, and her brother, Sir Philip Sidney) and the metrical psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins that were used in Anglican services. We'll then take up the development of congregational hymns, hymns sung by everyone in a congregation, to track the way that literary adaptation among Dissenters became both common and controversial. We'll look at Isaac Watts's multiple hymns for each of the Psalms, his later Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and his Divine Songs for children to get at the importance he and other Dissenters (such as Anna Letitia Barbauld) attached to supplying words to all who could sing or say them. We'll end with a discussion of "Amazing Grace" and its use in the British abolition movement, and with a discussion of the movement of the literary hymn away from religion altogether in literary hymns, Shelley's and Keats's odes. (18th/19th)

Instructor(s): Frances Ferguson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 32104

RLVC 32400. Theory of Literature: The Twentieth Century. 100 Units.

This course will cover the major movements in Twentieth Century Criticism from New Criticism to Psychoanalytic theory, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Gender Theory, Marxist Theory and Post-Colonial Theory. One central issue for us as students of religion will be thinking through the difference in our relationship to "literary" texts, versus to "religious" texts. We will be asking how does a literary text stimulate commentary, as opposed to a religious text? Or more fundamentally, why do we read? In pursuit of these questions, we will begin by reading Henry James, perhaps the most volubly written about writer of the Twentieth Century, or at the very least, the writer through which almost every major literary movement has defined its approach. While James will weave in out of the course, his work will provide a touchstone for us as we consider the stakes of reading in each of the Twentieth Century's major movements of criticism.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.

RLVC 32600. Reading Religion in South Asia. 100 Units.

This course alternates between primary source texts from South Asia in translation and secondary scholarship. All course materials will be drawn from premodern Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain contexts and from a range of languages. This course structure provides students with the opportunity to see how scholars have interpreted South Asian literature as well as to practice textual interpretation. We will think through the particular constraints of South Asian literary scholars from new historicism to post-colonial critique.

RLVC 33000. Muses and Saints: Poetry and the Christian Imagination. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction to the poetic traditions of early Christians and the intersection between poetic literature, theology, and biblical interpretation. Students will gain familiarity with the literary context of the formative centuries of Christianity with a special emphasis on Greek and Syriac Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean from the fourth through the sixth centuries. While theology is often taught through analytical prose, theological reflection in late antiquity and early Byzantium was frequently done in poetic genres. This course introduces students to the major composers and genres of these works as well as the various recurrent themes that occur within this literature. Through reading poetry from liturgical and monastic contexts, students will explore how the biblical imaginations of Christians were formed beyond the confines of canonical scripture. How is poetry a mode of "doing" theology? What habits of biblical interpretation and narration does one encounter in this poetry? This course exposes students to a variety of disciplinary frameworks for studying early Christian texts including history, religious studies, feminist and literary critique, as well as theology. Students will also analyze medieval and modern poetry with religious themes in light of earlier traditions to reflect on the poetry and the religious imagination more broadly.

Instructor(s): Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Open to undergraduate and graduate students; Graduate students may choose to attend weekly translation group
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 33000, ENGL 33809, BIBL 33000, GNSE 34104, CLAS 36119, RLST 23000, MDVL 23000, GNSE 24104, CLCV 26119

RLVC 33221. Music in the Indian Ocean. 100 Units.

In this course, we gather sound and music to afford new ways to understand the history and culture of a geographical region. Instead of an area study, we concern ourselves with listening to sound worlds, local and global. We balance the reading of primary and secondary sources-the writings of travelers and practitioners alongside theoretical treatises and modern ethnomusicological scholarship-with the different listening practices, especially collections and assemblages of recorded sound and film. Each student will develop her or his own means of entering different sound worlds. Accordingly, students with varying degrees of musical background will be able to navigate the Indian Ocean World in ways suitable to their own backgrounds and interests. Students from the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Divinity are welcome. Both College students and graduate students may register for the course, with the only distinction being in the scope of the final project.

Instructor(s): Phil Bohlman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 33221, MUSI 23221, SALC 33221, SALC 23221, RLST 28221

RLVC 33700. Special Topics in Hinduism. 100 Units.

This course is a research-oriented seminar that focuses on contemporary themes and methodologies in the study of Hinduism. Readings come from prominent books in the field published in the last five to ten years. Themes explored will include Hinduism and politics, ritual theory, wonder, modernity, yoga, gender, caste, class, sexuality, pluralism, and bhakti. Students will develop research projects of their own choosing in close consultation with the instructor.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 33701, HREL 33700

RLVC 34223. Parrhesia: Fearless Speech from Socrates to Greta von Thunberg. 100 Units.

The course will examine the long history of parrhesia, the Greek term for free and fearless speech, from ancient Athens to its current renaissance through the rediscovery by Michel Foucault. Focusing on the relation of truth and discourse, the course will consider not only the extraction of truth as a form of subjection to disciplinary power but also acts of telling truth to power as a practice of self- formation and exercise of freedom. Parrhesia implies a relation between the human self and the act of truth-telling that is suffused with interesting political, philosophical, and ethical possibilities, which students will be encouraged to explore. The course will begin by reviewing Foucault's final lectures on parrhesia and "the courage of truth." It will then examine some of the ancient Greek and Christian texts that Foucault analyzed. It will go on to consider early modern instances of parrhesia (e.g. Galileo and Descartes) and will conclude by surveying relatively recent versions (e.g. Greta von Thunberg and James Comey, JD'85), including contemporary feminist and queer practices of parrhesia. Lectures and discussions in English. No prerequisites.

Instructor(s): Christopher Wild     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24223, DEMS 24223, CMLT 34223, GRMN 24223, CMLT 24223, GRMN 34223, PARR 24223

RLVC 34300. Buddhist Poetry in India. 100 Units.

The substantial Buddhist contribution to Indian poetry is of interest for what it teaches us of both Buddhism and the broad development of Indian literature. The present course will focus upon three phases in this history, with attention to what changes of language and literary genre tell us of the transformations of Indian religious culture from the last centuries B.C.E. to about the year 1000. Readings (all in translation) will include the Therīgāthā, a collection of verses written in Pali and the most ancient Indian example of womens' literature, selections from the work of the great Sanskrit poets Aśvaghoṣa, Āryaśūra, and Mātṛceta, and the mystical songs, in the Apabhraṃśa language, of the Buddhist tantric saints.

Instructor(s): Matthew Kapstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): General knowledge of Buddhism is desirable.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 34300, RLST 26250, SALC 34300, MDVL 26250, DVPR 34300

RLVC 35424. Spiritual Exercises: Giving Form to Thought and Life from Plato to Descartes. 100 Units.

This course will examine the tradition of spiritual exercises from antiquity to the early modern period. Spiritual exercises were at the core of classical paideia, the regimen of self-formation designed and promoted by ancient philosophers, orators, and other pedagogues. As Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault have demonstrated, ancient philosophy first and foremost has to be understood as a "way of life," as a set of techniques and practices for shaping the self according to wisdom. It was not until philosophy's critical turn with Kant that it shed its practical dimension and became a "theoretical" discipline. Early Christianity, stylizing itself as the "true philosophy," eagerly adopted the ancient spiritual exercises and retooled them for its salvational ends. Throughout the middle ages and early modern period spiritual exercises and meditative techniques informed a host of religious, cultural, and artistic practices and media such as prayer and devotional reading, religious art and poetry, but also theatrical performances and musical works. We will focus on individual exercises like the meditation, the examination of conscience, the discernment of spirits, the application of senses, prosoche (attention), consolation, contemplation, etc., and discuss authors such as Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, John Cassian, Augustine, Bonaventure, Ignatius, Descartes, and others.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 25424, CMLT 35424, FNDL 25424, COGS 22017, CLCV 25423, CLAS 35423, RLST 25424, GRMN 35424, GRMN 25424

RLVC 35623. Sexual Disorientation in Freud's Vienna. 100 Units.

In his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Sigmund Freud argued that human sexuality is born out of a series of deviations from what would seem to be a naturally given norm. The seminar will take Freud's Essays as a point of departure for an exploration of the larger literary and cultural world in which his ideas came to fruition. The main authors to be considered: Otto Weininger, Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and Robert Musil. Reading knowledge of German required.

Instructor(s): Eric Santner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 35623, GRMN 35623

RLVC 35900. Feeling Religious or Emotions as a Variety of Religious Experience. 100 Units.

This course takes up the methodological tension between Donovan O. Schaefer's Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature and as a starting point to think religion and emotion. We will then follow the boom of recent scholarship on this topic to think about the variety of ways that scholars have theorized and understood emotion or affect as central to the study of religion. The course also asks: Why emotion? Why right now? In asking these questions, the students will become familiar with this strand of scholarship within religious studies, but also how it fits in with the larger theoretical turn in the humanities.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 35900

RLVC 36000. Novel Traditions: English & African-American. 100 Units.

Can a literary form be understood as a religious tradition? The course pursues this question comparatively, examining early English and twentieth-century African-American works of prose fiction: Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Invisible Man (1951); Moll Flanders (1724) and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); Jane Eyre (1847) and Morrison's Beloved (1987). Interspersed will be readings on three foci of comparison: the interaction of nation- and novel-building; the literary-historical accounts of "the rise of the novel" England and of "African-American literature" in America; and analyses of each period's controlling religious question - for eighteenth-century England, the fact of death, and the possibility of a future state (as addressed in essays written by Addison and Steele for The Spectator); for twentieth-century America, the question of dual identity and the "color line" (as addressed in W.E.B. DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk).

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Autumn

RLVC 36001. Religion and Visual Culture in the Late Antique Mediterranean. 100 Units.

In this seminar, we examine sacred sites and artifacts of early Christians and their neighbors in the regions around the Mediterranean from the third century to about 750 CE. Case studies will illustrate the wealth of religious art and architecture associated with different religions that existed side by side-Christianity, Judaism, polytheism, and emerging Islam. This course has five main objectives: (1) to examine how the designs of religious spaces, buildings, and objects respond to specific spiritual or ritualistic needs; (2) to gain familiarity with typical features characterizing the arts of each religion or sect; (3) to identify elements of a common visual language that result from shared traditions or artistic cross-pollination; (4) to examine different ways in which material artifacts were employed as means of ideological propaganda; and (5) to study art and architecture as evidence of doctrinal competition and conflict. While this course foregrounds the study of material culture, written sources (in translation) complement the analysis of the visual evidence.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 36001, RLST 26001

RLVC 36401. Milton and Blake: Conceptions of the Christian Epic. 100 Units.

Milton wrote Paradise Lost to capture in epic form the essence of Christianity; Blake wrote Jerusalem to correct Milton's mistakes. We'll read them together to get in on the debate.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 36401, RLST 26401, ENGL 26411, FNDL 25307

RLVC 36423. Improvisation. 100 Units.

What sort of action is improvisation? This seminar aims (1) to elaborate an understanding of improvisation in action-theoretical terms (Can we distinguish between improvised and nonimprovised action?); (2) to consider the political implications (Does improvisation produce its performers' identities or suspend them, and what are the power relations at work in improvisation?); (3) reflect on aesthetic improvisation specifically (What is involved in accounting for improvisation in music, poetry, dance, and the arts in general?). Taking as its main examples the traditions of Jazz, Free Improvisation, and Performance Art, the seminar includes readings by Derek Bailey, Beth Preston, George E. Lewis, Lydia Goehr, Dieter Mersch, Fred Moten, Georg Bertram, Alessandro Bertinetto, Claus Beisbart and Lucia Angelino. The seminar will also seek to include a visit at the improvisation event Freedom From and Freedom To at Chicago's Elastic Arts. Readings and discussion in English. Undergraduates by permission only.

Instructor(s): Florian Klinger     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 26423, GRMN 36423

RLVC 36855. Queer Theory. 100 Units.

This course offers a foundation in queer theory. In order to understand the contested definitions of the term "queer" and explore the contours of the field's major debates, we will work to historicize queer theory's emergence in the 1980s and 1990s amidst the AIDS crisis. Reading texts by key figures like Foucault, Sedgwick, Butler, Lorde, Bersani, Crimp, Warner, Halperin, Dinshaw, Edelman, Anzaldúa, Ferguson, and Muñoz in addition to prominent issues of journals like GLQ, differences, and Signs, we will approach these pieces as historical artifacts and place these theorists within the communities of intellectuals, activists, and artists out of which their work emerged. We will, thus, imagine queer theory as a literary practice of mournful and militant devotion, trace queer theory's relationship to feminism and critical race theory, critique the hagiographic tendency of the academic star system, and interrogate the assumptions of queer theory's secularity.

Instructor(s): Kris Trujillo     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 36855, ENGL 26855, ENGL 36855, RLST 26885, CMLT 26855, GNSE 36855, GNSE 20130

RLVC 37440. Buddha Then and Now: Transformations from Amaravati to Anuradhapura. 100 Units.

The Buddhist sculptures in Amaravati are arguably the earliest to influence the early Buddhist art of the other parts of the sub-continent as well as south and southeast Asia. The course begins with the discussion of the context in which the Buddha images were made in Amaravati and the factors including Buddhist doctrinal developments that contributed to the spread of these images to various parts of Sri Lanka. Then it traces the course and function of Buddhist iconography in Sri Lanka until into the 21st century to assess the role of geopolitical factors. The positionality and portrayals of the images of Buddha are also considered and analyzed. The course traces the trajectories that transformed the image of the Buddha from a symbol of peace to jingoist assertiveness. Through the study of the images of the Buddha, the aim is to comprehend the ways Buddhism has changed over centuries from an inclusive posture which helped it sustain and spread to different parts of the world only later to become exclusionary.

Instructor(s): Sree Padma Holt     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 36704, RLST 27440, SALC 37440, ARTH 37440, ARTH 27440, HREL 37440, SALC 27440

RLVC 37490. Art as Buddhism in Ancient India: Explorations in the Stupa of Amaravati and Other Monuments. 100 Units.

This course will examine the visual construction of early Buddhism in India, focusing in particular on stūpas and especially on the art of the great stūpa (mahachaitya) at Amarāvatī in Andhra Pradesh. We will examine questions of Buddhology, of the diversity and range of conversations within early Buddhism, leading to the rise of the Mahāyāna, in relation to the visualization of Buddhist theory and narrative in the extensive and extraordinary decorations of the major sites. The course will introduce those taking it to the rich visual, material and epigraphic culture of the Buddhist stūpas as well as the vibrant textual world of Indian Buddhist writing - from stories to suttas to commentaries. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own final papers in relation to this material or comparatively with other material in which they also retain an interest (not necessarily only Buddhist).

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 37490, SALC 27490, SALC 37490, ARTH 37490, RLST 27490, ARTH 27490

RLVC 37702. Music and Love in South Asia. 100 Units.

This course explores the relationship between the musical arts and forms of love in South Asian history. We will trace the complex and ambivalent contours of love in several genres including premodern poetry, stage performance, and Bollywood movies. We will examine issues such as poetics and theology, opposition to orthodox social conventions, the intensity of emotion expressed through multiple senses, the social sites of forbidden love, women and gender as poets and performers, and the intersection of sexuality and spirituality.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 37702, RLST 27702

RLVC 38000. Disability Studies and the Question of Religion. 100 Units.

How are religious and secular understandings of disability different? How do religious and secular medical forms of care diverge? How are crippled bodies made functional or even sacred for a multiplicity of traditions? In contrast, how do people with disabilities challenge or problematize religious theologies of physical and spiritual wholeness? What is the connection between divine possession and madness? These opening questions are among the many that animate the Study of Religion and Disability Studies. Despite the ways in which these fields are in complement, the mainstream of Disability Studies and Crip Theory has moved away from its early and robust engagement with the question of religion (e.g. Garland-Thomson, Watts Belser). This course will provide an introduction to current trajectories within Disability and Crip Theory with an eye towards religion and an invitation to reinvigorate and recenter religion in relation to this body of contemporary scholarship.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to undergraduates with the permission of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 38000

RLVC 38100. Gender and Salvation in Jainism and Buddhism. 100 Units.

In 1991, Padmanbh Jaini published Gender and Salvation, a monograph that tracks the unfolding of debates within Jainism about the spiritual liberation of women. The book persuasively demonstrates how Jainism and, by extension, Buddhism began to question and subsequently answer questions about women and gender non-conforming people's bodies, specific paths of women's religiosity, and the (im)possibility of women's liberation. This course takes Jaini's book as its starting point, to explore secondary scholarship on Jainism and Buddhism published in its wake alongside primary source materials.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 38100, SALC 38100

RLVC 38123. Friedrich Hölderlin: Poetic Media and Prophecy. 100 Units.

The landscapes of southwest Germany and ancient Greece figure prominently in Friedrich Hölderlin's poetic thinking and writing. What allows his poems to bridge and interlace both worlds - often in the span of a single sentence - is his understanding of nature, which is deeply informed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's retour à la nature ("return to nature"). It is through nature that the modern self can not only access the unspoiled culture of the Greeks but also commune with the divine - whether in the form of the ancient pantheon or a more Christian version of transcendence. Paradoxically, nature is mediated in a variety of ways; whether through the elemental media of water, air, earth, fire, and light, travel accounts, maps, and more generally written and printed texts. Our seminar will examine - through close readings of some of Hölderlin's most famous and challenging poems - how the deployed poetic media structure aesthetic experience and afford travel to distant times and places. All texts will be read in English translation, but a reading knowledge of German is going to be helpful.

Instructor(s): Christopher Wild     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 38123, CMLT 38123

RLVC 38311. Image, Iconoclasm, Animation. 100 Units.

This course will explore the fantasies of the animation of images both ancient and early Christian, both secular and sacred, as the backdrop to examining the phenomenon of iconoclasm as an assault on the image from pre-Christian antiquity via Byzantium to the Protestant Reformation. It will tackle both texts and images, the archaeological context of image-assault and the conceptual (indeed theological) contexts within which such assault was both justified and condemned. These historical issues cannot be separated, in our scholarly approaches and responses, from a vibrant contemporary culture around question of virtuality, animation, image-worship and image-destruction in the current world. The course will provide space to reflect on the problems raised by this. The course will be taught over the first four and a half weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): The course will be taught over the first 4 and a half weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 38311, CLCV 25923, ARTH 28311, RLST 28311, KNOW 38311, MDVL 28311, CLAS 35923

RLVC 38325. Art and Description in Antiquity and Byzantium. 100 Units.

This course explores the rich tradition of ekphrasis in Greco-Roman antiquity and Byzantium - as it ranges from vivid description in general to a specific engagement with works of art. While the prime focus will remain on texts from Greece, Rome and Byzantium - in order to establish what might be called the ancestry of a genre in the European tradition and especially its fascinating place between pagan polytheistic and Christian writing -- there will be opportunity in the final paper to range beyond this into questions of comparative literature, art (history) writing and ekphrasis in other periods or contexts, depending on students' interests and needs. A reading knowledge of Greek in particular could not be described as a disadvantage, but the course can be taken without knowing the ancient languages. The course will be taught over the first 4 and a half weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner and Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): The course will be taught over the first 4 and a half weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28325, CLCV 28323, ARTH 38325, ARTH 28325, MDVL 28325, KNOW 38325, CLAS 38323

RLVC 38330. Art and Religion from the Roman to the Christian Worlds. 100 Units.

This course will be an introduction to Roman and early Christian art from the early empire to late antiquity. It will explore the significance of the changes in visual production in relation to different attitudes to religion and society; its specific and conflictive historiography; the particular issues involved in the move to Christianity and a Christian visual culture. We shall veer between an empirical inductive approach, looking at lots of stuff and a more general account of theoretical overviews that have been offered for Roman and late art - overviews that have been influential in the broader historiography of art history as a discipline.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28330, ARTH 28330, CLCV 28322, CLAS 38322, ARTH 38330

RLVC 38500. Mythologies of America: 19th Century Novels. 100 Units.

Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Alcott, and Twain wrote fiction that, in individual novels and also read comparatively, offers a civic template of mythologies of America: its genesis, its composition, its deities, its ritual life. The course considers this writing as both distinctively American, and as engaging central themes of modern novels, e.g. time, history, and memory, the relation of private to civic life, and the shifting role of religious authority.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 28510, RAME 38500, ENGL 38500, RLST 28510

RLVC 38717. The Veil and the Vision: Image and Cover in the Western Artistic Tradition. 100 Units.

This course will explore the fascinating culture of covering and veiling sacred icons, portraits and images that were thought to cause trauma or outrage in the European tradition. It will begin in the ancient world and explore mediaeval, Renaissance and modern art - both paintings and sculptures, as well as images that represent the covering of images… It will attempt to restore the sensual, the tactile and the performative to the experience of viewing art and engaging with its powers, by contrast to the prevailing regime of disinterested contemplation encouraged by the modernist art gallery. The course will be taught with much encouragement to students to experiment and think against the grain.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28717

RLVC 38750. Philosophizing with a Hammer: Nietzsche, Freud, Kofman. 100 Units.

Jacques Derrida said of Sarah Kofman that she read Nietzsche and Freud inside and out, pitilessly and implacably, like no one else in the century. In this course, Kofman will not only be a guide to our own rigorous reading of Freud and Nietzsche, but we will also explore the version of deconstruction that she both derives from these writers and applies to them. In the process we will consider the means by which all three thinkers attempt to avoid the ruse of mastery in their work and the moments in which they succumb to its lure. We will consider as well the roles of gender and autobiography in their writings. In sum, Kofman will help us examine the relationship between religion, literature, and philosophy in the Twentieth Century, and the status of these discourses after Auschwitz.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag and Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 38750, GNSE 38750

RLVC 39001. Painting and Description in the Roman World: Philostratus' Imagines. 100 Units.

This course explores the single most thoughtful, playful and creative text on naturalistic painting written in antiquity. Arguably, it is the most interesting exploration of the brilliance and the problems of naturalism ever written in the Western tradition. The text uses the device of the description of paintings (known as ekphrasis) to create a cultural commentary in the third century CE on the rhetorical, religious, and educational world of its times, including athletics, mythology and sexuality. A reading knowledge of Greek could not be described as a disadvantage (!) but is not a necessary requirement. The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive (let us hope not an excessively intensive) schedule. Before the course begins, read the Imagines of the Elder Philostratus in the Loeb Classical Library translation (by Arthur Fairbanks, 1931, Harvard U.P., much reprinted). This book is not exorbitantly expensive and is worth buying, as we will all need a copy throughout.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Before the course begins, read the Imagines of the Elder Philostratus in the Loeb Classical Library translation (by Arthur Fairbanks, 1931, Harvard U.P., much reprinted).
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 39001, ARTH 29001, ARTH 39001, GNSE 29001, RLST 29001

RLVC 39300. Asceticism: Forming the Self. 100 Units.

In recent decades scholars of the pre-modern period have turned to the body as a site of renewed historical inquiry. Within the study of religion, this shift has reanimated discussions around asceticism as a particularly potent technē for self-fashioning. Nevertheless, scholars have struggled to theorize asceticism across religious traditions. This signature course, taught by two scholars working in disparate historical periods and religious traditions (early Christianity and medieval Indian religious literature), explores how gender theory has engaged ascetic practices for understanding the body and human potential. Students will engage asceticism as a series of techniques or forms of life that envision the sexed and gendered human body as the horizon of corporeal expression and personal imagination. Asceticism serves as a neat conceptual device, allowing us to toggle between the mind and body while tackling questions that fall within the liminal space between them, including debates around gender, sexuality, sovereignty, and biopower. Students along with the instructors will contend with the challenges and opportunities of transnational and transhistorical feminist and queer inquiry as we traverse across the boundaries of tradition, language, and culture. While drawing on rich historical and religious archives, we will anchor our discussions around the interplay of two principal authors: Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor and Erin Galgay Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 39300, GNSE 39303, BIBL 39300, SIGN 26074, RLST 29300, GNSE 29303, HREL 39300

RLVC 39400. Law and Culture in Rabbinic Literature. 100 Units.

An introduction to the legal genres of classical rabbinic Judaism by applying the standard tools of source-, form-, redaction-, and literary criticism. Having established a working vocabulary, a map of the sources, and some facility with the tools, we will proceed to complicate the boundaries between law and aggadah (non-legal tradition) in its various forms (aphorism, parable, narrative cycle, case-law, ethical instruction, and more.) Having appreciated how law and aggadah interact in rabbinic literature to produce meaning, we will work on contextualizing their dialectic in light of multiple branches of a specific theory of meaning, culture, with a special focus on interpretive/symbolic anthropology.

Instructor(s): James Adam Redfield     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26676, JWSC 29300, HIJD 39300

RLVC 40400. Ekphrasis: Art & Description. 100 Units.

This course explores the rich tradition of ekphrasis in Greco-Roman and Christian antiquity - as it ranges from vivid description in general to a specific engagement with works of art. While the prime focus will remain on texts from Greece and Rome (both prose and verse) - in order to establish what might be called the ancestry of a genre in the European tradition -- there will be opportunity in the final paper to range beyond this into questions of religious writing about art, comparative literature, art (history) writing and ekphrasis in other periods or contexts. The course is primarily intended for graduates - and a reading knowledge of Greek and Latin could not be described as a disadvantage! The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Instructor(s): J. Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 40400, CLAS 42600, NTEC 40400, BIBL 40400

RLVC 41100. A Medieval Menagerie: Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

In contemporary philosophy, ethics, and literature, a subject attracting more and more attention is animals - human animals, non-human animals, and the complex relation between these paradigmatic others. The aim of this course is to consider many of the same problems and questions raised in modern discourse from the perspective of ancient and medieval sources. Drawing from a diverse corpus of texts - Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim - the course will explore the richness of the medieval traditions of animal symbolism, and the complexity of medieval human beings' understanding of themselves in relationship to their familiar and immanently present confreres in the world of nature.

Instructor(s): James Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 26252, HIJD 31100, HREL 41101, MDVL 21100, ISLM 41100, RLST 22406

RLVC 41150. Art & the World Religions: First Millennium from India to Ireland. 100 Units.

This course, building on the recent Empires of Faith project at the British Museum will explore the interface of visual and religious identity in the formative period when all the religions currently considered 'world religions' were developing their characteristic iconographies. The course will attempt to open comparative and historical perspectives on religion through material culture, interrogating the normative models of constructing religion through written rather than visual sources. Students will be encouraged to work from images as well as texts. The course is open to graduates as well as undergraduates, and will be taught in a speeded up form twice a week for the first five weeks of the quarter.

Instructor(s): Jas Elsner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 41150

RLVC 41290. Blake's Theopoetics. 100 Units.

Study of William Blake's unique combination of poetry-making and print-making, with special attention to its service to his theology.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27290, HCHR 41290

RLVC 41295. Anthropos and Anthropocene in Bunyan and Milton: The Pilgrim's Progress and Paradise Lost. 100 Units.

Analysis and comparison of the two major imaginative expressions of Christian faith in seventeenth century England.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter

RLVC 41400. History of Criticism: 16th - 19th Centuries. 100 Units.

This course examines the practices of interpretation as they emerge in modernity, and will cover selected foundational figures in the emergent modern practices of biblical criticism, literary criticism, and aesthetics. The course is built around comparisons of figures within particular practices (e.g., Luther and Spinoza for biblical criticism; Sidney and Johnson for literary criticism; Lessing and Kant for aesthetics), and among terms that span those practices (e.g., "mimesis," "nature," "image"). Readings are all taken from the RL1 exam list (and students scheduled/planning to take that exam should take this course).

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Autumn

RLVC 41604. The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond. 100 Units.

The cult of relics played a vital role in Byzantine culture and, consequently, left a strong imprint on the artistic production. Not only did the veneration of relics find expression in personal devotion, but the image of the Byzantine court was largely modeled on the claim that the emperors possessed the most precious of all sacred remains, first and foremost those associated with the Passion of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The outstanding treasure of relics housed in the imperial palace significantly contributed to the understanding in the medieval Christian world of Constantinople as the "New Jerusalem. We will begin our investigation in the ancient Near East, where major centers of pilgrimage developed from the fourth century on. These sites considerably fueled the early Byzantine cult of relics and the associated artistic production. The chief focus of the seminar will be on the major urban centers of the Byzantine Empire, especially the capital city of Constantinople. We will closely study different types of reliquaries manufactured in the Byzantine Empire over the centuries and investigate how their design responded to devotional needs, ritual practice and political claims. Historical developments and primary texts (in English translation) will be addressed throughout to better understand the circumstances of the acquisition of relics and the motivations guiding their veneration.

Instructor(s): Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 41604, ARTH 41602

RLVC 41750. The Sacred Gaze: Beholding as a Spiritual Exercise in the European Artistic Tradition. 100 Units.

This course spans the history of Western Art from the ancient Greeks to the Early Modern Period. It explores the sacred gaze, construed as a series of technologies for constructing the relationship between images and their viewers and as a key piece of social equipment for the ethopoiesis of the human subject. It asks how vision became the object of a moral discourse in Greco-Roman antiquity in both sacred and 'philosophical' contexts, and what happened to this problematic in the historical emergence and development of Christianity. We will do some comparative work on similar processes in relation to Buddhism. Drawing on ideas in the philosophical work of Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot and Arnold Davidson, our hypothesis is that these issues precipitate in encounters with visual representations, such that the beholding of inter alia statues and paintings became a topic of concern, with the implication that a suitably attentive and informed study of those images will be informative for prehistorians of the aesthetic subject. Although the course will give weight to description and theological/philosophical investigation, the principal focus will be on objects themselves and their own material/visual articulation of the conditions of seeing.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner, Richard Neer     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 41750, CDIN 41750

RLVC 42023. Borderlands of Sonic Encounter. 100 Units.

Drawing from the complex disciplinary perspectives from the fields of contemporary music studies, this seminar challenges us to remap the landscapes of musical inquiry from center to periphery, from the familiar landscapes of musical canon to the borderlands formed by sonic encounter. "Borderlands of Sonic Encounter" offers students the opportunity to bring diverse backgrounds and disciplinary methods to bear on the interconnectedness afforded by the emergence of global musicology. Listening to and acting with music at the border is more critical in the twenty-first century than ever before. Migrants and refugees move ceaselessly across borders at the sites of conflict. The sonic landscape of borders resounds with violence and threats to sovereignty. The metaphors of the border reflect the most profound of human concerns, above all the borders between life and death. The different projects students will undertake in the seminar will allow them to approach the ontological and aesthetic questions of music in new ways. The symposia and research projects of Phil Bohlman's Balzan Project, "Borderlands of Sonic Encounter," will provide additional resources for the seminar. Students from all subdisciplines of music are welcome in the seminar. So, too, are students from the humanistic social sciences, area studies, and Divinity.

Instructor(s): Phil Bohlman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 42023

RLVC 42100. Religion in the Enlightenment: England and America. 100 Units.

Study in the historiographies of the Enlightenment in England and in America, with special attention to the "trans-Atlantic" communication of ideas regarding the nature of the person, religion, and the role of the political order.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22110, RAME 42100, AMER 42100, HIST 27510, AMER 22110, HCHR 42200, HIST 47510

RLVC 42700. Interactions b/w Jewish Phil. and Lit.in Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Any study of Jewish philosophy that focuses on a small collection of systematic summas tells only half the story. In this seminar, the emphasis will be shifted from canonical theologies to lesser-known works of literature. Each class will examine the way a different genre was used to defend philosophy and teach it to the community at large. Emphasis will be on literary form and style, rhetoric, methods of teaching and argumentation, all in relation to questions about reception and dissemination, progress and creativity, science and religion.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 42700, NEHC 28504, MDVL 22700, JWSC 22701, ISLM 42700, RLST 28504, HIJD 42700

RLVC 42910. Gender and Sexuality in South Asian Religions. 100 Units.

From Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra to debates around widow remarriage in the colonial period, the nexus of gender and sexuality fundamentally shapes religious practices and beliefs as well as the lives of women and gender non-conforming people. The central questions guiding this course are: How do South Asian religious traditions incorporate sexual practice and/or restraint into a vision of ethical life? When does one's gender become dangerous or unethical? How do histories of imperialism interfere with and transform the study of gender and sexuality in South Asian religions? In pursuing these questions through a range of methodological approaches to the field, students will gain a deep familiarity with practices of religious asceticism, the place of erotics within religious discourse, new perspectives on queer and trans theory, emic feminisms, and sexual ethics.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 42910, HREL 42910, GNSE 42911

RLVC 43456. Settler Religion: Searching for Indians. 100 Units.

This course examines the study of religion as a settler practice through the intertwined histories of Indians, both of the Americas and in the subcontinent. It demonstrates how the motif of the "Indian" has been central to the history of religious studies. The course explores religion itself as a settler colonial enterprise, through the spread of Christianity in the Americas at the nexus of race and religion, and missionary forms of political Hinduism in colonial and postcolonial India. By tracing the figure of the Indian across time and place, this course uncovers an alternative history of indigenous and subaltern resistance alongside histories of cultural appropriation and genocide that are absorbed, elided, and challenged by the consolidation of the study of religion.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan and Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 43456, SALC 43456, RAME 43456

RLVC 44004. The Veneration of Icons in Byzantium: History, Theory, and Practice. 100 Units.

In order to appreciate the pivotal religious significance icons had in Byzantium for private devotion, in the liturgy, in civic ritual, and in military campaigns, we will survey the visual evidence along with a vast array of written sources. We will explore the origins of the Christian cult of icons in the Early Byzantine period and its roots in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Through the close analysis of icons executed over the centuries in different artistic techniques, we will examine matters of iconography, style, and aesthetics. We will also have a close look at image theory, as developed by Byzantine theologians and codified in the era of Iconoclasm. Typically, meetings will consist of both lecture and interactive discussion sections. Students are expected to prepare the mandatory readings for each week, which serve as a basis for an informed, and thus productive, classroom discussion.

Instructor(s): Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 44004, ARTH 44014

RLVC 44123. William Blake's Theopoetics. 100 Units.

A study of William Blake's visual art and versification, and their interaction toward a theological vision that is unmistakably yet idiosyncratically Christian -- in the memorable words of at least one commentator, "a church, but a church of one".

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Autumn

RLVC 44124. Milton's Theology. 100 Units.

The main work of this course will be a sustained close reading of "Paradise Lost,' but we will also read selected lyrics and prose texts such as "The Christian Doctrine," "The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty," Areopagiticia, For the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," and "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Winter

RLVC 44444. Hamlet, His God, and His Critics. 100 Units.

A signal text for our understanding of "modernity," "Hamlet" is at once a text of its particular moment in the history of Christianity, and a continual point of reference for later thought about tragedy's great theme of the divine-human relation. The course combines a close reading of Shakespeare's text and its immediate contexts with consideration of major commentaries on the play offered via theology, philosophy, and psychology, and critical theory.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition

RLVC 44500. Religion in European Enlightenment: Spinoza to Kant. 100 Units.

Readings in primary texts that constitute the historical phenomenon denominated "the Enlightenment", with particular comparison of English with continental traditions, centrally Hobbes with Spinoza; Locke with Mendelsohn; and Hume with Lessing. Major themes addressed include the status of the Bible as sacred and/or historical; conceptions of truth as revealed, as natural, and/or as revealed by nature; the category of the miraculous, and its relation to conceptions of providence and natural orders; and the place of religion in emerging political structures that have their basis in conceptions of citizenship and rights.

Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 44500

RLVC 45200. The Holy Land in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

This course will examine written and visual material that testifies to the medieval encounters of the Abrahamic religions in a sacred landscape where the histories of Jews, Christians, and Muslims overlap. While bearing witness to the cultural wealth and religious pluralism that characterize the Holy Land during the Middle Ages, texts and visual artifacts likewise testify to religious competition, conflict, loss, and exclusion. Among the primary textual sources we will read (in English translation) are accounts by pilgrims and other travelers to the Holy Land, extracts from medieval chronicles, and eye-witness accounts from the period of the Crusades. In addition to the textual material, we will study art and architecture created for different religious communities (e.g., synagogues and their richly decorated mosaic floors, sites and souvenirs of Christian pilgrimage, major works of Islamic art and architecture). We will also investigate phenomena of the reception of the Holy Land's sacred sites and dynamic history in medieval Europe (e.g., replicas and evocations of the Holy Sepulchre, narratives of the "Holy Grail" and associated artifacts).

Instructor(s): Karin Krause     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 45200, HCHR 45200, ARTH 42205

RLVC 45400. Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. 100 Units.

A careful study of select passages in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, focusing on the method of the work and its major philosophical-theological themes, including: divine attributes, creation vs. eternity, prophecy, the problem of evil and divine providence, law and ethics, the final aim of human existence.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 45400, FNDL 24106, JWSC 21107, NEHC 40470, MDVL 25400, HREL 45401, RLST 21107, NEHC 20471, HIJD 45400

RLVC 46106. From Satyr to Satirist: Moral Outrage in Literature, Visual Culture, and Religion. 100 Units.

The figure of the satyr is arguably the joker in literature's deck of cards: neither merely tragic nor merely comic, at once threatening and amusing, puncturer of pretension with no apparent balloon on which any of its objects of disdain might the favor. Uncivil, unfair, unrelenting: the satyr is pious about its impiety, and at various moments in its long and vexing career, has brought this disposition to bear on religion. This course is about a select few of such moments: Aristophanes, Lucian, Petronius, Rabelais, Swift, Hogarth, Goya. Selections from the plethora of contemporary examples to be determined by the class.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 26106

RLVC 46300. The Tragic Sense of Life. 100 Units.

This course covers literature and films that describe the way in which people from different ages conceived of life as tragic. Besides the classic tragedies of ancient Greece and Shakespeare, we will also look at the writings of more modern writers such as Delboe, Camus, and several films by Eastwood and Igmar Bergman.

RLVC 46800. Tragedy and the Tragic Vision in Early Jewish and Christian Literature. 100 Units.

We will start by studying the tragic theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, George Steiner, Simone Weil, and David Tracy, with special attention to how each theorist construes the contested relationship between tragedy and the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is viewed variously as hostile or responsive to tragedy, incapable of anything approaching "authentic tragedy" or productive of the best examples of its kind. In light of this conflict of interpretations we will then study, discuss, and closely interpret a variety of early Jewish and Christian texts where tragic drama is appropriated, interpreted, and/or composed, and where the tragic vision in some form is (arguably) alive. Authors to be studied include (among others): Ezekiel the Tragedian (who dramatizes the Exodus in the form of Greek tragic drama), Philo of Alexandria, Paul, Mark, John, Origen, Lucian, and Pseudo-Gregory's Christus patiens (which is an adaptation of poetic material from Euripides' Bacchae for a presentation of Christ's passion and resurrection).

Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 46800

RLVC 47200. History of Criticism: 16th-19th Centuries. 100 Units.

The second of a two-course sequence that offers a survey of major historical moments in the theory of interpretation. The course will pursue the thesis that the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries are dominated by three cardinal moments in the sociology of modern knowledge: the emergence of the figure of "the critic"; the articulation of "aesthetics" as an independent mode of thought; and the establishment of historical-critical methodology as prerequisite to understanding, and in turn properly interpreting, the Bible. Prerequisite: completion of the first course in the sequence. Required of Ph.D. students taking the RLVC 1 exam.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 47201

RLVC 47724. Diasporism in Modern Judaism. 100 Units.

This course will consider the fate of arguments for Diasporic Jewish Identity and thought in the 20th and 21st centuries in philosophical and literary sources and will consider the relationship between debates within Jewish thought and correlates in Black Studies and Post-colonial Studies. Thinkers to be read include Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacob Gordon, Jacques Derrida, Sarah Kofman, Susan Taubes, Philip Roth, Fred Moten, Christina Sharpe and others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27724, DVPR 47724, HIJD 47724

RLVC 48100. Paris in the 1670s: Quantities and Qualities. 100 Units.

The decade of the 1670s saw an astonishing convergence of brilliant people in Paris. Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Christian Huygens, Nicolas Malebranche, met and debated mathematical concepts, logic, engineering (calculating machines in particular), microscopy, theology, and world peace. All were also in contact with Baruch Spinoza by letter. In the salons, men and women, nobles and bourgeois, clerics and secular people conversed about matters of general interest (that is, not likely to involve politics or religion): art, history, and aesthetics. The novel of introspection attained full development in Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves; the art of polemic was displayed in all its sarcastic majesty in Charles Perrault's defense of Lully's opera Alceste against the neo-classicist traditionalists. We will explore the connections among art, literature, the investigation of antiquity, mathematics, and philosophy, seeking them most energetically where they are not obvious, with calculus, ie., the reduction of differences to a regular trend, the proposed common thread.

Instructor(s): Haun Saussy     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 28100, KNOW 48100

RLVC 48507. Narrative: Text, Theory, Event. 100 Units.

Study of narrative as form of generic classification in the study of religion and its literatures (both sacredly designated and not), including autobiography, novel, film, and historical events.

Instructor(s): Richard Rosengarten     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28507

RLVC 48610. Jewish Sufism. 100 Units.

During the Middle Ages the Jews in the Muslim world developed a robust synthesis of Jewish Spirituality and Islamic Sufism. Even those who did not subscribe to a Sufi pietistic Judaism nevertheless introduced Sufi language and ideas into their Jewish thought. This course will introduce several important figures in this Jewish Sufi movement, from Bahya ibn Paquda in 11th-century Spain to Maimonides and his descendants in 12th14th century Egypt. There will be a section for Arabists to read Bahya's "Duties of the Hearts" in Arabic, and a section for Hebraists to read the twelfth-century Hebrew translation of it.

Instructor(s): James T. Robinson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 28611, RLST 28611, NEHC 48610, ISLM 48610, JWSC 28610, HIJD 48610, MDVL 28610

RLVC 48801. Multidisciplinary Study of American Culture. 100 Units.

This proseminar surveys the advanced study of American culture as it is currently practiced at the University of Chicago. Seminar members read and discuss recent work by and then meet with faculty specialists from departments and programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences as well as from the the Divinity School, the Law School, and the Booth School of Business. Though interested in how different disciplines frame questions and problems, we will be attuned to convergences in themes, approaches, and methods. During the last half of our seminar meetings our authors will join us for a focused discussion of their work. Many of our guests will also deliver public lectures the day before visiting the seminar.

Equivalent Course(s): HIST 62304, HCHR 48801, ENGL 55405, RAME 48801, AMER 50001

RLVC 49002. Ekphrasis: Description, Vision and Imagination in Art and Religion. 100 Units.

This course explores the rich traditions of the description - ekphrasis -- from Greco-Roman antiquity to modernity. It tackles texts (both prose and verse) in order to establish the ramifications of a genre in the European tradition, and its applications in particular to visual culture and religion. There will be opportunity in the final paper to range beyond these into questions of comparative literature, art (history) writing, religious imagination and ekphrasis in all periods or contexts, as well as into the use of images or films as themselves forms of descriptive response. The course is primarily intended for graduates but interested undergraduates are welcome. The course will be taught over 5 weeks in the Spring Quarter on an intensive schedule. It will be examined on the basis of a paper, due on a subject to be agreed and on a date to be agreed at the end of the Spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Jaś Elsner and Francoise Meltzer     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Note: Consent of instructor required for undergraduates; email Professors Meltzer and Elsner a paragraph long description about what you bring and what you hope to get out of this seminar. (CDI seminar enrollment is capped at 18 students.)
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 40401, DVPR 49002, CMLT 49002, CDIN 49002

RLVC 50000. The Divinity School, The Study of Religion, and Society in the Long American 20th Century. 100 Units.

This Brauer Seminar will explore the historical development of the study of religion in the United States, with particular attention to the establishment and growth of university divinity schools and departments of religion. Students will engage historical perspectives on religion in America, the history of the American university, and specifically the growth of university divinity schools and departments of religion in North America. Attention will be directed to economic and demographic factors, state management of religion and its study, social movements, juridical and legislative developments, and processes of professionalization/credentialing in the American workplace. Students will also be encouraged to engage in (and present) their own granular-level inquiries of curriculum, degree requirements, faculty and student demographics, and similar aspects of the internal ecosystems of centers of the non-sectarian, academic study of religion(s). The seminar will host a visit from an expert on the historical development of universities and their divinity schools. Students will develop their own research projects centered on primary source material to present in the closing weeks of the term.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 50000

RLVC 50010. Writing Religion. 100 Units.

This will be a course about the craft of scholarly writing. It will consider the conventions and conflicts of writing in a field as interdisciplinary as the study of religion and will explore the opportunities for creativity, voice and style within its various forms through reading and writing. We will work on everything from the sentence to the structuring of book-length manuscripts. The class will be organized to accommodate analysis, discussion and workshop and the final assignment will be the revision of a seminar paper into an essay suitable for publication. The course is geared primarily for PhD students and should be particularly useful to those in the dissertation writing phase.

Instructor(s): S. Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Spring

RLVC 50100. Writing Religion. 100 Units.

This will be a course about the craft of scholarly writing. It will consider the conventions and conflicts of writing in a field as interdisciplinary as the study of religion and will explore the opportunities for creativity, voice and style within its various forms through reading and writing. We will work on everything from the sentence to the structuring of book-length manuscripts. The class will be organized to accommodate analysis, discussion and workshop and the final assignment will be the revision of a seminar paper into an essay suitable for publication.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): This is a course for masters and PhD students only.
Note(s): This course meets the LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

RLVC 50201. Pre-modern Critical Theory: Theory, Critique, and the Making of the Past. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to ancient, medieval, and early modern literary theory and to modern engagements with these theoretical interventions. We will explore how communities in the past imagined their practices of reading, writing, and interpretation-with especial emphasis on scriptural exegesis-but also what constituted a text, in the first place. How, indeed, were these practices foundational to the formation of communities and, in turn, to alterity? And what role do these literary theories and practices play in longer histories of "theory" and "critique." Staging dialogues between the past and the present, this course will ask what the political implications of designating an archive as "ancient," "archaic," "medieval," or "premodern" are in order to understand how and why the past is continually made and remade.

Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 50201, CMLT 50201

RLVC 50204. Destruction of Images, Books & Artifacts in Europe and S. Asia. 100 Units.

The course offers a comparative perspective on European and South Asian iconoclasm. In the European tradition, iconoclasm was predominantly aimed at images, whereas in South Asian traditions it was also enacted upon books and buildings. The combination of these traditions will allow us to extend the usual understanding of iconoclasm as the destruction of images to a broader phenomenon of destruction of cultural artifacts and help question the theories of image as they have been independently developed in Europe and South Asia, and occasionally in conversation with one another. We will ask how and why, in the context of particular political imaginaries and material cultures, were certain objects singled out for iconoclasm? Also, who was considered to be entitled or authorized to commit their destruction? Through a choice of concrete examples of iconoclasm, we will query how religious and political motivations are defined, redefined, and intertwined in each particular case. We will approach the iconoclastic events in Europe and South Asia through the lenses of philology, history, and material culture. Class discussions will incorporate not only textual materials, but also the close collaborative study of images, objects, and film. Case studies will make use of objects in the Art Institute of Chicago and Special Collections at the University Library.

Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 40204, CDIN 50204, HREL 50204, CMLT 50204, SALC 50204

RLVC 51000. Narrative in the Time of Queer and Crip. 100 Units.

This course focuses on Crip and Queer theories of time as ways to get at varied understandings of temporality that destabilize the wobbly formation of "normal" and produce non-linear forms of life as narratable. By focusing on narrative unfolding, circling back, slowing down, and the precarity of the future, the course proceeds by putting two distinct strands of Queer and Crip Theory in conversation. We begin with what theorists have conceptualized as a distinct queer temporality (e.g. Halberstam, Freeman) alongside its complement, crip time (McRuer). We then turn to questions about queer futurity alongside critiques within Crip Theory that fully embrace the future as a way of embracing the present. Following these two strands, we see the productive dynamism and the tension between crip and queer temporalities in envisioning non-normative, non-heterosexual life.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 51023, GNSE 51000

RLVC 52200. Problems in the History of Religions. 100 Units.

A research seminar for students either in the PhD program in the History of Religions (allgemeine Religionswissenschaft, la science des religions) or doctoral students working in related fields in the scientific study of religions (anthropology, sociology, history, area studies, e.g.). Participants will both present an original written work-in-progress of their own and give a formal oral response to the paper of another. Students typically present (e.g.) colloquium (="second-year conference") papers, orals statements for the Qualifying Examination, or dissertation chapters.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 52200, AASR 52200

RLVC 53900. French Jewish Thought. 100 Units.

This seminar will introduce students to the tradition of French Jewish Thought from the 1860's through the early 2000's with particular attention to the issues of universalism and particularism, the relationship between Judaism and French philosophy, and French-Jewish responses to major historic events during the period: the Dreyfus affair, World War II, the Algerian War, the Six-Day War and contemporary anxieties surrounding the New anti-Semitism. Some French reading knowledge is a must.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 53900, HIJD 33906

RLVC 56400. Love Poetry, Mysticism, and Translation. 100 Units.

We will read intensively examples of love poetry from several traditions, one of which will be Arabic, the others of which will be determined by the participants in the seminar. We will discuss the core question of how and why a love poem may be considered a mystical love poem, and controversies over mystical verses non-mystical interpretations of such poems, and the role of mystical commentaries on love poems (such a commentaries on the Song of Songs or John of the Cross and Ibn `Arabi's commentaries on their own love poems). The class will contact a practical component as well, wherein each participant will compare various translations of a certain small choice of poems and will actively engage in producing his or her own translation of the same poems. Each participant working in a particular language will be the "guide" to the rest of us for that language and will help introduce the poetic tradition to the rest of us. The instructor will fulfill that role in the case of Arabic love poems. A participant versed in Persian, for example, might then fulfill that role to introduce poems by Rumi, Hafiz, Saeb, or Bedil (to mention just four possible examples), and so on with other traditions.

Instructor(s): Michael Sells     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 56400

RLVC 70000. Advanced Study: Religion, Literature and Visual Culture. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Religion, Literature and Visual Culture

RETH 30100. Minor Classics in Ethics. 000 Units.

This is an an informal, non-credit reading group consisting of RETH Faculty and Master's and doctoral students interested in religious ethics. Students may join the reading group in any quarter. Selected articles or chapters have revitalized forgotten themes or have launched new problems for moral philosophy, social thought, theology, and religious ethics. They exhibit ways of combining attention to concepts and arguments in moral and political theory, on the one hand, with concrete matters in practical experience and public life, on the other. The format is informal, and the discussions are text-focused. Students should come prepared to identify one sentence or paragraph that they find illuminating, obscure, or problematic, and explain why they think so.

Instructor(s): Richard B. Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter 2023-2024

RETH 30204. Veracity: The Ethics of Truth and Truthtelling. 100 Units.

You are alone in the world and you are faced with a decision to act. Because you are a human being, there is no "no-action" possible, for the way that the world is constituted, both choosing to act and choosing not to act is in itself a decision about moral action. Philosophers call this being born into the "plight of moral agency." You are a "moral agent" meaning a rational, choosing, sentient being, with a sense of the past, and a sense that actions and outcomes are connected. Among the most critical of the choices you make as a moral agent is to be utterly honest-to yourself and in your speech.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can enroll via petition.

RETH 30404. Introduction to Philosophical Ethics. 100 Units.

TBD

RETH 30702. Introduction to Environmental Ethics. 100 Units.

This course will examine answers to four questions that have been foundational to environmental ethics: Are religious traditions responsible for environmental crises? To what degree can religions address environmental crises? Does the natural world have intrinsic value in addition to instrumental value to humans, and does the type of value the world has imply anything about human responsibility? What point of view (anthropocentrism, biocentrism, theocentrism) should ground an environmental ethic? Since all four of the above questions are highly contested questions, we will examine a constellation of responses to each question. During the quarter we will read texts from a wide variety of religious and philosophical perspectives, though I note that the questions we are studying arose out of the western response to environmental crises and so often use that language. Some emphasis will be given to particularly influential texts, thinkers, and points of view in the scholarship of environmental ethics. As the questions above indicate, the course prioritizes theoretical issues in environmental ethics that can relate to many different applied subjects (e.g. energy, water, animals, climate change) rather than emphasizing these applied issues themselves. Taking this focus will give you the background necessary to work on such issues later.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 30702

RETH 30802. Contemporary Religious Ethics I. 100 Units.

This is the first quarter of a three-quarter sequence surveying the rise and development of contemporary religious ethics. We will examine pioneering work that established a new style of scholarship and ethical argumentation during the "quiet revolution" when the study of religion gained an institutional footing in many North American colleges and universities in the 1950s and 60s. This quarter's readings developed in the wake of that revolution and address moral controversies that arose within the cultural and intellectual ferment of the 1970s and 80s. The course is reading intensive, and it will focus on attempts to craft a method for doing religious ethics in the 1970s that aimed to situate the study of ethics within the academic study of religion and the humanities more generally. These efforts were soon challenged by theories about the importance of history, interpretation, and power in the humanities and social sciences in the 1980s. Hence the title of this cycle: Method and History (1970-1990). Readings include works by Gene Outka, Sumner Twiss and David Little, John P. Reeder, Jr., Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michel Foucault, Michael Walzer, and Stephen Toulmin and Albert Jonsen. The course aims to introduce students to styles, genres, and patterns of moral reasoning and to innovative work in religious ethics as a foundation for future scholarship in the field.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Enrollment in other courses in this sequence is not required to enroll in this course.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 21406

RETH 30803. Contemporary Religious Ethics II: Identity and Difference. 100 Units.

This is the second of my three-quarter sequence of courses examining the rise and development of contemporary religious ethics. It will continue examining pioneering work that established a new style of scholarship and ethical argumentation during the "quiet revolution" when the study of religion gained an institutional footing in North American colleges and universities. Readings will examine theories of subject formation; cultural norms and human agency; relationships between human and non-human animals; religion and global conflict; race, gender, and politics; and challenges and opportunities that encountering the Other poses for ethical responsibility and coexistence in political life. Hence the title of this cycle: Identity and Difference (1990-2010). Authors include William F. May, William LaFleur, Cornel West, Charles Taylor, Judith Butler, Avishai Margalit, Lisa Sideris, Saba Mahmood, Aaron Stalnaker, John Kelsay, and Jeffrey Stout. Over the arc of the quarter we will examine how normative inquiry moves across overlapping domains of religion, culture, politics, and science. This course will be followed by Contemporary Religious Ethics III: Peril and Responsibility (2010-2020), next year.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Enrollment in other courses in this sequence is not required to enroll in this course. Doctoral students in the RETH area are encouraged to enroll in both quarters.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 21407

RETH 30804. Contemporary Religious Ethics III: Peril and Responsibility. 100 Units.

This is the third of my three-quarter sequence of courses examining pioneering work in field of contemporary religious ethics. With one exception, this quarter's readings will draw from work published between 2011-2022. Our focus will be on structural problems in domestic politics and international life, including reproductive rights, responses to global conflict, environmental responsibility, political solidarity, and gender and racial justice. Materials will draw from religious, philosophical, legal, journalistic, literary, and political sources, reflecting the many genres in which prophetic social criticism is practiced. Authors include Nicole Flores, Atalia Omer, Michael Walzer, Katherine Stewart, Janet Jakobsen, Eddie Glaude, Pope Francis, Anna Gade, and the U.S. Supreme Court (Roe, Dobbs). There are no prerequisites.

Instructor(s): Richard B. Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25804

RETH 31000. Good Hands: Research Ethics. 100 Units.

Basic research is intended to explore and evaluate truth claims at the edge of our understanding of the natural and physical world, and it is this very quality that renders it useful as science. Yet, this often creates significant ethical questions for the research as well as for the social order in which all research takes place. Often, courses in research ethics focus on the establishment and enforcement of canonical rules of behavior, where the goal is to inform the investigator about how to follow these established rules. This course will turn to a different set of problems in research ethics. While we will begin with a foundation in the history of research ethics, reviewing the key cases that shaped the policies about which we have consensus, (human and animal subject protections; authorship, etc.) will consider the problems about which there is not yet a clear ethical course: what are the limits of human mastery? Why is research deception so prevalent? Are there experiments which are impermissible and why? What is the obligation of the researcher toward their community? How can we think clearly and ethically in situations of deep uncertainty? We will consider how moral philosophy as well as theological arguments have shaped research science and reflect on the nature, goal and meaning of basic and translational research in modernity.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Required course for new MS program in Biological Sciences. This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 31000, BMSC 31000, KNOW 31001

RETH 31100. History of Theological Ethics I. 100 Units.

This is the first part of a two-part history. It is conducted through the study of basic, classic texts. The course moves from the philosophical ethics of the Greek and Roman worlds through strands of Hebrew scripture, the origins of the Christian movement, the end of the Roman age to the emergence of Islam, and, finally, Christian and Jewish scholastic and mystical thought in the Western middle ages. While the golden thread of the history is the origin and differentiation of Christian moral thinking, this is set within with the complexity of traditions (Hellenistic philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and often collide throughout these formative century in Western thought. The course proceeds by lectures and discussion. Most readings are in translation. There will be a final examination. No previous work in theology, philosophy, or ethics is required but it is suggested.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 31100

RETH 31101. History of Religious and Theological Ethics I. 100 Units.

The religions are moral forces in our age of global dynamics and interactions. Understanding the history of these moral forces is crucial for contemporary life and thought. This course is part one of a two-part history of theological and religious ethics. It is conducted through lectures and the study of classic texts. The course moves from Greek and Roman moral philosophies through strands of the Hebrew scriptures, the origins of the Christian movement, the end of the Roman Empire to the emergence of Islam, and, finally, scholastic and mystical thought (Christian, Jewish and Islamic) in the Western Middle Ages. The golden thread of the history is the origin and differentiation of Christian ethical and theological thinking. Yet Christian theological ethics is set within and compared to other traditions (Hellenistic philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and collide throughout the formative centuries of Western thought. The exploration of traditions shows, first, how their internal complexity and reflexive relations to other traditions opens onto comparative religious and ethical reflection, and, second, the birth and trajectory of the monotheistic religions. The purpose of the course is threefold: (1) to enable one a grasp of part of the history of theological and religious ethics in the West; (2) to explore the thought of specific thinkers; and, (3) to engage in reflection on the task and topics of the discipline in a global and comparative context.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must get consent to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 31101

RETH 31200. History of Theological Ethics II. 100 Units.

This is the second part of a two-part history. It is conducted through the study of basic, classic texts. The course begins with the tumultuous period of the Reformation and the Renaissance arising from the so-called Middle Ages and so attention to rebirth of classical thought, the plight of women in the medieval world, various religious voices, and the rise of cities and even nations. The course then moves into the emergence of distinctly "modern" forms of ethics in the "Enlightenment," through the romantic period and to the political, economic, and religious crises of the 20th century. The history ends with the emergence in the global field of the power interaction of the religions. While the golden thread of the history is the development and differentiation of Christian moral thinking, this is set within the complexity of traditions that intersect and often collide through centuries in Western thought. The course proceeds by lectures and discussion. Most readings are in translation. There will be a final examination. No previous work in theology, philosophy, or ethics is required but is suggested.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 31200

RETH 31201. History of Religious and Theological Ethics II. 100 Units.

The religions are moral forces in our age of global dynamics and interactions. Understanding the history of these moral forces is crucial for contemporary life and thought. This course is part one of a two-part history of theological and religious ethics. It is conducted through lectures and the study of classic texts. This course is the second part of a two-part history of religious and theological ethics. It is conducted through lectures and the study of basic, classic texts. The course moves from the moral philosophies in the Christian Reformations in the West and the Renaissance to the 20th century and the emergence of global challenges. The golden thread of the history is the modern challenges to Christian ethical and theological thinking. Yet Christian theological ethics is set within and compared to other traditions (Philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and collide throughout the centuries of modern Western thought. The exploration of traditions shows, first, how their internal complexity and reflexive relations to other traditions opens onto comparative reflection, and, second, explores the modern trajectories of the monotheistic religions. The purpose of the course is threefold: (1) to enable one a grasp of part of the history of theological and religious ethics in the West; (2) to explore the thought of specific thinkers; and, (3) to engage in reflection on the task and topics of the discipline in a global and comparative context.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must get consent to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 31201

RETH 32700. Religion, Society, and Culture. 100 Units.

Classic and contemporary theories of society and culture help frame concepts of religion and ethics. This course will examine social and cultural sources of and challenges to ethics, religion, and the relationship of individuals, culture, and society. Universal theories of society that do not necessarily take account of race, class, and gender will be considered alongside those self-consciously informed by these issues. The relationship between human and nonhuman animals will also be considered. This class will emphasize engaging with and understanding the texts to give students a solid foundation for other classes and comprehensive exams.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can enroll via petition.

RETH 32800. Religion, Ethics, and the Sciences. 100 Units.

Basic concepts in the philosophy and history of science are critical to understanding debates in bioethics, environmental ethics, information technology ethics, and other related fields. This class will examine how scientific authority, methods, and information may relate to ethics, particularly religious ethics. We will also study objectivity, subjectivity, and values in the sciences; the development of scientific knowledge; risk, precaution, and accidents; and the development and use codes of ethics for scientists and engineers.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 32800

RETH 33029. Justice for Animals in Ethics and Law. 100 Units.

Animals are in trouble all over the world. Intelligent sentient beings suffer countless injustices at human hands: the cruelties of the factory farming industry, poaching and trophy hunting, assaults on the habitats of many creatures, and innumerable other instances of cruelty and neglect. Human domination is everywhere: in the seas, where marine mammals die from ingesting plastic, from entanglement with fishing lines, and from lethal harpooning; in the skies, where migratory birds die in large numbers from air pollution and collisions with buildings; and, obviously, on the land, where the habitats of many large mammals have been destroyed almost beyond repair. Addressing these large problems requires dedicated work and effort. But it also requires a good normative theory to direct our efforts. This class is theoretical and philosophical. Because all good theorizing requires scientific knowledge, we will be reading a good deal of current science about animal abilities and animal lives. But the focus will be on normative theory. We will study four theories currently directing practical efforts in animal welfare: the anthropocentric theory of the Non-Human Rights Project; the Utilitarian theory of Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and Peter Singer; the Kantian theory of Christine Korsgaard; and an approach using the Capabilities Approach, recently developed by Martha Nussbaum.

Instructor(s): Martha C. Nussbaum     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This is a new 1L elective, in connection with the Law School’s new program in Animal Law. It is open to all law students and all graduate students. Undergraduates may register only with the instructor’s permission, and to receive permission they must be third or fourth-year Philosophy concentrators with a letter of recommendation from a faculty member in the Philosophy Department. Because all assessment is by an eight-hour take-home exam at the end of the class, the letter should describe, among other things, the student’s ability in self-monitored disciplined preparation.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 33029, PLSC 33029

RETH 33300. Reading Your Neighbor's Scripture: Scriptural Reasoning. 100 Units.

Scriptural Reasoning is a method of approaching the scholarly study of texts of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and the Qur'an, by reading them as if they are to be understood as in conversation with one another, and as in reception communities that have historically understood them as such. This seminar will explore the practices and methods of a distinctive academic methodology of study, as well as the theoretical and philosophical scaffolding that has emerged from these practices. We will consider both the scholarly work that extends and recommends the practice, and the critiques of the practice. Reading from the perspectives of theology and philosophy, we will consider how the academic reading of Scriptures frames the narrative and the ethical perspectives within the text and how that framing might be disrupted/repaired/interrogated by new exegetical interpretations. Scriptural Reasoning is both a method and a feature of the academy (in journals, in a section at the AAR, and in scholarly books and articles); and it is also a way of making Scriptural reception and interpretation publicly legible. The seminar will allow graduate students an entrance into understanding the Scriptures of their own tradition or research interest, and those of others, with which they may not be conversant, and thus create the possibility for new avenues of comparative scholarship.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 33300, THEO 33300

RETH 33599. Christian and Anti-Christian: Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Religion and Morality. 100 Units.

This course explores two radically different assessments of religion and morality, one by the Protestant thinker Søren Kierkegaard, and the other by an arch-critic of religion and "morality," Friedrich Nietzsche. The course will focus on their assessments of religious faith and its relation to morality and the human good. We will explore Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and also Nietzsche's works, On the Genealogy of Morals. The course moves in interlocking moments: an inquiry into Kierkegaard's and Nietzsche's account of religion and its moral outlook, and their outlooks on how best to live given their assessments of religion and morality. Additionally, the course will explore their styles of writing and the relation between style and the purpose and content of their thought. The general aim of the course, then, is to explore two seminal minds in the development of Western thought with the question in mind of their possible contribution to current religious and ethical thinking.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23599, FNDL 23599, THEO 33599

RETH 33600. Evil: Myth, Symbol and Reality. 100 Units.

From the horrors of the Shoah to violence suffered by individuals, the question of the origin, meaning, and reality of evil done by humans has vexed thinkers throughout the ages. This seminar is an inquiry into the problem of evil on three registers of reflection: myth, symbol, and reality. We will be exploring important philosophical, Jewish, and Christian texts. These include Martin Buber, Good and Evil, Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, Edward Farley, Good and Evil, Hans Jonas, Mortality and Morality and Claudia Card, The Atrocity Paradigm. There will also be a viewing of the movie Seven (1995) directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. Accordingly, the seminar probes the reality of evil and the symbolic and mythic resources of religious traditions to articulate the meaning and origin of human evil. The question of "theodicy" is then not the primary focus given the seminar's inquiry into the fact and reality of human evil. Each student will submit a 5-7 page critical review of either Jonathan Glover's Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century or Susan Neiman's, Evil in Modern Thought. Each Student also will write a 15 page (double spaced;12pt font) paper on one or more of the texts read in the course with respect to her or his own research interests.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 23623, FNDL 23600, GRMN 33623, THEO 33600, RLST 23600, JWSC 23600

RETH 33907. Gandhi and His Critics. 100 Units.

The moral and political writings of M.K. Gandhi constitute one of the most influential archives of ethics in the twentieth century. For a man so devoted to periodic vows of silence and withdrawal, he nevertheless left over ninety volumes of public speeches, personal correspondence, and published essays. A modernist arrayed against the brutalities of modernity, Gandhi's thought encompassed concepts of sovereignty, the state, self and society, religion, civilization, and force. His insistence on cultivating technologies of the self as a response to both colonial and intimate violence was inspired by an eclectic range of source material. Generations of critical thinkers from around the world, including Black, feminist, Communist, and Dalit political activists, engaged with his ideas. This course explores several themes in Gandhi's ethical thought and the responses they have generated.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CRES 23907, FNDL 23907, HREL 33907, RLST 23907

RETH 34592. Jewish and Islamic Ethics in al-Andalus. 100 Units.

This course will include readings in Jewish and Islamic ethics from al-Andalus and the Maghrib with a focus on the writings of Maimonides (d. 1204) -- especially his "Eight Chapters" and Commentary on Avot (completed in the 1160s) and Ibn al-Mar'a of Malaga (d. 1214) -- especially his commentary on Ibn al-'Arif.

Instructor(s): Jim Robinson and Yousef Casewit     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 34592, RLST 24592, JWSC 24592, NEHC 24592, HIJD 34592, NEHC 34592, MDVL 24592

RETH 35004. Theological, Phenomenological, and Ethical Aspects of Prayer. 100 Units.

Through the centuries, human beings have addressed divine powers and entrusted themselves to a 'beyond' - in the hope that joy and sorrow may find an attentive 'ear,' that evil be transformed into good, and that the heavens will help in adversity. Yet, if the 'voice' or 'word' of God cannot be perceived acoustically, how can we then know whether our prayer has been 'heard'? In discussing great thinkers who also were great listeners to the divine 'voice' that may 'resound' in silence or 'speak' to us through biblical texts or fellow human beings, this course will explore (1) theological, (2) phenomenological, and (3) ethical aspects of prayer: (1) Our speech about God changes and deepens when it is grounded in the speech to God. That is why prayer has been regarded as the key to divine knowledge, which can be seen in Augustine's Confessions, Anselm of Canterbury's Proslogion and Barth's interpretation of the latter in Fides quarens intellectum. (2) Does prayer require or effect a special state of consciousness, and what is the difference between prayer and meditation? By reading French phenomenologists (Levinas, Derrida, Chrétien), we will investigate the intentionality, temporality, and language of prayer. (3) How can prayer help us (re-)orient ourselves in life crises? In dialogue with critics and defenders of petitionary prayer (Kierkegaard, Rosenzweig, Heschel, D.Z. Phillips, Brümmer), we will search for criteria defining prayer that is deemed 'appropriate.'

Instructor(s): Claudia Welz     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25004, JWSC 25004, THEO 35004

RETH 35500. Pragmatism and Ethics. 100 Units.

Since its beginnings in the late nineteenth century, philosophical pragmatism has emphasized the integration of theory and practice through experience to improve the world and has examined abstract philosophical ideas and informed social movements (about education, social work, civil rights, environmental justice). This course examines the mutual intersection of these trends. Special attention will be paid to the bifurcation in pragmatic thought between the theoretical and experiential/applied, particularly when this bifurcation has aligned with racial or gender differentiations. Whose knowledge and experience do and should count for whom? What do our answers to these questions imply about the scope of ethics, the resources and blind spots in pragmatism? What does it mean that knowledge and experience are intertwined, especially when discussing ethical and religious knowledge, which are often presumed to come from an epistemological or social authority? The development of this course is aided by a Swift Diversity and Inclusion Innovation Grant.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 35500

RETH 36002. The Ethics of War: Foundational Texts. 100 Units.

The decision by social movements, religious communities, nation-states, or international agencies to authorize the use of deadly force, and to expect individuals to risk their lives on behalf of a common cause, is one of the gravest and most controversial decisions that human beings make. What can justify such a decision? This course will examine answers to that question in Western theological, philosophical, and political ethics. Specifically, it will focus on texts that are foundational to the rise and development of the just-war tradition, constructive critiques of that tradition, and contemporary writings on liberation, nonviolence, and pacifism. Assigned readings are both classical and contemporary. Topics include morality and realism, natural law, justice, human rights, the rule of double effect, necessity, the value of political community, revolution, nonviolence, the use of force "short of war," and moral injury. We will also engage in practical reasoning about concrete cases in the experience of violence and war, and on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in the winter of 2022.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior work in philosophy or political theory recommended but not required.
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24120

RETH 36500. Jewish Ethics: Arendt, Susman, Rand, Peixotto. 100 Units.

The history of modern Jewish ethics is often taught through the work of seminal thinkers Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Gershom Scholem. But each of these men were in conversation with women contemporaries who, during the interwar years in Europe, were writing, publishing and organizing. While Hannah Arendt became well known, and while Jessica Peixotto was recognized for her government service, Rosa Rand, and Margaret Susman fell into obscurity. This course will introduce the student to these thinkers and explore their contribution to Jewish thought and Jewish ethics.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates can enroll via petition.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 36500, GRMN 36521, GNSE 36502

RETH 37000. Moral Theory and Philosophical Ethics. 100 Units.

How ought we live? That is the basic question of ethics or moral philosophy and religious ethics. It is a deceptively simple question. Why do human beings ask let alone are perplexed by this question? Is this a matter of human distinctiveness? Who is the "we" in question: is it a specific community defined by race, language, ethnicity, history, or gender, or does it include all human beings? What is the origin and meaning of an obligation, an "ought," about how to live: is it from God or the gods, nature, human reason, social mores and custom or some combination of these sources? What does it mean to be genuinely alive amid the daily routines and demands of staying alive? Does our living include obligations to others and their well-being and to the common good, or should we be self-seeking creatures interested only in our own happiness? This course explores the major thinkers and texts in Western moral theory and philosophical ethics that address these and other questions that surround every human life and every human society.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 37000

RETH 37378. Ethics of Rest. 100 Units.

In today's capitalistic world in which technology enables expectations that we are always able to be connected, rest can seem far away. In this course we will read classic and contemporary texts from a variety of religious traditions on the priority of rest, leisure, and/or a change from one's daily life. Themes to be explored include the purpose of such breaks (worship, care for one's self, building relationships, enabling one's work); how rest is conceived and practiced; and the varying expectations and opportunities for rest among people of different ages, genders, races, financial statuses, and roles in society.

RETH 39700. Theological Genealogies of Modernity. 100 Units.

Narratives about the origins of modernity typically attribute a key role to religious and theological considerations, although their significance is understood in various ways. The different roles ascribed to religious factors most often relate to whether the emergence of Western modernity is imagined to be a story of progress or decline. This seminar will explore the general form of genealogical approaches to modernity and how they serve to vindicate or critique aspects of the present. Indicative sources are works by Löwith, Blumbenberg, MacIntyre, Merchant, Taylor, Milbank, and Gregory. We will consider such questions as the extent to which secular conceptions of history continue to draw upon covert theological principles; whether secular modernity lacks normative foundations; the nature of secularization and secularism; the historical relations between science and religion and their respective roles in the trajectory of the modern West.

Instructor(s): Peter Harrison (visiting fellow)     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates may enroll themselves after obtaining instructor permission.
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28710, AASR 39700, THEO 39700

RETH 41600. The Nature of the Good: Levinas's Philosophical Ethics. 100 Units.

Emmanuel Levinas is perhaps the most important Jewish philosopher of the late 20th Century. His work is critical in both Jewish thought, and in post-WWII phenomenology. This seminar will explore Levinas's work by closely reading two of his critical philosophic texts as a way to examine the complexities of philosophy as it confronted the problem of evil.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 41600

RETH 41775. The Ethics and Politics of Memory. 100 Units.

This seminar will examine whether, on what terms, and in relation to what communities and events there is an obligation to produce a "just public memory." Authors will include Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Elie Wiesel, Avishai Margalit, W. James Booth, Paul Ricoeur, and Jeffrey Blustein. Related topics will include trauma, forgiveness, apology, honor (and dishonor), repression, and truth and reconciliation.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior work in philosophy, history of religions, anthropology of religions, or religious ethics is recommended but not required.

RETH 41800. The Nature of Judgement: Hannah Arendt's Political Writing. 100 Units.

Hannah Arendt wrote vividly about the way that societies are organized and threatened, about the political dynamics of power that resulted in the great evils of the 20th century. She also considered the relationships between responsibility and judgement; the social and the political, and the nature of truth, The seminar consider how her experience as a Jew and a refugee shaped her political writings.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Advanced undergraduates can petition into the course. JWSC majors/minors can petition to count this course toward their degree requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 41800

RETH 42100. Problems in Theology and Ethics: Humanism and Anti-Humanism. 100 Units.

This seminar is an inquiry into debates surrounding human dignity and capabilities. With developments in Artificial Intelligence, biological engineering, and computer science the ancient question of the meaning of being human is again a pressing one. The seminar probes interlocking and basic questions. What is a human being? What are human capacities? What are the insights and problems, theologically and ethically, with "humanism?" The seminar thereby revolves around the theme of "humanism" mindful of the larger question, "what is a human being?" It begins with paradigmatic statements of humanism, philosophical and theological, and moves towards criticism and revisions with respect to theological themes and also the relation between human beings and other species. Thinkers range from Nietzsche to Mary Midgley, Tzvetan Todorov, Karl Barth, and others.

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 42100

RETH 42601. Alfred North Whitehead: Metaphysics. 100 Units.

An introduction to Whitehead's metaphysics. Principal attention given to his book, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, with attention also given to his book, Adventure of Ideas.

Instructor(s): Franklin Gamwell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 42602, THEO 42602

RETH 42603. Environmental Justice and Eco-Justice. 100 Units.

Environmental Justice and Eco-Justice developed as largely separate subjects of study. Environmental Justice focuses on the injustices that minority groups, particularly people of color and the poor experience, in their environments and aims to combat such injustices. Eco-Justice, on the other hand, aims to extend theories and practices of justice to nonhumans, whether particular biota, species, ecosystems, or inorganic entities. Recently, scholars have begun to integrate the two more explicitly. This class will study each body of literature separately and together, seeking to understand how concern for humans and nonhumans may be in conflict, may be complementary, or may be necessarily intertwined.

Instructor(s): S. Fredericks     Terms Offered: Winter

RETH 42802. Rights and Justice. 100 Units.

This course will examine contemporary theories of rights and justice, focusing on racial justice, post-colonialism, global poverty, animal rights, gender justice, justice across cultures, environmental justice, and the human rights regime. The assigned readings theorize about and apply justice and rights to social problems that lie within but often outside the bounds of the nation-state, or to subjects that are not understood according to the category state citizenship. Readings generally aim to expand the scope of moral concern to include neglected or vulnerable human populations, animals, and the environment. Prior work in ethics, philosophy, or political theory is welcome but not required.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Students wishing to enroll should petition Prof. Miller by 9/ 15/2018, describing their background and interest in the class.

RETH 42902. Rights and Justice. 100 Units.

This course will examine contemporary theories of rights and justice, focusing on racial justice, post-colonialism, global poverty, animal rights, gender justice, justice across cultures, environmental justice, and the human rights regime. The assigned readings theorize about and apply justice and rights to social problems that lie within but often outside the bounds of the nation-state, or to subjects that are not understood according to the category state citizenship. Readings generally aim to expand the scope of moral concern to include neglected or vulnerable human populations, animals, and the environment. Prior work in ethics, philosophy, or political theory is welcome but not required.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Students wishing to enroll are to petition Professor Miller (rbm1@uchicago.edu), describing their academic background and stating their reasons for wishing to enroll in the seminar by December 15.

RETH 43900. Religion and Democracy. 100 Units.

This seminar critically examines theories of democracy, democratic rights, and democratic virtues, focusing on the proper and improper place of religious discourse and practice in democratic public life and culture. Power, sovereignty, liberty, authority, public reason, political obligation, and religion are among the concepts to be interrogated.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior work in theology, philosophy, political theory, or religious ethics recommended but not required.

RETH 44000. Methods and Theories in Comparative Religious Ethics. 100 Units.

This course explores the major theories and methods for doing comparative religious ethics and also looks at key contemporary works comparing religions ethically.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition.
Note(s): This course will meet in person for the first, midterm review, and last class. The rest will be remote.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 44000

RETH 44480. Conscience: A Theological and Philosophical Key Concept. 100 Units.

This course combines a historical and an interdisciplinary systematic approach in exploring how the phenomenon of conscience is described in classic and contemporary texts. The Greek and Latin etymologies (syn-eidesis, con-scientia) suggest that conscience is a 'knowing-with,' which implies that an inner witness is involved. Yet, how does its testimony come about, what is the content of the 'call' of conscience, and who or what 'speaks' through this call? These questions will structure our reading, allow us to compare various accounts of conscience, and illuminate some remarkable lines of reception. First, we will investigate the ancient origins of the concept of conscience, its repercussions in the Bible, and Thomas Aquinas' scholastic distinctions. We will then turn to Luther, where conscience comes to light as the locus of sin and redemption. From German idealism (Kant and Hegel) we will move to Kierkegaard's understanding of love as a matter of conscience and Heidegger's interpretation of conscience as a medium of self-disclosure. Levinas and Ricoeur show alternatives to Heidegger's ontology. As we can learn from Shakespeare, the culprit's bad conscience can express itself in words and self-conscious emotions. Its tendency to generate self-knowledge or self-deception turns it into an ambiguous phenomenon. We will study Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Freud's psychoanalysis, Wittgenstein's philosophy of language as well as current philosophy of emotion.

Instructor(s): Claudia Welz     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Advanced undergraduates may petition the instructor for permission to enroll.

RETH 44802. Contemporary Political and Social Ethics. 100 Units.

In 1971 John Rawls set new terms for political and social ethics with the publication of his landmark work, A Theory of Justice. This seminar will focus on the work of Rawls along with critical engagements with his ideas in the 1980s and 1990s by Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer, Susan Moller Okin, Richard Rorty, Seyla Benhabib, and Will Kymlicka. In order to provide an understanding of the evolving nature of this engagement, the seminar's readings are arranged roughly in chronological order. One aim is to make plain the nature of public philosophy regarding social justice as it was carried out from 1971-1996, and to identify how and where Rawls adjusted his ideas in response to his critics during this time. Another aim is to correct for the ongoing misrepresentation of liberal democratic theory in the academy and in public culture more generally. Topics include theories of distributive justice, gender equality, cultural rights, religion and politics, toleration, identity and difference, and, more generally, the relation between the right and the good in political thought.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): All students-please petition Prof. Miller to enroll in this class by describing your background and relevant interests in this course. This course is open to undergrads by petition.

RETH 44900. Technology and Ethics. 100 Units.

This is a research seminar and the theme of Technology and Ethics. Special focus will be on issues surrounding Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Communication Technology, and Artificial Intelligence. Requirements include a seminar paper.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Previous work in ethics or theology
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 44901

RETH 44902. Political Theology. 100 Units.

This course explores the rise of Political Theology from the work of Carl Schmitt and others around World War II through to current philosophical and theological positions seeking a different relation between religion and politics.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 44902

RETH 45102. Religion, Medicine and Ethics. 100 Units.

This course surveys the contributions of leading figures in mainstream bioethics along with new voices in the field. We will examine authors who have shaped academic writing and public policy in the United States along with the recent efflorescence of bioethics in different cultural contexts. Key topics include human experimentation, death and dying, organ transplantation, medicine and social justice, alternative healing practices, and reproductive technologies. These issues link up with ideas about the body, identity, freedom, gender, and visions of human welfare. Sources draw from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and western philosophical materials.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior work in religious ethics of theology recommended but not required.

RETH 45404. Ethical Issues in Care at the End of Life. 100 Units.

In this course we will delve deeply into topics in the ethics of care at the end of life, reading both classical and contemporary works, on issues including: suffering and the goals of medicine, the withholding and withdrawing of life-sustaining treatments, the distinction between killing and allowing to die, euthanasia and assisted suicide, the medical application of the rule of double-effect, palliative sedation, brain death, organ donation after cardiac death, advance directives, surrogate decision making, therapy, healing, and death, and the ethics of attending to the spiritual needs of dying patients. The class will be conducted in classical seminar style, with students assigned to lead class discussions of particular texts. Our interdisciplinary conversation will exemplify and provide a context for the interdisciplinary nature of the field of bioethics. The course is open to Law, Medical, and Divinity students.

Equivalent Course(s): MEDC 45404

RETH 45502. Religion and the Political Order. 100 Units.

This is a seminar on religion and political order, drawing on Western theological and philosophical thinkers from Aristotle to Wollstonecraft. Focal topics include religious and political authority, the ends of politics, political rationality, obedience and freedom, liberty and equality, and moral sources in nature or convention. Special attention will be paid to the role of religion in the political theories under review along with the norms and ideas that are used to conceptualize religion or to distinguish between religions in political life.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn

RETH 45900. Understanding Oneself as Anothers: The Hermeneutics and Ethics of Paul Ricoeur. 100 Units.

What is the relation, if any, between moral goodness and human acts of meaning-making? How does understanding relate to the quest for justice? How is one to understand ambiguous meanings and actions? More fundamentally, what does it mean to be a self? And how are moral agents related to each other? Is our relation to others so basic that we are, through and through, moral beings or is morality a social construction or are both positions necessary? These questions, and others as well, are hermeneutical ones, that is, questions about the character of human understanding through interpretation. They are also ethical questions about the meaning of being human, our relations to others, and matters of what is good, right, and just. Little wonder that the relation of hermeneutics to ethics has been important in the history of thought and continues to be in our own age of threats to humanity and human endangerment of the global environment. This seminar will examine the hermeneutical theory and ethics of the French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, by reading central works but with special focus on his Gifford Lectures, Oneself as Another. Ricoeur (1913-2005) was one of the major hermeneutical and phenomenological thinkers of the 20th century who central focus on human beings as willing agents profoundly related to others.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 45900

RETH 46100. Reinhold Niebuhr: Theo/Ethics. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 46900, RLST 23703, FNDL 22200

RETH 46502. Comparative Religious Environmental Ethics. 100 Units.

Environmental issues have been studied by religious ethicists of many long-established religious traditions as well as emerging nature religions. While common themes often emerge in terms of the ethical ideas used (justice, responsibility) or the subjects studied (species extinction, population, water, food, climate change, etc.), religious ethicists draw on a wide range of ethical methods, theories, and sources of authority to develop their environmental ethics. To illustrate this diversity we will explore several ethical methods as applied to environmental ethics. These approaches may include the use of the Bible, Church teachings, virtue ethics, and natural law theory in Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant environmental ethics; how the Islamic legal tradition can be applied to environmental issues; the use of prayer, meditation, and ethical analysis in Buddhist environmental ethics; the ethics of the nature religion of deep ecology; and/or the quest for a global environmental ethic as expressed in the Earth Charter initiative.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Spring

RETH 47750. Virtue Ethics. 100 Units.

Virtue ethics, one of the major types of normative ethics, involves a study of virtues, character, and the formation of such character. This course will examine some of the major contributions to the tradition of virtue ethics (e.g. Aristotle, Aquinas), the late twentieth-century revival of virtue ethics (e.g. MacIntyre, comparative studies of virtue across religious and philosophical traditions), and its flourishing in environmental ethics.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 47750

RETH 49700. The Theological Ethics of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth. 100 Units.

This course is organized to explore methodological and substantive issues in theological ethics through examining the thought of two giants in Christian theology and ethics: Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth. The method of this course is critical, analytic, and comparative rather than historical. Several basic questions will orient our work. Consider a few: What is the conception of "theology" and "ethics" in these Christian thinkers and how are these related? What are the source of authority and the criteria of judgment in both theological and ethical argument? How do theological ethical arguments relate to philosophical ones and with respect to what sources and criteria? Do theological-ethical positions fit standard distinctions within moral philosophy? How are various sources-Christian and non-Christian-used within theological and ethical arguments? How do theological claims about God's relation to the world, sin, redemption, creation, love, and Christ relate to the ethical outlook of each theologian? What are the view of persons as moral beings and also societies and communities in these positions? How are judgments about specific moral questions developed, argued, and validated?

Equivalent Course(s): THEO 49701

RETH 50250. Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. 100 Units.

(CORE, SEM, ++) Ancient Greek tragedy has been of continuous interest to Western philosophers, whether they love it or hate it. But they do not agree about what it is and does, or about what insights it offers. This seminar will study the tragic festivals and a select number of tragedies, also consulting some modern studies of ancient Greek tragedy. Then we shall turn to philosophical accounts of the tragic genre, including those of Plato, Aristotle, the Greek and Roman Stoics (especially Seneca), Lessing, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Iris Murdoch, Sartre, and Bernard Williams. This class is offered on the Law School's academic calendar. The first class will be Tuesday, September 26. Admission by permission of the instructor. Permission must be sought in writing by August 21 to martha_nussbaum@law.uchicago.edu. Prerequisite: An undergraduate major in philosophy or some equivalent solid philosophy preparation, plus my permission. This is a 500 level course. PhD students in Philosophy, Social Thought, Classics, and Political Theory may enroll. MA students need permission, and the MAPH and MAPSS programs discourage 500 level courses in a student's first quarter. Law students with ample philosophical background are welcome to enroll but should ask Professor Nussbaum first. Undergraduates may not enroll. Method of evaluation: A seminar paper of 20-25 pages and an oral presentation preceded by a short paper of 5-7 pages.

Instructor(s): Martha C. Nussbaum     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Admission by permission of the instructor. Permission must be sought in writing by the start of registration week. An undergraduate major in philosophy or some equivalent solid philosophy preparation, plus my permission. PhD students in Philosophy, Social Thought, Classics, and Political Theory may enroll without permission. MA students need permission, and the MAPH and MAPSS programs discourage 500 level courses in a student’s first quarter. Law students with ample philosophical background are welcome to enroll but should ask me first. Undergraduates may not enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 42020, PHIL 50250, CLAS 42020

RETH 50701. Will, Life, Value. 100 Units.

With advances in genetics and technology as well environmental endangerments, the claim living beings make upon human responsibility has been a dominate theme in modern Western philosophical and theological ethics. Some thinkers have turned to non-Western modes of thought to address this topic or sought to reclaim ancient conceptions against modern ethics. This seminar moves through levels of reflection, ranging from what defines "life" through the relation between human existence and other creatures, to, finally, the theological question of the significance of life raised within the compass of ethical reflection. The seminar starts with Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, and so a debate within Lebensphilosophie. Next, we will consider 20th century thinkers, specifically Hans Jonas' philosophical biology and theory of responsibility, Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of will and attestation, and Iris Murdoch's account of the good as ways which challenge the modern emphasis on the power of will. The course concludes with reflection on the importance of claims about human nature and our relation to other animals (Midgley), ethical naturalism (Foot) and future generations (Habermas). The seminar, accordingly, explores the range of positions on this topic, debates about founding attributes towards life (reverence, resignation, attestation, etc.,), and to trace the significance of claims about the divine and moral responsibility.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 50701

RETH 50800. God And Morality. 100 Units.

Currently the world's religions are having profound impact on social, cultural, and political realities around the world. From questions in genetics to global conflict, sexuality to the reality of death, the religious have global moral significance. This seminar addresses a basic question within this current reality, namely, what is and ought to be the connection between religious beliefs about the divine and the domain of moral value and right. The seminar addresses a range of contemporary answers to this question mindful of the history of the question, reaching the West at least back to Socrates, and also different religious and philosophical traditions.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 50800

RETH 50900. Collective Agency and Responsibility. 100 Units.

In the twentieth and twenty-first century, modern western notions of individual identity, agency, and responsibility have been challenged by collective experiences. Studies of collective atrocities such as the Holocaust, apartheid, racism and sexism have informed research on collective identity, agency, and responsibility. Research and legal developments on corporate agency and responsibility add to the discussion. Finally, global environmental challenges such as climate change raise questions about the types of agents responsible for these harms and for combating them. This class will explore a number of theories of collective agency and responsibility to interrogate the differences and relationships between individuals and collectives.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergraduates may enroll with permission

RETH 51204. Sustainability. 100 Units.

RETH 51802. Climate Ethics. 100 Units.

Anthropogenic climate change is the largest challenge facing human civilization. Its physical and temporal scale and unprecedented complexity at minimum require extensions of existing ethical systems, if not new ethical tools. This course will begin by examining natural and social-scientific studies of climate change and its current and predicted effects (e.g. the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Stern Review). Most of the course will examine how religious and philosophical ethical systems respond to the vast temporal and spatial scales of climate change and its inherent uncertainties. For instance, common principles of environmental ethics such as justice and responsibility are often reimagined in climate ethics. We will also explore the degree to which the assumptions of many modern Western ethical systems including linear causality, an emphasis on individuals, and purely rational decision-making foster or inhibit climate ethics. In the course, we will take a comparative approach to environmental ethics and may examine perspectives from secular Western philosophy, Christianity (Catholic and Protestant), Buddhist, and Islamic thought.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 51802, CEGU 51802, CHSS 51802

RETH 52104. Augustine, Kierkegaard, and the Problem of Love. 100 Units.

This advanced seminar will examine how Augustine and Kierkegaard theorized about the virtues and obligations of love, focusing on their respective theologies, moral psychologies, and normative accounts of interpersonal relationships. We will also examine how their ideas about love served as a basis for their political and cultural criticism. To sharpen our analyses of the primary sources, we will read influential receptions and interpretations of their works by Hannah Arendt and M. Jaime Ferreira.

Instructor(s): Richard Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Background in Philosophy or Theology recommended but not required.

RETH 52555. Narrating the Law: Levinas and the Talmud. 100 Units.

This is a seminar that will closely read the Jewish writings of Emmanuel Levinas, in particular, the talmudic exegesis that he undertook for the French Jewish Community in the 1990s. Levinas explicates his ethical theories via the recovery of a series of texts from the Babylonian Talmud, the classic text of Jewish law, literature, and theo-philosophic interpretation.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Course is in English translation
Equivalent Course(s): THEO 52555, HIJD 52555

RETH 52990. Good and Evil: Reading Levinas and Arendt. 100 Units.

Our goal is to reflect on a puzzle: why do humans choose to be good or evil? Note how the shape of the question is complex and self-reflective, assuming that moral action is a choice. But is it? How do we understand the human capacity for good and for evil? What is meant by these categories? This seminar will respond to the complexities of this question by reading the work of two master Jewish philosophers, Emmanuel Levinas and Hannah Arendt. They share a certain history and a fascination with the question: both were gifted students and favorites of Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher who joined the Nazi Party promptly and enthusiastically. Both narrowly escaped from the Holocaust (Shoah.) Both then turned their research toward the problem of human relationally, duty, judgment and moral action. Both produced a large body of dense, intricate moral theory that has come to define post-modern Jewish thought. We will read their works slowly, using the manner of classic text study that characterizes the classic study of tradition texts in Jewish religious life. The first 5 sessions will focus on Levinas, reading Otherwise Than Being, considered by many to be his masterpiece, and a selection of his philosophic essays. The next 5 sessions will focus on Arendt's Responsibility and Judgment and The Origins of Totalitarianism Both texts respond to our puzzle of moral agency, responsibility and moral action.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates may enroll with permission, and must have taken a course in modern philosophy.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23606

RETH 53335. Religion, Law, and Politics. 100 Units.

This seminar examines the conceptualization and realization of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. We explore philosophical precepts and historical contexts, review the state of the law, and address current controversial issues.

Terms Offered: Spring

RETH 53500. Bioethics: Classic Issues and Emerging Problems in Medicine and Science. 100 Units.

This class is based on the understanding that case narratives serve as the motivation for the discipline of bioethics and that complex ethical issues are best considered by a careful examination of the competing theories as work themselves out in specific cases. We will examine both classic cases that have shaped our understanding of the field of bioethics and cases that are newly emerging, including the case of research done at Northwestern University. Through these cases, we will ask how religious traditions both collide and cohere over such topics as embryo research, health care reform, terminal illness, issues in epidemics and public health, and our central research question, synthetic biology research. This class will also explore how the discipline of bioethics has emerged to reflect upon such dilemmas, with particular attention to the role that theology and religious studies have played in such reflection. We will look at both how the practice of theologians historically has shaped the field of bioethics and at how religion's claims, methodology, and praxis have continued to shape and inflect bioethics. We will examine the issue of epistemic stance, of truth claims, and of how normative policies are created amid serious controversy. We will explore the nature of the relationship between religion and public policy and study how religious traditions and moral philosophy shape our view of issues as "bioethics controversies" in the first place.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Spring

RETH 53510. Augustine, Kierkegaard, and the Problem of Love. 100 Units.

This advanced seminar will examine how Augustine and Kierkegaard theorized about the virtues and obligations of love, focusing on their respective theologies, moral psychologies, and normative accounts of interpersonal relationships. We will also examine how their ideas about love served as a basis for their political and cultural commentary. Ranging across theological ethics, moral theory, political thought, and social criticism, topics include power and domination; inclination and duty; attraction and alienation; love and law; memory, time, and death; faith and ethics; constancy and change; freedom and necessity; and the right and the good.

Instructor(s): Richard B. Miller     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

RETH 54320. Contagion: Ethics and the Other. 100 Units.

This is a graduate seminar which explores the complex ways that epidemic disease has shaped and been shaped by religion, philosophy, literature, and the emerging sciences of modernity. Contagion has long been a central moral problem in theology and philosophy, the organizing terror of all human civilization because of the sudden, stochastic, and terrifying spread of visible, embodied changes. Contagion is our most intimate companion: Plague as punishment, as test, and as a sign of divine judgement have long been a topic of sacred texts, defining how societies thought about, duties, telos, meaning, and salvation. Contagious diseases raise stark ethical choices as well. The uses of quarantine as a defense, the establishment of isolation, and the fear of the stranger mark the historical responses to plagues. In this course, we will consider both the science behind the plagues that have torn across the course of human history, and the sacred and secular textual responses to them. Plagues leave behind cultural artifacts and traces of the puzzle of human behavior in response to epidemics: compliance, resistance imagination, and innovation. We will explore this theme in all its complexity, focusing on the textual and literary responses to the challenge of contagion.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 54320, CHSS 54320

RETH 54900. Reformation Ethics: Freedom and Justification. 100 Units.

This is an advanced seminar for students in theology and ethics. Given the worldwide celebration this year of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this seminar will explore seminal texts by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Menno Simons as well as their critics, Catholic and contemporary. The seminar will proceed through close reading of texts and discussion. Reading knowledge of German and/or French helpful but not required. Each seminar participant will lead a session of the seminar and write a seminar paper.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Previous doctoral work in theology or ethics required.

RETH 57900. Brauer Seminar: Theology of Nature and Nature of Theology. 100 Units.

This Brauer seminar will explore historical, ethical, legal and theological conceptions of "nature" and extrapolating from these reflect on the "nature of theological reflection" and so connect the various meanings of the seminar's title. The question of nature-human and non-human-is hotly debated today. This is true in the face of the global environmental crisis but no less so in important matters brought before the Supreme Court, which might lead to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or the undoing of same-sex marriage and are often grounded in appeals to "nature" and the natural. The topic has occupied thinkers throughout Western history ranging from natural law ethics, moral naturalism, definitions of the existence and essence of God and, for Christians, the "nature", i.e., hypostatic union of the Christ, questions about creation and the natural order, and the possibility and task of natural theology. Even current questions about transhumanism and posthumanism find historical forerunners in ideas about theosis or divinization of human nature as well as in debates about resurrection and the possibility of mystical self-transcendence. Each of these topics implies something about nature and also about the nature and task of theological thinking. The seminar will explore these matters with a focus on and shifting understanding of human and divine nature, sustained throughout by a deep interest in the question of "natural religion," "natural law," and "natural theology."

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten and William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Course admission is based on application.
Note(s): There is a stipend for admitted students. More information about Brauer Seminar classes can be found here: https://divinity.uchicago.edu/martin-marty-center/brauer-seminar. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 56903, THEO 57900, HCHR 57900

RETH 59903. Modern Indian Political and Legal Thought. 100 Units.

India has made important contributions to political and legal thought, most of which are too little-known in the West. These contributions draw on ancient traditions, Hindu and Buddhist, but transform them, often radically, to fit the needs of an anti-imperial nation aspiring to inclusiveness and equality. We will study the thought of Rabindranath Tagore (Nationalism, The Religion of Man, selected literary works); Mohandas Gandhi (Hind Swaraj (Indian Self-Rule), Autobiography, and selected speeches); B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution (The Annihilation of Caste, The Buddha and his Dhamma, and selected speeches and interventions in the Constituent Assembly); and, most recently, Amartya Sen, whose The Idea of Justice is rooted, as he describes, both in ancient Indian traditions and in the thought of Tagore. We will periodically contrast the thought of the founding generation with the ideas of the Hindu Right, dominant today.

Instructor(s): Martha C. Nussbaum     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This is a seminar open to all law students, and to others by permission. This class requires a major paper of 20-25 pages.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 59903, PLSC 59903

RETH 70000. Advanced Study: Religious Ethics. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Religious Ethics

DVSC 30400. Introduction to the Study of Religion: On the Fetish. 100 Units.

There are many ways to tell the story of the history of the study of Religion. This course will trace out the history of a single concept both within the field and through its dissemination in the broader culture. The concept of the "fetish" will be our guide. It will provide us a lens to consider 1) the cultural presumptions and biases that often undergird claims to comparison 2) the power and mobility of a concept that has been used to talk about everything from idolatry to capitalism, sex to semiotics. Ironically, despite its enduring power in the Philosophy of Religions, Marxism, and Psychoanalysis, the term "fetish" mostly disappeared from the taxonomic lexicon of scholarship within the field of Religious Studies once it was deemed a "category mistake" in the early 20th century. In recent years, however, it has re-emerged in the work of anthropologist J. Lorand Matory and philosopher Bruno Latour, among others. The history of the term will help us tell the story of the construction of Comparative Religions as a European endeavor, as well as the reverberations of that story across the social sciences. We will also consider alternatives to this approach by inviting other scholars from inside and outside the university to discuss the intersection between the study of religion and other key concepts.

Instructor(s): Sarah Hammerschlag     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): All MA and AMRS students are required to take this course. MDiv students are required to take this course or Classical Theories of Religion (HREL 32900). This class is one of the Divinity School's courses that requires a quality grade. Students must earn a B- or above to fulfill the requirement.

DVSC 30500. Introduction to the Study of Religion. 100 Units.

This course is the first of a two-part introductory sequence for Masters students in the Divinity School. This first course in this sequence will pursue two main questions: What is religion, and what are we doing when we study it? It is thus an opportunity to consider various descriptions that have been proposed for what religion is and what it does; to survey the theoretical orientations that are taken in the study of religion; and especially to think about the applicability of each, and the results they produce, in relation to various religious expression, from antiquity to the present. As a special focus of our inquiry, we will consider the positionality of the scholar/researcher in relation to their subject of inquiry: what does it mean to study religions with which, and religious people with whom, one does or does not affiliate? Finally, by highlighting the scholarship of faculty and graduates of the Divinity School (both in readings and in-class interviews), this course will provide some introduction to the distinctives of Chicago and its approach to the study of religion. Our inquiry is intended to be cumulative, with the different readings and topics that we engage building upon, implicating, and sometimes challenging each other. We will thus have opportunity to think and rethink concepts, ideas, and arguments as we proceed across the quarter.

Instructor(s): Jeffrey Stackert     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): All MA, AMRS, and MDiv students are required to take this course. This class is one of the Divinity School's courses that requires a quality grade. Students must earn a B- or above to fulfill the requirement. Discussion groups will be held.

DVSC 30600. Theory and Method. 100 Units.

The first part of the introductory sequence examined how scholars have defined "religion" and undertaken its study. Building on this foundation, students will explore four interrelated themes within the contemporary academic study of religion through readings, site visits, and interviews with scholars working within the field. From these thematic vantage points, we will query various methodologies and the types of scholarship they produce. First, students will consider the study of religious literature through questions of interpretation and authority. Next, we will turn to critical issues surrounding the study of practice. What constitutes a religious practice? What are the consequences of employing commonplace categories such as belief (as opposed to practice)? The third theme is embodiment, a broad subject we will pursue through the intersection of religion with medicine and healing. How does religious belief inform ideas about the body, its ailments, and its treatment? The final theme extends our discussion of embodiment to the further consideration of religion and society. We will examine how scholars tease out the role of religion within a political landscape, especially around questions of law. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to reflect on the implications of what they are learning for their own areas of interest and developing methodological frameworks.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): All MA, AMRS, and MDiv students are required to take this course. This class is one of the Divinity School's courses that requires a quality grade. Students must earn a B- or above to fulfill the requirement. Discussion groups will be held.

DVSC 45100. Reading Course Special Topic. 100 Units.

Petition with bibliography signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.

Terms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Winter
Prerequisite(s): Petition with bibliography signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.

DVSC 49900. Exam Preparation: Divinity. 100 Units.

Open only to Ph.D. students in quarter of qualifying exams. Department consent. Petition signed by Advisor.

Terms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open only to PhD students in quarter of qualifying exams. Department consent. petition signed by Advisor.

DVSC 50100. Research: Divinity. 100 Units.

Readings and Research for working on their PhD

Terms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Winter
Prerequisite(s): Petition signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.

DVSC 50200. Research: Divinity. 100 Units.

Petition signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.

DVSC 50300. Research: Divinity. 100 Units.

TBD

DVSC 51000. Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion. 100 Units.

This course will consider contemporary trends within the study of religion by focusing on new work by current scholars in the field. Some themes to be considered are: Reason, power, faith, materiality, humanity, animality, reality and viritual reality. We will take as our guiding thread the new volume of the Critical Terms for Religious Studies and consider as well what it tells us about how the field has changed over the last thirty years both in terms of theory and method.

Instructor(s): Richard B. Miller     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course is limited to 1st-year Divinity PhD students only. It is a required course for all 1st-year Divinity PhD students.

DVSC 59900. Thesis Work: Divinity. 100 Units.

Thesis research for working on their PhD

Terms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Winter
Prerequisite(s): Petition signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.

DVSC 60000. Arts of Teaching. 000 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVSC 60005. Introductory. 000 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVSC 60010. Dean's Seminar. 000 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVSC 60020. Craft of Teaching Elective. 000 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVSC 60030. Teaching@Chicago. 000 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVSC 60040. Advanced. 000 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD

DVSC 60100. Colman COTLS Practicum. 300.00 Units.

This practicum course supports the internship program for the John and Jane Colman Program in the Craft of Teaching, Leadership, and Service.

Instructor(s): Anita Lumpkin     Terms Offered: Summer

DVSC 60400. Hispanic Theological Initiative-LDAS Program. 100 Units.

Hispanic Theological Initiative Divinity School graduate student program

Instructor(s): Mimi Maduff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

DVSC 65000. Divinity Internship Practicum. 300.00 Units.

This practicum is a leadership class for Divinity graduate students doing summer internship placements.

Instructor(s): Anita Lumpkin     Terms Offered: Summer

DVSC 70000. Advanced Study: Divinity. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Divinity

Terms Offered: Autumn,Spring,Winter
Prerequisite(s): Petition signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.
Note(s): Petition signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.

DVSC 75000. Advanced Research. 300.00 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: Autumn

DVSC 77000. Pro Seminar: Creating an Academic Profile and Dossier. 000 Units.

This course serves as an intensive introduction to the academic job market from the nitty-gritty of where to find job advertisements to developing a dossier and preparation for interviews and on-campus visits. Students will have the opportunity to develop job materials from scratch or refine existing materials through peer and faculty feedback. Different faculty will be brought in each week to share their expertise and interface with students. This pro-seminar is open to students currently on the job market or preparing to go on the job market in the near future.

Instructor(s): Sarah Pierce Taylor     Terms Offered: Spring

THEO 30200. History of Christian Thought II: The Middle Ages. 100 Units.

This second class in the History of Christian Thought sequence deals with the period from Late Antiquity until the end of the Early Middle Ages, stretching roughly from 450 through 1350. The following authors and themes will be analyzed and discussed: 1. The transition from Roman antiquity to the medieval period: Boethius and Cassiodorus 2. The rise of asceticism in the West: the Rule of St. Benedict and Gregory the Great 3. Connecting East and West: Dionysius the Areopagite and John Scottus Eriugena 4. Monastic and Scholastic paragons: Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard 5. High-medieval monastic developments: Cistercians (Bernard of Clairvaux) and Victorines (Hugh and Richard of St. Victor), beguines (Hadewijch) and mendicants (Bonaventure). 6. Scholastic synthesis and spiritual alternatives: Thomas Aquinas, Marguerite Porete and Eckhart.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 31902, HCHR 30200

THEO 30300. History of Christian Thought III. 100 Units.

This is the third course in the History of Christian Thought sequence, covering foundational Reformation-era thinkers from Catholic, Protestant, and 'radical' traditions. We will cover 1) the rise of Christian humanism in the Northern European Renaissance; 2) key texts and ideas within the German Lutheran, Swiss Reformed, and Genevan (Calvinist) Reformations; 3) important developments within Counter-Reformation thought, including the rise of the Jesuit Order, Spanish Catholic mysticism, as well as shifts within Catholic understandings of temporal and spiritual authority; and 4) seminal writings within Baptist, rationalist and anti-trinitarian thought. Classes will be based closely around the readings of primary texts representing important intellectual and theological developments, while remaining grounded thoroughly within the historical context of the period and paying attention to the debates historians have had over their influence, significance, and legacy.

Instructor(s): Paul C.H. Lim     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 30300

THEO 30400. History of Christian Thought IV. 100 Units.

This fourth class in the History of Christian Thought sequence deals with the period from the Council of Trent to the mid-18th Century (1550-1750). Themes to be discussed include the rise of modern theology, the relationship between theology and philosophy, the relationship between faith and reason, and the increasing diversification of modes of theological discourse.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 30400

THEO 30402. Poetics of Midrash. 100 Units.

An introduction to the modern literary study of classical rabbinic Midrash; its styles and genres. Particular attention will be given to issues of hermeneutics and theology.

Instructor(s): M. Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLIT 30402, HIJD 30402, JWSC 21402

THEO 31100. History of Theological Ethics I. 100 Units.

This is the first part of a two-part history. It is conducted through the study of basic, classic texts. The course moves from the philosophical ethics of the Greek and Roman worlds through strands of Hebrew scripture, the origins of the Christian movement, the end of the Roman age to the emergence of Islam, and, finally, Christian and Jewish scholastic and mystical thought in the Western middle ages. While the golden thread of the history is the origin and differentiation of Christian moral thinking, this is set within with the complexity of traditions (Hellenistic philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and often collide throughout these formative century in Western thought. The course proceeds by lectures and discussion. Most readings are in translation. There will be a final examination. No previous work in theology, philosophy, or ethics is required but it is suggested.

Equivalent Course(s): RETH 31100

THEO 31101. History of Religious and Theological Ethics I. 100 Units.

The religions are moral forces in our age of global dynamics and interactions. Understanding the history of these moral forces is crucial for contemporary life and thought. This course is part one of a two-part history of theological and religious ethics. It is conducted through lectures and the study of classic texts. The course moves from Greek and Roman moral philosophies through strands of the Hebrew scriptures, the origins of the Christian movement, the end of the Roman Empire to the emergence of Islam, and, finally, scholastic and mystical thought (Christian, Jewish and Islamic) in the Western Middle Ages. The golden thread of the history is the origin and differentiation of Christian ethical and theological thinking. Yet Christian theological ethics is set within and compared to other traditions (Hellenistic philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and collide throughout the formative centuries of Western thought. The exploration of traditions shows, first, how their internal complexity and reflexive relations to other traditions opens onto comparative religious and ethical reflection, and, second, the birth and trajectory of the monotheistic religions. The purpose of the course is threefold: (1) to enable one a grasp of part of the history of theological and religious ethics in the West; (2) to explore the thought of specific thinkers; and, (3) to engage in reflection on the task and topics of the discipline in a global and comparative context.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must get consent to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 31101

THEO 31200. History of Theological Ethics II. 100 Units.

This is the second part of a two-part history. It is conducted through the study of basic, classic texts. The course begins with the tumultuous period of the Reformation and the Renaissance arising from the so-called Middle Ages and so attention to rebirth of classical thought, the plight of women in the medieval world, various religious voices, and the rise of cities and even nations. The course then moves into the emergence of distinctly "modern" forms of ethics in the "Enlightenment," through the romantic period and to the political, economic, and religious crises of the 20th century. The history ends with the emergence in the global field of the power interaction of the religions. While the golden thread of the history is the development and differentiation of Christian moral thinking, this is set within the complexity of traditions that intersect and often collide through centuries in Western thought. The course proceeds by lectures and discussion. Most readings are in translation. There will be a final examination. No previous work in theology, philosophy, or ethics is required but is suggested.

Equivalent Course(s): RETH 31200

THEO 31201. History of Religious and Theological Ethics II. 100 Units.

The religions are moral forces in our age of global dynamics and interactions. Understanding the history of these moral forces is crucial for contemporary life and thought. This course is part one of a two-part history of theological and religious ethics. It is conducted through lectures and the study of classic texts. This course is the second part of a two-part history of religious and theological ethics. It is conducted through lectures and the study of basic, classic texts. The course moves from the moral philosophies in the Christian Reformations in the West and the Renaissance to the 20th century and the emergence of global challenges. The golden thread of the history is the modern challenges to Christian ethical and theological thinking. Yet Christian theological ethics is set within and compared to other traditions (Philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and collide throughout the centuries of modern Western thought. The exploration of traditions shows, first, how their internal complexity and reflexive relations to other traditions opens onto comparative reflection, and, second, explores the modern trajectories of the monotheistic religions. The purpose of the course is threefold: (1) to enable one a grasp of part of the history of theological and religious ethics in the West; (2) to explore the thought of specific thinkers; and, (3) to engage in reflection on the task and topics of the discipline in a global and comparative context.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must get consent to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 31201

THEO 31600. Introduction to Theology. 100 Units.

This course will consider theology as an aid to practical wisdom; toward that end, we will examine a variety of theologies that exhibit the wisdom implicit in various religious traditions.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. This course is open to undergrads by Petition.

THEO 32700. Introduction to Hermeneutics. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 32700

THEO 33200. Faith: A Conceptual History. 100 Units.

A close examination of the concept of faith in Christian theological sources and in modern European philosophy: what is faith? How does its meaning change over time? What are the major models of faith among recent and contemporary Christian theologians? To what extent is theology the "self-understanding of faith"? In this course we will ask these and other questions while reading closely thinkers including Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Bultmann, Barth, and Gutierrez, among others.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23200, DVPR 33200

THEO 33300. Reading Your Neighbor's Scripture: Scriptural Reasoning. 100 Units.

Scriptural Reasoning is a method of approaching the scholarly study of texts of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and the Qur'an, by reading them as if they are to be understood as in conversation with one another, and as in reception communities that have historically understood them as such. This seminar will explore the practices and methods of a distinctive academic methodology of study, as well as the theoretical and philosophical scaffolding that has emerged from these practices. We will consider both the scholarly work that extends and recommends the practice, and the critiques of the practice. Reading from the perspectives of theology and philosophy, we will consider how the academic reading of Scriptures frames the narrative and the ethical perspectives within the text and how that framing might be disrupted/repaired/interrogated by new exegetical interpretations. Scriptural Reasoning is both a method and a feature of the academy (in journals, in a section at the AAR, and in scholarly books and articles); and it is also a way of making Scriptural reception and interpretation publicly legible. The seminar will allow graduate students an entrance into understanding the Scriptures of their own tradition or research interest, and those of others, with which they may not be conversant, and thus create the possibility for new avenues of comparative scholarship.

Instructor(s): Laurie Zoloth     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): ISLM 33300, RETH 33300

THEO 33599. Christian and Anti-Christian: Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Religion and Morality. 100 Units.

This course explores two radically different assessments of religion and morality, one by the Protestant thinker Søren Kierkegaard, and the other by an arch-critic of religion and "morality," Friedrich Nietzsche. The course will focus on their assessments of religious faith and its relation to morality and the human good. We will explore Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and also Nietzsche's works, On the Genealogy of Morals. The course moves in interlocking moments: an inquiry into Kierkegaard's and Nietzsche's account of religion and its moral outlook, and their outlooks on how best to live given their assessments of religion and morality. Additionally, the course will explore their styles of writing and the relation between style and the purpose and content of their thought. The general aim of the course, then, is to explore two seminal minds in the development of Western thought with the question in mind of their possible contribution to current religious and ethical thinking.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23599, FNDL 23599, RETH 33599

THEO 33600. Evil: Myth, Symbol and Reality. 100 Units.

From the horrors of the Shoah to violence suffered by individuals, the question of the origin, meaning, and reality of evil done by humans has vexed thinkers throughout the ages. This seminar is an inquiry into the problem of evil on three registers of reflection: myth, symbol, and reality. We will be exploring important philosophical, Jewish, and Christian texts. These include Martin Buber, Good and Evil, Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, Edward Farley, Good and Evil, Hans Jonas, Mortality and Morality and Claudia Card, The Atrocity Paradigm. There will also be a viewing of the movie Seven (1995) directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. Accordingly, the seminar probes the reality of evil and the symbolic and mythic resources of religious traditions to articulate the meaning and origin of human evil. The question of "theodicy" is then not the primary focus given the seminar's inquiry into the fact and reality of human evil. Each student will submit a 5-7 page critical review of either Jonathan Glover's Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century or Susan Neiman's, Evil in Modern Thought. Each Student also will write a 15 page (double spaced;12pt font) paper on one or more of the texts read in the course with respect to her or his own research interests.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 23623, FNDL 23600, GRMN 33623, RLST 23600, RETH 33600, JWSC 23600

THEO 33706. Calvin: Piety, Politics, and the Theater of God's Glory. 100 Units.

This seminar will engage a close reading of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559) in English translation, examining how the masterwork moves and instructs its readers toward correlative knowledge of God and of self. We will attend to Calvin's elaboration of true religion or "piety"-especially to his picture of the repair and reorientation of the sensing, feeling, willing, and knowing self before God-and to his depiction of rightly ordered individual, corporate, and civic life over against the bondage of the will and tyrannous powers. The course will further a reading of the work as a rhetorical and pedagogical whole.

Instructor(s): Kristine Culp     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Open to graduate students by permission of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23706, FNDL 23706

THEO 33812. Descartes on the Self and God, and His Opponents. 100 Units.

On the basis of Meditations on First Philosophy, with Objections and Replies, one will study how Descartes's positions were understood both by his contemporaries (Hobbes, Pascal, etc.) as well as by later philosophers (Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc.). Emphasis will be put on the misunderstandings of the ego, of the so-called "dualism" and of the definitions of God.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 33812

THEO 33829. Foundational Readings in Christian Anthropology. 100 Units.

What is necessary for humans to flourish? How do the soul, body, and intellect relate? How did early Christians understand the human person, the effects of sin, and the nature of revelation? This course introduces students to the ways Origen, Augustine, Ephrem the Syrian, and Gregory of Nyssa approached these foundational questions and set trajectories for the subsequent development of Christian thought. We will pay particular attention to their interpretation of scripture, especially Genesis 1-3 and the Pauline Epistles. These theologians' interpretations of scripture shaped Christian thinking about social structures, gender, class, and freedom in ways that continue to have an influence. For those unfamiliar with the intellectual history of early Christianity, this class will offer an opportunity to read consequential texts (in translation) from Latin, Greek, and Syriac authors that represent the diversity inherent within Christian literature. By the end of the course, students will have the skills to discern how these formative voices continue to shape Christian ethics and theology. For those interested in reading these authors in their original languages, I will offer optional weekly translation sessions in Latin, Greek, and Syriac.

Instructor(s): Erin Walsh     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): BIBL 33829, RLST 23829, HCHR 33829

THEO 34001. Modern European Philosophy of Religion: 17th Century to the Present. 100 Units.

This course will examine the historical emergence of the philosophy of religion, in the European context, as a discrete area of inquiry. Thinkers to be considered include Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Arendt. No prerequisites.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24001, DVPR 34001

THEO 34400. Radical Theologies and Heretical Praxis in Reformation Europe: From Luther to Quaker Prophetesses. 100 Units.

Reformation and post-Reformation Europe was a persecuting society, caught up in the agonistic journey toward a greater instantiation of toleration and liberty of conscience. Radical religious ideas were perceived to be threats to the well-being of politics and religion and the emerging public sphere, and innumerable texts were printed to circumscribe, control and quell such blasphemous rumors from turning into reality. In this seminar, ideas of the following individuals will be explored to see the nexus between tolerable orthodoxy and heterodoxy as historical artefacts and theological consequences, such as Luther, Servetus, Müntzer, Milton, Hobbes, the Quakers, various anti-trinitarians, and Thomas Woolston - whose radical views on the resurrection of Jesus shaped that of Voltaire, Lessing and D.F. Strauss. Consequently, we will see that notions of orthodoxy and heresy are historically contingent, processual, and predicated on the structures and systems of power, whether religious or political, real or imaginary.

Instructor(s): Paul C.H. Lim     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 21214

THEO 34619. Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer Project. 100 Units.

The seminar will attempt to work through the nine (mostly short) volumes that constitute Agamben's effort to articulate a theory of the ways in which human life is "politicized," comes to be inscribed relations of power and authority. Special consideration will be given to Agamben's recourse to literature-above all, to the work of Kafka--in the elaboration of his theory.

Instructor(s): Eric Santner and Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergrads welcome with permission of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 34619, DVPR 34619

THEO 35004. Theological, Phenomenological, and Ethical Aspects of Prayer. 100 Units.

Through the centuries, human beings have addressed divine powers and entrusted themselves to a 'beyond' - in the hope that joy and sorrow may find an attentive 'ear,' that evil be transformed into good, and that the heavens will help in adversity. Yet, if the 'voice' or 'word' of God cannot be perceived acoustically, how can we then know whether our prayer has been 'heard'? In discussing great thinkers who also were great listeners to the divine 'voice' that may 'resound' in silence or 'speak' to us through biblical texts or fellow human beings, this course will explore (1) theological, (2) phenomenological, and (3) ethical aspects of prayer: (1) Our speech about God changes and deepens when it is grounded in the speech to God. That is why prayer has been regarded as the key to divine knowledge, which can be seen in Augustine's Confessions, Anselm of Canterbury's Proslogion and Barth's interpretation of the latter in Fides quarens intellectum. (2) Does prayer require or effect a special state of consciousness, and what is the difference between prayer and meditation? By reading French phenomenologists (Levinas, Derrida, Chrétien), we will investigate the intentionality, temporality, and language of prayer. (3) How can prayer help us (re-)orient ourselves in life crises? In dialogue with critics and defenders of petitionary prayer (Kierkegaard, Rosenzweig, Heschel, D.Z. Phillips, Brümmer), we will search for criteria defining prayer that is deemed 'appropriate.'

Instructor(s): Claudia Welz     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25004, JWSC 25004, RETH 35004

THEO 35006. Theology and Polycrisis. 100 Units.

The existential challenge of our contemporary time is how to think and live in a world in polycrisis. The convergence of many extreme crises-climate change, war, racism, the ongoing violence of the patriarchy, the inordinate wealth discrepancy between rich and poor-has led many to see these days as the beginning of the end of the world. This course asks what theology might contribute to understanding world's intersecting crises and what resources it offers for contending with them. How might theology address a world seemingly facing apocalypse? On what grounds do theologians speak responsibly of God today? Thematizing the topic of apocalypse in the history of theology, we examine how theology takes up the challenge of navigating the incommensurability between the world's vast problems and the perceived smallness of human action. We investigate how the systematic aspect of theological thinking becomes relevant in discussions of evil and how theology's speculative dimension introduces ways to think about God in relation to the world's end. We also apply exegetical, interpretive, and imaginative skills to make diagnostic sense of the self-world relation. The course concludes by orienting theology to the current discussion of "world-building" and by considering spiritual disciplines that are attuned to this theme. Texts by, among others: Boethius, Schleiermacher, Meister Eckhart, Barth, Baldwin, McCord Adams, Haraway, McGinn, Iman Jackson, and Keller.

Instructor(s): Christine Helmer     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25006

THEO 35100. Theologies of Education. 100 Units.

This class will consider a handful of classic and contemporary theologies of education, including those of John Henry Newman, Simone Weil, Willie James Jennings, Keri Day, and Mark Jordan, with an eye to helping students develop their own philosophy of education.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 35100

THEO 35300. The Question in Jewish Religious and Theological Culture. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 35300

THEO 35305. Continental Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 35305

THEO 35350. Cultivation of Character in Jewish Moral/Spiritual Literature. 100 Units.

This course will survey classical texts and practices in Jewish religious literature from antiquity to the modern period. Selections will include key portions from: Book of Proverbs; Ethics of the Fathers; Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan; Dererch Eretz; Maimonides' 'Eight Chapters'; Bachya ben Asher's moral proems; Asher ben Yechiel's 'Orchot Hayyim'; Moshe Cordovero's 'Tomer Devorah'; Jewish Ethical Wills (diverse periods); Tracts of Spritual Practices (Safed and modern Hasidism); Moshe Hayyim Luzatto, 'Mesilat Yesharim'. Contemporary literature on moral and spiritual self-formation and practice will be considered; and pertinent comparisons will be made to classical Catholic sources.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Texts in Hebrew with English translations.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 35350

THEO 35501. Saints and Other Exemplars. 100 Units.

This course will consider recent work on the nature and significance of spiritual & moral exemplars, and will then use this work as a framework with which to analyze the lives of exemplars such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Oscar Romero.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 35501, RLST 25501

THEO 35505. Jewish Hermeneutical Theology. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 35505

THEO 35806. The Political Theologies of Zionism. 100 Units.

The relationship between nationalism and religion has throughout history been a stormy one, often characterized by antagonisms and antipathy. In this course we will examine from various aspects the complex nexus of these two sources of repeated ideological and political dispute within Judaism, and more specifically within Zionism as its political manifestation. Zionism has mostly been considered a secular project, yet recently, Zionist theory is scrutinized to identify and unearth its supposedly hidden theological origins. In nowadays Israel, a rise in religious identification alongside an increasing religionization of the political discourse calls for the consideration of new theopolitical models of Zionism applicable in a post-secular environment. The aim of this course is to explore this complex intertwining of politics and religion in Israel from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The first part of the course will outline the theoretical foundation of post-secular and political-theological discourses. The second part will address the explicit and implicit political theologies of Zionism. The third part will outline contemporary aspects of political-theological thought in Israel, and their actual appearance in the political sphere.

Instructor(s): David Barak-Gorodetsky     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 39403, NEHC 25806, RLST 25806, JWSC 27940, HIJD 35806

THEO 36400. Mystical Theology of Hasidism: The Circle of the Maggid of Mezeritch. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to the mystical and spiritual theology of early modern Hasidism (late eighteenth century), centering around the first major teacher of the movement and the significant figures who gathered around him (and later founded their own spiritual dynasties). We shall focus of the Scriptural teachings of the Maggid and his circle, emphasizing the hermeneutical insights and daring of these spiritual masters - particularly such issues as radical non-dualism, divine immanence, the contemplative self, service of God through corporeal life, and the unique role of language as the inner-structure of existence. The great masters of this circle include Rabbis Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Yehuda Aryeh Leib of Gur, and Menachem Mendel of Chernobyl.

Instructor(s): M. Fishbane     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Texts will be studied in English with the Hebrew originals provided. The course is suitable for students in the College and for Divinity School Students in the areas of Jewish Studies, Religion and Literature, and Theology.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25810, HIJD 36400

THEO 36705. Guilt, Shame, and Redemption. 100 Units.

This course will consider recent analyses of guilt and shame, on the one hand, and of the possibilities of addressing these negative self-assessments through forgiveness and friendship, on the other.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn

THEO 37000. Moral Theory and Philosophical Ethics. 100 Units.

How ought we live? That is the basic question of ethics or moral philosophy and religious ethics. It is a deceptively simple question. Why do human beings ask let alone are perplexed by this question? Is this a matter of human distinctiveness? Who is the "we" in question: is it a specific community defined by race, language, ethnicity, history, or gender, or does it include all human beings? What is the origin and meaning of an obligation, an "ought," about how to live: is it from God or the gods, nature, human reason, social mores and custom or some combination of these sources? What does it mean to be genuinely alive amid the daily routines and demands of staying alive? Does our living include obligations to others and their well-being and to the common good, or should we be self-seeking creatures interested only in our own happiness? This course explores the major thinkers and texts in Western moral theory and philosophical ethics that address these and other questions that surround every human life and every human society.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 37000

THEO 37500. Spirituality of the 16th Century. 100 Units.

The Spirituality of the Sixteenth century examines both Protestant and Catholic thinkers who wrote treatises that allow us to see how theological doctrines were experienced spirituality. Three of the main themes are the role of experience, "spiritualism" of various forms, including mysticism and appeals to the inner authority of the Spirit. We will look at writings by Luther, Calvin, the German Theology, Thomas Müntzer, Carlstadt, Franck. the Anabaptists, and Catholic thinkers such as Juan de Valdės, Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila.

Instructor(s): Susan Schreiner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 37500

THEO 38000. Theology and Difference. 100 Units.

The challenge of difference informs modern religion, culture, and politics; it is also a central issue in theology. The energy around difference has to do with conversations about the critique of binaries and the recovery of "the real" in order to secure alterity for ethical and hermeneutical purposes. The course focuses on varying accounts of "difference" (such as conceptual distinctions, social constructions, binaries, the "really real") to explore their significance for contemporary thought in theology and the humanities. Gender and human-animal relation are of particular interest. In the process of thinking about difference, we also explore difference in meta-cognitive terms, such that we investigate how difference is constitutive of thinking and how aspects of difference must be maintained in order to subvert the tendency that subsumes difference under sameness. Theological approaches to difference will be discussed in relation to: 1) Critical theory, particularly contemporary criticisms of "critique" that focus on binaries vulnerable to the machinations of power; 2) Dialectics as a historical and hermeneutical philosophical/theological movement of reason and how difference and sameness are posited; 3) Reciprocities between difference and how they can be sustained without being collapsed into sameness; 4) Constructions of "singularity" in theologies of belonging. Texts by, among others: Schleiermacher, Aquinas, Luther, Tonstad, Moten, and Nash.

Instructor(s): Christine Helmer     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

THEO 38774. Racial Capitalism. 100 Units.

This course examines the history of race and racism in America from the perspective of "racial capitalism" as a political economy. The course will trace the development of racial capitalism as a concept within Black Marxist thought, from C.L.R. James and Oliver Cromwell Cox to Cedric J. Robinson to parallel developments and formulations among contemporary theorists Adolph Reed Jr., Barbara and Karen Fields, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Iyko Day, etc. Special attention will be given to the moral psychology of racial capitalist ideology in the context of American chattel slavery and its resultant "aftermarkets" in American society. The course will compare racial capitalism as a political economic approach to race and racism to rival "identarian" approaches including critical whiteness studies and Afropessimism. The course will conclude by exploring responses by religious communities to racial capitalism, visiting several ethnographic studies of how religion can facilitate radical forms of resistance to racial capitalism.

Instructor(s): Jonathan Tran     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28774, CRES 12274

THEO 39700. Theological Genealogies of Modernity. 100 Units.

Narratives about the origins of modernity typically attribute a key role to religious and theological considerations, although their significance is understood in various ways. The different roles ascribed to religious factors most often relate to whether the emergence of Western modernity is imagined to be a story of progress or decline. This seminar will explore the general form of genealogical approaches to modernity and how they serve to vindicate or critique aspects of the present. Indicative sources are works by Löwith, Blumbenberg, MacIntyre, Merchant, Taylor, Milbank, and Gregory. We will consider such questions as the extent to which secular conceptions of history continue to draw upon covert theological principles; whether secular modernity lacks normative foundations; the nature of secularization and secularism; the historical relations between science and religion and their respective roles in the trajectory of the modern West.

Instructor(s): Peter Harrison (visiting fellow)     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates may enroll themselves after obtaining instructor permission.
Note(s): This course meets the SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28710, AASR 39700, RETH 39700

THEO 40002. Time and Eternity: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives. 100 Units.

Does modern philosophy succeed in divorcing the question of time from that of eternity? Does it reject eternity as a theological remnant of a bygone era? Not at all: since Nietzsche, philosophers -- no less than their counterparts in theology -- have been obsessed with the connection between time and eternity. In this course we will adopt two perspectives on this obsession: first, we will examine ancient and medieval sources on the issue (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, etc.). Second, we will focus our attention on the enigma of eternity, its strangely resilient character, in three thinkers: Spinoza, Nietzsche, Heidegger. We will then use these thinkers to ask how eternity is conceived in more recent philosophical and theological sources.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Undergraduates may petition the instructor to enroll.
Note(s): This course meets the Constructive Studies Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 40002

THEO 40102. Womanist Theology: 1st Generation. 100 Units.

Womanist Theology is a contemporary theological discipline in the American academy. It emerged in 1979 and has differentiated into various other disciplines, foci, and methodologies All scholars agree that womanist theology does the following work: (1) expands the theory and method of the academy; (2) broadens the intellectual conversation; (3) welcomes new voices into theological explorations; and (4) challenges the very notion of assumed epistemology. In 1979 Jacquelyn Grant wrote what has now been recognized as the first "womanist" article, "Black Theology and the Black Woman". In that essay, Grant astutely pointed out certain blind spots in black theology of liberation, the larger discussions about the academic study of religion, and the relation between theology and faith communities.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 40102

THEO 40401. The Contours of Twentieth Century Thought I: Between Dialectical Theology and Analogical Imagination. 100 Units.

Well into the twenty-first century it seems a good time to look back with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and take stock of the major theological developments of the twentieth century. Aside from the enormous impact of major historical events like the communist revolution and two World Wars, there is also the event of Vatican II and the civil rights struggle in the US. Throughout it all we see the profile of some extraordinary individual theologians (Barth, Lubac, Balthasar, Tracy a.o.) embedded in a larger story marking the end of some major theological movements (neo-scholasticism) and the beginning of others (dialectical theology and nouvelle théologie). This first of what is intended as a two-sequence course on twentieth-century theology will focus on the work of a number of Catholic and Protestant theologians, who struggle with the legacy of the Enlightenment and the need to reconceptualize theological thought in a fast secularizing and globalizing world.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Some knowledge of German and/or French will be helpful. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 40401, HIST 66701

THEO 40500. Black Theology: 1st Generation. 100 Units.

This quarter we look at the origin of contemporary black theology, with its beginnings on July 31, 1966. Black theology, on that date, was created by African American clergy who offered one interpretation of the new black consciousness movement. The latter began June 16,1966 in Greenwood, Mississippi. Already, we can see that, perhaps, black theology might be the only theological discipline in the USA that did not originate in the academy. Instead, it was birthed out of people's everyday lives searching for human dignity and a better community on earth. As the new body of knowledge progressed, thinkers saw the necessity to clarify its conceptual, theoretical, and theological positions. An entire body of literature, almost fifty years of writing, has arisen defining the methodological contours of this recent creation. This course explores the responses and critiques internal to black theology. How did this discipline seek to correct itself with debate among the first generation of founders?

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Autumn

THEO 40501. What is Onto-Theology? Heidegger and the Case of Descartes. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 43410, DVPR 40501

THEO 40600. Black Theology: Second Generation. 100 Units.

Contemporary black theology, with its beginnings on July 31, 1966, was created by African American clergy who offered one interpretation of the new black consciousness movement of the 1960s. This marked the 1st generation of black theologians. Already, we see that, perhaps, black theology might be the only theological discipline in the USA that did not originate in the academy. Instead, it was birthed out of people's everyday lives searching for human dignity and a better community on earth. This course examines the 2nd generation of black theologians, starting in 1979. We will explore the responses and critiques internal to the 2nd generation of black theologians. How did they surpass the thinking of the 1st generation and what new theological avenues did they construct?

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition

THEO 40710. Black Theology: Foundational Arguments. 100 Units.

This quarter we look at the origin of contemporary black theology, with its beginnings on July 31, 1966. Black theology, on that date, was created by African American clergy who offered one interpretation of the new black consciousness movement. The latter began June 16, 1966 in Greenwood, Mississippi. Already, we can see that, perhaps, black theology might be the only theological discipline in the U.S.A. that did not originate in the academy. Instead, it was birthed out of people's everyday lives searching for human dignity and a better community on earth. As the new body of knowledge progressed, thinkers saw the necessity to clarify its conceptual, theoretical, and theological positions. An entire body of literature, over fifty years of writing, has arisen defining the methodological contours of this recent creation. This course explores the responses and critiques internal to black theology. How did this discipline seek to correct itself with debate among the first generation of founders?

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Spring

THEO 40801. Theology and Cultural Studies. 100 Units.

This course will study models of cultural studies and we will put these theoretical constructs in conversation with models of theology. Indeed, all theologies arise out of human culture and the attempt of human beings to make ultimate meaning out of all that humans have created.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

THEO 40900. Black Theology: Pros and Cons. 100 Units.

This course puts black theology of liberation in conversation with those authors who have offered trenchant critiques of black theology. And we examine if black theology has withstood, denied, or corrected its intellectual arguments vis-à-vis its critics and despisers. We are doing a self-assessment and a critical, challenging review of the scholarly claims of black theology. One way is to allow its critics to have a full say and put both sides into dialogue. On academic grounds, is there is a basis for the existence of black liberation theology?

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

THEO 41101. Being Human. 100 Units.

What does it mean to be a human being - a person who fulfills individual capabilities and also contributes to a community's well-being? What connects the individual and community to an ultimate vision, spirituality, or God? These questions and investigations can be described as an examination of and argument for constructing a theological anthropology. When one thinks intentionally about the being of a human and that human's ties to some concern or force greater than the limited self, then transcendence and materiality involve themselves in a complex dynamic. How does one construct an individual and a community of individuals? We investigate different models of being human and engage other disciplines to help unpack "being human." We expand texts from folktales to theory.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates may petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 41101

THEO 41102. Dialogue in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

Dialogue was a crucial part of religious pedagogy in the Middle Ages, and was used in a wide range of genres, including hagiography, anti-Jewish polemic, and philosophical conversation. This class will investigate the practice of written dialogue across a broad range of texts, covering the period from Gregory the Great's Dialogues to later medieval scholastic disputation. We shall also consider the relationship between written dialogue and public performance. Reading knowledge of Latin is helpful but not required.

Instructor(s): Lucy Pick     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 41102

THEO 41190. The Theology of James H. Cone. 100 Units.

James H. Cone died in 2017. He was known as the founder of new a discipline -- liberation theology from the perspective of black Americans. We cover the beginning and end of his academic writings, including his last book published after his death.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Winter

THEO 41300. Calvin's Institutes. 100 Units.

This course examines the key concepts of Calvin's theology through his major work: the definitive 1559 edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 23113, RLST 20702, HCHR 41700

THEO 42000. Feminist Theology and Theory. 100 Units.

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe took up the old question of sexual difference; it was never the same question again. This seminar will engage a close reading of The Second Sex in English translation and with reference to the original French text, considering Beauvoir's picture of freedom, desire, and subjectivity as situated and giving special attention to quasi-theological themes such as mysticism and transcendence. We will consider the reception of Beauvoir's work by selected feminist theologians and critically assess that legacy in relation to recent directions.

Instructor(s): Kristine Culp     Terms Offered: Spring

THEO 42001. Feminist Theory and Theology. 100 Units.

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe took up the old question of sexual difference; it was never the same question again. This seminar will engage a close reading of The Second Sex in English translation, considering Beauvoir's picture of freedom, desire, and subjectivity as situated, and attending to her interpretation of mysticism, "vocation," and transcendence. We will consider the reception of Beauvoir's work by selected feminist, womanist, and queer thinkers, and critically assess that legacy.

Instructor(s): Kristine Culp     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 42001

THEO 42100. Problems in Theology and Ethics: Humanism and Anti-Humanism. 100 Units.

This seminar is an inquiry into debates surrounding human dignity and capabilities. With developments in Artificial Intelligence, biological engineering, and computer science the ancient question of the meaning of being human is again a pressing one. The seminar probes interlocking and basic questions. What is a human being? What are human capacities? What are the insights and problems, theologically and ethically, with "humanism?" The seminar thereby revolves around the theme of "humanism" mindful of the larger question, "what is a human being?" It begins with paradigmatic statements of humanism, philosophical and theological, and moves towards criticism and revisions with respect to theological themes and also the relation between human beings and other species. Thinkers range from Nietzsche to Mary Midgley, Tzvetan Todorov, Karl Barth, and others.

Equivalent Course(s): RETH 42100

THEO 42300. Readings in Luther's Theology. 100 Units.

This course concentrates on the development of Luther's thought and includes several genres, including disputations, exegetical works, and theological treatises. By means of these readings we will follow Luther as he delves into the doctrine of human nature, the nature of sin, the theology of the cross, justification by faith and the role of the Spirit in his polemics against the "enthusiasts." We will also be analyzing his underlying concerns and presuppositions about such issues as the nature of reality, the concern with deception and the certainty of salvation.

Instructor(s): Susan Schreiner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 42300

THEO 42602. Alfred North Whitehead: Metaphysics. 100 Units.

An introduction to Whitehead's metaphysics. Principal attention given to his book, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, with attention also given to his book, Adventure of Ideas.

Instructor(s): Franklin Gamwell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 42602, RETH 42601

THEO 42610. Theologies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 100 Units.

What were the life factors and specific contexts that amazingly gave rise to religious thinking in the 1960s Third World theologies? And what are the relationships among gender, culture, politics, and economics in these global theologies? This class compares and contrasts various systems and methods in contemporary theologies, male and female, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. As a backdrop for this critical inter-conversational engagement, we will use the recent theological dialouges taking place in the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). As we engage these systems of thought, we want to examine the logic of their theologies and the sources used to construct theology - particularity the relation between the materiality of context and the imagination of theology.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

THEO 42999. The Religious Thought of Emerson and W. James. 100 Units.

This seminar focuses on late nineteenth-century American religious thought, centering on R.W. Emerson and William James, to see how their thought can be used productively today in light of contemporary constructive theological pressures. The theme will be on the interplay of nature and human nature, both in Emerson's view of nature, moral perfectionism and religion, and in James' view of religion. The work of Stanley Cavell (for Emerson) and Charles Taylor (on W. James) among others will help guide our discussions.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 62208, HCHR 42999

THEO 43101. The Catholic Reformation. 100 Units.

This course analyzes early modern Catholicism and covers the years from 1400-1600. The readings include treatises on the nature of the church, the role of dissent, the polemics against the Protestants, and the spirituality of this era. The requirement for the course is a take-home examination.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 43101

THEO 43301. Contemporary Trinitarian Theology. 100 Units.

TBD

THEO 43302. Contemporary Theological Anthropologies. 100 Units.

This course will examine a variety of recent theological anthropologies, paying special attention to their handling of science and diversity.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn

THEO 43303. Comtemporary Christologies. 100 Units.

This course will examine a variety of recent Christologies, paying special attention to their handling of science, history, politics, and context.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Spring

THEO 43304. Contemporary Ecclesiologies. 100 Units.

This course will examine a variety of recent ecclesiologies, paying special attention to post-Vatican II ecclesiologies, contextual & liberationist ecclesiologies, and 'peculiar peoplehood' ecclesiologies

THEO 43816. Hope in Theological, Philosophical, and Political Perspective. 100 Units.

What is hope? What role does it play in our lives? What role can it play in our politics? Is it a virtue-theological or otherwise? When is hope problematic? What happens when people lose hope? To address questions like these, this course will consider a wide range of recent work on the topic, from authors including Gabriel Marcel, Josef Pieper, Adrienne Martin, Cheshire Calhoun, Katie Stockdale, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Michael Lamb.

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23816, KNOW 23816, DVPR 43816

THEO 43900. Luther And The Old Testament. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 43900

THEO 43959. Varieties of Dominican Mysticism: Albert the Great, Meister Eckhart, and Catherine of Siena. 100 Units.

This seminar will focus on three major Dominican mystical theologians: Albert the Great, Meister Eckhart and Catherine of Siena and, through a study of their thought, map out developments in late medieval mysticism and intellectual history. The focus will be on the mystical path towards union with God, with a sub focus on the mediating role of nature and natural philosophy on the one hand and of the church and sacraments on the other.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Latin and/or German is recommended but not required
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 43959, HIST 60612

THEO 44000. Methods and Theories in Comparative Religious Ethics. 100 Units.

This course explores the major theories and methods for doing comparative religious ethics and also looks at key contemporary works comparing religions ethically.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition.
Note(s): This course will meet in person for the first, midterm review, and last class. The rest will be remote.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 44000

THEO 44001. Naming God: Event, Form, Fragment. 100 Units.

TBD

THEO 44302. Pragmatism and Religion. 100 Units.

C.I. Lewis famously described pragmatism as "the doctrine that all problems are at bottom problems of conduct, that all judgments are, implicitly, judgments of value, and that, as there can be ultimately no valid distinction of theoretical and practical, so there can be no final separation of questions of truth of any kind from questions of the justifiable ends of action." This course will examine key texts of post-WWII American pragmatism-including Richard Rorty, Cheryl Misak, Cornel West, and Eddie Glaude--in order to assess their implications for theology and the philosophy of religions.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 44302, RLST 24302, FNDL 25211

THEO 44502. Black Theology: Liberation or Reconciliation. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): CRES 44502

THEO 44601. Renaissance and Reformation. 100 Units.

This class examines points of convergence and divergence during the era of the Renaissance and the Reformation spanning the time between Cusa and Bruno. The issues analyzed will go beyond strictly theological debates. We will examine views of reason and human nature, the revival of Platonism, the rise of historical thought, the study of law and philology, and the implications regarding the development of perspective on both thought and art. We will also examine the role of rhetoric, poetry, and moral philosophy; the rise of skepticism, the appeal to certitude, curriculum reform, and the reform of art as exemplified by Michelangelo.

Instructor(s): Susan Schreiner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 44600

THEO 44704. Womanist Theology: New Voices. 100 Units.

Using Alice Walker's phrase "womanist", womanist theology is the name adopted by a group of black American women who affirmed the positive relation between them and their "God" beliefs, and, simultaneously, distanced themselves from white feminist and black male systems of religious thought. This course engages a newer generation of womanist theologies. The 1979 founding and first generation of womanist scholars, especially Jacquelyn Grant, Delores Williams, and Katie Cannon, presented foundational scholarly issues, methods, and epistemologies just to begin a new academic (and life) discipline. This course will look at recent womanist scholars who build on the first generation but carry the discipline of womanist theology into some new and, at times, quite challenging directions that call into question some of the cornerstone tenets of the discipline.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Spring 2016-17

THEO 44804. Virginity and the Body in Late Antiquity & Early Middle Ages. 100 Units.

What did virginity mean to Christians in Late Antiquity, and how did this change and develop in the early medieval period? What notions of the body and bodilyness did an ideal of virginity encourage and support? We will begin by reading Peter Brown's classic, The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, together with some of the primary sources Brown uses to make his case, and selected recent studies. We will take this theme into the early Middle Ages through a reading of monastic rules, hagiographies, and other texts.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 44804, GNSE 44804, HIST 60606

THEO 44806. Creation and Human Creatures: Theological Explorations. 100 Units.

This course will explore the intersection between theological symbols (doctrines) of creation and human creatures. How are macrocosm and microcosm drawn into theological reflection and construction? How have human and other living creatures and nature served as reference points, exemplars, even counter examples for interpreting divine creation and the enhancement (or diminishment) of life? Explorations will include traditional theological themes of human creatures as the imago Dei and of nature as a mirror of God's providence and majesty, as well as philosophical and literary texts on human and animal nature, the moral sense of nature, and cultivation and devastation.

Instructor(s): Kristine Culp     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24806, CHSS 44806

THEO 44900. Martin Buber's I and Thou. 100 Units.

Martin Buber's I and Thou. An analysis of the foundational text of Buber's philosophy of dialogue and religion.The close reading - explication de texte -- will supplement by reference to Buber's lectures "Religion as Presence" and "Zwiesprache" (Dialogue).

Instructor(s): Paul Mendes-Flohr     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 44900

THEO 44901. Technology and Ethics. 100 Units.

This is a research seminar and the theme of Technology and Ethics. Special focus will be on issues surrounding Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Communication Technology, and Artificial Intelligence. Requirements include a seminar paper.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Previous work in ethics or theology
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 44900

THEO 44902. Political Theology. 100 Units.

This course explores the rise of Political Theology from the work of Carl Schmitt and others around World War II through to current philosophical and theological positions seeking a different relation between religion and politics.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 44902

THEO 44920. Platonic Theologies. 100 Units.

This course will examine the platonic theologies of Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, and Robert Adams, with an eye to answering questions such as the following: what qualifies a theology as 'platonic'? What is the role of contemplation in such theologies? How do they approach metaphysics, ethics, and politics?

Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 44920, RLST 24920

THEO 45300. Mid-Century Modernist Theology. 100 Units.

Borrowing the term "modernist" from art critics and historians, this seminar aims to explore the interpretive, dialogical, and constructive "art" of classic theological works from the mid-twentieth century. For example, Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited, Paul Tillich's The Courage to Be, and H. Richard Niebuhr's Radical Monotheism and Western Culture are accessible to a first reading and yet generative of complex interactions and multiple readings. How do these works critically engage myth and symbol? How do they express theological ideas and religious sensibilities-might they even be interpreted as "abstract expressionist" works? How are transformative dialogues created between theology and concrete life and between the work and its readers? David Tracy's notion of the classic, Meyer Schapiro's essay on "The Liberating Quality of Avant-Garde Art," and Charles Long's discussion of the opacity vs. the transparency of reality are among critical perspectives to be engaged. Additional possible readings include works by Baldwin, Buber, Bultmann, Cone, Day, Deloria, Merton, R. Niebuhr.

Instructor(s): Kristine Culp     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.

THEO 45401. A Scandal for Gentiles and Jews. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 45401, HIST 66601

THEO 45505. Heidegger: Religion, Politics, Writing. 100 Units.

Religion, Politics, Writing: three concepts that are relatively marginal in Martin Heidegger's philosophy, but which converge in strange and unexpected ways to play a central role during the most controversial period of his career, from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. In this course we will explore this convergence in key texts during this period, paying particular attention to the Black Notebooks. We will consider Heidegger's interpretations of figures such as Plato, Nietzsche, and Hölderlin. And while exploring crucial themes during this period - e.g. Being as Event, the critique of technology, the flight of the gods - we will also consider the effect that various writing practices (e.g. notebook entries, esoteric treatises, seminar and lecture protocols, dialogues, published essays, poetry) have on their meaning.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25505, DVPR 45505, FNDL 23006

THEO 45570. Three Medieval Women: Fate and Voice in Heloise, Hildegard, and Hadewijch. 100 Units.

The current interest in the theological voice of medieval women is largely concentrated on the contribution of the beguines, their thought often uncovered with the aid of contemporary philosophy. What we learn from beguine scholarship also reflects back on the contribution of earlier medieval women, which may affect our view of them, even as how we read these earlier texts can likewise aid us in how we contextualize and think about the beguines. This course focuses on the fate of three medieval women in the 12th and 13th century: Heloise, Hildegard of Bingen, and Hadewijch of Brabant. The attempt to listen to their voice allows us to develop a new and richer perspective on the purpose of the ascetic life, the goal of exegesis, and the power of poetry.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course is open to undergraduates with permission of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 42303, HCHR 45570

THEO 45590. Memory, Identity, and Religion. 100 Units.

This course will consider recent scientific and philosophical work on memory and its relation to personal identity, and then use this work to think about religious approaches to memory (and vice versa).

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25590, DVPR 45590

THEO 45605. Readings in Systematic Theology. 100 Units.

TBD

THEO 45800. Black Ownership of Wealth: A Theological Consideration. 100 Units.

Since Africans were brought to the Virginia Colony (August 1619), throughout slavery and segregation until today, black Americans (men and women) have always owned wealth. They have always had human agency. These black families accumulated wealth and offered a concurrent narrative and framing from the mainstream understanding of black Americans as victims. Who are these black families who remain mainly invisible from the dominant black story? What is material, financial wealth? Who has it? And how did they get it?

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CRES 23211, AMER 25800, RLST 25800

THEO 45900. Understanding Oneself as Anothers: The Hermeneutics and Ethics of Paul Ricoeur. 100 Units.

What is the relation, if any, between moral goodness and human acts of meaning-making? How does understanding relate to the quest for justice? How is one to understand ambiguous meanings and actions? More fundamentally, what does it mean to be a self? And how are moral agents related to each other? Is our relation to others so basic that we are, through and through, moral beings or is morality a social construction or are both positions necessary? These questions, and others as well, are hermeneutical ones, that is, questions about the character of human understanding through interpretation. They are also ethical questions about the meaning of being human, our relations to others, and matters of what is good, right, and just. Little wonder that the relation of hermeneutics to ethics has been important in the history of thought and continues to be in our own age of threats to humanity and human endangerment of the global environment. This seminar will examine the hermeneutical theory and ethics of the French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, by reading central works but with special focus on his Gifford Lectures, Oneself as Another. Ricoeur (1913-2005) was one of the major hermeneutical and phenomenological thinkers of the 20th century who central focus on human beings as willing agents profoundly related to others.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 45900

THEO 46006. Approaches to Suffering: Theological Perspectives and Contemporary Meditations. 100 Units.

Framed by a consideration of Susan Sontag on the representation of suffering, Elaine Scarry on The Body in Pain, and Judith Butler on grievable life, this seminar will seek to extend and enrich such contemporary meditations through conversation with varied theological approaches to suffering. One thesis of the course is that theodicy need not be viewed as the chief theological approach to suffering. Through close reading of selected works, we will consider interpretive frames such as creation and providence, wounding and healing, and crucifixion and resurrection, together with religious responses such as introspection, contemplation, mourning, witness, and resistance.

Instructor(s): Kristine Culp     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to undergraduates with permission of the instructor.

THEO 46150. Heidegger and the Poets. 100 Units.

An investigation of the role(s) that poetry plays in Martin Heidegger's thinking. We will begin by focusing our attention on Heidegger's reading of the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin. We will then consider his interpretations of figures such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Stefan Georg, and Georg Trakl. We shall conclude by examining poetic responses to Heideggerian thought by figures such as René Char and Paul Celan, among others.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne and Eric Santner     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 46150, CMLT 46150, GRMN 46150

THEO 46705. Suffering and the History of the Interpretation of Job. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 46705

THEO 46900. Reinhold Niebuhr: Theo/Ethics. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23703, RETH 46100, FNDL 22200

THEO 47012. Readings in Rabbinic Midrash: Theology and Homily in Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana. 100 Units.

The Midrash Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana (4-5th cent. CE) is a classic collection of homilies on the Jewish holiday cycle, integrating earlier exegesis and sources. The course will examine several major homiletic units to understand the interplay of theology, homily, and hermeneutics. Opening classes will provide and introduction to Midrash; subsequent sessions will focus on learning how to read and interpret a classic rabbinic homiletical work.

Instructor(s): Michael Fishbane     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Basic proficiency in Rabbinic Hebrew (translation will be supplemented).
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): HIJD 47012, BIBL 47012

THEO 47200. Barth's Church Dogmatics. 100 Units.

This course will consider several of the most important sections of Barth's magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics.

Instructor(s): K. Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn

THEO 47717. Seminar: Augustine Confessions. 100 Units.

This seminar is based an in-depth reading of the Confessions, with use of the Latin text. Topics to be covered will be determined by consensus during the first week, but they may include the genesis of the work in relation to Augustine's life and literary oeuvre (e.g. vis-à-vis the partly contemporary De Doctrina and De Trinitate); its structure (including the relationship between books I-X and XI-XIII) and narrative technique; its meditative versus dialogical character; Augustine's representation of the self and his method of Biblical exegesis; Manichean and Neoplatonic influences; and ancient (Pelagius) and postmodern readings of the Confessions (Lyotard, Marion). Once-weekly meetings will consist of discussions, lectures, and reports.

Equivalent Course(s): HREL 47717, HCHR 47717, HIST 64301, CLAS 47717

THEO 48701. Late Medieval Women: Sanctity, Gender, Authorship and Authority. 100 Units.

The position of women in the late Middle Ages is often found connected to the problem of female authorship. Initially, female authorship was treated emphatically if not exclusively in the context of vernacular theology, which was seen as complementing and complicating the more traditional division of medieval intellectual texts into monastic and scholastic theology. Furthermore, the consistent focus on the emancipatory power of female authorship led to a situation whereby texts written by women were put in stark opposition to texts written by male authors on women; as a result, gender became the dominant category of interpreting texts written by late medieval women. This course will focus on the position of late medieval women especially, most if not all of them authors, while some others are known to have been in conversation with male confessors. The seminar aims to analyze the remarkable religious and theological texts written by them and about them. In the process we will also analyze some paradigmatic titles related to modern historiographical and theoretical scholarship both to draw on them and to show how the approach to late medieval women authors and women saints has changed over the last decades, most recently because of the interest in nonbinary gender.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Undergraduates may petition to enroll. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 48701, HIST 60909, HCHR 48700

THEO 49401. The Theology of the Late Augustine I. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 49401

THEO 49701. The Theological Ethics of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth. 100 Units.

This course is organized to explore methodological and substantive issues in theological ethics through examining the thought of two giants in Christian theology and ethics: Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth. The method of this course is critical, analytic, and comparative rather than historical. Several basic questions will orient our work. Consider a few: What is the conception of "theology" and "ethics" in these Christian thinkers and how are these related? What are the source of authority and the criteria of judgment in both theological and ethical argument? How do theological ethical arguments relate to philosophical ones and with respect to what sources and criteria? Do theological-ethical positions fit standard distinctions within moral philosophy? How are various sources-Christian and non-Christian-used within theological and ethical arguments? How do theological claims about God's relation to the world, sin, redemption, creation, love, and Christ relate to the ethical outlook of each theologian? What are the view of persons as moral beings and also societies and communities in these positions? How are judgments about specific moral questions developed, argued, and validated?

Equivalent Course(s): RETH 49700

THEO 49902. Love as a Philosophic Question. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 49300

THEO 50000. Theological Criticism: Creation and Gender. 100 Units.

The seminar on theological criticism aims to explore the problem of how constructive theology can best make use of historical sources and do so in responsible fashion. While simply adhering to one's confessional tradition yields uncritical positions, an eclectic attitude towards historical sources may not be a wise alternative. Without forcing theologians to become historians, this seminar deals with the larger issue of how to select and use one's source material in such a way that the historical work is methodologically sound and the theological end product accessible and informative, while remaining properly constructive. The seminar starts with the use of premodern sources but other, later sources will also be brought to the discussion. As the seminar is in large part student-driven, students are invited to bring in sources of their choice to the table as well. This year's theological critical focus will be on gender and creation and is loosely structured around Otten's Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 66004, GNSE 50000, HCHR 50000

THEO 50112. Deconstruction and Religion. 100 Units.

In this seminar we will carefully consider selected works by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. We will address the emergence of religious themes in his early work and reconsider the relation between deconstruction and theology as divergent modes of discourse. We will then examine the roles of messianism, belief, and confession in his later work.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23112, DVPR 50112, FNDL 25306

THEO 50115. Seminar on the Black Notebooks: Heidegger & the Problem of Evil. 100 Units.

TBD

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 50115

THEO 50211. Between Theology and Sociology: Ernest Troeltsch, H. Richard Niebuhr, Paul Tillich. 100 Units.

In the history of the scientific study of religion we find intense processes of mutual exchange between sociology and theology. They go far beyond a mere use of the other discipline as a source of information about society or religion. This course deals with three of the most important figures in this intellectual history: Ernest Troeltsch, whose epochal achievements have become overshadowed by the writings of his friend and rival Max Weber; H. Richard Niebuhr, the often neglected younger brother of the famous Reinhold, who, after having written a dissertation on Troeltsch, developed his crucial contributions on American religion and the tensions between "Christ and Culture"; and Paul Tillich who connected German and American intellectual traditions and became one of the most influential theologians ever including his role as inspiration for the lifework of the sociologist Robert Bellah.

Instructor(s): Hans Joas     Terms Offered: Autumn. Not offered 21-22.
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 50107, SCTH 50211

THEO 50701. Will, Life, Value. 100 Units.

With advances in genetics and technology as well environmental endangerments, the claim living beings make upon human responsibility has been a dominate theme in modern Western philosophical and theological ethics. Some thinkers have turned to non-Western modes of thought to address this topic or sought to reclaim ancient conceptions against modern ethics. This seminar moves through levels of reflection, ranging from what defines "life" through the relation between human existence and other creatures, to, finally, the theological question of the significance of life raised within the compass of ethical reflection. The seminar starts with Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, and so a debate within Lebensphilosophie. Next, we will consider 20th century thinkers, specifically Hans Jonas' philosophical biology and theory of responsibility, Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of will and attestation, and Iris Murdoch's account of the good as ways which challenge the modern emphasis on the power of will. The course concludes with reflection on the importance of claims about human nature and our relation to other animals (Midgley), ethical naturalism (Foot) and future generations (Habermas). The seminar, accordingly, explores the range of positions on this topic, debates about founding attributes towards life (reverence, resignation, attestation, etc.,), and to trace the significance of claims about the divine and moral responsibility.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 50701

THEO 50800. God And Morality. 100 Units.

Currently the world's religions are having profound impact on social, cultural, and political realities around the world. From questions in genetics to global conflict, sexuality to the reality of death, the religious have global moral significance. This seminar addresses a basic question within this current reality, namely, what is and ought to be the connection between religious beliefs about the divine and the domain of moral value and right. The seminar addresses a range of contemporary answers to this question mindful of the history of the question, reaching the West at least back to Socrates, and also different religious and philosophical traditions.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads ONLY by Petition.
Equivalent Course(s): RETH 50800

THEO 51400. Augustine "On the Trinity" 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 53410

THEO 51510. Idolatry: Historical and Modern Perspectives. 100 Units.

This seminar examines the concept of idolatry as formulated in the Reformation disputes. We will analyze the way idolatry was understood by Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. We will also look at the occurrences of iconoclasm and religious violence in the 16th century; at the development of the concept of the modern ideas of idolatry, partly as a legacy of Francis Bacon; and at the view of idolatry in Karl Barth, Jacques Ellul and Nicholas Lash.

Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 51510

THEO 51610. Logos, Reason and Philosophy According to Tertullian. 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): J. Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 53146, DVPR 51610

THEO 51611. Reading of Saint Augustine's The City of God as an Apology. 100 Units.

The particular characteristics and special concern of this special book, compared to the rest of Augustine's production, can well, if not only be explained by referring the whole De Civitate Dei to the tradition of the "Apology for the Christians", initiated by (among some few others) Justin in Rome, and rehearsed a century later by Tertullian in Africa. Bibliography -De Civitate Dei, ed. B. Dombart (either in Teubner, or in "Corpus Christianorum -Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, trans. H. Benttenson, Penguin Books, 1972. -J.-L. Marion, In the Self's Place. The approach of saint Augustine, trans. J.L. Kosky, Stanford University Press, 2012 (Au lieu de soi. Approche de saint Augustin, Paris, PUF, 2008)

Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 51611

THEO 51703. Theological Criticism: Christology. 100 Units.

The seminar on theological criticism aims to explore the problem of how constructive theology can best make use of historical sources and do so in responsible fashion. While simply adhering to one's confessional tradition yields uncritical positions, an eclectic attitude towards historical sources may not be a wise alternative. Without forcing theologians to become historians, this seminar deals with the larger issue of how to select and use one's source material in such a way that the historical work is methodologically sound and the theological end product accessible and informative, while remaining properly constructive. The seminar concentrates especially but not exclusively on the use of premodern sources but other, later sources will also be brought to the discussion. As the seminar is in large part student-driven, students are invited to bring in sources of their choice to the table as well. This year's theological critical focus will be on Christology and is loosely structured around Kathryn Tanner's Christ the Key. Authors to be included are Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Aquinas, Eckhart, Calvin, Schleiermacher, Barth, Rahner.

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 66003, HCHR 51703

THEO 52555. Narrating the Law: Levinas and the Talmud. 100 Units.

This is a seminar that will closely read the Jewish writings of Emmanuel Levinas, in particular, the talmudic exegesis that he undertook for the French Jewish Community in the 1990s. Levinas explicates his ethical theories via the recovery of a series of texts from the Babylonian Talmud, the classic text of Jewish law, literature, and theo-philosophic interpretation.

Equivalent Course(s): RETH 52555, HIJD 52555

THEO 53309. Saint Augustine: Apology and Eschatology, The City of God. 100 Units.

The City of God, although central to the theology of St. Augustine, does not seem, in his style and themes, exactly on line with his other greatest works. This can be explained if we read it as a follow up of the former attempts to perform theology as an apology - according to Justin and Tertullian (among others). In that view, one can understand better why and how St. Augustine has addressed political and historical as well as spiritual and biblical issues - they all focus on explaining how time (and times) should be understood from the view point of the eternity of God, which means eschatology.

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Recommended reading: The City of God, trans. H. Bettenson, Penguin, 2003. De Civitate Dei, eds. G.E. McCracken et al, Loeb, 7 Volumes <these volumes are available online via Hathi Trust at Regenstein Library>
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 53309

THEO 53310. Questions about the Conception of Revelation. 100 Units.

Although the concept of Revelation is widely admitted as central, most of all in the biblical tradition, it remained unexplained, if not absent, in the first centuries of Christian theology. And, its more recent establishment in dogmatic theology comes mostly from the philosophical polemic of the Enlightenment. A more precise concept of Revelation could be worked out by using categories borrowed from phenomenology and applying them to the most relevant testimonies of Revelation in some biblical texts.

Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 53310

THEO 53315. Elements for a Theological Concept of Revelation. 100 Units.

See Divinity website for a complete course description

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 53315

THEO 53990. Renunciation: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Approaches. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 53990

THEO 53991. Religion and Psychoanalysis. 100 Units.

Freud postulated that many cultural activities with no apparent connection to sexuality, including religious practice and belief, have their origin in the sexual instincts. Sublimation, which describes the process by which the sexual instincts are diverted to nonsexual aims or objects, plays a crucial role in Freudian metapsychology. And yet Freud never managed to articulate a coherent account of this process, and thus he failed to provide a concept of sublimation as such. In this class we will study the role of sublimation in Freudian metapsychology with specific reference to the theme of religiosity. In examining how sublimation is taken up by others (e.g. Klein, Lacan) we will also consider whether this concept affords a novel understanding of religion.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 53991, DVPR 53991, CHSS 53991

THEO 54300. Logos, Reason & Philosophy According to Justin and Other Apologists. 100 Units.

TBD

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 53415, DVPR 54300

THEO 57900. Brauer Seminar: Theology of Nature and Nature of Theology. 100 Units.

This Brauer seminar will explore historical, ethical, legal and theological conceptions of "nature" and extrapolating from these reflect on the "nature of theological reflection" and so connect the various meanings of the seminar's title. The question of nature-human and non-human-is hotly debated today. This is true in the face of the global environmental crisis but no less so in important matters brought before the Supreme Court, which might lead to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or the undoing of same-sex marriage and are often grounded in appeals to "nature" and the natural. The topic has occupied thinkers throughout Western history ranging from natural law ethics, moral naturalism, definitions of the existence and essence of God and, for Christians, the "nature", i.e., hypostatic union of the Christ, questions about creation and the natural order, and the possibility and task of natural theology. Even current questions about transhumanism and posthumanism find historical forerunners in ideas about theosis or divinization of human nature as well as in debates about resurrection and the possibility of mystical self-transcendence. Each of these topics implies something about nature and also about the nature and task of theological thinking. The seminar will explore these matters with a focus on and shifting understanding of human and divine nature, sustained throughout by a deep interest in the question of "natural religion," "natural law," and "natural theology."

Instructor(s): Willemien Otten and William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Course admission is based on application.
Note(s): There is a stipend for admitted students. More information about Brauer Seminar classes can be found here: https://divinity.uchicago.edu/martin-marty-center/brauer-seminar. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 56903, HCHR 57900, RETH 57900

THEO 58804. Seminar: Dissertation Methodology. 100 Units.

A two-week seminar on the methodology of advanced research and writing for Ph.D. students in the dissertation stage of their program. Each student will present a selection from their current work, with special additional discussion focused on the concept of revelation related to their dissertation topics, followed by a response from Prof. Marion and a discussion-format critique. The presentations will be reserved primarily for students in ABD status. Those not yet dissertating but in the final stage of their qualifying exams and proposal submissions are encouraged to engage in the discussion portion of the seminar

Instructor(s): Jean-Luc Marion     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): The seminar will be scheduled over 2-3 hour sessions each week from January 24 to February 2, 2017. Some sessions may be evening or weekend hours to accommodate all participants. Enrollment by application to Dean Owens.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 58804

THEO 70000. Advanced Study: Theology. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Theology