Department of Religion | Spring 2010 Course Atlas

This is a TENTATIVE listing of courses to be offered by Department of Religion in Spring. Please check OPUS for confirmation of information. You may also check the College's course atlas site.

Bobbi Patterson, Dianne Diakité, Mo 2:00PM -3:40PM & We 2:00PM - 2:50PM, White Hall 103, Max: 50 (25 reserved for freshmen), HAP

Content: This course will introduce African Religions and Buddhism using approaches within the academic study of religion. We will begin historically and culturally with the origins and early development of each tradition/orientation, comparing narratives about founding communities and persons as well as grounding mythologies and customs with emphasis upon the transition from local to regional and transnational traditions. Examining how each tradition/orientation views the human condition, course materials will explore sources and obstacles to thriving and meaning-making as well as their understandings of suffering and purposeful life. Comparing particular religious practices from each context, we will explore why and how rituals, religious performances of sacred narratives and philosophies, and ethical decision-making shape ordinary and extra-ordinary life.

Our study of African religions examines the foundations of African thought, ethics, religious customs and practices via the indigenous religious traditions of select sub-Saharan African peoples, including the Yoruba, Fon, Mende and Kongo. We will also trace the appearance of these religious traditions as a transnational phenomenon that characterizes a central feature of African diasporic religions in the Caribbean and the Americas. In so doing, we will engage important theoretical and methodological issues that have emerged in the study of African and African diasporic religions.

Our study of Buddhism examines the cultural, historical, geographical, and religious contexts out of which Buddhism emerged. We will learn how initial teachings became institutionalized doctrines and practices regulated by identified religious leadership, and how and who resisted or inverted institutional norms. Contemporary comparisons of contemplative Buddhist teachings and practices with today’s practices will help us understand how ancient religious traditions reconstruct themselves to survive in new contexts and address religious needs.

Paul Courtright, TuTh 8:30AM - 9:45AM, Callaway Center S105, Max: 30 (15 reserved for freshmen), HAP

Content: The course will examine several major themes in Hindu and Christian religious traditions: ritual practices, moral values, pilgrimage sites, sacred stories, social and institutional formations, arts and architectures, and historical contacts between the two traditions in India and the United States. Assignments include comparative analysis of some of the themes noted above, visits to Hindu and Christian places of worship in the Atlanta area, and written responses to feature films that depict or express Hindu and Christian perspectives.

Deborah Lipstadt, Candler Library 212, MoWe 1:00PM - 2:30PM and film screenings Tu 6:00PM - 8:00PM, (same as JS 190-000), Max: 15 (7 REL/8 JS), FSEM

Content: This seminar will examine a series of documentaries, propaganda films, and feature productions about the Holocaust. We will determine how true the filmmaker is to historical evidence and their “purpose” in making the film. Among the films we will analyze are Triumph des Willens/Triumph of the Will (1934), Jud Suss (1940), Diary of Anne Frank (1959), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), The Garden of Finzi-Continis (1971), Visitor from the Living (1997), Schindler’s List (1993), Downfall (2004), The Reader (2009) and Inglourious Basterds (2009).

Particulars: Please reserve Tuesday evenings, 6:00-8:00 pm for screenings. Most will be about two hours but on occasion they will run longer.

Content: In recent years, various Buddhist meditation practices that fall under the rubric of “mindfulness” have been adapted for use in clinical settings, and research suggests that these practices can yield significant health benefits. Yet the mechanism of any such benefit remains a mystery, and the capacity to explore that mystery rests on a dialogue between Buddhism and science that is at times tenuous. In this course we will explore the notion of “mindfulness” from a traditional Buddhist perspective and then examine its transformation in contemporary psychotherapy. We will examine some central features of scientific research on the concept, and we will ask how that research reveals something about our notions of both “science” and “religion.”

Content: The course will equip students to analyze major religious trends in America from colonization to the present. An angle of inquiry will be to examine how Americans have seen themselves as interacting with supernatural agents as part of historical change. We’ll explore this angle in a number of areas, including Native American traditions, Puritanism, Transcendentalism, social Darwinism, the Women’s Movement, immigration and assimilation challenges, Civil Rights and the Religious Right. Our chief method of analyzing beliefs and imagery will be close readings of primary texts.

Grading: Class attendance and participation; mid-term; final; and short paper.

Content: This course is a writing intensive seminar that takes as its focus the Buddhist narrative literature of South Asia. Our goal is to engage in a sustained encounter with the many worlds of this literature. These worlds include the worlds behind the texts (the historical and cultural settings in which the narratives were produced); the worlds inside the texts (the worlds envisioned or created by the narratives themselves); and the worlds before the texts (the audiences for whom the narratives have been, could have been, and may still be meaningful). Such worlds can be explored for any text, and we will also ask and think about the worlds of the student papers produced in this course.

The methods we will use to penetrate the worlds of Buddhist narrative literature include reading, thinking, discussing, and writing. Since this is a writing intensive course, it is natural that we will place a lot of our attention on writing as a form of inquiry and expression. At the same time, this course is just as much about becoming a more accomplished reader as it is about becoming a better writer. Likewise, the course is also about learning how to think more clearly about what we read, as well as how to hone our ideas through discussion with colleagues. Deep and nuanced understanding of literary texts requires the development of all four of these skills: writing is simply the most public face of a much larger intellectual process of inquiry, discovery, and communication.

Particulars: Apart from a small number of lectures (marked in the syllabus), this course will be conducted as a seminar. Starting in late January, we will have a number of student led sessions. Exploring and communicating your ideas with colleagues is an important part of the learning experience. Writing is also central to the course, and there will be frequent short writing assignments. A longer term paper project, which you will have a chance to revise, is also an important part of the course. Please note that this is a course on South Asian Buddhist narrative texts. It is not a survey course or an introduction to Buddhism. Students interested in such overviews may choose from a number of courses offered through the Religion Department and the Asian Studies Program. Previous study of Buddhism is helpful but not required.

David Blumenthal, Mo 2:00PM - 3:40PM and We 2:00PM - 2:50PM, Candler Library 121, same as JS 210R-000, Max: 18 (9/9), HAP

Content: The Genesis story is arguably one of the most important stories in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition. It is the story of creation, the Garden of Eden, and the fall of humanity. We will study the basic text carefully and then take a deep look at the rabbinic interpretations. The students will teach the rest of the semester as we study Genesis in Christianity and Islam, as well as in art, music, literature, and feminist revisionings.

Particulars: This is a reflection-intensive class. Very active class participation is expected plus one final paper.

Eric Reinders, MoWeFr 10:40AM - 11:30AM, Callaway Center S103, same as EAS 212-000, Max: 35 (20 REL/15 EAS), HAP

Content: This is an introduction to religious life in East Asia (mainly China and Japan). We will deal with the major religious traditions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shinto, Christianity), within the larger context of popular religious practices. Our themes will include: temples, sacred space, nature and the natural world, the miraculous, hermit culture and images of the holy man or woman. The course fulfills General Education Requirement HAP.

Texts: may include:

Assessment: Several short written pieces responding to the readings; a research paper or essay; attendance and participation; a creative project; two examinations.

Oded Borowski, TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM, Callaway Center S319, same as MESAS 251-000/JS 251-000, Max: 18 total all sections, HSCW

Content: The course deals with everyday life in ancient Israel (1200-586 BCE), including topics such as the economy, religion and cult, city planning, the Israelite kitchen, death and burial, status of women, war and peace, and more.

Particulars: Written weekly reports (35%), LearnLink communications (20%), final paper (35%), book review (10%). Graduate students will have additional assignments. This course fulfills the Minor in Mediterranean Archaeology.

Content: The course will examine the transformations of religion during the British colonial period, 1800-1947. This century and a half witnessed important continuities in India’s religious traditions, the emergence of “new religions,” inter-religious encounters, and the complex interplay between religious traditions and nationalist aspirations. The course will focus on Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian traditions, broadly defined. Readings will be drawn from primary sources, historical analyses, and visual media.

Content: In the northern plains of India some 2,500 years ago, a young prince left his royal home to seek awakening… or so the story goes. The traditions that descend from that young man agree largely on that story and the foundational theories and practices that descend from their Teacher. They will agree, for example, that “All compounded things are impermanent; All contaminated things have the nature of suffering; All things are selfless; Nirvā ṇ̣a is peace.” We will focus on these sorts of agreements and learn how they are meant to be reflected in practice aimed at personal transformation.

Michael Berger, TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM, Callaway Center S103, same as JS 309-000, Max: 18 (9/9) HSC

Content: Over the last 200 years, Jews and Judaism have undergone tumultuous changes politically, socially, religiously, culturally, and of course demographically. In this course, we will examine the reasons for these changes, explore the emergence of denominations in Judaism, analyze differences between American and Israeli Judaism, and highlight recent trends.

Jack Zupko, TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM, White Hall 102, Max: 30, HSCW

Content: “Modern Catholicism” is a question—and some would say a contradiction. Can the Roman Catholic Church be or become modern while remaining itself? Using a variety of sources and approaches, we will pursue this question through both enduring Catholic practices and current topics of discussion such as church authority, religious life, the role of women, sexual ethics, and Catholic ‘identity’ in the modern world.

Particulars: You will be expected to read the assigned texts carefully and to discuss them constructively; there will be a brief reading quiz prior to our discussion of each book. You will also be asked to write two short interpretive exercises (of about five pages each) and a final paper (of about fifteen pages) in two drafts. There will be no examinations.

Richard Martin, Mo 6:00PM - 8:45PM, Candler Library 101, same as MESAS 317-000, Max: NOTE we are increasing to 30 (15/15), HSC

Content: This course continues REL 316 "Early and Medieval Islam" (not a prerequisite). The first phase of the course is the history of Islamic civilization from the fall of the Abbasid Empire in 1258 to the modern period. Next the course takes up the problem of modernity and the West, and Islamic responses, such as Fundamentalism, Modernism, Secularism, and Islamic Feminism. The final phase will focus on postmodern developments in Islam, including modern Islamic theology, law and ethics, the internet, globalization, the impact of the Gulf War and 9/11, and growth of social movements, such as Salafi/Wahhabi, and Progressive Muslim identities.

Texts: Will include a standard textbook on modern Islam plus selected texts on e-Reserves.

Particulars: Each week will be divided roughly between lectures with discussion and student presentations. Students will be asked to write brief responses to the readings before class as a basis for discussion. Grades will be based primarily on a midterm exam and a final paper. No prerequisites.

Dianne Diakite´, Mo 5:00PM - 6:40PM and We 5:00PM - 5:50PM, Candler Library 123, same as AAS 320-000, Max: 18 (9/9), HSCW

Content: This course will engage students in a cross-disciplinary study of African religious cultures in the Americas and the Caribbean. By reading a variety of materials we will interrogate a diverse range of traditions as well as the conceptual frameworks and methodologies scholars employ to explain and interpret the appearance and legacies of African religious cultures in the Western Hemisphere as a result of the transatlantic slave trade and other transnational arrangements over the past five centuries. Traditions and regions covered include: Candomblé (Brazil); Winti (Suriname); Vodun (Haiti & USA); Santería (Cuba & USA); Kumina and Rastafari (Jamaica); Spiritual Baptists (Trinidad & Canada); Obeah/Obia (Jamaica and Suriname); and Conjure (USA). Beyond deriving a foundational understanding of the beliefs and practices associated with each tradition, we will consider some of the enduring themes invigorating the study of ARCs in the African diaspora. The following motifs are most relevant to our exploration:

(3) Shades of distinction between, and convergence of, religion and culture, the sacred and the secular, and revelation and reason, along with the disciplinary influences upon scholarly documentation and analysis of these complex domains in ARCs

Assessment: 2 shorter papers that will contribute to a final term paper in line with WR guidelines

Pre-Requisites: None, however at least one course at the 100 or 200 course level in Religion, African American, Latin American or Caribbean Studies is preferred.

Content: The body may be considered a site of conflict, an object of control and self-control, and the source of meaning. We examine selected issues related to the body in traditional Chinese and Japanese cultures, such as yin-yang theory, medicine, sex, diet, meditation, martial arts, and hair. We will learn a set of Taiji (T’ai-chi), so that the cultural material will be in dialogue with a body practice. We will draw on certain themes of current theory on the body and practice, such as the idea of the body as a “produced” object, the notion of “habitus” as “embodied culture,” and the bodily basis of language. This is a Theory-Practice Learning course. The course fulfills General Education Requirement HAP.

Assessment: Given the nature of this class, active participation is essential; Also, short written responses to readings throughout the semester; a 10-page research paper; tests on the readings.

Content: This course examines the writings and traditions associated with one of the most influential and controversial figures in Christian history, the apostle Paul. Addressed to newly formed Christian communities, Paul's letters respond to a wide range of issues and questions about how to live true to one's religious faith in a diverse society. In exploring his letters, we will situate Paul within his first century context, paying special attention to his connections with Judaism and his posture toward the Greco-Roman social world. In addition, we will explore how this first-century letter writer continues to shape important cultural debates, especially those surrounding gender, sexuality and social class.

Particulars: Grades will be based upon active class participation, three quizzes and posting of analytical-interpretive exercises and two interpretive papers on LearnLink.

Vincent Cornell, TuTh 4:00-5:15PM, Emerson E101, (same as MESAS 370-004), Max: REL 3

Content: This course is an exploration of mysticism among Jews, Eastern Christians, and Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa in late antiquity and the medieval period. The concept of sainthood is discussed primarily as it relates to mystical doctrines and teachings. In other words, heroic aspects of sainthood such as the cult of martyrs will not be discussed. The Jewish portion of the course will focus on Merkavah and Heikhalot, the most prominent forms of Jewish mysticism in late antiquity and the early medieval period. These provided the foundations for later forms of Jewish mysticism such as Kabbalah. The Christian portion of the course will focus on mystics of the Orthodox and Nestorian traditions. The Muslim portion will focus primarily on Sufism, but will also include a discussion of Hermetic mysticism. Shared themes and interactions of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mystical traditions will be a major focus of the course.

Topics to be discussed will include: mysticism and sainthood as theoretical concepts; how to visualize the divine; angels, kerubim, and heavenly powers; the concept of miracles; the righteous sage; mysticism and spiritual disciplines; mystical visions of woman; and the concept of wisdom.

Content: This interdisciplinary course will analyze religious approaches to contemporary problems in medical ethics and environmental health. The course will focus on such issues as reproductive technologies and abortion, end-of-life care, infectious disease (e.g., swine flu), live organ donor transplants, gender re-assignment, and U.S. health care coverage.

We will be asking how contemporary bioethics draws upon ethical reasoning, scientific knowledge, and religious authority. For the spring semester, we will closely examine texts, both ancient and modern, that apply Jewish law to medical ethics. In turn, Jewish bioethics will be compared with Catholic moral theology and secular U.S. medical ethics and law. By investigating these specific approaches, we will think broadly about the intellectual force and cultural context of religious input into bioethical debates.

Assignments: Students will write throughout the semester and give each other feedback on assignments. In brief exercises, students will interpret primary and secondary sources, take into account social and political developments, and formulate arguments in practical ethics. The pivotal assignment for the course will be a seminar paper, which would typically advance a comparative, historical or analytical critique of Jewish and/or Catholic thought on bioethics. The paper must be submitted as a draft and then revised thoroughly for style and argumentation.

In addition to religious texts and other primary sources, the course will include articles or books by scholars of bioethics, such as:

Bernard Lafayette, We 3:00PM - 5:50PM, Room TBA, same as AAS 385-011, Max: 30 (20/10), HSC

Content: This course is designed to examine the conduct of select movements from the 20 th century nonviolence struggle and to draw from those movements lessons that can be applied to current problems on a global, national and community level. Students will learn how to analyze, synthesize, and to develop proposals for nonviolent solutions based on information gathered from the nonviolence literature and scriptures from various religions.

About the instructor: Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr., is Distinguished Senior Scholar-in-Residence at Candler School of Theology. The Rev. Dr. Lafayette, an ordained minister, is a long-time civil rights activist, organizer, and an authority on nonviolent social change. He co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, and he was a core leader of the civil rights movement in Nashville, TN, in 1960 and in Selma, AL, in 1965. He directed the Alabama Voter Registration Project in 1962, and he was appointed by Martin Luther King, Jr. to be national program administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and national coordinator of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.

Optional Practicum: Students will have the opportunity to engage in practical applications of these lessons in the optional one-hour practicum, REL 380R-00P.

Don Seeman, Mo 3:00PM - 5:50PM, Candler Library 101, same as JS 370-002, Max: 30 (15/15), HSC

Content: This seminar explores the nature of suffering that underlies the human condition and the different responses to suffering or evil that religious and cultural traditions have tried to offer. We will start by comparing classical Greek, Jewish and Buddhist texts that outline radically different approaches to a problem they all recognize, and then move on to consider literature from the Holocaust, ethnographic accounts of illness, suffering and healing in different cultures, and first-hand accounts of contemporary man-made and natural disasters, like the genocide in Rwanda, or the AIDS pandemic. How do human beings find healing or transcendence in the face of implacable fate, and how does our response to suffering stand at the very heart of different choices in contemporary politics, morality and religion? Should suffering be described as sickness or as evil, especially when it is man-made? We will be asking these and other “big questions” while also gaining familiarity with different research disciplines as well as different religious and cultural traditions. Students are requested to bring minds and hearts.

Note: This course is not recommended for students who took REL/JS 190: Freshman Seminar: "Suffering, Healing, Redemption."

REL 358R-001 - Religion and Healing: Tibetan Buddhist & Western Perspectives on the Mind-Body Connection

Content: This course aims at examining the fundamental principles underlying the processes of body-min connections from both Tibetan Buddhist and Western perspectives. We will focus on the role of emotions and stress in understanding various psychological and physical ailments, as well as the mind’s role in healing as explored in current Western research and Tibetan Buddhist contemplative and medical traditions. The course will explore the mind-body connection, illness and healing from the perspective of Tibetan Buddhism, examining historical context, rituals, practices and methods. We will also look at some current medical treatments that are drawn from this tradition, as well as recent developments in medicine that are shedding light on the interconnection of the mind and the body, demonstrating the ways that emotions can affect our health in positive and detrimental ways.

Don Seeman, Th 2:30PM - 5:30PM, Bowden Hall 118, same as FILM 373-002, Max: 20 (10/10), HSC

Content: Film is one of the major forms of representation of religion and faith in the world today. This new seminar approaches a variety of American and foreign films that deal with religious practice, faith, or the crisis of faith, to ask questions about how complex religious ideas or conflicts may be conveyed to a mass audience, what gets lost in the translation to cinema, and why certain form of religion are better or more easily represented than others. In today's world especially, how can film become a tool for coexistence or violent rejection and struggle? Students will be expected to think critically about the technical, aesthetic and moral dimensions of religious representation.

Deborah Lipstadt, Mo 3:00PM - 5:30PM, Candler Library 212, same as JS 370-001, Max: 15 (7 REL/8 JS), HSC

Content: In 1960 Israel captured Adolf Eichmann, a leading Nazi and one of those responsible for organizing various aspects of the Final Solution, and brought him to Israel to stand trial. The trial which lasted four months over 100 witnesses testified. This seminar will examine his capture, the world’s reaction, the structure of the trial, and its impact on our understanding, study, and commemoration of the Holocaust.

In addition we will examine Hannah Arendt’s reaction to the trial and the debate and controversy generated by her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Finally we will also look at David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt in order to compare and contrast how the history of the Holocaust intersects with the legal system.

Edward Queen II, TuTh 4:00PM - 5:15PM, Candler School of Theology_162, Max: 24, HSC

Content: This course will analyze the relationship between religions, human rights, and the construction of civil society/democracy throughout the world. It begins with an extended analysis of the idea of civil society and then moves to the question of how human rights are grounded and the role of religious traditions in the development of a human rights culture. The course also will examine the extent to which religious traditions are helpful or detrimental to recognizing human rights and developing a viable civil society. Additionally, it will analyze religion itself as a human right and how different legal regimes deal with individuals’ struggles to practice and teach religion.

Assessment: Regular attendance along with active and appropriate class participation count for 20% of the grade. The remaining 80% is distributed as follows two short reflection papers 25%, mid-term examin ation 30%, final examination or research paper 35%.

Robert Neil McCauley, TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM, Callaway Center C101, same as NBB 370-002, Max: 35 (20 REL/15 NBB), HSC

Content: This course will serve as an introduction to a new approach to the study of religion that has emerged over the past 20 years and that takes its inspiration from the cognitive sciences. Cognitive scientists of religion see their work as addressing various imbalances in religious studies, including, at the methodological level, favoring interpretation over explanation, and at the substantive level, favoring the idiographic over the recurrent, favoring experience and emotion over cognition, and favoring explicit conscious belief over implicit mental activity. The readings will include theoretical and methodological works that kick started this movement, a collection of empirical and experimental studies about religious cognition that it has inspired, and one of the most influential theoretical statements, to date, to have arisen from this school of thought.

Assessment: The evaluation of students' performance will turn on three factors: (1) 2 short papers (about 40%), (2) a longer paper (around 10 pages) due near the end of the semester (about 40%), and (3) participation (about 20%). Attendance is required.

Liyan Shen, MoWeFr 11:45AM - 12:35PM, Callaway Center N109, same as CHN 373-000 & EAS 374-000, Max: 18 all sections, HAPW

Content: For more than two thousand years, a small set of texts associated with Confucius (551-479 BC) and his disciples formed the core of the Chinese educational curriculum. As a store of knowledge shared by all educated men and women, the Confucian Classics shaped Chinese literati culture from late antiquity to the early 20th century. The goal of this survey course is to illustrate the diversity of the literary and cultural practices that evolved around this unique body of writings. The course is roughly divided into two parts. First, we will attempt to establish a framework for understanding the textual history and changing significance of the Classics throughout Chinese history. Drawing on a broad selection of primary sources (to be read in English translation), we will then examine how the canonized ideas were refracted in literary, philosophical, religious and political discourse.

Particulars: Knowledge of Chinese is NOT required. Grading: class participation, written assignments, exams, paper.

REL 380R-000 - Internship In Religion: Emory as Place: Living an Ethic of Sustainability

Bobbi Patterson, Tu 3:00PM - 3:50PM, Ignatius Few Seminar Room G22, (Credit given for ENVS students), NOTE: 2 credit hours only; Non-Majors Welcome, Max: 12 ** Permission only - contact Prof. Patterson

Content: This Spring’s Internship Course offers students a two-credit option to create an experiential learning program with field activities for first year students living in the New Sustainability-Themed Residence Halls (by McDonough Field).

Exploring what it means to live sustainably on campus and in our bioregion, students will examine topics including: water, power/electricity, biodiversity in the Piedmont (human, biotic, and abiotic), and recycling; histories and cultures at Emory; Emory’s ethical engagements for sustainability; how conceptions and experiences of this place teach us why sustainability matters. Discussing these topics through the academic study of sustainability, ethics, and religion, interns will create and implement small learning modules related to place and sustainability. These can include intellectual content, experience-based exercises, and service opportunities.

Bernard Lafayette, (This is an optional 1-credit practicum for REL 357R 000. Please contact the Religion Dept at 404 727-7596 for permission.)

Content: Students will consult with the instructor to design their own project in conjunction with the REL 357R-000 course. One possible option is for students to go on a tour of civil rights sites and write a paper. This option would require registering and paying a deposit by October 23 for the trip which will be Jan 7-10 (just prior to the semester’s start). Other possibilities include working with middle school students in the community on a project to teach students how to lend peer support to positively impact the dropout rate.

Devin Stewart, TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM, same as MESAS 414-000, Max: 20 total all sections, HSCW

Content: This course is a survey of Shiite Islam with emphasis on the Twelver or Imami tradition, examining how Shiism has shaped Islamic history in general. Topics covered will include historical conflicts over leadership of the community; the lives of the Imams; Islamic conceptions of religious authority, heresy, and orthodoxy; Shiite dynasties; Shiite scholarly traditions; and relations between Islamic minority groups and the majority. Prior knowledge of Islamic history is helpful but not required.

Sheila Teft, TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM, Callaway Center S108, same as JRNL 488-000, Max: 16 (8/8), WRT

Content: Religion frames many key issues in American public life. Journalists help us understand the debates and dimensions of religious change. In this writing-intensive course, students will explore Atlanta's religious landscape, report on the issues, critique news coverage and write blogs, news stories and feature articles.

REL 472-001 - Topics in Religion: Theologies of the Grotesque: Kierkegaard and Kafka

Jill Robbins, TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM, Tarbutton Hall, same as CPLT 490-000, Max: 18 (8 REL/10 CPLT), HAP

Content: This seminar focuses on the topic of the broken engagement in Kierkegaard and Kafka and its intertwining with theological questions. We will attend especially to Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and Repetition in relation to the history of biblical interpretation. We will read stories and journal entries by Kafka, The Trial and Parables and Paradoxes, and consider his rewriting of New Testament parable from the point of view of the unredeemed. Both authors will allow us to explore the way in which literary and religious texts pose questions within and to continental philosophy.

REL 472-002 - Topics in Religion: "Absence, Memory and Desire in Medieval and Renaissance Mystical Literature of the Spains" (“Ausencia, memoria y deseo en la literatura mística medieval y renacentista de las Españas")

Gloria Hernandez, MoWeFr 9:35AM - 10:25AM, New Psyc Bldg Room 225, same as SPAN 430-001, NOTE: Some proficiency reading and listening in Spanish is required. Course is in Spanish.

Content: This course will study a selection of the literary production of Sufi, Sephardic and Christian mystics of the Medieval and Early Modern Iberia. Authors studied will include Judah Halevi, Moses de Leon, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, Abufalia, Saint Therese of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross among others. Attention will be given to the ways in which these authors talk about their experiences of absence, their memories and their desire for the divine. Topics of debate will include the nature of mystical language, the particularities of historicity in the Iberian Peninsula and how they impact mystical literature, and the possibilities of comparison suggested by the texts.

Particulars: Discussions will be conducted mainly in Spanish. Texts will be available - whenever possible- in both Spanish and English. Students whose main area of study is not Spanish will have the option to complete their writing assignments in English.

REL 472-003 - Topics in Religion: Philosophy and Religion in Russia

Mikhail Epstein, TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM, Modern Language 330, same as RUSS 420, Max: 10 for REL, HAP

Content: Russian philosophical and religious thought is deeply rooted in the meditative practice of Eastern Christianity and at the same time is strongly influenced by the systems of Western rationalism. The typically Russian combination of philosophy and religion (or atheism) has produced social movements that crucially changed the history of the world, but their intellectual sources and potentials are insufficiently known to the West. This course explores the development of Russian religious and atheistic philosophy from 19th century debate between Slavophiles and Westernizers, idealists and nihilists through comprehensive philosophical systems of Solovyov and Berdyaev and Soviet "dialectical materialism" to Bakhtin's theory of dialogue. The latest trends of 1980s-2000s such as Cosmism, Culturology and postmodern Conceptualism are examined in the aspects of their Russian specificity and affinities with Western philosophy. No knowledge od Russian is required.

Texts:

Edie, James M. et al. (ed.) Russian Philosophy. [Anthology]. University of Tennessee Press. 1976, vv. 1, 3.
Schmemann, Alexander (ed). Ultimate Questions: An Anthology of Modern Russian Religious Thought. Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1977.
Additional readings assigned for this class are available on e-reserves (through Euclid)

Components of the final grade: attendance and participation, 40%; oral presentations, 20%; term paper, 40%.

REL 490-00P - Snr Symposium: Critique Of Religion: Insiders & Outsiders in the Study of Religion: Challenges for the 21st Century

Laurie Patton, Michael Berger, Tu 2:30PM - 5:30PM, Room TBA, WRT. For Religion Majors only. Permission required. Contact department at 404-727-7596.

Content: This capstone course will look at a central dilemma in the study of religion: the question of religious identity and insider/ outsider status.

What constitutes authentic knowledge of a religious tradition? Are insiders more privileged because they have “lived” the tradition from childhood? Are outsiders more privileged because they have “objective” knowledge of a tradition? What about those who are both scholars and practitioners, insiders and outsiders? What about scholars who have intellectual practices but not ritual practices within a tradition? What about those who see themselves as fellow travelers who are not necessarily “insiders”? What about those members of a tradition who do not wish to be studied? Or members of a tradition who do wish to be studied? How do we define authenticity in these cases?

All of these configurations of scholarly and religious identity, and many more, will be explored and discussed. We will begin by reading several collections of essays and monographs that address this topic. Students will work on a “case study” throughout the course that wrestles with this issue. They will be required to draw upon their knowledge base and their writing skills as religion majors at Emory to think through these questions. They will complete a major research paper on their case study by the end of the semester and present their findings to their fellow students in a research colloquium.