For the entire Religious Studies course catalog, and full course descriptions, please see Department of Religious Studies < Case Western Reserve University
RLGN/JWST 173: Introducing Judaism
Alanna Cooper – MW 12:45-2:00
Judaism – like all religions – structures the way its adherents view the world and inhabit it. In this course we will explore five aspects of the human experience and interrogate the ways in which the religion provides a framework for navigating each one. TIME: How is time marked and measured? SPACE: What sort of cultural work is done to create religious and cultural home/s? THE DIVINE: How might God be described and understood? And what is the nature of the relationship between the Divine and humanity? TEXTS: What are the Jewish sacred texts? When did they appear and who authored them? How are they read, studied and understood? COMMUNITY: What are the contours of the “Jewish Community” and how are boundaries drawn between who is “in” and who is “out”?
Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
RLGN 201: Interpreting Religion
Joy Bostic – TR 1:00 – 2:15
Introduction to academic study of religion, exploring the history and development of the field, important theories and methodologies, and current issues, debates, and horizons of research. This course provides students with the opportunity to approach the global study of religion from an interdisciplinary perspective. It pays particular attention to how religious studies has approached the study of non-Western cultures and religions and provides students with the opportunity to reflect on their own assumptions about “religion” as a category. This course also engages students around comparative questions in relation to religions in Asia and Africa, in order to develop critical, yet empathetic approaches to the comparison of global religions through key terms in religious studies such as ritual, belief, myth, and authority.
The course is foundational for majors and minors in religious studies but also open to other interested students who may find it valuable for their work in other fields of study. Particular readings and other assignments will be determined by the designated instructor. Students are expected to attend class regularly, complete readings and other assignments, and participate actively in class discussions and other activities.
Counts as a Disciplinary Communication course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
RLGN 212: Introduction to Christianity
Jonathan Tan – TR 10:00-11:15
This course introduces students to the emergence and historical developments of Christianity from its Jewish sectarian roots to a global religion, focusing on how the central doctrinal-theological and moral-ethical themes of the Christian tradition have emerged and developed in different ecclesial traditions of transnational Christianity — Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic and Mainline Protestant, Evangelical and Renewal. It explores how the forces of cultural diversity and pluralism, historic colonialism and imperialism, globalization and migration, as well as contemporary postcolonial and transnational consciousness shape and challenge the trajectory of the growth and spread, as well as the socio-political transformation of Christianity from its Mediterranean roots across the globe over two millennia. It discusses the broader socio-cultural, philosophical-theological, moral-ethical, and political dimensions emerging from the Christian tradition generally, as well as evaluates the themes of community building, identity formation and constructions, moral-ethical codes, and social movements within the different ecclesial traditions of Christianity, their contributions on ongoing theological conversations and moral-ethical debates, as well as their contemporary significance and long term global and transnational implications of Christianity as a global religion.
Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.
RLGN 218: Faith and Politics in Islam
Ramez Islambouli – R 4:00-6:30
An overview of the relationship between Islam as a religion and Islam as a political system and the effect of this relationship on Islamic society from its origin to the present time.
Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.
RLGN/PHIL 221: Indian Philosophy
Deepak Sarma- TR 1:00-2:15
We will survey the origins of Indian philosophical thought, with an emphasis on early Buddhist, Hindu and Jain literature. Our concern will be the methods, presuppositions, arguments, and goals of these schools and trajectories of thought. What were their theories on the nature of the person, the nature of reality, and the nature and process of knowing? What were the debates between the schools and the major points of controversy? And, most importantly, are the positions/arguments internally incoherent?
Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
RLGN/ETHS 246: Food, Culture, Ethics, and Religion
Jonathan Tan- T 4:00-6:30
This interdisciplinary seminar explores the complex intersecting relationships between food, culture and ethnicity, ethics and religion, as well as society and globalization. It introduces students to the symbolic, socio-cultural, political and economic, as well as moral-ethical roles that food plays in shaping how peoples in different cultures and societies across history and geography have defined themselves through their foodways. It critically analyzes the multiple intersecting relationships between food, ethnicity and culture, ethics and morality, as well as the transnational forces of globalization in shaping contemporary food systems, food production and consumption in an increasingly diverse and pluralistic contemporary US society shaped by forces of ongoing transnational migration. It explores how food choices and preferences both influence, as well as influenced by intersecting socio-cultural, as well as moral-ethical forces arising from constructions of ethnicity, gender, class, nationality and national origin, as well as religion and human spiritualities. It will use historical and contemporary food practices as a lens through which we can understand the ongoing processes of globalization, intersecting dynamics of power, socio-economic class, ethnic identity, as well as the implications of colonialism, industrialization, and globalization on food in human cultures and societies.
Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.
RLGN/JWST/ETHS/HSTY 286: Jews in the Modern World
Jay Geller – MWF 10:35-11:25
This course examines the social, economic, political, and cultural development of the Jews in the modern world from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. While particular emphasis will be on the Jews of Europe, we will examine the Jewish communities of the Middle East, pre-1948 Palestine, Israel, and the United States. Central themes of the course are the challenges to the traditional religious and social structures of pre-modern Jewry, migration, cultural innovation, and politicization.
Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
RLGN 287: South Asian Religions
Brian Clites- MW 12:45-2:00
This course is an introduction to the major religious traditions that arose in South Asia. We will thus examine the ideas and practices of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Parsis. We will look at ethnographies, primary sources, histories, and doctrines throughout the semester.
Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.
RLGN/ARTH 305/405: Embodied Religion and Mixed Reality
Alanna Cooper – M 3:30-6:00
If you play video games or enjoy immersive rides at Disney World, you have experienced extended reality (XR): immersive technologies that blend “real” and virtual worlds or create wholly virtual experiences. While these technologies have exploded onto the market in recent years, this blending of the real world with imagined, or virtual, worlds has been fundamental to sacred spaces since antiquity. This course explores this intersection between sacred space and extended reality. Through hands-on experience that combines art history, religious studies, and programming and digital modeling, students will confront the technological and interpretative challenges that structure the XR experiences they encounter in their daily lives. Working in teams, students will create XR models and reflect on the nature of religious experience, both past and present.
RLGN/WGST 380: Thinking Sex: Theorizing the Intersections of Religion, Gender, Sexuality, and Power
Brian Clites – TR 4:00-5:15
This course introduces women and men students to the methods and concepts of gender studies and feminist theory. An interdisciplinary course, it covers approaches used in literary criticism, history, philosophy, political science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, film studies, cultural studies, art history, and religion. It is the required introductory course for students taking the women’s and gender studies major.
Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.
RLGN 399: Major/Minor Seminar
Brian Clites – R 7:00-9:30
Capstone course primarily for majors and minors in religious studies. Allows students to interact with peers and faculty, reflect critically, and integrate their learning experiences. Prepares students to continue their learning in the discipline and in the liberal arts. Subject matter varies according to student and faculty needs and perspectives. May be repeated once for up to six credit hours.