The University of Chicago Divinity School

DVSC 30100

Introduction to Religion and the Human Sciences

Wedemeyer

M/W

10:00-11:20

S106

PQ: Open only to M.A./AMRS students

DVSC 42000

Divinity School: German Reading Exam

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

PQ: Open only to Divinity School students.

DVSC 45100

Reading Course: Special Topic

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

PQ: Petition with bibliography signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.

DVSC 49900

Exam Preparation

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

PQ: Open only to Ph.D. students in quarter of qualifying exams. Department Consent. Registration will be handled by the Dean of Students office. Petition signed by Advisor.

DVSC 50100

Research: Divinity

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

PQ: Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.

DVSC 59900

Thesis Work: Divinity

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

PQ: Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.

BIBL 30801

Jewish Thought and Literature: Intro to the Bible

Fishbane

T/TH

10:30-11:50

S106

BIBL 31100

Jewish History and Society-1: Ancient Israel

Schloen

T/TH

3:00-4:20

OI 208

Ident. NELC/JWSC 20001

BIBL 34000

Introduction to Biblical Hebrew 2

Knafl

M/W/F

8:00-8:50

S200

PQ: BIBL 33900

BIBL 35300

Intermediate Koine Greek 2

Thompson

M/W/F

8:00-8:50

S208

PQ: BIBL 35100
Ident. NTEC 35300

BIBL 40000

Song of Songs II: Midrash

Fishbane

T

1:30-4:20

S403

Ident. HIJD 40200/JWSG 33100

BIBL 43200

Colloquium: Ancient Christianity

Mitchell

F

1:30-4:20

S403

A critical reading of influential narratives—both ancient and modern—of “the rise of Christianity” in the first four centuries, in interaction with selected primary sources from antiquity illuminating crucial issues (e.g. demographics, conversion, persecution, martyrdom, asceticism, women’s participation, ecclesiological and ritual structures, intellectual lineages), personalities (e.g., Ignatius, Perpetua and Felicitas, Irenaeus, Antony, Eusebius, Constantine, Augustine) and events. On-going reflection on the nature of historiography itself.
PQ: Greek and Latin skills are not required, but opportunity for their use will be made. Permission of Instructor.
Ident. HCHR43200/NTEC 43200

BIBL 44900

Lecture: Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Klauck

M/W

9:00-11:00

S208

The letter to the Romans is certainly one of the most influential texts in the New Testament. Melanchthon for example called it a “compendium theologiae christianae,” a handbook of Christian theology. Unfortunately, he underestimated the importance of the historical context for the correct understanding of Romans. Important interpretative questions include: Why did Paul write to a community that he had not founded himself? What did he want to tell his addressees? Which genre or which type of letter did he adapt? In this course, we will try to reconstruct from chapter 1 and chapters 15-16 the situation of the letter. We will then read and explain some of the key passages, especially in chapters 1-8. This course will also serve as a road test for the new commentary on Romans by Robert Jewett.
PQ: No Greek necessary, but a special Greek reading will be offered (M/W, 10:20-11:00, S208).
Ident. NTEC 44900

BIBL 54100

Philo as a Jewish Historian

Klauck

M

1:00-3:50

S403

Philo of Alexandria is without dispute one of the most important first century C.D. for helping modern exegetes contextualize the early Christian movement. While his voluminous work has many facets, we will focus in this course on the few writings where Philo acts as an historiographer and ethnographer (i.e. Against Flaccus, On the Embassy to Gaius, Every Good Man is Free, and On the Contemplative Life). By close readings from sections of these works, we will learn about Roman-Jewish inter- actions in troubled times and enigmatic Jewish groups like the Essenes and the Therapeutai.
PQ: Good Greek skills.
Ident. NTEC 54100

THEO 40400

The Concept of “Religion” in Modern Theology

Hector

M

1:00-3:50

S201

In this course, we will examine the emergence and criticism of “religion” as an answer to questions about how humans can know God, how God is related to humans and the world, how religions are related to one another, and so on.

THEO 41701

The Problem of God-Talk

Hector

T/Th

1:00-2:20

S208

This course will (a) investigate some of the conceptual, metaphysical, and political problems facing any attempt to talk about God, and (b) consider proposed responses to these problems.

THEO 46801

Incarnation and the Body in the Latin West:
From Tertullian to Thomas Aquinas

Otten

T/Th

9:30-10:50

S201

Over the past decades Peter Brown’s work on the body (The Body and Society, 1988) has brought renewed attention to traditional Christian doctrines such as the incarnation. This course will analyze closely two central theological texts on the incarnation from the history of Christian thought, i.e., Tertullian’s De carne Christi (On The Flesh of Christ, late second century CE) and Anselm Canterbury’s Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man?, late eleventh century CE). It will first analyze them with regard to their proper historical and social-anthropological context, after which in a next step the structural effect of thinking about the body (cf. Brown) on the development of theology in the Latin West will be evaluated. Items for discussion are how to properly assess the interdependence of incarnation and resurrection in view of the fragility of the body, how to understand the embeddedness of incarnational thought in ascetical praxis; how to factor in the role of gender with special regard to the meaning of sin and evil. The course will end with an assessment of Aquinas’ incorporation of incarnational thought into scholastic teaching for thinking incarnationally.
Ident. HCHR 46801

DVPR 32400

Ramon Lull: Mysticism and Philosophy in
13th and 14th Century Catalonia.

Vega

T/Th

12:30-1:20

ARR

Ramon Lull (1232-1316) was a celebrated medieval philosopher, mystic and visionary who left behind more than 300 books written in Catalan, Latin and Arabic. He traveled throughout Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa to share his discovery of the “combinatory art”, a new language with parallels in Jewish mysticism and Sufism. Though widely mis- understood in Lull’s own day, these ideas would later find numerous admirers in Europe; from the philosophers of the Renaissance (such as Nicolas of Cusa, Giordano Bruno, Pico della Mirandola), to Athanasius Kircher and Leibniz, or to even more recent scholars who see Lull’s discovery as a forerunner of computer languages. This course will focus on a reading of his Autobiography (Vita coaetanea or Contemporary Life), written at the end of his life, and on the most important of his mystical and philosophic works.
Ident. CATA 22400/32400/RLST 24902

DVPR 38501

Identity Matters

Descombes

M

1:30-4:20

F505

‘Identity’ is obviously an important theme in the social sciences and in contemporary philosophy, but is there a coherent concept of identity at work in the current so- called ‘discourses about identity’? the aim of the course will be to try to make sense of this special notion of identity.
First, the notion of a ‘crisis of identity’ (Erik H. Erickson) will be traced back to two of its intellectual roots, namely the empiricist psychology of the self (William James) and the tradition of expressivism (as exemplified by the German ideas of ‘umwelt’ and ‘Bildung’). Then, the course will explore the metaphysical background of the concept of self-consciousness, drawing on the Fregean notion of a ‘criterion of identiy’ (as used first by Wittgenstein in his ‘philosophy of psychology’ and then by Elizabeth Anscombe in her paper on “The First Person”).
In a third step, we will spell out some consequences of these thoughts about criteria of identity for various issues of personal, existential and collective identity.
Ident. SCTH 38501

DVPR 46200

Whitehead: Metaphysics and Ethics

Gamwell

T/TH

1:30-2:50

S200

An introduction to Whitehead’s metaphysical system, with special attention to its implications for philosophy of religion and philosophical ethics.
Ident. RETH 46200

CHRM 30200

The Public Church and Its Ministry:
The Church in America

Gilpin

T/TH

1:00-2:20

S400

In order to explore the cultural context for ministry, this course will be organized as a workshop that analyzes different facets of a single question: “What is public theology?”
PQ: For entering students in the M.DIV. Program.

CHRM 30500

Colloquium: Introduction to Ministry Studies

Musselman

F

1:00-2:20

S200

This year-long integration seminar for first year M.DIV. students provides the opportunity to engage in the robust practical theological reflection that is at the heart of a life of ministry, and to offer patterns and models by which others have done so. Through deliberate and sustained conversation between experience, tradition, and culture, the course introduces students to the meaning of the study of ministry in the context of a university divinity school. Our interlocutors include classic texts, fellow classmates, guest faculty speakers, and ministry program alum Practitioners.
PQ: First year M.DIV. students Only.

CHRM 35600

Arts of Ministry: Preaching

Lindner

F

9:00-11:50

S400

Students will be invited to explore some of the historical, theological, pastoral and performative dimensions of the lively art of preaching, in order to begin to articulate and appropriate the significance of preaching for their current contexts. In addition, students will be encouraged to develop their authentic voices as preachers, with considerable attention given to disciplines for sermon preparation and performance, the practice of theology, exegesis, and the rhetorical arts, and the cultivation of the spiritual and intellectual life of the preacher.
PQ: Second-year M.DIV. students or permission of Instructor.

CHRM 40600

The Practice of Ministry I

Boyd

F

1:00-3:50

S400

PQ: Second-year M.DIV. students only.

HIJD 40200

Song of Songs II: Midrash

Fishbane

T

1:30-4:20

S403

Ident. BIBL 40000/JWSG 33100

HIJD 45901

“Religion as Presence”: Martin Buber’s Philosophy

Mendes-Flohr

T

3:00-5:50

S200

HIJD 47800

Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason

Mendes-Flohr

W

3:00-5:50

S200

The course will be devoted to a close reading of Cohen’s seminal revision of a Kantian religion of reason. We also will consider some critical responses by, e.g., Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Martin Buber and Ernst Cassirer.

HCHR 43200

Colloquium: Ancient Christianity

Mitchell

F

1:30-4:20

S403

A critical reading of influential narratives—both ancient and modern—of “the rise of Christianity” in the first four centuries, in interaction with selected primary sources from antiquity illuminating crucial issues (e.g. demographics, conversion, persecution, martyrdom, asceticism, women’s participation, ecclesiological and ritual structures, intellectual lineages), personalities (e.g., Ignatius, Perpetua and Felicitas, Irenaeus, Antony, Eusebius, Constantine, Augustine) and events. On-going reflection on the nature of historiography itself.
PQ: Greek and Latin skills are not required, but opportunity for their use will be made. Permission of Instructor.
Ident. BIBL 43200/NTEC 43200

HCHR 43600

Religion in Twentieth-Century America

Gilpin

W

1:30-4:20

S201

This course is a general history of religion in the United States from the 1920s to the present, organized around the changing relations of religion to American public life.

HCHR 46801

Incarnation and the Body in the Latin West:
From Tertullian to Thomas Aquinas

Otten

T/Th

9:30-10:50

S201

Over the past decades Peter Brown’s work on the body (The Body and Society, 1988) has brought renewed attention to traditional Christian doctrines such as the incarnation. This course will analyze closely two central theological texts on the incarnation from the history of Christian thought, i.e., Tertullian’s De carne Christi (On The Flesh of Christ, late second century CE) and Anselm Canterbury’s Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man?, late eleventh century CE). It will first analyze them with regard to their proper historical and social-anthropological context, after which in a next step the structural effect of thinking about the body (cf. Brown) on the development of theology in the Latin West will be evaluated. Items for discussion are how to properly assess the interdependence of incarnation and resurrection in view of the fragility of the body, how to understand the embeddedness of incarnational thought in ascetical praxis; how to factor in the role of gender with special regard to the meaning of sin and evil. The course will end with an assessment of Aquinas’ incorporation of incarnational thought into scholastic teaching for thinking incarnationally.
Ident. THEO 46801

HCHR 49800

Sacrament and Liturgy in the Middle West

Fulton

W

1:30-4:20

ARR

Sacrament stands at the center of Christian experience as both revelatory and obscure, an obligation and a gift, a rupturing and a making whole. Few modern theories of ritual have been able to capture this mystery in its entirety; this course seeks to explain why by concentrating on the history of sacrament and sacramental theology from the patristic period through the Reformation. Particular emphasis will be given to the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist in their liturgical and theological contexts. Sources will include theological writings from Augustine, Peter Lombard, Aquinas and Martin Luther, as well as liturgical commentaries, liturgical formulae, meditations and prayers.
Ident. HIST 49901

HCHR 51700

Seminar: US Social History 1

Conzen

W

3:00-5:50

ARR

Topic for 2007-08: Varieties of 19th Century American Pluralism. This two-quarter graduate research seminar will explore the tension between 19th century America’s quest for a cohesive national identity and the practical pluralism of its varied religious, ethnic, racial, regional, and class “elements.” During the Autumn quarter, students will read and discuss relevant scholarly literature and prepare a historiographical essay/research proposal; during the Winter quarter, students will research and write a seminar paper based on their own original research. The Autumn quarter may be taken independently; the Winter quarter is open only to students who have taken the Autumn quarter.
Ident. HIST 83010

ISLM 40443

The Classical Sources I

Wadad Kadi

M

1:30-4:20

Or 210

The “classical sources” are the main Arabic sources that the students of Islamic studies need to have full control of. These are made up mainly of multivolume biographical dictionaries that cover all areas of production in classical Islamic civilization, from the third/ninth century until the ninth/fifteenth century. The students study the books dealing with the biographies of Qur’an reciters and readers, hadith transmitters and critics, legal scholars of the various schools, local and national historians, litterateurs and poets, grammarians, linguists and lexicographers, geographers and travelers, physicians and scientists, sufi mystics and so forth; a special week (or more) is devoted to the biographical production in the various fields in Andalusia (Muslim Spain). Over two quarters, each student handles a number of these works first-hand, reading sections of a source, evaluating it, comparing it with other sources of its kind, and presenting a lengthy and critical report on it in class.

PQ: At least three years of Arabic.
Ident. ARAB 40443

ISLM 41800

Islamic Education, Ulema and Religious
Authorities in the 20th Century

Zeghal

Th

10:30-1:20

S200

This class deals with the recent history and sociology of religious education and religious scholars (ulema) in the Muslim world. Theories of modernization and secularization predicted that religious education and the ulema would become irrelevant in the modern Muslim world. However, institutions of religious education have become the object of state-sponsored political reforms that have reshaped them without necessarily eliminating their relevance. They are indeed the sites of important ideological debates today. They also produce varied types of religious authorities that may either submit to the political powers or contest them. We will more particularly examine the cases of Pakistan, Egypt, Iran Tunisia, Morocco and Muslim minorities in Europe.
Ident. AASR 41800

ISLM 50200

Readings in Arabic Religious Texts

Sells

T

1:30-4:20

MEM Lib.

For updated details see: http://home.uchicago.edu/~msells/ReadingsinArabicReligiousTexts.doc
Ident. NEHC 40604

HREL 41600

Interpretation of Ritual

Lincoln

T/TH

1:30-2:50

S201

Ident. AASR 41600/ANTH 52500

HREL 44500

Other Peoples Practices

Fox

T/Th

10:30-11:50

S400

The History of Religions frequently engages in the critical representation of other people’s practices. Questions pertaining to scholarly representations have long been debated in related disciplines, including anthro- pology and history as well as both cultural and post- colonial studies. Drawing on key elements of these debates, this course examines the political and philosophical issues underpinning the scholarly representation of religious Others. Discussion will focus on concrete examples from the history of the humanities and social sciences, with a special emphasis on the critical implications of approaching scholarship as an historically situated set of practices. Various modes of representation will be considered, from text to film and beyond.

HREL 45200

Historiography for Historians of Religions

Lincoln

M/W

10:00-11:20

S200

HREL 51400

Seminar: The Idea of Religion in Bali

Fox

W

1:30-4:20

S400

Balinese religion has long been of interest to western visitors, from artists and colonial administrators to tourists and social scientists. Over the past 400 years, the religion of Bali has been variously described as ‘heathen’, ‘Hindoo’, ‘Hindu-Buddhist’, ‘Tantric’, ‘animistic’, ‘syncretistic’ and now, perhaps most recently, as ‘spiritual’ and ‘ecologically correct’. However, to conclude that Balinese religiosity can be described unproblematically as any one of these things- let alone as a combination thereof—is to ignore the history of the ideas and practices in question. This course examines that history from the vantage point of contemporary practice, in which state ideology inflects readings of classical texts, tourists are an essential component of cremation processions, and cellular phones play an important role in the successful completion of temple ceremonies. Although focusing on ethnographic and historical materials pertaining to Bali, the course is structured around a broader set of theoretical arguments addressing issues of religion, history and tradition in the contemporary world.

RLIT 32900

Tolstoy’s Late Works

Bird

T/TH

1:30-2:50

ARR

After completing Anna Karenina, Tolstoy underwent a series of spiritual crises and subsequently became known around the world as a moralist and religious thinker. Yet he also remained an artist who never ceased exploring new creative avenues. We address both sides of Tolstoy’s work. Major fictional works include The Death of Ivan Illich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Hadji-Murad, and Resurrection. We’ll also read Tolstoy’s Confession and What Is Art?; and selections from his philosophical and religious writings.
Ident. RUSS 22201/32201/ISHU 22201/32201/RLST 28501

RLIT 35800

Russian Philosophy

Bird

ARR

ARR

ARR

From the mid-19th century, Russia developed a unique form of philosophical discourse which has often sat uncomfort- ably between ideology and theology, between metaphysics and psychology. We will read and interpret the major texts of the tradition in translation from the Slavophiles and Vladimir Solovyov through the Silver Age (Rosanov, S. Bulgakov, Berdiaev, Florensky) and up to the present day. Key issues will be the relationship between reason and faith, the development of a modern anthropology consistent with Orthodox belief and aesthetics.
Ident. RUSS 25801/35801/RLST 28201

RLIT 37800

Music and Religiosity in Brazil

Reily

M

9:30-12:20

GoH 205

In Brazil, as in many parts of the world, religious activity and expressions of religious devotion are commonly articulated through music and musical performance. The objectives of this course are two-fold: to explore the links between musical and religious experience; and to explore the ways in which investigation into musical expressions of religiosity might provide insight into Brazilian social realities.

The course will focus upon three main religious arenas, viewed from various perspectives: Catholicism and popular Catholicism; African-Brazilian possession cults; and Protestantism/Pentecostalism

Ident. LACS 27702/37702/MUSI 23601/33601

RLIT 41900

Narrative: Theory and Texts

Rosengarten

F

9:00-11:50

S200

The course begins with the ubiquity of narrative across the human sciences (literature, history, psychology, anthropology, etc.), and will then focus specifically on its use(s) today in the study of religion. Both theorists of narrative as a genre (e.g. Genette, Todorov, Hayden White, etc.) and scholars who deploy narrative analytically will receive consideration. These excursions will proceed in the context examples, some short, some medium, some lengthy: narratives we will read could include the Gospel According to Mark, Beowulf, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Fielding’s Tom Jones, and selections from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but will also include shorter pieces by Freud, Borges, William Carlos Williams, and Flannery O’Connor. We will also give some attention to non-verbal narrative. This course aims to achieve at least a modicum of clarity in the definition of narrative, and some utility in its application to the arts of interpretation.

RETH 33500

Introduction to Ethical Theories

Gamwell

T/TH

9:00-10:20

S208

An introduction to major alternatives in Western philosophical ethics and especially to the ethical theories of Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant.

RETH 46200

Whitehead: Metaphysics and Ethics

Gamwell

T/TH

1:30-2:50

S200

An introduction to Whitehead’s metaphysical system, with special attention to its implications for philosophy of religion and philosophical ethics.
Ident. DVPR 46200

RETH 51301

Law-Philosophy Seminar

Nussbaum/Anderson

M

4:00-6:00

ARR

This is a seminar-workshop most of whose participants are faculty from various area institutions. It admits approxi- mately 10 students by permission of the instructors. Its aim is to study a topic that arises in both philosophy and the law and to ask how bringing the two fields together may yield mutual illumination. The theme for 2007-08 will be Coercion.
PQ: Students should submit a c.v. and a statement (reasons for interest in the course, relevant background in law and/or philosophy) by September 20 to Profs. Nussbaum and Anderson.
Ident. LAWS/PHIL/PLSC 51200

RETH 52300

Education and Moral Psychology

Nussbaum

T

3:00-5:30

S201

This seminar will study some classic works in the philosophy of education, asking what account of children they articulate and how their educational proposals are connected both to psychological analysis and to normative ethical and political ideas. Included will be philosophers such as Plato, Artistotle, the Greek and Roman Stoics, Rousseau, Kant, J.S. Mill, Dewey and Rabindranath Tagore, but also thinkers about childhood and education who were not professional philosophers, such as Friedrich Froebel, Johann Pestalozzi, Maria Montessori, and Donald Winnicott. We will ask about how education is related to important goals of the personal life, such as happiness and autonomy, but also how it is related to important goals of a shared political life, such as mutual respect and compassionate attention to human need.
PQ: Permission of the instructor required, and this should be sought in writing (email) by September 20. A minimum prerequisite is an undergraduate major in philosophy or the equivalent course work in philosophy.
Ident. PLSC 53200, LAWS 52301, PHIL 52300

AASR 34000

Theorizing Religion

Riesebrodt

T/TH

3:00-4:20

S208

The class combines lectures and discussions about the concept of religion and its postmodern and postcolonial critics as well as about classical and contemporary theories of religion and their presuppositions. We will analyze religious practices and discuss methodological problem of how to analyze their meanings. Further topics are the logic of religious propaganda (conversion narratives, enlighten- ment narratives and prophetic visions), ontogenetic and phylogenetic theories claiming to explain the universality of religion, as well as the question of secularization and the future of religion.
Ident. SOCI 30311

AASR 41600

Interpretation of Ritual

Lincoln

T/Th

1:30-2:50

S201

Ident. HREL 41600/ANTH 52500

AASR 41800

Islamic Education, Ulema and Religious
Authorities in the 20th Century

Zeghal

Th

10:30-1:20

S200

This class deals with the recent history and sociology of religious education and religious scholars (ulema) in the Muslim world. Theories of modernization and secularization predicted that religious education and the ulema would become irrelevant in the modern Muslim world. However, institutions of religious education have become the object of state-sponsored political reforms that have reshaped them without necessarily eliminating their relevance. They are indeed the sites of important ideological debates today. They also produce varied types of religious authorities that may either submit to the political powers or contest them. We will more particularly examine the cases of Pakistan, Egypt, Iran Tunisia, Morocco and Muslim minorities in Europe.
Ident. ISLM 41800

AASR 50056

Seminar: Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch

Joas

T/Th

1:30-2:50

ARR

Two Approaches in the Social-Scientific Study of Religion. Max Weber is perhaps the one undisputed classical figure in the discipline of sociology today. His reputation is to a large extent based on his historical and comparative studies of the “economic ethics” of the world religions and on the formulation of a systematic approach based on these studies (in “Economy and Society”). Whereas in Weber’s time his colleague and friend Ernst Troeltsch was as well-known as Weber, his name has since been almost forgotten outside Protestant theology. But his writings deserve a new study, partly as an extension of, but partly also as an alternative to Weber’s work. It helps to understand Weber better and to get beyond some limitations of his work to include Troeltsch in the canon of classical attempts for an historico- sociological study of religion.
Ident. SOCI 50056/SCTH

AASR 50060

Secularization?

Riesebrodt/Zeghal

W

1:30-4:20

S403

The class confronts theories of secularization with actual developments of church-state relations. Each student has to select and present a particular case. The cases discussed in class will range from North Africa to East Asia, North America and Europe.
Ident. SOCI 50060