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Spring 2004 Course Descriptions

DVSC 622 30200

Introduction to Historical Studies in Religion

Klauck/Robinson

PQ: Open only to first-year A.M.R.S. and M.A. students.
Discussion groups will meet Fridays, 3:00-4:50, S106

BIBL 603 30800

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible

Menn

Ident. RLST 11003

BIBL 603 34100

Intermediate Biblical Hebrew

Staff

PQ: BIBL 34000 or equivalent.

BIBL 603 35400

Introductory Koine Greek 3

Blanton

PQ: BIBL 35300 or one year college-level Greek.
Ident NTEC 35400

BIBL 603 40800

Biblical Law

Frymer-Kensky

This is a lecture course in which we study the form and content of Biblical law, studying the major documents of law (The Book of the Covenant in Exodus, the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy) both for their legal content and as literary compositions. Course requirements: There will be a midterm and final based on the readings and on the lectures. Class attendance is very important. In addition, each student will prepare an abstract of two articles to distribute to the class.
PQ: None.
IDENT. JWSG 40800

BIBL 603 42000

The Gospel According to Mark

Mitchell

An investigation of the composition, genre, plot structure, theology, purpose and impact of the earliest gospel. Particular emphasis will be paid on the relationship between Mark and Paul, the place of the Gospel according to Mark in the formation of early Christian literary culture, and the relationship between Mark and media, particularly through an investigation of its presentation and hermeneutical shaping in important manuscript holdings in the Goodspeed Bible Collection (Regenstein Library Special Collection).
PQ: BIBL 32500, Introduction to New Testament, or equivalent. Greek is not required, though those who have skills in Greek will have abundant opportunities to use them.
Ident. NTEC 42000

BIBL 603 45401

Exodus

Frymer-Kensky

In this exegesis course, we will study the narratives of Exodus 1-21, 24 and 30-32. We will use an eclectic methodology, concentrating on close reading, literary composition and (where appropriate) comparative mythology and folklore. Course requirements: Students are expected to prepare the text with commentaries and participate in class with reading, translation, analysis and comment. In addition, students are expected to write a research paper on a relevant topic.
PQ: ability to read the Bible in Hebrew.
IDENT. JWSG 40900

BIBL 603 50302

The Book of Samuel

Sommer

A close reading of selected texts from 1 Samuel in Hebrew. The course will focus on issues of methodology. In particular, we will compare the approaches of several modern commentaries (e.g., McCarter, Alter, Bar Efrat) and monographs (Polzin, Jobling), which both allow us to contrast literary and more classical critical models and also to understand vastly different models of what a literary approach can mean. Some attention will also be given to medieval rabbinic commentaries insofar as they illuminate contemporary critical concerns. Other issues addressed will include questions of the historicity of the texts, compositional models, and textual criticism.
PQ: At least one year of biblical Hebrew.
Ident. JWSG 40302.

BIBL 603 53300

E.C.L. Seminar: Plutarch and Early Christian Literature

Klauck / Martinez

Plutarch of Chaironeia, who lived between c. 45 and 125 C.E., is not only a contemporary of the authors of the New Testament, but also one of our main sources for information on history, politics, religions, philosophy, literature, and social life of the 1st century C.E. He was a prolific writer and produced a vast number of books. Much of his writing is preserved in two series: the "Vita" and the "Moralia" (all available in the LCL, though we will prefer the Teubner edition for the Greek text). We will try to cover a representative selection of texts, alternating between close reading of certain passages in Greek and overviews based on translations. Among the titles we will deal with are: On Superstition, Life of Numa and Life of Alexander the Great, On Brotherly Love, the Oracles at Delphi, On Isis and Osiris. The identification of fruitful parallels to early Christian writings will be a common task for all participants.

PQ: Greek
Ident. NTEC 43300

THEO 604 35900

African Thought and Worldview

Hopkins

The course examines contrasting African scholar's philosophies. Of particular interest will be notions of self, community, and culture. The conditions for the rise of African philosophy are the external impositions of European contact and the internal development of traditional ways of perceiving the world.

THEO 604 40600

Black Theology: Second Generation

Hopkins

To put in conversation divergent theological disciplines and focused topics of these scholars, this course provides a close textual analysis of the rise of a second generation of black theologians from the 1980s. We read texts of thinkers who both affirm and critique black theology.

THEO 604 41001

H.R. Niebuhr and Sallie McFague

Culp

THEO 604 42100

The Post-Human and the Death of Nature: Problems in
Theology and Ethics

Schweiker

Currently there is considerable discussion about the emergence of the "post-human" through the technological and genetics revolution as well as the so-called "end of nature" and the crisis of the environment. This course seeks to probe the connection between these two developments in understanding responsibility for finite life. In this respect, the course topics in ethics too often separated, namely, issues about human flourishing and ecological responsibility. Through the reading of a range of thinkers, from Peter Singer on "unsanctifying human life" to Donna Haraway on cyborg existence and also distinctive theological proposals and ideas about "creation," the course hopes to chart a range of options in contemporary moral theory. The course will proceed through lectures, discussions, and presentation. Students will write a paper on a specific practical problem within this range of issues. Previous work in theology, ethics, or philosophy is required.

Ident. RETH 42100

THEO 604 44600

Renaissance and Reformation

Schreiner

Ident. HCHR 44600

THEO 604 47002

Sex, Gender, Sexuality and the Study of Religion II

Hollywood

The second in a two-course sequence, the class will focus on contemporary theories of sex, gender, and sexuality, working to distinguish the three terms and analyze their interrelationships. We will explore the role of religious language and categories within these theories, as well as their ramifications for the study of religion. Readings will include texts by Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Leo Bersani, Tim Dean, Stephen Moore, Caroyln Dinshaw, Richard Rambuss, and Michael Warner as well as some primary texts from medieval and early modern Christianity.

Ident. HCHR 47002

THEO 604 47201

Tragedy: Conflict of Interpretation in Philosophy, Theology, Culture

Tracy

This course will consist in reading selected texts in Greek tragedy and in Shakespeare in realatonship to the debate on the role of tragedy in philosophy (Hegel, Nietzsche, B. Williams, M. Nussbaum); in Christian theology (Kierkegaard, R. Niebuhr, von Balthasar) and culture (Freud, Lacan, Guattari/Deleuze, J. Butler, N. Loraux, L. Goldmann, T. Eagleton).

Ident SCTH 42701

THEO 604 47301

The Hidden God: A study of Luther, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil, King Lear, and Ingmar Bergman

Tracy and Schreiner

Ident. HCHR 47301

THEO 604 48501

Women Writers, Authorship, and Authority in Medieval and Early Modern Christianity

Hollywood

The course will explore the ways in which women writers gained the authority to write within a culture that routinely denied most women access to basic literacy and education. Looking at both men's and women's representations of women as authors, we will explore the ways in which, as literary critic Jennifer Summit argues, "the woman writer" became a figure around which issues of authorship and authority emerge in the later Middle Ages and early modern period. In addition, we will explore the "afterlives" of medieval women's texts in order to understand the changing nature of their claims to authority. Readings will include texts by Hildegard of Bingen, Heloise and Abelard, Hadewijch, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, Geoffrey Chaucer, Magaret Ebner, Christina de Pizan, and Margery Kempe. In addition, we will look at contemporary works of theory and criticism that explore issues of authorship, authority, and gender. Authors might include Barbara Newman, A.J. Minnis, Sarah Poor, Peter Dronke, Jennifer Summit, John Guillory, and Jonathan Goldberg.

Ident. HCHR 48501

DVPR 606 30302

Indian Philosophy II

Kapstein

Ident. HREL 30300

DVPR 604 39801

Heidegger, Sein Und Zeit: Care, Historicity and Being

Marion

Ident. PHIL 23811, 33811, SCTH 34511

DVPR 605 49701

Augustine's Confessions: Issues and Commentaries

Marion

Ident: Phil 54501, SCTH 49701

DVPR 605 50601

Perception

Kapstein

Which acts of consciousness are to be counted as perceptions? and under what descriptions? Is perception a means of knowledge? and, if so, knowledge of what? How are we to distinguish between perception and illusion? or are the two to be identified with one another? The reflections impelled by these and similar questions have a long and complex history not just in the Western philosophical traditions, but in Indian thought as well. The present seminar will examine primarily three aspects of the topic: the treatment of perception in recent Anglo-American philosophy; the use of Anglo-American work on perception in the investigation of classical Indian epistemologies; and recent work on perception in the philosophy of religion. Howard Robinson's Perception, B.K. Matilal's Perception: An Essay on Classical Indian Theories of Knowledge, and William Alston's Perceiving God will serve as the primary texts around which discussion will be organized.

CHRM 606 30700

Introduction to the Study of Ministry

Boden / Lindner

CHRM 606 35700

Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care

Lindner

PQ: Second-year M.Div. students only

CHRM 606 36700

Advanced Seminar in Pastoral Care: Marriage/Family in Church and Culture

Lindner

PQ: Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care, or consent of instructor.

CHRM 606 40800

The Practice of Ministry

Staff

HIJD 625 45500

Medieval Commentaries on Ecclesiastes

Robinson

A study of the medieval Jewish exegesis of Ecclesiastes. Focus will be on the commentary by Samuel Ibn Tibbon (c. 1160-1232), but his work will be considered in relation to earlier commentaries and to the tradition of philosophical exegesis that he inspired. Besides Ibn Tibbon, the commentaries by Isaac Ibn Ghiyath, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Abu-l-Barakat al-Baghdadi, Isaac Ibn Latif, Joseph Ibn Kaspi, and Gersonides will be discussed.

PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew
Ident. JWSG 45500

HIJD 625 51000

Proseminar In Midrash

Fishbane

Ident JWSG 51000

HCHR 626 40601

Religion, Law, and Culture

Sullivan

"Religion" and "Law" denote human cultural and social phenomena that are virtually universal. In this course, we will consider how to talk about these two and their intersection in, for example, the construction of individual and group identities, the development of ideas and institutions, the legitimation of power, and the regulation of the social order. We will examine materials from a range of modern and pre-modern societies and will engage different academic disciplines with a view to understanding and evaluating various approaches to the study of "law and religion."
Ident. HREL 40601, AASR 40600

HCHR 626 40700

Women and Religion in America, 1600-1865

Brekus

This course is a survey of women and religion from the colonial period to the Civil War. Course readings will center on major scholarly works in the field, but will also draw heavily on primary sources. Topics include Puritanism, witchcraft, female preaching, Catholicism, the "feminization" of American religion and the early women's rights movement. Requirements: two short papers (2-3 pages each) on the weekly readings, and a final 15 page review essay. All students are also required to lead class discussion once during the quarter.
Ident. HIST 64000

HCHR 626 41501

Metaphysical Poetry

Strier

This course would study the development and the usefulness of this category in approaching the work of the poets to whom it has traditionally been applied (Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, Marvell, Edward Taylor, Emily Dickinson).
Ident. ENGL 36510/ RLIT 41500

HCHR 626 43200

Colloquium: Ancient Christianity

Mitchell

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.
Ident. NTEC 43200

HCHR 626 44600

Renaissance and Reformation

Schreiner

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 annalyzed 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. amd moral philosophy, the rise of skepticism, the appeal to certitude, curricilum reform, and the reform of art as exemplified by Michelangelo.
Ident. THEO 44600

HCHR 626 47002

Sex, Gender, Sexuality and the Study of Religion II

Hollywood

The second in a two-course sequence, the class will focus on contemporary theories of sex, gender, and sexuality, working to distinguish the three terms and analyze their interrelationships. We will explore the role of religious language and categories within these theories, as well as their ramifications for the study of religion. Readings will include texts by Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Leo Bersani, Tim Dean, Stephen Moore, Caroyln Dinshaw, Richard Rambuss, and Michael Warner as well as some primary texts from medieval and early modern Christianity.
Ident. THEO 47002

HCHR 604 47301

The Hidden God: A study of Luther, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil, King Lear, and Ingmar Bergman

Tracy and Schreiner

Ident. THEO 47301

HCHR 626 48501

Women Writers, Authorship, and Authority in Medieval and Early Modern Christianity

Hollywood

The course will explore the ways in which women writers gained the authority to write within a culture that routinely denied most women access to basic literacy and education. Looking at both men's and women's representations of women as authors, we will explore the ways in which, as literary critic Jennifer Summit argues, "the woman writer" became a figure around which issues of authorship and authority emerge in the later Middle Ages and early modern period. In addition, we will explore the "afterlives" of medieval women's texts in order to understand the changing nature of their claims to authority. Readings will include texts by Hildegard of Bingen, Heloise and Abelard, Hadewijch, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, Geoffrey Chaucer, Magaret Ebner, Christina de Pizan, and Margery Kempe. In addition, we will look at contemporary works of theory and criticism that explore issues of authorship, authority, and gender. Authors might include Barbara Newman, A.J. Minnis, Sarah Poor, Peter Dronke, Jennifer Summit, John Guillory, and Jonathan Goldberg.
Ident. THEO 48501

HCHR 626 50700

Research Seminar in American Religious History

Brekus / Gilpin

A research workshop in which each participant will prepare and discuss a major paper on a topic in American religious history.
PQ: Restricted to graduate students who have completed at least once course in the four-course sequence on American religious history.
Ident. HIST 62200

HREL 628 35200

Tibetan Buddhism

Wedemeyer

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 end of the 20th century. Readings will be drawn both from primary sources (in translation) and secondary and tertiary scholarly research.
PQ: Preferably HREL 35100 or equivalent background in Buddhism.

HREL 628 40601

Religion, Law, and Culture

Sullivan

"Religion" and "Law" denote human cultural and social phenomena that are virtually universal. In this course, we will consider how to talk about these two and their intersection in, for example, the construction of individual and group identities, the development of ideas and institutions, the legitimation of power, and the regulation of the social order. We will examine materials from a range of modern and pre-modern societies and will engage different academic disciplines with a view to understanding and evaluating various approaches to the study of "law and religion."
Ident. HCHR 40601, AASR 40600

HREL 628 40900

Text, Context, Subtext

Lincoln

Ident. HCLT 40900/ ANTH 44300

HREL 628 41400

The Theology of George W. Bush

Lincoln

HREL 628 44000

Tibetan Auto-Biography

Wedemeyer

In this course, we will explore the genres of biography and autobiography in Tibetan religious and literary culture, with special emphasis on the latter. Though often considered a genre characteristic of-and exclusive to-Western modernity, autobiography has had a long and rich history in Tibet, spanning at least a thousand years. We will begin the course by reading some theoretical studies of biography (including "hagiography") and autobiography. We will then consider some issues specific to Tibetan auto/biography and its historical development. The remainer of the quarter will be spent in reading and analyzing representative examples of these genres, drawn from a variety of authors and periods.
PQ: Preferably some background in Tibetan or Buddhist studies.

RLIT 635 41400

History of Literary Theory: 16th-19th Centuries

Rosengarten

An investigation of this rich and essential period for ideas about the interpretation of texts via three crucial developments: the emergence of the figure of "the critic," the development in philosophy of the field of aesthetics, and the triumph of the historical-critical method in the study of scripture. While these are developments rather than novelties, i.e. there are of course literary critics, theories of beauty, and textual analyses of sacred texts prior to 1500, each of these achieves a formative developmental moment and a signal independence in these centuries. The course will study these respective achievements through detailed examination of major thinkers (Johnson for the critic, Kant for aesthetics, Spinoza for the historical-critical method), but will also provide a "map" of major formulations.

RLIT 635 41500

Metaphysical Poetry

Strier

This course would study the development and the usefulness of this category in approaching the work of the poets to whom it has traditionally been applied (Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, Marvell, Edward Taylor, Emily Dickinson).
Ident. ENGL 36510, HCHR 41501

RLIT 635 41600

1848 in France

Meltzer

This course will attempt to navigate between theoretical (contemporary) accounts of 1848 as a moment of crisis; and historical/literary descriptions produced around 1848 itself. The course will seek to understand the insistence, by contemporary theory, of 1848 as a privileged instance of rupture. Readings will include works by Hugo, Flaubert, Scott, Benjamin, Foucault, Barthes, Lukacs, and Marx. French works will be read in the original.
Ident. FREN 36300, CMLT 34600

RETH 638 41500

Decisionmaking: Principles and Foundations

Nussbaum / Baird

Individuals, particularly those in leadership positions, are often called upon to make decisions on behalf of others. Such decisions are made in both the public and private spheres and can have enormous influence both on individual lives and on public policy. Lawyers are often called on either to make important decisions themselves or to give counsel to people who make them. The way in which individuals are judged often turns on a handful of decisions they make over the course of their lives, and the way they make these decisions has been the focus of thinkers from Thucydides and Aristotle to Bentham and Kant. It has also been a recurring theme in literature and much of modern economics. The course offers a rigorous study of how philosophers and others have examined these questions, and the tools they have used, including those from behavioral economics and game theory. Included will be discussion of moral dilemmas and some of the more common pathologies of decision-making: akrasia, self-deception, blind obedience to authority.
Ident. LAW

RETH 638 42100

The Post-Human and the Death of Nature: Problems in
Theology and Ethics

Schweiker

Currently there is considerable discussion about the emergence of the "post-human" through the technological and genetics revolution as well as the so-called "end of nature" and the crisis of the environment. This course seeks to probe the connection between these two developments in understanding responsibility for finite life. In this respect, the course topics in ethics too often separated, namely, issues about human flourishing and ecological responsibility. Through thee reading of a range of thinkers, from Peter Singer on "unsanctifying human life" to Donna Haraway on cyborg existence and also distinctive theological proposals and ideas about "creation," the course hopes to chart a range of options in contemporary moral theory. The course will proceed through lectures, discussions, and presentation. Students will write a paper on a specific practical problem within this range of issues. Previous work in theology, ethics, or philosophy is required.
Ident. THEO 42100

RETH 638 45700

Moral Psychology, Moral Education and Human Rights

van der Ven

In the course a critical-constructive investigation will be conducted into the relationship of Lawrence Kohlberg's psychological and educational theory of moral stages, especially stage 5 and 6, with modern thought on 'blue', 'red', and 'collective' human rights, especially with regard to religious human rights. In addition to that, empirical research findings on the relationship between religion and human rights among students of secondary schools will be discussed from the perspective of educational opportunities in terms of stage 5 and 6.

RETH 638 51303

Law-Philosophy Seminar: Sexuality and Family

Nussbaum / Sunstein

This is a seminar/workshop most of whose participants are faculty from seven area institutions. It admits approximately ten students by permission of the instructors. Its aim is to study, each year, a topic that arises in both philosophy and the law and to ask how bringing the two fields together may yield mutual illumination. There are ten to twelve meetings throughout the year, on Mondays (though not every Monday) from 4 to 6 pm. Half of the sessions are led by local faculty, half by visiting speakers. The leader assigns readings for the session (which may be by that person, by other contemporaries, or by major historical figures), and the session consists of a brief introduction by the leader, followed by structured questioning by the two faculty coordinators, followed by general discussion. Students write either two 4-6 page papers per quarter, or a 20-25 page seminar paper at the end of the year. The course satisfies the Law School Writing Requirement. The schedule of meetings will be announced mid-September, and prospective students should submit their credentials to both instructors by September 20. Past themes have included: practical reason; equality; privacy; autonomy; global justice; pluralism and toleration; war. The theme for 2003-4 will be Sexuality and Family. Likely speakers to be invited include: Emily Buss, Mary Anne Case, William Eskridge, Martha Fineman, David Halperin, Andrew Koppelman, Martha Minow, David Novak, Susan Moller Okin, Fran Olsen, Kenji Yoshino.
Ident. LAW/ PHIL/ PLSC/ HMRT 51303/ GNDR

RETH 638 52000

Augustine's City of God

Elshtain

A close reading of Augustine's great masterwork with a strong emphasis on his critical deconstruction of the politics, rhetoric, and civic religion of Rome and on the social, political, and cultural implications of his concept of a pilgrim people in their sojourn in The earthly city, a people whose lives are framed by the hope of membership in the eternal city of God.
PQ: Some background in political/social theory useful
Ident. PLSC 42000 / FNDL 26200 / RLST 25300

AASR 607 40600

Religion, Law, and Culture

Sullivan

"Religion" and "Law" denote human cultural and social phenomena that are virtually universal. In this course, we will consider how to talk about these two and their intersection in, for example, the construction of individual and group identities, the development of ideas and institutions, the legitimation of power, and the regulation of the social order. We will examine materials from a range of modern and pre-modern societies and will engage different academic disciplines with a view to understanding and evaluating various approaches to the study of "law and religion."
Ident. HCHR 40601, HREL 40600



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