The University of Chicago Divinity School

DVSC 622 30100

Introduction to Religion and the Human Sciences

Wedemeyer

Tu/Th

10:30-11:20

S106

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

DVSC 622 42000

Divinity School: German Reading Exam

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

PQ: Open only to Divinity School students

DVSC 622 45100

Reading Course: Special Topic

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

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

DVSC 622 49900

Exam Preparation

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

Open only to Ph.D. students in quarter of qualifying exams; enter section from faculty list.

DVSC 622 50300

Research: Divinity

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.

DVSC 622 59900

Thesis Work: Divinity

Staff

ARR

ARR

ARR

Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.

BIBL 603 43000

Image and Religion in Late Antiquity: Pagan, Christian and Jew in Dura Europos

Mitchell/Elsner

Tu/Th

ARR

ARR

This course will address the fundamental issues of how to construct ancient religions from the evidence of art. At stake are fraught methodological problems surrounding the contested scholarly investments in Christian origins and late ancient Judaism as well as pagan polytheism. By focusing on one canonically central site for this material from late antique Syria—whose wealth of wall paintings caused one of its excavators to call it the ‘Eastern Pompeii’—we will explore the multiplicities of position and the range of assumptions entaild in (simultaneous but also competitive) archaeological and religious reconstruction. Dura’s destruction and abandonment ca 257 ensured the survival of a series of pagan temples including a Mithraeum, and what are considered the oldest surviving Christian house-church and the most important and impressively decorated ancient synagogue. Not only these fundamental monuments for the study of late antique and early medieval art, but also the history of their publication, interpretation and re-presentation represents an historiographical record of immense interest, comprising a major early American intervention in Old World archaeology, the work of a series of such great theoreticians of religious history as Franz Cumont, Mikhail Rostovtzeff and E.R. Goodenough, and Such history of effects as the academic invention of ‘Jewish art’ in the 1930s in both its Nazi and Zionist Receptions.
Ident. NTEC 43000 and ARTH. To be scheduled by Art History

BIBL 603 53302

ECL Seminar: Orphic Literature and Early Christianity

Martinez/Faraone

F

2:00-4:50

S200

IDENT. NTEC 53302

BIBL 603 54000

Gnostic Writings from Nag Hammadi

Klauck

M

1:00-3:50

S200

Most of the Coptic writings, which were found near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, are defined as “Gnostic” documents by modern scholarship, though this very category has come under heavy fire of late. We will try to develop basic definitions and insights by working closely on the texts that are all available now in English, French, and German translations. In some cases we can even rely on thorough modern commentaries. We will not focus on the well known texts like the “Gospel of Thomas” and so on, but on the lesser known writings mainly from apocalyptic, wisdom-related and epistolary genres. The Nag Hammadi Library in English will be our “Bible” in this class and should be read by all participants in its entirety.
PQ: Some knowledge of Greek; Coptic is not required
Ident. NTEC 54000

THEO 604 30400

History of Christian Thought IV

Tanner

W

1:30-4:20

S201

A survey of major figures and movements in modern European religious thought from the late 17th through the 18th centuries.
Ident. HCHR 30400

THEO 604 30700

History of Christian Thought V

Tanner

W/F

10:30-11:45

S201

An intellectual history of modern religious thought from Schleiermacher to Troeltsch.
Ident. HCHR 30900

THEO 604 43100

The Catholic Reformation

Schreiner

T/Th

10:30-11:50

S201

Ident. HCHR 43101

THEO 604 49000

Seminar: Theological Ethics III

Schweiker

W

1:30-4:20

S200

This year-long seminar is a sequence of interlocking inquiries on current debates surrounding human dignity and capabilities. The series begins with the question of humanism itself, then turns to the problem of the representation and understanding of meanings as well as recognition of the other, and concludes with an inquiry into human fault and evil. While there is internal coherence to the series of seminars, students are not required to take the entire sequence. This specific seminar will explore questions of human evil and fault by exploring the “symbolism of evil” (Ricoeur) and the possibility of a history of evil (Glover) as well as philosophical (Kant) and theological (Moltmann) accounts of evil.
PQ: Previous graduate work in theology or ethics required
Ident. RETH 4900

THEO 604 49403

Luther and Augustine

Schreiner

T

3:00-5:50

S201

Ident HCHR 49403

DVPR 605 30302

Indian Philosophy II

Arnold

T/Th

9:00-10:20

S403

PQ: Indian Philosophy I or permission of instructor
Ident. SALC 20902/30902, HREL 30300, RLST 24202

DVPR 605 36100

Second-year Sanskrit: Readings in Sastra

Arnold

T/Th

1:30-2:50

S403

PQ: First-year Sanskrit
Ident. SALC 20200, HREL 36100

CHRM 606 30700

Colloquium: Introduction to Ministry Studies

Musselman

F

1:00-2:20

S403

PQ: For first year MDiv students. DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE

CHRM 606 35700

Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care

Lindner

F

9:00-11:50

S400

PQ: Second-year MDiv. Students only, or by permission of instructor

CHRM 606 36000

Advanced Preaching Seminar

Lindner

F

1:30-2:50

S400

PQ: Arts of Ministry: Preaching, or consent of instructor

CHRM 606 40800

The Practice of Ministry III

Pinon

F

1:00-3:50

S400

PQ: Second year M.DIVs only

HIJD 625 41100

Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages

Robinson

M

1:00-3:50

S400

Ident. ISLM 41100, JWSG 41100, HCHR 41100, RLIT 41100

HIJD 625 42700

Interactions between Jewish Phil. and Lit. in Middle Ages

Robinson

Th

1:00-3:50

S200

Ident. ISLM 42700, JWSG 42700, RLIT 42800

HIJD 625 43200

Forms and Features of Midrash Literature

Fishbane

M

9:00-11:50

S201

A careful critical evaluation of important secondary literature on literary features of Midrash, with close examination of the primary sources cited therein and an estimation of their use and pertinence for the arguments advanced. The goal is to assess the state of the field in the literary and poetic study of Midrash, and to outline new areas for research. Students will be expected to write a 4-5 page weekly critique of the major book being evaluated, and to prepare the primary sources. There is no language requirement. Primary sources will be distributed in translation. Advanced students welcome as well.
Ident. JWSG 43200

HIJD 625 43900

Medieval Jewish Mysticism: Introduction to the Book of Zohar

Fishbane

T

1:00-3:50

S200

An introduction to the classic text of medieval Jewish (Spanish) Kabbalah. The major focus will be on its symbolic universe, exegetical features, literary qualities, spiritual values, and theological insights. Selections to be studied will all be in English translation. No prior background required.
IDENT. JWSG 43900

HCHR 626 30400

History of Christian Thought IV

Tanner

W

1:30-4:20

Swift 201

A survey of major figures and movements in modern European religious thought from the late 17th through the 18th centuries.
Ident. THEO 30400

HCHR 626 30900

History of Christian Thought V

Tanner

W/F

10:30-11:45

Swift 201

An intellectual history of modern religious thought from Schleiermacher to Troeltsch.
Ident THEO 30700

HCHR 626 39200

Latin American Religions, Old and New

Borges

Th

9:00-11:50

ARR

This course will consider select pre-twentieth century issues, such as the transformations of Christianity in colonial society and the Catholic Church as a state institution. It will emphasize twentieth-century developments: religious rebellions; conversion to evangelical Protestant churches; Afro-diasporan religions; reformist and revolutionary Catholicism; new and New-Age religions.
Ident. HIST 29000/39000, RLST 21401

HCHR 626 41100

Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages

Robinson

M

1:00-3:50

S400

Ident. ISLM 41100, JWSG 41100, HIJD 41100, RLIT 41100

HCHR 626 42701

Interactions Between Jewish Phil. And Lit. in Middle Ages

Robinson

Th

1:00-3:50

S200

Ident. HIJD 42700,JWSG 42700, ISLM 42700/RLIT 42800

HCHR 626 43101

The Catholic Reformation

Schreiner

T/Th

10:30-11:50

S201

Ident. THEO 43100

HCHR 626 49403

Luther and Augustine

Schreiner

T

3:00-5:50

S201

Ident THEO 49403

ISLM 620 40400

Arabic Poetry of Shustari and Ibn al-‘Arabi

Sells

T

1:30-4:20

MEM Library

Ident. NEHC 40603/RLIT 40700

ISLM 620 40500

Readings in the Text of the Qur’an

Sells

M

1:30-4:20

MEM Library

PQ: Arabic
Ident. NEHC 40601

ISLM 620 41100

Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages

Robinson

M

1:00-3:50

S400

Ident. HIJD 41100, JWSG 41100, HCHR 41101, RLIT 41100

ISLM 620 42700

Interactions Between Jewish Phil and Lit in Middle Ages

Robinson

Th

1:00-3:50

S200

Ident. HIJD 42700, JWSG 42700, RLIT 41101,HCHR 42701

HREL 628 30300

Indian Philosophy II

Arnold

T/Th

9:00-10:20

S403

PQ: Indian Philosophy I or permission of instructor
Ident. SALC 20902/30901, DVPR 30302, RLST 24202

HREL 628 31600

Zoroastrianism I

Lincoln

T/Th

1:00-2:20

S208

Ident. NEHC___

HREL 628 36100

Second-year Sanskrit: Readings in Sastra

Arnold

T/Th

1:30-2:50

S403

PQ: First-year Sanskrit
Ident. DVPR 36100, SALC 20200

HREL 628 42701

Issues in Indian Esoteric Buddhism

Wedemeyer

M

3:00-5:50

S403

Arguably the most vigorous movement in Indian Buddhism in the latter half of the first millennium, Esoteric or "Tantric" Buddhism (Mantranaya, Vajrayana) has only recently begun to receive sustained scholarly attention. In this course, we will look more closely at these diverse traditions, and explore contemporary intellectual debates concerning their genealogy, history, literature and practice.
PQ: Preferably at least one course in South Asian religions.
Ident. SALC 48300

HREL 628 44900

Mass Media and Religious Violence

Fox

W

1:30-4:20

S208

Both religion and violence are often attributed in scholarly and popular discourse to a given society’s failure to achieve modernity. However, such understandings usually rest on the unreflectively ethnocentric assumption that modernity equals secularity, and that religion is at best a private matter, or (more commonly)—like violence—a residual to be explained away in terms of socio-political or economic factors. Organized around a series of media sessions, lectures and discussions, this course will examine specific conflicts and outbreaks of violence as represented in mainstream Euro- american and Southeast Asian mass media, with a special emphasis on their respective assumptions regarding the nature of religion and religious difference. Students will consider critically the extent to which modern mass media are crucial to—or even constitutive of—public understandings of religion-related violence as well as the path to resolution.
PQ: By Permission of Instructor.

HREL 628 45400

Illusion in Indian Religion and Literature

Doniger/Shulman

M/W

10:30-11:50

S208

Readings in the Yogavasistha and other texts, in English translation.
Ident. SALC 45400

HREL 628 52200

Problems in the History of Religions

Doniger

T

7:00-10:00

ARR

PQ: Limited to Ph.D. students in the History of Religions

RLIT 635 40100

Subject/Subjectivity

Meltzer

W

2:30-5:20

ARR

This course will examine “postmodern” notions of the subject, subjectivity and the gendering of these. Readings will include texts by Butler, Foucault, Derrida, C. Taylor, Kristeva, Lacan, Levinas, Certeau and Irigary. We will also be reading from a variety of other contemporary theorists. PQ: Open to graduate students only. Requirements include one seminar parper and presentation.
IDENT. CMLT 38000/FREN 33801/GNDR 35800

RLIT 635 41101

Animal Spirituality in the Middle Ages

Robinson

M

1:00-3:50

S400

Ident. ISLM 41100, JWSG 41100, HCHR 41101, HIJD 41100

RLIT 635 41401

Theory of Criticism: 16th to 19th Centuries

Rosengarten

W/F

9:30-11:20

S403

The historical period covered in this course comprises rich and crucial centuries for the history of interpretive theory, and in the number and depth of important figures defies comprehensive survey. Yet they can be accurately characterized as the time of three seminal developments that, taken together, demarcate the modern arts of interpretation: the historical-critical method in the study of the sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity; the practice of literary criticism as embodied in the figure of the judge or arbiter of quality, the critic; and aesthetics. Our work will focus on the foundational writings by the respective originating exemplars of each: Baruch Spinoza (the historical-critical method), Samuel Johnson (literary criticism), and Immanuel Kant (aesthetics). The major work of the course will be to read intensively Spinoza's Tractatus, major selections from Johnson's essays and introductions (including all of his writings on Shakespeare), and Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment. In addition to at least partially elucidating these writings, we will explore possible common methodological themes and will address summarily the developments each spawned up to 1900.

RLIT 635 42800

Interactions between Jewish Phil. and Lit. in Middle Ages

Robinson

Th

1:00-3:50

S200

Ident. ISLM 42700, JWSG 42700, HIJD 42700

RETH 638 31300

Women, Religion, and Human Rights

Boden

T/Th

3:00-4:20

Swift 106

This course will examine the intersection of women’s rights and religious practices. We shall study the theological perspectives of Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity in regard to the human being, freedom, equality, and women. We shall then consider three questions that complicate the enjoyment of particular rights norms by religious women, namely relativism, privacy, and agency.
Ident. RLST 24900, HMRT 24900/34900

RETH 638 49000

Seminar: Theological Ethics III

Schweiker

W

1:30-4:20

S200

This year-long seminar is a sequence of interlocking inquiries on current debates surrounding human dignity and capabilities. The series begins with the question of humanism itself, then turns to the problem of the representation and understanding of meanings as well as recognition of the other, and concludes with an inquiry into human fault and evil. While there is internal coherence to the series of seminars, students are not required to take the entire sequence. This specific seminar will explore questions of human evil and fault by exploring the “symbolism of evil” (Ricoeur) and the possibility of a history of evil (Glover) as well as philosophical (Kant) and theological (Moltmann) accounts of evil.
PQ: Previous graduate work in theology or ethics required
Ident. THEO 49000

RETH 638 50202

Religion and the Political Order II: Machiavelli to Aubuhr

Elshtain

M

1:30-4:20

S208

Ident. PLSC 50202

RETH 638 51302

Law-Philosophy Seminar

Nussbaum

M

4:00-6:00

Law School

This is a seminar/workshop most of whose participants are faculty from various 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 twelve meetings throughout the year, always on Mondays 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 seminar paper at the end of the year. The course satisfies the Law School Writing Requirement. The schedule of meetings will be announced in 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; sexuality and family. The theme for 2006-7 will be Disability. Speakers to be invited include: Eva Kittay, Anita Silvers, Jeff McMahan, Ann Davis, Sam Bagenstos, Ruth Colker, Michael Stein, Elizabeth Emens (outside visitors); Adam Samaha, Richard Posner, Daniel Brudney, Martha Nussbaum, Iris Young (locals).

PQ: Students are admitted by permission of the instructors. They 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 Nussbaum by e-mail. Usual participants include graduate students in philosophy, political science, and divinity, and law students.
Ident. LAW

RETH 638 52900

Advanced Seminar in Ethics

Elshtain

Tu

9:00-11:50

S208

IDENT. PLSC 62900

AASR 607 41000

Islam and Democracy II

Zeghal

T

1:30-4:20

MEM Sem.

This course will focus on the literature of democratic transitions. We will examine some of the most important theoretical works on Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, and the descriptions of diverse paths towards “democracy”. In the last three decades, the Muslim world has experienced important political transformations, which have led its regimes towards increased political pluralism and have eroded the authoritarianism of its states. We will endeavor to explain and conceptualize these transformations. Are they definable as processes of democratization, or restructured authoritarianism? Is “democracy” the relevant concept to use? Students will work on particular cases which they will confront with these theories and use as the foundation for their final paper. Parts I and II can be taken separately.
Ident ISLM 41000

AASR 607 42400

Political Islam: The State of Research

Zeghal

M

10:30-1:30

S403

Ident ISLM 42400