The University of Chicago Divinity School

DVSC 30300

Introduction to Constructive Studies

Arnold

T/TH

10:30-11:50

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.
Monday, April 21

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 50300

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 36001

Advanced Hebrew Reading

Silver

M

9:00-11:50

S106

BIBL 39900

Song of Songs I:
Modern Textual and Literary Approaches

Fishbane

T

12:00-2:00

S400

A close textual study of the Song of Songs, focusing on language, style and imagery. Modern commentaries will be emphasized; we shall also refer to some Jewish medieval commentaries dealing with the plain-sense.
PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew
Ident. HIJD 40100/JWSG 33000.

BIBL 42800

The Book of Acts

Klauck

T

9:00-12:30

S208

This course will examine the Acts of the Apostles, which should be called more correctly the “Acts of Peter and Paul,” since these two figures are the heroes of the story. One of the most fascinating aspects of Acts is the way in which the author of this second volume in a two- volume work (Luke-Acts) describes the encounter and the confrontation of the Christian message with the non-Christian culture and religion of the Mediterranean world and with non-Christian forms of religion. Specifically, we will concentrate on those texts in Acts which illustrate this interaction, sometimes in a dramatic way (e.g. Acts 19).
PQ: No Greek necessary, but a special Greek reading class will be offered from 11:50-12:30 in S208).

BIBL 49800

Origen

Martinez

T/TH

10:30-11:50

MEM Seminar Rm

It is difficult to conceive of doing justice to the vast scope of Origen’s work in one quarter, but we will do our best to sample generous selections from the Greek text of his exegetical, homiletic, and doctrinal writing, including some of the larger Greek fragments of the de principiis as well as material from contra Celsum and perhaps the section of the Dialogue with Heracleides preserved among the Tura papyri. We will of course focus on Origen as the greatest exponent of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation and its Platonic underpinnings. We will also consider carefully the style of his Greek and his position as a Christian apologist.
PQ: At least three years of Greek.
Ident. NTEC 49800/GREK

BIBL 54200

Apocryphal Apocalypses,
Letters and Songs

Klauck

M

1:00-3:50

S403

The least known works among the so called New Testament Apocrypha are the apocalypses and letters. Both the apocalypses (e.g., the Apocalypse of Peter and the Ascension of Isaiah) and the letters (Correspondence between Seneca and Paul and Third Corinthians) contain very interesting texts. By close reading of these and other documents we will try to place them within early Christian history and evaluate their contribution to our knowledge of development in eary Christian thought. If time allows, we will also have a look at the little known Odes of Solomon.
PQ: Good Greek skills.
Ident. NTEC 54200

BIBL 54300

Seminar:
Paul’s letter to the Philippians

Mitchell/Betz

F

9:30-12:20

S403

An exegetical seminar on the Greek text of what may be Paul’s last extant letter. Sent from prison, probably in Rome (c. 60 CE), the letter reflects Paul’s thinking and acting in view of his expected death as a martyr. The seminar will examine scholarly controversies concerning the literary genre(s) of the letter and its parts, the composition, parallels in other Greek and Roman sources, the theological problems of emerging Christian martyrology, and important scholarly commentaries (including from the early church). Students are expected to share in the translation of Pauline texts, to give a short in-class presentation, and complete a final seminar paper on a topic to be agree on.
PQ: Greek
Ident. NTEC 54300

THEO 31200

History of Theological Ethics II

Schweiker

T/TH

1:30-2:50

S106

This is the second part of a two part history. It is conducted through the study of basic, classic texts. The course begins with the tumultuous period of the Reformation and the Renaissance arising from the so-called Middle Ages and so attention to rebirth of classical thought, the plight of women in the medieval world, the interactions among Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the rise of cities and even nations. The course then moves into the emergence of distinctly “modern” forms of ethics in the “Enlightenment,” through the romantic period and to the political, economic, and religious crises of the 20th century. The history ends with the emergence in the global field of the power interaction of the religions. While the golden thread of the history is the development and differentiation of Christian moral thinking, this is set within and compared with the complexity of traditions (philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect and often collide through centuries in Western thought. In this way, the exploration of one tradition opens onto rich comparative thinking. The course proceeds by lectures and discussion. Most readings are in translation. There will be a final examination. This is a basic course and thus no previous work in theology, philosophy or ethics is required.
Ident. RETH 31200

THEO 36700

Salvation

Tanner

T

1:00-3:50

S403

The course offers a typology of different Christian accounts of salvation, with readings from the early church up through modern Christian thought.

THEO 40600

Black Theology 2nd Generation

Hopkins

W

1:30-4:20

S201

The second generation of black theologians emerges in the early 1980s. What are some of their tensions with the founders of the discipline? And what are some of their own theological challenges and stumbling blocks?

THEO 41002

H. Richard Niebuhr

Culp

T/TH

10:30-11:50

S403

This seminar will offer a close reading of H. Richard Niebuhr’s theological writings. Texts will include The Meaning of Revelation, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture, Faith on Earth, and essays on the relation of church and world.

THEO 43301

Contemporary Trinitarian Theology

Hector

M

1:00-3:50

S201

Twentieth century Christian theology witnessed a significant revival in Trinitarian thought. This course will examine some developments in this revival’s “second wave,” including contributions from feminist, liberationist, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant thinkers.

THEO 43501

Contemporary Models of Theology

Hopkins

Tu

1:30-4:20

S201

The course compares and contrasts various systems and methods in contemporary theology. By contemporary, we mean theological developments in the U.S.A. from the late 1960s to the present. Specifically, we reflect critically on the following models: progressive liberal, post liberal, black theology, feminist theology, womanist theology, Native American theology, and Mujerista (Latina) theology.

THEO 45501

Religion and Excess: Interrogating
Whitehead with Bataille

Faber

F

1:00-3:50

S201

In the landscape of 20th century landmark theories of religion and their impact on religious and cultural studies as well as philosophy (of religion) and theology, two works stand out silently: Alfred North Whitehead’s “Religion in the Making” (1926) and Georges Bataille’s “Theory of Religion” (1972. A generation apart, both philosophers became part of a current of thought officially excluded but, at the same time, intensely influential. Whitehead’s text became the impetus for the birth of process theology at the Chicago Divinity School but was soon forgotten in its innovative character; Bataille’s text was published posthumously and came somewhat too late for the already formed field, which it might have been intended to impact. Both works, however, have something in common that differentiates them from many of the theories of religion of their times, most of which were based on David Hume’s “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”: they understand the phenomenon of religion as an immensely important expression of the formation of human cultures in their self-creative adventure to define human nature, and they ground its evocation and evolution in the excess of energy rather than a lack. While intending to create a new interpretation of the ‘origin’ of process thought in Chicago for a new century, the resonance of Whitehead with Bataille with their deeply diverse approaches will give us the advantage of uncovering an extraordinarily original piece of theory for the understanding of religion and its cultural, philosophical and theological relevance in the future of human existence.
Note: This course will be taught from the 6th to 10th week of term (May 9-June 6).

THEO 45601

World Christianity (1): Asian Theologies

Hector

T/Th

9:00-10:20

S201

It is widely recognized that Christianity’s center of gravity now lies outside the West, a fact which has significant implications for students of Christian theology. This course will study several eminent Asian theologians in order to familiarize students with an important and fruitful stream of Christian thought.

THEO 45901

Negative Certitudes
(Phenomenology of the Impossible)

Marion

T

3:00-5:50

S106

The concept of certitude, from Descartes to Kant, has a direct connection with finitude. But finitude does not only imply in philosophy a limitation of our certitudes, but also expresses a priori determinations, and, among them, negative principles, negative certitudes. Referring mostly to Descartes, Kant and Heidegger, the seminar will try to clarify the relation between finitude, limitation, negative certitude and paradoxes. Some examples will be the impossibility and God, the unknowability of man, the unconditionality of the gift, the unpredictability of the event.
Ident. DVPR 46100/SCTH 34512

THEO 46002

Gender and Religious Language

Tanner

W

1:30-4:20

S403

An exploration of a variety of gendered tropes in the history of Christian thought (e.g., father and son, bride and bridegroom) as these are used to discuss such matters as the trinity, relations between God and the world, principles of Christian community formation, and the character of religious virtuosity. Issues for discussion include: the religious and social significance of non-biological religious ‘families’ and ‘births’, and of fluid or multiple gender ascriptions when talking about God or Christian persons (e.g., what is the point of talking about a divine Father giving birth? or of a woman ascetic and martyr becoming a man?); reasons behind the interpretation of desire for God in sexual terms; the possibility that gender differences might not be salient in drawing the boundaries or establishing the internal organization of religious communities.
Ident. GNDR

THEO 46201

Hans Urs von Balthasar: Politics and Culture

Casarella

M/W

10:00-11:20

S208

Hans Urs von Balthasar was such a prolific theologian that no treatment of his work can do justice to all its dimensions. This seminar will focus on an aspect of his work that has been neglected by many and subjected to trenchant criticism by others. The mode of inquiry will be twofold. We will locate his activity as a theologian and cultural critic within the complex political, cultural and ecclesial situation in which he lived and out of which he wrote. In addition, we will evaluate in a systematic way von Balthasar’s own manifold reflections on politics and culture. Readings will be drawn from some early works on art and culture (e.g. Die Entwicklung der musikalischen Idee, Apokalypse der deutschen Seele, Bekenntnis zu Mozart) as well as the mature writings that engage a broad constellation of figures, including Romano Guardini, Adrienne von Speyr, Karl Barth, Erich Przywara, Reinhold Schneider, Henri de Lubac, Charles Peguy, Paul Claudel, Georges Bernanos and Madelein Delbrel.
PQ: Reading knowledge of German and French is very useful but not required.

THEO 46401

Spinoza and Metaphyics

Marion/Melamed

W

3:00-5:50

S106

Spinoza’s Ethics. The seminar is an in-depth study of Spinooza’s major work, the Ethics, with a special emphasis on Spinoza’s dialogue with Descartes. Among the topics to be discussed are: the style and structure of the book, the definition of God, the meaning of being and the question of ontology in Spinoza, infinity, duration and eternity, the nature of Spinoza’s attributes, the substance-mode relation, Spinoza’s proof of substance-monism, infinite modes, necessitarianism, the nature of ideas, parallelism, individuals and their limits, the nature of bodies, the three kinds of knowledge, the conatus and the affects, Spinoza’s view of good and evil, blessedness and divine intellectual love.
PQ: Open to graduate students only. Knowledge of Latin, French, German useful but not required.
Ident. DVPR 46800/PHIL 50103/SCTH 35413.

THEO 52000

Sem: Eriugena’s Anthropology:
Paradise at the Crossroads
Between East and West

Otten

M

9:00-11:50

S403

This course will engage in close reading of passages of Eriugena’s Periphyseon, especially from Books IV and V, where he unfolds his anthropology through a reading of the opening chapters of Genesis. Eriugena’s anthropology is built around a consistent philosophical principle integral to his own thought but it derives its unique hybridic profile by being simultaneously nourished by the different traditions of East and West. The philosophical principle to which Eriugena’s anthropology adheres is to see the view of humanity as ‘imago Dei’ as part of a larger view of nature which comprises the entire universe, including even God. The different traditions by which Eriugena’s thought is nourished are the Augustinian-Boethian legacy of the West alongside the Ambrosian-Cappadocian tradition of allegorical exegesis of the East. The fall of humanity is of pivotal importance to Eriugena’s exegesis of paradise, underpinning but potentially also derailing his entire anthropology. Central question is how humanity can at the same time be called upon to describe and evaluate the development of nature, as is the Periphyseon’s explicit starting-point, while it is itself also a part of nature and a sinful and vulnerable part at that. To evaluate the hybridic and highly acrobatic nature of Eriugena’s exegesis of paradise, Periphyseon passages will be compared to passages from Abrose’s De paradise, various Genesis commentaries by Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa’s De hominis opificioand Maximum Confessor’s scholia.
Ident. HCHR 52000

DVPR 42901

Brauer Seminar:
The Buddha in Barcelona

Kapstein/Robinson

T

1:30-4:20

MEM Library

During the first millenium, the Indian narrative of the Buddha’s renunciation and enlightenment, under the title Barlaam and Joasaph, was translated and transmitted throughout the Persian world, and thence to Byzantines and Arabs, Armenians and Georgians, and further West, reaching Iceland by the later Middle Ages. (It is the thirteenth-century Hebrew version from Spain that suggests the title for the seminar.) In the course of its varied transmissions, in Eastern and Western Christianity, Islam and Judaism, it was sometimes subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) transformed and reinterpreted. In fact, through translation and adaptation, the Buddha experienced several unusual conversions and transmigrations: from Christian saint and Jewish proselyte to Neoplatonic philosopher. In its history and variations, Barlaam and Joasaph provides an exceptional point of departure for reflection on the means, modes, and meanings of cultural transmission in the medieval world. This in turn directs us to a more general consideration of transmission and cosmopolitanism, syncretism and eclecticism, in the history of religions in all periods and geographical contexts.
The Brauer seminar will focus on the Barlaam legend, but will consider, too, additional pertinent examples, such as the circulation of travel narratives and artistic motifs. Among studies focusing on the issues that concern us, we may note John Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, on the reception, distribution and impact of the famed Venetian’s account; and Victor Mair, Painting and Performance, on Indian pictorial narratives and their transmission throughout medieval Eurasia.
Although the focus will be on medieval texts and contexts, there is no prerequisite for background in medieval history and thought. Instead, the goal is to connect to a growing interest in questions relating to the encounter of cultures and the role that cultural interaction plays in shaping and transforming religious traditions and civilizations.

PQ: By Application only.
Ident. HIJD 42901/HREL 42901

DVPR 46100

Negative Certitudes
(Phenomenology and the Impossible)

Marion

T

3:00-5:50

S106

The concept of certitude, from Descartes to Kant, has a direct connection with finitude. But finitude does not only imply in philosophy a limitation of our certitudes, but also expresses a priori determinations, and, among them, negative principles, negative certitudes. Referring mostly to Descartes, Kant and Heidegger, the seminar will try to clarify the relation between finitude, limitation, negative certitude and paradoxes. Some examples will be the impossibility and God, the unknowability of man, the unconditionality of the gift, the unpredictability of the event.
Ident. THEO 45901/SCTH 34512

DVPR 46800

Spinoza and Metaphysics

Marion/Melamed

W

3:00-5:50

S106

Spinoza’s Ethics. The seminar is an in-depth study of Spinooza’s major work, the Ethics, with a special emphasis on Spinoza’s dialogue with Descartes. Among the topics to be discussed are: the style and structure of the book, the definition of God, the meaning of being and the question of ontology in Spinoza, infinity, duration and eternity, the nature of Spinoza’s attributes, the substance-mode relation, Spinoza’s proof of substance-monism, infinite modes, necessitarianism, the nature of ideas, parallelism, individuals and their limits, the nature of bodies, the three kinds of knowledge, the conatus and the affects, Spinoza’s view of good and evil, blessedness and divine intellectual love.
PQ: Open to graduate students only. Knowledge of Latin, French, German useful but not required.
Ident. THEO 46401/PHIL 50103/SCTH 35413.

DVPR 48900

Readings in Buddhist Philosophical Texts

Kapstein

TBA

TBA

TBA

The seminar will consider selected works in Sankrit and Tibetan PQ: Reading knowledge of Sanskrit and/or Tibetan.
Ident. HREL 48900

CHRM 30700

Colloquium:
Introduction to Ministry Studies

Musselman

F

1:00-2:20

S403

PQ: First-year M.DIV. students only
DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE

CHRM 34500

Preachers and Preaching in American Literature

Harriss

M/W

10:00-11:20

S400

Christian clergy have occupied no small place in the American literary imagination. Through selected exemplars of literary preachers we shall consider a number of issues raised by these representations of the preacher’s social, political, rhetorical, and moral location in American culture. Assigned reading consists of primary texts (including novels or poetry by Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Weldon Johnson, Sinclair Lewis, James Baldwin, William Styron, Marilynne Robinson and Ralph Ellison) augmented by secondary texts in homiletics, liturgical theology, literary criticism, and the history of Christianity. What are the terms of the interplay between ministry studies and literature? What are the critical issues raised by these literary depictions of American preachers and their craft? By what methods might we assess their broader significance? What, if any, applications may emerge from such knowledge (of good and ill)? Writing assignments include both close textual reading and practical reflections.
PQ: Open to all M.DIV. students. Others by permission of instructor.

CHRM 35700

Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care

Lindner

F

9::00-11:50

S400

This course will introduce students to resources for developing a practical theology of care, including the historical and theological perspectives on care, knowledge and critical use of the social sciences, careful attention to the moral and cultural contexts of care, self-awareness, and practice/reflection.
PQ: Second-year M.DIVs, or permission of instructor.

CHRM 36700

Advanced Seminar in Pastoral Care:
Perspectives on Loss and Grief

Lindner/Boyd

W

1:30-3:50

S400

This seminar-style course will consider the experience of loss as a fundamental aspect of our humanity, exploring both the obvious suffering resulting from illness, death, divorce, and violence, as well as the implicit losses of place, power, and identity that occur in the context of broader personal and cultural phenomena such aging or immigration. Theological, philosophical and social-psychological works will inform our understanding of the meaning and dynamics of human loss and grief and will help us construct more useful and adequate practices of care.
PQ: Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care or permission of instructor.

CHRM 40800

The Practice of Ministry III

Boyd

F

1:00-3:50

S400

PQ: 2nd Year M. DIVs. only.

HIJD 40100

Song of Songs I:
Modern Textual and Literary Approaches

Fishbane

T

12:00-2:00

S400

A close textual study of the Song of Songs, focusing on language, style and imagery. Modern commentaries will be emphasized; we shall also refer to some Jewish medieval commentaries dealing with the plain-sense.
PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew
Ident. BIBL 39900/JWSG 33000

HIJD 42901

Brauer Seminar: The Buddha in Barcelona

Robinson/Kapstein

T

1:30-4:20

MEM Library

During the first millenium, the Indian narrative of the Buddha’s renunciation and enlightenment, under the title Barlaam and Joasaph, was translated and transmitted throughout the Persian world, and thence to Byzantines and Arabs, Armenians and Georgians, and further West, reaching Iceland by the later Middle Ages. (It is the thirteenth-century Hebrew version from Spain that suggests the title for the seminar.) In the course of its varied transmissions, in Eastern and Western Christianity, Islam and Judaism, it was sometimes subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) transformed and reinterpreted. In fact, through translation and adaptation, the Buddha experienced several unusual conversions and transmigrations: from Christian saint and Jewish proselyte to Neoplatonic philosopher. In its history and variations, Barlaam and Joasaph provides an exceptional point of departure for reflection on the means, modes, and meanings of cultural transmission in the medieval world. This in turn directs us to a more general consideration of transmission and cosmopolitanism, syncretism and eclecticism, in the history of religions in all periods and geographical contexts.
The Brauer seminar will focus on the Barlaam legend, but will consider, too, additional pertinent examples, such as the circulation of travel narratives and artistic motifs. Among studies focusing on the issues that concern us, we may note John Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, on the reception, distribution and impact of the famed Venetian’s account; and Victor Mair, Painting and Performance, on Indian pictorial narratives and their transmission throughout medieval Eurasia.
Although the focus will be on medieval texts and contexts, there is no prerequisite for background in medieval history and thought. Instead, the goal is to connect to a growing interest in questions relating to the encounter of cultures and the role that cultural interaction plays in shaping and transforming religious traditions and civilizations.

PQ: By Application only.
Ident. HIJD 42901/HREL 42901

HIJD 45400

Readings in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed

Robinson

Th

1:00-3:50

S403

A careful study of select passages in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, focusing on the method of the work and its major philosophical-theological themes, including: divine attributes, creation vs. eternity, prophecy, the problem of evil and divine providence, law and ethics, the final aim of human existence. There is no language requirement. However, there will be an extra session for students with Arabic and/or Hebrew.
Ident. HREL 45401/NEHC 40470/JWSG

HIJD 49400

The Book of Job and the Problem of Evil

Fishbane

Th

12:00-2:00

S208

A reading of the Book of Job, with attention to style and forms of argumentation, and focus on the treatment of suffering and evil in it. The course will also look at some Jewish treatments of the book and its theological issues in late antiquity (Talmud and Midrash) and the Middle Ages (philosophy and mysticism). Several modern philosophical treatments of theodicy will also be studied (including Kant and Pope), as well as some literary works.
Ident. JWSG 49400

HIJD 51400

Racial Theories of Religious
Difference in 15th Century Spain

Nirenberg

W

1:30-4:20

F 505

The mass conversion of Jews to Christianity in 15th century Spain produced a sharp debate about what it meant to be a Christian or a Jew. Theories about the biological reproduction of religious and cultural differences played an important part in these debates, eventually producing an idealogy of “purity of blood.” In this course we will read a number of the principal treatises articulating such theories, both contextualizing them within the 15th century debates and comparing them to more modern theories of race. Although English translations of some of these treatises will be provided, students will ideally have reading knowledge of either Spanish or Latin.
Ident. HCHR 51400/SCTH 50700.

HCHR 37500

Spirituality of the Sixteenth Century

Schreiner

M/W

10:00-11:20

S201

Ident. THEO 37500.

HCHR 41400

Medieval Biblical Exegesis

Pick

T

9:00-11:50

S400

Reading and interpreting the Bible was at the heart of medieval religious experience and the fount of medieval theological reflection. This course examines the theories, methodologies, goals and practices of medieval biblical exegesis from its patristic origins to the time of the friars. We will consider the contexts in which exegesis was practiced (monasteries, cathedral schools, universities). We will also look at some of the varied places where the fruits of exegetical work can be found, in polemic, in liturgy, and in artistic creation as well as in traditional biblical commentaries and treatises. In order to focus our discussion, we will concentrate on exegesis of the Song of Songs and the Book of Revelations/the Apocalypse.
Ident. HIST 60600

HCHR 44501

Hymns, Sacred Songs and American Christianity

Blumhofer

F

10:00-12:50

S200

Christian song has played an immensely important role in the American experience, and much can be learned about the broad sweep of American religious life from studying the writing, publishing, and singing of Christian hymns. This course will use hymns as a window on the religious lives of ordinary people in their ordinary experiences. It will explore the role of hymns in revivals, social reform, national occasions, and immigrant experience; the transformation of hymns over time; hymnals and hymn texts as cultural icons; and the place of religious song in shaping American Protestantism during its great age of cultural prominence.

HCHR 44600

Renaissance and the Reformation

Schreiner

M/W

1:30-2:50

S200

HCHR 51400

Racial Theories of Religious
Difference in 15th Century Spain

Nirenberg

W

1:30-4:20

F 505

The mass conversion of Jews to Christianity in 15th century Spain produced a sharp debate about what it meant to be a Christian or a Jew. Theories about the biological reproduction of religious and cultural differences played an important part in these debates, eventually producing an idealogy of “purity of blood.” In this course we will read a number of the principal treatises articulating such theories, both contextualizing them within the 15th century debates and comparing them to more modern theories of race. Although English translations of some of these treatises will be provided, students will ideally have reading knowledge of either Spanish or Latin.
Ident. HIJD 51400/SCTH 50700.

HCHR 52000

Sem: Eriugena’s Anthropology:
Paradise at the Crossroads
Between East and West

Otten

M

9:00-11:50

S403

Ident. THEO 52000

ISLM 30649

Historical Sources and How to Exploit Them

Bauden

ARR

ARR

ARR

The course has a two-fold air: to show students how the scholar should approach historical sources and to teach them how they should be used. Two main categories of (mostly handwritten) sources will be examined: (1) historiographic works representing various genres such as chronicles, annuls, biographical dictionaries, notebooks, diaries and (2) documents, either official or private. The common link between these two categories is obviously the material medium: parchment or paper. With this in mind, epigraphy and numismatics will also be touched upon: these disciplines in fact require skills different from those implied by handwritten material. Several methods of approach, suitable for the various sources under consideration, will be developed during the course.
Ident. NEHC 20649/30649

ISLM 40100

Islamic Love Poetry

Sells

M

1:30-4:20

MEM Library

Ident. NEHC 40600

HREL 35000

The Mahabharata in English Translation

Doniger

W/F

1:30-2:50

S208

A reading of the Mahabharata in English translation (von Buitenen, Narasimhan, P.C. Roy, and Doniger [ms.]), with special attention to issues of mythology, feminism, and theodicy.
15-20 page paper at the end of the course.
Ident. SALC 20400/48200/FNDL 24400/RLST 26800.

HREL 40800

Mythologies of Transvestism and Transsexuality

Doniger

T/TH

1:30-2:50

S200

Studies in selected Greek and Hindu myths. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and As you Like It, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, Roland Barthes’ S/Z, Marjorie Garber’s Vested Interests, Wendy Doniger’s Splitting the Difference and The Bedtrick, and selected operas (Marriage of Figaro, Rosenkavalier, Arabella) and films (such as Queen Chrstina, Some Like It Hot, I Was a Male War Bride, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, All of Me, The Crying Game, and Boys Don’t Cry).
PQ: Permission of Instructor, by Petition. A 15-20 page paper due at end of the course, and a class presentation of that paper.
Ident. GNDR 29300/40800/SALC 38400/SCTH 35610/RLST 27400

HREL 41200

History and Complexity

Fox

T

3:00-5:50

S200

This course addresses the problem of complexity in the religious traditions of South and Southeast Asia. Scholarship has long recognized that unifying terms such as ‘Islam’, ‘Hinduism’ and ‘Buddhism’ do not adequately reflect the heterogeneity of the histories and traditions to which they refer. Yet prevalent attempts to account critically for this complexity—in terms of ‘great and little traditions’, ‘syncretism’, ‘hybridity’ etc.—often simply defer the invocation of essence and, as a result, land up as uncritical as the oversimplified histories and terminology they wish to question. Although focused primarily on material from South and Southeast Asia, discussion will be organized around a series of theoretical questions drawn from current debates in cultural and media studies, anthropology and the history of religions.

HREL 42901

Brauer Seminar: The Buddha in Barcelona

Kapstein/Robinson

T

1:30-4:20

MEM Library

During the first millenium, the Indian narrative of the Buddha’s renunciation and enlightenment, under the title Barlaam and Joasaph, was translated and transmitted throughout the Persian world, and thence to Byzantines and Arabs, Armenians and Georgians, and further West, reaching Iceland by the later Middle Ages. (It is the thirteenth-century Hebrew version from Spain that suggests the title for the seminar.) In the course of its varied transmissions, in Eastern and Western Christianity, Islam and Judaism, it was sometimes subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) transformed and reinterpreted. In fact, through translation and adaptation, the Buddha experienced several unusual conversions and transmigrations: from Christian saint and Jewish proselyte to Neoplatonic philosopher. In its history and variations, Barlaam and Joasaph provides an exceptional point of departure for reflection on the means, modes, and meanings of cultural transmission in the medieval world. This in turn directs us to a more general consideration of transmission and cosmopolitanism, syncretism and eclecticism, in the history of religions in all periods and geographical contexts.
The Brauer seminar will focus on the Barlaam legend, but will consider, too, additional pertinent examples, such as the circulation of travel narratives and artistic motifs. Among studies focusing on the issues that concern us, we may note John Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, on the reception, distribution and impact of the famed Venetian’s account; and Victor Mair, Painting and Performance, on Indian pictorial narratives and their transmission throughout medieval Eurasia.
Although the focus will be on medieval texts and contexts, there is no prerequisite for background in medieval history and thought. Instead, the goal is to connect to a growing interest in questions relating to the encounter of cultures and the role that cultural interaction plays in shaping and transforming religious traditions and civilizations.

PQ: By Application only.
Ident. HIJD 42901/HREL 42901

HREL 45401

Readings in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed

Robinson

Th

1:00-3:50

S403

PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew
Ident. HIJD 45400/NEHC 40470/JWSG

HREL 46700

Neogermanic Paganism:
History, Ideology, Contexts

Lincoln/von Schnurbein

M/W

10:00-11:20

S200

Ident. GRMN 34301/NORW 34301

HREL 48900

Readings in Buddhist Philosophic Texts

Kapstein

TBA

TBA

TBA

The seminar will consider selected works in Sanskrit and Tibetan.
PQ: Reading knowledge of Sanskrit and/or Tibetan.
Ident. DVPR 48900

HREL 49600

Religion and Performance in Java and Bali

Fox

W

3:00-5:50

S208

Various kinds of performance—both theatrical and otherwise—have long played an important role in the religions of Java and Bali. This course will examine a series of performative genres against the critical backdrop of key texts in the history of scholarly thought on ritual, theatre and performance. Ethnographic material covered on the course will include, in translation, samples of performative genres that are well-known in the west (e.g., gamelan music, wayang kulit, topeng and calonarang), as well as forms that are largely unknown outside Java and Bali themselves (arja, bondres, dangdut, pasantian, pelawak and prembon).

HREL 50700

Contemporary Theory of the Study of Religion

Kapstein

T/Th

10:30-11:50

S200

PQ: Students should have taken “Classical Theories in Religion” or have a background in critical theory. Auditing the course is discouraged and requires the prior permission of instructor.

RLIT 37502

The Demons

Bird

M/W

1:30-2:50

ARR

Fedor Dostoevsky wrote The Demons in response to the rise of political terrorism and, more broadly, as an investigation into the human agency of evil. We will focus on a close reading of the novel, paying attention to the historical context, philosophical parallels, and issues of language.
Ident. RUSS 27502/37502

RLIT 41402

Theory of Criticism: The 20th Century

Rosengarten

F

1:30-4:20

S200

A survey of major innovations in literary theory, hermeneutics, and aesthetics from approximately 1900-2000, with sustained attention given to a) “touchstone” texts by Heidegger, Witgenstein and Freud, and b) major subsequent approaches such as speech-act theory, structuralism, the New Criticism, hermeneutics, deconstruction, rhetorical criticism, and (“the new”) historicism.

RLIT 42100

Religious Aesthetics: Artistic Ways of Being Religious

Burch Brown

M

1:30-4:20

S400

The connections between art and religion are undeniable (if often mysterious) and even the tensions are revealing. After suffering a sort of near-death experience in the aftermath of high modernism, aesthetics has flourished in recent decades, having emerged as an important dimension of the study of religion. culture, and the arts. Although one major impetus has come from the theological aesthetics of the Catholic Hans Urs von Balthasar, a number of leading figures have been Protestant or Eastern Orthodox, or without definite religious identity. This course examines major issues and influential theorists since the mid-20th century in particular. It is attentive to the arts, which we approach partly through specific examples, while also taking some account of aesthetics more broadly (e.g. theories of beauty and sublimity). The approach here recognizes precedents and parallels in earlier eras and outside the West.

RLIT 59800

Donne and Herbert

Strier

W

3:00-5:50

ARR

This course will study the moment when the devotional lyric comes to fruition in England. There is no doubt that George Herbert is the master devotional poet of the early modern period in England, and that he remains the most influential religious poet in the language. The course will treat Donne as the forerunner who helped make Herbert’s achievement possible—just as, in a parallel but earlier movement in love poetry (knowledge of which the course will assume), Sidney’s love poetry helped make Donne’s possible. We will study Donne’s religious poetry, and then move on to a detailed study of The Temple. In the process, we will attempt to come to terms with the criticism and scholarship on this body of poetry. We will also perhaps think about what it is that made, and continues to make. Herbert’s lyrics such a productive model for other poets. Every participant in the seminar will be expected to make at least one oral presentation and to produce a full-length scholarly paper.
Ident. ENGL 66500

RETH 31200

History of Theological Ethics II

Schweiker

T/Th

1:30-2:50

S106

This is the second part of a two part history. For full description see under Theology listing. Final examination. This is a basic cours and thus no previous work in theology, philosophy or ethics is required.
Ident. THEO 31200

RETH 31400

Environmental Ethics

Schweiker

T/Th

10:30-11:50

S201

Ident. RLST 23505

RETH 32100

Decisionmaking: Principles and Foundations

Nussbaum/Baird

ARR

ARR

ARR

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 of some of the more common pathologies of decision-making: akrasia, self-deception, blind obedience to authority.
Ident. LAWS/PLSC 31601

RETH 44800

The Just War Tradition

Elshtain

T

1:30-4:20

S208

An exploration of just war thinking from St. Augustine through Michael Walzer. We will examine critical attempts to limit the occasions for war and the tactics and strategies deployed during war. Case studies will be taken up, including “humanitarian interventions” and the 2003 war to depose the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. Special attention will be paid to human rights as a ground for intervention.
Ident. PLSC 50300

RETH 51303

Law-Philosophy Workshop

Nussbaum/Anderson

ARR

ARR

ARR

This is the third part of the seminar-workshop which bean in the Autumn quarter.
PQ: Students who were admitted to the Autumn seminar may register.
Ident. LAW/PHIL/GNDS/PLSC 51200

RETH 52900

Advanced Seminar in Ethics: Question of Human Nature

Elshtain/Meredith

M

1:30-4:20

S208

Questions about human nature, the soul, human beings created in God’s image—all have been declared passé by some. If we lose such understandings, what remains of the human? Are we just cells, as some claim? What would be the consequences of claiming that human life is not at all sacred and of no more worth than any other animal? What about the question of evil? Can we any longer speak of evil? Do we require God in order to know ‘good’ and ‘evil’? These and other questions will be examined through readings that include Aquinas, Augustine, Dostoevsky, Pope John Paul II, writers P.D. James, Walker Percy, Primo Levi, and Franz Kafka, science fiction writer Philip K. Dick and more.
PQ: Previous course with Prof. Elshtain