Spring 2010 Course Descriptions
PLEASE NOTE: This document is subject to amendment. It is intended for descriptive and informational use only. DO NOT USE IT TO REGISTER FOR CLASSES. To register, please consult the University Time Schedules.
The Following "Special Courses" are for M. Div. students only:
629-60000-01/02 Special Course — Chicago Theological Seminary
629-63000-01/02 Special Course — Meadville Lombard Theol School
629-65000-01/02 Special Course — Catholic Theological Union
629-66000-01/02 Special Course — Lutheran Theological School
629-68000-01/02 Special Course — McCormick Theol. Seminary* An asterisk indicates that the course so designated may count toward the required “designated introductory courses” for M.A. students.
DVSC 42000 Divinity School: German Reading Exam
Staff: ARR
PQ: Open only to Divinity School students (to be held Monday, April 19 at 6:00 p.m.)
DVSC 45100 Reading Course: Special Topic
Staff: ARR
PQ: Petition with bibliography signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.
DVSC 49900 Exam Preparation
Staff: ARR
PQ: Open only to Ph.D. students in quarter of qualifying exams. Department consent. Petition signed by Advisor.
DVSC 50300 Research: Divinity
Staff: ARR
PQ: Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list.
DVSC 59900 Thesis Work: Divinity
Staff: ARR
PQ: Petition signed by instructor; enter section number from faculty list.
BIBL 32700 Law in Biblical Literature
Chavel, Simeon
T/Th 11:30-12:50 S106
Students with one year of Biblical Hebrew will survey the topics of biblical law, recover biblical legal reasoning, compare biblical law with comparable ancient Near Eastern records and literature, reconsider the nature of biblical legal composition, interpret biblical legal passages within their larger compositions as pieces of literature, and analyze several non-legal biblical texts for the legal interpretation embedded in them. In addition to preparing to discuss assigned biblical texts, students will also work towards composing an original piece of sustained analysis submitted at quarter’s end.
PQ: First year of Biblical Hebrew
BIBL 44800 Words of the Wise: Proverbs and Qohelet
Chavel, Simeon
T/Th 4:00-5:20 S200
Students with at least one year of Biblical Hebrew will prepare, read aloud, and lead analysis of passages from the biblical books Proverbs (משלי) and Ecclesiastes (קהלת). Regular preparation of assigned passages will require the standard dictionaries (BDB, KB) and grammars (GKC, JM), some commentaries, and a small selection of essays on poetics. Three short papers (3-5pp.) and one extended one (15pp.) will cover grammatical, syntactical, poetic and interpretive aspects of these biblical texts.
PQ: First year Biblical Hebrew.
BIBL 45800 The Three Letters of John
Klauck, Hans-Josef
M/W 9:00-11:00 S208
The Gospel of John tends to overshadow somewhat the three letters of John also found in the canon of the New Testament. They deserve to be read on their own right; when we do this, we may get additional glimpses of a project that might be called Johannine theology. The two brief letters 2 John and 3 John give us some insight into the situation of the community where these writings were produced. They are also highly interesting for the use they make of Greek epistolography. The longer first letter looks more like a theological meditation of major themes of the Gospel tradition like light and darkness or truth and lie. However, it also reflects a bitter schism in the community, provoked by issues of Christology.
PQ: No Greek required. A special Greek reading section will be offered M/W 10:20-11:00).
BIBL 50400 Early Christian Rhetoric
Mitchell, Margaret
Th 3:00-5:50 S403
An examination of the rhetorics (persuasive strategies) of early Christian literature, and how they were rooted in the ancient paideia (education system) and forms of public life in the Greco-Roman world. We shall focus on significant points of intersection with the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition in terms of style, “invention”, arrangement, and delivery, by triangulated close readings each week in Greek of selected early Christian writings, Greco-Roman rhetorical compositions, and samples of rhetorical theory. The early Christian texts will range from Paul to the fourth century, and may include: Galatians, I Corinthians, Athenagoras, legatio pro Christianis, Gregory of Nazianzus’ funeral oration for his brother, Caesarius, and John Chrysostom’s de laudibus sancti Pauli and de sacerdotio.
PQ: Strong Greek skills.
Ident. HCHR 50401
THEO 31600 Introduction to Theology *
Hector, Kevin
T/Th 10:30-11:50 S208
This course is designed to introduce students to the language, controversies, and figures of theology, and to encourage students to improve their own theologizing by considering its public relevance, intelligibility, and justifiability.
THEO 36501 Creation and Providence
Tanner, Kathryn
Tu 9:00-11:50 S403
The course explores fundamental issues in the Christian understanding of creation and procidence, among them: creation ex nihilo, the compatibility of belief in providence with naturalistic and non-teleological scientific description, the character of putative supernatural occurrences (e.g., miracles), ethical objections to appeals to providence in everyday life, ways of conceptualizing God’s action in the world, , and attempts to make sense of the way God directs the outcomes of decisions made by free, fallible, and often misguided humans.
THEO 37500 Spirituality of the 16th Century
Schreiner, Susan
M 1:30-4:20 S200
Ident. HCHR 37500
THEO 42001 Feminist Theory and Theology: Beauvoir’s Second Sex
Culp, Kristine
T/Th 1:00-2:20 S208
In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxieme Sexe took up the old question of sexual difference; it was never the same question again. Her attention to the situation and “situatedness” of women resulted in new ways of thinking about freedom, destiny, reciprocity, and subjectivity; it brought literature, autobiography, and cultural studies into philosophical reflection. In this seminar, we will read The Second Sex in English translation (1952) and with reference to the original (unedited) French text, giving attention to how the text addressed religious themes (e.g., mysticism, transcendence) and its French Catholic audience. We will also consider how Beauvoir’s work has been received and used by feminist theologians such as Mary Daly.
PQ: Some ability to read French will be useful.
THEO 43301 Contemporary Trinitarian Theology
Hector, Kevin
Tu 3:00-5:50 S400
20th 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 47000 Pro-Seminar in Theology
Tanner, Kathryn
ARR ARR ARR
PQ: Workshop for doctoral students who are at or close to the dissertation stage. Time and day to be arranged (off campus in the evenings).
DVPR 31700 Birth and Death of the metaphysical Proofs of the Existence of God, Descartes and Kant
Marion, Jean-Luc
M 3:00-5:50 S106
The attempt to prove the existence of God has itself a history, and was not a common request of philosophy and theology before Descartes. As both philosophy and theology has continued to think about God after the deconstruction of those proofs by Kant. Therefore attention will be paid to the system of the three main proofs, the parallel between Descartes and Kant. The final issue will be the legitimacy and meaning of the endeavor to prove the existence of God.
Ident. SCTH 34515
DVPR 39200 Simone Weil *
Meltzer, Francoise
W 3:00-5:50 S208
This course will consider Simone Weil from the perspectice of her philosophy, religious convictions and political activism. These three areas of Weil’s work are often considered as discrete compartments, but we will approach them as parts of a cohesive philosophical system.
Ident. CMLT
DVPR 41400 De-theologizing Christianity
Coyne, Ryan
T/Th 10:30-11:50 S200
A study of how Christian religious and/or theological tropes are taken up and transformed by modern philosophers since Kant. In particular, we will try to situate current articulations of a “religion without religion” within a broader tradition of critical philosophy. Readings will be drawn from: Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Overbeck, Heidegger, Bataille, Blanchot, Derrida, and Nancy.
DVPR 43600 Lacan’s Ethics
Coyne, Ryan
Tu 3:00-5:50 S208
A careful study of Book VII of Jacques Lacan’s Seminars, entitled The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959-1960). This course will be devoted to understanding what Lacan called “the tragic dimension of psychoanalytic experience.” We will supplement our study of Seminar VII by reading Sophocles’ Antigone, various selections from Freud and Heidegger, and various essays by Lacan.
DVPR 49800 Yogacara Texts: The Mahayanasamgraha
Arnold, Dan
F 1:30-4:20 S403
PQ: Some Sanskrit or Tibetan preferred.
Ident. SALC 48402
DVPR 52600 Heidegger on Being and Presence
Marion, Jean-Luc
W 3:00-5:50 S106
Having in past years extensively studied the first Heidegger (Being and Time), the constitution of metaphysics and its interpretation as onto-theo-logy, will now focus on the central period of Heidegger’s thought and the question of how far Being should be explained according to Presence (whatever this word may mean). Connected questions will be God’s questionable “existence”, and philosophy without metaphysics.
Ident. SCTH 54601
CHRM 30700 Colloquium: Introduction to Ministry Studies
Lindner, Cynthia
W 1:30-2:50 S400
PQ: First year ministry students only.
DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE.CHRM 35700 Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care
Lindner, Cynthia
F 9:00-11:50 S400
PQ: 2nd year M.DIV. students; others with approval of instructor.
CHRM 36700 Advanced Seminar in Pastoral Care: Is Forgiveness Possible
Weaver, Deborah; Lindner, Cynthia
W 9:00-11:20 S400
Forgiveness is a concept with a long religious history and practice; increasingly it is employed in a wide variety of public settings, from the therapeutic to the political. The seminar will explore theological, philosophical, psychological and evolutionary conversations about forgiveness as they inform the pastoral care of individuals, congregations and communities.
PQ: Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care or permissions of instructor.
CHRM 40800 Practice of Ministry III
Boyd, Kevin
F 1:30-4:20 S400
PQ: 2nd year M.DIV. students.
CHRM 41600 Ecology and Nationalism: Explorations in Biblical Ethics
Clayville, Kristel
T/TH 1:30-2:50 Swift 400
This class seeks to explore the relationship between biblical interpretation and constructive Christian ethics. The class will first engage the theoretical issues that arise when attempting to use the Bible for normative ethical claims. Can we use the ethics in the Bible as our model for contemporary ethics? If not, how do we interpret the Bible in order to address contemporary ethical problems? Are there ethical standards in our world that biblical texts must live up to? The second and third parts of the class are organized around biblical texts and moral problems. The second part will focus on ecological ethics, and the third part on nationalism and chosenness. More specifically, in the second part of the class we will read the biblical texts that have shaped the ecological ethics debate around what it means to be human and the human relationship to the land, and in the third part, we will look at how the ecological ethics debate has heightened questions about political relationships to land, and how the biblical text is used differently in this new context. Finally, we will explore the possibilities of biblical interpretation itself being an ethical practice.
ISLM 30610 Islamic Theology: 600-1300
Akpinar, Mehmetcan
Tu/TH 10:30-11:50 Pick 022
This course aims at providing the students with the knowledge of general themes, discussions and debates in Islamic Theology, as well as familiarizing them with the major theological issues and the seminal works of the Early Islamic Period. The course materials cover the time period before the 14th century and seeks to contextualize some of the basic and universal themes and discussions in a historical framework that traces the development of theology Islam. Questions such as faith, free will, God’s attributes, revelation and other related theological issues will be discussed through both primary sources and scholarly literature.
ISLM 30630 Introduction to Islamic Philosophy
Walker, Paul
Tu/Th 1:00-2:50 Arr
Ident. NEHC 20630/30630.
ISLM 30679 Islam and the Armenians: Paradigms of Medieval Interactions
Dadoyan, Seta
W 1:30-4:20 ARR
Ident. NEHC 20679/30679
ISLM 40100 Islamic Love Poetry
Sells, Michael
Tu 2:30-5:20 MEM Library
PQ: Some acquaintance with one of the following languages: Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ottoman, Arabic, Punjabi, or other languages of classical Islamic love poetry.
Ident. NEHC 40600/RLIT 40300/CMLT 40100
HIJD 41700 Giving and Receiving
Fishbane, Michael
Tu 1:00-3:50 S200
Emphasis will be on care of the indigent. The focus will be textual (classical biblical and rabbinic sources, also some medieval legal codes), but will include comparative issues drawn from anthropology. The larger concern of this course, and its future sequel will be on theological matters. Due to Passover the first two meetings of this class, March 30 and April 6, will be rescheduled for Friday, April 2 and 9 at 9:00 a.m. in Swift 200.
HIJD 49800 Contemporary Jewish Theology
Fishbane, Michael
W 1:30-3:50 S200
This course will be a close examination of selected works of contemporary Jewish theology in light of such issues as: the task and problematic of theology; literary structure and style; theological values and traditions; and the nature and idea of experience (human and theological); praxis and life-forms; and modes of authenticity and verification. The authors to be considered with be M. Buber; J. Soloveitchik; A. Heschel; and M. Fishbane. The course will be conducted in a seminar format, with several short papers and one longer essay required. Due to Passover the first meeting of this class (March 31) will be rescheduled for Friday April 2 at 12:00 noon in Swift 200.
HIJD 49900 Ethnography and Literary Genres in Rabbinic Literature
Hasan-Rokem, Galit
Th 1:00-3:50 S406
This course is intended for students with at least a basic methodological proficiency in reading texts in the humanities, particularly ancient texts associated with religious discourses, as well as basic skills in reading scholarly articles in the same field. Students with Hebrew skills will be offered tutorials for reading the original texts. Who were the authors of the Rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity? How do we access their spiritual and intellectual worlds? What fields of human experience and creativity do their texts introduce us to? The seminar will address texts from the ancient Rabbinical texts from both the Talmuds (Palestinian and Babylonian) and the contemporary compilations of Midrash Aggada.
Ident. RLIT 49900HCHR 32405 Medieval Monasticism
Fulton, Rachel
Tu/Th 1:30-2:50 ARR
In modern popular culture, the Middle Ages is often imaginatively synonymous with war: knights in shining armor, Vikings in their longships, Robin Hood with his longbow and “merry men.” This lecture-discussion course seeks to complicate this image by examining warfare as a central fact of European civilized life. Problems to be addressed include the technology and economics of warfare, the sociology of warfare, major phases in the development of European warfare from the Carolingians through the Hundred Years’ War, and the literary, religious, and psychological significance of war for the development of European Civilization.
Ident. HIST 22405/32405
HCHR 37500 Spirituality of the 16th Century
Schreiner, Susan
M 1:30-4:20 S200
Ident. THEO 37500
HCHR 42300 Readings in Luther
Schreiner, Susan
M/W 10:00-11:20 S201
HCHR 42700 Revising the American Religious Historical Canon
Brekus, Catherine
M 9:30-12:20 S400
This course examines recent trends in the writing of American religious history. Since the 1970s, American religious historians have argued that the “canon” needs to be revised. By reading some of the most influential articles and books in the field, we will critically assess both the strengths and weaknesses of the “new” history. Besides reading textbooks such as Catherine Albanese’s America: Religion and Religions and George Marsden’s Religion and American Culture, we will read case studies of new approaches and methodologies. Students are required to lead class discussion once during the quarter and to write a final 20-25 page paper.
PQ: Enrollment is strictly limited to students who have taken “The American Religious Historical Canon (HCHR 42600/HIST 63700)
Ident. HIST 63800.
HCHR 44700 Theology in America, 1865-1965
Gilpin, W. Clark
Tu 1:00-3:50 S403
The course will focus on readings from major American theologians and philosophers of religion.
PQ: Research paper.
HCHR 45102 Consumerism, Capitalism, and Christianity in the United States
Brekus, Catherine
W 1:30-4:20 S201
This course asks how Christianity has both shaped and reflected economic change from the 18th century to the present. Besides examining diverse Christian attitudes toward consumerism and capitalism, we will ask how economic developments have shaped understandings of God and the self. Students are required to write a 20-25 page research paper.
Ident. HIST 47601
HCHR 45600 African American Religion in the 20th Century: Historiography and History
Evans, Curtis
M 3:00-5:50 S201
We explore the major interpretations of African American religions in the U.S. in the 20th century. Special attention is paid to deconstructions of “the black church,” enduring debates about the nature and function of African American Christianity, and interpretative concerns about the distinctiveness of African American religion.
Ident. CRES 45600
HCHR 50401 Early Christian Rhetoric
Mitchell, Margaret
Th 3:00-5:50 S403
An examination of the rhetorics (persuasive strategies) of early Christian literature, and how they were rooted in the ancient paideia (education system) and forms of public life in the Greco-Roman world. We shall focus on significant points of intersection with the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition in terms of style, “invention”, arrangement, and delivery, by triangulated close readings each week in Greek of selected early Christian writings, Greco-Roman rhetorical compositions, and samples of rhetorical theory. The early Christian texts will range from Paul to the fourth century, and may include: Galatians, I Corinthians, Athenagoras, legatio pro Christianis, Gregory of Nazianzus’ funeral oration for his brother, Caesarius, and John Chrysostom’s de laudibus sancti Pauli and de sacerdotio.
PQ: Strong Greek Skills
Ident. BIBL 50400
HREL 52200 Problems in the History of Religions
Wed 7:00-10:00 p.m. ARR
PQ: Limited to students in the Ph.D. program in the History of Religions working on their colloquium paper, orals statement for the Qualifying Examination, or dissertation chapter.
HCHR 52600 The Long 1960s: Religion and Social Change
Evans, Curtis
W 3:00-5:50 S403
This course is an intensive reading seminar of major secondary and primary sources that examine significant religious and cultural shifts that occurred in the 1960s. The course will be especially concerned with the emergence of the New Christian Right and the meaning of Vatican II for American Catholics, changes in gender roles and families, debates about public schools and the public role of religion, and race and churches involved in or opposed to the Civil Rights movement.
HREL 32300 Hindu Mythologies of Evil
Doniger, Wendy
W/F 1:30-2:50 S208
Readings in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, David Shulman, The Hungry God, and selected passages from the Rig Veda, the Upanishads, Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, and other, later texts.
PQ: 15-20 page paper at the end of the quarter.
Ident. SCTH 33811/RLST 27403
HREL 45200 Historiography for Historians of Religion
Lincoln, Bruce
M/W 10:00-11:20 S403
HREL 45802 Manuscripts, Material Culture, and Ritual Practice
P. Copp
ARR ARR ARR
An introduction to the use of manuscripts, xylographs, and material objects in the study of pre-modern ritual practices. We will take the Dunhuang collections as our main focus, but we will also consider studies of materials from other eastern Silk Road sites, as well as from Japan and Tibet. We will deal both with broad methodological issues—codicology, material culture, how to understand ritual action—and also with the specifics of the manuscript and religious cultures of Dunhuang and related sites. No prerequisites.
HREL 51001 Seminar: States of Nature
Doniger, Wendy/Daston, Lorraine
Th 3:00-5:50 MEM Seminar Room
Animals have been used across cultures and history to imagine what it is to be human. This seminar will explore the animal/human boundary on hand from texts from Eastern and Western traditions and from religion, philosophy, literature and science, including Aesop, medieval bestiaries, Descartes, Darwin, and Heideger; and Sanskrit texts about the origins of animals, the divisions into sacrificed and hunted animals, and animals used to symbolize particular castes of humans. The aim of the seminar is to understand not just how animals have been used to think about the human (and vice versa) but also why particular animals are good to think with.
PQ. 15-20 page paper at end of quarter. Preference will be given to students from Committee on Social Thought and Ph.D.students in the History of Religions.
Ident. SCTH 51001
RLIT 40700 Islamic Love Poetry
Sells, Michael
Tu 2:30-5:20 MEM Library
PQ: some acquaintance with one of the following languages: Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ottoman, Arabic, Punjabi, Pashtu, or other languages of classical Islamic love poetry.
Ident. ISLM 40100/NEHC 40600/CMLT 40100
RLIT 43301 Tragedy: Theory & Texts
Rosengarten, Richard
Th 9:00-11:50 S201
This course will read and pursue the interpretation of selected tragic dramas from ancient Greece, Renaissance England, and twentieth century Europe. While our primary work will be with the texts themselves, we will also review their histories of performance and reception as well as major theoretical statements on tragedy and the tragic, from Aristotle through Nietzsche and Unamuno. Themes for comparative discussion will include the relationships of text and performance, ideas of theater as ritual, and the persistence of ethics in both the texts and the theories of tragedy.
RLIT 49900 Ethnography and Literary Genres in Rabbinic Literature
Hasan-Rokem, Galit
Th 1:00-3:50 S406
This course is intended for students with at least a basic methodological proficiency in reading texts in the humanities, particularly ancient texts associated with religious discourses, as well as basic skills in reading scholarly articles in the same field. Students with Hebrew skills will be offered tutorials for reading the original texts. Who were the authors of the Rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity? How do we access their spiritual and intellectual worlds? What fields of human experience and creativity do their texts introduce us to? The seminar will address texts from the ancient Rabbinical texts from both the Talmuds (Palestinian and Babylonian) and the contemporary compilations of Midrash Aggada.
Ident. HIJD 49900RETH 32900 Emotion, Reason, and Law
Nussbaum, Martha
ARR ARR ARR
Emotions figure in many areas of the law, and many legal doctrines (from reasonable provocation in homicide to mercy in criminal sentencing) invite us to think about emotions and their relationship to reason. In addition, some prominent theories of the limits of law make reference to emotions: thus Lord Devlin and, more recently, Leon Kass have argued that the disgust of the average member of society is a sufficient reason for rendering a practice illegal, even though it does no harm to others. Emotions, however, are all too rarely studied closely, with the result that both theory and doctrine are often confused.
The first part of this course will study major theories of emotion, asking about the relationship between emotion and cotnition, focusing on philosophical accounts, but also learning from anthropology and psychology. We will ask how far emotions embody cognitions, and of what type, and then we will ask whether there is a reason to consider some or all emotions “irrational” in a normative sense. We then turn to the criminal law, asking how specific emotions figure in doctrine and theory: anger, fear, compassion, disgust, guilt, and shame. Legal areas considered will include self-defense, reasonable provocation, mercy, victim impact statements, sodomy laws, sexual harassment, shame-based punishments. Next, we turn to the role played by emotions in constitutional law and in thought about just institutions—a topic that seems initially unpromising, but one that wll turn out to be full of interest.
Ident LAW/PHIL/PLSC.
RETH 51303 Seminar: Law-Philosophy
Nussbaum, Marth
M 3:00-6:00 ARR
This is the third part of the seminar-workshop which began in the Autumn quarter.
PQ: Students who were admitted to the Autumn seminar may register.
Ident. LAW/PHIL/PLSC 51303
RETH 52900 Advanced Seminar in Ethics: Murder Most Foul
Elshtain, Jean Bethke/Meredith, Stephen
M 1:00-3:50 S208
From the story of Cain and Abel to the present moment, a tragic fact of civilization is murder—the unjust taking of a human life. Why is murder a pervasive feature of human society, past and present? What are the multiple ways in which murder is explained, interpreted, and punished? What ethical understandings enter into conflicting positions on murder and what should be done with murderers?
These and other issues will be explored from a variety of points of view—medical and neurological, sociological, political, legal, theological—and through a variety of texts, from Shakespeare’s MacBeth to law codes and statutes, from divine commandments to tabloid journalism. We will also screen films that display the range of views about ‘why’ murder and what should be done with murderers.
Ident. PLSC 52901
