Spring 2012 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. Students may also choose from the list of 300-level courses that do not require a pre-requisite.
DVSC 42000 Divinity School: German Reading Exam
Monday, April 16 at 6:00 p.m.
PQ: Open only to Divinity School students.
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 50100 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 from faculty list.
BIBL 39901 Gnostic Religion and Literature
Brakke, David
W F 1:30 – 2:50 S208
The early Christian philosophical movement known as "the Gnostics" used the stories of the Bible, Platonist philosophy, and the new revelation of Jesus to address compelling questions of god, creation, sin, and salvation. Their beliefs, expressed in powerful but strange myths, so shocked other Christians that "Gnosticism" became known as the ultimate "heresy." In this course, we will examine for ourselves the scriptures of the Gnostic sect, as well as the writings of the great reformer of Gnostic myth, Valentinus (ca. 100-75), the Christian thinkers who followed him, and other related movements. We will first examine the myths that Gnostic and Valentinian Christians created, and then we will turn to the role of rituals and mystical encounter with God in their spiritualities.
Ident.: HCHR 39901
BIBL 40300 The Gospel of Luke (selections)
Klauck, Hans-Josef
M W 9:00 – 11:00 S208
PQ: No Greek necessary. A special Greek class will be offered from 10:20-11:00.
BIBL 42701 The Epistle to the Ephesians
Harrill, J. Albert
T Th 1:30 – 2:50 S208
An exegesis course on "Ephesians" that will focus on questions such as its forgery of Paul's style, its adaptation of household management codes, its redaction of Colossians apparently without any particular controversy or community, and its attempt to be a "handbook" for baptismal catechumens. The course will analyze in detail the author's attempt to integrate believers into God's family and plan (oikonomia) "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. (Eph. 2:19). The vocabulary of God's "mystery" notwithstanding, the letter's "wisdom" is mundane – rules for daily life, virtue/vice lists – not esoteric or theoretical speculation about the divine. The letter is practical and serves ordinary gentile converts, even slaves, as a handbook in the "worthy life," a vade mecum for generations to come (Eph. 3:21; 4:1-2) that may likely be intended to replace Jewish Scripture (LXX).
PQ: Greek skills are not required, but ample opportunity will be provided for their use.
BIBL 43803 Biblical Notions of Covenant
Stackert, Jeffrey
T Th 8:00 – 9:20 S400
This is a reading course in biblical texts that employ the notion of covenant. Covenant is a central religious idea in many biblical texts, even as different authors conceptualize it in very different ways. In this course, we will examine the ways that covenant is conceived in a selection of texts from the Hebrew Bible. All biblical texts will be read in Hebrew. Students with interest in the impact of Old Testament views of covenant in New Testament texts might fruitfully pursue such a topic in their paper writing.
PQ: One year of biblical Hebrew, BIBL 31000 Introduction to the Hebrew BibleBIBL 47602 Brauer Seminar: Translation
Stackert, Jeffrey and Doniger, Wendy
T Th 1:30 – 2:50 S200
A seminar for students actively engaged in the translation of texts. We will ready essays on the art of translation, compare multiple translations of individual texts (ranging from the Bible to Jabberwocky), and discuss the problems encountered in our own work on translation. Issues to be addressed include the purpose and goal of translations, the problem of compositeness in texts to be translated, the negotiation between the meaning(s) and literary/aesthetic features of a text, and the politics of translating religious texts.
PQ: By Application onlyIdent.: HREL 47602
THEO 31600 Introduction to Theology*
Hector, Kevin
M W 10:30 – 11:20 S106
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 37500 Spirituality of the 16th Century
Schreiner, Susan
T/Th 9:00-10:20 S200
Ident. HCHR 37500
THEO 42702 Trends in Christian Ethics
Schweiker, William
T Th 10:30 – 11:20 S403
This course is a survey of contemporary trends in Christian ethics attentive to classical (biblical, theological, philosophical) and also basic themes that influence Christian reflection on the moral life. Noting classic sources ranging from the biblical portrait of Jesus' ministry to scholastic theologians and the Protestant Reformers, the burden of the course will be to examine principal trends in thought. These trends include, among others, so-called narrative ethics, current work on the role of Christ in the moral life, feminist and revisionary forms of Roman Catholic ethics, and social teachings on topics ranging from economics to war and sex. The course will thereby attend not only to fundamental conceptual and theoretical issues in contemporary Christian ethics, but also questions in applied ethics especially pressing in the current world situation.
Ident.: RETH 42702
THEO 43400 Theological Anthropology
Hopkins, Dwight
Tue 9:00-11:50 MEM Seminar Room
THEO 44101 Crusade and Holy War in the Medieval World
Pick, Lucy
T 9:00 – 11:50 S201
This course will focus on the origins and development of the idea of holy war and crusade in the Middle Ages. We will consider the evolution of notions of just war and holy war in the first few class periods and then will move on to consider recruitment techniques, the goals, ideals and ambitions of individual crusaders, as well as the medieval and modern historiography of the crusades. Attention will be given to Muslim, Jewish, Byzantine, as well as Latin perspectives.
Ident.: HIST 63102 / ISLM 44000 / HCHR 44101
THEO 44601 Renaissance and Reformation
Schreiner, Susan
T/TH 10:20-11:50 S400
Ident. HCHR 44600
THEO 50702 Justice: Theological and Philosophical
Schweiker, William
Th 1:30 – 4:20 S403
This seminar will engage recent work on justice, theological and philosophical. Engaging thinkers like A. McIntyre, N. Wolterstorff, P. Ricouer, and R. Dworkin, the purpose of the seminar is to explore the current debate about the meaning of justice and to access main options.
PQ: Previous work in Theology or Ethics required.Ident.: RETH 50702
DVPR 31800 Introduction to Phenomenology: Heidegger, Being and Time *
Marion, Jean-Luc
M 3:00 – 5:50 S106
Starting with Kant, focusing on Husserl and Heidegger, the course will check the different possible definitions of a phenomenon in late modern and contemporary philosophy.
Ident.: PHIL 33905 / SCTH 33905
DVPR 41100 Anglo-American Philosophy of/and Religion
Hector, Kevin
W 3:00 – 5:50 S200
This course will examine key texts and figures in twentieth-century Anglo-American philosophy, with particular attention to their implications for the study of religion. Figures treated will include C.S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Hartshorne, Wilfrid Sellers, John McDowell, and Alvin Plantinga.
DVPR 42802 Saints: Economies of Transgression
Meltzer, Francoise / Elsner, Jas
M/W 1:30-4:20 CWAC 152
This course will explore the ideologies, inconsistencies, passions in the construction and representation of sainthood—textual, visual and cinematic—in the Western tradition. From holy fools to charismatics, from collections of saints' lives to treasuries full of relics, from Virgins to old bones, we will examine the manifestations of one of the most potent phenomena to have gripped European and American culture since before the advent of Christianity to the present day. This will include both the attempts to control sainthood through theory and theology, and the attempts to bring it to mind through icons and reliquary.
Ident. ARTH/CMLT 42800
DVPR 42100 The Dream in Modern Thought
Coyne, Ryan
M 9:00 – 11:50 S201
DVPR 46700 Pluralism and Philosophy of Religions
Arnold, Dan
T Th 10:30 – 11:50 MEM Library
This course will consider the philosophical problems that arise in light of religious pluralism – chiefly, how or whether the seemingly contradictory claims of various traditions might alike be true. There will be some attention to the conceptual resources that particular religious traditions have for addressing pluralism, and some attention not only to contemporary philosophical resources but also to various early modern and pre-modern sources.
DVPR 47900 The Philosophical Career of Vasubandhu
Arnold, Dan
F 1:30 – 4:20 S403
PQ: Background in Indian Buddhist philosophy. Some Sanskrit and/or Tibetan.
Ident. SALC 48404
DVPR 51790 The Problem of Evil
Kremer, Michael
Tue 12:00-2:50 Stu 209
This course will consider recent work in philosophy of religion on the problem of evil, especially attempts at constructing theodicies or defenses responding to the problem of suffering (or natural evil). Authors to be discussed may include: Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (1999); Peter van Inwagen, The Problems of Evil (2006); and Eleonore Stump, Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (2010). Requirements: Active participation in seminar discussion and term paper.
Ident.: PHIL 51790
DVPR 54300 Logos, Reason & Philosophy According to Justin and Other Apologists
Marion, Jean-Luc
T 3:00 – 5:50 S106
Unlike the distinction most widely admitted by modern contemporary authors, the early Christian Fathers claimed that followers of Christ, that is the Logos made man among us, are philosophers, or at least, play among non-Greeks, the role played by philosophers among Greeks. This identification of Christian faith to rationality and philosophy remained dominant at least to Origen. Starting form Justin, philosopher and martyr, the inquiry will follow up this tradition up to Ireneus.
Ident.: PHIL 53415 / SCTH 53415 / THEO 54300
CHRM 30700 Colloquium: Introduction to Ministry Studies
Lindner, Cynthia and Boyd, Kevin
W 1:30 – 2:50 S400
PQ: DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE
CHRM 35700 Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care
Lindner, Cynthia
F 9:00 – 11:50 S400
PQ: Open to second year MDivs only, others by permission of instructor.
CHRM 36700 Advanced Pastoral Care Seminar: Trauma and Grace
Lindner, Cynthia
W 3:00-5:50 S400
PQ: Arts of Ministry: Pastoral Care, or permission of instructor
CHRM 40800 Practice of Ministry III
Boyd, Kevin
F 1:30 – 3:30 S 400
PQ: 2nd year MDiv
AASR 45403 The Sanctification of Space in Contemporary Israel
Bilu, Yoram
M W 1:30 – 2:50 S201
The course will meet the last 5 weeks of the term: April 30-June 1.
This is a class on the sanctification of space and place in Israel, exploring various facets of Israeli society through a place-related prism: holy place in ancient and modern Judaism, the political uses of sacred sites in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sanctification and commemoration in Israel' civil religion (national pantheons, war monuments, etc.), the allure of "centers out there" (Israeli backers in Hindu shrines, teenagers visiting Poland's death camps, Hasidim visiting Rabbis' tombs in east Europe).
Ident.: HIJD 45403 / NEHC 45403 / ANTH 42425
ISLM 30325 Persian Poetry: Mathnavi of Rumi - 2
Lewis, Franklin
T 1:30 – 4:20 TBA
The Mathnavi of Mowlānā al-Din Rumi (1207 – 1273) constitutes the single most influential text in the Persian mystical tradition, read in the original from Bosnia to Bengal. This course will consider the literary background and achievement of the text; its poetic representation of Qur'an, hadith, and mystical theosophy; its reception, commentary, and translation history; and above all the structure and meaning of the poem. The first quarter will survey a select anthology of individual stories and themes in the Masnavi; while the second quarter will focus on a though-reading of at least one of the six books of this 25,000 line poem.
Ident.: PERS 30325
ISLM 30349 Shi'a Poetry
Qutbiddin, Tahera/Lewis, Franklin
T 1:30-4:20 Pick 218
This course will survey the poetry of Shi'i expression in the Arabic and Persian literary traditions, as well as its intellectual and theological context. Focus will be on close readings and analysis of the poetic texts, with a concentration on the pre-modern period.
PQ. Two years each of Arabic and Persian. Graduate seminar; open to qualified undergraduates with instructors' consent.
Ident. ARAB 30349/PERS 30349
ISLM 30603 Islamic Thought and Literature II
El Shamsy, Ahmed
M/W/F 10:30-11:20 TBA
This course covers the period from ca. 1800 to the present, exploring works of Arab intellectuals who interpreted various aspects of Islamic philosophy, political theory, and law in the modern age. Each class contextualizes the works of a particular thinker or of a group of thinkers in order to investigate different approaches to the projects of science, colonialism, and Arab nationalism. More specifically, we look at diverse interpretations concerning the role of religion in a modern society, at secularized and historicized approaches to religion, and at the critique of both religious establishments and nation states as articulated by Arab intellectuals.Generally, we discuss secondary literature first and the primary sources later.
Ident. NEHC 20603/30603
ISLM 30642 The High Caliphate
Donner, Fred
M W 1:30 – 2:50 OR 208
Review of major developments in the history of the Islamic community from ca. 700 CE until ca. 1000 CE, with focus on the extensive secondary literature devoted to key issues, including: character of Umayyad rule, conversion and taxation, rise of piety-minded opposition, character of the "Abbasid revolution", nature of Abbasid rule, development of Shi'ism and Abbasid rivalry, the Abbasid civil war, Byzantium and the caliphate, evolution of military institutions, vizierate and bureaucracy, rise of Samarra and the Samarra period, rise of regionalism, beginnings of Ism'ailism, commercial relations, the Buyid ascendancy.
PQ: NEHC 20601 or 20602 or 20501
Ident.: NEHC 20642 / 30642
ISLM 40855 Ottoman Painting
Bagci, Serpil
W 1:30-4:20 ARR
This seminar provides a contextual survey of Ottoman manuscript and album painting. A number of illustrated manuscripts, produced mainly in the court workshop from the late 15th century to the 18th, will be discussed with respect to their subject matter and the stylistic features of paintings. The themes around which the manuscripts will be seen include the dynamics of Ottoman court painting, changes in visual and thematic taste, patrons' motives for refashioning artistic approaches, the distinctive preference for illustrating historical themes ,painters' attention to documentary detail based on direct observation, inspirations drawn from the pictorial conventions of the east and the west, and the impact of royal manuscripts on professional, non-courtly production in Istanbul and provincial centers. Contemporary texts and documents offering information on the artists and production processes will also be taken into consideration.
Ident. NEHC 40855
ISLM 43300 Comparative Mystical Literature
Sells, Michael
M 1:30-4:20 MEM Library
This course will examine Islamic, Christian, and Jewish mystical literature, with one third of the class devoted to each of the three traditions. Our focus will be upon writings from the late 12th to early 14th centuries CE by Ibn al- ̀Arabi, Meister Eckhart, Hadewijch, Marguerite Porete, and Moses de Leon (by attribution). We will also look at some selections from other writings, including Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Class format centers upon close readings of specific primary texts.
PQ: Willingness to work in one of these languages: Arabic, Latin, Greek, French, German, Hebrew, Aramaic or Spanish.
Ident. RLIT 43600/CMLT 40200.
ISLM 44000 Crusade and Holy War in the Medieval World
Pick, Lucy
T 9:00 – 11:50 S201
This course will focus on the origins and development of the idea of holy war and crusade in the Middle Ages. We will consider the evolution of notions of just war and holy in the first few class periods and then will move on to consider recruitment techniques, the goals, ideals and ambitions of individual crusaders, as well as the medieval and modern historiography of the crusades. Attention will be given to Muslim, Jewish, Byzantine, as well as Latin perspectives.
Ident.: HIST 63102 / THEO 44101 / HCHR 44101
ISLM 45400 Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed
Robinson, James
T 1:30-4:20 S403
A close reading of select chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, the most influential work of medieval Jewish thought.
PQ: Good knowledge of Arabic and/or Hebrew
Ident.: HIJD 45400 / HREL 45401
HIJD 36200 Studies in Hasidism: The Mystical Theology of R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl
Fishbane, Michael
W 9:00-11:20 S403
An introduction to early Hasidism via a study of selections from 'Me' or 'Eyayyim', a 19th century classic. Students will learn how to read a Hasidic homiletic text, and understand its theology and hermeneutical strategies. The course will include an examination of the author's 'regimen vitae'.
PQ: Primary sources will be in Hebrew, with translations provided (Hebrew thus not a prerequisite but preferred).
HIJD 36900 Israel, The Jewish People and the Catholic Church
Cohen, Raymond
T/TH 10:30-11:50 S200
Catholic-Jewish relations have undergone a transformation since Vatican II from a state of estrangement to one of growing normalization. In 1994 Israel and the Holy See established diplomatic relations and have been negotiating a series of treaties ever since. The course will follow the trajectory of this unique, multifaceted relationship at both the interreligious and state-to-state levels. Our aim is to try to understand why the relationship was so fraught from earliest times, and how this dissonance is being overcome at the present day. The approach will be theological and historical, with attention paid to the study of some key texts.
PQ: Basic grounding in Christianity and Judaism.
HIJD 39200 Studies in Rabbinic Midrash: Leviticus Rabba
Fishbane, Michael
M 9:00-11:20 S200
Course will read selections from this classical work of rabbinic biblical hermeneutics, focusing on exegetical technique, literary form and style, and theology. Special emphasis will be placed on the way sacrificial texts were transformed into ethical and religious instructions.
PQ: Sources will be in rabbinic Hebrew (Hebrew required).
HIJD 45400 Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed
Robinson, James
T 1:30-4:20 S403
A close reading of select chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, the most influential work of medieval Jewish thought.
PQ: Good knowledge of Arabic and/or HebrewIdent.: HREL 45401 / ISLM 45400
HIJD 45403 The Sanctification of Space in Contemporary Israel
Bilu, Yoram
M W 1:30 – 2:50 S201 The course will meet the last 5 weeks of the term April 30-June 1
This is a class on the sanctification of space and place in Israel, exploring various facets of Israeli society through a place-related prism: holy place in ancient and modern Judaism, the political uses of sacred sites in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sanctification and commemoration in Israel' civil religion (national pantheons, war monuments, etc.), the allure of "centers out there" (Israeli backers in Hindu shrines, teenagers visiting Poland's death camps, Hasidim visiting Rabbis' tombs in east Europe).
Ident.: AASR 45403 / NELC / NEHC 45403 / ANTH 42425
HIJD 48600 Medieval Commentaries on Psalms
Robinson, James
M 1:30-4:20 S200
An introduction to and survey of the medieval Jewish commentaries on the Book of Psalms, including Karaite and Rabbanite texts of the tenth century, the work of the Spanish grammarians of eh eleventh and twelfth, and the philosophers and Kabbalists of the later Middle Ages. Exegetes to be considered will include: Saadia Gaon, Salmon b. Yeroham, Yefet b. Eli, Abraham ibn Ezra, Maimonides, David Kimhi, Menahem ha-Meiri, Ezra of Gerona, and Todros Abulafia. There is no language requirement; all texts will be read in translation. However, there will be an extra reading session for those with good command of Arabic and /or Hebrew.
HCHR 32111 Mary and Mariology
Fulton, Rachel
M/W 1:30-2:50 Arr
More than a saint, but less than god, no figure of Christian devotion other than Jesus Christ himself has inspired as much piety or excited as much controversy as the Virgin Mother of God. In this course, we will study the development of her image and cult from her descriptions in the Gospels through the modern papal definitions of Marian Dogma so as to come to some understanding how and why this woman "about whom the Gospels say so little" has become a figure of such popular and theological significance. We will consider both the medieval flowering of her cult and its dismantling, transformation and reinvention in the centuries since.
Ident.: HIST 22111 / 32111HCHR 37500 Spirituality of the 16th Century
Schreiner, Susan
T/Th 9:00-10:20 S200
Ident. THEO 37500
HCHR 39901 Gnostic Religion and Literature
Brakke, David
W F 1:30 – 2:50 S208
The early Christian philosophical movement known as "the Gnostics" used the stories of the Bible, Platonist philosophy, and the new revelation of Jesus to address compelling questions of god, creation, sin, and salvation. Their beliefs, expressed in powerful but strange myths, so shocked other Christians that "Gnosticism" became known as the ultimate "heresy." In this course, we will examine for ourselves the scriptures of the Gnostic sect, as well as the writings of the great reformer of Gnostic myth, Valentinus (ca. 100-75), the Christian thinkers who followed him, and other related movements. We will first examine the myths that Gnostic and Valentinian Christians created, and then we will turn to the role of rituals and mystical encounter with God in their spiritualities.
Ident.: BIBL 39901
HCHR 40600 Religion in Early National and Antebellum America 1787-1865
Brekus, Catherine
T 1:30 – 4:20 S201
This course is a survey of American religious history from the American Revolution to the Civil War. Topics include revivalism, gender, the birth of Mormonism, slave religion, reform movements, proslavery theology, immigration, and Catholicism. We will read a wide variety of primary texts – including first-person accounts of "enthusiastic" revivals, anti-Catholic literature, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin – as well as major interpretive works.
Requirements: two short papers (3-5 pages each) on the weekly readings and a final paper. All students are also required to lead class discussion once during the quarter.
Ident.: HIST 63900
HCHR 44101 Crusade and Holy War in the Medieval World
Pick, Lucy
T 9:00 – 11:50 S201
This course will focus on the origins and development of the idea of holy war and crusade in the Middle Ages. We will consider the evolution of notions of just war and holy war in the first few class periods and then will move on to consider recruitment techniques, the goals, ideals and ambitions of individual crusaders, as well as the medieval and modern historiography of the crusades. Attention will be given to Muslim, Jewish, Byzantine, as well as Latin perspectives.
Ident.: HIST 63102 / ISLM 44000 / THEO 44101
HCHR 44601 Renaissance and Reformation
Schreiner, Susan
T/TH 10:20-11:50 S400
Ident. THEO 44600
HCHR 45101 Women in American Religious History, 1630 – present
Brekus, Catherine
Th 1:30 – 4:20 S400
This course explores the religious history of American women. Topics include female religious leadership, practices (for example, prayer and devotional life), reform, religion and domesticviolence, suffrage, and religion and Second Wave feminism. We will read a wide variety of primary texts, including diaries and novels, as well as major interpretive works in the field. We will focus particularly on theoretical questions about agency and authority.
Requirements: a final research paper of 20-25 pages. All students are also required to lead class discussion once during the quarter.
Ident.: HIST 47001
HREL 32202 Religion, Sex and Politics in Ancient India: the Kamasutra and the Arthashastra *
Doniger, Wendy
T/Th 10:30-11:50 S208
A study of the indebtedness of the Kamasutra, the ancient Indian text of erotic love, to the Arthashastra, the ancient Indian text of political science. We will read both texts carefully, side by side, and look for each in the other, considering the role of politics in the formulation of ideas about sex, and for the uses of sex in a textbook of political science. As both texts justify their often Machiavellian ethics by paying lip service (or more?) to religion (dharma), we will also keep an eye out for the ways in which both texts both manipulate myth and ritual and, on occasion, seem to show genuine concern, or at least uneasiness, about religion. Reading: The Kamasutra, translated by Wendy Doniger and Dushir Kakar. The Arthashastra, translations by Patrick Olivelle (in press) and by R.P. Kangle.
Ident.: SALC 25703/35703/SCTH 32200
HREL 42701 Issues in Indian Esoteric Buddhism
Wedemeyer, Christian
M 2:00 – 4:50 S403
PQ: Preferably some background in South Asian religions.
Ident.: SALC 48300
HREL 45401 Readings in Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed
Robinson, James
Tu 1:30-4:20 S403
A close reading of select chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, the most influential work of medieval Jewish thought.
PQ: Good knowledge of Arabic and/or Hebrew
Ident.: HIJD 45400 / ISLM 45400
HREL 47602 Brauer Seminar: Translation
Stackert, Jeffrey and Doniger, Wendy
T Th 1:30 – 2:50 S200
A seminar for students actively engaged in the translation f texts. We will ready essays on the art of translation, compare multiple translations of individual texts (ranging from the Bible to Jabberwocky), and discuss the problems encountered in our own work on translation. Issues to be addressed include the purpose and goal of translations, the problem of compositeness in texts to be translated, the negotiation between the meaning(s) and literary/aesthetic features of a text, and the politics of translating religious texts.
PQ: By Application only
Ident.: BIBL 47602
HREL 52200 Problems in the History of Religions
Doniger, Wendy
W 7:00 – 10:00 PM Instructor's Home
A seminar for students in the PhD program in the History of Religions working on their colloquium paper, orals statement for he Qualifying Examination, or dissertation chapter.
RLIT 43600 Comparative Mystical Literature
Sells, Michael
M 1:30-4:20 MEM Library
This course will examine Islamic, Christian, and Jewish mystical literature, with one third of the class devoted to each of the three traditions. Our focus will be upon writings from the late 12th to early 14th centuries CE by Ibn al- ̀Arabi, Meister Eckhart, Hadewijch, Marguerite Porete, and Moses de Leon (by attribution). We will also look at some selections from other writings, including Plotinus and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Class format centers upon close readings of specific primary texts.
PQ: Willingness to work in one of these languages: Arabic, Latin, Greek, French, German, Hebrew, Aramaic or Spanish.
Ident. ISLM 43300/CMLT 40200.
RLIT 44200 Metaphors of Self-Defense and Self-Defeat in Modern Literature and Philosophy
Hammerschlag, Sarah
Fri 11:00-1:50 S201
This course will explore how the discourse of both medicine and religion have served as resources for constituting the self as autonomous in the modern world. It will compare the language of contagion and sin, auto-immunity and purification, considering as well the borderline position of psychoanalysis in this dynamic. It will focus in particular on the porous barrier between self-critique and self-sabotage. Authors to be considered: Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida, Virginia Woolf, Henry and William James
RLIT 49002 Prophecy and Poetry in Bible and Literature
Weidner, Daniel
Th 1:00-3:50 S201
Biblical prophecy belongs to the poetic parts or Scripture and Poetry often assumes the authority of being prophetic. Prophetic Texts are therefore paradigmatic for a literary reading of scripture and a scriptural reading of Literature. They have been fundamental for the Western literary and political tradition. Moreover, they view the prophet as an intermediary figure, as a messenger who represents the paradoxes of literary communication as well as of textural authority.
The course will consist of literary reading in the Hebrew Bible (in English translation), in the poetic tradition from Virgil to the present, and in recent theories of the prophetic as in Martin Buber, Andre Neher, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, and other, according to the students' interests.
Ident. GRMN 49012
RLIT 52600 Shakespeare's Venetian Others
Strier, Richard/Nirenberg, David
W 1:30-4:20 ARR
This course will focus on the Jew and the Moor in Shakespeare. We will work in detail on the language, imagery, plot, themes, and structure of The Merchant of Venice and will also examine its sources and some other texts with which the play is in implicit or explicit dialogue, such as the epistles of Paul and the author of Hebrews, and Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. We will then move to a consideration of Othello. We will introduce some historical materials on usury, on the Mediterranean frontier with Islam, etc., in order to pose questions about the relationship between the representation of Jews and "Moors" in Shakespeare's Venetian plays and what historians (think they) know about the historical situation. We may also undertake some comparative gestures, considering Merchant in relation to Marx's "On the Jewish Question," or Othello in relation to "The Famous Ottoman," a play written by Shakespeare's Spanish contemporary, Lope de Vega.
PQ: An oral report and a substantial final paper will be required.
Ident. ENGL 62610
RETH 30300 Problem of Evil: Disease
Meredith, Stephen
T/TH 3:00-4:20 Cobb 304
Ident. BIOS 29321
RETH 32900 Emotion, Reason, and Law
Nussbaum, Martha
M,W,TH 1:30-2:35 LBQ 111
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 on 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 cognition, 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 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 will turn out to be full of interest.
Other topics will be included as time permits.
RETH 42702 Trends in Christian Ethics
Schweiker, William
T Th 10:30 – 11:20 S403
This course is a survey of contemporary trends in Christian ethics attentive to classical (biblical, theological, philosophical) and also basic themes that influence Christian reflection on the moral life. Noting classic sources ranging from the biblical portrait of Jesus' ministry to scholastic theologians and the Protestant Reformers, the burden of the course will be to examine principal trends in thought. These trends include, among others, so-called narrative ethics, current work on the role of Christ in the moral life, feminist and revisionary forms of Roman Catholic ethics, and social teachings on topics ranging from economics to war and sex. The course will thereby attend not only to fundamental conceptual and theoretical issues in contemporary Christian ethics, but also questions in applied ethics especially pressing in the current world situation.
Ident.: THEO 42702
RETH 45401 Theories of Medical Ethics
Sulmasy, Daniel
T 6:00-8:50 S208
This seminar will involve a close reading and critique of the most prominent theories in contemporary medical ethics, including Principlism (Beauchamp and Chrildress), Utilitarianism (Singer, Epstein), Libertarianism (Engelhardt), Contractualism (Veatch), Foundationalism (Pellegrino and Thomasma), Casuistry (Jonsen and Toulmin), and Covenantal approaches (Ramsey, May). The class will be conducted in classical seminar style, with students assigned to lead the discussions of particular texts. Our interdisciplinary discussion will exemplify and provide a context for the interdisciplinary nature of the field.
PQ: Open to Divinity, Law and Medical School students.
Ident: LAWS 80403
RETH 50702 Justice: Theological and Philosophical
Schweiker, William
Th 1:30 – 4:20 S403
This seminar will engage recent work on justice, theological and philosophical. Engaging thinkers like A. McIntyre, N. Wolterstorff, P. Ricouer, and R. Dworkin, the purpose of the seminar is to explore the current debate about the meaning of justice and to access main options.
PQ: Previous work in Theology or Ethics required.
Ident.: THEO 50702
