Winter 2008 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 — Chgo Theol Sem629-63000-01/02 Special Course — Meadville Theol School
629-65000-01/02 Special Course — Catholic Theol Union
629-66000-01/02 Special Course — Lutheran Sch Theol
629-68000-01/02 Special Course — McCormick Theol Sem
DVSC 30200 |
Introduction to Historical Studies |
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| Mendes-Flohr |
M/W |
10:00-11:20 |
S106 |
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| PQ: Open only to M.A./AMRS students. |
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DVSC 42000 |
Divinity School German Reading Exam |
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| Staff |
ARR |
ARR |
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| PQ: Open only to Divinity School students. |
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DVSC 45100 |
Reading Course: Special Topic |
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| Staff |
ARR |
ARR |
ARR |
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| PQ: Petition with bibliography signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list. |
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DVSC 49900 |
Exam Preparation |
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| Staff |
ARR |
ARR |
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| 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. |
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DVSC 50200 |
Research Divinity |
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| Staff |
ARR |
ARR |
ARR |
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| PQ: Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list. |
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DVSC 59900 |
Thesis Work: Divinity |
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| Staff |
ARR |
ARR |
ARR |
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| PQ: Petition signed by instructor; enter section from faculty list. |
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BIBL 30901 |
Jewish Thought and Literature: |
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| Robinson |
M/W |
1:30-2:50 |
CL 113 |
|
| An introduction to the
major trends of medieval Jewish thought from the ninth through the
fifteenth century. The focus will be on central themes and problems—such
as divine attributes, cosmology, prophecy, the existence of evil,
providence, the nature of human existence, the soul and fate of the
soul—but literary form, cultural context, and ritual praxis will also
be considered. Thinkers will be studied in relation to their sources
and parallel developments in Christianity and Islam. |
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BIBL 32500 |
Introduction to the New Testament: |
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| Mitchell |
T/Th |
10:30-11:50 |
S106 |
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| An immersion in the texts
of the New Testament with the following goals: (1) through careful
reading to come to know well some representative pieces of this literature;
(2) to gain useful knowledge of the historical, geographical, social,
religious, cultural and political contexts of these texts and the
events they relate; (3) to learn the major literary genres represented
in the canon (“gospels,” “acts,” “letters,” and “apocalypses”) and
strategies for reading them; (4) to comprehend the various theological
visions to which these texts give expression; (5) to situate oneself
and one’s prevailing questions about this material in the history
of research, and to reflect on the goals and methods of interpretation;
(6) to raise questions for further study. |
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BIBL 34100 |
Intermediate Biblical Hebrew |
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| Knafl |
M/W/F |
8:00-8:50 |
S200 |
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BIBL 35400 |
Intermediate Koine Greek III |
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| Thompson |
M/W/F |
8:00-8:50 |
S208 |
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| PQ: BIBL 35300 |
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BIBL 47400 |
Clement of Alexandria |
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| Martinez |
T/TH |
10:30-11:50 |
Cl 026 |
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| A careful reading of
the Greek text of parts of Clement’s Protrepticus (Exhortation
to the Greeks) with some forays into his fragmentary Stromateis.
We will focus on Clement as a Greek stylist, his debt to the Greek
Literary and Middle Platonic traditions, and his place within the
development of Alexandrian Christian thought (especially with regard
to what is called the “Catechetical School”). We will also give close
consideration to his doctrine of the logos, his apologetic method,
and his theory and usage of allegory. |
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BIBL 53500 |
Early Christian Biblical Interpretation |
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| Mitchell |
M |
1:30-4:20 |
S403 |
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| This year the early Christian
Biblical Interpretation seminar will focus on the topic: “In Search
of the Literal Sense.” Recent theoretical treatments of patristic
exegesis problematizing the dichotomy between Alexandrine allegory
and Antiochene literalism have done so mostly from the side of the
allegorical. In this seminar we shall turn the tables and study how
appeals to the “literal” sense of biblical statements are rhetorically
constructed and defended, and to what functions they are put, in writings
of Tertullian, Origen, Eustathius, John Chrysostom, and others. We
may also make some comparative forays into the sensus litteralis in
contemporary Christianity in America. |
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THEO 30200 |
History of Christian Thought II |
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| Otten |
T/Th |
9:00-10:20 |
S106 |
|
| This second class in
the HCT sequence deals with the period from Late Antiquity until the
end of the Early Middle Ages; it stretches roughly from 450 through
1250. The following authors and themes will be analyzed and discussed:
(1) the transition from Roman antiquity to the medieval period: Boethius
and Cassiodorus; (2) the rise of asceticism in th West: Benedictur
(Rule) and Gregory the Great; (3) intellectual solitaries: Dionysius
the Areopagite and John Scottus Eriugena; (4) monastic and scholastic
paragons: Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard; (5) 12th century monastic
diversity: Cistercians (Bernard of Clairvaux) and Victorines (Hugh
and Richard of St. Victor); (6) the scholastic synthesis and the odd
woman out: Thomas Aquinas and Julian of Norwich. |
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THEO 30300 |
History of Christian Thought III |
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| Schreiner |
W |
3:00-5:50 |
S106 |
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| This course covers the
early modern era from the 14th through the 16th century. The emphasis
is on intellectual history, particularly that of the Reformation and
the Council of Trent. The course includes readings from 14th century
mystics, late-medieval dissidents such as John Hus, Luther, Zwingli,
and Calvin, as well as Ignatius of Loyola and the Council of Trent. |
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THEO 31100 |
History of Theological Ethics I |
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| Schweiker |
T/TH |
1:30-2:50 |
S106 |
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| This is the first part
of a two-part history. It is conducted through the study of basic,
classical texts. The course moves from the philosophical ethics of
the Greek and Roman worlds through strands of Hebrew scripture, the
origins of the Christian movement, the end of the Roman age to the
emergence of Islam, and, finally, Christian and Jewish scholastic
and mystical thought in the Western middle ages. While the golden
thread of the history is the origin and differentiation of Christian
moral thinking, this is set within and compared with the complexity
of traditions (Hellenistic philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect
and often collide throughout these formative 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. |
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THEO 31800 |
Before and After Augustine: |
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| Otten |
T |
1:00-3:50 |
S201 |
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| In his recent biography
of Augustine (Augustine. A New Biography, New York, 2005)
James J. O’Donnell has called Augustine the ‘inventor of Christianity’,
since Christianity as we know it has supposedly derived more from
Augustine than from Jesus Christ. This makes the question how to pinpoint
Augustine’s influence a pressing one. This course will try to do so
by comparing Augustine’s ideas on the church in history and society
with the tradition before him as well as with the way in which they
were subsequently received. The course will be divided into three
parts. It will begin by sketching Christianity before Augustine, focusing
especially on Ambrose and Gregory of Nyssa’s view of church and society
as representing the pre-Augustinian generation. The second part will
profile central Augustinian themes such as infant baptism and predestination
(anti-Pelagian), and sacramental genealogy and ecclesiology (anti-Donatist)
through a reading of Augustinian texts. In the third part the impact
of the Augustinian makeover of Christianity will be discussed, with
special attention paid to infant baptism and the sacraments as well
as to medieval / reformed theories of grace and free will. |
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THEO 40500 |
Black Theology: lst Generation |
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| Hopkins |
W |
1:30-4:20 |
S201 |
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| Using primary texts, a critical look at the major theological and methodological paradigms among the founding generation of black theologians. What are their sources and norms, social contexts, and sharp points of theoretical differences? |
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THEO 41100 |
James H. Cone: |
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| Hopkins |
W |
9:00-11:20 |
S201 |
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| This course will pursue a close and in depth read of several of James H. Cone’s seminal works in order to discern both his theological method and this heological system. |
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THEO 41300 |
Calvin’s Institutes |
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| Schreiner |
M/W |
10:00-11:20 |
S400 |
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| This course examines the
key concepts of Calvin’s theology through his major work; namely, the
definitive 1559 edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Requirements include an exegetical paper and either a take-home examination
or a research paper. |
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THEO 43700 |
Theology and Philosophy |
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| Gamwell |
T/Th |
3:00-4:20 |
S200 |
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| What is the role of philosophy
in the task of Christian theology? Attention will be given to some
alternative answers (for instance, Anselm, Aquinas, Tillich, Ogden.
Frei). Students will be asked to develop a critical reading of a recent
or contemporary theologian or philosopher, with the intention to move
thereby toward a constructive statement. |
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THEO 49300 |
Christianity and Social Power |
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| Tanner |
Th |
1:00-3:50 |
S208 |
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| An examination of the intersections between Christian theology and issues of social equality through the study of historical cases. Cases include Christian justifications of hierarchical rule in the early church, medieval arguments over the status of women in church and society, controversies over “New World” colonization, leveling movements in the English civil war, arguments for and against slavery in the U.S., and 19th century reactions to democratic reform movements on the continent. General questions to be raised: What is the relation between Christian belief and action? When is Christian belief being used ideologically, to serve independent interests in gaining and maintaining power? On what basis can one judge between conflicting uses of the same beliefs? |
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DVPR 42800 |
Madhyamaka |
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| Arnold |
F |
1:00-3:50 |
S200 |
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| This seminar, which presupposes
a basic knowledge of Indian and/or Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, will
consider some of the foundational texts of the Madhyamaka tradition
of thought, with particular reference to the works of Nagarjuna and
Candrakirti. In addition to close readings of assorted primary sources,
we will consider contemporary scholarly debates regarding the interpretation
of Madhyamaka (e.g., concerning the significance of the “Svatantrika-
Prasangika” distinction, or the appropriateness of modern philosophical
categories such as “skepticism” and “metaphysics” for characterizing
Madhyamaka thought). |
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DVPR 43700 |
Theology and Philosophy |
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| Gamwell |
T/Th |
3:00-4:20 |
S200 |
|
| What is the role of philosophy
in the task of Christian theology? Attention will be given to some
alternative answers (for instance, Anselm, Aquinas, Tillich, Ogden,
Frei). Students will be asked to develop a critical reading of a recent
or contemporary theologian or philosopher, with the intention to move
thereby toward a constructive statement. |
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CHRM 30300 |
The Public Church and Its Ministry:
|
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| Culp |
T/Th |
3:00-4:20 |
S400 |
|
| Theology as an art and
practice for the public church and its ministry. Using U.S American
theologians and texts from the mid-twentieth century forward, this
course explores theological symbols and their interrelation, various
approaches to thinking theologically, and theology’s inter- dependence
with other methods and disciplines. It considers theology’s work of
depicting and diagnosing human life in relation to God. It also examines
theology’s constructive work in directing shared life toward hope
and flourishing in God. |
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CHRM 30600 |
Introduction to the Study of Ministry:
|
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| Musselman |
F |
1:00-2:20 |
S400 |
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| Open to first year M.DIV.
students. No credit. DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE |
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CHRM 35500 |
Arts of Ministry: Worship |
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| Tanner |
F |
9:00-11:50 |
S400 |
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| This course has four
main aims. The first is to equip students with a nuanced and critical
vocabulary with which to think and talk about ritual, worship and
liturgy. The second aim is to enable students to see the connections
among liturgical practice, theology and the Christian life. The third
is to encourage students to develop an understanding of the historical
traditions that inform their respective community’s liturgical practices
and of how these practices reflect and form this community’s pursuit
of a Christian way of life. The fourth aim is to help students think
through what is involved in leading worship services. |
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CHRM 42500 |
Senior Ministry Thesis Seminar |
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| Staff |
ARR |
ARR |
ARR |
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HIJD 30901 |
Jewish Thought and Literature: |
|||
| Robinson |
M/W |
1:30-2:50 |
CL 113 |
|
| An introduction to the
major trends of medieval Jewish thought from the ninth through the
fifteenth century. The focus will be on central themes and problems—such
as divine attributes, cosmology, prophecy, the existence of evil,
providence, the nature of human existence, the soul and fate of the
soul—but literary form, cultural context, and ritual praxis will also
be considered. Thinkers will be studied in relation to their sources
and parallel developments in Christianity and Islam. |
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| |
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HIJD 39600 |
The Arab-Israeli Conflict and Regional Realities |
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| Zelnicker |
M |
9:00-11:50 |
S208 |
|
| The course will offer
a critical survey of the Arab-Israeli conflict, religious-cultural,
historical as well as geo-political dimensions. The course will focus
on the Israeli and Palestinian national structures, their internal
dynamics and political realities (such as, the tension between competing
secular and religious ideological visions) and will examine the impact
of the changing international order on the evolution of the conflict. |
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| |
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HIJD 39800 |
Israeli Politics and Society |
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| Zelnicker |
T |
9:00-11:50 |
S201 |
|
| The course is an introduction
to Israeli politics and civil society since the formation of the State
to date. The course will focus on the cultural background and history
of the founding of the State of Israel and its political culture.
It will pay special attention to the structure of Israeli civil society
as a complex dialectical configuration of secular and religious communities;
attention will also be paid to the challenge of integrating the Muslim
and Christian minorities into Israeli civil society. The course will
also examine the political institutions ranging from political parties,
elections and the structure of government. It will also explore the
changes in the political culture of the country and the rise of post-Zionism
as a potent force in recent years. |
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HIJD 44200 |
Messianism and Modernity |
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| Mendes-Flohr/Santner |
W |
1:30-4:20 |
Wieboldt 206 |
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| Ident. GRMN 36800 |
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HIJD 49700 |
Readings in Abraham Ibn Ezra |
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| Robinson |
Th |
1:30-3:50 |
S403 |
|
| Close readings of select
texts from the diverse corpus of Abraham Ibn Ezra: medieval poet,
linguist, biblical exegets, neoplatonic philosopher, and astrologer.
The emphasis will be on his biblical commentaries, but the commentaries
will be read together with his philosophical, linguistic and astrological
writings. There is no language requirement. However, there will be
an extra session for students with knowledge of Hebrew. |
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| |
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HCHR 30200 |
History of Christian Thought II |
|||
| Otten |
T/Th |
9:00-10:20 |
S106 |
|
| This second class in
the HCT sequence deals with the period from Late Antiquity until the
end of the Early Middle Ages; it stretches roughly from 450 through
1250. The following authors and themes will be analyzed and discussed:
(1) the transition from Roman antiquity to the medieval period: Boethius
and Cassiodorus; (2) the rise of asceticism in th West: Benedictur
(Rule) and Gregory the Great; (3) intellectual solitaries: Dionysius
the Areopagite and John Scottus Eriugena; (4) monastic and scholastic
paragons: Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard; (5) 12th century monastic
diversity: Cistercians (Bernard of Clairvaux) and Victorines (Hugh
and Richard of St. Victor); (6) the scholastic synthesis and the odd
woman out: Thomas Aquinas and Julian of Norwich. |
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| |
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HCHR 30300 |
History of Christian Thought III |
|||
| Schreiner |
W |
3:00-5:50 |
S106 |
|
| This course covers the
early modern era from the 14th through the 16th century. The emphasis
is on intellectual history, particularly that of the Reformation and
the Council of Trent. The course includes readings from 14th century
mystics, late-medieval dissidents such as John Hus, Luther, Zwingli,
and Calvin, as well as Ignatius of Loyola and the Council of Trent. |
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| |
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HCHR 31800 |
Before and After Augustine: |
|||
| Otten |
T |
1:00-3:50 |
S201 |
|
| In his recent biography
of Augustine (Augustine. A New Biography, New York, 2005)
James J. O’Donnell has called Augustine the ‘inventor of Christianity’,
since Christianity as we know it has supposedly derived more from
Augustine than from Jesus Christ. This makes the question how to pinpoint
Augustine’s influence a pressing one. This course will try to do so
by comparing Augustine’s ideas on the church in history and society
with the tradition before him as well as with the way in which they
were subsequently received. The course will be divided into three
parts. It will begin by sketching Christianity before Augustine, focusing
especially on Ambrose and Gregory of Nyssa’s view of church and society
as representing the pre-Augustinian generation. The second part will
profile central Augustinian themes such as infant baptism and predestination
(anti-Pelagian), and sacramental genealogy and ecclesiology (anti-Donatist)
through a reading of Augustinian texts. In the third part the impact
of the Augustinian makeover of Christianity will be discussed, with
special attention paid to infant baptism and the sacraments as well
as to medieval / reformed theories of grace and free will. |
||||
| |
||||
HCHR 41700 |
Calvin’s Institutes |
|||
| Schreiner |
M/W |
10:00-11:20 |
S400 |
|
| This course examines the
key concepts of Calvin’s theology through his major work; namely, the
definitive 1559 edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Requirements include an exegetical paper and either a take-home examination
or a research paper. |
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| |
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HCHR 44300 |
Religion and Emotion in American Culture |
|||
| Gilpin |
W |
1:30-4:20 |
S200 |
|
| An historical analysis
of the relation between religion and the passions, affections and
emotions from the Puritans to William James. |
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| |
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HCHR 51800 |
Seminar: US Social History 2 |
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| Conzen |
W |
3:00-5:50 |
ARR |
|
| The Winter quarter seminar
is open only to students who have taken “US Social History 1” in the
Autumn quarter. Students write the seminar paper in the Winter quarter. |
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| |
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HCHR 53500 |
Early Christian Biblical Interpretation |
|||
| Mitchell |
M |
1:30-4:20 |
S403 |
|
| This year the early Christian
Biblical Interpretation seminar will focus on the topic: “In Search
of the Literal Sense.” Recent theoretical treatments of patristic
exegesis problematizing the dichotomy between Alexandrine allegory
and Antiochene literalism have done so mostly from the side of the
allegorical. In this seminar we shall turn the tables and study how
appeals to the “literal” sense of biblical statements are rhetorically
constructed and defended, and to what functions they are put, in writings
of Tertullian, Origen, Eustathius, John Chrysostom, and others. We
may also make some comparative forays into the sensus litteralis in
contemporary Christianity in America. |
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| |
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ISLM 30624 |
Muslim-Christian Polemic and Apologetic
|
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| Reynolds |
ARR |
ARR |
ARR |
|
| Our seminar is focused
on the classical Arabic literature of Muslim-Christian interaction.
We will begin with the Qur'an itself, examining its conversation with
Christianity and Christians. Thereafter, we will turn to the tradition
of Muslim anti-Christian polemic, including those authors who argue
on a theological level and those who focus on particular historical
and scriptural controversies. We will also consider the Christian
Arabic responses to this literature, which present themselves as records
of historical Muslim/Christian debates. Ultimately, we will seek to
develop a profound knowledge of the themes and techniques of Muslim
Christian controversial literature. At the same time, we will seek
to understand both the motivation for this literature and its influence
on Muslim-Christian relations. |
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ISLM 40400 |
Arabic Poetry of Shustari and Ibn al-‘Arabi |
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| Sells |
T |
1:30-4:20 |
MEM Library |
|
| PQ: Arabic |
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| |
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ISLM 40444 |
The Classical Sources II |
|||
| Kadi |
M |
1:30-4:20 |
Or 210 |
|
| A continuation of the Autumn course. PQ: At least three years of Arabic. |
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ISLM 40500 |
Readings in the Text of the Qur’an |
|||
| Sells |
M |
1:30-4:20 |
MEM Library |
|
| PQ: Arabic |
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| |
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ISLM 40700 |
Monarchies in the Modern Arab World:
|
|||
| Zeghal |
W |
1:30-4:20 |
S403 |
|
| This class examines the
history and the sociology of Arab monarchies in the 19th and 20th
century Arab world. Why did some Arab monarchies disappear in the
20th century to be replaced by republics? How do monarchies function
in the Arab Middle East? On what types of ideas is their legitimacy
founded and contested? What is the role played by economic resources
shared, distributed and confiscated? How are these political systems
evolving today, and are they so different from models established
by the Arab republics? Four current cases will be examined: Jordan,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. |
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| |
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HREL 35401 |
Hinduism: An Alternative Narrative |
|||
| Doniger |
W/F |
1:30-2:50 |
S208 |
|
| A survey of the history
of Hinduism, setting texts in historical contexts. Hinduism is usually
taught as a cluster of timeless concepts: karma, dharma, reincarnation,
renunciation, and so forth, contained within Sanskrit texts produced
by dead Brahmin males. But like all religions, Hinduism is grounded
in history, and in a broader social imagination. This course will
take the relatively novel approach of situating each major idea in
the context of the historical events to which it responded: the Rig
Veda in the Indo-European migrations, the Upanishads in the social
crisis of the first great cities on the Ganges, and so forth, up to
the present day BJP revisionist tactics. And it will emphasize the
alternative traditions of women and the lower classes. The reading
will begin with two good survey texts and then focus closely on a
few texts, some Sanskrit and some from vernacular literatures, from
several different historical periods. |
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| |
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HREL 42501 |
Many Ramayanas |
|||
| Doniger |
W/F |
10:00-11:20 |
S200 |
|
| A close reading of the
great Hindu Epic, the story of Rama's recovery of his wife, Sita,
from the demon Ravana on the island of Lanka, with special attention
to changes in the telling of the story throughout Indian history,
up to its present use as a political weapon against Muslims and a
rallying point for Hindu fundamentalists. Readings in in English translations
of several Ramayanas, including Valmiki (from the Sanskrit); Tulsi
(from the Hindi); Kampan (Tamil); and Aubrey Menen (British Raj);
in Paula Richman, Many Ramayanas and Questioning Ramayanas; as well
as the Ramajataka, the Yogavasistha-Maharamayana, and contemporary
comic books and films. Undergraduates welcome. |
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| |
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HREL 46300 |
The Ethnography of Lived Religion: |
|||
| Collins |
M/Th |
1:30-2:50 |
Swift 201 |
|
| Ident. SALC 46100 |
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| |
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HREL 48400 |
Liminal Beings: Vampires and Others |
|||
| Lincoln |
T/TH |
10:30-11:50 |
S208 |
|
| Ident. ANTH 42410 |
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| |
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HREL 52500 |
Readings in Tibetan Religious Literature |
|||
| Wedemeyer |
M/W |
10:00-11:20 |
S403 |
|
| Guided readings in Tibetan
religious literature of various periods and genres. |
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| |
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RLIT 40700 |
Arabic Poetry of Shustari and Ibn al-‘Arabi |
|||
| Sells |
T |
1:30-4:2 |
MEM Library |
|
| PQ: Arabic |
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| |
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RLIT 51900 |
Proseminar in Religion and Literature |
|||
| Rosengarten |
F |
9:00-11:50 |
S101 |
|
| A seminar for Ph.D. students only in religion and literature. |
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| |
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RETH 31100 |
History of Theological Ethics I |
|||
| Schweiker |
T/TH |
1:30-2:50 |
S106 |
|
| This is the first part
of a two-part history. It is conducted through the study of basic,
classical texts. The course moves from the philosophical ethics of
the Greek and Roman worlds through strands of Hebrew scripture, the
origins of the Christian movement, the end of the Roman age to the
emergence of Islam, and, finally, Christian and Jewish scholastic
and mystical thought in the Western middle ages. While the golden
thread of the history is the origin and differentiation of Christian
moral thinking, this is set within and compared with the complexity
of traditions (Hellenistic philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that intersect
and often collide throughout these formative 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. |
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RETH 34200 |
Cicero’s De Finibus and Hellenistic Ethics |
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| Nussbaum/Lear |
T |
3:00-5:45 |
LBQ |
|
| Cicero’s dialogue De
Finibus (On Ends) is his attempt to sort out the major
arguments for and against the ethical thories characteristic of Epicureanism,
Stoicism and the “New Academy.” It thus provides us with some or our
best information about the views of these schools, as well as with
critical arguments of great interest. We will read extracts from the
dialogue in Latin, focusing on Epicureanism (Books 1 and II) and Stoicism
(Books III and IV), and we will study the entire work in translation,
along with relevant primary sources for the views of the schools (the
surviving letters of Epicurus, central texts of Greek and Roman Stoicism).
The course will thus aim to provide a solid introduction to the major
ethical theories of the Hellenistic period. This course is open to
all who have had 5 quarters of Latin, or equivalent preparation. Translation
will always take place during the first hour, and students without
Latin are invited to take the course for an R or audit, arriving after
that time and doing all the readings in translation. |
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RETH 44000 |
Methods and Theories in Comparative Religious Ethics |
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| Schweiker |
T/TH |
10:30-11:50 |
S200 |
|
| This course engages important
works in the developing field of comparative religious ethics. The
main concern will be with texts that tackle the difficult problem
of the “method” of comparison and also develop theories for comparative
ethics. Attention will also be given to the actual comparison of the
moral thought of various traditions. The main purpose of the course
is familiarity with the main options and lines of debate in comparative
religious ethics. Previous doctoral level work in religious ethics
or approval of instructor required. |
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| |
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RETH 45800 |
Politics, Ethics and Terror |
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| Elshtain |
M |
1:30-4:20 |
S106 |
|
| An examination of three
responses to 20th century totalitarianism: Arendt, Bonhoeffer and
Camus. What ethical wellsprings were drawn upon to confront Nazism
and Stalinism? What sorts of arguments about the function of ideology,
the loss of limits, the transgression of “orders of being,” metaphors
of plague or other ravages got deployed and to what ends? What is
the connection between explanation, understanding and action in the
“dark times” through which our thinkers lived or in which they died? |
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| |
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RETH 50200 |
Political Realism |
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| Elshtain |
T |
1:30-4:20 |
S208 |
|
| An exploration of the
realist tradition in politics and its ethical implications. Readings
include Thucydides, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Waltz, Arendt and R. Niebuhr. |
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| |
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RETH 51302 |
Law-Philosophy Seminar |
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| Nussbaum/Anderson |
M |
4:00-6:00 |
ARR |
|
| This is the second part
of the seminar-workshop which began in the Autumn quarter. |
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| |
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AASR 36000 |
Fieldwork Methodology in the Social Sciences |
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| Zeghal |
Th |
10:30-1:20 |
S403 |
|
| This course introduces fieldwork methodology and analysis: from the choice of a “site” to the preparation of a questionnaire, to the ethics and method of getting into contact, and to interviewing and interacting with human subjects. How do we relate the preparation of a fieldwork to researching theoretical questions? How do we exploit the data collected? What are the politics and the aesthetics of an ethnographic enterprise? We will examine parts of the vast literature on the ethnographic enterprise and its history. We will also develop our own ethnographic enquiry around the following theme: “Political life on campus.” Starting from this large and temporary definition of our “object” of research, we will collectively prepare the fieldwork, choose the sites of ethnography and assign to each of us one (or more) particular method(s), from observation to open or more structured interviews. The last phase of this work will be to collect our field notes and interviews, the building of a –-limited— corpus, the possible redefining of our theoretical questions, and the inter- pretation of our findings. |
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AASR 40500 |
Monarchies in the Modern Arab World:
|
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| Zeghal |
W |
1:30-4:20 |
S403 |
|
| This class examines the
history and the sociology of Arab monarchies in the 19th and 20th
century Arab world. Why did some Arab monarchies disappear in the
20th century to be replaced by republics? How do monarchies function
in the Arab Middle East? On what types of ideas is their legitimacy
founded and contested? What is the role played by economic resources
shared, distributed and confiscated? How are these political systems
evolving today, and are they so different from models established
by the Arab republics? Four current cases will be examined: Jordan,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. |
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