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Spring 2010 Undergraduate Courses Department of Religious Studies The University of North Carolina at Charlotte www.religiousstudies.uncc.edu
RELS 2000. History of Muslim Societies. Cross listed with HIST 2215. This course covers the history of Muslim societies from the 6th century until the present times. It focuses on the following issues: Birth and expansion of Islamic faith; political, cultural, artistic, intellectual and social history of Muslim societies; relationship between the Islamic World and the Christian Europe; impact of imperialism, nationalism and modernization of Muslim societies; and the efforts to reassert Islamic identity in an era of tightening globalization. (MW 11-12:15 Kathryn Johnson) [Meets non-western requirement]. RELS 2101. Introduction to Western Religions (LV). An introduction to Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other selected religions. Emphasis on the myths, stories, symbols, rituals, ideas, and ethical practices of these religions in their classical formulations and in their contemporary practices. (WF 12:30-1:45 Tina Katsanos) [required of all majors]
RELS
2102. Introduction to Asian Religions.
An
introduction to the study of three Asian traditions--Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Daoism. Through selected textual and visual primary sources, we
shall explore major doctrinal themes and modes of practice featured in
Hindu devotional poetry, Buddhist funerary ritual, and Daoist
self-cultivation techniques. Students will practice using select
concepts developed in anthropology and in the academic study of religion
to interpret primary materials. RELS 2104. Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. The Hebrew religious tradition from the perspective of its development in the culture of the ancient Near East. (001. MW 11:00-12:15; 002.12:30-1:45 Barbara Thiede) RELS 2110. Judaism. The development of Jewish religious thought from antiquity to the present. (MW 2-3:15 Barbara Thiede) RELS 2131. Islam. Cross listed with HIST 2131.The development of the traditions in Islam with emphasis on Islamic culture, literature, and mysticism. (MW 9:30-10:45 Kathryn Johnson) [Western tradition] RELS 2169. Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia. An exploration of the various ways the religious ideal of the bodhisattva has been imagined and employed in devotional practice in Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the United States. (MW 9:30-10:45 David Mozina) RELS 2216. The Modern Middle East. Cross-listed as HIST 2216. An introduction to the history of this important and dynamic region. The course focuses on the issues that have defined the Middle East in the recent past and provides students with the historical context needed to understand the region, its peoples, and its conflicts in greater depth. (MW 2-3:15 Kathryn Johnson) RELS 2600. Approaches to the Study of Religion (W). Required of all majors as early in their program as possible. Examines basic concepts, theories, and approaches that are involved in the critical, academic study of religion. Attention given to basic research materials and to standard writing practices in the discipline. Majors only. Wednesday 3:30-6:15 Sean McCloud) [required of all majors] RELS 3000.001. The Performance of Healing: Illness, Health, and Magic across Religious Traditions. How have religious traditions conceived of health and illness, and of proper ways to heal physical and emotional maladies? Exorcism, faith healing, possession, and self-cultivation have all been developed as mechanisms to alleviate illness and misfortune. In this course, we shall explore various conceptions of health and illness, and procedures of healing, in selected religious traditions from Asia, Africa, and right here in the American southeast. (MW 12:30-1:45 David Mozina)
RELS 3000.002. Women in the Hebrew Bible.
From Sarah to Tamar, from the Levite's concubine to the mysterious "wise
woman" of Abel, the women of the Hebrew Bible present a far more
complicated picture than we expect. This course examines the women of
the Hebrew Bible in their context and examines how their stories have
been interpreted, reinterpreted and even distorted by western culture.
RELS 3050.001. Religion & Masculinity.
Cross listed with WGST 3050.This
course will examine religious texts and practices, with a particular
focus on Christian materials, to ask how they have constructed, imagined
and regulated masculine identity. We will consider, for example,
religious martyrdom, ascetic literature, the "muscular Christianity"
movement, the Promise Keepers and the contemporary ex-gay ministries.
Specific emphasis will be given to the complicated relation between
normative masculinity and homoerotic desire.
RELS 3050.002. Race: Critical Perspectives From Kant to Obama.
What is race? Why
is race such a fundamental category of identification, so pivotal to how
certain people identify themselves and distinguish themselves from
others? How is race connected to other social categories – gender,
class, sexuality, and religion? In this course, we will examine how the
idea of race emerged as a fundamental category of identity formation and
how various philosophers and social theorists have thought about race
over time. We will conclude the course with an analysis of the Obama
effect and the talk of a post-racial society. RELS 3050.003. Race, Religion and Murder. Race, Religion and Murder is designed to introduce students to the intersection of race, religion, and violence in American culture. Specifically, this course addresses how Judeo-Christian, Islamic, and even Asian traditions have been used to justify and even condone acts of violence against women, children and peoples of color. Key components of this course require students to critically analyze racial identity formations, sacred texts, and historical occurrences of rape, murder, lynching, and genocide through the lens of such theorist as Frantz Fanon, Rene Girard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault. (TR 12:30-1:45 Julia Robinson-Harmon) [Religion and modern culture] RELS 3115. Early Christianity. The history of Christianity in the 2nd-7th centuries C.E. Topics will include: martyrdom and persecution, heresy and orthodoxy, constructions of gender and sexuality in early Christianity, church-state relations, asceticism and monasticism, Constantine and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. (TR 11-12:15 Jeremy Schott) RELS 3129. Christian Controversies. An exploration of Christian responses to ethical, cultural, political, and theological conflicts. The issues are selected to represent a range of time periods in the history of various Christian traditions. Note: This class will be taught as a hybrid online class. Instruction and participation will be divided between in-class meetings and online activities using Moodle. Students must have regular access to a high-speed online connection. (MW 8-9:15 Joanne Robinson) RELS 3163. The Religious Art and Architecture of India. The visual art of Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas, and Muslims in the architecture, paintings, and sculptures of India. (TR 9:30-10:45 Dan White) RELS 3242. Philosophy of Religion: Natural, Unnatural, and Supernatural. Does God exist? What are God's attributes? Do miracles happen? Is there life after death? Where does evil come from in a world created "good"? What is "the human condition"? This course will set these questions in historical perspective but focus primarily on answers proposed by modern thinkers. (MW 9:30-10:45 Joanne Robinson) [Religion and Modern Culture]. RELS 4010. Major Figure in Religious Studies: Augustine. An in-depth study of Augustine of Hippo, one of the most significant figures in the history of Christianity and the Western intellectual tradition. Readings will include Confessions, City of God and focus on topics such as: just war theory; original sin; marriage and sexuality; free will and determinism; heresy/orthodoxy; historiography. (T 3:30-6:15 Jeremy Schott) RELS 4050.003. Islam in the African Diaspora. This course addresses the practice of Islam and variations of Islam among African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, and African Canadians in the twentieth century. Critical analysis will be done around the writings of Wraith Dean Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Nobel Drew Ali. The course also has a gendered component looking at the leadership and activity of women in Islam, the Nation of Islam, and Moorish Science. (TR 3:30-4:45 Julia Robinson-Harmon) RELS 4050.004. Mysticism, Pornography, Subjectivity. Cross-listed with RELS 5000 and WGST 5050. This course will consist of a close reading of primary Christian mystical texts (e.g., work by Angela of Foligno, John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart) and post-Enlightenment literary pornographic texts (e.g., Sade's 120 Days in Sodom and Dennis Cooper's The Sluts) through the theoretical writings of Roland Barthes (most importantly, his work S/Z). This comparative reading will focus on the shared stylistic, formal, thematic and affective features of the texts. With these features in mind, we will ask what these texts seek to do to their readers, what literary devices accomplish that task and what, if anything, distinguishes them. Finally, we will try to identify and describe the “religious” dimension of the texts. (W 3:30-6:15 Brintnall) [Religion and modern culture] RELS 4600. Senior Seminar. (WO) Required of majors in final year of studies. Majors only. (Wednesday 3:30-6:15 James Tabor)
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