This seminar explores the major conversations that scholars of religion are having, and have had, about what "religion" is and the best ways to study it. Focusing on classical controversies, ongoing debates, and new developments, this course will help students map out the field of religious studies and begin to situate their own studies within it. This course is geared towards Religious Studies majors but open to any interested student.

This seminar will examine some of the most profound and influential writings about love from the Islamic intellectual and poetic traditions. Perhaps more than any other civilization, the literary and philosophical traditions of Islamic civilization have been "love-centric." In this course we will closely read and discuss various philosophies and theories of love from the mundane to the mystical.

The goal of this course will be to examine different conceptions of Buddhist meditation and how these different conceptions affect the nature of practice and the understanding of the ideal life within a variety of Buddhist traditions. Thus, the study of Buddhist meditation traditions reveals not just intricate forms of practice, but reveals the nature of the good life and how one lives it.

Systematic reading of the Qur'an in English, with an examination of the prophet's life and work.

This course introduces key figures in early Chinese philosophy, and how they defined the good life, ethical ideals, and exemplary rulership. Through close readings, we will consider where these philosophers located what they called the Dao¿in human society, in the natural world, or in the cosmos¿and how they thought humans could best apprehend truths about their world. Intended for first and second year students.

Description and explanation of the diverse forms of Jewish religious life in America.

An introduction to environmental ideas, texts and practices of Buddhism in broad historical and geographical context. Engages Buddhist "environmental imagination" through readings of primary texts, considers the ways that contemporary Buddhists around the world have interpreted environmental problems, and the ways that Buddhist modernist movements draw upon Buddhist ideologies in the service of social-environmental change.

Readings in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible. Emphasizes grammar, vocabulary, and poetics. Attention to issues of translation and interpretation. Prerequisite: HEBR/RELJ 2410 or the equivalent

This course examines how Latine religious traditions--including Latine Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Mainline Protestantism, Indigenous traditions, and religious "nones"--interact with political and democratic cultures in the United States.

The Orisa traditions of the Yoruba-speaking peoples of West Africa have survived and thrived across centuries of war, slavery, and colonization, and continue to provide meaning to the lives of millions of people all over the world. This course will survey the various Orisa traditions of West Africa and the Americas, their interactions with other traditions as well as their influence on Black Atlantic art and spirituality.