Course Offerings for Spring 2012
107 African American Religious Traditions. BALDWIN (MWF 10:10-11:00) –HCA An historical survey of the leadership, dynamics, and cultural milieu of African American religious traditions, with some attention to institutional expressions and theologies from the colonial period to the present.
109. Themes in the New Testament. HYLEN (MW 10:10-11:00; Friday Sections -- 02-10:10; 03-10:10; 04-11:10; 05-11:10)—HCA This course focuses on three central themes of the New Testament: portraits of Jesus; practices of the church; and death and last judgment. We will explore multiple texts with regard to each theme in order to get a sense of the different perspectives represented by the writings of the NT. In each case students will: a) learn practices of NT interpretation, including attention to the literary form of the text and its social and historical context; b) listen to the voices of other interpreters, including both scholarly and popular writings; c) learn to recognize how each interpretation is related to the religious, cultural, and social issues in the interpreter's context. The course requirements include graded homework assignments, 3 exams, and 3 short papers.
112. Introduction to Judaism. URBAN (TR 9:35-10:50) –HCA Introduction to Jewish beliefs, ritual, and festivals from biblical times to the present. What is the meaning of ideas such as creation, revelation, redemption, covenant, exile and Messianism for Jews? We shall explore the diversity of Jewish culture and identity in different historical contexts, through a variety of primary sources, ranging from the classical texts of Judaism to modern religious thought. In our survey we will also consider what has puzzled many, namely how Jews as a tiny minority could manage to preserve their identity in the Diaspora and continuously revitalize their religious faith. In our readings we will discuss the principles that guide Jewish thinkers, including feminists in their reinterpretation of Judaism. Our course will conclude with Jewish thought ‘after Auschwitz’ and the major cultural and religious transformations in light of the idea of a Jewish state. The course will include documentary films, correspondence, speeches, and memoirs.
115F.07 Spirituality and Medicine. BOWIE (MWF 9:10-10:00) When many patients enter a clinic or a physician's office they come with both physical symptoms and spiritual issues in mind. While a physician may separate the two, oftentimes the patient does not. This is an interdisciplinary course that inquires into the roles of spirituality and religion in medicine. Careful attention is given to how the social mechanisms (medicine, religion) understand breakdowns in health. Topics for the course include notions of healing in relationship to clinical care; sickness and disease; patient narrative as a key for performing “effective medicine.”
135. Religions of China. CAMPANY (MW 12:10-1:00; Friday Sections -- 02-11:10; 03-11:10; 04-12:10; 05-12:10) –INT Historical, thematic, selective introduction to the major religious traditions of China, with sustained attention to Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, state-sponsored religious systems, and popular religion from the beginning of recorded history to the present. The course strives for a balanced focus on both thought and practice rather than exclusively treating ideas or doctrines. Visual materials are incorporated wherever possible, and some attention is given to questions of method and approach. Discussion sections will be offered if there is sufficient enrollment.
206/3845. Global Interpretation of Christian Scripture. PATTE (M 3:10-5:30) –INT Comparing interpretations of biblical texts by Christians in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania ‑ where at present two thirds of the readers of the Bible are ‑ with those by Orthodox Christians in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and by Catholic and Protestant Christians in Western Europe and North America. We will raise theoretical and methodological issues by addressing the question: Why all these interpretations can be and should be treated with respect? Considering concrete examples ‑‑interpretations from around the world of both New Testament and Old Testament texts ‑‑ , we will assess the respective roles of the interpreter/s religious and theological settings, and of her/his social, economic, political, ideological, and cultural life‑contexts in each interpretation, as well as the way in which each interpretation is grounded in the biblical text. Active participation in discussion, seminar presentations, developing a paper over the second part of the semester, are aimed at helping students to recognize the roles of religious and contextual assumptions in their own interpretations, even as they strive to be most rigorous in their reading of biblical texts.
212. Pauline Christianity: Romans. PATTE (T 4:10-6:40) –HCA An exploration of the central themes of Paul's teaching as expressed in the letter to the Romans: universal sinfulness and guilt and justification through faith; Paul's Gospel to the Gentiles and the relation between Jews and Gentile Christians; the power of sin and of evil, its many forms, and the "gospel as power of God for salvation." We will consider these three themes by asking: How is Paul's teaching about them to the church of Rome related to his teaching to the other churches (in 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, and 1 & 2 Corinthians, in particular)? How was this teaching received by the churches of his time? In the following generations? By the Gnostics? By the church through the centuries? By believers today in different religious, political, socio-economic and cultural contexts? Requirements: Brief reading reports, & a research paper prepared throughout the second part of the semester that will be devoted to the topics chosen by the students for their papers. Active participation in discussion expected.
219. Martin Luther King and the Social Roles of Religion. BALDWIN (MWF 12:10-1:00) --US An intermediate level course exploring Martin Luther King, Jr.'s roles as preacher, religious leader, theologian, and social change agent, with special attention to his cultural roots and legacy, the experiential and intellectual sources of his thought and praxis, and the development of his communitarian ideal beyond southern particularism to an explicit and enlightened globalism. King's perspective on the social roles of religion will be studied and critically analyzed against the background of classical Judeo‑Christian views (e.g., the ancient Hebrew Prophets, Jesus, the Apostolic Church, the Church Fathers, and Fundamentalist and Evangelical traditions), of Western philosophical streams (e.g., Plato, Socrates, Heraclitus, Hegel, Kant, the Existentialists), of 19th and 20th Century dissenting traditions (e.g., Marx, Thoreau, Gandhi, Luthuli), and of the perspectives of African American leaders from the time of slavery to the present (e.g., Hammon, Walker, Truth, Tubman, Delany, Douglass, Washington, DuBois, Garvey, Jackson, Eikerenkoetter, Malcolm X, and others). The roles of the church and religion in King‑led civil rights campaigns from Montgomery to Memphis will also be examined. Finally, attention will be devoted to King's image as a world leader and symbol, taking into account his struggle against racism, colonialism, poverty, economic injustice, and religious bigotry and intolerance, and also the ways in which he is associated with a globalized rights culture today.
223. Ethics and Feminism. WELCH (TR 2:35-3:50) -- SBS Implications of gender theory for understanding the Judeo- Christian moral traditions. Topics include: the nature of the moral subject, the social construction of gender, patriarchal consciousness, the abuse of women, woman-nature connection, female friendship, heterosexism, and race & class issues. Course requirements include: Reading assignments & reaction paragraphs, class participation, final exam, two 5-page reaction papers using a minimum of three assigned readings, creation of a glossary of terms (Group papers and glossaries are encouraged).
225. Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. AZZONI (TR 1:10-2:25) –HCA Issues of sexuality in the Hebrew Bible in the context of the Ancient Near East. Homosexuality, virginity, and rape.
239. Religious Autobiography. GELLER (TR 11:00-12:15) –P This course will address a number of issues raised by autobiographical narrative in general, and by religious autobiography in particular. These include motivations (personal salvation, testimony or witness, therapy, to mobilize believers, to proselytize); relationships among self, family, God, and religious tradition; relationships among life, death, and afterlife; life before and after conversion; role of memory and narrative; multiple selves (remembered, remembering, writing, and presupposed, as well as the recovered or false); mind and body; oral vs. written; fact vs. truth; privacy vs. publicity; Ego vs. Self vs. non-Self; cultural, ethnic, gender, and religious differences; genre (confession, diary, memoir, novel, biography); as well as fundamental questions about the nature of autobiography: is it the narrative of how a self endeavors to know itself or, as understood from one contemporary critical perspective, by which a self constructs its own identity or, as understood by another contemporary perspective, how a narrative generates a fictitious self? In addition to the classic exemplars of the genre like Augustine and Rousseau emphasis will be placed on the autobiographies of those for whom the dominant society has denied a self (in particular, women, African-Americans, and Jewish-Europeans) as well as on the demands that an event like the Holocaust makes on the autobiographical and religious consciousness of those who have as it were survived their own deaths.
246. Apophatic Mysticism and Culture. FRANKE (R 4:00-6:30) –HCA The discourse about the "Unsayable" (negative theology, apophaticism) from Plato and Neoplatonism through medieval mysticism, including the Kabbalah and Sufism, to baroque expressions in Silesius Angelus and John of the Cross. The thought and culture of the Unsayable from Romantic authors (Schelling, Kierkegaard, Hölderlin, and Emily Dickinson) to modern and postmodern writers (Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Bataille, Derrida, Celan, Blanchot). Side glances at Chinese Daoism/Taoism, Advaita Vedanta, and the Buddhism of Nagarjuna.
265. Myth and Epic in South Asia. STEWART (TR 2:35-3:50) –INT The relationship of the mythology of early religious texts, such as the Vedas, the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the later puranas tell the stories of the gods, and the gods’ interaction with humans to establish good and proper conduct. The behavior of these divine figures, and a host of other celestial and netherworld inhabitants, frequently proves to be as outrageous as it is exemplary. How do religious practitioners and others interpret these often contradictory tales? How does this divine play instruct the humans it entertains? And how do practicing Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims incorporate these tales into their theological and political worlds? We will examine the modes of textual creation and transmission, especially focusing on the distinction between oral and literary texts, performative and pictorial dimensions of these text, and the adaptation of traditions to the vernacular languages and regional contexts. Regional adaptation of genres and subgenres will trace some of the permutations that continue to shape the literary and religious landscape of South Asia today.
JS 250. Is God Guilty? The Problem of Evil in Judaism. URBAN (TR 2:35-3:50) –INT Evil and suffering pose a particular challenge to monotheistic religions and their belief in a just God. As much as evil is a problem that cannot be solved it is also a problem that requires a religious response. This discourse cuts across philosophical and theological thought. What do changes in Jewish understanding of the problem of evil reveal about changes in Jewish self-understanding? We will begin our discussion with the Book of Job, which sets the discursive framework for all subsequent reflections on the theme. How did Jews try to solve the conundrum? Was it possible to explain the origin and persistence of evil without falling into dualism or compromising the belief in divine omnipotence? Our primary focus will be on modern Jewish critiques of traditional rationalizations of suffering and how they reshape Jewish ethics and the principle of human agency. We will conclude with reflections on theodicy after the Shoah (Holocaust). The course will include films. No prerequisites required.
Language Courses
ARA 210B. Elementary Arabic II. GURE– (Section 01: MTWRF 12:10-1:00) & MAHMUD– (Section 02: MTWRF 10:10-11:00) –INT Arabic is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and one of the official languages of the United Nations. It's the vehicle of a great civilization that embodies thousands of years of heritage and has contributed significantly to the Renaissance. This course aims at providing you with a solid background in all four skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Arabic. It seeks to establish a useful vocabulary base that you can use to converse at the elementary level, and familiarize you with the basic structure of the Arabic sentence. It also introduces you to the fundamentals of Arabic grammar to produce simple Arabic sentences and sustain conversation orally, and to produce sentences and paragraphs in writing within the range of vocabulary and grammar taught. The course will emphasize the comprehension of simple sentences both spoken and written within the attained range of Arabic grammar and vocabulary. Understanding some cultural facets of the Arab world is an important component of the course. Five contact hour per week and individual work in the language laboratory. Students with prior Arabic experience will have to take a placement test. No exceptions.
ARA 220B. Intermediate Arabic II. HAMAD (TR 11:00-12:15) –INT In this course, you will continue to practice and develop all of the four language skills that are appropriate to this level, through an extensive use of the target language itself. Intensive work on vocabulary acquisition to facilitate speaking, reading comprehension, and writing skills, by learning it in the contexts of more complex structures of the Arabic sentence, will be at the core of the course. Greater emphasis will also be placed on understanding various aspects of Arabic culture that will prepare students wishing to visit or re-visit the Arab world and survive its culture-shock.
ARA 230B. Advance Arabic II. HAMAD (TR 1:10-2:25) –INT Course offers an overview of the target language in its Modern Standard and Classical Arabic manifestations. Of all four skills that you have developed thus far, speaking and reading are emphasized. The spoken form of the language used to develop your speaking ability and bring it to an advanced-superior level is that used by highly-educated speakers of Arabic. Grammar is learned through the reading of authentic texts and in its proper context, while literary techniques and observations are highlighted to aid you in understanding and analyzing similar materials. Prerequisite: 2 years of Arabic at Vanderbilt (or its equivalent elsewhere) or approval by instructor.
HEBR 111B. Elementary Hebrew. HALACHMI (MWF 3:10-4:00) –INT Elementary conversational Hebrew emphasizing the spoken colloquial usage of Israel today. Course prepares students for further study in modern Hebrew, while also providing a foundation for understanding Biblical Hebrew. No prior knowledge of Hebrew presupposed. Fulfills language requirement.
HEBR 113B. Intermediate Modern Hebrew. HALACHMI (2:10-3:00 MWF) –INT Reinforcement of advanced grammar, reading, and conversation in modern Hebrew. Some knowledge of elementary Hebrew is required. Fulfills language requirement.
HEBR 202W. Grammar and Composition. HALACHMI (1:10-2:00 MWF) –INT This course will be conducted solely in Hebrew. It will familiarize the student with various writing styles including slang, journalistic, poetic, and academic writing genres. It will offer reading selections from a variety of advanced-level textbooks as well as Modern Hebrew literature, Israeli newspapers, Modern Hebrew poetry and other materials. Listening comprehension skills will be practices and developed by exposure to Israeli media. Written assignments and in-class presentations will allow students to master their Hebrew abilities while developing well-rounded linguistic skills.
Courses Dual Listed in Religious Studies:
GRK 202
HIST 213; HIST 288a
ITA 231
JS 124, JS 180W, JS 233, JS 235W, JS 250, JS 252; JS 253W
PHIL 242
PSCI 263