Religion Courses

A field-based class that examines the relation between land use and social forms. Weekly field exercises consider the impact of farms, churches, cemeteries, roads, paths, and trails on the shape of the land. There is an emphasis on reading the land as a form of memory. Field sites are selected and visited as part of engaging the story of the land and the people who have lived on it. The focus area is Sewanee and the surrounding plateau, coves, and valley. Some interviews with local residents are part of the class experience. Selected readings continue the general theme of memory in relation to life and place. The course is open to first year students only. (Credit, full course.) Smith

This course deals with how human beings create meaningful lives. Students read and discuss biographies and autobiographies from individuals with a variety of life experiences and religious traditions and write short biographies based on their own interviewing. In addition, they keep journals which form the foundation for completing their own autobiographical essays toward the end of the semester. (Credit, full course.) Brown

Investigation of religious faith in the light of the Holocaust. The course focus is on the deification of racism and nationalism in Christian Germany and the role of religion before and after the Shoah. Attention is given to historical, psychological and theological analysis. Students who complete this course may not receive credit for Religion 319. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of the nature of religion as an aspect of universal human experience. (Credit, full course.) Staff

Survey of Judaism and its emergence from Israelite Religion as evidenced in the Tanakh (Jewish Bible) into the Rabbinic culture of interpretation and Halakah (Jewish law). Approach is both historical and thematic. Focus is upon key periods of Judaism's development and the major ideas, movements, and practices central to ancient and modern Jewish life and thought. Attention is paid to the role of sacred Jewish texts and interpretation, community, covenant, and halakhic observance. (Credit, full course.) Parker

Examination of the role of religion, reason, and desire in the shaping of the form and content of ethical decision-making and action. Focus is upon major currents of Western ethical theory and Jewish, Christian, and atheistic analyses of the self. Issues include moral authority and judgment and responsibility to self, other, and community. Works include Hebrew Bible, Kant, Aristotle, H.R. Niehbuhr, Walter Wurzburger, James Cone, and Laurie Zoloth-Dorfman. (Credit, full course.) Parker

An examination of the origins, nature, and content of representative literature from the Old and New Testaments. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of the origins, nature, and content of representative literature from the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old Testament, and cognate literature. Attention is paid to issues of critical reading and theological interpretation of Jewish scripture. Not open for credit to students who have completed Religion 141. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of the origins, nature, and content of representative literature from the New Testament and Hellenistic literature. Attention is paid to issues of critical reading and theological interpretation of Christian scripture. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of the images of Jesus in ancient Gospels and contemporary film. The course focuses upon canonical (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John) and noncanonical (Thomas, Philip, Mary) gospel texts. The aim is to understand in literary, historical and theological terms different ways Jesus is interpreted in gospel texts and to view contemporary popular cultural efforts to represent Jesus as savior figure in film (including Jesus of Montreal, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, The Life of Brian, Last Temptation of Christ, and The Matrix). (Credit, full course.) Staff

A philosophical examination of responses to questions about the ultimate nature and meaning of existence, such as the reality of God, the rational legitimacy of faith, the problem of evil. (Not open to students who have taken Religion 251.) (Credit, full course.) Carden

An exploration of the forms of the sacred in American Indian religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, or other traditions. (Not open to students who have taken Religion 261.) (Credit, full course.) Smith

An introduction to the major religious traditions of Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shintoism and their views of reality and humanity. (Credit, full course.) Brown

Historical introduction to major themes and their development in Christianity, including understandings of Christ, what it means to be Christian, nature of the church, role of the laity, contact with non-Christian traditions. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An exploration of ethnicity and race as social determinants in the interpretation and reception of Jesus in different cultures. Students and faculty from historically white Sewanee collaborate electronically and in person with students and faculty from other Anglican, but historically black, institutions (St. Paul’s College in Virginia, St. Augustine’s College in North Carolina, and Voorhees College in South Carolina). Historical, sociological, philosophical, theological, ethical, and aesthetic approaches allow students to consider myriad ways Jesus has been interpreted across cultures past and present. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of the significance of Jesus for human culture and religion. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of the Holocaust from theological, historical, and social psychological perspectives. Exploration of diverse religious and moral worldviews with particular attention to the ethical and unethical responses of victims, perpetrators and witnesses. What are the implications of the Holocaust for transformation of moral thought and behavior? Topics include cruelty, social conformity, altruism, forgiveness, survival, and the function of conscience during and in the aftermath of atrocity. Authors include Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel, Raul Hilberg, Christopher Browing, Primo Levi, Marion Kapland, Philip Hallie, and Lawrence Langer. (Credit, full course.) Parker

Examination of contemporary Jewish and Christian feminist and Black womanist ethics. Focus is upon religious and non-religious ethical thought as it relates to the construction of gender identity, and the implications for an understanding of economic justice, racism, familial relations, and gendered participation with religious traditions and theological communities. Authors include Katie Canon, Sharon Welch, Delores Williams, Judith Plaskow, Rachel Adler, and Audre Lourde. (Credit, full course.) Parker

Examination of the sources, traditions and applications of Jewish ethical thought and practice. Focus is on biblical, rabbinic, and contemporary Jewish ways of understanding ethical practice and normative principles. Special attention is given to the nature of the covenantal relation to God in Halakah (Jewish law) and Jewish social and familial structures, and the special challenge presented by the Holocaust. Authors include Eugene Borowitz, David Novak, Appel Gersion, Raciel Biale, Eliezer Berkovitz, Louis Newman, and Blu Greenberg. (Credit, full course.) Parker

An examination of the canonical and extracanonical gospel narratives with attention to their historical, literary, and religious significance. Special attention is given to the cultural production and reception of Gospels in art, film, and drama. (Credit, full course.) Staff

A philosophical and historical examination of Buddhism from its origins in India to more recent manifestations in the United States. Attention is paid to Buddhism as it has been and is currently being lived. (Credit, full course.) Brown

An exploration of the native Chinese religions of Daoism and Confucianism with attention also to gods, ghosts, and ancestors. Emphasizes the examination of texts including Confucius' Analects, The Daodejing, and The Zhuangzi. (Credit, full course.) Brown

An introduction to the main themes, philosophies, and myths of Hinduism as it has grown and changed over 3,500 years. (Credit, full course.) Brown

Examination of the ethical thought and action of African-American social movements and religious communities. Focus is upon the traditions of moral reasoning and practical action within Black religious and political communities, and the communal and individual responses to systemic racism and institutional and random violence. Texts include spiritual autobiography, African slave narratives, political treatises, fiction, and theological and philosophical writings. Authors include Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, Cornel West, W.E.B. Dubois, Alice Walker, and Malcolm X. (Credit, full course.) Parker

An historical and topical introduction to the origins and development of Islam. The course surveys the life of Muhammad, the Quran and Sunna, the later great sages, development of Muslim communities and principal institutions. Through ethnographic and literary approaches, the course explores issues of the transmission of the Quran, succession to the prophet, Muslim pluralism, the role of women, and devotional practices of Islam. The course examines the topics of surrender, invocation, and fasting, the relationship of sacred to profane, free will and determinism, and divine and worldly political power. This course cannot be taken for credit by any student who has earned credit for Religion 163. (Credit, full course.) Staff

The history of Christianity from its origins to 451 in its historical, religious, and social contexts. Prerequisites: Relg 200, Relg 241, or Humn 102. (Credit, full course.) Staff

Examination of the religious and philosophical tradition of dialogical ethics. Focus is on the classical, modern, and contemporary understanding of the "living speech" within Jewish and Christian thought. In particular, attention given to existentialist, feminist, and Levinasian ethical theory and their efforts to explain reciprocity, Divine-human and interhuman relationship, justice, and duty. Authors include Plato, Martin Buber, H.R. Niehbuhr, Gabriel Marcel, Emmanuel Levinas, and Seyla Benhabib. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. (Credit, full course.) Parker

An exploration of the religious aspects of contemporary environmentalism and religious critiques of the emphasis by Americans on the values of consumerism and convenience.  A service-learning component requires students to participate in a local environmental project and to reflect on both their own ethical commitments and those of the University. (Credit, full course.)  Brown

An introduction to the religious diversity of sub-Saharan Africa and to the African religious heritage of the Americas. Key topics include indigenous cosmologies, sacrifice, initiation, divination, healing, possession, and witchcraft. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An examination of church organization and membership, religious and political anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism in Germany before and during the Hitler period, the role of churches and other religious groups in support for and in opposition to the regime and its policies, the question of "Aryan religion" or the "SS Ethics," and some specific efforts (by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, including church groups) to clarify and reformulate Christian theology and ethics in light of this experience. (Credit, full course.) Staff

Readings and reflections on texts from the formative period of Christian theology through the late Middle Ages. Emphasis on the thought of Augustine, Aquinas and Medieval mystical writings. (Credit, full course.) Carden

The question of the reality of God as confronted in Christian and Jewish theology since 1940. Specific topics: the "Holocaust," "death of God," liberation theology and the feminist critique of religion, ecology and natural theology, and religious pluralism. (Credit, full course.) Carden

Involving readings in Western European Christian theology from the sixteenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, this course focuses on Christian theological concerns and challenges related to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy, religion, or humanities. (Credit, full course.) Carden

An examination of the role of parables and their tellers in Judaism and Christianity. Attention is given to the historical, literary, and hermeneutical character of these distinctive religious texts and their paradoxical aesthetic form and ethical function. Focus is on the second century Rabbis, the Hassidim, Jesus, the Gospel writers, Kierkegaard, and Kafka. Prerequisite: Introduction to Bible or humanities. (Credit, full course.) Staff

Readings and reflection on the theme of lost divine reality in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Western religious thought. (Credit, full course.) Carden

Reflection on the imagery and meaning of human selfhood within religious contexts and the traditions. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or religion, or humanities. (Credit, full course.) Carden

An examination of Jewish and Christian narrative as a vehicle for moral and religious reflection. Attention given to Jewish (Genesis, Exodus) and Christian (Gospel) foundation narratives from literary and hermeneutical perspectives associated with modern and postmodern writers and literary critics, including Zora Neale Hurston, Steiner, Alter, Auerbach, Kermode, Yosipovici, and Ferrucci. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or religion, or humanities. (Credit, full course.) Staff

An investigation of the complex relationship of the Bible and Western culture from antiquity to postmodernity with special attention to aesthetic, literary, philosophical, and ethical issues. Prerequisite: Introduction to Bible, or humanities. (Credit, full course.) Staff

Considers the relationship between the natural and the sacred in selected traditions such as Amerindian religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaeo-Christian tradition, and contemporary "eco-religion." Emphasizes analysis of latent ecological/environmental resources or conflicts in each tradition studied. Offered alternate years. (Credit, full course.) Smith

This course begins with an examination of Buddhist philosophies and psychologies through an exploration of Abhidhamma literature, the systematic treatment of Gotama Buddha's teachings that occurred after his death. Since the oldest Buddhist texts claim that Buddhism concerns itself with suffering and its end, this course emphasizes Buddhist conceptions of what suffering is, what the end of suffering looks like, and how suffering is brought to an end. After studying how the cognitive and ethical come together in the cessation of suffering in Buddhist psychology and philosophy, students turn to its interaction with Western psychology, concentrating on cognitive and neurophysiological research and on the use of meditation in therapeutic settings. (Credit, full course.) Brown and psychology staff

An examination of the religious forms implicit in selected aspects of American popular culture. Emphasis on interpreting theoretical studies and on critical analysis of typical examples. (Credit, full course.) Smith

This course offers historical overviews and religious and theological analyses of religiously-mandated or justified violence within the context of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Also, this study evaluates how religious identity and sense of “vocation,” both personal and communal, facilitate or impede religious violence. (Credit, full course.) Parker

A consideration of the impact of modernity on religion in the West; the crisis of belief and secular options. (Credit, full course.) Smith

A field-based seminar to examine the effects of religious belief and doctrine upon landscape and material culture in the upland South, including Appalachia.  Core topics for different years vary and include Shaping the Land, Cemeteries, Log and Stone, Churches, and Village and Town.  Field seminar.  Prerequisite:  One course in religion, philosophy, or anthropology.  (Credit, full course.)  Smith

An investigation of Buddhist images, symbols, stories, doctrines, ethics, and practices as they relate to understanding the environment and humanity’s relationship with it. Classical texts as well as modern commentaries by Buddhist teachers, writers, and activists are examined. (Credit, full course.) Brown

A comparative study of new religious movements of the twentieth century including Japanese New Religions, selected cult phenomena, "New Age" and spiritual movements, and new religions from South Asia and the Middle East. Some attention to North American quasi-religious movements such as occult spiritualism, religiously inspired political movements, and paramilitary religious movements. (Credit, full course.) Smith

A philosophical and historical introduction to Zen Buddhism as it arose in China as Ch'an, moved and changed through East Asia, and came to the West. Prerequisite: Introduction to Asian Religions or Buddhism. (Credit, full course.) Brown

An introduction to the philosophy and practice of ethics in Buddhism beginning with an examination of ahimsa, the inviolability or sanctity of life. Attention is paid to ethical beginnings with the birth of Buddhism (563 B.C.E.) and ending with modern Buddhist contributions to issues such as environmentalism. Prerequisite: Introduction to Asian Religions or Buddhism. (Credit, full course.) Brown

A study of significant thinkers and events in the formation of the Anglican tradition from the English Reformation to the English Civil War and Restoration. Attention is also given to the pre-Reformation development of religious thought and practice in England. Writers from Thomas Cranmer to the Caroline Divines are considered in the contexts both of English and European history and of the intellectual currents of the period. (Credit, full course.) Lytle, Turrell

An historical and comparative analysis of the religious traditions of the Southeastern United States with particular reference to the interactions between these traditions with the social, political, and economic culture of the region. Click for more information. (Credit, full course.) Smith

A study of the religious forms of rural society with special emphasis upon the rural church in the southeastern U.S. Attention to historical, social, cultural, and demographic transformations of rural institutions from 1800 to the present. Fieldwork required. Lectures Monday and Wednesday, fieldwork Thursday afternoons. (Credit, full course.) Smith

(Credit, full course.) Staff

For selected students. May be repeated indefinitely. (Credit, variable from half or full course.) Staff