RELIGION 101
Introduction to Religion:
This course introduces students to the major world religions. Religions considered include: Native American oral traditions, Shintoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha'i. Some attention is given to primary religious texts.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 102
Introduction to Eastern Religions:
This course offers students a comparative and historical introduction to Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Attention is given to primary texts and rituals, historical and doctrinal development, socio-cultural setting and political impact.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 103
Introduction to Western Religions:
This course offers students a comparative and historical introduction to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Attention is given to primary texts and rituals, historical and doctrinal development, socio-cultural setting and political impact.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 204
Hinduism:
This course introduces students to the major textual, practical, communal, doctrinal, and philosophical features of Hinduism. Special attention is given to Hindu mythology, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad-Gita.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 205
Buddhism:
This course introduces students to the major textual, practical, communal, doctrinal, and philosophical features of Buddhism. Special attention is given to Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantric texts.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 207
Judaism:
This course introduces students to the major textual, practical, communal, doctrinal, and philosophical features of Judaism. Special attention is given to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Holocaust. Differences among contemporary forms of Judaism (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist) are studied in some detail.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 208
Christianity:
This course introduces students to the major textual, practical, communal, doctrinal, and philosophical features of Christianity. Special attention is given to the New Testament. Differences among contemporary forms of Christian community (Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) are studied in some detail.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 216/PHILOSOPHY 216
Philosophy of World Religions:
A comparison and analysis of the philosophical foundations of some of the world's major religions. Among the religions studied are: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
3 semester hour

RELIGION 221/ENGLISH 221
Religion and Fiction:
An introduction to religion and literature, this course will examine ways in which works of fiction (both secular and more overtly religious narratives) address issues that are intrinsically religious, such as: the relation between human spirit and human nature, the presence of evil and suffering, the need for meaning and personal and communal fulfillment.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 301
World Scriptures:
A Study of primary source readings in world religious literature. Attention is also given to critical research methods. In the course we will read from the Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, Dhammapada, Koran, Tanakh, New Testament, and the Analects.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 305
Comparative Religious Ethics:
A comparative study of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic accounts of human rights, ecology, family, violence, and economy. The possibility of developing a universal ethic is considered. Topics vary from semester to semester.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 321
Mystics of the Middle Ages:
This course introduces students to mysticism through the experiences and writings of Christian mystics in the Middle Ages. Mystics considered include Bernard of Clairveaux, Hugh of St. Victor, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart, Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, and Julian of Norwich. Topics such as liturgy, art, architecture, and music will be considered briefly, in order to set the context for understanding mysticism.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 332
Women in Judaism:
This course will examine the place women have held in Judaism throughout history, beginning with the biblical foundations and continuing through to the present. The course will examine Jewish women as wives and mothers, breadwinners, conduits of religious tradition, and as agents of social change.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 345/ENGLISH 345
Calvinism and American Civilization:
This course studies the extent of Calvinist cultural penetration of American civilization and examines the specific literary evidence linking seventeenth century Puritanism the primary vehicle of Calvinist thought in America and later manifestations of Calvinism in eighteenth and nineteenth century culture. All reading in the course will be in works of intrinsic literary merit.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 348/SOCIOLOGY 348
Religion and Society:
A sociological and anthropological analysis of religion as a universal social institution, with emphasis upon theories of the origins of religion, relationships of religion to other social institutions, study of selected Western and non-Western religions in their socio-cultural contexts, religion as a source of social equilibrium and conflict, and types of religious movements.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 353/ENGLISH 353
The Sermon in American Literature and Civilization:
This course is intended to provide a basic familiarity with one of the first and still most significant genres in popular American literature. A study of the origins and formal traditions of the sermon in various American religious cultures will enable students to experience American civilization from a most intimate and yet social perspective, that of communal worship.
3 semester hours

RELIGION 395
Senior Thesis Seminar:
Prerequisites: Senior standing, world religions major. Introduction to and preparation of a senior research thesis.
May be taken for 6 semester hours