Course Offerings (GSAS Bulletin)

All graduate courses offered in religious studies carry 4 points each. For listings of course offerings by semester, please visit the program’s Web site.

Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion

G90.1001  Identical to G14.3398. 4 points.
Survey of the principal methods of studying religious belief and practice.

Problems and Methods in Hebrew and Judaic Studies
G90.1005  Identical to G78.1005. 4 points.

History of Israelite Religion
G90.1327  Identical to G78.1327. 4 points.

Topics in the Bible
G90.1330  Identical to G78.3311. 4 points.

Mysticism
G90.1409  4 points.
Focuses primarily on the Western mystics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, giving special attention to Rumi and Meister Eckhart. Comparisons are made with nondualistic traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Christianity and Culture in America
G90.1470  Identical to G57.2020. 4 points.

Muhammad and the Qur’an
G90.1502  4 points.
Study of the life and the teachings of the Prophet; analysis of the Qur’an; introduction to the problem of Hadith; and study of Ibn Ishaq’s Life of the Apostle of God.

Shi’i Islam
G90.1577  Identical to G77.1750 and G93.1618. 4 points.

Introduction to the Qur’an
G90.1609  Identical to G77.1609. 4 points.

History of Judaism in Late Antiquity
G90.1800  Identical to G78.2623. 4 points.

Islam in the Modern World
G90.1803  Identical to G77.1803. 4 points.
The 19th- and 20th-century challenge of Islam to modernism and vice versa. The effect of colonization and Europeanization on traditional Islam and the reactions of both modernists and traditionalists within the Islamic medium.

Islamic Law and Society
G90.1852  Identical to G77.1852. 4 points.

Women and Islamic Law
G90.1854  Identical to G77.1854. 4 points.

The Bible and Literary Criticism
G90.2115  Identical to G78.2115. 4 points.

Gender, Otherness, and Difference
G90.2453  Identical to G78.2453. 4 points.

Medieval Mystical Hebrew Literature
G90.2467  Identical to G78.2467. 4 points.

Anthropology of Ritual and Performance
G90.2474  Identical to G14.3399. 4 points.

Body, Performance, and Religion
G90.2475  Identical to G14.2335. 4 points.
Exploration of the issue of embodiment in two stages. The first stage traces the rise of the European model of the biomedical body, while the second traces some of the strands of critique of the universalizing social implications of this model, especially performative approaches. We must reflexively shape this methodological legacy in order to understand the cultural expressions of “others.” This method enables us to better understand aspects of other social and religious traditions that counter, or form interesting hybrids with, European practices of embodiment.

Anthropology of China: A Critical Historical Approach
G90.2476  Identical to G14.3391. 4 points.

Religion and Power
G90.2800  Identical to G57.2800. 4 points.

M.A. Thesis Research
G90.2901, 2902  1-4 points per term.

Directed Study in Christianity
G90.2921, 2922  1-4 points per term.

Directed Study in Judaism
G90.2931, 2932  1-4 points per term.

Directed Study in Islam
G90.2941, 2942  1-4 points per term.

Directed Study in Asian Religion
G90.2951, 2952  1-4 points per term.

Directed Study in Philosophy of Religion
G90.2961, 2962  1-4 points per term.

Directed Study: Topics in Religion
G90.2971, 2972  1-4 points per term.

Religion as Media
G90.3397  Identical to G14.3397. 4 points.
This course introduces students to the long-standing and complex connection between religious practices and various media, based on the premise that, like all social practice, religion is always mediated in some form or other. Yet, religion does not function simply as unchanging content, while media names the ways that content is formed. Instead, shifts in media technique, from ritual innovations to the invention of printing, through TV, to the Internet, also shape religious practice. This course is interested in gathering theoretical tools for understanding the form and politics of this mutual dialectic.