Current Courses

Course Offerings (Fall 2023)

View a full list of religious studies courses, including those not offered this semester.

General education courses are marked with an asterisk (*).

*REL1000: Religions of the World (Asynchronous and Web-Based)

Students should know that the first section is 100% online and asynchronous. If you would rather have an in-person experience, please enroll in second, third, or fourth section of REL 1000. This course provides a general introduction to the world's religions, including major traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, along with smaller indigenous traditions. The approach of the course is objective and academic, it is not designed to advocate any particular religious perspective or ideology. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit; it is also one of the basic requirements for the Religious Studies major.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	100% Web-Based and Asynchronous	Kenneth Smith
002	TTh 7:30 - 8:50	Kenneth Smith	228 Tureaud Hall
003	MWF 9:30 - 10:20	Madhuri Yadlapati	209 Coates
004	MWF 10:30 - 11:20	Madhuri Yadlapati	209 Coates

*REL 1005: New Testament

This course will introduce you to the history, literature, and religion of the earliest period of Christianity (from about 30 to 150 CE). We will see how Christianity arose out of the Jewish religion and how it spread in the Greco-Roman world. We will examine a variety of writings from this period, including the collection of early Christian literature known as the New Testament. You will learn the historical, critical methods by which scholars study these writings as sources for our knowledge of the origins of Christianity. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	TTH 12:00-1:20	Bradley Storin	E137 Howe Russell Kniffen

*REL 2000: Introduction to the Study of Religion

What is a "religion," how do you study it, and who gets to decide? We will explore these fundamental questions by reading three very different textbooks commonly used in introductory courses like this. We will think about how these types of books, the approaches of their authors, and even this type of course shape the concept of "religion" among the general public. While we will touch on the doctrinal and ritual dimensions of several global traditions, our task will be to figure out and articulate the assumptions, values, and goals that shape our thinking about "religions" (and other stuff!). In this course, I assume that we are all curious--curious about how we think, curious about what we normalize or take for granted, curious about how we use words to describe and navigate the world around us This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	TTH 9:00-10:20	Lauren Horn Griffin	209 Coates

REL 2029: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

This course introduces students to the histories, teachings, beliefs, and practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to engage with guest speakers, take field trips to synagogues, churches, and mosques, and watch a number of videos pertaining to contemporary issues (e.g., women's roles, waging war) within these religions. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit; it is also one of the basic requirements for the Religious Studies major.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	TTH 12:00 - 1:20	Maria Rethelyi	209 Coates

*REL 2033: American Religions

This course is a chronological and thematic survey of American religious history, with special consideration for both religious diversity and the impact of religious ideologies on American culture. Each student will be obliged to think critically about definitions of religion and approaches to the academic study of religion. Beginning with the colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, French, and English people, we move to the Great Awakenings, slave religions, Mormonism, Native American religions, Fundamentalism, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism, as well as new immigrant religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. We'll be interested in asking how religious groups influenced, and were influenced by, American culture. This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	MWF 7:30 - 8:20	Kenneth Smith	152 Coates

REL 2112: Religion and Magic

This course examines historical, sociological, anthropological, theological, and psychological studies of magical beliefs and practices from a variety of cultural settings, including early modern England (before and after the Reformation), colonial America, slave culture on Antebellum plantations in the American South, "positive thinking" and"prosperity" spiritualities, and in contemporary forms of popular entertainments, such as the Harry Potter films.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	MWF 10:30- 11:20	Kenneth Smith	220 Coates

REL 3010: Digital Religion and Popular Culture

How is "pop culture" not just the things we consume, but the objects that define how we express our political sentiments and social identity? How have things we call religious developed in the midst of, and adapted to the demands of, digital, mass-mediated culture? This course examines the ways that the beliefs and behaviors we call religious ar part of everyday culture--in particular, the ways that they are produced by and (in turn) influence culture. We will take a critical approach to the classification of "religion" and "pop culture," asking about those categories in dialogue with each other. We will also look at religion in pop culture, pop culture in religion, and pop culture as religion. Broadly, students will learn to analyze questions of values, ethics, or aesthetics as they are represented in religion, film, art, music, and online media. The course is broad in scope and takes a global perspective on religion and popular culture as well as the relationships between these subjects.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	TTH 12:00-1:20pm	Lauren Horn Griffin	27 Allen

REL 4301: Theories of Religion

This seminar is a learning space where students will critically engage with the concept of religion and academic approaches to the study of religion. Here we will not be learning about specific religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and so forth), but rather the different ways to to talk and think about religion in an academically responsible way. In essence, we will focus on a asset of interrelated questions: What is religion? What kinds of approaches have scholars adopted as they study religion? How have we come to talk about it in an academic setting? What are productive ways to analyze religious traditions, communities, beliefs, practices, and texts now? Related to these basic questions will be issues of sex and sexuality, embodiment, gender, race, law, theology, secularity, ritual, social organization, and culture. As a result, the theories of religion we read will come from a wide range of academic disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, law and politics, psychology, race studies, economics, gender studies, colonial studies, and of course, religious studies. This course fulfills the capstone requirement for the Religious Studies major.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	TTH 1:30 - 2:50	Bradley K. Storin	240 Lockett

REL/AAAS 4400: Religious Thought of MLK and Malcolm X

This course explores the religious thought of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X through a close examination of their most significant writings and speeches and dispels many myths and popular conceptions of their life and thought.

Section	Date & Time	Instructor	Location
001	MW 3:30 - 4:50	Finley	31 Allen