Course Schedule

RELI 150B1 – Religion and Popular Culture

This course introduces the study of religion and popular culture. It explores how religion is represented in popular cultural forms, and how social conceptions of "religion" and "popular culture" change over time. Students will examine how differing definitions of religion, culture, and taste intersect with historical and contemporary categories of class, gender, ethnicity, and race.

RELI 160A1 – Gods, Goddesses, and Demons: Divinity in South Asia

This course is an introduction to multiple concepts of the divine in South Asia. We will explore the different ways that the religious traditions of South Asia understand supernatural beings and forces. In order to do this we will read portions of primary texts in translation, examine iconography, and watch rituals as they unfold. In addition to learning about the South Asia traditions, we will put those conceptions of the divine in conversation with those rooted in a European context, forcing you to learn to think critically about the ways people from different cultures view the world around them.

RELI 160D4 – Introduction to World Religions

This course explores the diversity of religions and religious experiences across the globe. Religions to be examined include, but are not limited to, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as indigenous traditions.

RELI 203 – Religion and Medicine in the Western Healing Traditions

An examination of the intersection between medicine and healing in western healing traditions, from ancient times to the modern era. Key scientific and humanistic questions will be addressed.

RELI 211 – Life After Death in World Religions and Philosophies

This course focuses on one Big Question: "How do afterlife beliefs affect the way we live?" It builds connections among the humanities [Religious Studies and Philosophy], the social sciences [Anthropology, Psychology, and Law], and the natural sciences [Medicine] to explore the ways in which religious afterlife beliefs are approached from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Students will analyze a variety of religious afterlife beliefs through case studies, problem-based assignments, and reading/writing genres from the six disciplinary perspectives in order to tackle the Big Question as it relates to their personal, academic, and/or career aspirations.

RELI 222 – Introduction to Zen Buddhism

This course is designed to introduce students to the history,teachings,and practice of Zen Buddhism in China,Japan, Korea and the United States. The course will discuss Zen from a variety of perspectives but will center around the question of the meaning of history. Zen is a tradition of Buddhism that claims to have inherited and to pass on, in an unbroken historical transmission from patriarch to patriarch, the living experience of the Buddha's enlightenment. The course will discuss how Zen's conception of its history is related to its identity as a special tradition within Buddhism, as well as its basic teachings on the primacy of enlightenment, the role of practice, the nature of the mind, and the limitations of language.

RELI 227 – Religion and Film

This course explores religion and its relationship with visual storytelling culture. We will analyze, explore, and challenge various religious, pop-cultural, ideological, and moral messages as presented in various types of film, from art house cinema to blockbuster movies, and genres ranging from horror to comedy.

RELI 235 – Religion, Violence, and Terrorism

This course will study critical theories about the role of religion in acts of terrorism and violence. Through the examination of a range of case studies, this course will explore ways in which religion has been the motivation and justification behind violent conflict, aggression, and persecution.

RELI 240 – Imagining the Buddha: Images of Buddhism in Asia and the West

What does it mean to imagine the Buddha? This course guides students in narrating the lives of Buddhist images by tracing their creation and movement in Asia as well as in cultural encounters within Europe and the U.S. Today art critics continue to discuss "Buddhist" elements in the work of iconic artists like Georgia O'Keefe and Mark Rothko, Tibetan mandala coloring books are being used for stress relief, and "Zen" aesthetics inform a broad range of fashion and design platforms. This course provides tools for critically reexamining the categories of "East" and "West" within this cultural moment. Through creative processes such as drawing, writing, and conversation, students interact with diverse imagery such as Chinese painted caves, Himalayan esoteric portraits of enlightened reality, and Japanese temple complexes. They interpret Buddhist texts describing the construction of buddha bodies in art, ritual, and in the mind. Students also engage with the work of contemporary performance artists inspired by Buddhist ideals of discipline and impermanence. Reflecting upon these experiences, students uncover how the categories of "East' and "West" have obscured the understanding of Buddhist art, artists, and communities. They document the ways in which power dynamics of colonialism and Orientalism have been integral to making these categories. In response to their findings, students work together to generate a virtual exhibition reimagining images of Buddhism and telling their stories.

RELI 277A – History of the Middle East: 600-1453

In this course, students take a humanistic disciplinary perspective to explore the cultural products of the pre-modern Middle East and answer questions about its historical development. Using primary sources in translation and secondary scholarship, students will explore the context of the rise of Islam; the process of conversion and expansion across the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia; the crystallization of Shi'ism and changing notions of religious authority; and the impact of Turkish migrations and Mongol conquests. They will become familiar with major genres of pre-modern Middle Eastern literary, religious, and scientific writings, and use techniques of close reading to answer questions about those texts' ideological positions and contexts.

RELI 280 – Introduction to the Bible: New Testament

This course introduces students to the New Testament in light of the contexts in which it was written and compiled, and as a window into reconstructing the world of early Christianity. The course will also examine how various Christian communities have understood the meaning and authority of the New Testament.

RELI 302 – Ellis Island, 9/11, and Border Walls: Religion and Immigration in the U.S.

This course will explore the central role of religion in shaping constructions of race and ethnicity in U.S. history, especially in light of immigration debates. Since the country's founding, immigrants have expanded ethnic and religious diversity in the United States in the face of powerful anti-immigrant movements. Students will engage with in-depth studies of immigrant communities who shaped the American religious and ethnic landscape, including diverse American expressions of religions such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Evangelical Protestantism, and Vodou.

RELI 304 – The Question of God

Study of the question of God from a theological, philosophical, and literary perspective.

RELI 305 – Greek and Roman Religion

Religious beliefs and cult practices in ancient Greece and Rome. All readings in English.

RELI 306 – Christianity in the Greco-Roman World

This course investigates the emergence of Christianity in the first four centuries of the Greco-Roman milieu. Topics may include: the interaction of early Christians with Jews, Romans, and Greeks; as well as differences and debates within the various forms of early Christianity itself.

RELI 316 – Sex and Salvation in Latin America

What do witches in colonial Guatemala, nuns in a Mexican convent, born-again gang members in El Salvador, Catholics seeking in-vitro fertilization in Ecuador, and lesbian practitioners of Candomblé in Brazil have in common? Their experiences tell us something about the complex intersection of sex, gender, and religion in Latin America. This course draws on anthropological methods and scholarship to consider two central questions: (1) How do religious ideologies and institutions shape sexuality and gender in Latin America? (2) How do Latin Americans contest gender norms, patriarchy, and heteronormativity through their religious practices, thus contributing to larger processes of social change? To address these questions, this class focuses on the social scientific study of diverse religious communities in Latin America from the pre-Columbian past to the present.

RELI 321 – Women in Judaism

This course examines religion and gender through the study of women in Judaism. How do scholars construct a history of women in ancient Judaism when Jewish sacred texts are written by and for men? How have modern Jewish women accommodated feminist ideals without undermining the authority of the established tradition? What impact has the feminist movement had on Jewish communal institutions in the United States and Israel? In this course, we explore these questions and others by examining the influence Jewish religious beliefs and practices have played in the formation of Jewish women's identities, image and their understanding of power and authority. Students study the role of women in the formation of Judaism and Jewish society as a culturally constructed and historically changing category through archaeology, biblical studies, rabbinics, theology, folklore, social and political movements.

RELI 332 – The Holocaust: Witnesses and Representations

This course explores Holocaust memory and representation in Europe, Israel and the United States through various media and genres from diaries, memoirs and oral testimonies to Yiddish and Hebrew poetry, second generation graphic novels and film to memorial gardens and resistance monuments, archives and museums. We engage with some of the most fundamental questions of memory and Holocaust trauma from multiple perspectives and contexts. Is it possible to communicate the horrors of the concentration camp? Who has the right to speak about the Holocaust? How does "Jewish" memory of the Holocaust shape our understanding of the history of Nazism, genocide, World War II and its aftermath? In what ways, has Holocaust memory become associated with movements for historical justice and human rights, in particular, in the United States?

RELI 335 – Rap, Culture and God

This course is a study of popular culture and religion in African-American and Latin@ communities, with a focus on the place of rap music in the cultural identity of these traditions. The class will begin with a study of some major themes in cultural studies concerning identity, class, race, and gender in addition to a study of the role of religion in Black and Latin@ communities. We will consider the approaches and self-understandings of identity and culture in rap music with special attention to the voices of protest, resistance, and spirituality among rap artists.

RELI 336 – Spirituality, Psychology, and the Mind

This course is a survey of psychological theory and research investigating religious beliefs, experiences, and practices.

RELI 359 – Buddhism and Healing

Is Buddhism a tradition of healing? In what ways has Buddhism been involved in reviving, sustaining, and curing human individuals? This course explores relationships and encounters between Buddhism and the domains of religion, science, and medicine. It considers historical relationships between Buddhism and traditional medicine in Asia as well as contemporary Western discourses involving Buddhism in popular culture, psychology, and spirituality. Finally, it invites a critical approach to the current dialogue between Buddhism and science. In the process, it reveals hidden assumptions behind commodifying `mindfulness' and the quest to document the therapeutic impact of meditation upon health, happiness, and success in the modern age. Students will have the opportunity to apply the ideas they have learned through analysis of relevant initiatives at the U of A such as the Neuropsychology, Emotion, and Thought Lab and the Center for Compassion Studies as well as of broader Tucson community events like the Gem Show.

RELI 367 – Yoga

In this course we examine the philosophy, practice, historical roots, and development of yoga. Students are asked to use and reflect on the disciplinary perspectives of the historian to examine premodern primary texts (in English translation) that provide a window into the origins of yoga, as well as the perspectives of the anthropologist and cultural critic to examine contemporary yoga practices. Students will compare and contrast perspectives of Indian yogis and contemporary international yoga influencers in order to understand how the experience of yoga differs across time and culture and how social systems of power and inequality are both subverted and reinforced by yoga and its practitioners.

RELI 370A – History of the Jews: Modern Jewish History

Survey of major political, socioeconomic, and cultural developments in the history of Diaspora Jewry: Modern Jewish history.

RELI 372A – Interpreting the Bible (Old Testament): Approaches to Understanding Israelite Religion and Society

The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is one of the most influential and widely studied texts in the world. For more than two millennia, it has played a central role in shaping Western culture, religion, and ethics. However, the stories, laws, and prophetic writings contained in the Bible are products of a specific time and place--embedded in the ancient Near East, where the Israelite people lived and interacted with other cultures over the course of many centuries. This course explores the contexts in which the Bible was written and compiled, drawing on literary analysis, historical criticism, and the witness of archaeology evidence. Students analyze key topics in Israelite religion and society, including the daily life of men and women, the emergence of monotheism, the role of the priesthood, development of the prophetic tradition, the political formation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah among others.

RELI 377 – History of Witchcraft, Magic, and the Occult

This course surveys the global history and theory of witchcraft and the occult from antiquity to the twentieth century, with a focus on events and practices in the West. We will study various notions of magic and demonology, their intersection with witchcraft trials and witch hunting, the role of religion, shifts in ideas about torture and the law, re-emergence of the occult in 19th-century, the development of Wicca and the cult of the goddess, and persistent concerns over witchcraft in countries such as Angola in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will explore what different societies considered good evidence of the supernatural and how shifting standards of proof and rationality have affected popular understandings of the occult and witchcraft through the centuries. While witchcraft is often associated today with women, we will not focus exclusively on women's experiences. Instead we will investigate the experiences of both sexes with the supernatural and how gender perceptions influenced the construction of ideas about witchcraft. Our examination of the past will be historical in method, but we will also address legal, medical, and anthropological questions in our study. Students will read and interpret original documents and other original sources, learning to understand assumptions about the world that may seem strange to us.

RELI 384 – Religion and Conflict in East Asia: Philosophical and Sociological Perspectives

This course examines sociological issues related to the political relationship among East Asian countries, especially during the colonial era (late 19th to the mid- 20th century) within the context of religious ideologies such as Shinto, Confucianism, Christianity, and Buddhism. Religion can be a powerful tool for controlling people, and Japan's colonial movement on Asia beginning in the end of 19th century was no exception. Japan constructed a variety of ideologies based on religious concepts in order to legitimate its imperialist project. Students will learn Japan's political strategy for accomplishing such a process and how Chinese and Korean people and institutions reacted to the challenge they faced in this complex cultural and sociological interaction. All readings are in English.

RELI 387 – The History of Anti-Semitism

This course examines various definitions of anti-Semitism and traces the history of anti-Semitism (or "anti-Judaism") from the earliest arguments between Christianizing Jews and Judaizing Christians to the birth of Islam, through the period of Muslim expansion and the Crusades, to the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and the Holocaust. It looks at the differences among various types of Christian anti-Semitism, Muslim anti-Semitism, and Jewish anti-Semitism, and concludes with a look at contemporary forms of anti-Semitism.

RELI 389 – Middle Eastern Ethnic and Religious Minorities

Overview of ethnic and religious minorities in the contemporary Middle East, study of ethnic and religious diversity and its origin and manifestations in the modern Middle East. Examination of how the concept of religious and ethnic minority has emerged as a key factor in state policies towards minorities as well as the cultural, economic, political, religious, and educational lives of its people.

RELI 405B – Medieval Europe

Major institutions and trends in Europe from the breakup of the Roman World to the 14th century.

RELI 431 – The Divine Comedy by Dante

This course examines Dante's masterpiece, "The Divine Comedy", the poet's life and other works. The primary focus is on "The Divine Comedy" and its influence on European literature and culture. Other texts will be included.

RELI 454 – The Spanish Inquisition

The Inquisition in Spanish, European, & ethnic history: its bureaucracy and procedures; its festivities, its victims, New and Old Christians; and witches. Social, economic, and demographic context.

RELI 483 – Confucianism: The Classical Period

RELI 485 – History of Japanese Religions: Ancient

A selective survey of Japanese religious history from earliest times through the 11th century. Topics covered may include prehistoric religions; the development of Shinto; Nara-period state Buddhism; tantric Buddhism in the Heian period; and spirit possession and exorcism.

RELI 491 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Requires faculty member approval, preceptor application on file with department.

RELI 498 – Senior Capstone

A culminating experience for majors involving a substantive project that demonstrates a synthesis of learning accumulated in the major, including broadly comprehensive knowledge of the discipline and its methodologies. Senior standing required.

RELI 498H – Honors Thesis

Honors Course

An honors thesis is required of all the students graduating with honors. Students ordinarily sign up for this course as a two-semester sequence. The first semester the student performs research under the supervision of a faculty member; the second semester the student writes an honors thesis.

RELI 554 – The Spanish Inquisition

The Inquisition in Spanish, European, & ethnic history: its bureaucracy and procedures; its festivities, its victims, New and Old Christians; and witches. Social, economic, and demographic context. Graduate-level requirements include graduate students studying more deeply the economic, social and demographic context of the Inquisition, through more scholarly reading, discussion and writing.

RELI 583 – Confucianism: The Classical Period

RELI 585 – History of Japanese Religions: Ancient

A selective survey of Japanese religious history from earliest times through the 11th century. Topics covered may include prehistoric religions; the development of Shinto; Nara-period state Buddhism; tantric Buddhism in the Heian period; and spirit possession and exorcism. Graduate-level requirements include oral presentations and longer, more in-depth papers.

RELI 160A1 – Gods, Goddesses, and Demons: Divinity in South Asia

This course is an introduction to multiple concepts of the divine in South Asia. We will explore the different ways that the religious traditions of South Asia understand supernatural beings and forces. In order to do this we will read portions of primary texts in translation, examine iconography, and watch rituals as they unfold. In addition to learning about the South Asia traditions, we will put those conceptions of the divine in conversation with those rooted in a European context, forcing you to learn to think critically about the ways people from different cultures view the world around them.

RELI 160D4 – Introduction to World Religions

This course explores the diversity of religions and religious experiences across the globe. Religions to be examined include, but are not limited to, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as indigenous traditions.

RELI 203 – Religion and Medicine in the Western Healing Traditions

An examination of the intersection between medicine and healing in western healing traditions, from ancient times to the modern era. Key scientific and humanistic questions will be addressed.

RELI 227 – Religion and Film

This course explores religion and its relationship with visual storytelling culture. We will analyze, explore, and challenge various religious, pop-cultural, ideological, and moral messages as presented in various types of film, from art house cinema to blockbuster movies, and genres ranging from horror to comedy.

RELI 241 – Introduction to Chinese Religions

The course is a comprehensive historical survey of the main religious traditions in China, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and popular religion. Through lectures, discussions, and reading of select primary and secondary sources, we will explore the formulations and subsequent transformations of key beliefs, doctrines, practices, and institutions that characterized specific religious traditions. We will also examine the patterns of interaction among different traditions, as well as the general character of religious life in both traditional and modern China.

RELI 304 – The Question of God

Study of the question of God from a theological, philosophical, and literary perspective.

RELI 305 – Greek and Roman Religion

Religious beliefs and cult practices in ancient Greece and Rome. All readings in English.

RELI 321 – Women in Judaism

This course examines religion and gender through the study of women in Judaism. How do scholars construct a history of women in ancient Judaism when Jewish sacred texts are written by and for men? How have modern Jewish women accommodated feminist ideals without undermining the authority of the established tradition? What impact has the feminist movement had on Jewish communal institutions in the United States and Israel? In this course, we explore these questions and others by examining the influence Jewish religious beliefs and practices have played in the formation of Jewish women's identities, image and their understanding of power and authority. Students study the role of women in the formation of Judaism and Jewish society as a culturally constructed and historically changing category through archaeology, biblical studies, rabbinics, theology, folklore, social and political movements.

RELI 332 – The Holocaust: Witnesses and Representations

This course explores Holocaust memory and representation in Europe, Israel and the United States through various media and genres from diaries, memoirs and oral testimonies to Yiddish and Hebrew poetry, second generation graphic novels and film to memorial gardens and resistance monuments, archives and museums. We engage with some of the most fundamental questions of memory and Holocaust trauma from multiple perspectives and contexts. Is it possible to communicate the horrors of the concentration camp? Who has the right to speak about the Holocaust? How does "Jewish" memory of the Holocaust shape our understanding of the history of Nazism, genocide, World War II and its aftermath? In what ways, has Holocaust memory become associated with movements for historical justice and human rights, in particular, in the United States?

RELI 335 – Rap, Culture and God

This course is a study of popular culture and religion in African-American and Latin@ communities, with a focus on the place of rap music in the cultural identity of these traditions. The class will begin with a study of some major themes in cultural studies concerning identity, class, race, and gender in addition to a study of the role of religion in Black and Latin@ communities. We will consider the approaches and self-understandings of identity and culture in rap music with special attention to the voices of protest, resistance, and spirituality among rap artists.

RELI 336 – Spirituality, Psychology, and the Mind

This course is a survey of psychological theory and research investigating religious beliefs, experiences, and practices.

RELI 350 – Hindu Mythology

Overview of the traditional Hindu narratives found in the Vedic, epic, and puranic literature. We will also examine Hindu myth in their many regional literary and artistic forms, and how these narratives influence culture, philosophy, literature, and folklore.

RELI 367 – Yoga

In this course we examine the philosophy, practice, historical roots, and development of yoga. Students are asked to use and reflect on the disciplinary perspectives of the historian to examine premodern primary texts (in English translation) that provide a window into the origins of yoga, as well as the perspectives of the anthropologist and cultural critic to examine contemporary yoga practices. Students will compare and contrast perspectives of Indian yogis and contemporary international yoga influencers in order to understand how the experience of yoga differs across time and culture and how social systems of power and inequality are both subverted and reinforced by yoga and its practitioners.

RELI 371B – History of Muslim Societies

Evolution and global spread of Muslim societies, modernization and its problems.

RELI 372B – Early Judaism and Christianity: One Book, Two Religions Second Temple Judaism and its Legacy

This course surveys scriptures and stories, wisdom texts, histories and apocalyptic visions that Jews living in the Persian and later Greco-Roman worlds produced and circulated in Second Temple period (539 BCE -135 CE). Examining Jewish history and writings of the Second Temple period is key to understanding an important time not only in Jewish religious formation but also the emergence of early Christianity, first as a Jewish sect and later, as a separate religion.

RELI 374 – The Holocaust

Socio-economic and intellectual roots of modern anti-Semitism, evolution of Nazi policy, the world of death camps, responses of Axis and Allied governments, and responses of the Jews.

RELI 493 – Internship

As part of the Religious Studies for Health Professionals curriculum, the internship provides first-hand experience working within a community organization or employment area that engages issues of health and religion. The internship involves 120 contact hours with a selected internship site as well as 15 academic hours to enhance the learning experience. Before enrolling, students must work with the Religious Studies for Health Professionals internship coordinator to find an appropriate internship site that fulfills the goals of the program and the students interests.