Plants and Religion
Plants and Religion explores plant uses in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and indigenous/pagan traditions, applying humanities theories to interpret plants in religious practices, art, literature, architecture, and gardens.
Summary
Lectures are small, with a median of 8 enrolled students in the recorded sections.
What you’ll be able to do
Identify and employ various approaches to interpreting plants and ecological themes in religious works of art, literature, architecture, gardens, and practices.
Describe key concepts of world religions and how they have and continue to understand and incorporate plants into their traditions and beliefs.
Practice interpretative methods within multiple historical and cultural contexts.
Apply critical approaches to understanding in religious practices and beliefs and alternative ways of considering them.
Compare and contrast the complexities of one's own culture and larger global communities.
Extract and analytically summarize arguments from secondary source books on plants and religion.
Develop an original humanities argument based on primary sources and using secondary sources to construct a framework.
Analyze current academic debates about plants and religion across religious studies, history, folklore, sociology, and art history.
Source: UW Guide 1· UW Guide 2· UW Guide 3
Grade history
↗No recorded grade history.
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Prerequisites
Course mapSatisfied Communications A or graduate/professional standing
- Satisfied Communications A
- graduate/professional standing
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- Satisfied Communications A
- graduate/professional standing
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
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Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
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Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Plants play an important role in just about every aspect of our lives and culture, including religion. Learn about the ways plants are used and understood in religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and indigenous and pagan traditions. Apply theories from across the humanities to interpret plants and ecological themes in religious practices, works of art, literature, architecture, and gardens. Define important societal questions, collect and analyze evidence using primary sources, present original conclusions, and contribute to ongoing discussions about the relationship of people and plants. Think critically about the similarities and differences between your own use and understanding of plants and those of larger global communities.
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Plant symbolism and use in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and indigenous/pagan traditions.
- Ecological themes in religious practices, art, literature, architecture, and gardens.
- Academic debates on plants and religion across religious studies, history, folklore, sociology, and art history.
Skills
- Interpret plants and ecological themes in religious works of art, literature, architecture, gardens, and practices.
- Describe key concepts of world religions and how they incorporate plants into traditions and beliefs.
- Extract and analytically summarize arguments from secondary source books on plants and religion.
- Develop an original humanities argument based on primary and secondary sources.
Grades
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Catalog & offerings
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Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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