GENRES OF WESTERN RELIGIOUS WRITING

HISTORY/RELIGST 208

Survey of key themes in Western intellectual history and religious thought from ancient Greece through the Renaissance, focusing on relationships among classical, Jewish, and Christian traditions.

RELIGST 201

An introduction to the study of religious language and the role of religion in everyday language. Through discourse analytical and linguistic ethnographic tools, explore ritual speech and magic, prayer, song, sermons, conversation, social media, etc., across several religious traditions.

RELIGST 400

Topics may include religion in specific societies or regions; religion in the arts; contemporary themes in religion.

RELIGST 200

Topics in religious studies in the humanities at an introductory level.

HISTORY/RELIGST 209

A survey of major trends in Western intellectual history and religious thought in the modern era, a period that saw a new range of competing ideas about the divine, the human condition, justice and the social order, and the quest for meaning. Explores shifts in Christian and Jewish thought as well as secular alternatives to religious outlooks. Topics include the impact of the Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment; radical critiques of religion; existentialism; theological responses to World Wars and the Holocaust; and civil rights and social justice. Sources include films, novels, autobiographies, essays, theological works, and political manifestos.