Religion
Kenneth Brashier
Chinese religions.
Michael Foat
Christianity.
Kambiz GhaneaBassiri
Islam.
Christopher Roberts
Modern Western religious thought.
Steven M. Wasserstrom
Judaism.
The academic study of religion is an integral part of the liberal arts. The aims of the curriculum are two: to introduce students to the various religious traditions of the world—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, for example—and to acquaint students with a variety of recognized methodologies employed in the study of religion—philosophical, social scientific, and historical. The department’s courses serve both to develop in students the capacity for critical assessment of religious thought and action, and to provide an adequate grounding for independent, analytic inquiry into the history of religious traditions.
The curriculum of the department reflects the staff’s commitment to a diversity of approaches in religious studies. Majors in religion are expected to be familiar with this methodological and theoretical spectrum, and to concentrate upon particular approaches in their research.
While the study of religion is an independent academic field, the department encourages the pursuit of interdisciplinary work in philosophy, classics, literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and other fields.
Besides providing the foundation for a liberal education, a major in religion can prepare students for advanced study in the field, for the ministry, or for other vocations.
Requirements for the Major
- One 100-level introduction in religion.
- Religion 201 (theories and methods).
- At least five additional units in religion, three of which must be at the 300 level or above.
- Religion 399 (junior seminar).
- Religion 470 (senior thesis).
- Completion of two units in a foreign language of at least the second-year level or demonstration, by means acceptable to the department, of equivalent proficiency. To satisfy this requirement a student must do one of the following: pass a second-year language course at Reed, pass a second-year language course that has been approved by the department at another accredited college or university, or pass a language placement examination at the second-year or higher level. A number of placement examinations are offered at Reed every year during orientation. Students desiring to meet the language requirement by any means other than second-year coursework at Reed should consult with their adviser in advance. The department recommends students study the sacred language of a religion in which they are especially interested.
Recommended but not required: Humanities 210, 220, or 230.
Requirements for the Interdisciplinary Major
- One 100-level introduction in religion.
- Religion 201 (theories and methods).
- Four other units in religion.
- Course requirements as specified by the related discipline.
- Completion of two units in a foreign language of at least the second-year level or demonstration, by means acceptable to the department, of equivalent proficiency. To satisfy this requirement a student must do one of the following: pass a second-year language course at Reed, pass a second-year language course that has been approved by the department at another accredited college or university, or pass a language placement examination at the second-year or higher level. A number of placement examinations are offered at Reed every year during orientation. Students desiring to meet the language requirement by any means other than second-year coursework at Reed should consult with their adviser in advance.
- Religion 399 (junior seminar).
- Religion 470 (senior thesis).
Religion 152 - Introduction to Judaism
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the
self-definition of Judaism. The course will analyze Judaism’s
understanding of itself by examining such central concepts as God,
Torah, and Israel. This central self-definition will then be tested by
close readings of selected representative texts and investigation of
the varieties of Jewish history, as manifested in such phenomena as
mysticism, sectarianism, and messianism. Lecture-conference.
Religion 155 - An Introduction to Islam
Full course for one semester. This course offers an introduction to
Islam as a prophetic religious tradition. It explores the different
ways in which Muslims have interpreted and put into practice the
prophetic message of Muhammad through historical and phenomenological
analyses of varying theological, philosophical, legal, political,
mystical, and literary writings. These analyses aim for course
participants to develop a framework for explaining the sources and
symbols through which historically specific experiences and
understandings have been signified as Islamic. The course focuses in
particular on the early and modern periods of Islamic history.
Lecture-conference.
Religion 157 - The Idea Systems of Chinese Religions
Full course for one semester. This course is a survey of the idea
systems in the development of China's three main institutional faiths:
Daoism, Buddhism, and Classicist lineage ritual. Known as the “Three
Teachings,” these faiths flowered in the second and third centuries and
gradually permeated every aspect of Chinese life, from family structure
to foreign trade, from cosmological speculation to court politics, from
liturgy to landscape painting. We will examine how the three teachings
borrowed from one another and yet still delineated their own
identities. Lectures will place these religions within a historical and
political context and will draw upon surviving religious art to provide
a visual component to the course. Conference discussions and readings
will focus on translations of sacred texts such as Buddhism’s famous Vimalakirti Sutra and Daoism's Scripture of the inner explanation of the three heavens. Lecture-conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 160 - Religion and Philosophy in Preimperial China
Full course for one semester. This course is a study of religion and
philosophy in preimperial China (i.e., before 221 BCE) alongside their
literary and artistic manifestations. While a billion people can today
claim an intellectual inheritance from Greece, more than two billion
recognize ancient China as their foundation. Beginning with the oracle
bones and sacrificial bronze vessels, the course will progress to the
Confucian classics and the blossoming of Chinese philosophy. Analyses
will include bronze-age material culture (including the new discoveries
of Sanxingdui), The book of songs from the Confucian tradition, The Zhuangzi from the Daoist tradition, and the preimperial narrative histories of the Zuo commentary. Conference.
Religion 163 - Introduction to Post-Reformation Christianities
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the
most influential figures and texts in the history of modern
Christianity. It will demonstrate how one cannot understand such
figures and texts in isolation, for each must be situated as a creative
but conditioned response to a specific historical context. The course
will explore many instances of thought responding to the stimulus of
changing historical conditions. The course tracks the contentious
fragmentation of the medieval catholic church in the post-Reformation
era. From the unity symbolized by the reign of Charlemagne, when one
could plausibly speak of Christendom as a single entity, and thus as
one religion, this course will track the way that prominent Christians
slowly created and embraced a religiously plural world. It is as if by
an internal dynamic, through great tension and distress, the primary
irritant propelling Christians through this process was the repeated
confrontation with the religious otherness of their own neighbors,
friends, and family. The course will examine the way that people make
history: with obstructed vision and limited resources, driven by
motivations of which they are only dimly aware, leading to consequences
that rarely match their intentions. Lecture-conference.
Religion 164 - Introduction to Christian Origins
Full course for one semester. This course introduces themes and problems in the historical reconstruction of Christianity from the early “Jesus Movement” to circa 250 CE. These include ritual practices, art and architecture, social organization, literary production, and early canon formation, as well as issues relating to gnosis and Hellenistic philosophy. It requires extensive reading of the Greek, Latin, and Syriac sources in English translation. Intended to provide both an introduction to the materials and a narrative context in which to pursue more advanced studies, the course is open to first-year students. Lecture-conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 165 - An Introduction to Imperial Orthodoxy
Full course for one
semester. An introduction to the
history, theology, and religious practices associated with the establishment of
Catholic Orthodoxy in the Roman Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries CE. The course investigates the
variety of ways in which Christians framed their identities and their
experiences of empire in ritual, ascetic practices, theology, art and
architecture. Special attention will be paid to the network of social relations
that undergirded a Christianizing empire. Primary sources originally written in
Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac will be read in translation. Lecture-conference.
Religion 166 - An Introduction to Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Full course for one
semester. An introduction to
Eastern Orthodox Christianity as an incarnational religious tradition, this
course investigates the various ways that Eastern Orthodox Christians have
understood and recapitulated the person and work of Jesus Christ. Historical
and phenomenological analyses of Eastern Orthodox art and architecture, ritual
practices, and a wide array of liturgical, theological, canonical, and
historical texts will provide interpetive strategies for further exploration of
the tradition and bases for comparative understanding. The course focuses on 19th- and 20th-century Eastern Orthodoxy with special attention to the diaspora
experience. Lecture-conference.
Religion 201 - Introduction to Theories and Methods in Religious Studies
Full course for one semester. An introduction to various interpretive frameworks and methodological issues that inform religion as a critical, reflexive, academic discipline. Texts pertaining to the definition and scope of the inquiry and methods of investigation will be critically engaged and their applicability tested with an eye toward their utility for understanding religion and religious phenomena. Prerequisites: Humanities 110 and at least one 100-level course in religion. Lecture-conference.
Religion 254 - Sacrifice, Gift, and Exchange in Religious, Gift, and Market Economies
Full course for one
semester. This course will explore the religious significance of three
different types of social transactions—exchanges, gifts, and sacrifices—in
relation to different social contexts, such as families, communities, and
congregations. How do religions variously construe these transactions, and,
specifically, how do they relate individual motivations to complex systemic
effects and unintended consequences? The readings in this course will cover a
cross-section of the most influential writing on these topics, including texts
by Adam Smith, Marx, Simmel, Hubert and Mauss, Lévi-Strauss, Bourdieu, and
Appadurai. In addition, we will have frequent recourse to detailed ethnographic
case studies in order to test the explanatory power of different theories.
Prerequisite: one 100-level course in religion. Lecture-conference.
Religion 257 - Biblical Narrative: Genesis and After
See English 357 for description.
English 357 Description
Religion 305 - History, Hermeneutics, and Religion
Full course for one semester. This course frames a series
of critical inquiries into the varieties of rules and practices that affect the
historical understanding of religions. It is best understood as motivated by
one question: what might it mean to say that one is doing history of religions? It presumes that work in the history of religions
requires reflection on the relationships among the human experience of time,
the interpretive practices of the historian, and religions construed as an
object of social-historical inquiry.
The course is open to nonmajors who have met the prerequisites.
Prerequisites: at least one 100-level course in religion and Religion 201.
Conference.
Religion 306 - The Origins of Religion
Full course for one semester. Why are humans religious? This course will evaluate the answers put forward by the greats of sociology (such as Weber and Durkheim), anthropology (Rappaport and Geertz), psychology (James and Freud), and even evolutionary biology (Dawkins and Boyer). Each disciplinary lens gives us different tools to define religion, to understand its mechanics, and to scrutinize its role in society. Prerequisites: Religion 201 or the consent of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 307 - Early Chinese Cosmology and Its Ritual Response
Full course for one semester. This course is an examination of the
diverse cosmological traditions that underpin later institutional
faiths, and will explore early Chinese attempts to locate the human
being within a larger natural order. Early Chinese scholars wrestled
with ideas of a pervasive yin and yang as well as other
forms of correlative interaction, and in their application of these
ideas they formulated systems that explained everything from the inner
workings of the body to the greater astronomical order. The course
examines their broader concepts such as time and space as well as
specific topics such as astronomy, alchemy, and afterlife. It also
considers the ritual response to this cosmology—that is, the means
whereby humans accessed the larger natural order. Rituals mimicked
cosmological hierarchies, and they also interacted with that cosmology
through sacrifice, divination, shamanism, and seasonal festivals.
Students will explore the archeological evidence, and their readings
will focus upon primary texts in translation. Prerequisite: Religion
157. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 308 - Chinese Religious Texts
Full course for one
semester. This course is an introduction to the syntax and particles of
classical Chinese with an emphasis on translating early religious prose. The course will assist the student in learning classical Chinese by sampling
religious texts that are often cited throughout Chinese history. These texts
will derive from the three institutional faiths of Daoism, Buddhism, and
Confucian lineage ritual. The introduction of classical Chinese will help the
student gain direct access to a vast realm of texts, religious and otherwise.
Prerequisites: Chinese 110 and Religion 157 or 160, or consent of the
instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 310 - Death and Remembrance in Chinese History
Full course for one semester. This course is a historical
survey of Chinese attitudes toward dying, death, and the nonempirical
realm. From Buddhist hells to Daoist immortals, Chinese religions are
preoccupied with rationalizing and resisting human extinction. The
course will examine death through the lenses of literature, art,
medicine, and philosophy, beginning with the earliest forms of the
Shang Dynasty ancestral cult to the medieval period. Prerequisites:
Religion 157 or 160 and either Religion 201, Humanities 230, or consent
of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 313 - Chinese Mahayana Texts
Full course for one semester. This course provides a structured
familiarization with the doctrinal foundations of Mahayana Buddhism.
After examining the transmission process of texts from India to China,
the course will focus upon close reading of sutras in translation from
four major schools of Chinese Buddhism. These sutras will include the Flower ornament sutra from Huayan Buddhism, the Pure land sutra from Jingtu Buddhism, and the Diamond and Lankavatara sutras from Chan (Zen) Buddhism. Students will then read early
interpretations of these sutras in medieval literature, intellectual
discourse, and art. Prerequisites: Religion 157 or 160, and 201 or
consent of the instructor. Conference.
Religion 314 - The History of Chinese Religions
Full course for one semester. This course is a survey of the history of
Daoism, Buddhism, the ancestral cult, and popular religions in China
from its beginnings through the Tang Dynasty. Using a combination of
recent secondary scholarship and representative primary sources, the
course will trace the development of religion against the background of
Chinese cultural growth. It will pay special attention to how religious
doctrine and art influenced, and was influenced by, secular history,
including economics, politics, and foreign relations. Prerequisites:
Religion 157 or 160, and 201 or consent of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 321 - Islamic Thought in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Full course for one semester. A chronological survey of Islamic thought
during the 19th and 20th centuries. Focusing on conceptions of God and
of the ideal human relationship with God in selected Muslim religious
writings, the course will analyze the interrelation between
sociohistorical and theological developments in the Islamic tradition
during this period. The geographical focus of the course will be
primarily on the Middle East and South Asia. Among the authors whose
theologies we will examine in depth are: Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Muhammad
Iqbal, Abu'l-A'a Mawdudi, Jamal ad-Din Afghani, Muhammad 'Abduh, Sayyid
Qutb, 'Ali Shari'ati, and Ruhallah Khomeini. Prerequisite: Religion 155
or Anthropology 361. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 332 - Semantics of Love in Sufism
Full course for one semester. Sufism broadly refers to a complex of
devotional, literary, ethical, theological, and mystical traditions
within Islam. More specifically, it refers to the activities associated
with institutionalized master-disciple relationships, which define the
paths (turuq) through which Muslims have sought experiential
knowledge of God. In both the broad and narrow sense of Sufism, love
has been a prominent means of Sufi self-representation. In this course
we will explore the ideas and practices semantically associated with
love in the Sufi tradition and analyze the ways in which these ideas
and practices have both shaped and been shaped by individual lives,
religious institutions, and sociocultural contexts. Prerequisite:
Religion 155. Conference.
Religion 341 - Christian Asceticism: The Regulation of the Christian Body
Full course for one semester. By investigating ancient literatures of askesis,
this course will explore early Christian conceptions of the body and its
regulation. Readings will include material drawn from among the
apocryphal acts, sermons, monastic regulations, Biblical commentaries,
homilies, and encomia. Prerequisite: Religion 153. Conference.
Religion 344 - Discourses and Bodies
Full course for one semester. Full course for one semester. In many
religions the body is a contested site where such phenomena as natural
appetites, demonic influence, and divine condescension converge. While
such a concern for the body is widespread, the dogma of bodily
resurrection distinguishes Christian notions of the body from most
other religions. Whether as a corrective to or a consequence of this
tradition, recent trends in the study of Christianity have attempted to
“recover the body” from its discursive purgatory. Course material will
address discursive and corporeal issues in the history of Christianity,
such as the relation between gender and the divine, medieval and
Protestant notions of the Eucharist, the confessional interrogation of
the flesh, Luther’s body, demonic possessions at Loudun, and miraculous
healings at Lourdes. Prerequisite: Religion 201 or consent of the
instructor. Conference.
Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 349 - Late Antique and Byzantine Theological Texts
Full course for one semester. This course will investigate Hellenic and
Christian philosophical theology in late antiquity and Byzantium.
Primary focus will be upon the theological works of the philosopher
Proclus, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, St. Maximus the Confessor,
and St. Gregory Palamas. Secondary studies will include works by
Armstrong, Losski, Gersh, Siorvanes, Meyendorff, and Louth. Primary
texts will be examined in the original Greek and in translation.
Prerequisite: Greek 110. Greek 210 is recommended. Lecture-conference.
Cross-listed as Greek 249. Not offered 2009-10.
Greek 249 Description
Religion 373 - Special Topics in Jewish History
Full course for one semester. This course is a research seminar devoted
to the investigation of a particular topic in Jewish history.
Prerequisite: Religion 201. Conference.
Religion 383 - Reading Pseudo-Dionysius
Full course for one semester. This course provides an introduction to a
major writer in the Christian mystical tradition. The course situates
the thought of the Pseudo-Dionysius within the social-historical
environment and the main intellectual currents of the Mediterranean
world of the fifth century of the Common Era. Prerequisites: Religion 153 and 201, or consent of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 384 - Special Topics in the History of Christianity
Full course for one semester. A research seminar devoted to the
investigation of a particular topic in the history of Christianity.
Prerequisite: Religion 153. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.
Religion 399 - Junior Seminar
Full course for one semester. This course offers intensive study of a
particular topic, drawing on various methodologies in the study of
religion. Members of the religion faculty will attend and participate.
While the course is intended to prepare department majors for the
senior program, it is open to all qualified students. Prerequisites:
junior standing, Religion 201, and three other religion courses. This
course may be repeated with departmental approval. Conference.
Religion 470 - Thesis
Full course for one year.
Religion 481 - Individual Work in Special Fields
One-half or full course for one semester. Prerequisite: approval of instructor and division.
Top of Page
