Fall 2013

Subj	Crse	Sec	Title	Days	Time	Instructor	Location
REL	101	A	Introduction to Religion	WF	9:30-10:45am	Lynn S. Neal	WIN 210
REL	101	B	Introduction to Religion	WF	12:30-1:45pm	Leann C. Pace	WIN 210
REL	101	C	Introduction to Religion	TR	12:30-1:45pm	Ronald B. Neal	WIN 314
REL	101	D	Introduction to Religion	TR	2:00-3:15pm	Ronald B. Neal	WIN 210
REL	102	A	Introduction to the Bible	TR	9:30-10:45am	Jason A. Staples	WIN 314
REL	102	B	Introduction to the Bible	TR	2:00-3:15pm	Jason A. Staples	WIN 314
REL	103	A	Intro to Christian Traditions	MWF	11:00-11:50am	Earl P. Crow	WIN 209
REL	103	B	Intro to Christian Traditions	TR	12:30-1:45pm	Stephen B. Boyd	WIN 209
REL	107	A	Intro to African Religions	MW	12:30-1:45pm	Simeon Ilesanmi	WIN 209
REL	107	B	Intro to African Religions	MW	5:00-6:15pm	Simeon Ilesanmi	WIN 209
REL	108	A	Intro to Hindu Traditions	TR	11:00am-12:15pm	Tanisha Ramachandran	WIN 314
REL	108	B	Intro to Hindu Traditions	WF	9:30-10:45am	Jarrod L. Whitaker	WIN 314
REL	109	A	Intro to Buddhist Traditions	WF	11:00am-12:15pm	Jarrod L. Whitaker	WIN 314
REL	110	A	Intro to Islamic Traditions	MW	12:30-1:45pm	Leah Kinberg	WIN 306
REL	110	B	Intro to Islamic Traditions	TR	11:00am-12:15pm	Pieternella A. Van Doorn Harder	WIN 209
REL	113	A	Intro to Jewish Traditions	MW	2:00-3:15pm	Annalise Glauz-Todrank	WIN 314
REL	200	A	Approaches to the Study of Religion	TR	2:00-3:15pm	Tanisha Ramachandran	WIN 206
REL	240	A	Religion & Ecology	TR	12:30-1:45pm	Lucas F. Johnston	WIN 210
REL	266	A	Sects & Cults	WF	11:00am-12:15pm	Lynn S. Neal	WIN 206
REL	306	A	Ritual Studies	WF	2:00-3:15pm	Jarrod L. Whitaker	WIN 206
REL	319	A	Visions of the End: Jewish & Christian Apocalyptic	TR	12:30-1:45pm	Jason A. Staples	Wingatre 206
REL	323	A	Jesus Traditions	TR	11:00am-12:15pm	Mary F. Foskett	WIN 206
REL	332	A	Religion & Public Engagement	T	3:30-6:00pm	Stephen B. Boyd	WIN 209
REL	345	A	African-American Religious Experience	TR	9:30-10:45am	Ronald B. Neal	WIN 210
REL	355	A	Jewish Identities: Religion, Race & Rights	MW	12:30-1:45pm	Annalise Glauz-Todrank	WIN 314
REL	362	A	Topics in Islam: Islam & Gender	MW	3:30-4:45pm	Leah Kinberg	WIN 314
REL	383	A	Qur’an & The Prophet	TR	9:30-10:45am	Pieternella A. Van Doorn Harder	WIN 206

Fall 2013 Upper Level Course Descriptions

REL 200: Approches to the Study of Religion (General Courses)
Prof. Ramachandran, T/TH 2:00-3:15pm – The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the methodologies (and pitfalls) involved in the academic study of religion.  It will explore the various kinds of questions, approaches, limitations, and techniques that are/have been used in religious studies.  This course will teach students to employ a critical and intersectional analysis to the study of religion in the academy and society. Using historical and contemporary examples from various religious traditions, we will analyze how concepts such as race, gender, culture, and sexuality intersect to produce and interpret religious identities, practices, imagery, myths, rituals, and texts.
*The Course used be REL 300 and it is required for all Religion Majors. The Department strongly recommends that all Majors take this course earlier, rather than later, in the course of their degree. Minors are also welcome to take it as it counts toward their religion courses. 

REL 240: Religion & Ecology (Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Prof. Johnston, T/Th 12:30-1:45pm – This course explores the complex relationships between ecosystems, religions and cultures.   Human cultures and their religious production have always depended on the natural world not just for physical and spiritual subsistence, but also as a source of inspiration or veneration, for metaphors of the sacred, and for exploitation.  This course will: a) analyze will utilize and interdisciplinary approach to analyze arguments for the emergence of religion as a response to ecological and social constraints; b) survey how various cultures have imagined the natural world and their ethical obligations toward it (if any), including the development of new nature-based religious movements; and c) review arguments for and against the notion that religion is evolutionarily adaptive. 

Course modules include: Environmental History and Religion; Religion and Ecological Adaptation; Environmental Anthropology; Nature-Based Religions; Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion

REL 266: Sects & Cults (Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Prof. Lynn Neal, W/F 11:00am-12:15pm – In this course we will investigate historical and contemporary issues in the study of new religious movements.  From charges of brainwashing to allegations of violence, the cult stereotype persists and shapes our vision of new religions.  Throughout the semester, we will examine this stereotype, question its sources, and test its validity.  We will do this not only by analyzing media coverage of new religions, but also through examining the history of specific “cults”—Jonestown, the Nation of Islam, Waco, Heaven’s Gate, Satanism, & Wicca.

REL 306: Ritual Studies (General Courses)
Prof. Whitaker, W/F 2:00-3:15pm – “Of  course,  rituals  come  in  all  sizes  and  kinds,  from  those  linking  humans  to superhuman powers (possession trance, prayer, exorcism, and the like) to the everyday rituals (greeting,  socializing,  cleansing,  and  eating)  to  the  rituals  of  the  state, professions, clubs, and affinity groups. There are birth, puberty, courtship, marriage, death, and afterlife rituals. All of life—from the most mundane to the most special—is saturated with and marked by ritual. But what is ritual?” — Richard Schechner

This  course  will  introduce  students  to  the  various  methods and theories  employed  in  the  field  of  ritual  studies,  while  examining comparative rituals and ritualized practices from around the world. Please Note: REL 306 has been approved to count as an elective course for the Anthropology (ANT) Major.

REL 319: Visions of the End: Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic (Group I: Biblical Studies)
Visiting Instructor – Staples, T/TH 12:30pm-1:45pm – “It’s the end of the world as we know it.” But will the world end with a bang or a whimper? From the Book of Revelation to the Left Behind series and the fuss over the Mayan calendar in 2012, there is no escaping the impact of apocalyptic thought even today. 

Starting from the roots of apocalypticism in early Judaism, this course will explore the origins, development, and legacies of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic thought and literature—and the various ways the end is envisioned across these traditions. The course features a close reading of texts from the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other early Jewish literature as well as early Christian apocalyptic literature such as the Book of Revelation. Our approach will be interdisciplinary and students will be encouraged to explore the issues and materials from a range of methodological perspectives, always alert to the context in which these books and movements arose.

The course will conclude with a look at the continuing legacy of apocalypticism in religious movements, politics, art, and popular culture (including fiction, music, video games, film) in the world today.

*Jason A. Staples will be Visiting Instructor in the Dept. of Religion, Academic Year 2013-14. He comes to Wake Forest from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he is completing a Ph.D. in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, specializing in Early Judaism and Christian Origins. Jason has taught numerous courses at UNC, where he won the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2009), one of five university-wide awards given. His dissertation examines expectations of Israel’s restoration in early Judaism and how those expectations shaped early Christianity, the apostle Paul in particular. His other research interests include Jewish-Christian relations, apocalypticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Hebrew prophets, Jewish wisdom literature, ancient conceptions of ethnicity, gender/sexuality, sociology of religion, and Graeco-Roman philosophy. Jason has served on the steering committee for SECSOR’s “Judaism and Hellenism” subsection for the past two years and coordinated the joint UNC/Duke/NC State “Christianity in Antiquity” (CIA) colloquium for three years. Jason received his B.A. and M.A. in Religion from Florida State University and is also a member of the Football Writers Association of America.

REL 323: Jesus Traditions (Group I: Biblical Studies)
Prof. Foskett, T/TH 11:00am-12:15pm – This course examines traditions about Jesus in Christian and non-Christian texts, including the New Testament, early Christian gospels outside the New Testament canon, and the Koran. Students will study these traditions in their historical, cultural, social and  literary contexts to gain an appreciation for the diversity of Jesus traditions in various periods. 

REL 332: Religion & Public Engagement (Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Prof. Boyd, Tuesdays 3:30-6:00pm – This seminar introduces students to dynamics at work at the interface between religious communities and the public sphere.  It will explore, through a wide range of readings, guest lectures, field trips, and films, the potential for social change—constructive and destructive—within and between communities in contemporary local, regional, national and global contexts.

For Fall 2013, among the religions included will be Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Native traditions. Among the possible topics covered will be the US Civil Rights Movement, the relation of church and state, women’s rights, religious intolerance, inter-faith collaboration, and skills in the conduct of public life.

Students will conduct team research aimed at issues related to the semester’s selected areas of inquiry (e.g., criminal justice (innocence, re-entry, reform); education and racial desegregation/resegregation; disaster relief; campus tolerance/intolerance; Native American land rights).

REL 345: African American Religious Experience (Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Prof. R. Neal, T/TH 9:30-10:45am – This course surveys the religious practices, beliefs, traditions, and institutions which have characterized the African American experience in North America. In this course, students will be exposed to the gamut of African American religious expression, from West African religions to Christianity to Islam to esoteric religious movements of the city to recent religious innovations among African Americans. The African American religious experience will be examined in light of the social and political history of African Americans in the United States. Students will consider the experience of slavery and the struggle for civil and human rights, which have shaped the African American experience. Special emphasis will be placed on key figures, historical moments and social movements, which have defined this struggle. Overall, students will examine the variety of religious beliefs, practices, and traditions that permeate the history and culture of African Americans.

REL 355: Jewish Identities: Religion, Race, and Rights (Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Prof. Glauz-Todrank, M/W 12:30-1:45pm – “Is Judaism a religion or a race?” Jews and non-Jews have struggled to answer this question throughout the modern period. In this course, we will examine why. In doing so, we will answer the following questions: Why do contemporary Americans often think of Jews as members of a “religion,” but when Nazis ruled Germany they classified Jews as a “race?” What is antisemitism and why has it taken so many different forms over the ages? To construct responses to these questions, we will consider how Jews in a variety of historical and geographic contexts have been characterized by outsiders as well as how Jews have described and identified themselves. We will examine “religion” and “race” as subjective, constructed categories that have been employed to define who is a Jew. In doing so, we will also address how and why these categories have been tied to different types of legal rights and social privileges.

REL 362: Islam & Gender (Group III: World Religions)
Visiting Professor Leah Kinberg, M/W 3:30-4:45pm – The duty to treat women well is adduced in a wide range of Qur’anic verses and prophetic sayings. These quotations underlie a variety of current Islamic studies and argumentative presentations that introduce Islam not only as a religion that highly respects women, but also as the only religion that treats women equally. Western society, however, portrays the Islamic woman as being deprived of her basic rights.

The present course will examine this dichotomy and analyze the religio-cultural background that inspires it. It will begin with an historical review of the status of pre-Islamic women and the Prophet’s wives, and continue with an examination of the lives of dominant women throughout Islamic history. Finally, it will probe into the topics that are relevant to the modern Islamic woman, both in Muslim countries and in the West. Along this survey, currently contested issues will be studied: female attire, honor killing, wife beating, women stoning, female circumcision and, what seems to contradict all the above, female jihad.
*Leah Kinberg – Born and raised in Israel.  BA in Biblical Studies and Arabic Language and Literature, MA in Islamic Studies, both at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ph.D. at The University of Michigan, Ann arbor (Islamic Studies).  For the last twenty five years has been teaching at Tel-Aviv University (Department of the History of the Middle East and Afrika).  Over the years, affiliated with several universities as a visiting professor:  The University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, The University of New South Wails, Sydney, Australia, Simon Frazer University, Vancouver, Canada, and will spend the 2013-2014 academic year at Wake Forest University (The Department of Religion) as an AICE/Schusterman visiting Israel professor. Research and writing interests include:  The function of dreams in Medieval Islamic literature, Qur’an hermeneutics, Islam and Judaism, Muslims and Jews, the question of Jerusalem, Classical Islam in the service of contemporary issues, modern Islamic rhetoric, Islam and gender and the Islamic diaspora.

REL 383: The Quran & the Prophet (Group III: World Religions)
Prof. VanDoorn Harder, T/TH 9:30-10:45am – During this course we study the contents of the Qur’an, the various stages of the history of its revelation and how it came to function as the basis of Muslim belief, worship, and law. We look at the role of the Prophet Muhammad as the recipient and transmitter of the Qur’an’s message and what his symbolic presence as a model for all Muslims means in the spiritual life of a Muslim. We furthermore study the Qur’an’s artistic qualities and its place and role in daily Muslim life and try to gain understanding about how the various modes of its interpretation developed.

Tentative Spring Schedule 2014
Tentative Spring 2014 Upper Level Courses

REL 200 Approaches to the Study of Religion. (3h, General Course)
Professor Glauz-Todrank. Explores the history of and methodological resources for the study of religion. Focus may vary with instructor, but the emphasis is on the ways religion has been defined, studied and interpreted over the last several centuries.

REL 244.  Religion, Terrorism, and Violence. (3h, Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Professor Johnston. Investigates definitions of terrorism and examines religious motivations, justifications and legitimization of the use of violence in a number of belief systems.

REL 317. Wisdom Literature. (3h, Group I: Biblical Studies)
Professor Hoglund. Examines the development, literary characteristics, and theological contents of the works of ancient Israel’s sages.

REL 338. Religion, Ethics, and Politics. (3h, Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Professor Ilesanmi. Examines ethical issues in religion and politics using materials from a variety of sources and historical periods.

REL 367. Christian Mysticism. (3h, Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Professor Wiethaus. Historical study of the lives and thought of selected Christian mystics with special attention to their religious experience.

REL 372. History of Christian Thought. (3h, Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Professor Boyd. Study of recurring patterns in Christian thought across time and cultures and some of the implications of those patterns in representative ancient and modern Christian figures.

REL 385. Topics in South Asian Religions. (3h, Group III: World Religions)
Professor Ramachandran. Variable topics in the religions of South Asia. May be repeated for credit if topic varies.

REL 387. Priests, Warriors, and Ascetics in Ancient India. (3h, Group III: World Religions)
Professor Whitaker. Introduces students to the history, culture, and ritual traditions of ancient India by examining the overlapping practices, beliefs, ideologies, and gendered representations of priests, warriors, kings, and ascetics.

REL 389. Islam in the West: Changes and Challenges. (3h, Group III: World Religions)
Professor VanDoorn Harder. Explores issues of identity, ethnicity and religion within various Muslim communities living in western countries. A central goal is to understand how these communities negotiate the new environment and the challenges they face.

REL 390. Jerusalem in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. (3h, Group II: Religion, History, and Society)
Professor Kinberg. Explores the role of Jerusulem in the Arab-Israeli conflict from historical, social, political and religious perspectives.

 

REL

107

B

Intro to African Religions

MW

5:00-6:15pm

Simeon Ilesanmi

Wingate 209