Courses
Religious Studies
- REL-R 100 Studies in Religion (3 cr.) Select introductory issues in religion. Interdisciplinary in emphasis. May be repeated for up to 9 credit hours under different titles. PUL=5
- REL-R 101 Religion and Culture (3 cr.) An introduction to the diversity of human cultures from the perspective of religious studies. The course uses a case study approach to understand how religion shapes, and is shaped by, culture and society. PUL=5
- REL-R 111 The Bible (3 cr.) A critical introduction to the major periods, persons, events, and literatures that constitute the Bible; designed to provide general humanities-level instruction on this important text. PUL=5
- REL-R 120 Images of Jesus (3 cr.) This course is designed to introduce students to the variety of traditions about the figure of Jesus. It will acquaint students with the wide array of images of the Jesus character through a historical analysis of these images portrayed in texts, art, music, film, and TV. PUL=5
- REL-R 133 Introduction to Religion (3 cr.) Introduction to the diversity of traditions, values, and histories through which religion interacts with culture. Emphasis on understanding the ways the various dimensions of religion influence people’s lives. PUL=5
- REL-R 167 Introduction to Tribal Religions (3 cr.) Introduction to Tribal Religions is a Lower Division course designed to acquaint students with tribal religions of the world with a focus on the earliest religious traditions. PUL=5
- REL-R 173 American Religion (3 cr.) A consideration of American religion, with particular emphasis on the development of religious diversity and religious freedom in the context of the American social, political, and economic experience. PUL=5
- REL-R 180 Introduction to Christianity (3 cr.) Survey of beliefs, rituals, and practices of the Christian community with a focus on the varieties of scriptural interpretation, historical experience, doctrine, and behavior. PUL=5
- REL-R 200 Studies in Religion (3 cr.) Select intermediate studies in religion. Interdisciplinary studies emphasized. May be taken for up to 9 credit hours under different titles. PUL=5
- REL-R 204 Religions in Africa (3 cr.)
Introduces students to the diversity of religious traditions in Africa. Focusing on the historical development of Africa's triple religious heritage, we examine African traditional religions, Christianity, and Islam. Special emphasis will be placed on African religious heritage in the modern era. PUL=5
- REL-R 212 Comparative Religions (3 cr.) Approaches to the comparison of recurrent themes, religious attitudes, and practices found in selected Eastern and Western traditions. PUL=5
- REL-R 223 Religion and Imagination (3 cr.) Introductory studies of the nature, function, and significance of myths, symbols, and images in religious and cultural systems, with examples drawn from various traditions and with special attention devoted to their relationships to the contemporary imagination. PUL=5
- REL-R 243 Introduction to the New Testament (3 cr.) An introduction to the modern critical study of the New Testament from primarily a historical perspective. The goal is to learn to view these diverse Christian writings within the context of their historical and social settings. PUL=5
- REL-R 257 Introduction to Islam (3 cr.) Introduction to the emergence and spread of Islamic religious traditions, including the Qur’an, Islamic law and ethics, and Islamic mysticism before 1500CE. Special emphasis on the creation in the middle ages of an international Islamic civilization—stretching from Mali to Indonesia—linked by trade, learning, and pilgrimage. PUL=5
- REL-R 300 Studies in Religion (3 cr.) Selected topics and movements in religion, seen from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. May be taken for up to 9 credit hours under different titles. PUL=5
- REL-R 301 Women and Religion (3 cr.) A critical examination of the roles of women in religion, looking at a range of periods and cultures in order to illustrate the patterns that characterize women’s participation in religious communities and practices. PUL=5
- REL-R 304 Islamic Beginnings (3 cr.) An in-depth examination of the classical period of Islamic history, including coverage of the Prophet Muhammad, the development of Islamic religious literature and institutions, and the creation of international Muslim networks of trade, pilgrimage, and law. PUL=5
- REL-R 305 Islam and Modernity (3 cr.) This course examines the issues and events that have shaped Muslims' understanding of the place of Islam in the modern world. It focuses on the way Muslim thinkers have defined the challenge of modernity-politically, technologically, socially and religiously-and the responses that they have advocated. PUL=5
- REL-R 307 Religion in the Professions (3 cr.) Religious diversity is now a fact of American professional life. How do you serve clients, form partnerships, and work with people whose religious traditions are both similar to and different from their own? This course explores how to make religious diversity a source of strength and vitality in professional life. PUL=5
- REL-R 309 Contemporary Middle East (3 cr.) An interdisciplinary introduction to the contemporary Middle East, taught in Amman, Jordan, during summer study abroad. In addition to readings and lectures, students learn from speaking with Jordanian activists, politicians, religious leaders, educators, restaurant owners, journalists, refugees, students, and cabdrivers, among others. Field trips to mosques, markets, and more. PUL=5
- REL-R 310 Prophecy in Ancient Israel (3 cr.) The prophetic movement and its relationship to religious, social, and political traditions and institutions in the ancient Near East. The thought of major prophetic figures in Israel, such as Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. PUL=5
- REL-R 312 American Religious Lives (3 cr.) A study of selected persons who shaped the religious ideas and practices of the American people. The course correlates the lives, ideas, and social contexts of influential religious leaders in the United States. Figures such as Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, Dorothy Day, Isaac M. Wise, and Martin Luther King Jr. will be included. PUL=5
- REL-R 313 Religion and American Ideas (3 cr.) Studies of the major figures and works of the American literary and theological traditions, with a focus on the ways the literary imagination has variously expressed, explored, and challenged the religious meanings of the American experience. PUL=5
- REL-R 314 Religion and Racism (3 cr.) Explores the interaction of religion and racism. Selected case studies may include the Bible and racism, racial reconciliation among evangelical Christians, the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, and Islamophobia. PUL=5
- REL-R 315 Hebrew Bible (3 cr.) A critical examination of the literary, political, and religious history of Israel from the period of the Patriarchs to the Restoration, with emphasis on the growth and formation of the major traditions contained in the Hebrew Bible. PUL=5
- REL-R 323 Yuppie Yogis and Global Gurus (3 cr.)
This course will trace the history of encounters and dialogues between Asian religious figures and products and American culture beginning with the eighteenth and nineteenth century missionary ventures to Asia by Americans and ending with present-day emergent religious movements. The course material is weighted toward the late twentieth century to the present. We will explore the moments of discovery and renewal as well as those of domination and exclusion in the encounters between American culture and Asian religious figures and products. A central concern throughout the course will be identifying how encounters and dialogues permanently affected and continue to affect the religious landscape in the United States. The course will focus on Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh traditions in their encounters and dialogues with American culture. Both missionaries to Asia and missionary gurus from Asia will be subjects of analysis along with Asian immigrant communities and new religious movements. In addition to looking at important figures such as Emerson, Vivekananda, The Beatles, and Bikram Choudhury, we will also evaluate certain religious institutions and movements, such as ISKCON and postural yoga. We will ask: how have Asian religious gurus and products, such as yoga, transformed American religious consciousness and practice? To what extent are Asian religious products constructed anew in the context of globalization? How have religious products been re-defined and re-interpreted as a consequence of global encounters? When have there been moments of violence, intolerance, and discrimination against practitioners of Asian religions in the United States? PUL=5
- REL-R 325 Paul and His Influence in Early Christianity (3 cr.) Life and thought of Paul, in the context of first-century Christian and non–Christian movements. Development of radical Paulinism and anti-Paulinism in the second century; their influence on the formation of Christianity. PUL=5
- REL-R 326 Studies in Biblical Religion (3 cr.) Examination of selected major topics in the religious traditions contained in the biblical materials. Topics such as the following will be treated: early Hebrew traditions and heroes, the kings of Israel, the development of apocalyptic literature, the period between the testaments, the development of Christology, the Johannine School, and others. May be taken twice for credit under different topics. PUL=5
- REL-R 328 Afro-Diasporic Religions (TBD cr.) Surveys the origin, history, organizational structures, beliefs, and devotional practices of the religions that developed among African slaves and their descendants in the new world (including Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, and the United States). PUL=5
- REL-R 329 Early Christianity (3 cr.) This course introduces the religious world of early Christianity by examining its formation and development. The course emphasizes intellectual history while placing religious ideas in historical, cultural, social, and economic contexts. It underscores diversity and explores how ideas shape religious faith, how religious practice guides religious thinking, and how culture and religion interact. PUL=5
- REL-R 339 Varieties of American Religion (3 cr.) Approaches to the diversity and complexity of that part of American religion that has existed outside of the mainstream of U.S. church life. Emphasis on the origin, history, organizational structures, beliefs, and devotional practices of such groups as the Quakers, Shakers, Millerites and other millenarian sects, Mormons, Christian Scientists, and Pentecostals, as well as groups whose orientation is Eastern rather than Western. PUL=5
- REL-R 343 Religion and Contemporary Thought (3 cr.) Contemporary religious and anti-religious thinkers, with emphasis on those whose writings have significantly influenced modern thinking about human beings, God, society, history, and ethics. PUL=5
- REL-R 344 Reformations of the Sixteenth Century (3 cr.) This course introduces students to the religious reformations of sixteenth-century Europe. It examines the historical background to the Reformation and surveys a number of reformation movements. While intellectual history is emphasized, the ideas of religious thinkers are placed in broad historical, cultural, social, and economic contexts. PUL=5
- REL-R 348 Religion and Its Monsters (3 cr.) What can we learn about religion when we approach it through its monsters? What do monstrous stories - whether myth, legend, or fiction - reveal about the sacred? In what ways is a monster sacred and the sacred monstrous? This class explores the monster as the apotheosis of the horror of human existence. Our emphasis will be upon Western religious traditions (Judaism and Christianity), but the course will cover a very diverse range of imaginative expressions, including ancient myths of chaos gods, Greek myth and Latin tragedy, Jewish legends, medieval Christian epic poetry, 19th c. Gothic novels, as well as paintings, sculpture, architecture, music, and modern film. PUL=5
- REL-R 353 Judaism (3 cr.) Examination of the history of Judaism and its relationship to the Jewish special claim to chosenness. Primary emphasis placed on modern Judaism. PUL=5
- REL-R 361 Hinduism and Buddhism (3 cr.) Examination of the origins and cultural developments of classical Hinduism and Buddhism through studies of selected lives and writings, religious practices, and symbolism in the arts through explorations of these two worldviews as reflected in historical, literary, and ritual forms. PUL=5
- REL-R 363 African-American Religions (3 cr.) History of African American religions from the colonial era to the present. Topics may include the African influences on African American Black Methodism, Black Baptist Women’s leadership, Islam, and new religious movements. PUL=5
- REL-R 367 American Indian Religions (3 cr.) American Indian Religions is a course designed to explore the religious traditions of the Indian tribes of the Americas with a focus on the tribes of North America and specifically Indiana. PUL=5
- REL-R 368 Religion and Healing (3 cr.)
This course explores how different religions and cultures understand illness and healing. Attention will be given to the diverse understandings of selfhood, health, wellbeing, and illness present in different cultures as well as the various practices these cultures have developed to address the root causes of illness. Although we will talk about biomedicine, the primary healing system of the West, the focus is on nonwestern cultures, and may include units on East Asian, South Asian, Native American, Latin American, and African traditions of healing. PUL=5
- REL-R 370 Islam in America (3 cr.) Explores the history and life of Islam and Muslims in the United States, including the ethnic and religious diversity of American Muslims, conflicts about gender relations and women’s issues, debates about Islam’s role in politics, and the spirituality of American Muslims. PUL=5
- REL-R 372 Inter-Religious Cooperation (3 cr.)
How do you cooperate with people from different religious backgrounds? This course examines inter-religious cooperation among professionals, social activists, political adversaries, and others. Topics may include religious freedom in the workplace, the interfaith youth movement, and inter-religious peacemaking in conflict zones. PUL=5
- REL-R 379 Religion and Philanthropy (3 cr.) This course explores relationships between religious traditions and philanthropic ideas and activities. Selections from important traditional texts and biographical examples and similarities of a variety of religious worldviews regarding their ways of sharing goods and performing acts of service. PUL=5
- REL-R 381 Religion and Violence (3 cr.) Examines the relationship between religion, violence, and society in light of recent global events, drawing on a range of classical and modern texts concerning religious justifications for non–ritualistic bloodshed. Focusing on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, themes addressed include otherness, transgression, revenge, torture, retribution, with special attention paid to religious terrorism. PUL=5
- REL-R 383 Religions, Ethics, U.S. Society (3 cr.) An examination of current ethical debates about war, medicine, discrimination, welfare, marriage, sexuality, etc. The focus will be how diverse traditions of moral reasoning have been developed and practiced within Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism. PUL=5
- REL-R 384 Religions, Ethics, and Health (3 cr.) The positions of religious ethical traditions on issues such as the control of reproduction, experimentation with human subjects, care of the dying, delivery of health care, physical and social environments, and heredity. May be repeated once for credit under different focus. PUL=5
- REL-R 386 Ethics of Consumption (3 cr.) What is good consumption? Do consumers have moral duties? Combining the ethical perspectives of religion and philosophy with the empirical realities of economics and public policy, this course examines the social and environmental costs of consumption while valuing individual tastes and economic incentives. Course fulfills junior-senior integrator requirement. PUL=5
- REL-R 393 Comparative Religious Ethics (3 cr.) Comparisons of ethical traditions and moral lives in the world’s religions. The focus will be how formative stories, exemplary figures, central virtues, ritual practices, etc., clarify different traditions’ understandings of key moral issues, rights, and roles. PUL=5
- REL-R 394 Militant Religion (3 cr.)
Examines the various ways Jewish, Christian, and Muslim apocalyptic literature has shaped, fostered, and contributed to the current rise in global militant religion. Themes include cosmic warfare, just war traditions, jihad, ancient and modern apocalypticism, messianism, millennialism, and the new wars of religion. PUL=5
- REL-R 396 Religion and Fantasy (3 cr.)
This course will examine fantasy materials (texts, movies, TV shows) through the lens of the following dimensions of religion: experience, myth, ritual, doctrine, ethics, and social construction. In addition, the course will examine the construction of worldviews. Just as religions create worldviews, so, too, can literary texts, dramatic expression, and the arts. PUL=5
- REL-R 397 Mormonism and American Culture (3 cr.)
Introduction to the history, beliefs, and practices of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons); exploration of the Book of Mormon and other LDS scriptures; exploration of Mormonism's relationship to American culture. PUL=5
- REL-R 398 Women in American Indian Religions (3 cr.) Women in American Indian Religions is a course designed to examine the roles of women in American Indian Religions and practice and the expressions of the feminine aspects in their world views. PUL=5
- REL-R 400 Studies in Religion (3 cr.) P: consent of instructor. Specialized and intensive studies in religion with an interdisciplinary emphasis. May be repeated twice under different titles. PUL=5
- REL-R 433 Theories of Religion (3 cr.) Theorists of religion explore the what, why, and how of religions. What is religion? Why are people religious? How do religions shape meaning in people’s lives, cultures, and societies? This advanced seminar examines classical to contemporary theories. Fulfills Religious Studies senior capstone. Offered fall semesters only. PUL=5; Rise=R
- REL-R 539 Religion and Philanthropy (3 cr.) This course explores relationships between religious traditions and philanthropic ideas and activities. Selections from important traditional texts and biographical examples and similarities of a variety of religious worldviews regarding their ways of sharing goods and performing acts of service.