Religions in the United States
RLST 2500-100 | 3.0
Online - Term A
June 3 - July 5
Instructor: Deborah Whitehead
This course will introduce students to the historical and contemporary study of religions in the United States. It will not seek to give either a comprehensive historical account of the development of all American religions, nor a survey of all religious institutions, movements, and traditions that have made up the vast and diverse U.S. religious landscape. Rather, the course approaches the topic of religions in the U.S. through a framework of religious literacy and the investigation of primary source texts, which, set in context, will give us snapshots of religion as lived, practiced, and experienced by Americans of all backgrounds during the past 400 years. Along the way we will encounter many of the key religious traditions, movements, and figures that have shaped American religious belief and practice. In addition the course will consider such questions as: What major cultural forces shape and have shaped religions in America? How have Americans of different faiths and nationalities encountered, interacted, argued, clashed, and cooperated with one another? Have they seen America as a promised land or place of refuge—or as a place of conflict and suffering? What are some ways that religious Americans think about faith, spirituality, religious diversity and church and state? Ultimately, how does the academic study of religion shed light on what it means to be an “American” or a religious American?
A&S Core: United States Context
A&S Core: Ideals & Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Education General Education: Diviersity-U.S. Perspective
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-US Perspective
Arts & Hum: Lit & Humanities
Christian Traditions
RLST 3000-100 | 3.0
Online - Term A
June 3 - July 5
Instructor: Brian Catlos
Serves as an introduction to the academic study of Christianity, understood in its historical context, beginning with its most remote Mesopotamian origins and through to beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. Coverage is global, but "Western" Christian tradition are emphasized, as is the evolution of doctrine, ritual and institutions in relation to social, cultural and political factors.
A&S Core: Historical Context
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Upper
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
The Muslim World, 600–1250
RLST 2320-200 | 3.0
Online - Term B
July 9 - August 9
Instructor: Brian Catlos
Focusing on the history of the Muslim World in the age of the caliphates (650-ca1200 CE), this course takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach to the development, tracing the evolution of Islamic religion, society and culture from the era of pre-Islamic Arabia through the “Golden Age of Islam.”
Asia Content
A&S Core: Human Diversity
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
CMCI Core: Diversity & Global Cult-NonCMCI
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-Global Perspective
Native American and Indigenous Religious Traditions: Shamans, Cities, Ceremonies
RLST 2700 / ETHN 2703 | 3.0
In Person - Term B
July 9 - August 9
Instructor: Davíd Carrasco
Studies the religious lifeways of diverse Indigenous peoples in North America, including Mesoamerica. The course considers the cosmovisions, ceremonies and empires of the Aztecs, Maya, Apsáalooke, Cheyenne, Lakota among others. We explore ceremonies for healing, movements of social resistance to colonialism, caretaking for ecology and ancestors in comparative perspective. We read memoirs, novels, ethnographies and testimonies in relation to anthropology and religious studies approaches.
A&S Core: Human Diversity
A&S Core: Ideals & Values
Arts & Sciences General Education: Distribution-Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
Business General Education: Arts & Humanities
Business General Education: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
CMCI Core: Humanitites and the Arts
Education General Education: Arts and Humanities
Education General Education: Diviersity-U.S. Perspective
Engineering & Applied Science General Education: Humanities & Social Science
Environmental Design General Education: Humanities-Lower
Music General Education: Arts & Humanities
Music General Education: Diversity-US Perspective
Arts & Hum: Lit & Humanities
Readings:
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
D. Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica
D. Grann Killers of the Flower Moon
J. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks
P. Arnold, The Urgency of Indigenous Values
R. Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu