The Studies in Religion Program provides students with a basic knowledge of the history, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology of religion; promotes an understanding of diverse religious traditions; and examines religious questions which arise in all cultures. The concern of the program is not to inculcate a particular doctrine or faith but rather to broaden and deepen a student's knowledge and understanding of religious traditions.
Take me to the Fall Time Schedule
201/ACABS 200/AAPTIS
200/HJCS 200. Introduction to World Religions: Near Eastern. (4).
(HU).
Religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
This course serves two main functions: the first of these is to
provide an introductory sense of what is involved in the academic
study of religion; the second, which will occupy almost the whole
term, is to introduce the major religious traditions of the Near
East, with emphasis on the development and major structures of Israelite Religion, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The course will keep two foci in view: one will have to do with the historical development of these religious traditions, their
sacred texts and major personalities; the second will involve
a comparative view of these traditions by analyzing their sense
of the sacred in space, time, and text, their views on holy people.
This is an introductory course: it is not necessary for students
to have any previous experience in the study of religion. The
course consists of three weekly lectures and a discussion group.
Writing for the course typically involves an essay, a midterm, and a final exam. Cost:3
WL:4 (Williams, Jackson,
Schramm)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
202/Buddhist Studies
220/Asian Studies 220. Introduction to the Study of Asian Religions.
(4). (HU).
See Buddhist Studies 220.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
225/S&SEA 225. Hinduism.
(3). (HU).
See South & Southeast Asia
225. (Deshpande)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
280/ACABS 221. Jesus
and the Gospels. (4). (HU).
See ACABS 221.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
286/Hist. 286. A History
of Eastern Christianity from the 4th to the 18th Century. (3).
(HU).
See History 286. (J.
Fine)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
296/HJCS 296/Judaic Studies
296. Perspectives on the Holocaust. (4). (HU).
See HJCS 296. (Ginsburg)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
303/S&SEA 303. Sikhism.
(3). (HU).
See South & Southeast Asia
303. (Singh)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
308/Hist. 308. The Christian
Tradition in the West from New Testament to Early Reformation.
(4). (Excl).
A survey of the doctrine, institutions, and culture of Christianity
in the West from Apostolic times to 1521, when Luther's religious
reform was condemned at the Diet of Worms. Lectures will provide
students with a basic knowledge of the political, institutional, and intellectual history necessary to interpret various examples
of primary sources from the tradition. Examples of topics and periods emphasized are: the New Testament canon; expansion and recognition in antiquity; the age of the Latin Fathers; Benedictine
monasticism; the papacy and the government of "Christendom"; the mendicant orders; scholasticism and medieval universities;
Crusades and Christian monarchies; late medieval religious practice
and dissent; Christian humanism; and the early years of the Reformation.
A likely list of authors assigned might include: Augustine, Benedict, Bernard, Abelard, Francis, James of Voragine, Thomas Aquinas, Joinville, Thomas à Kempis, Wyclif, Gerson, Thomas More, Erasmus, and Luther. Students will be graded on class participation; three short essays on the assigned reading; midterm and a final.
There are no prerequisites; and although previous religious education
might obviously prove helpful, I will try not to assume that students
have any background in the history or doctrine of any Christian
church. Since our orientation is academic, students need not believe
"in" anything to take this course. The sequel is Religion
309 "The Christian Tradition from the Reformation to the
Present." Cost:3
(Tentler)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
312. Church and American
Society. (3). (HU).
One of the most important features of American society is the
impact which religion has had upon the society. The emergence
of a powerful religiously based right makes the question of what
happens when religion and society clash more important. This course
is a survey of the ways in which religion and society are influenced
by each other in America. The course is divided into three sections.
Section one explores the religious underpinnings of American society.
Section two explores the changing nature of American society as
a result of urbanization, secularization, and changing ethics.
Section three looks at how religious groups have tried to come
to grips with the contemporary American society. It will cover
a number of different responses, from the positive thinking of
Norman Vincent Peale to the evangelical revivals of Oral Roberts
and Billy Graham, to the social and political activism of Martin
Luther King and Jerry Falwell. The role of newer personality cults
will also be explored. The course will be conducted in a lecture
format with large blocks for discussion. Films and research projects
will round out the offering. Class meets once per week. Cost:2
WL:4 (Miles)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
365/Phil. 365. Problems
of Religion. (4). (HU).
See Philosophy 365. (Curley)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
375/MARC 375/German 375.
Celtic and Nordic Mythology. (3). (Excl).
The course will deal with several cycles of myths and sagas, including
Beowulf in the Anglo-Saxon literature; the Nibelungenlied in the
Germanic literature; Tristan and Isolde, the Mabinogi tale of
Pwyll, Branwen, Culwch & Olwen, Gwion Bach & Taliesin, and the Arthurian tales in the Welsh cycles; the Tain in the Irish
cycle; and the sagas of the Prose Edda in the world of the Nordic
gods. Readings will incorporate other literature based on these
myths, such as Gray's ode "The Fatal Sisters," which
deals with the Valkyries as messengers of Odin, Longfellow's poem
"Tegner's Drapa" which bemoans Balder's death, and perhaps
also the Erlkönig or Wagner's Ring Cycle in music and literature.
Grades will be based on several exams and a paper. Cost:2
WL:4 (Beck)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
402. Topics in Religion.
Junior or senior standing. (1-3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Holy Woman, Holy Man: The Charismatic and Social
Power. (3 credits). This course will examine the figure of the "holy" person in a wide number of cultures – "holy"
in the sense that they are characterized by possessing and exerting
a power which seems compelling, personal, and uncanny: they are
charismatic. We will discuss these figures and their relations
to other social sorts of power, referring to Native American cultures, European cultures, and Asian/Pacific cultures. The range of reference
will include the contemporary as well as the historical. Why are these figures characteristically female in some cultures, male
in others? How does their power relate to institutional channels
of authority? What of the secular charismatic – the charisma of
some politicians, and of celebrities? We will note the special
role of the media in the operation of charisma now – of the way
in which a billion people can feel themselves in the presence
of the charismatic person or community simultaneously. The course
will meet on Monday evenings for lectures by major figures from the University and elsewhere in the country who study these phenomena.
There will be discussions sections, including one for Honors students, and one in the evening for people whose schedules make daytime
classes difficult. Students will read from a course pack and two
or three books, view films, and write two essays and a final examination.
Cost:2 WL:4
(Williams)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
448/Psych. 418. Psychology
and Spiritual Development. (3). (Excl).
This course explores the stages of spiritual development, beginning
with awakening and initiation, through the deepening of direct
experience and the formulation of a coherent spiritual path, including the notion of an ultimate attainment. It explores the function
of spiritual groups and teachers in facilitating this development.
Of particular interest are: (1) the spiritual seeker's experience
of "little death," the mode of apparent discontinuity
when the "old life" is supplanted by a new identity
and mode of living; (2) times of crisis, adaptation, and "the
dark night"; and (3) the experience of "physical death,"
as seen from the perspective of a lifetime of encountering both
relative and absolute reality. By means of personal narratives
and fictional accounts this course explores how diverse traditions
create and value these moments of surrender and transformation.
Lectures and readings by Hesse, Jung, Hillesum, Feild, Lessing, Soygal Rimpoche, Wilber, and others will form the basis of three
short papers and one long final paper. There will be no final
exam. Cost:2
WL:1 (Mann)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
478/HJCS 477/Judaic Studies
478. Modern Jewish Thought. (3). (Excl).
See HJCS 477. (Ginsburg)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
496/AAPTIS 495/WS 471/Hist.
546. Gender and Politics in Early Modern Islamdom. Students
should preferably have had one course in Islamic Studies. (3).
(Excl).
See AAPTIS 495. (Babayan)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | LS&A Bulletin Index
This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall
Copyright © 1998 The Regents
of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817
Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.