Texts & Ideas
This course provides an overview of the major trends, developments, and issues in modern Islam and the global Muslim world, which is expected to grow to one third of the human family within our lifetimes. This course begins in the nineteenth century with the transformations caused by European colonialism, modern science and technology, and the emergence of the nation state. Muslims around the world responded to these transformations through several strategies including modernism, fundamentalism, secularism, and neo-traditionalism. We will examine these and other trends, as well as Muslim perspectives on a range of pressing contemporary global issues such as politics, violence, gender, economics, the environment, and interfaith dialog. The course concludes with a look at possible futures of the global Muslim world.
The Qur’an is an immensely important but widely misunderstood text that is sacred to the world’s second largest religion, Islam. This course introduces students to the vital role of religion in human experience through the life of Muhammad and the scripture he proclaimed, the Qur’an. During this course, we will examine: methods and best practices in the academic study of Religion, the life of Muhammad, the text of the Qur’an, the Qur’anic worldview, the stories of the Qur’an (which are similar to but often different in significant ways from those of the Bible), Muslim interpretations of the Qur’an, and the role of the Qur’an in Muslim life. RT, HUM
If we want to grow in our understanding of ourselves and others, sometimes we need to find a new place to stand—a place from which we can gain a new perspective. In this course, we will attempt to find such a place in the fascinating but unfamiliar world in which Christianity was first formed. We will work together as historical detectives, reading documents left behind by the earliest Christian writers nearly 2000 years ago. From these writings, we will attempt to discern how a new religious movement centered on a Judean prophet named Jesus could spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and eventaully become one of the most influential and widespread religions of human history. RT, HUM (CLST minor)
While many contemporary Americans might say that they “believe” the Bible, it has become an increasingly unfamiliar and mystifying text to them. This class seeks to address this estrangement by inviting students to explore the Bible’s origins, history, context, and contents in order to develop a critical understanding of this remarkable book. As an introductory course in the academic study of Religion, this course will also encourage students to reflect on the vital role of religion in the human experience. A product of ancient religious communities, the Bible contains myriad elements that represent religious experience, reflect religious practices, and encode religious beliefs. As such, it is a prime portal into the study of religion—past and present. RT, HUM
An examination of the nature of religion by close reading of the scriptures of ancient Israel and early Christianity. We will attempt to understand how religion functioned in those cultures by surveying the contents of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. RT, HUM
This course introduces students to the vital role of religion in human experience by exploring literary, historical, cultural dimensions of religious texts, patterns of belief, and related ritual and ethical practices within the religious expressions of ancient Israel and early Christianity. For our purposes, we will apply six major dimensions of religion as a method for analyzing these expressions via biblical texts whereby to understand these ancient religious worlds and, at times, modern religious expressions born out of these traditions. RT, HUM
This course introduces students to the vital role of religion in human experience by exploring literary, historical, and cultural dimensions of religious texts, patterns of belief, and related ritual as well as ethical practices. The goal of this course, understanding religion, is a large one. However, we will narrow our focus to a study of the Bible as a means to achieving this goal. Thus, over the semester, you will be required to read many Biblical texts, stories with which you are probably familiar. But here, we will begin to explore them in light of traditional and contemporary scholarship. While we will move through the Hebrew and Christian Bibles chronologically, we will also consider three critical approaches to studying these texts: 1) the historical approach, which investigates the events and situations shaping the Bible as it was being written and interpreted; 2) the literary approach, which examines compositional aspects of the Bible such as story, myth, and symbol; and, 3) the contemporary approach, which explores how people receive and use the Bible today. Beth Allison Barr’s recent book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, will serve as a case study. To use this course’s presiding metaphor, our three approaches represent the Bible’s three worlds. And we will journey through each world during the semester. RT, HUM
Some might say the Hebrew Bible’s Wisdom Books (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes) challenge us to slow down enough to ask ourselves: What is the difference between living and being alive? If God exists, why is there so much pain and suffering in our world? To what cause, ideal, faith, may I surrender without destroying my integrity? What does it mean to experience the sacred? Is there continued conscious existence beyond bodily death? Students taking this course will scrutinize the Wisdom Books, debating the questions they stimulate in light of contemporary as well as traditional scholarship. Special attention will be paid to the way “Wisdom themes” surface in different cultures across time, from Joel Osteen’s “Prosperity Gospel” to the Star Wars movie franchise and from Holocaust-related Jewish fiction to Bob Marley’s Rastafari discography. Experiential learning occurs in the form of a D/FW Megachurch site visit as well as an excursion to a musical revue about Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel Music, at the Jubilee Theatre in downtown Fort Worth. RT, HUM