 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The contents of this page
are subject to change without notice
|
|
|
Top of page
| RELC 122 Early
Christianity & the New Testament
Harry
Gamble ( HGamble@virginia.edu )
Schedule # 72949 1000-1050 Monday and Wednesday + section This course surveys the origins and early history of Christianity on the basis of a historical and analytical study of early Christian writings belonging to the "New Testament." Topics covered include the origins of Christianity in Judaism; the activity and significance of Jesus; the formation, beliefs and practices of early Christian communities; the varieties of Christianity in the first century; and the progressive distinction of Christianity from Judaism. Requirements: Two quizzes and a final examination, and occasional short papers in connection with discussion sections. Regular attendance at discussion sections is mandatory. |
| RELC 206
History of Christianity II 1054-1800 Augustine Thompson ( AThompson@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72965 0900-0950 Monday and Wednesday + section Survey of Western Christianity from the 12th to the 19th century. Attention will be given to spirituality and forms of piety, worship, development of theology, and the institutional history of the Christian Church. Special focus will be placed on the High Medieval Church, the Crisis of the Protestant Reformation, and the early modern background of contemporary Christianity, including Eastern Orthodoxy. Readings from original sources. Three short papers, in-class mid-term and final. |
| RELI 208 Islam
in the Modern Age Aziz Sachedina ( sachedina@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 70794 0930-1045 Tuesday and Thursday + section RELI 208 will study the Muslim societies in the modern times to assess their success/failure in remolding their political/religious culture in order to become fully integrated in the international order that is founded upon secularism and modernism. The course will undertake to explore a public role for religion in general, and Islam in particular, in fostering democratic values that can accommodate a pluralistic nature of the religious and political societies in the Islamic world. That which characterizes the Muslim community is their devotion to the classical faith, Islam, with its legacy of rich past. The call for reformation of this classical heritage has been in the air for over a century. Yet, the beginning or the end of reformation is singularly difficult to observe in terms of a "new" political theology or a "fresh" pluralistic interpretation of Islam to have capacity for the changes that are sweeping Muslim societies. Islam and its people continue to grapple with the fact of Western hegemony through economic globalization and the support the West lends to their autocratic governments in suppressing their political and human rights. The course will evaluate political goals of Muslim governments in countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran, and whether these goals are congruent with the development of democratic institutions to further basic human rights. |
Top of page
| RELG 219 Religion
& Modern Fiction Larry Bouchard ( lbouchard@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 74565 1100-1215 Tuesday and Thursday + section We will explore ways in which modern fiction persists in asking questions that are intrinsically religious in character: questions concerning the relation between human spirit and human nature, of faith and doubt, of evil and suffering, of personal and communal wholeness or restoration, and of symbolic orders of meaning in which writers may discern the divine within or at the limits of language and experience. Some authors we will consider (such as Elie Wiesel, Flannery O'Connor, or Susaku Endo) write fictions that are intended to reflect explicitly their religious traditions. Others (such as E. M. Forster, Milan Kundera or Tony Morrison) create secular narratives that nonetheless raise philosophical and moral questions that have religious implications. And others (such as N. Scott Momaday, Seamus Heaney, Izak Denisen, or Yann Martel) employ a variety of religious and cultural traditions to create more idiosyncratic religious interpretations. The authors listed may change and, in addition, the course will consider a number of interpreters of religion. Requirements: Two essay exams before and after the Spring break and a short final paper. |
|
GREE 224 New Testament Greek
(Intermediate Greek)
This course is not offered by the department, but may be of interest to religious studies students Judith Kovacs ( JKovacs@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72889 1400-1515 Tuesday and Thursday The aims of this course are to solidify your knowledge of Hellenistic Greek grammar and vocabulary and to gain speed and proficiency in reading and translating the Greek New Testament. We will read passages from I Corinthians and Romans, as well as some passages from the Acts of the Apostles. We will also consider some of the principles of New Testament textual criticism. Prerequisite: Greek 101-102 or permission of the instructor. Graduate students should consult instructor about registration. This course is offered by the Department of Classics. |
|
RELG 230 Religious
Ethics and Moral Problems
Charles Mathewes ( ctmathewes@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 70397 1200-1250 Monday and Wednesday + section This course examines several contemporary moral issues from the standpoint of the ethical insights of Western religious traditions (especially Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, but with some attention to Islamic positions) as well as from a broadly humanistic perspective. We will consider a variety of moral issues including (but not limited to) marriage, friendship, truthfulness, capital punishment, warfare, and the meaning of work, career, and vocation. We will also examine the relationship between religious convictions, morality, and the law. Particular attention will be paid to what selected authorities and thinkers in the above traditions say about these issues, how they reach their conclusions, and how their theological or philosophical convictions influence their moral judgements. |
|
RELC 246 Aspects of the Catholic Tradition |
|
RELB 255 Buddhist Meditation |
|
RELG 263 Environmental Choices |
Top of page
| RELA 276 African Religions in the Americas
Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton (H-Fatton@virginia.edu) Schedule # 71355 1200-1250 Monday and Wednesday + section This course explores the African religious heritage of the Americas. We will concentrate on African-derived religions in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Cuban Santeria, Haitian Vodou, and the Jamaican Rastafari movement. North American slave religion, the black church, and African-American Islam will also be considered. We will seek to identify their shared religio-cultural "core" while developing an appreciation for the distinctive characteristics and historical contexts of each "New World" tradition. We will address topics such as ideas of God and Spirit; the significance of ritual sacrifice, divination, and initiation; the centrality of trance, ecstatic experience and mediumship; and the role of religion in the struggle for liberation and social justice. Final, Midterm, periodic quizzes on the readings, participation in discussion. |
Top of page
|
RELB 306 Issues in Chinese Buddhism |
Top of page
|
RELJ 309 Israelite Prophecy |
Top of page
|
RELC 310 Christianity in Third World Countries |
| RELI 312 Islamic
Mysticism Aziz Sachedina ( Sachedina@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72685 1400-1730 Tuesday RELI 312 is a historical and topical survey of the origins and development of Islamic mysticism, known as Sufism. The course is primarily concerned with the growth of mystical tradition in Islam, the rise of asceticism, the early Sufis, the development of Sufi orders, the systematization of Sufi teaching and the evolution of theosophical dimension of mysticism, and finally, the contribution of Sufism in the Islamic art and literature. In doing so, we will attempt to study the lives and teachings of the prominent Sufi teachers as Rabi'a, Hallaj, Rumi, Gazali and others. Multimedia Component of RELI 312: The course will include multimedia component to explore Spiritual Dimensions of Islamic Art and Architecture to underscore the Sufi influence in the material cultures of Muslims. The multimedia component will provide students opportunity to experience and articulate psychological and spiritual dimensions of the available text, sound, and image resources collected and compiled for the course database. |
|
RELH 314 The Jain Tradition Karen Lang ( klang@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71749 1530-1800 Thursday This course examines the religious beliefs and practices of the Jains in India. Beginning with the teachings of Mahavira and basic doctrines of Jainism, the course will consider the historical foundations of the Jain tradition through careful examination of the life stories of the great teachers of the tradition, philosophical and doctrinal texts, and the rich Jain narrative tradition. The second half of the course will focus on contemporary Jain life and religious practice, both monastic and lay, through examination of the religious lives of ascetics and Jain laypeople, ritual practices of temple worship and pilgrimage, as well as modern sectarian movements within the tradition and emerging Jain interest in environmentalism. No prerequisties. |
Top of page
| RELC 329 Christianity and Islam RELI 329 Christianity and Islam Robert Wilken ( rlw2w@virginia.edu ) RELC: Schedule # 72424; RELI: Schedule # 72090 1230-1345 Tuesday and Thursday Course deals with the history of Christianity in the middle east after the Muslim conquest and relations between Muslims and Christians. Some topics to be considered: Christian-Muslim controversies, Bible and Koran, Muslim and Christian spiritual writers, mysticism, law, Muslim views of Jesus, the Crusades, Christianity under Ottomans, Christians in the middle east today, Christian and Muslim perceptions of one another. |
|
RELJ 331 Law and Judaism |
|
RELJ 338 Judaism in America: Topics
in Cultural History |
|
RELJ 339 Jewish Feminism |
|
RELJ 341 Judaism Without God |
| RELA 345 African Art Ben Ray ( BenRay@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71302 0930-1045 Tuesday and Thursday Each student will design an exhibition of African art for presentation on the Web that will incorporate the results of the student's study of African art. The exhibitions will contain an introductory explanation of the exhibit's theme, images of selected African art objects, relevant field-context images, descriptive labels, and other explanatory textual materials. The images of African art will be taken from collections at the Bayly Museum of the University of Virginia, the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Hampton University Museum, and The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and are used with copyright permission. The course includes the following curricular components: a brief history of African art studies; African ritual and cosmology; analysis of African art exhibition catalogues; library research on selected art objects; the exhibition of African art in museum contexts; training in Web skills and image processing. The aim of the course is to create exhibitions of African art that attempt to be true to the objects themselves while placing them in an educational environment of value to the exhibitor and the viewer alike. |
|
RELJ 352 Responses to the Holocaust
|
|
RELG 357
Existentialism: Its Literary,
Philosophical and Religious Expressions
Jamie Ferreira ( JamieF@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72918 1530-1800 Wednesday. |
Top of page
|
RELC 358 The Christian Vision
in Literature
William Wilson ( wmw2v@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 73150 1100-1150 Monday, Wednesday and Friday |
| RELC 361 Female
Saints in the Western Tradition Nicole Farmer Hurd ( njfw@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72439 1100-1215 Tuesday and Thursday In this course, we will explore the types of women who have become saints in the various major periods of church history. Do female saints reveal significant features of the experience of women in various historical periods, or are saints fundamentally different? How would a history of Christianity, viewed from the standpoint of female saints, be both like and unlike a history of Christianity viewed from the more usual, that is, largely male, perspective? The course will explore the lives and writings of female saints such as Mary, Perpetua and Felicity, Hildegard of Bingen, Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, Catherine of Genoa, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and the most recent female American saint, Katharine Drexel. Several short papers required. Previous courses in religious studies strongly recommended. |
|
RELC 362 Contemporary Theology: Western
Christian Thought |
|
RELC 363 God, the Body and Sexual Orientation
in Christian Thought |
|
RELG 373 Religion and Economics |
|
RELC 381 Cultural Catholicism
John Portmann ( jep7a@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72468 1400-1515 Monday and Wednesday Exploration of Roman Catholic experience outside the official structures of the Holy See (for example, devotions, pilgrimages, shrines, art, fiction, cinema, television), particularly as committed Catholics argue over how to honor their spiritual tradition in day-to-day life. Study of current challenges wrought by women, Jews, and gays. Special attention paid to contemporary intellectuals and artists who criticize John Paul II while fiercely guarding their own Catholic identities (for example, Garry Wills, John Cornwell, and Mel Gibson). |
| RELG 383 Religion and Fantasy Alison Milbank ( agm2a@virginia.edu ) Schedule # ????? 1530-1645 Tuesday and Thursday Why does fantasy and the fantastic become the most popular mode of religious fiction of the last hundred years? Is The Lord of the Rings a nostalgic retreat from modernism? What cultural work does Chesterton's violent use of paradox perform? This course takes us from the nightmare vision of The Man Who Was Thursday to Tolkien's trilogy by way of his fellow inklings Lewis and Williams, represented by the dystopic That Hideous Strength and Charles Williams investigation of the doppelganger in Descent into Hell. John Cowper Powys's brilliant A Glastonbury Romance offers a very different (and modernist) style of mythical world-building. 2 papers and a class presentation. This course is by instructor permission only. It has a great deal of reading and students will only be admitted if they can show genuine commitment to the subject. |
| RELJ 383 Introduction to the Talmud Elizabeth Alexander ( esa3p@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72156 1100-1215 Tuesday and Thursday |
| RELC/ RELJ 391 Women and the Bible Judith Kovacs ( JKovacs@virginia.edu ) RELC: Schedule # 73752; RELJ: Schedule # 72316 1230-1345 Tuesday and Thursday This course provides a forum for exploring the intersection of gender issues and biblical studies. It focuses on the close interpretation of particular texts from the Bible. We will survey passages from the Hebrew Bible (=Torah/Old Testament) and the New Testament that focus on women or use feminine imagery, considering various readings of them, including traditional Jewish and Christian, historical-critical, and feminist interpretations. We will examine the position of women in Israel and in the early church and consider how biblical authors use feminine imagery to express their theology. Attention will also given to how later Jewish and Christian communities employ Scripture to shape and define women's social and religious roles. Topics treated will include: the stories of creation and fall in Genesis 1-3, narratives with female protagonists (Sarah, Deborah, Hannah, Esther, Ruth, Judith, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, Priscilla), the prophetic images of Israel as prostitute, wife, and pure daughter of Zion, the figures of Lady Wisdom and the seductive Foreign Woman in Proverbs, the erotic imagery of the Song of Songs, women in the circle of Jesus, Paul's views on women, and the use of feminine images to portray judgment and redemption in the Revelation to John. No prerequisite. May be used to fulfill the second writing requirement. Not for women only (men are especially encouraged to enroll). Note that students can enroll for this course either as RELJ 391 or RELC 391. |
|
RELB 392 Tantrism: Constructs of Divinity Bryan Phillips ( blp4m@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72445 0930-1045 Tuesday and Thursday This course examines the rise and influence of Tantrism in India and Tibet from the middle of the first millennium C.E. Tantrism was a pan-religious movement that thoroughly reshaped both Hinduism and Buddhism. It captured the imaginations of the intelligentsia of India, weaving together strands of alchemy, meditative and yogic traditions, and profound philosophical inquiries into the fundamental nature of phenomena and the human being. Its presentation in the West has largely been stereotyped as a late, degraded erosion of India's grand religions, yet the wealth of materials uncovered by scholars in the past two decades indicates that Tantric practices were at once more nuanced and more disciplined than has heretofore been recognized. In surveying the orientations and techniques foundational to the Tantric perspective, we will emphasize the rise of Tantra as a historical and cultural development, with all of the requisite facets we associate with 'religion': deity worship, rituals and their attendant liturgies, communities, devotional literature, theologies, soteriologies, cosmologies, and so forth. Prerequisite: An introductory course in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Asian religions. |
Top of page
| RELG 400a
Majors Seminar: Creation Larry Bouchard ( dfm2d@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 74560 1530-1800 Wednesday Restricted to Religious Studies Majors This edition of the Majors Seminar will look at several ways of understanding (or interpreting) how some religious communities and some theorists interpret religion and various ideas and forms of creation. In Part I of the seminar, we will examine several definitions or perspectives on religion that have some bearing on ideas of creation. These include sociological, psychological, anthropological, historical, and theological perspectives. Is it helpful to speak of "religion" as having generic (or generally applicable) meanings? Or are religion and "religious" meaningless notions apart from particular traditions and communities? In addressing such questions, we will pay particular attention to how religious traditions can be regarded as communities of interpretation. In Part II of the course, we will examine how some voices, from certain religious frameworks and communities, have interpreted aspects of creation, including divine creation, science and creation, and cultural creation-as in the making of the cosmos, works of art and literature, buildings, even food. Do religious views of creation really embrace such a variety of things? We shall see. Assignments: short reaction papers, one or two to be presented to the seminar; mi-term essay exam; final paper on topic related to the seminar. |
|
RELG 400b Majors Seminar: Religious Experience |
|
RELG 400c Majors Seminar:
Religion and Material Culture |
|
RELG 423
Bioethics Internship Seminar
Margaret Mohrmann ( mem7e@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72125 1530-1800 Monday This course is designed to provide students with experience in discerning and analyzing ethical issues as they arise in particular clinical settings. Each student will spend one half-day each week in a clinic or other health-care-related setting (the same setting throughout the semester) under the mentorship of a health care professional engaged in that setting. Seminar time will focus both on the role of the ethicist/observer and on the particular issues that commonly arise in clinical medicine. During the second half of the semester, students will give presentations related to their specific areas of observation. Students are expected to have some background knowledge of bioethics methods and common questions. Admittance to the course is by application; for details, see the Undergraduate Bioethics Program Website at http://www.uva.edu/~bioethic/intern.htm. This is not a Majors Seminar. |
|
RELG 440 Rediscovering Gnosticism |
Top of page
|
RELG 461 Sex and Morality
John Portmann ( jep7a@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71441 1530-1800 Tuesday Reading-intensive survey of how Western moralists have understood: a woman's body; a man's body; celibacy; masturbation; pornography; sexual reproduction; contraception; adultery; homosexuality; marriage and divorce; transsexuals; sex education in public schools; political sex scandals; and the relation between sexual conduct and admission to heaven. This is not a Majors Seminar. |
|
RELS 495 Independent Research |
|
RELS 496 Distinguished Major Thesis |
|
RELS 498 Senior Essay |
|
Graduate Courses
For information on the Graduate Program please contact the graduate secretary, Sarah Adams, email: sea3n@virginia.edu |
|
|
|
RELG 517 Methodology
Ben Ray ( BenRay@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71864 1100-1215 Tuesday and Thursday An introduction to the basic thinkers in the field of History of Religions and Anthrolology (Otto, van der Leeuw, Eliade, Durkheim, Bellah, Levi-Strauss, Geertz, Turner) and to fundamental problems in the study of religious sociology, anthropology, mythology, and ritual.. Such authors as Edith Turner, Wendy Doniger, and Jonathan Z. Smith. As well as a critical examination of postmodernism and the comparative study of religion One reading critique (4-5 pages), a ritual analysis paper (5-6 pages), a myth analysis paper (5-6 pages), and a postmodernism paper (5-6 pages). Guidelines for all papers will be provided; as many papers as possible will be presented in class Restricted to Graduate students and 4th year Religious Studies majors. |
|
RELB 534 Colloquial Tibetan
IV
S. Yangkyi Wang ( syw5r@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 70730 0900-0950 Monday and Wednesday A continuation of Colloquial Tibetan III, this course uses multimedia programs in Colloquial Tibetan to develop verbal fluency, acquire vocabulary, and master advanced topics in spoken Tibetan |
|
RELB 536 Literary Tibetan
IV
Iaroslav Komarovsky ( ilk3q@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 70630 1230-1345 Tuesday and Thursday A continuation of Literary Tibetan III, this course is designed to expose students to a variety of styles/genres in Tibetan literature and advanced Tibetan grammar. Prerequisites: Literary Tibetan III. |
|
RELC 541 The Summa and St.
Thomas Aquinas
Augustine Thompson ( AThompson@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 73829 1530-1800 Monday |
|
RELB 543 Colloquial Tibetan
VI
Jeffrey Hopkins ( JHopkins@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72837 1530-1710
Monday
A continuation of Colloquial Tibetan V, this course utilizes Tibetan scholastic debate to develop verbal fluency, acquire vocabulary, and master advanced topics. Prerequisites: Tibetan V. Requirements: class attendance, participation, multiple exams and quizzes. |
| RELB 548 Literary Tibetan VI Jeffrey Hopkins ( JHopkins@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 73921 1530-1800 Thursday Continuation of RELB 547 and RELB 820. |
| RELB 549 Tibetan Buddhist Renaisance David Germano ( Germano@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72451 1530-1800 Tuesday This course will focus on Renaissance period of Tibetan Buddhism, namely from the tenth to fourteenth centuries. This was arguably the most creative and interesting period of Tibetís religious history, and was marked by an explosive creativity that has shaped the basic forms of Tibetan Buddhism to the present. Half of the course will survey the various cultural issues of the period, including the growth of monasteries and temples, the massive translation project of Indian Buddhist literature, the rise of visionary and populist movements, the creation of an imaginal Tibet via a romantic movement based on Tibet’s Imperial past, the conflict between tantra and scholastic forms of Buddhism, the shifting politics of the period, the development of pilgrimage and various types of religious communities, and so on. The other half of the course will focus on particular yogic and philosophical systems that prevailed in the Buddhist movements which developed during this time period. Undergraduates are welcome, but are required to have done Tibetan Buddhist Culture (RELB 254) or a corresponding course, and contact me before enrolling |
|
RELB 555 Budhhist Ethics |
|
RELG 562 Religion and Intersubjectivity
Asher Biemann ( ab5j@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71446 1400-1630 Wednesday |
|
RELG 569 Just Love: Gender
and Ethics
Margaret Mohrman ( mem7e@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71458 1530-1800 Tuesday This seminar course will explore in depth works published in the past decade that demonstrate the current state of feminist thought as it becomes increasingly integrated into "mainstream" conversations and controversies within ethics, both social/political and theological. The list of authors will probably include Nussbaum, Walker, and Okin, among others, as well as several theological voices, such as Rachel Adler and Serene Jones. The emphasis in the course will be on careful reading and discussion, usually of book-length works, and the required paper(s) will ask for the same close attention to a recent text. Permission of the instructor required. Open to advanced undergraduates. |
|
RELG 570 The Protestant
Moral Tradition
Charles Mathewes ( CTMathewes@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71478 1530-1800 Monday |
|
RELG 583 Love and Justice
in Christian Ethics
James Childress ( Childress@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71537 1300-1530 Tuesday |
|
RELH 590 Self, Cosmos
and Ritual in Hindu Tantra
Gavin Flood ( gdf4n@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71812 1530-1800 Wednesday The course examines the theology and practice of a group of Hindu traditions that developed from around the eighth century, which revered as revelation a body of texts called 'Tantras.' These texts and the tradition of ritual and commentary upon them were deeply concerned with the nature of the self, the goal of liberation, and the relation between liberation and practice. We will examine divergent metaphysical claims and commonalities of ritual practice in the three groups of tantric teachings of the Pancaratra or tantric Vaisnavism, the Saiva Siddhanta and the Pratyabhijna. The course will be taught by a close reading of Sanskrit texts. We will pay particular attention to reading a selection from important texts in these traditions, namely the Jayakhya-samhita and Laksmi-tantra; RmakaÏæha's commentary on the Kirana-tantra, Bhojadeva's Tattvaprakasa and Isanasivagurudeva's paddhati; and Ksemaraja's Pratyabhijnahrdaya and his commentary on the Netra-tantra. The course will raise important questions about method, textual reception, and hermeneutics in the Indian context. We will raise questions about the nature of the self in these traditions. Why is the self important? What is the relation between self and practice, self and cosmos, and self and other in these texts? What kind of theistic reality is presented here? What is the relation of these texts to the social world that gave rise to them? What do these texts tell us about human relationships in that world? We will attempt to locate the universal claims of the texts to history and location, power, gender and caste with the help of Anthropologists and Indologists. A central focus will be on reading the primary sources in Sanskrit. The student should have basic reading knowledge of Sanskrit as at least two of the texts to be studied do not have European translations. |
|
RELB 703 Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts |
|
RELG 728 Topics in Modern
Religious Thought: Faith and Reason
Jamie Ferreira ( JamieF@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72307 1530-1800 Tuesday We will read Kant's Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion, Hegel's Introduction to the Lectures on Philosophy of Religion, and Kierkegaard's Fragments and selections from Concluding Unscientific Postcript. |
|
RELC 732 Western Christian Thought |
|
RELG 807 Global Health and
Human Rights
Jim Childress ( Childress@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 70200 1530-1800 Wednesday |
|
RELG 815 Religion, Culture and Public
Life |
| RELB 821 Literary
and Spoken Tibetan VIII Jeffrey Hopkins ( JHopkins@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 73764 1530-1800 Thursday Continuation of RELB 547 and RELB 820. |
| RELB 823 Advance
Literary Tibetan Jeffrey Hopkins ( JHopkins@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 72705 TBA Individual translation projects |
| RELB 826 Readings
in Buddhist Literature David Germano ( Germano@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 73764 TBA |
|
RELB 828 Colloquial
Tibetan VIII
Jeffrey Hopkins ( JHopkins@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 73054 1530-1710
Monday
A continuation of Colloquial Tibetan VII, this course utilizes Tibetan scholastic debate to develop verbal fluency, acquire vocabulary, and master advanced topics. Prerequisites: Tibetan V. Requirements: class attendance, participation, multiple exams and quizzes. |
| RELG 848 Neoplatonism John Milbank ( jmilbank@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 71692 1530-1800 Thursday |
|
RELC 892 Ambrose of Milan
Robert Wilken ( rlw2w@virginia.edu ) Schedule # 70069 1530-1800 Tuesday Ambrose in the context of fourth centuy imperial life. Particular attention to his writings on the relation of the Church to political authority. Latin required. |
|
RELS 895 Directed Research |
|
RELS 896 Thesis Research |
|
RELS 897 Non-Topical Research, Peparation
for Research |
|
RELS 898 Non Topical Research |
|
RELG 899 Pedagogy |
|
RELS 997 Non-Topical Research, Peparation
for Doctoral Research |
|
RELS 999 Non Topical Research |
|
ATTENTION THIRD AND FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS All 500-level courses are open to undergraduate enrollment. Though these are graduate-level courses, they are designed to accommodate advanced undergraduates who have previously taken religious studies courses. Minors, and especially majors are encouraged to consider enrolling in these courses. For those considering graduate school, taking a 500-level course could prove immensely helpful. If you see any 500-level course in this syllabus that you think you might want to take, and you have questions about it, please contact the professor who will be offering it. The religious studies faculty as a whole welcomes all such inquiries. |
|
RELIGIOUS STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION The Department of Religious Studies is a multi-disciplinary department that examines and interprets the religions of the world. Courses in the department stress skills such as critical thinking, clear writing, and persuasive use of evidence to support one's views, for these skills are central to the analysis and interpretation of the social and intellectual systems which constitute the data of religious studies. |
|
The department offers a wide range of courses covering different approaches to the study of religion, and provides students with the opportunity to examine the major religious traditions of human history (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam), as well as other traditions that have flourished independently of Asian and European influences. |
| At the undergraduate level, the department requires relatively little previous exposure to the academic study of religion. Introductory 100 and 200 level courses are open without prerequisites, although in certain cases a general preparation in introductory courses is often advisable. |
| The majors seminar (RELG 400) is required of all majors in Religious Studies, and should be taken in the third or fourth year. This course is designed to provide an overview of the different methodologies employed in the study of religion, and places a special emphasis on the development of the humanistic and social-scientific skills necessary for the interpretation of religious phenomena. |
|
Interested in an undergraduate degree in Religious Studies?
More information is available at Students interested in graduate studies can find information
at |
Top of page
|
|