RELI 090 A-Z - (HP) Special Topics in ReligionSemester Hours: 1-3
Studies in such special topics as psychology of religion; religion in America; new religious movements; religion, media and American culture; and religion and the liberal arts. For additional information on these courses, visit the Department of Religion website.
Current Special Topics
RELI 090H Health Equity and Faith-Based Communities
In health equity work with faith-based communities, public health initiatives require cultural humility and religious literacy. This class pairs the study of health equity with acquiring interfaith knowledge and skills across a range of current issues, including mental health, women’s health, vaccinations, treatment modalities, pain management, and many more.
RELI 090J What Is Judaism?
The course introduces students to major themes in the study of Jewish experiences throughout the world and serves as an overview to the field. During the semester we will explore the following questions: What is Judaism? What is a Jewish text? What is a Jewish context? and What is Jewish Studies? Students will end the course with knowledge and tools to explore the diversity of Jewish experiences through a variety of disciplinary lenses that can help them in majors and careers in health, psychology, law, politics, public policy, media, communications, arts, and advocacy, among others.
RELI 090M: Myth & Meaning: Animal Stories
We tend to think of religion and spirituality as exclusively human concepts, but religious mythologies from around the world tell a different story. In Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Greek, and indigenous stories, spiritual teachings and ethics are presented as animal affairs. Not only are the protagonist’s animals (ravens, wolves, elephants, monkeys, et al.), but the worldview posited is often one of animism, wherein personhood is granted to “other than human” beings. What can we learn by taking these animal stories seriously? If we think of animals as our kin (rather than our inferiors), how does this impact our everyday ethics? In seeking to answer such questions, we will also read the work of contemporary writers who have returned to animal and/or animism as a corrective to the anthropocentric worldview that has vastly accelerated our current climate emergency.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
As individual subjects are selected, each is assigned a letter (A-Z) which is affixed to the course number. May be repeated three times for a maximum of 9 semester hours when topics vary.
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