RELI 090 A-Z - (HP) Special Topics in Religion

Semester Hours: 1-3

Studies in such special topics as the 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 090C - The Arts of Attention

We are all familiar with the phrase “the attention economy”—addressing how corporations see our attention as a limited resource to be captured and capitalized upon. We also know intimately the perils of doom-scrolling and “weapons of mass distraction” even as we champion the benefits of greater accessibility. This class will however take a different approach to attention. Rather than seeing attention in terms that are goal-orientated (whether that be better health, greater productivity, or indeed consumer consumption), this class will instead engage with the work of celebrated photographers and poets as an invitation to attend to the world differently. In conscious resistance to “big picture” thinking, we will attend to the details of the world we inhabit. Here, attention is understood in terms of both an aesthetic sensibility and a creative receptivity rather than a required skill. We will learn to look at the overlooked, we will learn to sit with the indeterminacy of a poem, we will note both fleeting thoughts and resonant quotes, and we will listen to the ideas that emerge from exploring the embodied aesthetics of attention. In exploring this new sensibility, we will each contribute short texts and photographs to create a commonplace book together—a collection that speaks to the poignancy (rather than the deficit) of a fragmented attention.

RELI 090F - Religion and Film

This is a seminar-based course that will explore what it is that we mean by “religion” when contemporary films are our primary texts. This will involve not only studying religion in film (e.g. character identity, setting, narrative structure), but also film as religion (e.g. ritual, parable, revelation). We will focus on contemporary foreign-language, arthouse films so as to more powerfully trouble our culturally-conditioned assumptions, whether these concern religious upbringing or personal cinematic preference. Through studying films from different cultures, and through unpacking both explicit and implicit references to “the religious”, students will develop skills of critical analysis and creative interpretation that will be essential to their ongoing studies at Hofstra. The course meets once a week for an extended class so that we can watch and discuss films without interruption.

RELI 090M - Myth, Meaning: Indian Epics

Students at Hofstra may be very familiar with Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, often cited as the foundation of Western literature, and yet may never even have heard of the two ancient epics that are similarly foundational within Asian cultures. This course seeks to correct this by introducing students to the Mahabharata and Ramayana and their complex stories of intrigue, double-crossing, vengeance, devotion, love, honour and virtue. These epics are peopled by valiant-yet-inevitably-flawed warriors, shapeshifting demons, strong-willed princesses, cunning queens, wily sages and fickle gods. Yet despite the narrative twists and turns of these epics, it can be argued that at their core they are primarily interested in one timeless question: how to be a good person in a world characterized by strife and uncertainty. Despite their age (dated to around 4th century BCE) both the Mahabharata and Ramayana are still very much living texts and new versions are continually being made across different media (novels, poetry, film, tv, plays, comics and video games). In this class we will read together both a summary and a contemporary reworking of each epic, with short lectures to identify key themes and points of comparison.

RELI 090W - PILGRIM, TRAVELLER, STRANGER: A Study of Pilgrimage Across History

In this class we will look at the concept of the journey in both sacred and secular literature. Our readings will take us along different pilgrimage routes to historically sacred sites— including Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, goddess temples in Taiwan and India—as well as to sites that have become pilgrimage destinations only in the late 20th century (e.g. the Hillsborough football stadium in England). This will involve learning about pilgrimage in terms of both transnational and regional identity, and how pilgrimage is distinguished from both tourism and political marches (e.g. non-violent marches in USA and India). Lastly, we will examine the concept of the inner pilgrimage as referenced in contemplative religious practices.

RELI 090U - Sacred Drugs

This course traverses the story and science of “sacred drugs” from immemorial practice to contemporary politics. In popular parlance, “the sacred” and “drugs” would not seem to have much to do with each other; one might be more likely to think of them as polar opposites. But ganja, peyote, mushrooms, and ayahuasca are only a partial list of plant-based substances used for centuries in religious rituals. Practitioners call them “medicine” and religious studies scholars call them “entheogens”– things that “bring god in,” alter consciousness, and change lives. Immediately this raises the question of how we define words like “religion” and “drugs” in the first place. Historically and anthropologically, we will investigate traditions and terms.

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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