Course Descriptions 2023-2024 School Year RELIGION REL2300  Survey of Contemporary World Religions  3.0   P This is an introductory survey of the religions of the modern world - Indian Religions (including Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism); Chinese Religions (including Confucianism and Daoism); Buddhism; Shinto; Judaism; Christianity; Islam; Indigenous Religions (including African tribal religions, Asian folk religions, Native American religions, and Australian Aboriginal religions); and/or New Religions. It draws from textual, archaeological, art-historical and artistic, anthropological, and digital sources to examine the histories, doctrines, and practices of religious cultures throughout the world. This course also explores themes shared across contemporary religions, Finally, it highlights the role religion plays in critical issues facing moder Full Description REL2000  Introduction to Religion  3.0   P This course examines the various ways religion can be approached: as psychological and social phenomena, as emotional experiences, as historically located expressions, and from the perspective of ethnicity and race, economic class, gender, and sexuality. Students will critically analyze and evaluate the systems of meaning that religion creates. Students will also critically analyze and evaluate how people behave in response to religious systems of meaning and what cultural media people create to communicate those systems of meaning.... Full Description REL2121  Survey of Religion in America  3.0   P This course is an introductory survey of religion in the United States, including the religions present before and during the European colonial period - Native American Religions; European Colonial Religions; "Traditional" Christianity (Protestantism, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy); Slave and African-American Religions; Judaism; Latinx-Hispanic Religions; Recent Immigrant Religions; and/or New American Religions. It draws from textual, archaeological, art-historical and artistic, anthropological, and digital sources to examine the histories, doctrines, and practices of American religious cultures. This course also explores themes shared across American religions. Finally, it highlights the role religion has played in forming, maintaini Full Description REL2315  Religions of Asia  3.0   P This course is an introductory survey of the religions of Asia, both premodern and modern - Indian Religions (including Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism); Chinese Religions (including Confucianism and Daoism); Buddhism; Shinto; Asian folk Religions; Asian New Religions; and/or Western colonial religions in Asia. It draws from textual, archaeological, art-historical and artistic, anthropological, and digital sources to examine the histories, doctrines, and practices of Asian religious cultures. This course also explores themes shared across premodern and modern Asian religions. Finally, it highlights the role religion has played in forming, maintaining, and changing the social, economic, and political structures of Asia.... Full Description