This course is designed for students who are interested in reading the language of the Qur'an with accuracy and understanding. The first week (4 classes) will be devoted to an introduction of the history of the Qur'an: the revelation, collection, variant readings, and establishment of an authoritative edition. The last week will be devoted to a general overview of revisionist literature on the Qur'an. In the remaining 12 weeks, we will cover all of Part 30 (Juz' 'Amma, suuras 78-114) and three suuras of varying length (36, 19, and 12).

Full details for RELST 2204 - Introduction to Quranic Arabic

Buddhism is now a global religion. How did it become one? Well before the digital age, traveling Buddhists and Buddhist objects moved across vast geographies, transforming communities along the way. The Indian Ocean — connecting West Asia to East Asia via South and Southeast Asia — was (and remains) crucial to Buddhist circulations. Looking at textual and visual materials from premodern times to the present day, this course shows how changing trans-regional conditions shape local Buddhisms, how Buddhist collectives around the Indian Ocean arena shape one another, and how trade, religion, and politics interact. (ASIAN-GE, HIST-HAN)

Full details for RELST 2248 - Indian Ocean Buddhism

This course will explore religious traditions in South Asia (Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka) and East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea) including Hinduism, Buddhism (South Asian and East Asian), Sikhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto. We will also encounter a wide range of religious expressions, including myth, ritual, pilgrimage, mysticism, meditation, and other spiritual technologies. (ASIAN-GE)

Full details for RELST 2250 - Introduction to Asian Religions

This course uses art and popular culture to provide a dynamic view of Black religion in the United States and the Diaspora throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Discussion topics include: religiosity in the visual art of Kara Walker, P-Valley's Hoodoo representation, and James Baldwin's Black Sanctified aesthetics. By engaging broadly with visual art, film, music, and television, students will gain a sense of the various religious and spiritual traditions that pervade contemporary popular culture and gain the ability to think critically about how religious themes show up on television, in music, and in the world around them.

Full details for RELST 2322 - Black Religion and Pop Culture

In this class, students are introduced to the broad scope of the city of Jerusalem’s political and religious history from its origins until today. Some topics the class covers include: the Jebusite origins of the city; the rise of kings David and Solomon; the Second Temple and Temple Mount; the life of Jesus in and around Jerusalem; Byzantine Jerusalem; the life of Muhammad in Jerusalem; the Crusades; the Ottoman era; archaeological sites; and the status of Jerusalem today. In addition to reading several broad accounts of the history of the city, students perform close readings of a range of primary sources, from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, the Qur’an, travelogues, pilgrimage narratives, geographers, letters, poetry and short stories, archaeological studies, among many others. Throughout the semester, students will discuss questions about identity-formation, sacred space, memory, myth, and pilgrimage.

Full details for RELST 2345 - Jerusalem: The Holy City

Immerse yourself in the essential Jewish movers and moments of Early Modern Europe. Catch the usual headlines (Expulsion! Atheism! Finance!) and headliners like Spinoza, Tzvi, or Baal Shem Tov. Stay tuned for hot, new bangers like Anusa’s Columbus, a Yid? or retro-pop classics like MHRL’s Golem. You’ll be transported from medieval Spain to the revolutionary Americas as you discover the Hebrews, Shebrews, and Theybrews who made modernity.

Full details for RELST 2533 - Spain to Seixas:Jews, Judaisms, and Early Modern Europe

Contrary to the conventionally portrayed image of Buddhism as a peaceful, benign, and nonviolent religion, Buddhist traditions across Asia have long been populated by demons, ghosts, and wrathful deities. This course explores the many faces of the demonic in Buddhism, from Mara—the tempter who sought to prevent the Buddha's enlightenment—to hungry ghosts in the Buddhist purgatory, and fearsome guardian deities of Tantric Buddhism. Through texts, rituals, visual culture, and popular media, students will examine how Buddhists categorized, confronted, transformed, and sometimes worshipped demonic beings. We will ask what kinds of ethical qualities Buddhists associate with demons, what practices are invented to engage them, and how demonic figures have served not only as a means of identifying religious others but also as a mirror reflecting the anger, desire, and ignorance that Buddhism locates within humans themselves. (ASIAN-RL)

Full details for RELST 2603 - Demons in Buddhism

What does it mean to be queer in the Middle East? How do queer Muslims and Arabs navigate their sexuality around contemporary legal barriers to same-sex sexual intercourse and social disapprobation? How do the sexual and emotional lives of contemporary queer Muslims and Arabs differ or resemble the lives of people in the pre-modern period? Taking students from the dawn of Islam to the current day, this course charts the history of sex, sexuality, the family and queerness in the Middle East. Along the way, students will learn about Islamic legal and scriptural approaches to sexuality, the importance of sexuality to the propagation of colonialism and empire, post-colonial approaches to sexuality and sexual difference and beyond. (HIST-HGS)

Full details for RELST 2727 - The Queer Middle East

These seminars offer an introduction to the humanities by exploring historical, cultural, social, and political themes. Students will explore themes in critical dialogue with a range of texts and media drawn from the arts, humanities, and/or humanistic social sciences. Guest speakers, including Cornell faculty and Society for the Humanities Fellows, will present from different disciplines and points of view. Students will make field trips to relevant local sites and visit Cornell special collections and archives. Students enrolled in these seminars will have the opportunity to participate in additional programming related to the annual focus theme of Cornell's Society for the Humanities and the Humanities Scholars Program for undergraduate humanities research. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for RELST 2750 - Introduction to Humanities

Devotion, or bhakti, has been expressed through art for over one thousand years in Hindu traditions within and beyond South Asia. In this course, students will engage with diverse primary sources for bhakti in both verbal and visual registers. These will include the Bhagavad Gita, poetic hymns of saint-poets, visual representations of gods, temple arts, poster arts, dramatic performance, and film. Students will learn how the history of bhakti relates to that of Hinduism and study its connection to social histories of caste and gender. We will also discuss what happens to devotional art as it crosses the boundaries of nation, culture, and media. (ASIAN-RL)

Full details for RELST 2952 - The Arts of Hindu Devotion

This course examines compelling and complementary philosophies, pieties, and consequences of the Black Power era to the present. With an eye to the history that precedes this era, we chart the liberatory visions, evolving out of the persistent struggles and massive organizing of African Americans in the 1950s and 60s, and trace their far-reaching impact throughout the last half of the 20th century. We examine what is arguably the most significant social movement of the first quarter of the 21st century, #BlackLivesMatter Movement—particularly its aim, development, and effects, as well as its complex relationship to previous Black freedom movements and Black radicalism in general. After taking stocking, we will ask: What’s after Black Lives Matter? We also explore how the idiom of Black Power takes on spiritual meaning and translates into a Black Liberation Theology and into new Black religions like the Nation of Islam. Our aim is to keep in view the significance of the Black Power era for understanding social change and why “freedom is a constant struggle.” We will give special attention to relevant contemporary movements, debates, and issues (e.g., Cooperation Jackson, pan-Africanism, intersectionality, nationalism, the role of Black churches, politics of representation, racial capitalism, electoral politics).

Full details for RELST 3237 - Black Power, Black Theology to After Black Lives Matter

This course will explore the origins and early developments of a movement in Indian Buddhism known as the Great Vehicle. We will intensively examine a small slice of this movement?s voluminous literature so as to better understand its call for a new spiritual orientation within Buddhism. Topics of discussion will include the career of the bodhisattva, the lay/monk distinction, attitudes of Mahayanists toward women and other Buddhists, and the development of Buddhist utopias and transcendent buddhas. (ASIAN-RL)

Full details for RELST 3341 - Mahayana Buddhism

In her pathbreaking text Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval Saidiya Hartman writes that young Black women were radical thinkers who tirelessly imagined other ways to live and never failed to consider how the world might be otherwise. This two-semester course endeavors to travel through those worlds using the cultural and musical forms of gospel and the blues as our compass. The second semester is guided by the work of scholars and writers like Maureen Mahon, Marla Frederick, Lynee Denise, and Deesha Philyaw and artists like the Clark Sisters, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, and Beyonce. Together we will interrogate the spectrum of lived experiences making for a kaleidoscopic sonic history of joy, pleasure, sorrow, resistance, and everything in between.

Full details for RELST 3422 - Gospel and The Blues: A Black Women’s History II, 1973-2023

This seminar will engage in a serious of close readings of select narrative texts (in translation) from the Hebrew Bible with a focus on literary techniques and aesthetic values informing their composition. Participants will be expected to study the text carefully in advance of each meeting and come to class prepared to discuss how the text means.

Full details for RELST 3455 - The Narrative Artistry of the Hebrew Bible

This course examines the culture and society of al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) from 711, when Islam arrived in Iberia, until 1492 and the demise of Nasrid Granada. Through extensive discussion and analysis of Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew primary documents and literary texts of various genres (in translation), the course challenges ideological bases of conventional thinking regarding the social, political, and cultural identity of medieval Spain. Among other things, the class investigates the origins of lyric poetry, the relationships among the various confessional and ethnic communities in al-Andalus and the problems involved in Mozarabic Christian and Andalusi Jewish subcultural adaptations of Andalusi Arabo-Islamic culture.

Full details for RELST 3539 - Islamic Spain: Culture and Society

The purpose of the course is to place the Bible within the context of a larger ancient world that can be explored by systematic excavation of physical remains. Students will become familiar with archaeological excavations and finds from ancient Syria-Palestine from 10,000 bce to 586 bce. We will explore this archaeological evidence on its own terms, taking into consideration factors such as archaeological method and the interpretive frameworks in which the excavators themselves work, as well as the implications of this body of evidence for understanding the complexity and diversity of biblical Israel. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for RELST 3588 - Archaeology and the Bible

What happens after death? If there is an Afterlife, how is it connected to earthly life? What would the Afterlife actually look like? What role does God or Satan play in the Afterlife? Since the earliest Qur'anic Revelations, Muslims have questioned, imagined and written about the Afterlife. In this course, we will read widely from across the Islamic religious and literary traditions, reading primary texts in translation. We will begin with a survey of the imagination of the Afterlife in scriptural, religious and literary texts, before examining the role and importance of the Afterlife in Islamic legal thinking and morality. Thereafter, we will focus on theological and ethical problems that arise from the imagination of the Afterlife, focusing in particular on the gendered experience of the Afterlife, as well as the question of whether the individual has free will and moral agency or whether eschatological fate is predetermined.

Full details for RELST 3724 - Death and the Afterlife in Islam

(ARKEO-COS, ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for RELST 3738 - Identity in the Ancient World

What is religion, and how can we use material culture to investigate ancient beliefs and rituals? This course (1) explores major themes and problems in the archaeology of ancient Greek religion, and (2) compares and critiques selected theoretical and methodological approaches to the archaeology of cult more generally. Students will examine ritual artifacts, cult sites, and other aspects of religious material culture, as well as primary textual sources (in translation). (ARKEO-RMNE, ARKEO-TM)

Full details for RELST 3739 - Archaeology of Ancient Greek Religion

Do modern times (which are experienced and conceptualized in varied ways) pose distinctive problems and opportunities for Buddhists? How are Buddhist teachings drawn into forms of social and political critique, activist and advocacy projects, and theorizing about human communities and social processes? In the 20th and 21st centuries, how do Buddhist teachings and practices inform practical and conceptual approaches to human flourishing? Drawing on thinkers from several parts of Asia and the Americas, this seminar highlights how persons work creatively with Buddhist teachings. We shall explore how Buddhist teachings are interpreted to address painful circumstances, as well as how such hermeneutics may offer new (and sometimes liberatory) ways of seeing selves, others, and communities. Writers and artists considered in this seminar interpret Buddhist teachings and practices in relation to capitalism, race, gender, sexuality, environmental ethics, and nationalism. (ASIAN-RL)

Full details for RELST 4020 - Buddhist Moderns: Visions of Human Flourishing

Reading and translation of Latin philosophical texts.

Full details for RELST 4100 - Latin Philosophical Texts

How and why do landscapes come to inspire the religious imagination? And why do religious practices, rituals, traditions, and beliefs take place in particular landscapes? This seminar treats these questions by focusing on the desert, both imagined and real, as it has shaped religious ascetic practice, especially the development of Christian monasticism in the Middle East. We will read widely from monastic literatures, mostly from late ancient Egypt, to explore both the historical development of monasticism in Christianity and examine why the monastic impulse seems so closely tied to the desert. In addition to reading saints lives and the stories of hermits, we will read early monastic rules, the desert fathers, and we will draw from archaeological sources to examine the varieties of ascetic practices in the deserts of late ancient Egypt, Gaza, Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. Throughout the course we will explore ancient and modern ideas about wilderness and we will explore parallels between ancient Near Eastern literatures and their nineteenth- and twentieth-century parallels in the American frontier and environmental literatures.

Full details for RELST 4557 - Desert Monasticism

Topics for this course vary.

Full details for RELST 4665 - Augustine

For undergraduates who wish to obtain research experience or do extensive reading on a special topic. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course.

Full details for RELST 4991 - Directed Study

RELST 4995 is the first course in the Honors two-part sequence. The Honors Program is open to Religious Studies majors who have done superior work and who wish to devote a substantial part of their senior year to advanced, specialized, independent research and writing of a thesis. Successfully completing an honors thesis will require sustained interest, exceptional ability, diligence, and enthusiasm. While admissions to the Honors Program and completion of a thesis do not guarantee that students will be awarded honors in Religious Studies, most students find the experience as intellectually rewarding as it is rigorous.

Full details for RELST 4995 - Senior Honors Essay I

RELST 4996 is the second course in the Honors two-part sequence. The Honors Program is open to Religious Studies majors who have done superior work and who wish to devote a substantial part of their senior year to advanced, specialized, independent research and writing of a thesis. Successfully completing an honors thesis will require sustained interest, exceptional ability, diligence, and enthusiasm. While admissions to the Honors Program and completion of a thesis do not guarantee that students will be awarded honors in Religious Studies, most students find the experience as intellectually rewarding as it is rigorous.

Full details for RELST 4996 - Senior Honors Essay II

Reading and translation of Latin philosophical texts.

Full details for RELST 6020 - Latin Philosophical Texts

Do modern times (which are experienced and conceptualized in varied ways) pose distinctive problems and opportunities for Buddhists? How are Buddhist teachings drawn into forms of social and political critique, activist and advocacy projects, and theorizing about human communities and social processes? In the 20th and 21st centuries, how do Buddhist teachings and practices inform practical and conceptual approaches to human flourishing? Drawing on thinkers from several parts of Asia and the Americas, this seminar highlights how persons work creatively with Buddhist teachings. We shall explore how Buddhist teachings are interpreted to address painful circumstances, as well as how such hermeneutics may offer new (and sometimes liberatory) ways of seeing selves, others, and communities. Writers and artists considered in this seminar interpret Buddhist teachings and practices in relation to capitalism, race, gender, sexuality, environmental ethics, and nationalism. (ASIAN-RL)

Full details for RELST 6022 - Buddhist Moderns: Visions of Human Flourishing

This course examines the culture and society of al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) from 711, when Islam arrived in Iberia, until 1492 and the demise of Nasrid Granada. Through extensive discussion and analysis of Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew primary documents and literary texts of various genres (in translation), the course challenges ideological bases of conventional thinking regarding the social, political, and cultural identity of medieval Spain. Among other things, the class investigates the origins of lyric poetry, the relationships among the various confessional and ethnic communities in al-Andalus and the problems involved in Mozarabic Christian and Andalusi Jewish subcultural adaptations of Andalusi Arabo-Islamic culture.

Full details for RELST 6539 - Islamic Spain: Culture and Society

How and why do landscapes come to inspire the religious imagination? And why do religious practices, rituals, traditions, and beliefs take place in particular landscapes? This seminar treats these questions by focusing on the desert, both imagined and real, as it has shaped religious ascetic practice, especially the development of Christian monasticism in the Middle East. We will read widely from monastic literatures, mostly from late ancient Egypt, to explore both the historical development of monasticism in Christianity and examine why the monastic impulse seems so closely tied to the desert. In addition to reading saints lives and the stories of hermits, we will read early monastic rules, the desert fathers, and we will draw from archaeological sources to examine the varieties of ascetic practices in the deserts of late ancient Egypt, Gaza, Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. Throughout the course we will explore ancient and modern ideas about wilderness and we will explore parallels between ancient Near Eastern literatures and their nineteenth- and twentieth-century parallels in the American frontier and environmental literatures.

Full details for RELST 6557 - Desert Monasticism

The purpose of the course is to place the Bible within the context of a larger ancient world that can be explored by systematic excavation of physical remains. Students will become familiar with archaeological excavations and finds from ancient Syria-Palestine from 10,000 bce to 586 bce. We will explore this archaeological evidence on its own terms, taking into consideration factors such as archaeological method and the interpretive frameworks in which the excavators themselves work, as well as the implications of this body of evidence for understanding the complexity and diversity of biblical Israel.

Full details for RELST 6588 - Archaeology and the Bible

What happens after death? If there is an Afterlife, how is it connected to earthly life? What would the Afterlife actually look like? What role does God or Satan play in the Afterlife? Since the earliest Qur'anic Revelations, Muslims have questioned, imagined and written about the Afterlife. In this course, we will read widely from across the Islamic religious and literary traditions, reading primary texts in translation. We will begin with a survey of the imagination of the Afterlife in scriptural, religious and literary texts, before examining the role and importance of the Afterlife in Islamic legal thinking and morality. Thereafter, we will focus on theological and ethical problems that arise from the imagination of the Afterlife, focusing in particular on the gendered experience of the Afterlife, as well as the question of whether the individual has free will and moral agency or whether eschatological fate is predetermined.

Full details for RELST 6724 - Death and the Afterlife in Islam

This seminar is an intensive study of the political thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. Approaching texts in contexts, we will seek to recover King the political thinker from his mythologization in American political culture by carefully reading his books, speeches, sermons, interviews, notes, and correspondence as illocutionary interventions into the major crises and ideological disputes of twentieth century American politics. Topics we will explore include the politics of dignity, leadership and mass politics, rhetoric and democratic persuasion, law and direct action, nonviolence, loss and mourning, race and political economy, global justice, and the practices of prophetic critique. Along the way, we will study King in dialogue with both his contemporaries as well as more recent interventions in the study of civil disobedience, racial capitalism, and Afro-modern political thought. (GOVT-PT)

Full details for RELST 6865 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

What is religion, and how can we use material culture to investigate ancient beliefs and rituals? This course (1) explores major themes and problems in the archaeology of ancient Greek religion, and (2) compares and critiques selected theoretical and methodological approaches to the archaeology of cult more generally. Students will consider and analyze ritual artifacts, cult sites, and other aspects of religious material culture, as well as primary textual sources (in translation).

Full details for RELST 7758 - Archaeology of Greek Religion: Theory, Methods, and Practice