RELIGION Atkinson, Fox, Holt Moore, Pryor *Alternate year course
RL100 Christianity in Its Global Context
3 hours An examination of the values and virtues that have been variously practiced or ignored through Christian history. In particular, we will consider what values have critically emerged from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. We will evaluate how Christianity in its encounter with various global contexts has developed themes that both bolster and limit the expression of these values. Finally, we will consider how much values are or are not invoked in the many ways that Christianity encounters contemporary culture.
RL200* The Literature and Thought of the Hebrew Bible
3 hours A study of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible giving consideration to their historical, literary, and theological dimensions.
RL210* The Literature and Thought of the New Testament
3 hours A study of the Gospels, Epistles, and other writings of the New Testament giving consideration to their historical, literary, and theological dimensions.
RL321* Early Christianity
3 hours A study of the major movements, thinkers, and ideas from the close of the apostolic age to the rise of Islam in the seventh century. Special attention will be given to early trajectories of the Christian movement outside the western Mediterranean and theological development that occurs during the emergence of the Imperial Church after the Edict of Milan in 313 CE.
RL325* Medieval and Early Modern Christianity
3 hours A study of the major movements, thinkers, and ideas from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to the conclusion of the Council of Trent in 1563. Special attention will be given to missional trajectories of the Christian movement after 600 CE; the historical significance and motivation for the crusades; the intellectual history and theological development of Scholasticism; and the theological controversy related to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation of the 16th century.
RL326 Christianity and the Enlightenment
3 hours This course will be a study of the major movements, thinkers, and ideas developing in Christianity during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Special attention will be given to the variety of theological positions manifest in Protestant Orthodoxy; various global contexts of Christianity during the 18th century; the Second Great Awakening; the Enlightenment turn to Subjectivity; and the development of Liberal Theology. (3 hours; Prerequisite: RL200, RL210, ID202, ID204, ID205, or Permission of Instructor).
RL330* World Religions
3 hours An introduction to the academic study of selected living religions with special attention given to the potential and challenges of interreligious dialog.
RL340* Problems in Christian Ethics
3 hours An outline of distinctive factors in Christian ethics especially as related to virtue and deontological ethics, a survey of outstanding figures in Christian ethics, and a sampling of issues of special concern as they relate to the Christian understanding of justice. Prerequisite: PL102
RL345 A Faith that Sustains: Explorations at the Intersection of Religion and Sustainable Living
3 hours This course explores the intersection of religion and sustainable living through engagement with the disciplines of biblical studies, systematic theology, theological ethics, and contemporary agrarian thought. Prerequisite: RL100 or ID2xxRL.
RL355* Critical Studies in Race, Religion, and Culture
3 hours This course explores various intersections of race, religion, and culture by drawing on aspects of Critical Race Theory, Interfaith approaches to questions of personal and social concern as they relate to concepts of and experiences with race, and expression of these concerns in artifacts of culture, including but not limited to music, film, visual arts, and political movements. This course has rotating to pics, including religion and Hip Hop (or particular Hip Hop artists), the Harlem Renaissance, Black cinema, etc. 153
