Semester Course Offering

O sole God, like whom there is no other! The idea of one God was first expressed by the pharaoh Akhenaten who lived between 1352-1336 b.c.e.  Over 3000 years later, three major world religions are still struggling to understand and incorporate this seemingly simple concept of monotheism. In this course we will explore some of the issues that surround monotheism and examine how the idea of one God has shaped the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam individually and in relation to each other.  In doing so, we will attempt to gain a better understanding of the nature, role, and meaning of the ideas of God in western consciousness and culture.

Meets general academic requirement HU, DE, and W.

Religious myth and ritual is full of allusions to animals. From the “Scapegoat” and the “Lamb of God” to the “Sacred Cow” and the “Chinese Dragon” animals are central to the symbolic representation and language of almost every religious tradition. This course will compare and contrast the way animals are imagined and used in the beliefs and practices of several religious traditions.

Meets general academic requirement MV and HU. Also counts towards Sustainability Studies.

Why is travel almost universally understood to hold the potential for significant transformation? How do various communities and individuals define sacred travel through their own practice, and how does it define them in turn? This course employs the many methodologies of Religion Studies in investigating pilgrimage around the world. We will look to a number of modern theoretical interpretations of sacred journey, and will examine ethnographic accounts of pilgrimage primarily in the contexts of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Pilgrimage will serve as our window onto these traditions’ ethical systems, cosmologies of space and time, religious art and aesthetics, and views of the body’s agency and power, and in some cases, onto the contested space of multiple traditions’ holy ground.

Meets general academic requirement MV, DE and HU. Also counts toward International Studies.

Assertions that “the end is nigh” have appeared within a multitude of religions and cultural traditions from around the globe and throughout history.  These claims, which often foretell a dramatic reversal of cosmic fates and the destruction of established social orders, can reside at the center of a major tradition or represent an alternative narrative that speaks to the interests of a persecuted minority.  In this course, we will explore different ways of understanding such assertions: as a literary genre, social phenomenon, political commentary, or even rhetorical device.  Students will thereby gain the tools necessary to critically analyze a diverse body of apocalyptic and eschatological traditions, from early Jewish and Christian literature to the Native American Ghost Dance.  These examinations will reveal the many ways in which the apocalyptic imagination continues to resonate in the present, addressing persistent human questions of violence, imperialism, identity, technology, and the environment.

Meets general academic requirement DE and HU.

Christianity is not and never has been a single set of beliefs and practices; instead, the religion is marked by diversity of thought and action. The purpose of this course is to engage the variety in the tradition through the exploration of rituals and beliefs held by different Christian communities around the world and through time. In addition to primary and secondary readings, students will also explore the visual arts, architecture, and music as manifestations of Christian diversity. Additional themes for consideration will include the place of the Bible and its interpretation, the role of church leaders and their relationship to the divine, and ethical/moral differences that are present within the tradition.

Meets general academic requirement HU.

Jews and Christians alike regard the books of the Hebrew Bible as scripture. Yet, modern scholarship has sought an alternative approach to understanding this complicated collection of ancient texts that sets aside its identification as revelation and attempts to grasp the historical, political, and cultural contexts that surrounded its composition. Consequently, this course will introduce students to the Hebrew Bible as a repository of ancient Israelite traditions that were developed and shaped in specific historical and social contexts. To that end, rather than read the Bible from front to back like a novel written of whole cloth, we will begin by reading the final portion of the Bible, known as the “Writings,” first and work our way back through the Prophets, finishing with the Torah. By doing this, we will examine first those biblical books that provide the clearest glimpse of the scribal practices that framed production of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, as well as its compositional complexity. In addition, students will place particular biblical passages in dialogue with texts from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Moab, and Ugarit, illuminating Israel’s place in the religious and political world of the ancient Near East.

Meets general academic requirement HU. Also counts toward Jewish Studies.

Meets general academic requirement W, DE, and HU. Also counts toward Women's and Gender Studies and International Studies.

This course is an exploration of the ethics of compassion in three major religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Confucianism. We will read Buber, Kierkegaard, and Confucius, among others. Students will have the opportunity to analyze and evaluate these thinkers and to develop their own understanding of ethics in relation to them.

This course satisfies the MV requirement. Also counts towards Jewish Studies.

This course uses the Jewish community of Allentown and the broader Lehigh Valley as a case study for exploring American Jewish history and life. Students will explore Jewish history and experience in Allentown through research, site visits, conversations with clergy and community members, and more. We will learn about Jewish communal structures and organizations, community and personal histories, immigration patterns, the effects of suburbanization, and major industries with Jewish connections, among other topics. This course is interdisciplinary and multimodal, meaning that students will have the opportunity to work with different media and to create digital humanities/public history projects.

This course satisfies the IL, HU, and IEL requirements. Also counts towards American Studies and Jewish Studies.

This course focuses on philosophical issues arising from spiritual belief and practice broadly understood.  Among others, the course will consider questions of the self, transcendence, spiritual practice, and moral psychology.  A spectrum of belief and practice will be considered ranging from traditional forms of spirituality to contemporary approaches including naturalism. Course topics and materials will be drawn from a cross-cultural sample of historical and contemporary philosophical and religious texts.

This course satisfies the HU and MV requirements. Also counts towards Philosophy.