Religion 111 - Introduction to Religion

This year's theme for comparative religion is “The End of the World” in Judaism and Christianity. The course examines a particular theme to focus on ways that scholars draw on contextual information to understand religious practices, ideas or beliefs, artifacts, institutions, and symbols.  Jewish and Christian ideas of an end-time apocalypse offer a particularly rich matrix for comparative work. Recurring motifs variously applied and understood include expectations of cataclysm, judgment, and new creation, and definitions of the blessed saved and the irrevocably condemned. Our study will include a trajectory from ancient to contemporary sources and draw from a variety of relevant media, historical moments, and popular cultural movements.

Fall semester. Professors Barba and Niditch