Continuation of RUSS 101.

Requisite: RUSS 101 or equivalent. Limited to 12 students per section. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

How to handle overenrollment: Amherst students will be given priority consideration.

Continuation of RUSS 101.

Requisite: RUSS 101 or equivalent. Limited to 12 students per section. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

How to handle overenrollment: Amherst students will be given priority consideration.

Required of candidates for Honors in Religion. A continuation of RELI 498. A double course.

Open to seniors with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: in-depth independent student research and substantial written work

Spring semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: in-depth independent student research and substantial written work

Independent Reading Course. Reading in an area selected by the student and approved in advance by a member of the Department.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: in-depth independent student research and substantial written work

Evangelical Christianity, or evangelicalism, eludes precise definition. As most commonly used, the term refers to a sector of Protestant Christianity whose historical provenance runs from the eighteenth century to the present day. Originating in Europe and North America but now a global phenomenon, evangelicalism in the United States has enjoyed periods of pervasive influence and times of cultural marginality—recovering in the late twentieth century a mainstream status it had seemingly lost. This course is concerned with the history and shifting nature of evangelicalism.

What does religious studies study? How do its investigations proceed? Can a religion only be truly understood from within, by those who share its beliefs and values? Or, on the contrary, is only the person who stands “outside” religion equipped to study and truly understand it? Is there a generic “something” that we can properly call “religion” at all or is the concept of religion, which emerged from European Enlightenment, inapplicable to other cultural contexts? This course will explore several of the most influential efforts to develop theories of religion and methods for its study.

(Offered as ASLC-183, RELI-183) The discourses of Islam that play out in contemporary mass media often implicate the media themselves: Do these media misrepresent Islam, and how might Islam be truthfully represented? Does Islam require an iconoclastic hostility to representational media in general, or is this idea just one more misrepresentation?

What is “scripture?” What does “literature” mean in ancient Judaism? This course examines Jewish literature from the late Second Temple period until the Rabbinic period, with a critical focus on the form and materiality of books and reading culture. We will study the major changes in Jewish books from Hellenistic times into the late Roman period and Christian era. Our primary aim is to study how books, as material artifacts, helped shape how readers created meaning.

This course introduces students to the notion of love in mystical traditions. Rather than moving outward, mystical love leads to an inner proficiency represented by the higher Self. For some traditions, love participates directly as a guide toward enlightenment, playing an important if not an essential part in the attainment of the highest stages of oneness. For others, love is applied to the mystical path in order to see the way more clearly, helping to reveal the dynamics in the spiritual practices.