RLST 101W World Religions in Dialogue (4) 
How can learning about religion help us understand ourselves and others? This course will explore that question as we gain a sound basic understanding of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and the nature of religion. We’ll take four main approaches. First, we’ll use scholarly tools and critical-thinking skills that will help us understand religions, others, and ourselves better. Second, we’ll learn some of the major concepts that make these religions distinctive, and perhaps make them similar as well. Third, we’ll examine the diverse, changing ways these religions are lived today, including in case studies about how religions interact. Finally, each student will attend a service at a local religious congregation, either on one of our group trips (for instance, to the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Michiana, Temple Beth-El, or the Islamic Society of Michiana) or on their own, and will use what we’re learning in the course to reflect on their experience.  This course also allows students to earn their Basic Writing requirement. 
 

RLST 101: Encounters with the Divine in Ancient Mediterranean Religions (3) 
This course will broaden students’ understanding of the nature and complexities of religion and allow them to gain an understanding of how religion interacts with other aspects of culture by examining the worldviews, beliefs, practices, symbols, and social formations of Greco-Roman religions, Second Temple Judaism, and Pauline Christianity. The course is divided into three sections devoted to each of these three religious traditions. As this occurs, students will explore each religion’s capacity to provide meaning to life, while considering their potential to challenge and transform individuals and societies. Topics such as God/gods, myth, cosmology, evil, sickness, suffering, death, afterlife, ethics, ritual, love, mysticism/prayer, and community will be addressed. The study of these religious ideas and expressions will be done by reading ancient writings and contemporary secondary texts. Early Christianity will be encountered through the mission and writings of Paul the Apostle. While studying Greco-Roman religions, Second Temple Judaism, and Pauline Christianity and the cultural norms within which these three religions thrived, similar and/or divergent religious ideas from contemporary American popular culture are also highlighted to show similarities and differences from ancient practices and beliefs. Students will consider how these ancient religions’ search for meaning, particularly Christianity’s, is still relevant to humanity’s search for meaning today. The ancient world in which these three religions thrived, much like ours today, was a world full of dramatic changes, rapid development, increased urbanization, potential prosperity, and potential danger.  Thus, students will gain an understanding of how these three ancient religions helped people to cope with all of the challenges of ancient life and to feel at home in the cosmos.

RLST 101 Introduction to Religious Studies (3) 
This course will examine the nature of religion and the academic study of religion and theology. At the beginning of the first half of the semester we will consider ways of defining, studying, and understanding religion, with special attention to sacred action, sacred space, and sacred time. Then, we will explore religion as a human enterprise that is fundamentally embodied, physical, and material. In the next section of the course, we will learn important aspects of a few major world religions. In class we will study Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Students will also have the opportunity to make site visits to area places of worship to enrich our sense of religious diversity. We will then consider ways in which people have experienced and conceived of God throughout various cultures and religious traditions. In the second half of the semester we will turn to theology. Through the use of modern Jewish, Christian, and Muslim narratives we will come to understand ways in which one’s theological views impact one’s life experiences and vice versa. Through the lens of stories, we will consider the relationship among religion, culture, and identity, paying particular attention to diversity within religions. This course will ask students to understand and critically evaluate a variety of interpretations of the nature of religion(s), ways of studying religion(s), and a range of theological models. Through attentive reading, critical reflection, thoughtful discussion, and creative writing, our notions of religion and theology will be both challenged and enriched.