Majoring and Minoring

Lewis & Clark’s Department of Religious Studies focuses on the study of religion as a historical, social, and cultural phenomenon. Using this approach, our curriculum emphasizes four specific areas:

• Jewish and Christian origins
• The history religious traditions of Western civilization (including America)
• The history of religious traditions Asia
• The religious traditions of Islam

Because we take a socio-cultural approach, the Religious Studies Department is heavily involved in interdisciplinary study. We share three faculty members with the history department and regularly interact with those in other departments dealing with the phenomenon of culture, in particular sociology/anthropology, art and music, and literature.

The international emphasis at Lewis & Clark also dovetails nicely with our program. Religious Studies faculty frequently lead programs in India, Japan, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Such opportunities offer students firsthand experience with cultures and religious traditions quite different from their own.

Religious Studies majors, like majors from any department in the humanities, pursue a wide variety of occupations following graduation. Recent graduates have found employment in everything from social work to journalism, from banking to politics. Many go on to graduate or professional schools, especially in the field of law. A few seek professional training in religious vocations.

Also see the L&C Catalog:

 Religious Studies Program and Requirements

COURSES BEING OFFERED FOR SPRING 2012: 

RELS 225 Christian Origins  
Rob Kugler
Prerequisite: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required, unless section number is preceded by an ‘F’.

Exploration of early Christianity, from the turn of the eras to 400 C.E. Focus on the development of the religion in the multicultural, pluralistic context of the Greco-Roman world. Study of the archaeological and written evidence for Christian origins (i.e., the archaeology of Jerusalem, the Galilee, and the Dead Sea Scrolls community; the
New Testament, the writings of “orthodox” and “heretical” early Christian thinkers, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other relevant Judean texts). Analysis of key themes in early Christian studies (i.e., gender, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, early Christianity’s relationship to early Judaism, Christianity and empire).

RELS 243 Buddhism: Theory/Culture/Practices
Alan Cole
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required, unless section number is preceded by an ‘F’.

Development of Buddhism in India and Tibet with emphasis on issues of purity, power, and asceticism as they are portrayed in classic Buddhist texts. Special attention given to Buddhist institutions and their rationales. Buddhist philosophy. Critiques of 20th-century misconceptions of Buddhism.

RELS 253 Religion of American History- Civil War
Susanna Morrill
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required, unless section number is preceded by an ‘F’.

Introduction to major themes and movements in American religious history from colonial origins to the Civil War. Consideration of Native American religious traditions, colonial settlement, slaveryand slave religion, revivalism, religion and the revolution, growth of Christian denominationalism, origins of Mormonism, using a comparative approach in the effort to understand diverse movements. Central themes: revival and religious renewal, appropriation of Old Testament language by various groups (Puritans, African Americans, Mormons), democratization of religion.

RELS 261 Introduction to Judaism
Sylvia Frankel
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required, unless section number is preceded by an ‘F’.

Classical texts and selected major thinkers of the Jewish tradition. Historical overview of the biblical and rabbinic periods with a look at classic Jewish texts: the Bible, Midrash, the Mishnah, the Gemara, the legal codes, the mystical tradition, and the Responsa literature. Major Jewish thinkers such as Maimonides, Abraham Joshua
Heschell, David Hartman.

RELS 274 Islam in the Modern World
Paul Powers
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required, unless section number is preceded by an ‘F’.

The religious, social, and political dynamics of the Islamic world, circa 1300 C.E. to present, especially the 19th-21st centuries. Earlier developments (e.g., the Qur’an, Muhammad, Muslim dynasties) considered in relation to the modern context. European colonialism, postcolonial change, reform and “fundamentalist” movements,
Sufism, Muslim views of “modernity,” and changing understandings of politics, gender, and relations with non-Muslims.

RELS 298 African American Religion
Monica Miller 
Prerequisite: None.
Restrictions: None.

An introduction to the historical development, structure, and major themes of African American religions, from early European-African slave contact to the present. Explores the historical contexts through primary texts and a wide range of creative expressions such as song, ritual, literature, film, and dance.

 

RELS 340 Women in American Religious History
Susanna Morrill
Prerequisites: RELS 253 or RELS 254 Recommended
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.

Women’s experience of religion in America from the colonial era to the present. The relationship between gender and religious beliefs and practices. Religion as means of oppression and liberation of women. Relations of lay women and male clergy. Women religious leaders. Diverse movements and cultures including Native American,
colonial society, immigrant communities, and radical religionists from Anne Hutchinson to Mary Daly.

RELS 373 Reformations Sixteenth Century
Benjamin Westervelt
Prerequisites: RELS 251 or consent of instructor.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required

A historical perspective on the various religious movements, collectively known as the Protestant Reformation, that marked Europe’s transition from the medieval to the early modern period (circa 1400 to 1600). Review of medieval religious patterns. The status of Catholic institutions and ideas in crises of the late medieval period, the theologies of Luther and Calvin, radical movements, the political background of the Reformation, and Catholic responses to Protestantism. Readings and discussions concentrate on recent social historiography of the Reformation. Popular appeal of Protestant religiosity, social implications of Calvinism, roles of women in the Reformation, family patterns and the Reformation, class structure and competing religious cultures, Catholicism and rural society.

RELS 376 Religious Fundamentalism
Paul Powers
Prerequisites: RELS 254 or RELS 274, or consent of instructor.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.

The perceptions and realities of religiousvresurgence in a supposedly secularizing world.Focus on the historical, theological, social, and political aspects of Christian and Islamic fundamentalism. Themes include secularization theories and their critics, changing understandings of religion and modernity, connections among religion, politics, violence, sexuality/gender, and identity.

RELS 398 Anxious Identities
Monica Miller
Prerequisites: Take 0 courses

Exploration of the ways in which marginalization has been theorized across a range of religious and theological projects. Examines how changing conceptions of social categories and competing particularities of race, class, gender, sexuality, and power have affected the definition of “marginal.”

RELS 451 Sem: Religion in Early America
Susanna Morrill
Prerequisites: RELS 253 or RELS 254, or consent of instructor.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.

Major trends in American religion from the Puritans to the feminist and liberation theologies of the 20th century. Intensive reading of works by major American figures and scholars.

RELS 490 Senior Thesis
Alan Cole
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Senior standing or consent of instructor required. 

Advanced readings and major works in religion. In consultation with faculty, selection of a thesis topic and further reading in the discipline and research in the topic area. Substantial written document demonstrating mastery of theory and methodology in the study of religion and the ability to integrate these into the thesis topic.