Introduction to Religious Studies
RELS 1113
Our approach to the study of religion in this class is comparative, historical, and analytical. In particular, we examine critical turning points in three religious traditions – Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Students are introduced to foundational figures, events, and concepts within these religions, while also being exposed to the ways in which religions develop and change over time. The primary goals of the course include: preparing students to be more informed citizens capable of engaging in a religiously diverse world; training students to be more nuanced thinkers by equipping them with tools to understand the various ways in which humans across the globe conceptualize religion; and further developing students’ skills in close reading and careful writing.
*This course counts toward the lower-level Western Culture general education requirement.
Introduction to World Religions
RELS 1123
In this class, students gain exposure to the many diverse peoples and practices that constitute major religious traditions around the world. Students also gain an appreciation for the ways that categories including “religion” and “world religions” shape our understandings of one another and the world around us. Our approach to the study of religion in this class is comparative, historical, and analytical. In particular, we examine critical turning points in the world’s three largest religious traditions – Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam – with reference to traditions through which they emerged and which emerged through them – Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, and Sikhism. Students are introduced to foundational figures, events, and concepts within these religions, while also being exposed to the ways in which religions develop and change over time, especially with regard to culture, nation, race, and gender. The primary goals of the course include: fostering the practice of critical empathy by listening to and engaging with people whose worldviews differ from one’s own; preparing students to be more informed citizens capable of engaging in a religiously diverse world; training students to be more nuanced thinkers by equipping them with tools to understand the various ways in which humans across the globe conceptualize and practice religion; and further developing students’ skills in close reading and careful writing.
*This course counts toward the lower-level World Culture general education requirement.
Introduction to Hinduism
RELS 2713
This course is a critical introduction to the myriad traditions that come under the umbrella of what we now call “Hinduism.” Topics are organized both chronologically and thematically to demonstrate the ways in which Hindu ways of being have been influenced by many factors in South Asian and global history, and have constantly been debated and in flux. We explore these topics in three units: Ancient Debates; Modern Negotiations; American Identities.
*This course counts toward the lower-level World Culture general education requirement.
Approaches to the Study of Religion
RELS 2653
This seminar is intended for students who are either Religious Studies majors or who have a deep interest in the academic study of religion. Homing in on the questions OU Religious Studies majors and minors have been – or will be – asking throughout each of their courses, this seminar addresses the questions: What do we mean when we talk about religion? How ought we go about studying it? How do the skills gained by studying religion help us understand the world around us? In unit one, we begin by considering some of the foundational figures in the field and the ways they constructed religion as a universal human phenomenon, and religions as variations on that phenomenon. We then turn in unit two to scholars who investigate the power dynamics present in the study of religion/s, leading us to ask who or what is included and excluded in those studies, and what knowledge is deemed authoritative in them. In the final unit, we take what we have learned by studying religion and apply it to our understandings of various aspects of human life more broadly, including social structures, the process of meaning making, and authorizing discourses. By taking this historical approach, students gain entry into the major promises and perils of the field, and are able to confidently stake their own claim to it.
Religion, Colonialism, and Nationalism in India
HIST/RELS 3283
This course examines how religion, politics, and economics influence one another, taking religions in the Indian context as its case study. It is organized chronologically in three units: Indian Religions Before and During Colonial Rule; Indian Nationalist Movements; and Indian Religions in Two Nations. In the first, we examine primary texts from major religious traditions in India including Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Christianity. We consider how they developed in the Indian context and how they transformed under the evolving political and economic structures of British colonialism. In the second unit, students simulate negotiations between Indian and British leaders regarding the removal of the colonial regime through a Reacting to the Past role-playing game. Students take up the positions of various leaders in India’s Independence movement, from the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi to Muslim Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Sikh Tara Singh, and eventual Buddhist convert Bhim Rao Ambedkar, to engage in a series of debates regarding the configuration of the new Indian nation, particularly its religious factions. Through this game, students not only learn about, but experience, how colonialism and nationalist movements re-defined religious traditions and hardened the boundaries between them, eventually leading to the partition of India into two separate nation-states: India, a secular democracy with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, an Islamic republic that would later be divided again into Pakistan and Bangladesh. In the final unit of the course, we consider the impact that these two forms of governance have had on Indian religions since Independence. Our final reflection will consist of a consideration of how lessons gleaned from the Indian context might be applied elsewhere.
*This course counts toward the upper-level World Culture general education requirement.
Money, Power, and God(s): Religion and Economy East and West
RELS 3233
What kinds of values and ethics are present in economic theories? What kind of economies are imagined by religious ideas, texts, and practices? Religion and economics have historically been understood in the academy as not having a great deal to do with one another. Coinciding with a burgeoning new subfield within the study of religion, this course takes as its premise that religion and economy have always been intertwined – that they have shaped, re-shaped, and challenged one another throughout human history. The course questions the received categories of “religion” and “economy” to uncover the ways that humans think about what is valuable, good, and precious and how to create a world in which each emerges. We consider these ideas in a seminar-style discussion of scholarship, taking Indian engagements with global capitalism as our primary case study, but drawing also on examples from the United States, Europe, and Indonesia.
*This course counts toward the upper-level World Culture general education requirement.
Capstone
RELS 4323
The RELS Capstone experience begins with the question: What do you want to know? It is designed as a modified independent study where students spend the entire semester working on one full-length 20-25 page research paper, but in the supportive environment of peers who are simultaneously experiencing the joys and frustrations of the writing process; and with regular feedback and guidance from the professor. There are incremental writing deadlines throughout the semester, as well as opportunities for students to provide informal presentations on lessons learned about their topics research as well as the writing process itself. There are no additional readings assigned outside of what the student needs to read for their own research. Students apply the training in close reading, research, and critical analysis they have received as Religious Studies majors, while also gaining insights into how a large-scale project like a research paper or similar project is composed. Rather than simply appearing on the page, arguments need to be crafted and recrafted, honed, reframed. The class is organized around the writing process itself: Brainstorming and Information Gathering; Researching and Organizing; Writing; Revising. We will employ a combination of course formats including in-person group discussions, individual meetings with the professor, and sustained out-of-class writing time.