World Religions: Occidental

Instruction in this course will include the following six areas:

1. An introduction to religion in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean world - including the possibly of a matriarchal phase of western history; the Hammurabi code and Mesopotamian religion; Egyptian religion; Greek and Roman religion; and Celtic religion.
2. An introduction to the development of Judaism (up to the 20^th Century) - including the development of ancient Judaism, the nature of monotheism and polytheism; God, history and the Covenant in Judaism; the contents of the Hebrew Bible (Tanach); the two exiles, and the development of rabbinic Judaism; main elements of Jewish life, ritual and law, and the Jewish diffusion and life in exile.
3. An introduction to the development of Christianity (up to the 20^th Century) - including second temple Judaism and the messianic hope; the career of Jesus, the Gospels and Christian Bible (Old and New Testaments); the early Christian communities; the development of Christian dogmatics; church and empire; monasticism; Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy; the reformation & protestantism; Quakers, and other sects.
4. An introduction to the development of Islam (up to the 20^th Century) - including the life and time of Mohammed; the contents of the Qu’uran; the five pillars of Islam; Hadith and shari’a; the expansion of Islam; the Shi’a and Sunna division, the development of Sufism.
5. An introduction to the development of African and North American tribal religions - including recurrent motifs and myths; sacred dancing, chanting, and healing; the sacredness of nature; the totem and the tribe; individualism, community, and tribalism; and the encounter with the western empires (slavery, disease, war, and assimilation).
6. The impact of modernity of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - including Jewish, Christian, and Islamic responses to the western enlightenment; in Judaism: Ultra-orthodox, modern, orthodox, reform, conservative, and reconstruction Judaism; in Christianity: literalist, authoritarian, non-theistic Christian movements; in Islam: the orthodox response, and reconstructive modernist responses (e.g.,  the thought of Mohammed Iqbal); and interfaith dialogue and the western monotheistic religions (theological, philosophical, and political issues).