Course Offerings Spring 2013

Spring 2013 Course Offerings


Lower Division
RS 100	INTRODUCTION TO RELIGIOUS STUDIES (GE: S2)			3.0
A study of the elements of religion and selected contemporary religious issues. Examines such subjects as myth and ritual, the sacred and profane, dreams and theophanies, priests and prophets, science and religion, history and religion, and the possibility of religious faith today.
13275	MW 0800-0915	SH 390	Baugh
13276	MW 0930-1045	SH 384	Ruzgar
13277	MW 1100-1215	SH 384	Baugh
13278	MW 1230-1345	SH 390	Ruzgar
13818	TR 0930-1345	SH 390	White
17965	TR 1400-1515	SH 390	O'Donnell
17981	F 0800-1045	ONLINE	Wilkerson
18237	ONLINE	ARR	White
18687	ONLINE	ARR	Wilkerson

RS 101	THE BIBLE (GE: S2)			3.0
A survey of the basic content and major themes of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), New Testament, and Apocryphal writings.
13279	MW 0800-915	SH 384	Goodfriend
13282	MW 0930-1045	SH 314	Goodfriend
13557	TR 0800-0915	SH 390	Tevanyan

RS 150	WORLD RELIGIONS (GE: S5)			3.0
A study of selected major world religions with emphasis on tribal religions as well as the historic international faiths of Asia and the Near East. Investigates rituals, ethics, institutional structures and the cultural ethos of religions as well as their myths, doctrines and sacred texts.
13280	MW 0930-1045	SH 390	Lee
13785	MW 1100-1215	SH 390	Lee
13281	MW 1230-1345	SQ 104	Herman
13293	TR 0800-0915	SH 384	Goss
13471	TR 1100-1215	SH 390	Tevanyan
13491	TR 1230-1345	SH 390	Rodman
17966	TR 1400-1515	SH 384	Cummings
17976	F 1100-1345	SH 390	Wilkerson
18688	ONLINE	ARR	Goss

RS 204	RELIGION, LOGIC AND THE MEDIA (GE: A2)			3.0
	(Meets GE Basic Skills, Critical Reasoning)
This course introduces and guides students in the practical use of the basic concepts of deductive logic as a dimension of critical reasoning. Using these concepts, students will discuss, analyze and critique statements that appear in the media (in the United States and elsewhere) that have been expressed by religious people and by the media itself.
13383	MW 0930-1045	SH 192	Findlay
13384	MW 1100-1215	SH 192	Findlay
13385	TR1100-1215	SH 192	O'Donnell
13386	TR 1230-1345	SH 192	Lam-Easton
13577	TR 1400-1515	SH 192	Lam-Easton
18689	ONLINE	ARR	Mason

RS 240	THE HISTORY OF RELIGION (GE: D)			3.0
From its inception the academic study of religion has drawn from and spawned a broad spectrum of social scientific disciplines, methodologies, and tools for exploring, dissecting, and interpreting a vast array of World Religions and related phenomena. This course is aimed at assembling state-of-the-art perspectives, modes, theories, and methods for a cross-disciplinary, state-of-scholarship approach to religious inquiry, exploration, and explanation/appreciation past, present, and future.
13465	TR 0930-1045	SH 192	Cummings
13787	TR 1100-1215	SH 384	Cummings

RS 255	AMERICAN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND RELIGION (GE: T3/T4)			3.0
	(Meets Title 5 U.S. Constitution and State and Local Governments)
Examination of the development of U.S. and California political ideals, institutions, and processes. The course focuses on the religious elements within political ideals, religious freedom, the relation between religion and state, and the role of religion in the public forum, including both politics and public education.
13387	TR 0930-1045	SH 384	Rodman
17968	F 0800-1045	ONLINE	O'Donnell
17969	ONLINE	ARRANGE	O'Donnell

UPPER DIVISION

RS 304	WOMEN AND RELIGION (GE: S2)			3.0
An examination of religious views of women in oral and literary cultures, focusing on the roles, symbols, and concepts of women within an international, historical framework. The course will also address women’s own perspectives on religion, as reflected in historical sources and in contemporary theology and religious life. Fulfills the GE requirement for Information Competency (IC). Fulfills 3 units for the Women's Studies Major in the Philosophy and Religion section.
13559	MW 1100-1215	SH 314	Herman
13834	TR 1400-1515	SH 314	Eggebroten
17970	ONLINE	ARR	Wilkerson

RS 306	AMERICAN RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY (GE: S5)			3.0

An introduction to the complexity of the American religious landscape. A survey of the religious groups which are marginal to or outside of the “Seven Sisters” of historically dominant mainstream Protestant and Civil Religion Ethos. The interplay between “mainstream” religion and the religion of minority groups, including the so-called “indigenous or Ancestral Religions will be examine. Fulfills the GE requirement for Information Competency (IC).
17971	ONLINE	ARR	Rodman

RS 307	RELIGION IN AMERICA (GE: S2)			3.0
An examination of the religious traditions, practices, and beliefs which have shaped the American character. By approaching America’s religious history as a complex, dynamic, and reflexive process of interaction involving all segments of American society, we will determine how America’s religious history has affected and, in turn, been affected by America’s political, social, economic, and cultural history.
17972	MW 1230-1345	SH 314	Baugh
18690	ONLINE	ARR	Rodman

RS 310	RELIGION AND LITERATURE (GE: S2)			3.0
The study of literature to discover to what extent a religious tradition or the lack of one influences an author’s understanding of human existence. Writers who reflect religious traditions, as well as those who are informed by humanism or atheism, are read and interpreted.
13284	TR 1230-1345	SH 314	Eggebroten
This course will focus upon literature as evidence of the persistence and pervasiveness of religion in contemporary culture. The range of our considerations will include everything from primary religious models to contemporary fiction and cinema as a way of doing "cultural archeology" to unearth various strata of religious themes, dimensions, insights and/or phenomena. Such themes as the identity and purpose of humanity, the problems of suffering, ethics, the quests for ultimate meaning, significance, power, and transcendence; critiques of religious and social dynamics and/or aberrations; horror and the holy and the wisdom of the monster tale will be among our objects of focus. We will cover a variety of literary genres such as mystery, horror, science fiction, myth, poetry, and fairytales with a view to their overt and covert themes and implications.
17973	ONLINE	ARR	Cummings

RS 325	NEW TESTAMENT			3.0
Study of the New Testament and its religious thought in context.
17974	ONLINE	ARR	Cummings

RS 356	CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS THOUGHT (GE: S2)			3.0

Study of selected major writings in religious thought, with the aim of analyzing representative modern approaches to such questions as God and the world, faith and self-understanding, and belief and social consciousness.
13342	TR 1100-1215	SH 314	White

RS 361	CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL ISSUES (GE: S2)			3.0
This course will emphasize the development of skills in informed and critical reasoning through the analysis of contemporary ethical issues such as scandals in business, sexual behavior, abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, racism, gender bias, punishment, animal rights, the environment, economics and the common good, and the relationships between religions and morality that inform all these issues. Throughout, there will be a particular emphasis on ethics in the professions.
13285	MW 1400-1515	JR 214	Findley
13286	TR 0930-1045	SH 207	Goss
13575	T 1900-2145	SH 192	Coppola
13836	W 1900-2145	SH 192	Mason
17975	R 1900-2145	SH 192	Coppola
13542	F 1100-1345	SH 192	Coppola
17976	F 0800-1045	ONLINE	Herrero
18160	F 1400-1645	ONLINE	Herrero

RS 365	ISLAM (GE: S5)			3.0
The focus of this course is to introduce students to Islam. We will discuss central themes that facilitate a thorough understanding of Islam, basic tenets, prominent figures, rituals, sacred texts, symbols and introductory Islamic concepts. Different aspects of Islamic institutions such as Sufism, Islamic theology, Sunni and Shi’i traditions will be addressed.
13288	M 1600-1845	SH 314	Ruzgar
13885	F 0800-1045	SH 314	Ruzgar

RS 378	AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE (GE: S5)			3.0
This course describes the experience of the Jewish community in America, and the relationship of the community to the general American culture and to other subcultures or ethnic groups. Fulfills the GE requirement for Information Competency (IC).
13289	F 1100-1345	SH 314	Soomekh

RS 380	ASIAN RELIGIONS (GE: S5)			3.0
Explores Asian religions by comparing human and divine religious figures cross-culturally. Comparison of the figures from the various cultures provides a method to understand the nature of humanity and divinity in Asia.
17977	ONLINE	ARRANGE	Lee

RS 385	HINDUISM (GE: S5)			3.0
Study of the religious life of India from the Indus Valley civilizations to the modern period.
13791	W 1600-1845	SH 314	Herman

RS 390	BUDDHISM (GE: S5)			3.0
This course will examine the emergence of the Buddhisms in India, Southeast Asia, and in Tibet. It will examine monastic and lay Buddhisms, the development of Mahayana and Vajrayana vehicles of Buddhism, and the emergence of engaged Buddhism and contemporary meditation movements. Fulfills the GE requirement for Information Competency (IC).
13576	R 1600-1845	SH 314	Lam-Easton
17978	F 1100-1345	ONLINE	Goss
17979	ONLINE	ARRANGE	Lee

RS 437	PAULINE LETTERS			3.0
Paul of Tarsus, one of the world’s most influential persons, has become one of the most controversial figures of modern scholarship. Modern scholars from several different disciplines have raised a host of crucial questions surrounding him. For example, was Paul of Tarsus the ‘true’ founder of Christianity? Did Paul’s teachings agree with Jesus of Nazareth or did Paul invent a different, ‘new’ religion now called Christianity? Was Paul a misogynist? Did women hold positions of leadership in house-churches established by Paul? Why did Rome execute Paul? Was he a Roman citizen? Did Paul advocate an anti-imperial challenge to Roman colonization or did he require obedience to authorities? How Hellenized was Paul? Special attention is given to the diverse religious, philosophical and economic make-up of Greco-Roman cities where Paul established Christ communities.
17980	TR 0930-145	SH 314	Talbott

RS 497B	PROSEMINAR IN RELIGION AND CULTURE			3.0
Dept. Consent	T 1900-1845	SH 314	Lam-Easton
Instructor consent required. Contact Dr. Lam-Easton at linda.lam.easton@csun.edu. Offered spring semester only. Required course for RS majors in senior standing.

	Back to top

Page Description

Resources

Calendar

Spring 2013 Course Offerings

Lower Division