Religion

The study of religion, in the context of a liberal arts education, draws upon multiple disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. This is reflected in the variety of courses offered within the department:

• Some introduce a religious tradition and trace its development historically
• Others examine in a cross-cultural context the issues faced by various religious communities and individuals
• Still others explore and compare diverse theories and methods employed in the study of religions.

Carleton’s Religion Department is concerned with traditional and contemporary forms of both major and more marginal religions, and with both “elite” and “popular” forms of religious expression. We examine the existential, intellectual, and social problems to which religions respond. And we probe the dynamic and often ambiguous relationship between religious beliefs and practices and the social order in which they are embedded. Throughout the curriculum, religion is approached as a significant and pervasive expression of human culture, both in the past and the present.

The skills and perspectives gained in the religion major or minor are useful for numerous career paths after college. Whether entering fields related to public policy, health care, nonprofit advocacy and service, education, law, or more, a religion major or minor can nurture habits of mind and competencies that enable students to be professionals with a unique sensitivity to the complex place of religion in lives of individuals and in the values and practices of diverse communities and cultures locally and around the world. 

Major Requirements – 69 Total Credits

69 credits earned through courses in the department, and in Religion Pertinent courses offered by other departments, and in select courses from off-campus study programs.

Required Courses – Required 12 credits

• RELG 110: Understanding Religion (ordinarily taken by end of fall of the junior year)
• RELG 300: Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion (winter term of the junior year)

300-level Seminar Courses – Required 12 credits

Except RELG 300: Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion, RELG 359: Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand Program: Buddhist Meditation Traditions or RELG 399: Senior Research Seminar.

Breadth Courses – Required 12 credits

Two 100-level survey courses numbered between 120-170.

Depth Courses – Required Minimum 12 credits

A minimum of two courses (12 credits) that are focused on the same tradition or region of the world

Senior Seminar – Required 6 credits

• RELG 399: Senior Research Seminar (winter term of the senior year)

Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 3 credits

• RELG 400: Integrative Exercise (3 credits)

One credit in the fall term of the senior year, and two credits in the spring term of the senior year.

Additional Departmental Notes

• Religion 100s (A & I Seminars) count toward the religion major.
• No cap on the number of Religion Pertinent courses from other departments that can count toward the religion major.
• Courses taken for the Breadth and Depth requirements can be double-dipped, and such courses could also be used for another requirement in the major if applicable.

Minor Requirements – 36 Total Credits

The religion minor offers students a flexible and broad exposure to the discipline, emphasizing the diversity of religious practices and understandings, both within and among religious traditions, while providing opportunities to master theoretical tools and to apply these in the detailed study of specific themes or traditions.

These skills and perspectives enhance academic work in majors across the college and in numerous career paths after college. Whether entering fields related to public policy, health care, nonprofit advocacy and service, education, law, or more, a religion minor can nurture habits of mind and competencies that enable students to be professionals with a unique understanding of religion as a pervasive, significant, and complex dimension of human life.

Introductory Courses – Required 6 credits

Courses introducing the diversity within and among religious traditions

• Any of the Religion A&I Seminars:
  • RELG 100.01: Christianity and Colonialism (26/FA)
  • RELG 100.02: Buddhism, Science, Society (26/FA)
• RELG 110: Understanding Religion
• Any of the department’s regular 100-level courses

Method and Theory Course(s) – Required 6 or 12 credits

Courses providing theoretical grounding in the study of religion. 6 or 12 credits at the 300-level Religion courses.

• RELG 300: Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion
  OR Two 300-level Religion Seminars

This requirement cannot, however, be fulfilled by RELG 399: Senior Research Seminar or RELG 359: Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand Program: Buddhist Meditation Traditions.

Elective Courses – Required 18 – 24 credits

Courses exploring traditions, interdisciplinary themes, problems, and puzzles in the study of religion. 24 or 18 credits of any combination of 100-, 200-, or 300-level Religion courses.

Additional Departmental Notes

A maximum of 6 credits may be taken outside of the Religion Department.

• RELG 100.01 Christianity and Colonialism

  From its beginnings, Christianity has been concerned with the making of new persons and worlds: the creation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It has also maintained a tight relationship to power, empire, and the making of modernity. In this course we will investigate this relationship within the context of colonial projects in the Americas, Africa, India, and the Pacific. We will trace the making of modern selves from Columbus to the abolition (and remainders) of slavery, and from the arrival of Cook in the Sandwich Islands to the journals of missionaries and the contemporary fight for Hawaiian sovereignty

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.

  • Tags: CL: 100 level RELG Christian Traditions
  • Faculty: Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤

• RELG 100.02 Buddhism, Science, Society

  This course will examine Buddhism’s engagement with the modern world in global and local contexts from Asia to North America. How do Buddhists draw on the resources of their tradition to change the social structures of gender, class, and race without invalidating that tradition? How do Buddhist teachings provide tools to combat and reinforce racism and violence while empowering and oppressing individuals? Do the Buddhist and scientific views of the mind agree or disagree? Can the effects of meditation be scientifically explained? In exploring these questions, students will be introduced to the multiplicity of Buddhisms.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.

  • Tags: ASST East Asia ASST Humanistic Inquiry ASST South Asia CL: 100 level RELG Buddhist Traditions
  • Faculty: Asuka Sango 🏫 👤

• RELG 110 Understanding Religion

  How can we best understand the role of religion in the world today, and how should we interpret the meaning of religious traditions–their texts and practices–in history and culture? This class takes an exciting tour through selected themes and puzzles related to the fascinating and diverse expressions of religion throughout the world. From politics and pop culture, to religious philosophies and spiritual practices, to rituals, scriptures, gender, religious authority, and more, students will explore how these issues emerge in a variety of religions, places, and historical moments in the U.S. and across the globe.

  • Offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CCST Encounters CCST Seeing and Being Cross-Cultural CL: 100 level RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Lori Pearson 🏫 👤 · Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤 · Jeremy Steinberg 🏫 👤

• RELG 120 Judaism: Text, History, Practice

  What is Judaism? Who are Jewish people? What are Jewish texts, practices, ideas? What ripples have Jewish people, texts, practices, and ideas caused beyond their sphere? These questions will animate our study as we touch on specific points in over three millennia of history. We will immerse ourselves in Jewish texts, historic events, and cultural moments, trying to understand them on their own terms. At the same time, we will analyze them using key concepts such as ‘tradition,’ ‘culture,’ ‘power,’ and ‘diaspora.’ We will explore how ‘Jewishness’ has been constructed by different stakeholders, each claiming the authority to define it.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 100 level JDST Pertinent MARS Supporting MEST Studies Foundation RELG Breadth RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 121 Introduction to Christianity

  This course will trace the history of Christianity from its origins in the villages of Palestine, to its emergence as the official religion of the Roman Empire, and through its evolution and expansion as the world’s largest religion. The course will focus on events, persons, and ideas that have had the greatest impact on the history of Christianity, and examine how this tradition has evolved in different ways in response to different needs, cultures, and tensions–political and otherwise–around the world. This is an introductory course. No familiarity with the Bible, Christianity, or the academic study of religion is presupposed.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 100 level MARS Supporting RELG Breadth RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 122 Introduction to Islam

  This course is a general introduction to Islam as a prophetic religious tradition. It explores the different ways Muslims have interpreted and put into practice the prophetic message of Muhammad through analyses of varying theological, legal, political, mystical, and literary writings as well as through Muslims’ lived histories. These analyses aim for students to develop a framework for explaining the sources and vocabularies through which historically specific human experiences and understandings of the world have been signified as Islamic. The course will focus primarily on the early and modern periods of Islamic history.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AFST Pertinent ASST Central Asia ASST South Asia CL: 100 level MARS Core Course MARS Supporting MEST Studies Foundation RELG Breadth RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Pertinent Course ASST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities

• RELG 130 Native American Religions

  This course explores the history and contemporary practice of Native American religious traditions, especially as they have developed amid colonization and resistance. While surveying a broad variety of ways that Native American traditions imagine land, community, and the sacred, the course focuses on the local traditions of the Ojibwe and Dakota communities. Materials include traditional beliefs and practices, the history of colonization, intertribal new religious movements, and contemporary issues of treaty rights, sacred place protections, and language revitalization.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ACE Applied AMST Democracy Activism AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity AMST Space and Place CL: 100 level RELG Breadth RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas
  • Faculty: Michael McNally 🏫 👤

• RELG 140 Religion and American Culture

  This course explores the colorful, contested history of religion in American culture. While surveying the main contours of religion in the United States from the colonial era to the present, the course concentrates on a series of historical moments that reveal tensions between a quest for a (Protestant) American consensus and an abiding religious and cultural pluralism.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AMST Democracy Activism AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Survey 1 CL: 100 level EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST Pertinent Courses HIST United States RELG Breadth RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas
  • Faculty: Michael McNally 🏫 👤

• RELG 152 Religions in Japanese Culture

  An introduction to the major religious traditions of Japan, from earliest times to the present. Combining thematic and historical approaches, this course will scrutinize both defining characteristics of, and interactions among, various religious traditions, including worship of the kami (local deities), Buddhism, shamanistic practices, Christianity, and new religious movements. We also will discuss issues crucial in the study of religion, such as the relation between religion and violence, gender, modernity, nationalism and war.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST East Asia ASST Humanistic Inquiry ASST Pertinent CL: 100 level EAST Core MARS Supporting POSI Elective/Non POSC RELG Breadth RELG Buddhist Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Asuka Sango 🏫 👤

• RELG 153 Introduction to Buddhism

  This course offers a survey of Buddhism from its inception in India some 2500 years ago to the present. We first address fundamental Buddhist ideas and practices, then their elaboration in the Mahayana and tantric movements, which emerged in the first millennium CE in India. We also consider the diffusion of Buddhism throughout Asia and to the West. Attention will be given to both continuity and diversity within Buddhism–to its commonalities and transformations in specific historical and cultural settings. We also will address philosophical, social, political, and ethical problems that are debated among Buddhists and scholars of Buddhism today.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST Central Asia ASST East Asia ASST Pertinent ASST South Asia CL: 100 level EAST Core EAST Supporting MARS Supporting RELG Breadth RELG Buddhist Traditions SAST Humanistic Inquiry ASST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities

• RELG 155 Hinduism: An Introduction

  Hinduism is the world’s third-largest religion (or, as some prefer, “way of life”), with about 1.2 billion followers. It is also one of its oldest, with roots dating back at least 3500 years. “Hinduism,” however, is a loosely defined, even contested term, designating the wide variety of beliefs and practices of the majority of the people of South Asia. This survey course introduces students to this great variety, including social structures (such as the caste system), rituals and scriptures, mythologies and epics, philosophies, life practices, politics, poetry, sex, gender, Bollywood, and—lest we forget—some 330 million gods and goddesses.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST Pertinent ASST South Asia CCST Encounters CL: 100 level MARS Supporting RELG Breadth RELG Hindu Traditions RELG Pertinent Course SAST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities SDSC XDept Elective
  • Faculty: Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤

• RELG 161 The Hebrew Bible

  This course explores the text known to scholars as the "Hebrew Bible," to Jews as the "Tanakh," and to Christians as the "Old Testament." Composed, compiled, and redacted over a millennium, the Bible is a remarkably complex document that affords its readers the opportunity to ruminate on questions of divinity and humanity, judgment and redemption, slavery and bondage, history and memory, life and death. Through examining the contents and historical contexts of the Bible's constituent parts, we will gain insight into how ancient and modern writers, readers, and thinkers dealt with these same questions. We will use sources in translation.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 100 level ENGL Foreign Literature JDST Pertinent MEST Studies Foundation MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Breadth RELG Christian Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions
  • Faculty: Jeremy Steinberg 🏫 👤

• RELG 162 Jesus, the Bible, and Christian Beginnings

  Who was Jesus? What’s in the Bible? How did Christianity begin? This course is an introduction to the ancient Jewish texts that became the Christian New Testament, as well as other texts that did not make it into the Bible. We will take a historical approach, situating this literature within the Roman Empire of the first century, and we will also learn about how modern readers have interpreted it. Along the way, we will pay special attention to two topics of enduring political debate: (1) Whether the Bible supports oppression or liberation and (2) What the Bible says about gender and sexuality.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 100 level ENGL Foreign Literature JDST Pertinent MARS Core Course MEST Studies Foundation MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Breadth RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 163 What is the Qur’an?

  This course introduces students to the academic study of the Qur'an through its textual, literary, exegetical, and experiential dimensions. The course will discuss the Qur’an’s revelation, historical context, assembly as a text, main themes, interpreters, and embodied learning practices. We will focus specifically on the literary aspects of the Qur’an and Qur’anic interpretation, exploring the use of narratives, oaths, laws, parables, and arguments. We will ask questions such as: What role has the Qur'an played for Muslims and Muslim societies historically and still today? In what ways does the Qur'an speak to believers? What are some of the ways Muslims have approached and interpreted the Qur'an?

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Prerequisites:

    Not open to students who have taken RELG 100 The Qur'an as Literature.

  • Tags: CL: 100 level MARS Core Course MARS Supporting MEST Studies Foundation MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Breadth RELG Islamic Traditions
  • Faculty: Brittany Landorf 🏫 👤

• RELG 170 Introduction to Black Religion

  This course introduces students to the rituals, rites, customs, cosmologies, beliefs, and theologies of African-descendant people in an international context. It samples contemporary works in Black Religious Studies that includes, but are not limited to, Black liberation theologies, social scientific approaches to Black religion, Black religious arts, and the intersection of Black religion & Black politics. We will explore monotheistic & polytheistic spiritualities, Black religious histories, Black religion & media (such as 'televangelism'), Black esoteric spiritualities, as well as Black styles of worship and praise.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AFST Social Inquiry CL: 100 level RELG Breadth RELG Traditions Americas
  • Faculty: Jorge Banuelos 🏫 👤

• RELG 213 Religion, Medicine, and Healing

  How do religion and medicine approach the healing of disease and distress? Are religion and medicine complementary or do they conflict? Is medicine a more evolved form of religion, shorn of superstition and pseudoscience? This course explores religious and cultural models of health and techniques for achieving it, from ancient Greece to Christian monasteries to modern mindfulness and self-care programs. We will consider ethical quandaries about death, bodily suffering, mental illness, miraculous cures, and individual agency, all the while seeking to avoid simplistic narratives of rationality and irrationality.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CCST Encounters CL: 200 level PPOL Ethics RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 214 Irish Studies In Ireland Program: Sacred Place & Pilgrimage in Ireland

  Encounters with the sacred on the landscape present a thorough line of Irish religion: pre-Christian, Christian, and post-Christian. Holy mountains, islands, stones, and wells materialize the sacred and organize the practices of lived religion. Such places are also charged sites of historical memory, colonization, and resistance. Long wellsprings of Irish cultural nationalism, they now capture spiritual imaginations of global seekers of earth-based spirituality. Through readings, field visits, and walking several pilgrimage routes, this course explores narratives and practices of sacred places, engages the blurry boundary between the sacred/secular entailed in pilgrimage, and queries the modern romance with “Celtic Spirituality.”

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS English Religion in Ireland Program.

  • Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 216 Irish Studies in Ireland Program:Irish Landscape in Myth, Literature, History

  The past is a strong presence in Ireland.  People live with Iron Age tombs in their backyards and Irish language place names rehearse ancient epics.  Places resound with collective memory as they have been storied through myth, literature, and folklore.  So too are Irish political identities made and remade through evocations and practices of sacred place. This course explores the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, Celtic Revival spiritualizations of the landscape, and materials by and about “New Irish” communities. The course centers place-based learning: curated experiences at archaeological sites, historical walking tours of Galway and Dublin, and an immersive week in the politically charged cityscape of Belfast.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Grading: S/CR/NC
  • Credits: 3
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS English Religion in Ireland Program.

  • Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific RELG Pertinent Course ENGL Pertinent

• RELG 218 The Body in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

  Mind and body are often considered separate but not equal; the mind gives commands to the body and the body complies. Exploring the ways the three religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam think about the body will deepen our understanding of the mind-body relationship. We will ask questions such as: How does the body direct the mind? How do religious practices discipline the body and the mind, and how do habits of body and mind change the forms and meanings of these practices? Gender, sexuality, sensuality, and bodily function will be major axes of analysis.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective JDST Pertinent RELG Christian Traditions RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 219 Religious Law, Il/legal Religions

  The concept of law plays a central role in religion, and the concept of religion plays a central role in law. We often use the word ‘law’ to describe obligatory religious practices. But is that ‘law,’ as compared with state law? Legal systems in the U.S. and Europe make laws that protect religious people, and that protect governments from religion. But what does ‘religion’ mean in a legal context? And how do implicit notions of religious law affect how judges deal with religion? We will explore these questions using sources drawn from contemporary religions and recent legal disputes.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level JDST Pertinent PPOL Ethics RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 221 Judaism, Gender, and Other Intersections

  How does gender shape the Jewish tradition, and how have Jewish historical moments, texts, and practices shaped Jewish notions of gender? Taking Judaism as a test case, this course will explore the relationship between historical circumstance, positionality, and the religious imaginary. We will examine the ways that Jewish gender and theology inform each other. We will see how gender was at play in Jewish negotiations of economic and social class, racial and ethnic status, even citizenship. Following the threads of practice and narrative, we will think about how intersectional gender has shaped the stories Jews tell, and the stories that are told about them.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective JDST Pertinent MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 223 Religion, Madness, and the Self

  How has madness been understood historically and in the modern world? What is the relation of madness to the construction of the self? To religious devotion and meaning? This interdisciplinary course examines the relationship of madness and the self. Interweaving historical, literary, and cultural theory approaches, this course maps religious, mystical, psychological, philosophical, and medical understandings of the irrational and “mad” self. A key aim of this course is to decenter modern secular approaches to madness and mental illness which focus on pathologizing madness as merely medical and ascribed to certain, abject, bodies.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level RELG Islamic Traditions
  • Faculty: Brittany Landorf 🏫 👤

• RELG 224 Religion, Science, and the Moral Imagination

  How do we imagine the relationship between religion and science? Are they at odds, in harmony, or different ways of imagining ourselves, our world, and our futures? This course explores historical understandings of religious and scientific thought, asking how the two came to be separated in the modern era. We use the imagination to explore power dynamics and moral judgments embedded in assumptions about matter, nature, mind, bodies, persons, and progress. We draw on literature, philosophy, and theology to consider questions about ethics, focusing on climate change, ecofeminism, technology and personhood, AI, and the possibility of alternative futures.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level RELG Christian Traditions PPOL Ethics ENTS Society, Culture and Policy DGAH Critical Ethical Reflection DGAH Humanistic Inquiry

• RELG 225 Faith and Doubt in the Modern World

  Is religion an illusion we create to explain what we don’t understand? An elaborate means to justify the violence we commit? A way to hold onto meaning in the face of radical doubt? This course explores how Western theologians and philosophers have grappled with the loss of traditional religious beliefs and categories. What is the appropriate response to losing one's religion? It turns out that few abandon it altogether, but instead find new ways of naming the sacred, whether in relation to existential courage, aesthetic experience, moral hope, prophetic insight, or passionate love.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level PHIL Pertinent RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course EUST Transnational Support PPOL Ethics

• RELG 227 Liberation Theologies

  Is God on the side of the poor? This course explores how liberation theologians have called for justice, social change, and resistance by drawing on fundamental sources in Christian tradition and by using economic and political theories to address poverty, racism, oppression, gender injustice, and more. We explore the principles of liberationist thought, including black theology, Latin American liberation theology, and feminist theology through writings of various contemporary thinkers. We also examine the social settings out of which these thinkers have emerged, their critiques of “traditional” theologies, and the new vision of community they have developed in various contexts.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AFST Humanistic Inquiry CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective LTAM Electives LTAM Pertinent Courses RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course PPOL Economic Policy Making & Development

• RELG 231 From Luther to Kierkegaard

  Martin Luther and the Reformation have often been understood as crucial factors in the rise of “modernity.” Yet, the Reformation was also a medieval event, and Luther was certainly a product of the late Middle Ages. This class focuses on the theology of the Protestant Reformation, and traces its legacy in the modern world. We read Luther, Calvin, and Anabaptists, exploring debates over politics, church authority, scripture, faith, and salvation. We then trace the appropriation of these ideas by modern thinkers, who draw upon the perceived individualism of the Reformers in their interpretations of religious experience, despair, freedom, and secularization.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level MARS Core Course MARS Supporting PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Traditions 1 RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course EUST Transnational Support

• RELG 233 Gender and Power in the Catholic Church

  How does power flow and concentrate in the Catholic Church? What are the gendered aspects of the Church’s structure, history, and theology? Through readings, discussions, and analysis of current media, students will develop the ability to critically and empathetically interpret issues of gender, sexuality, and power in the Catholic Church, especially as these issues appear in official Vatican texts. Topics include: God, suffering, sacraments, salvation, damnation, celibacy, homosexuality, the family, saints, the ordination of women as priests, feminist theologies, canon law, the censuring of “heretical” theologians, Catholic hospital policy, and the clerical sex abuse crisis.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ACE Theoretical CL: 200 level GWSS Elective MARS Supporting PPOL Public Health RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Sonja Anderson 🏫 👤

• RELG 234 Angels, Demons, and Evil

  Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen, period? Could angels and demons have something to do with it? This course asks how cosmology—an account of how the universe is put together and the different entities that inhabit it—can be an answer to the problem of evil and injustice. We will start with a historical investigation of the demonology and angelology of ancient pagan, Jewish, and Christian texts and then move into modern practices such as exorcism and magical realist literature. Along the way, we will keep asking how these systems justify the existence of evil and provide programs for dealing with it.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective JDST Pertinent MARS Core Course PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Value Theory 1 RELG Christian Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 235 Religion and Identity in the Medieval Middle East

  This course explores the emergence and formation of Islam as a faith in a medieval Middle East (sixth-eleventh centuries) that was and continued to be populated by the diverse Christianities of Late Antiquity. We explore the interaction between monotheisms, and Islam's impact on social relations and identities in the complex and evolving cultural and religious communities that populated this multifaceted region. Through close reading and discussion of primary sources (Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian, Persian, Greek, and Latin) and scholarship, we will situate the development of Islam in the context of political, religious, and social change in order to better understand Islam’s role in the transformation of this region.

  RELG 235 is cross listed with HIST 237.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level HIST Ancient & Medieval HIST Asia HIST Pre-Modern MARS Core Course MARS Supporting MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Christian Traditions RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: William North 🏫 👤

• RELG 237 Yoga: Religion, History, Practice

  Historically, yoga’s roots can be traced as far back as 1500 BCE. As for “religion,” in the modern period, yoga has largely been unyoked from it. But the Sanskrit root yuj means to “add,” “join,” or “unite”—and in Indian philosophy and practice it has long been: a method of devotion; a way to “yoke” the body/mind; a means to unite with Ultimate Reality; a form of concentration and meditation. Over time, it has been medicalized into a form of public health. This course will concentrate on texts, images, and cultures old and new. Come prepared to wear loose clothing!

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST Pertinent ASST South Asia CCST Encounters CL: 200 level MARS Supporting POSI Elective/Non POSC RELG Buddhist Traditions RELG Hindu Traditions RELG Pertinent Course SAST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Social Inquiry ASST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities SAST Support Social Inquiry

• RELG 239 Religion & American Landscape

  The American landscape is rich in sacred places. The religious imaginations, practices, and beliefs of its diverse inhabitants have shaped that landscape and been shaped by it. This course explores ways of imagining relationships between land, community, and the sacred, the mapping of religious traditions onto American land and cityscapes, and theories of sacred space and spatial practices. Topics include religious place-making practices of Indigenous, Latinx, and African Americans, as well as those of Euro-American communities from Puritans, Mormons, immigrant farmers.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity

• RELG 241 Religion and Ecology

  Drought, floods, wildfires. Environmental crises have risen to define our contemporary moment. But environmental questions, and the ethics of human subjects to their natural environment, have long been the subject of religious history and traditions. This seminar attends to the question of environmental stewardship through the interrelationship of religion and ecology. We will take a historical ethnographic perspective, treating a diverse range of sources from theology and scripture to art and activism. Although multireligious in reach, many of the texts will derive from Islamic literature and contemporary contexts.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy RELG Islamic Traditions
  • Faculty: Brittany Landorf 🏫 👤

• RELG 243 Native American Religions and Law

  This course explores historical and legal contexts in which Native Americans have practiced their religions in the United States. Making reference to the cultural background of Native traditions and the history of First Amendment law, the course explores landmark court cases concerning protections of sacred lands and waters, sacralized traditional practices (whaling, fishing, hunting), and repatriation of ancestral remains and sacred items from museums. The course critically examines the conceptual framework of "religion" as it has been applied to the practice of Indigenous traditions and explores both settler law and Indigenous law. Civic engagement projects integrate academic learning and student involvement in matters of particular concern to contemporary Native peoples.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
  • Tags: ACE Applied AMST America in the World CL: 200 level ENTS Society, Culture and Policy RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas DGAH Cross Disciplinary Collaboration PPOL Environmental Policy & Sustainability DGAH Humanistic Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity AMST Space and Place

• RELG 245 Religion and Masculinity

  Do men have gender? How does the performance of masculinity intersect with religious traditions, practices, and expressions? In this course, we consider how religion has shaped and been shaped by different understandings of masculinity. We will take as our starting point contemporary discussions of “muscular Christianity” or “getting buff for Jesus” before shifting into a theoretical discussion of gender, ritual, and power in comparative religious contexts, including especially the Middle East. A key aim of the course will be to examine how differing understandings, ideals, and embodiments of masculinity are negotiated across religious traditions in the premodern and modern world.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective MARS Supporting RELG Islamic Traditions
  • Faculty: Brittany Landorf 🏫 👤

• RELG 251 African American Religious History

  African American religions are a mix of African, European, and indigenous American influences. The unique social, political, and economic concerns of Black people shape their spiritualities in intricate and surprising ways. This course explores the history of African American religions through a consideration of historical works, historiographical debates, and hermeneutical trends. Readings survey themes of race, gender, reproduction, natal alienation, and political struggle in African American religious experiences through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Course assignments introduce students to the practice of method and theory in the historical study of religion by emphasizing how historiography informs narrations of the past.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AFST Humanistic Inquiry AFST Survey Course CL: 200 level RELG Christian Traditions RELG Traditions Americas

• RELG 252 Bible Past and Present

  This class will investigate the meaning(s) of the Bible by exploring how it has been read and understood across history. Our readings of biblical texts and their interpreters will center upon three interrelated themes: the creation of the world (creation), how God relates to humans (covenant), and how God reveals the divine self to humans (revelation). Our exploration of the reciprocal relationship between the Bible and culture will examine interpretations across a range of media, including religious commentary, literature, film, and art, and it will give weight to biblical interpretations produced in both Jewish and Christian contexts.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level JDST Pertinent MARS Supporting MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Christian Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions
  • Faculty: Jeremy Steinberg 🏫 👤

• RELG 261 Race & Empire in American Islam

  From colonial times when Muslims were brought to America as slaves, to the aftermath of the Spanish-American War when the United States found itself ruling over a large Muslim population in the Philippines, to the more recent War on Terror, Muslims and Islam have long been entangled in the politics of race and empire in America. This course will examine these entanglements through primary and secondary sources to better understand the role that race, religion, and empire have played in the forging of American Islam today.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AMST America in the World CL: 200 level RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Pertinent Course AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity

• RELG 265 Religion & Violence

  Why do religious people do violence—in their words and deeds, against themselves and others? Is violence a distortion of real religion? Is it the inevitable result of certain beliefs? Or are these the wrong questions? This course considers several case studies of religious violence drawn from different traditions and time periods, including ancient paganism, early Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and so-called cults. Our approach will be historical, literary, and comparative. We will seek to understand how violence can be meaningful as a religious act, and how adherents of the same religious tradition can have widely diverse views on violence and nonviolence.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective JDST Pertinent MARS Supporting MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Christian Traditions

• RELG 266 Modern Islamic Thought

  Through close reading of primary sources, this course examines how some of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Middle East and South Asia conceptualized God and the ideal God-human relationship to address such pressing questions as: How should religion relate to modern technological and scientific advancements? Can Islam serve as an ideology to counter European colonialism? Can Islam become the basis for the formation of social and political life under a nation-state, or does it demand a transnational political collectivity of its own? What would a modern Islamic economy look like?

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST South Asia CL: 200 level MEST Supporting Group 1 PPOL Other Comparative RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Pertinent Course SAST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities

• RELG 267 Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy

  Throughout Black history, testimony–a discourse in which an individual uses personal stories to convey ideas of broader meaning–has played an essential role in Black religion, politics, and daily life. In this course, we will identify the significance, history, and particularities of Black people’s testimonies, and outline their presence and potential today. Remaining mindful of testimony’s religious dimensions will include particular attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the assigned materials. The syllabus may include testimonial art by Romare Bearden and Kenrick Lamar, writings by Angela Davis and Frederick Douglass, and films by Barry Jenkins.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AFST Humanistic Inquiry CL: 200 level RELG Breadth RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity

• RELG 277 Death in American Culture

  As the inevitable conclusion of every human existence, our lives are profoundly shaped by the reality that all things living will die. Consequently, we are all in the process of approaching death—both our own and that of others. This course examines various perspectives on death and dying in American culture. Rooted in critical theory and interdisciplinary methods, we will develop a common basis for discussing death and its importance to our everyday lives. We will cover several themes, including but not limited to death, dying, grief, memory, hauntings, spiritual economics of death, and political economies of death.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: AFST Humanistic Inquiry AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity CL: 200 level RELG Traditions Americas
  • Faculty: Jorge Banuelos 🏫 👤

• RELG 278 Love of God in Islam

  As the chosen messenger of God's final revelation, Muslims consider Muhammad to be God's beloved par excellence. He is believed to have not only received God's words but to have also experienced the divine. For Muhammad's followers, love has been a central means of attaining experiential knowledge of God. The Islamic tradition, particularly in the form of Sufism, developed a highly sophisticated literature for understanding God through love. This course will trace and analyze the historical development of this literature and the practices associated with it from the Qur'an (600s) to Rumi (1200s).

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level MARS Core Course MARS Supporting MEST Pertinent MEST Pertinent RELG Islamic Traditions

• RELG 280 The Politics of Sex in Asian Religion

  This course will explore the intersection of religion, sex, and power, focusing on Asian religions. Key questions include: In what ways do religions normalize certain constructions of sex, gender, and sexuality while marking others deviant and unnatural? How do they teach us to perform (and sometimes to overcome) “masculinity” or “femininity”? We will probe these questions by studying both traditional and contemporary examples—such as abortion and reproductive politics in Buddhism, Confucian-influenced practice of foot-binding, Buddhist masculinities and male-love, sati (widow burning) and same-sex marriage in Hinduism, and the concept of a “third sex” in these traditions.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST East Asia ASST Humanistic Inquiry ASST South Asia CL: 200 level EAST Supporting GWSS Elective RELG Buddhist Traditions SAST Support Humanities
  • Faculty: Asuka Sango 🏫 👤

• RELG 282 Samurai: Ethics of Death and Loyalty

  This course explores the history of samurai since the emergence of warrior class in medieval times, to the modern developments of samurai ethics as the icon of Japanese national identity. Focusing on its connection with Japanese religion and culture, we will investigate the origins of the purported samurai ideals of loyalty, honor, self-sacrifice, and death. In addition to regular class sessions, there will be a weekly kyudo (Japanese archery) practice on Wednesday evening (7-9 pm), which will enable students to study samurai history in context through gaining first-hand experience in the ritualized practice of kyudo.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ACE Applied ASST East Asia ASST Humanistic Inquiry CL: 200 level EAST Supporting MARS Core Course RELG Buddhist Traditions RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Asuka Sango 🏫 👤

• RELG 286 Judaism in America

  With Jews and Jewishness front and center in American political contestations, it is increasingly urgent to understand formations of Judaism, past and present, in relation to normative concepts of the "American." This course will consider the ways that Judaism interacts with, is shaped by, and in turn shapes, America and Americanness. We will apply historical, anthropological, and theoretical lenses to explore the many aspects of what Jewishness means and has meant in this country.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 200 level RELG Breadth RELG Jewish Traditions AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity JDST Pertinent

• RELG 287 Many Marys

  Christianity, by its very name, focuses on Jesus. This course shifts the focus to Mary, his mother: her various manifestations and her contributions to the myriad experiences of peoples around the world. Race, gender, class, and feminist and liberation theologies come into play as Mary presents as: the Mother of God; queen of heaven; a Black madonna; a Mestiza madonna; an exceptional woman with her own chapter in the Qur'an; various goddesses in Haitian Vodoun, Hinduism, and Buddhism; a tattoo on the backs of U.S. prisoners–and so on. In addition to considering Miriam (her Jewish name) as she appears in literature, art, apparition, and ritual practice around the world, we will also consider Mary Magdalene, her foil, who appears in popular discourse from the Gnostic gospels to The Da Vinci Code.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: CX, Cultural/Literature HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST Pertinent CCST Encounters CL: 200 level GWSS Elective MARS Supporting RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas ASST Humanistic Inquiry EUST Transnational Support

• RELG 289 Global Religions in Minnesota

  Somali Muslims in Rice County? Hindus in Maple Grove? Hmong shamans in St. Paul hospitals? Sun Dances in Pipestone? In light of globalization, the religious landscape of Minnesota, like America more broadly, has become more visibly diverse. Lake Wobegon stereotypes aside, Minnesota has always been characterized by some diversity but the realities of immigration, dispossession, dislocation, economics, and technology have made religious diversity more pressing in its implications for every arena of civic and cultural life. This course bridges theoretical knowledge with engaged field research focused on how Midwestern contexts shape global religious communities and how these communities challenge and transform Minnesota.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ACE Applied AMST America in the World ASST South Asia CCST Encounters CL: 200 level RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas ASST Humanistic Inquiry DGAH Cross Disciplinary Collaboration PPOL Social Policy & Welfare SAST Support Humanities DGAH Humanistic Inquiry

• RELG 300 Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion

  What, exactly, is religion and what conditions of modernity have made it urgent to articulate such a question in the first place? Why does religion exert such force in human society and history? Is it an opiate of the masses or an illusion laden with human wish-fulfillment? Is it a social glue? A subjective experience of the sacred? Is it simply a universalized Protestant Christianity in disguise, useful in understanding, and colonizing, the non-Christian world? This seminar, for junior majors and advanced majors from related fields, explores generative theories from anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary studies, and the history of religions.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry
  • Tags: ASST Disciplinary ASST Methodology CCST Principles Cross-Cultural Analysis CL: 300 level RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤

• RELG 322 Apocalypse How?

  When will the world end, and how? What’s wrong with the world that makes its destruction necessary or inevitable? Are visions of “The End” a form of resistance literature, aimed at oppressive systems? Or do they come from paranoid minds disconnected from reality? This seminar explores apocalyptic thought, which in its basic form is about unmasking the deceptions of the given world by revealing the secret workings of the universe. We begin with ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypses and move into modern religious and “secular” visions of cosmic collapse, including doomsday cults, slave revolts, UFO religions, and Evangelical fantasies about armageddon in the Middle East. We will also create a giant handwritten manuscript of the book of Revelation using calligraphy pens, paint, and gold leaf.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 300 level JDST Pertinent MARS Capstone MARS Supporting MEST Supporting Group 1 RELG Christian Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 329 Modernity and Tradition

  This seminar explores the nature of religious traditions and their role in the modern world. If traditions change over time and are marked by diversity and debate, what holds them together, and who decides? If modernity is associated with a process of secularization, what status do religious actors have in the public sphere? As we engage contested definitions and assessments of modernity and secularism, we explore how traditions and societies wrestle with difference, pluralism, and truth. Case studies examine the role of ritual and practice in negotiating identity, as well as questions of ethics, law, gender, and politics.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 300 level EUST Transnational Support PPOL Forgn Policy & Security RELG Christian Traditions RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas
  • Faculty: Lori Pearson 🏫 👤

• RELG 344 Lived Religion in America

  The practices of popular, or local, or lived religion in American culture often blur the distinction between the sacred and profane and elude religious studies frameworks based on the narrative, theological, or institutional foundations of “official” religion. This course explores American religion primarily through the lens of the practices of lived religion with respect to ritual, the body, the life cycle, the market, leisure, and popular culture. Consideration of a wide range of topics, including ritual healing, Christmas, cremation, and Elvis, will nourish an ongoing discussion about how to make sense of lived religion.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 300 level RELG Christian Traditions RELG Pertinent Course RELG Traditions Americas AMST Production Consumption of Culture

• RELG 359 Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand Program: Buddhist Meditation Traditions

  Students will complement their understanding of Buddhist thought and culture through the study and practice of traditional meditation disciplines. This course emphasizes the history, characteristics, and approach of three distinct meditation traditions within Buddhism: Vipassana, Zazen, and Dzogchen. Meditation practice and instruction is led in the morning and evening six days a week by representatives of these traditions who possess a theoretical as well as practical understanding of their discipline. Lectures and discussions led by the program director complement and contextualize the three meditation traditions being studied.

  • Offered: Fall 2026
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies No Exploration
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Buddhist Studies in India and Thailand program.

  • Tags: CL: 300 level RELG Buddhist Traditions RELG Pertinent Course SAST Support Humanities
  • Faculty: Local Instructor

• RELG 362 Spirit Possession, Trance, Shamanism

  About 75 percent of the world’s societies believe in or engage in spirit possession—practices in which non-human agents purportedly alter human states of consciousness and "normal" behaviors. If we include shamanism and trance in our study, the numbers are even higher. All three terms—possession, trance, and shamanism—are about crossing borders: between bodies, human and non-human agents, illness and health, and ways of knowing. Moving across specific time periods, geographic sites, and disciplines, this class will study such phenomena and interrogate concepts such as personhood, freedom, agency, power, gender, and authority, especially as they have been conceived within the projects of colonialism and modernity.

  Recommended Preparation: At least one course in Religion, GWSS, or SOAN.

  • Offered: Spring 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST Humanistic Inquiry ASST South Asia CL: 300 level GWSS Elective RELG Christian Traditions RELG Hindu Traditions SAST Support Humanities
  • Faculty: Kristin Bloomer 🏫 👤

• RELG 365 Mysticism

  Love. Emptiness. Union. Ecstasy. These are just a handful of ways that humans have described “mystical experience,” often explicated as an immediate encounter with God, ultimate reality, or the absolute—however those may be construed. This comparative course will explore the phenomenon of “mysticism” across traditions as we try to understand (and interrogate) both the term and the plethora of experiences that fall under its rubric. Questions will include: What is mysticism? Is mystical experience gendered? What is the role of the body in mystical practice? Does mystical experience free us? Are mystics critics of institutional religion or social injustice?

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies No Exploration WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: ASST South Asia CL: 300 level EAST Supporting RELG Buddhist Traditions RELG Christian Traditions RELG Jewish Traditions RELG Pertinent Course ASST Humanistic Inquiry SAST Support Humanities

• RELG 372 Sensory Cultures of Religion

  What makes a sound noise to someone and God's self-disclosure to another? What makes a statue a decorated stone to someone and a living deity to another? Are these distinctions rooted in faith or in people’s sensory experiences in different cultures? Together, we will explore such questions by inquiring into how sensory experiences and religious beliefs relate to one another. The course is designed as a practicum in which students will learn to develop sensory histories of objects and to practice exhibiting religious objects in museums or elsewhere for public understanding.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 300 level MEST Supporting Group 2 RELG Buddhist Traditions RELG Christian Traditions RELG Islamic Traditions RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 379 Material Religion

  While many people associate religions with spirituality and transcendence, religious beliefs and practices have always been mediated through objects, sensory experiences, bodies, and spaces. Broadly speaking these constitute the material dimensions of religion. This course will first introduce students to the major theoretical and methodological issues involved in the study of material religion. Students will then be asked to put what they have learned to practice by developing a research project around a religious thing or some other material aspect of religion.

  Not offered in 2026-27

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2, Writing Rich 2
  • Tags: CL: 300 level RELG Pertinent Course

• RELG 399 Senior Research Seminar

  This seminar will acquaint students with research tools in various fields of religious studies, provide an opportunity to present and discuss research work in progress, hone writing skills, and improve oral presentation techniques.

  • Offered: Winter 2027
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry
  • Tags: CL: 300 level RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Lori Pearson 🏫 👤

• RELG 400 Integrative Exercise

  Religion 400 covers two required elements of the comprehensive exercise for the Religion major. All seniors must enroll in Religion 400 for one credit in fall term of senior year, when students will write and revise their comps research proposals. All seniors must then enroll in Religion 400 for two credits in spring term of senior year, when each student will finalize the research paper, create and deliver an oral presentation on it, and attend the oral presentations of all religion majors in the senior class. (The paper is drafted during winter term in Religion 399.)

  • Offered: Fall 2026, First Five Weeks, Winter 2027, Spring 2027
  • Grading: S/NC
  • Credits: 1 – 2
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: No Exploration
  • Prerequisites:

    Student is a Religion major AND has Senior Priority.

  • Tags: RELG Pertinent Course
  • Faculty: Lori Pearson 🏫 👤

These courses are related to Religion, but are not required to meet a specific academic requirement for Religion.

• ASST 285: Mapping Japan, the Real and the Imagined (not offered 2026-27)
• CCST 230: Worlds of Jewish Memory (not offered 2026-27)
• ENGL 202: The Bible as Literature (not offered 2026-27)
• HIST 131: Saints and Society in Late Antiquity
• HIST 201: History, Religion, and Urban Change in Medieval and Renaissance Rome Program: Building Power and Piety in Medieval Italy, C.E. 300-1150
• HIST 235: Making and Breaking Institutions: Structure, Culture, Corruption, and Reform in the Middle Ages (not offered 2026-27)
• HIST 269: Religion, Race & Caste in Modern India (not offered 2026-27)
• MEST 230: Worlds of Jewish Memory (not offered 2026-27)
• SOAN 228: Public Sociology of Religion (not offered 2026-27)