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Religion
Faculty List
University Professor
J.S. Kloppenborg MA, Ph D FRSC
Professors Emeriti
A.T. Davies, BA, BD, STM, Ph D (V)
C.T. McIntire, MA, M Div, Ph D (V)
G.A. Nicholson, MA, Ph D (T)
G.P. Richardson, B Arch, BD, Ph D, FRSC, FRAIC (U)
R.M. Savory, MA, Ph D, FRSC (T)
L.E. Schmidt, MA, Ph D (SM)
R.E. Sinkewicz, AM, M Div, D Phil (CMS)
J.M. Vertin, MA, STL, Ph D (SM)
Professor and Chair of the Department
P. Klassen MA, Ph D
Professor and Associate Chair
S. Coleman, Ph D
Professors
S. Coleman, Ph D
J. Dicenso, MA, Ph D
H. Fox, MS, MA, Ph D
R. Gibbs, Ph D
K. H. Green, MA, Ph D (U)
P. Klassen MA, Ph D
J. S. Kloppenborg MA Ph D, FRSC (T)
A. Mittermaier, Ph D
Associate Professors
A. Dhand, MA, Ph D (V)
C. Emmrich, MA, DPhil (University of Toronto Mississauga)
F. Garrett, MA, Ph D
J. Harris MA, Ph D
J. Marshall, MA, Ph D (U)
R. Marshall, DPhil
S. Raman, MA, Ph D
A. Rao, MA, Ph D (University of Toronto Mississauga)
K. Ruffle, MA, Ph D (University of Toronto Mississauga)
K. Smith,MA, Ph D (University of Toronto Mississauga)
S. Virani, MA, Ph D (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Assistant Professors
L. Bugg, Ph D
A. Goodman, Ph D
A. Hampton, Ph D
N. Moumtaz, Ph D
L. Obrock, MA, Ph D (University of Toronto Mississauga)
J. B. Scott, Ph D (University of Toronto Mississauga)
J. Vig, Ph D
K. J. White, Ph D
Associate Professors (Teaching Stream)
S. Goldberg, Ph D
Y. Nizri, Ph D
Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream)
E. Mills, DPhil
The Study of Religion
As an intellectual inquiry into an important dimension of human experience, the study of religion enables students to grasp an essential aspect of the cultures of the world and the interactions among them. We look at the development of religious beliefs, practices, and doctrines as they intersect with the history of peoples and cultures right up to the contemporary world. The study of religion also prepares students for a wide range of careers, such as social work, law, politics from the local to the international level, teaching, medicine, or leadership in religious organizations. Combined with appropriate language preparation, it can also open out into graduate work leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. in the growing number of universities offering advanced graduate degrees in the field, and in our University's own Graduate programs.
Historically, the academic study of religion has taken a variety of forms, each with its own rationale. The Department identifies itself with a model in which the major religious traditions (e.g., Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism) are studied within a comparative frame. We employ and encourage a variety of approaches (e.g., historical, textual, social scientific) without sacrificing specialized skills and training. The diversity which characterizes this model is reflected in the variety of courses offered or cross-listed by the Department, and by the wide range of training and expertise of our faculty.
Information about programs, courses, including a number of cross-listed courses offered by Colleges or departments such as East Asian Studies, History, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, Philosophy, and Sociology can be found on the Department's website. Students aiming to complete any RLG program should consult the Undergraduate Administrator at least once a year for assistance in selecting courses that address the student's interests and fulfill the programs requirements.
Undergraduate Administrative Assistant: Jackman Humanities Building, Room 310 (416-978-2395)
Enquiries: Jackman Humanities Building (416-978-2395)
Religion Programs
Buddhist Studies Specialist (Arts Program) - ASSPE1525
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(10 full courses or their equivalent)
1. One RLG FCE at the 100-level.
2. No later than the third year of study: RLG200H1. RLG200H1 is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses.
3. RLG206H1.
4. One course drawn from RLG209H1/ RLG211H1/ RLG212H1/ RLG213H1.
5. Two consecutive (FCE) language courses in one of: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Sanskrit, Pali or Tibetan.
6. A total of nine half-courses (or equivalent) chosen from the list below. At least five half-courses (or equivalent) must be RLG courses ( EAS324H1, EAS361Y1 are counted as RLG courses here). At least five half-courses (or equivalent) must be taken at the 300-level or higher.
Second year courses: RLG205H1, FAH260H1, EAS209H1, EAS215H1, HIS280Y1, HIS282Y1, HIS283Y1, NEW214H1, NEW232H1, PHL237H1.
Third year courses: RLG311H1, RLG316H1, RLG356H1, RLG361H1, RLG363H1, RLG366H1, RLG368H1, RLG372H1, RLG373H1, RLG374H1, RLG375H1, RLG371H5, RLG373H5, RLG374H5, RLGC07H3S, FAH363H1, FAH364H1, FAH368H1, EAS338H1, EAS346H1, EAS361H1, HIS380H1, JNR301H1, NEW332H1, NEW333H1, NEW339H1, PHL337H1.
7. One half-course at the 400 level.
Fourth year courses: RLG462H1, RLG463H1, RLG465H1, RLG466H1, RLG467H1, RLG468H1, RLG469Y1, RLG470H1, RLG470H5, FAH461H1, HIS485H1, NEW433H1.
8. RLG404H1 or RLG405H1 or RLG407H1 a capstone integrative course. (Note: this does not fulfil the requirement of the 400 level FCE in #7 above.)
Courses from UTM/UTSC/other Departments may be considered with permission.
Religion Specialist (Arts Program) - ASSPE0151
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(10 full courses or their equivalent)
1. One RLG FCE at the 100-level.
2. No later than the third year of study: RLG200H1. RLG200H1 is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses.
3. One course from RLG201H1/ RLG202H1/ RLG203H1/ RLG204H1/ RLG205H1/ RLG206H1/ RLG208H1/ RLG241H1.
4. One course from RLG209H1/ RLG211H1/ RLG212H1/ RLG213H1.
5. Any other 200 level RLG course (excluding language courses).
6. Seven RLG half-courses at the 300+ level. Students should develop a focused program of study and may consult the Associate Chair or program office for advice.
7. One half-course at the 400 level in your area of focus.
8. Five other RLG half-courses at any level.
9. RLG404H1 or RLG405H1 or RLG407H1 a capstone integrative course (note: this does not fulfil the requirement of the 400-level courses in #7, above.)
Four half-course cross-listed courses may be counted towards the fulfillment of the degree (consult the Religion website for a list of eligible courses).
It is highly recommended that Religion Specialists who are interested in pursuing graduate training also complete two full years of a relevant foreign language. This should be discussed early in a student's program with the Associate Chair or other Religion professors.
Religion: Christian Origins Specialist (Arts Program) - ASSPE1520
Enrolment in the Christian Origins Specialist has been administratively suspended as of 28 February 2020 and is no longer admitting students. Students presently enrolled in the Specialist will be able to complete the program requirements as described below.
(10 full courses or their equivalent)
1. One RLG FCE at the 100-level.
2. RLG241H1.
3. RLG203H1.
4. No later than the third year of study: RLG200H1. RLG200H1 is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses.
5. Four half-courses in Greek, normally fulfilled by GRK101H1, GRK102H1 + GRK200H1, and GRK201H1 and GRK202H1. (Note: Upon approval of the program coordinator, students may be permitted to substitute for these courses two full courses in another ancient language, e.g., Syriac, Aramaic.)
6. Four 300+ half-courses chosen from RLG319H1, RLG320H1, RLG321H1, RLG322H1, RLG323H1, RLG324H1, RLG326H1, RLG327H1, RLG328H1.
7. One half-course from RLG448H1, RLG449H1, RLG451H1, RLG452H1, RLG453H1, RLG454H1, RLG455H1, RLG458H1.
8. Three half-courses or the equivalent chosen from CLA204H1, CLA230H1, CLA231H1, CLA232H1, CLA233H1, CLA305H1, CLA308H1, CLA310H1, CLA364H1, CLA368H1, CLA369H1, CLA371H, CLA378H1, NMC351H1 NMC252H1, NMC270H1, NMC351H1, NMC360H1, NMC361H1, NML352H1, NML353H1, NML356Y1, NML357H1, NML358H1, NML359H1, NML451H1, NML452H1, FAH309H1, FAH313H1, FAH318H1, FAH319H1, FAH424H1.
9. Two half-courses in another religious tradition, preferably an Asian tradition such as Hinduism,Sikhism or Buddhism.
10. RLG404H1 or RLG405H1, or RLG407H1, a capstone integrative course. (Note: this does not fulfil the requirement of the 400-level FCE in #7 above.)
Buddhist Studies Major (Arts Program) - ASMAJ1525
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(7 full courses or their equivalent)
- One RLG FCE at the 100-level.
- No later than the third year of study: RLG200H1. RLG200H1 is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses.
- RLG206H1
- A total of eight half-courses (or equivalent) chosen from the following list; at least six half-courses must be RLG courses ( EAS324H1, EAS325H1, and EAS361Y1 are counted as RLG courses here). Six half-courses must be taken at the 300-level or higher.
Second year courses: RLG205H1, FAH260H1, EAS209H1, EAS215H1, HIS280Y1, HIS282Y1, HIS283Y1, NEW214H1, NEW232H1, PHL237H1.
Third year courses: RLG311H1, RLG316H1, RLG356H1, RLG361H1, RLG363H1, RLG366H1, RLG368H1, RLG372H1, RLG373H1, RLG374H1, RLG375H1, RLG379H1, RLG371H5, RLG373H5, RLG374H5, RLGC07H3S, FAH363H1, FAH364H1, FAH368H1, EAS338H1, EAS346H1, EAS361H1, HIS380H1, JNR301H1, NEW332H1, NEW333H1, NEW339H1, PHL337H1. - One half-course at the 400 level, selected from the following: RLG462H1, RLG463H1, RLG465H1, RLG466H1, RLG467H1, RLG468H1, RLG469Y1, RLG470H1, RLG470H5,
FAH461H1, HIS485H1, NEW433H1. - RLG404H1 or RLG405H1 or RLG407H1 a capstone, integrative course. (Note: this does not fulfil the requirement of the 400 level FCE in #5 above.)
Courses from UTM/UTSC/other Departments may be considered with permission.
Islamic Studies Major (Arts Program) - ASMAJ1359
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(6.5 full courses or their equivalent)
1. RLG100Y1/ RLG280Y1 in first or second year (1.0 credit).
2. RLG200H1. RLG200H1 is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses and must be taken no later than the third year of study (0.5 credit).
3. RLG204H1 (0.5 credit).
4. One half-course from RLG209H1/ RLG211H1/ RLG212H1/ RLG213H1 (0.5 credit).
5. Seven half-courses from the following list (four half-courses must be at the 300+ level): NMC103H1, NMC273Y1, NMC275H1, NMC348Y1, NMC355H1, NMC374H1, NMC376H1, NMC377Y1, NMC381H1, NMC385H1, NMC393H1, NMC396Y1, NMC471H1, NMC475H1; PHL336H1; RLG312H1, RLG350H1, RLG351H1, RLG352H1, RLG355H1, RLG356H1, RLG458H1; FAH265H1, FAH326H1 (3.5 credits).
6. RLG404H1 or RLG405H1 or RLG407H1, a capstone, integrative course (0.5 credit).
Note: Special Topics courses with Islam content (like NMC277H1 or RLG412H1) will also count towards the program.
Religion Major (Arts Program) - ASMAJ0151
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(6.5 full courses or their equivalent)
1. One RLG FCE at the 100-level.
2. No later than the third year of study: RLG200H1. RLG200H1 is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses.
3. One course from RLG201H1/ RLG202H1/ RLG203H1/ RLG204H1/ RLG205H1/ RLG206H1/ RLG208H1/ RLG241H1.
4. Four RLG half-courses at the 300+ level, one of which must be in the same tradition as was chosen from #3 above.
5. Four half-courses chosen from other RLG courses.
6. RLG404H1 or RLG405H1 or RLG407H1, a capstone, integrative course.
Two half-course cross-listed courses may be counted towards the fulfillment of the degree (consult the Religion website for a list of eligible courses).
Religion Minor (Arts Program) - ASMIN0151
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(Four full courses or their equivalent)
1. One RLG FCE at the 100-level.
2. Two half-courses from the RLG 300+ series.
3. Four other RLG half-courses.
4. No cross-listed courses may be counted. JPR courses will be counted as Religion courses.
Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Modern Hebrew courses will not count towards the program
Regarding Courses in Religion
200-Series Courses
No 200-series course has a 100-series RLG course prerequisite or Co-requisite.
300-Series Courses
All 300-series courses normally presuppose that a student has already completed, by the first day of the course, at least 4.0 FCEs (or their equivalent). Only specific Prerequisites or recommended preparations are listed below. Students who do not meet the Prerequisites, but believe they have adequate academic preparation, should consult the Undergraduate Administrator regarding entry to the course.
400-Series Courses
400-series courses are intended primarily for Specialists and Majors who have already completed several RLG courses. Almost all 400-level courses are E indicator courses and require the instructor's permission. Students must enrol at the Department.
Independent Research Courses
Student-initiated intensive research courses supervised by faculty members of the Department. The student must obtain both a Supervisor's agreement and the Department's approval in order to register. The maximum number of Independent Research courses one may take is two full-course equivalents. Deadline for submitting applications to Department, including Supervisor's approval, is the first week of classes of the session. A full-course may be compressed into a single session or spread through two sessions; a half-course may similarly be done in either one session or across two sessions. These courses are open to majors and specialists only.
Religion Courses
RLG100Y1 - World Religions
An introduction to the history, philosophy, and practice of the major religions of the world, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3); Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG101H1 - Introducing Religion
An introduction to topics in the study of Religion. Topics will vary by semester and year. Check the department website for upcoming topics.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG102H1 - Introducing Religion
An introduction to topics in the study of Religion. Topics will vary by semester and year. Check the department website for upcoming topics.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG103H1 - Introducing Religion
An introduction to topics in the study of Religion. Topics will vary by semester and year. Check the department website for upcoming topics.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
MHB155H1 - Elementary Modern Hebrew I
Introduction to the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar and syntax. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
MHB156H1 - Elementary Modern Hebrew II
Continued introduction to the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar and syntax. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills.
Exclusion: Grade 4 Hebrew (or Grade 2 in Israel)/NML156H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG196H1 - Innocence and Ecstasy
Religion can be understood as a set of aspirations that manages and moralizes the most intimate matters of social life, including sexual intercourse, bodily fluids, and mind-altering substances. This course engages fundamental theories of religion to consider an eclectic set of case studies that troubles a clean divide between purity and danger. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG197H1 - Enchantment, Disenchantment, Re-Enchantment
Modernity is associated with disenchantment, secularisation and progress, and has traditionally been understood as the successor to the enchanted, spiritual, and transcendent worldviews of antiquity and the middle ages. Re-enchantment, a term increasingly encountered in popular and academic contexts alike, demonstrates nostalgia for an enchanted past, a discomfort with the modern narrative, and a desire to recover wonder. This course will examine the history of enchantment through a series of readings taken from literature, philosophy, theology, ranging from Plato to contemporary magical realism. Restricted to first-year students. Not available for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG198H1 - Dystopia: Religion & Gender in Science Fiction
This course will examine the “what ifs” and imagined worlds of ideal utopias and oppressive dystopias through the lens of religion and gender in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland. Because science fiction and utopian/dystopian literature expresses what an author sees as possible or hopes is possible, but also fears is possible, we will consider science fiction as a political and social critique. Themes to be covered include fundamentalism, totalitarianism, the relationship between technology and religion, religion and reproductive rights, and the potential relationship between religion, gender and oppression. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG199H1 - Religion for Grown-Ups?
Kant, the great modern philosopher, famously describes enlightenment as our release from self-incurred immaturity or minority. That is, according to Kant, we don’t want to grow up. Our immaturity is facilitated especially by religion, whose demands for deference to the authority of texts, traditions, and gods often prevent us from taking full responsibility for our thoughts and actions. But need religion play this role? Is there a religion for grown-ups? This course explores those questions by reading autobiographical accounts of philosophers who describe how their study of philosophy either strengthened or strangled their youthful religious convictions. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG200H1 - The Study of Religion
Hours: 24L/12T
An introduction to the discipline of the study of religion. This course surveys methods in the study of religion and the history of the discipline in order to prepare students to be majors or specialists in the study of religion.
Exclusion: RLG200Y1, RLGB10H3, RLG105H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG201H1 - Indigenous Religions
A historical and thematic introduction to Indigenous religions.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: None
Recommended Preparation: None
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG202H1 - Judaism
An introduction to the religious tradition of the Jews, from its ancient roots to its modern crises. Focus on great ideas, thinkers, books, movements, sects, and events in the historical development of Judaism through its four main periods - biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1/RLG200H1/RLG280Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG203H1 - Christianity
An introduction to the Christian religious tradition as it has developed from the 1st century C.E. to the present and has been expressed in teachings, institutions, social attitudes, and the arts.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1/RLG200H1/RLG280Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG204H1 - Islam
The faith and practice of Islam: historical emergence, doctrinal development, and interaction with various world cultures. Note: this course is offered alternatively with NMC283Y1, to which it is equivalent.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1/RLG200H1/RLG280Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG205H1 - Hinduism
A historical and thematic introduction to the Hindu religious tradition as embedded in the socio-cultural structures of India.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1/RLG200H1/RLG280Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG206H1 - Buddhism
The development, spread, and diversification of Buddhist traditions from southern to northeastern Asia, as well as to the West.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1/RLG200H1/RLG280Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG208H1 - Sikhism
A historical and thematic introduction to the Sikh religious tradition as embedded in the socio-cultural structures of India.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: RLG207H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG209H1 - Justifying Religious Belief
A survey course that introduces students to a range of epistemological and ethical issues in the study of religion. The issues include: the justification of religious belief; the coherence of atheism; reason vs. faith; the nature of religious language; religious pluralism, exclusivism, and inclusivism.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG211H1 - Psychology of Religion
A survey of the psychological approaches to aspects of religion such as religious experience, doctrine, myth and symbols, ethics and human transformation. Attention will be given to phenomenological, psychoanalytic, Jungian, existentialist, and feminist approaches.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG212H1 - Anthropology of Religion
Hours: 24L/24T
Anthropological study of the supernatural in small-scale non-literate societies. A cross-cultural examination of systems of belief and ritual focusing on the relationship between spiritual beings and the cosmos as well as the rights and obligations which arise therefrom. Among the topics covered are: myth and ritual; shamanism and healing; magic, witchcraft and sorcery; divination; ancestor worship.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG213H1 - Embarrassment of Scriptures
Surveys interpretative traditions related to sacred texts, focusing on reading strategies that range from the literal to the figurative with attention to rationales that transform literal textual meanings and copyists manipulations of texts. May focus on various religious traditions from year to year, targeting a single canonical tradition or comparative analysis. Students will gain insight into literalist, environmentalist, secularist and erotic approaches to texts. Prior exposure to the study of religion is not required; all readings will be in English.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG214H1 - Mythologies and Religion
Myths and legends are narrative means for humans to make sense of their environment, the organization of their societies, and their social practices. This course introduces the principal myths and mythological figures of a selection of mythic systems (Near Eastern, Celtic, Nordic, Slavic and Indigenous North American) as way of modelling the world. Such topics as creation, chaos and order, love and death, coming of age, the monstrous, and explanations of evil and misfortune, and the survival and the transformation of mythic and folkloric elements.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG230H1 - Religion, Law and Society
The course examines various issues, including: Canadian society and secularization; religious pluralism and legal pluralism; the role of religions in public contexts; land and property; marriage and women’s rights; and the place of minority religious communities.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG232H1 - Religion and Film
Hours: 24L
The role of film as a mediator of thought and experience concerning religious worldviews. The ways in which movies relate to humanity's quest to understand itself and its place in the universe are considered in this regard, along with the challenge which modernity presents to this task. Of central concern is the capacity of film to address religious issues through visual symbolic forms.
Exclusion: RLG390H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG233H1 - Religion and Popular Culture
A course on the interactions, both positive and negative, between religion and popular culture. We look at different media (television, advertising, print) as they represent and engage with different religious traditions, identities, and controversies.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG235H1 - Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Examination of gender as a category in the understanding of religious roles, symbols, rituals, deities, and social relations. Survey of varieties of concepts of gender in recent feminist thought, and application of these concepts to religious life and experience. Examples will be drawn from a variety of religious traditions and groups, contemporary and historical.
Exclusion: RLG314H5
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG239H1 - Special Topics
Some topic of central interest to students of religion, treated on a once-only basis. For details of this years offering, consult the Departments current undergraduate handbook.
RLG241H1 - Early Christian Writings I
An introduction to early Christian writings, including the 'New Testament,' examined within the historical context of the first two centuries. No familiarity with Christianity or the New Testament is expected.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
MHB255H1 - Intermediate Modern Hebrew I
MHB256H1 - Intermediate Modern Hebrew II
RLG260H1 - Introduction to Sanskrit I
Hours: 48L
The first semester of an introduction to Classical Sanskrit for beginners. Students build grammar and vocabulary, and begin to read texts in Sanskrit. Complete beginners are welcome. Two sections of the course will be offered: an on-campus class meeting and an online section via live webinar participation. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG261H1 - Introduction to Tibetan I
Hours: 48L
An introduction to Classical Tibetan language for beginners. Development of basic grammar and vocabulary, with readings of simple texts. Two sections of the course may be offered: an on-campus class meeting and an online section. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG262H1 - Introduction to Tibetan II
Hours: 48L
The second semester of an introduction to Classical Tibetan language course for beginners. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary, advancing to reading texts. Two sections of the course may be offered: an on-campus class meeting and an online section. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Exclusion: RLG261Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG263H1 - Introduction to Sanskrit II
Hours: 48L
The second semester of an introduction to Classical Sanskrit for beginners. Students continue to build grammar and vocabulary, and use that knowledge to read texts in Sanskrit. Two sections of the course will be offered: an on-campus class meeting and an online section via live webinar participation. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Exclusion: RLG260Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG264H1 - Introductory Pali I
This course offers an opportunity to students interested in Buddhism to read, analyze, and discuss select simple passages from the scriptures of the Theravada canon in their original language. It will cover philosophical, psychological, and narrative texts and their interpretation, as well as provide a first exposure to the Pali Language.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: None
Recommended Preparation: None
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG265H1 - Introductory Pali II
This course offers an opportunity to students interested in Buddhism and with basic knowledge of Pali to read, analyze, and discuss select simple passages from the scriptures of the Theravada canon in their original language. It will cover philosophical, psychological, and narrative texts and their interpretation.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: None
Recommended Preparation: None
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG280Y1 - World Religions: A Comparative Study
An alternative version of the content covered by RLG100Y1, for students in second year or higher who cannot or do not wish to take a further 100-level course. Students attend the RLG100Y1 lectures and tutorials but are expected to produce more substantial and more sophisticated written work, and are required to submit an extra written assignment.
Exclusion: RLG100Y1/RLGA01H3/RLGA02H3
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3); Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG290Y1 - Special Topics
Topics vary from year to year Please check Department handbook.
JAR301H1 - Plagues and Peoples: From Divine Intervention to Public Health
Infectious diseases have afflicted human societies throughout the history of our species. How are diseases shaped by the societies in which they spread, and how do they change culture and politics in turn? This course introduces perspectives from medical anthropology and religious studies to analyze the intersection of cultural, religious and scientific narratives when people confront plagues. We focus on historical and contemporary examples, such as the Spanish flu and COVID-19, giving students the tools to understand how cultural institutions, religious worldviews, and public health epidemiology shape living and dying during a pandemic.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
JNR301H1 - The History of Buddhist Meditation
This course will survey historical, cultural, and textual contexts for Buddhist meditative and contemplative practices and techniques.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: None
Recommended Preparation: None
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG301H1 - Religion on the Couch: Freud and Jung on Religion
Critical analysis of Freud's main writings on religion, with particular attention paid to the concepts unconscious, Oedipal trauma and its transmission, dreams, symbols, and unconscious communication. Comparisons with Jung include approaches to the unconscious, symbols and archetypes. Jung's theory of synchronicity and Freud's theory of thought-transference, and their implications for different understandings of the unconscious and archaic inheritance, along with their implications for Freud's and Jung's approach to religion will be explored.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG302H1 - Dreams, Visions and the Invisible
Hours: 24L
In many cultures, dreaming is understood to open pathways to unseen realities and worlds populated by spirit beings, souls of the dead, noetic powers and avenues to mystical union. Dreams include visions, daydreams, and dissociative, altered states of consciousness. This course examines contributions from a variety of disciplines such as psychoanalytic psychology, anthropology, biblical criticism, neuroscience, and paleo-archaeology to the study of religious experiences. Topics include how human beings negotiate the contents of their minds that result in social and political agreements that distinguish what is deemed as real, thereby constituting acceptable religious experience. The course will also discuss crisis apparitions, alien abduction accounts, spirit possession and existence of life after death as culturally specific religious narratives that seek to articulate and organize dreams and other visionary experiences.
Exclusion: RLG249H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG303H1 - Evil and Suffering
The existence of evil poses a problem to theistic beliefs and raises the question as to whether a belief in a deity is incompatible with the existence of evil and human (or other) suffering. This course examines the variety of ways in which religions have dealt with the existence of evil.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG304H1 - Language, Symbols, Self
Theories of the self that involve the constitutive role of language in its various forms. Problems of socially-conditioned worldviews and sense of self as related to discourse. Myth, symbol, metaphor, and literary arts as vehicles for personality development and self-transformation along religious lines.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG305H1 - Material Religion
Religions are constituted by material forms, including bodies, shrines, films, icons, and ‘ kitsch’. Anti-material impulses have also prompted many religious impulses, involving forms of iconoclasm that ironically demonstrate the power of objects. What is at stake in studying materiality? How might such a perspective transform our view of religion?
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG306H1 - Anthropology of Christianity
This course focuses on current debates in the fast-developing field of the anthropology of Christianity. Topics possibly included: the past and present influence of Christianity on anthropological thinking; historical interactions between missionaries and anthropologists; emerging transnational, charismatic Christian networks; the ‘Southernization’ of Christianity; Christianity and competing ideas of ‘the modern’.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG307H1 - Museums and Material Religion
Museums have long collected and curated religious objects for public audiences, with missionaries as a primary collections source. Multiple visits to the Royal Ontario Museum and other museums will enable students to think critically about how museums received and presented these objects, while engaging with the challenges of museum curation.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG308H1 - Migration, Religion and City Spaces
Immigrants have transformed cities through religious practices. Explore how transnational migration has affected religious diversity and vitality in metropolitan areas. Through discussion, site visits and analysis, students will examine the ways that immigrants use religion to make home, challenges around the establishment of new religious structures, and policy designed to accommodate new religious practices and communities.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG309H1 - Religion and Human Rights
The relationship and interaction between religious and ethical norms, social and political ideals, and systems of law. The course concerns the ongoing dialectic between religious and other values, the application of religious ideas to social orders, and questions of religious and human rights.
Exclusion: RLG309H5, RLG309Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG310H1 - Modern Atheism and the Critique of Religion: Hobbes to Kant
This course examines select modern thinkers and their critical approaches to the nature and significance of religious beliefs and practices. Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant are among the major thinkers studied.
Exclusion: RLG310Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG311H1 - Gender, Body and Sexuality in Asian Traditions
Hours: 24L/12T
A study of women in the religious traditions of South and East Asia, including historical developments, topical issues, and contemporary womens movements.
Exclusion: RLG236H1
Recommended Preparation: RLG235H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG312H1 - Gender, Body and Sexuality in Islam
An introduction to the role of women in Muslim societies in past and present. Topics include the status of women in the Quran and Islamic law, veiling, social change, and Islamic feminism.
Exclusion: RLG251H1
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1/RLG200H1/RLG204H1/RLG204Y1/NMC283Y1/RLG204H5/RLG235H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG313H1 - Gender, Sexuality and Religion in the West
Hours: 24L/12T
This course is a comparative study of the significance of gender and sexuality within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and new religious movements in Europe and the Americas. Topics may include historical, political, social, and legal contexts for changing approaches to gender and sexuality in these religions.
Exclusion: RLG237H1
Recommended Preparation: RLG235H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG314H1 - Pilgrimage as Idea and Practice
Hours: 24L
The study of pilgrimage has become increasingly prominent in anthropology and religious studies in recent decades. Why should this be? This course provides some answers while engaging in a cross cultural survey and analysis of pilgrimage practices. We also explore whether research into pilgrimage has wider theoretical significance.
Exclusion: RLG215H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG316H1 - Martyrs, Mystics, and Saints
An examination of the variety of ways in which religious traditions construct sanctity, articulate categories of exceptionalism, and how exceptional persons function within social systems. Consideration of gender and social status in definitions of sanctity. Focus varies from year to year, and may focus either on constructions of sanctity in one religious tradition, or comparatively, comparing and contrasting ideas of sainthood and martyrdom in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and/or Buddhism.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG317H1 - Religious Violence and Nonviolence
Religious violence and nonviolence as they emerge in the tension between strict adherence to tradition and individual actions of charismatic figures. The place of violence and nonviolence in selected faith traditions.
Exclusion: RLG317H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG318H1 - Religion and Nature
Hours: 24L
There is a complex relationship between nature, religion and the aesthetic expression of human spirituality. Religion and Nature will explore this relationship across a range of periods, from the antique to the contemporary. Our journeys, both philosophical and literary, will take participants through a range of biomes— desert, countryside, forest, mountains, tundra—and explore how these texts can help to redefine our place both in nature and as part of it.
Exclusion: RLG228H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG319H1 - Death, Dying and Afterlife
Hours: 24L
This course introduces students to various religious approaches to death, the dead, and afterlife. Through considering different ways in which death has been thought about and dealt with, we will also explore different understandings of life and answers to what it means to be human.
Exclusion: RLG229H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG320H1 - Judaism and Christianity in the Second Century
Judaism and Christianity in the period from 70 C.E. to 200 C.E. The course focuses on the relationship between the two religious groups, stressing the importance of the setting within the Roman Empire.
Recommended Preparation: RLG241H1/RLG241Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG322H1 - Early Christian Gospels
Literary, historical, and rhetorical analyses of selected early Christian gospels. The gospels to be treated will vary, but each year will include a selection from the four canonical gospels and extra-canonical gospels (the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Truth, infancy gospels, and fragments of Jewish-Christian gospels).
Recommended Preparation: RLG241H1/RLG241Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG323H1 - Jesus of Nazareth
An examination of the historical Jesus based on a critical study of the earliest accounts of Jesus, with intensive study of the Gospels to determine what can be said about Jesus activities and teachings.
Exclusion: RLG323H5
Recommended Preparation: RLG241H1/RLG241Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG324H1 - The Apostle Paul and His Enemies
An examination of Paul’s life and thought as seen in the early Christian literature written by him (the seven undisputed letters), about him (the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of Paul) and in his name (the six disputed NT letters).
Exclusion: RLG324H5
Recommended Preparation: RLG241H1/RLG241Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG326H1 - Roots of Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism
Analysis of selected documents of Second Temple Judaism in their historical contexts, as part of the generative matrix for both the early Jesus movement and the emergence of rabbinic Judaism.
Exclusion: RLG326H5
Recommended Preparation: RLG241H1/RLG241Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG328H1 - The Politics of Belief in Early Christianity
This course examines historical processes, negotiations, and strategies involved in the consolidation of discourses and practices of orthodoxy and heresy in Christianity from the second through fifth centuries. Topics include: intellectual, therapeutic, and social models of orthodoxy; methods of discipline; historical events and contexts; the political and social contexts of theological conflict; and the gendered production of the orthodox subject.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG329H1 - New Atheism and the Study of Religion
A course to look at the rise of a “new atheism” in the late 20th- and early 21st-century. This popular movement has gained traction in late modernity, renewing older arguments about the negative consequences of religion in public life. We shall examine this movement, tracking its rise, fall, and future, as we ponder the implications of New Atheism for the academic study of religion.
Recommended Preparation: RLG200H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG331H1 - Creation Narratives and Epistemologies
The course will examine the importance of Indigenous cultural knowledge and values as presented in various Indigenous Creation Narratives. Creation Narratives or Cosmological narratives have long been studied as mere mythology. Yet, it is in these very narratives that complex, layered, and nuanced epistemologies emerge. Often, these narratives not only lay the epistemological frameworks of cultural value systems, but they also contain what many refer to as original instructions and purpose for the “Original People”.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG334H1 - Religion, Space and Diaspora
This course explores the transformation of religion, space and practices in diasporic settings. How is space adapted to the sensibilities of diasporic subjects, and how are the ritual practices that take place in those spaces transformed? The course examines historical and contemporary examples of the impact of diasporas, exile, and immigration on spatial practices in synagogues, churches, mosques, and temples, and ritual transformations in diaspora.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1; RLG200H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG336H1 - Religion and its Monsters
A course looking at the theories about and responses to the monstrous in global religious traditions and practices.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG337H1 - Witchcraft and Magic in Christian Tradition
This course considers the history and theory of Western witchcraft, magic, and heresy in the mediaeval and early modern periods. Consideration of relevant anthropological theory, the relationship between constructions of witchcraft, the Enlightenment and the rise of science, and the role of gender in definitions of witchcraft.
Recommended Preparation: RLG203H1/RLG203Y1/RLG203H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG339H1 - Religious Ethics: The Jewish Tradition
Hours: 24L
A brief survey of the Jewish biblical and rabbinic traditions; the extension of these teachings and methods of interpretation into the modern period; common and divergent Jewish positions on pressing moral issues today.
Exclusion: RLG221H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG340H1 - Classical Jewish Theology
A study of four great figures during critical moments in Jewish history, each of whom represents a turning point: Jeremiah (biblical era), Rabbi Akiva (rabbinic era), Moses Maimonides (medieval era), Franz Rosenzweig (modern era). Belief in God; Torah as law, teaching, tradition, revelation, eternity of Israel, meaning of Jewish suffering, problem of radical evil, history and messianism.
Exclusion: RLG340Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG341H1 - Dreaming of Zion: Exile and Return in Jewish Thought
An inquiry into the theme of exile and return in Judaism, often called the leading idea of Jewish religious consciousness. Starting from Egyptian slavery and the Babylonian exile, and culminating in the ideas of modern Zionism, the course will examine a cross-section of Jewish thinkers--ancient, medieval, and modern.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG342H1 - Judaism in the Early Modern Era
Hours: 24L
The development and range of modern Jewish religious thought from Spinoza, Mendelssohn and Krochmal, to Cohen, Rosenzweig and Buber. Responses to the challenges of modernity and fundamental alternatives in modern Judaism.
Exclusion: RLG342Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG343H1 - Kabbala: A History of Mystical Thought in Judaism
A historical study of the Kabbala and the mystical tradition in Judaism, with emphasis on the ideas of Jewish mystical thinkers and movements.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG344H1 - Antisemitism
Explores how “Jews” have been viewed (often mistakenly and confusedly) in various contexts from pre-Christian antiquity to the contemporary world. Emphasis is on problems involved in defining and explaining antisemitism, especially concerning the difference between religious and racial forms of antisemitism.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG345H1 - Social Ecology and Judaism
The environment and human society studied as systems of organization built for self-preservation. Such topics as vegetarianism and the humane treatment of animals, suicide and euthanasia, sustainability and recycling, explored from the perspective of Judaism.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG346H1 - Time and Place in Judaism
The meaning of holy time and holy place, the physics and metaphysics of time and space within Judaism. Topics include the garden of Eden, the temple, the netherworld, the land of Israel, and exile; the sabbath and the week; the human experience of aging as fulfillment and failing.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG347H1 - Judaism in the Late Modern Era
Continuing from, but not presupposing, "Judaism in the Early Modern Era,” the course will trace the late modern stages in the development of Jewish thought, and will bring the history of modern Jewish thought to the present.
Recommended Preparation: RLG342H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG348H1 - Philosophical Responses to the Holocaust
Hours: 24L
This course deals with how the momentous experience of the Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored murder of six million Jews as well as many others, has forced thinkers, both religious and secular, to rethink the human condition.
Exclusion: RLG220H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG349H1 - Special Topics in Judaism
Topics in Judaism. Themes vary from year to year.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG350H1 - The Life of Muhammad
This course examines Muhammad's life as reflected in the biographies and historical writings of the Muslims. Students will be introduced to the critical methods used by scholars to investigate Muhammad's life. Issues include: relationship between Muhammad's life and Quran teachings and the veneration of Muhammad.
Recommended Preparation: RLG204H1/RLG204H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG351H1 - The Quran: An Introduction
The revelatory process and the textual formation of the Quran, its pre-eminent orality and its principal themes and linguistic forms; the classical exegetical tradition and some contemporary approaches to its interpretation.
Exclusion: NMC285H1, NMC285Y1,NMC286H1
Recommended Preparation: RLG204H1/RLG204H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG352H1 - Post-Colonial Islam
This course will study Islam in a post-colonial framework. It will introduce students to the work of post-colonial studies, and how critical scholarship has transformed our understanding of monolithic concepts such as modernity, the nation and Islam. It will focus on the particular case of Islam in South Asia and the Middle East by exposing students to the transformative impact of colonialism. It will equip students with the tools to challenge the hegemonic notion of a singular 'tradition' in Islam by tracing its lineages in the post-colony.
Exclusion: NMC381Y1, RLG250H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG353H1 - The Politics of Charity
Hours: 24L
The course examines religious charitable giving, philanthropic foundations, and humanitarian aid and asks: Is charitable giving altruistic or is it always partly self-interested? Could aid perpetuate poverty? What kinds of "strings" come with receiving aid and is there such thing like a free gift?
Exclusion: RLG250H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
MHB355H1 - Advanced Modern Hebrew I
RLG355H1 - Living Islam
This course introduces students to studies of contemporary Islam that are based on extensive periods of research with Muslim communities in their own languages using anthropological methods. What do such studies teach us about the varied ways Muslims engage their religious tradition in the modern world? And how can such studies make us think differently about gender, economy, medicine, and secularism?
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
MHB356H1 - Advanced Modern Hebrew II
RLG356H1 - Islam in China
Despite having an estimated Muslim population of 20 million, the place of Islam within the Peoples Republic of China is not widely understood. This course will examine the history of Islam in China from its introduction in the seventh century through the modern period. Emphasis will be placed on the variety of practices within Chinas contemporary Muslim communities. Specific attention will be paid to official state policy toward the Hui and Uygur ethnic minorities, including laws governing pilgrimage, the veil, the formation of Islamic organizations, the reformation of writing systems and so on.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG358H1 - Special Topics in Hinduism
Topics in Hinduism. Themes vary from year to year.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG359H1 - Intermediate Sanskrit I
Review of grammar and the development of vocabulary with a focus on reading simple narrative prose and verse.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG360H1 - Intermediate Sanskrit II
Review of grammar and the further development of vocabulary with a focus on reading simple narrative prose and verse.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG361H1 - Literatures of Hinduism
A study of the literatures of Hinduism in India and the diaspora, including issues of identity formation, nostalgic constructions of the "homeland", fictional representations, and the quest for authenticity.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG362H1 - Rama of Ayodhya: From Literature to Politics
A study of the figure of Rama, from his genesis in the Valmiki Ramayana, to his historical evolution as a cultural and political icon through mediaeval and modern India.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG363H1 - Bhakti Hinduism
A study of Hindu bhakti traditions through classical and vernacular texts, in conversation with colonial and post-colonial theoretical perspectives on the notion of "bhakti" in Hinduism.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JPR364Y1 - Religion and Politics
This course examines the evolving role of religions in contemporary public, political contexts. Themes include: democracy and secularism; religion, human rights, law and justice; party politics, identity-formation and citizenship; gender and sexuality; interreligious conflict. (Given by the Departments of Political Science and Religion)
Exclusion: RLG230H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3); Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG365H1 - Modern Hinduism
The development of modern Hindu religious thought in the contexts of colonialism, dialogue with the West and the secular Indian state.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG366H1 - Hindu Philosophy
RLG368H1 - Hindu Ways of Living
The course surveys the textual sources of the practices of Yoga, Ayurveda and Hindu traditions such as domestic rituals, rites of passage and community centered religious activity. It critically evaluates the assumption of an unbroken continuity of tradition of these practices from antiquity onwards and comes to consider what they have come to constitute as a result of modernity and globalization.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG369H1 - The Mahabharata
A study of the great Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG370Y1 - Intermediate Tibetan
Intermediate level language course focusing on both spoken and literary forms of Tibetan.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG371H1 - Interdependence
An exploration of the Buddhist concept of interdependence, or interdependent origination, from doctrinal and contemplative perspectives, as presented in classic Buddhist texts and as used in contemporary environmental and activist movements globally.
Recommended Preparation: RLG206H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG372H1 - Engaging Tibet
A course in Tibetan Studies, with a different focus each year. Topics may include Tibetan Buddhist literature, Tibetan Buddhism and medicine, Tibet as a historical entity, the Tibetan diaspora, geographic perceptions of Tibet, or foreign representations of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.
Recommended Preparation: RLG206H1/RLG206H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG373H1 - Buddhist Ritual
Daily worship, the alms round, life-crisis celebrations, healing rituals, meditation, festivals, pilgrimage, the consecration of artefacts and taking care of the ancestors are among the forms of Buddhist ritual introduced and analyzed in this course. Liturgical manuals, ethnographic descriptions and audiovisual records form the basis for a discussion of the role of ritual as text and event.
Recommended Preparation: RLG206Y1/RLG206H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
JPR374H1 - Religion and Power in the Postcolony
This course examines the role of a variety of religious forms and spiritual practices in the politics of postcolonial societies, tracing their genealogies from the colonial period to the present. Cases taken principally from Africa and Asia. (Given by the Departments of Political Science and Religion)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG374H1 - Buddhist Life Stories
This course explores the genres of autobiography and biography in Buddhist literature. The course will begin with theoretical studies on narrative and religious life-writing. We will then consider the development and distinctive features of auto/biographies and hagiographies in the literature of one or more Buddhist cultures, analyzing representative examples of these genres from a range of traditions and historical periods, and considering how these sources have been understood and used in secondary scholarship.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG375H1 - Biohacking Breath - Experiential Learning
This course explores Buddhist practices of manipulating – or “biohacking” – the breath or “winds” (prāna) of the human body, covering relevant theories of human anatomy and physiology and the religious, philosophical, and medical teachings alongside which these practices developed. Intentional breathing practices in the history of European thought and the role of breathwork in contemporary global biohacking movements will also be studied for comparison and contrast. During experiential lab sessions, basic prānāyāma and other breathing practices will be learned and practiced with the guidance of qualified teacher-practitioners.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG379H1 - Religions of the Silk Road
Hours: 24L
An historical introduction to the religious traditions that flourished along the Silk Road, including Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam. Drawing on a variety of sources (textual, archaeological, works of art), the course will focus on the spread and development of these traditions through the medieval period. Issues include cross-cultural exchange, religious syncretism, ethnic identity formation and so on. Emphasis will also be placed on religious and political events in modern Central Asia.
Exclusion: RLG245H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG383H1 - Interpretation and Dialogue
Can we understand the beliefs and behaviors of people whose religious and cultural outlooks differ radically from our own? Do we always impose our preconceptions on them? Or are there cognitive, imaginative, and emotional resources that enable us to see people on their own terms? These questions, which beset the practices of anthropologists and historians of religions, are central to the philosophy of the human sciences. This course explores the theoretical issues involved in interpretation and dialogue across cultural and historical divides by reading seminal texts by Dilthey, Collingwood, Heidegger, Quine, Davidson, Winch, MacIntyre, Benedict, Geertz, and Rorty.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG384H1 - Pluralism and Toleration
This course traces the development of philosophical arguments in favor of toleration or pluralism that emerged first in response to bitter religious conflicts and then out of a growing recognition of the potential benefits of the normative diversity characteristic of modern societies. Typical philosophers to be studied are Bodin, Spinoza, Locke, Bayle, Lessing, Herder, and Mill.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG385H1 - Becoming Modern
What does it mean to be modern? Words like “modern,” “modernity,” and “modernism” are used to mark a fundamental boundary between our era and all that came before it (or lies outside of it); but most of us are hard-pressed to offer a solid account of what exactly this boundary is. This course examines the relationship between: a fundamental shift in the nature of daily experience; an order-of-magnitude expansion of the power of the State; a dramatic reorganization of religious experience and cultures; and a tremendous growth in the enterprise of Western science and technological production. We trace this reorientation over the last two centuries and examine its consequences using philosophical, literary, theological, and scientific sources, as well as recent scholarly work on the topic.
Recommended Preparation: RLG231H1/RLG387H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG386H1 - Devotional Literature of Early Modern India
This class is an introduction to the devotional literature of early modern India (c. 1500-1800), but more importantly, it is about thinking critically and developing skills in close reading of texts. In addition to learning about historical, religious, and social contexts of various literary traditions in Brajbhasha, students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to analyze and interpret texts by actively participating in class discussions and by writing a well-argued final paper. The focus will be on the what of literary traditions but also on the how and why these traditions made sense to people in the past and are still relevant to us, today.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG387H1 - Religion and Science
Hours: 24L
Course explores issues at the intersection of religion and science which may include such topics as evolution and the assessment of its religious significance by different traditions, conceptions of God held by scientists (theism, pantheism, panentheism), ethical issues raised by scientific or technological developments ( cloning or embryonic stem cell research), philosophical analysis of religious and scientific discourses.
Exclusion: RLG231H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG388H1 - Special Topics I
Special Topics.
RLG389H1 - Special Topics II
Special Topics
RLG391H1 - Modern Atheism and Critique of Religion: Hegel to Nietzsche
Examines select modern thinkers and their critical approaches to the nature and significance of religious beliefs and practices. Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, and Nietzsche are among the major thinkers studied.
Exclusion: RLG310Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG392H1 - The European Enlightenment and Religion
This course explores some of the major thinkers of the European Enlightenment and their philosophical inquiries into the meaning and significance of religion as a set of cultural institutions. Special attention is paid to the analysis of religious concepts and institutions along epistemological, ethical, and political lines.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG393H1 - Graphic Religion: Myth and the Spiritual in Graphic Novels
Hours: 24L
Survey of themes connecting religious ideas, symbols, and representations with graphic novels and sequential art. The course will explore techniques of story-telling in mythic and visual representations in religious traditions and explore how these techniques and images are mirrored within popular comic-style (sequential) art.
Exclusion: RLG234H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG394H1 - Religion in the Game of Thrones
Religion weaves complex social logics and social rationales imbedded in all levels of culture. This course explores multiple questions of religion as a cultural element, both visible and invisible. Theories of religion as well as questions of gender, authority, and power will be examined. The course culminates in a student project oriented toward an academically oriented “Handbook” for the study of religion in the Game of Thrones.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG397H1 - Readings in Early Sikh Texts
This class is an introduction to early Sikh texts in their original language and in translation. In addition to learning the grammar of what Christopher Shackle has called 'the sacred language of the Sikhs' and acquiring translation skills, students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to analyze and interpret texts in relation to their contexts of production.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG398H0 - Research Excursions
An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/research-excursions-program. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG398Y0 - Research Excursions
An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/research-excursions-program. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG399Y1 - Research Opportunity Program
Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/research-opportunities-program. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG400Y1 - Independent Studies Abroad
Intensive programs of study including site visits and lectures in areas of religious significance abroad. Preparatory work expected, together with paper or assignments upon return.(Y1 course: 4 weeks minimum; H course: 2 weeks minimum)
Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG401H1 - Independent Studies Abroad
Intensive programs of study including site visits and lectures in areas of religious significance abroad. Preparatory work expected, together with paper or assignments upon return.(Y1 course: 4 weeks minimum; H course: 2 weeks minimum)
Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG402H1 - Independent Studies Abroad
Intensive programs of study including site visits and lectures in areas of religious significance abroad. Preparatory work expected, together with paper or assignments upon return.(Y1 course: 4 weeks minimum; H course: 2 weeks minimum)
Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG404H1 - Departmental Capstone-Research
An integrative capstone seminar that emphasizes iterative development of a research project, locating a research specialization within its broader disciplinary audience, and communicating the process and results of a research project to non-specialists within the study of religion.Open to Relgion Specialists and Majors only.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG405H1 - Departmental Capstone-Practical
A capstone seminar that emphasizes integration of the study of religion with contemporary public life in the development of a research project, locating a research specialization in relation to non-academic contexts, and communicating the process and results of a research project to non-academic audiences.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG406H1 - Constructing Religion
How have different researchers constructed ‘religion’ as their object of study, and are some frameworks simply incompatible with each other? We discuss – but also provide critical assessments of -- different theoretical and methodological frameworks.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG407H1 - The World of "World Religion"
A seminar examining the development of western discourses of world religions. We shall explore the roots of these discourses and examine their implications in the academic study of religion in North America and in other parts of the world.
Recommended Preparation: RLG100Y1; RLG200H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG410Y1 - Advanced Topics in Religion
Advanced Topics in Religion
RLG411H1 - Advanced Topics in Religion
Advanced Topics in Religion
RLG412H1 - Advanced Topics in Religion
Advanced Topics in Religion
RLG414H1 - Comparing Religions
Few methods have been more foundational to the scholarly study of religion, or more subject to searching criticism, than the practice of comparison. This seminar offers an advanced introduction to comparative method through close study of 4-6 recent works, from ritual studies, philosophy of religion, comparative theology and/or ethnography.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG416H1 - Topics in Religion and Gender
Advanced study in specialized topics focusing on the instersection of religion and gender.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG417H1 - Radical Evil
Interrogation of the concept of ‘radical evil’ from perspectives of philosophy, critical theory, psychoanalysis and the study of religion.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: None
Recommended Preparation: None
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG418H1 - Advanced Topics in the Philosophical Study of Religion
A seminar that explores a topic in the philosophical study of religion. Possible topics include: the nature of religious truth; the phenomenology of religion; descriptions of the holy; religion and the meaning of life; God-talk as literal or metaphorical language; naturalizing religious belief.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
JPR419H1 - Secularism and Religion
Hours: 24S
Themes considered include what notion of religion is necessary for secular governance, and how secularity relates to particular discourses of citizenship and practices of political rule. Case studies include the effects of colonial rule on religious life; Jewish emancipation in Europe; and religious freedom in France and North America. (Given by the Departments of Political Science and Religion)
Registration in this course is through the Department of Religion.
Exclusion: RLG419H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG420H1 - Religion and Philosophy in the European Enlightenment
An advanced study of selected Enlightenment thinkers with a focus on their interpretations of religion. The main thinkers discussed are Spinoza, Hume, and Kant. Issues include the rational critique of traditional religion, the relations among religion, ethics and politics, and the pursuit of universal approaches to religion.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG421H1 - The Psychoanalytic Study of Religion
Advanced study of key figures past and present in the psychoanalytic study of religion, including Freud and other psychoanalytic interpreters from both Anglo-American and European traditions. Crucial distinctions between psychology of religion and the psychoanalytic study of religion. Permission of instructor.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG422H1 - Kant's Theory of Religion
An advanced study of Immanuel Kant’s theory of religion, as developed in major writings such as Critique of Practical Reason and Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Emphasizes rational ethical criteria as the basis for analyzing the doctrines, symbols, and institutions of historical religions.
Recommended Preparation: RLG310Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG425H1 - Hermeneutics and Religion
A study of how principles of textual interpretation and theories of language have been central to modern philosophy of religion. We begin with Schleiermacher, and then move to an in-depth treatment of the 20th century hermeneutical theories of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur.
Recommended Preparation: RLG310Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG426H1 - Religion in the Public Sphere Service-Learning Internship
For upper-year students, from any discipline. In a 40-hour community service placement, discover first-hand religion’s significance in Toronto and examine how religion manifests in public spaces, institutions, and interactions, while critically reflecting on the experience of working with professionals and their “clients” in settings where religious diversity is at play.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG428H1 - Religion and Economy
This course introduces students to classical and contemporary social scientific work on the relation between religion and economy. It draws on classics such as Marx, Weber, and Mauss, as well as recent anthropological work. Topics may include sacrifice, the gift, commodity fetishism, prosperity gospel, neoliberalism, charity, and development.
Recommended Preparation: RLG212H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG430H1 - Advanced Topics in Judaism
Advanced Topics in Judaism
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG431H1 - Advanced Topics in Judaism
Advanced Topics in Judaism
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG432Y1 - Advanced Topics in Judaism
Advance Topics in Judaism
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG433H1 - Maimonides and His Modern Interpreters
An introduction to The Guide of the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides, and to some of the basic themes in Jewish philosophical theology and religion. Among topics to be considered through close textual study of the Guide: divine attributes; biblical interpretation; creation versus eternity; prophecy; providence, theodicy, and evil; wisdom and human perfection. Also to be examined are leading modern interpreters of Maimonides.
Exclusion: POL421H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG434H1 - Modern Jewish Thought
Close study of major themes, texts, and thinkers in modern Jewish thought. Focus put on the historical development of modern Judaism, with special emphasis on the Jewish religious and philosophical responses to the challenges of modernity. Among modern Jewish thinkers to be considered: Spinoza, Cohen, Rosenzweig, Buber, Scholem, Strauss, and Fackenheim.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG435H1 - The Thought of Leo Strauss
The philosophic thought of Leo Strauss approached through his writings on modern Judaism. Primarily addressed will be the mutual relations between philosophy, theology, and politics. Among other topics to be dealt with: origins of modern Judaism, Zionism, liberal democracy, and biblical criticism; meaning of Jerusalem and Athens; cognitive value in the Hebrew Bible.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG441H1 - Words and Worship in Christian Cultures
How are we to analyze the words that Christians use? And how are such words related to ritual forms? We explore techniques for the analysis of texts, while looking at forms of verbal discourse ranging from prayers, speaking in tongues, and citing the Bible to more informal narratives.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG443H1 - Genealogies of Christianity
How do disciplinary commitments shape theoretical and historical accounts of Christianity’s relationship to “modernity”? Through comparative analysis (including topics of science, colonialism, capitalism, and gender) students will develop an historically-grounded critique of the key terms: genealogy, Christianity, and modernity. Based on reading and seminar discussion, the course encourages interdisciplinary exchange.
Recommended Preparation: Religion, history, anthropology, literature courses; writing intensive courses
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG447H1 - Magic and Miracle in Early Christianity
Magic, religion, astrology, alchemy, theurgy, miracle, divinationall of these phenomena characterize the context and practice of ancient Christianity. This course examines the constitution of these categories, the role and character of these phenomena in the Graeco-Roman world, and the interaction with and integration of these phenomena by ancient Christianity.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG448H1 - Pseudepigraphy in Ancient Mediterranean Religion
A seminar examining the phenomenon of falsely claimed and/or attributed authorship in religions of the ancient Mediterranean, mainly Christianity and Judaism. The course examines understandings of authorship and other cultural forms that facilitate or inhibit ancient pseudepigraphy, ancient controversies over authorship, as well as specific pseudepigraphical writings.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG449H1 - The Synoptic Problem
Investigation of the history of solutions to the Synoptic Problem from the eighteenth century to the present paying special attention to the revival of the Griesbach hypothesis and recent advances in the Two-Document hypothesis.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG451H1 - The Parables of Jesus
Examination of the parables in the gospels and other early Christian writers, and major trends in the modern analyses of the parables. Special attention will be paid to the social and economic world presupposed by the parables.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG452H1 - The Death of Jesus
Examination of the accounts of the passion and death of Jesus in their original historical and literary contexts.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG453H1 - Christianity and Judaism in Colonial Context
Sets the study of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism into relation with postcolonial historiography. Topics include hybridity, armed resistance, the intersection of gender and colonization, diaspora, acculturation, and the production of subaltern forms of knowledge. Comparative material and theories of comparison are also treated.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG454H1 - Social History of the Jesus Movement
The social setting of the early Jesus movement in Roman Palestine and the cities of the Eastern Empire. Topics will include: rank and legal status; patronalia and clientalia; marriage and divorce; forms of association outside the family; slavery and manumission; loyalty to the empire and forms of resistance.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG455H1 - Heresy and Deviance in Early Christianity
A study of the construction of deviance or heresy within the literature of first and second century Christianity: tasks include a survey of sociological theory in its application to deviance in the ancient world and close readings of selected texts from first and second century Christian and pre-Christian communities.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JPR458H1 - Postsecular Political Thought: Religion, Radicalism and the Limits of Liberalism
The course will examine debates on postsecularism and religion’s public, political role as articulated by political thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas, by focusing on politically radical or revolutionary challenges to liberalism in the 20th and 21st century, especially from the postcolonial world, whose theoretical arguments are grounded upon or draw their inspiration from religious traditions, doctrines and practices.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG458H1 - Advanced Topics in Islam
Advanced study of specialized topics in Islam.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
JPR459H1 - Fanaticism: A Political History
This seminar in theory will explore the modern history of the concept of ‘fanaticism’ and its role in the development of political modernity. A focus on the concept of the “fanatic” (and its cognates) from the perspective of its various uses in political and religious thought from the Early Modern period through the Enlightenment and up to the present day, provides a fascinating opportunity for a critical review of the secular, rationalist, and scientific assumptions underwriting modern political forms and concepts, especially those of liberal democracy. At the same time, the course will offer critical insight into the ways in which religious and political differences among colonial “others” were, and continue to be, central to the elaboration of Western theoretical discourse on fanaticism and extremism as forms of “political pathology”. (Given by the Departments of Political Science and Religion)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science; Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG460H1 - Ramayana in Literature, Theology, and Political Imagination
This course explores how this conception is the result of a historical process by examining documentable transformations in the reception of the Ramayana. Our focus will be on the shift in the classification of the Ramayana from the inaugural work of Sanskrit literary culture (adi-kavya) in Sanskrit aesthetics to a work of tradition (smrti) in theological commentaries, the differences between the Ramayanas ideal of divine kingship and medieval theistic approaches to Ramas identification with Visnu, the rise of Rama worship, and the use of Ramas divinity in contemporary political discourse.
Recommended Preparation: RLG205Y1/RLG205H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG462H1 - Newar Religion
An academic legend recounts that if you ask a Newar whether he is Hindu or Buddhist the answer is yes. The course deals with the problem of how to study religions which coexist and compete with each other creating shifting coordinates of religious identification from the perspective of one specific Nepalese community.
Recommended Preparation: RLG205Y1/ RLG206Y1/RLG205H5/RLG206H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG463H1 - Tibetan Buddhism
Close study of major themes, texts, and thinkers in Tibetan Buddhism. Themes and texts will vary by year; consult the departmental website for this year’s course description.
Recommended Preparation: RLG206Y1/ RLG206H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG465H1 - Readings in Buddhist Texts
An advanced study of select Buddhist texts with a focus on issues of translation, interpretation, commentarial approaches, narrative strategies, as well as issues related to the production, circulation, and consumption of these works. Themes and texts will vary by year; consult the departmental website for this year’s course description.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG466H1 - Sravakayana and Theravada Text
An advanced study of key texts pertaining to the Theravada and other Sravakayana schools produced in Southern and Southeastern Asia from the early centuries BC till today with a focus on issues of translation, interpretation, commentarial approaches, doctrinal and narrative strategies, as well as issues related to the production, circulation, and consumption of these works. Texts will vary by year; consult the departmental website for this year’s course description.
Corequisite: None
Exclusion: None
Recommended Preparation: Any 200 or 300 level Buddhism course
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG467H1 - Reading Mahayana Texts
An advanced study of key texts pertaining to the Mahayana schools with a focus on issues of translation, interpretation, commentarial approaches, doctrinal and narrative strategies, as well as issues related to the production, circulation, and consumption of these works. Texts will vary by year; consult the departmental website for this year’s course description.
Recommended Preparation: Any 200- and 300-level Buddhism course
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG468H1 - Special Topics in Buddhism
Advanced study of specialized topics in Buddhist Studies
Recommended Preparation: RLG206Y1Y
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG469Y1 - Readings in Tibetan
Advanced readings in Tibetan literature using Tibetan language. Tibetan language skills required.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1); Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG470H1 - Buddhist Tantra
A study of Tantric Buddhism, addressing ritual and scholastic practices, and problems of translation and interpretation. Themes will vary by year; consult the departmental website for this year’s course description.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG471H1 - Special Topics in Hinduism
Advanced study in specialized topics on Hinduism.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG474H1 - Sanskrit Readings (1)
This course will have students read choice pieces of South Asian literature. While tackling a text in Sanskrit from a major literary tradition, Buddhist or Hindu, and discussing its content and context, students will learn strategies for translating and interpreting Sanskrit literature.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG478H1 - Burmese Religions
This course will question the statement that “to be a Burmese is to be a Buddhist” by introducing students to the variegated religious landscapes of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Judaic, and Muslim Burma/Myanmar through an analysis and discussion of historical, art-historical, anthropological, and literary sources.
Corequisite: None
Recommended Preparation: RLG206H1 or RLG206H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG479H1 - Burmese Buddhist Literature
Burma, also known as Myanmar, offers one of the richest literary landscapes in the Buddhist world. This course introduces students to the Buddha’s sermons, to the animal lives of struggling bodhisattvas, to the poetic creativity of Mandalay princesses, to the intricacies of the Buddhist philosophy of mind, to the textual regimes of monastic dress codes, and to cosmographies of Buddhist kingship in the interface of South and Southeast Asian religions. Students will be trained to take a critical look at the fascinating world of Buddhist texts, inflected by the scriptural language of Pali, through a specifically Burmese prism.
Recommended Preparation: RLG206H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG481H1 - Islamic Intellectual Tradition
This seminar covers three main areas of the Islamic intellectual tradition: legal, theological and mystical. Each section will be covered by reading an original work translated into English with the aid of secondary literature. The seminar will develop the students’ knowledge of the classical Islamic tradition. Students will choose a research topic and develop and present to the class a synopsis of their research. The seminar culminates in writing a research paper on one aspect of the Islamic religious tradition.
Recommended Preparation: RLG204H1/RLG204H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG490Y1 - Independent Research
Student-initiated intensive research courses supervised by faculty members of the Department. The student must obtain both a Supervisor's agreement and the Department's approval in order to register. The maximum number of Independent Research courses one may take is two full-course equivalents. Deadline for submitting applications to Department, including Supervisor's approval, is the first week of classes of the session. A full-course may be compressed into a single session or spread through two sessions; a half-course may similarly be done in either one session or across two sessions. These courses are open to majors and specialists only. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG492H1 - Independent Research
Student-initiated intensive research courses supervised by faculty members of the Department. The student must obtain both a Supervisor's agreement and the Department's approval in order to register. The maximum number of Independent Research courses one may take is two full-course equivalents. Deadline for submitting applications to Department, including Supervisor's approval, is the first week of classes of the session. A full-course may be compressed into a single session or spread through two sessions; a half-course may similarly be done in either one session or across two sessions. These courses are open to majors and specialists only. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
RLG493H1 - Independent Research
Student-initiated intensive research courses supervised by faculty members of the Department. The student must obtain both a Supervisor's agreement and the Department's approval in order to register. The maximum number of Independent Research courses one may take is two full-course equivalents. Deadline for submitting applications to Department, including Supervisor's approval, is the first week of classes of the session. A full-course may be compressed into a single session or spread through two sessions; a half-course may similarly be done in either one session or across two sessions. These courses are open to majors and specialists only. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.