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RLG Religion Courses HUM199Y1 Undergraduate seminar that focuses on specific ideas,
questions, phenomena or controversies, taught by a regular Faculty member deeply engaged
in the discipline. Open only to newly admitted first year students. It may serve as a
distribution requirement course; see page 44. RLG100Y1 An introductory study of the ideas, attitudes, practices, and
contemporary situation of the Judaic, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian,
Taoist, and Shinto religious traditions. RLG101Y1 Theories about the variety and nature of religious experience, personal and collective. How religious life is expressed in such forms as myth, narrative and ritual, systems of belief and value, morality and social institutions. 200-SERIES COURSES RLG201Y1 The meaning of religious symbolism fundamental to the myths,
rites, and images of prehistoric and tribal peoples, using a comparative approach to the
history of religions as developed by Mircea Eliade. RLG202Y1 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. RLG203Y1 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. RLG204Y1 The faith and practice of Islam: historical emergence,
doctrinal development, and interaction with various world cultures. RLG205Y1 A historical and thematic introduction to the Hindu religious
tradition as embedded in the socio-cultural structures of India. RLG206Y1 The teachings of the Buddha and the development, spread, and
diversification of the Buddhist tradition from southern to northeastern Asia. RLG207H1 (formerly RLG364H) 26L,
13T RLG209H1 (formerly RLG365H) 26L,13T RLG210Y1 Religion from the sociological viewpoint; religion as the
source of meaning, community and power; conversion and commitment; religious organization,
movements, and authority; the relation of religion to the individual, sexuality and
gender; conflict and change; religion and secularization. Emphasis on classical thinkers
(Durkheim, Marx, Weber) and contemporary applications. RLG211Y1 A survey of the various psychological approaches to aspects
of religion such as religious experience, doctrine, myth, ritual, community, ethics and
human transformation. The historical place of introspective, psychoanalytic, humanistic
and transpersonal methods in the psychology of religion. RLG212Y1 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. RLG220H1 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. RLG221H1 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. RLG222H1 Reason, experience (the natural law tradition) and revelation
as the bases for moral judgment; faith and morality; freedom of conscience and the
Church's claim to be a moral teacher; relevance to contemporary Catholic moral theology. RLG223H1 The development of Protestant ethics since the Reformation.
Gospel and law, love and justice, realism and perfectionism, moral norms and moral
context, the personal, political, and economic orders. RLG228H1 The ethics and religious symbolism of environmental change:
animal domestication and experimentation, deforestation, population expansion, energy use,
synthetics, waste and pollution. RLG230Y1 The ways in which selected texts from a variety of cultures
and times are linked both to specific religious traditions as well as to broader notions
of what it means to be "religious." Concepts to be treated may include identity,
suffering, duty, class, individuality, community, tradition, innovation, loss,
consolation, memory, time, beauty, creation, nature, feminism, and colonialism. RLG231Y1 The impact of the physical and social sciences on religion
and religious thought. A comparative philosophical study of scientific and theological
ways of analysis and of the status of scientific and religious assertions. Areas of
cooperation and of conflict between the "two cultures." RLG232H1 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. RLG233H1 Continued investigation into the relations between religion
and film. Distinguished from RLG232H by the instructor. RLG237Y1 The social and legal status of women in Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. The historical and contemporary situation of women in these
traditions. RLG239H1 Some topic of central interest to students of religion,
treated on a once-only basis by a professor visiting from another university. For details
of this year's offering, consult the Department's current undergraduate handbook. RLG240Y1 The history and surviving documents of Judaism and
Christianity, and of religious movements underlying and associated with them from about
200 BCE to about 70 CE. RLG241Y1 An introduction to New Testament literature, examined within
the historical context of the first two centuries. No familiarity with Christianity or the
New Testament is expected. RLG274H1 The religions and philosophies of China, including ancient
religion and mythology, the three traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism
(including their philosophical dimensions), and Chinese popular religion. RLG275H1 The religions of Japan (Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism) and
the religions of Korea (Confucianism, Buddhism, Shamanism). RLG280Y1 An alternative version of the content covered by RLG 100Y, for students in second year or higher who cannot
or do not wish to take a further 100-level course. Students attend the RLG 100Y lectures and tutorials but are expected to
produce more substantial and more sophisticated written work, and are required to submit
an extra written assignment. RLG299Y1
RLG301H1 Systematic analysis of Freud's main writings on religion,
studied within the context of central concepts and issues in psychoanalysis such as: the
Oedipus Complex, the meaning and function of symbols, the formation of the ego and the
superego, and the relations between the individual and culture. RLG302H1 Jung's analysis of the development of the personality through
its life cycle, and of the central place which religion holds within the process of
maturation. The unconscious, the collective unconscious, dreams, myths, symbols, and
archetypes; implications for religious thought, therapy, education, and definitions of
community. RLG303H1 Problems of negative life experience and their relations to
issues of meaning and personality development. Includes discussion of internal conflict
and suffering in the experience of melancholia and the divided self, and the existential
experiences of evil and suffering. Examines myth, symbol, and forms of religious discourse
as responses to such crises. RLG304H1 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.
The crisis of postmodern religious thought which began with Nietzsche’s claim that “God is dead”. We will explore how significant thinkers within the Continental tradition have responded to this crisis. RLG307Y1 Sociological examination of religion in contemporary Canadian
society: religions of English and French Canada; religious organization and demography;
relation of religion to ethnicity, social questions and politics; secularization and
privatization. RLG309Y1 The relationships between religious and ethical norms, social
and political ideals, and systems of law. The roots of Western legal concepts such as
authority, duty, rights, and punishment in biblical and natural law tradition, and their
counterparts in positive law theory. Church and State conflict in a philosophy of law
context. RLG310H1 (formerly RLG310Y) 26S RLG311H1 A study of the responses of selected world religious
traditions to the emergence of global ecological concerns. Key concepts and tenets of the
traditions and their relevance for an examination of the environmental crisis. RLG312H1 Karl Barth, Schubert Ogden, and Karl Rahner, three
influential 20th century Christian thinkers, on how religious believing is related to
critical thinking. Illustrations are drawn from their diverse accounts of God. RLG315H1 Analysis of rituals of transition form one social status to
another (e.g., childbirth, initiation, weddings) from theoretical, historical and
ethnographic perspectives. Particular attention is paid to the multi-religious North
American environment, and to the importance of rites of passage in the construction of
gendered identities. RLG316H1 An examination of the theories of religion developed by late
19th and 20th century anthropologists such as Taylor, Frazer, Durkheim, Freud, Van Gennep,
Levi-Strauss, Douglas and Turner. Their ideas about systems of ritual and belief in
small-scale, non-literate, kinship-based societies. RLG317H1 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. RLG318H1 TBA RLG319H1 TBA RLG320H1 Judaism and Christianity in the period from 70 C.E. to
200.CE. The course focuses on the relationship between the two religious groups, stressing
the importance of the setting within the Roman Empire. RLG321H1 An introduction to the first and second century Christian
writings. A survey of the surviving works and their historical contexts, close analysis of
selected texts and an examination of what these sources tell us about the early Christian
communities. RLG323H1 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. RLG324H1 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). RLG325H1 This course treats the major elements of the apocalyptic
literary corpus and accompanying visionary experiences in ancient Judaism and
Christianity. Contemporary theories on the function and origin of apocalyptic literature. RLG330H1 A study of some of the most important and influential
attempts by Christians to reconcile their experience and understanding of evil with their
purported experience and understanding of God. Selections from biblical writers, Augustine
of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Karl Barth, and Gustavo Gutierrez. RLG331Y1 The formation and development of distinctively Eastern
traditions of Christianity. The history and major writers of Eastern Christianity up to
the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The development of the national Eastern Churches up
through the modern period, and their particular contributions to the Eastern Christian
tradition. RLG332Y1 (formerly RLG246Y) 52L,
26T RLG334H1 Thoroughly cross-cultural study of how Christians across the
world constructed the extraordinary variety of their religious life during the period when
Christianity became by far the most widespread, the most diverse, and the most populous
religion in world history. Emphasis on selected cultures on all continents. RLG335H1 Analysis of how Christians (i.e., one-third of the world's
population) have engaged large themes since the First World War: liturgy, migration,
creedal change, the Holy Spirit, religious privatization and public life, denominations,
war, inculturation, scripture, secularity, disintegration of empires, world capitalism,
encounter with Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, indigenous religions, Judaism. RLG336H1 Papal and episcopal documents dealing with social issues from
Leo XIII (late 19th century) to John Paul II. Origins and development of Catholic social
teaching; recent changes occasioned by anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles. RLG340Y1 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. RLG342Y1 (formerly RLG244Y) 52L,
26T RLG344Y1 The religious and cultural roots of antisemitism and its
manifestations in Western civilization: anti-Jewish aspects of pagan antiquity, the
adversus Judaeos tradition in classical Christian theology; racist antisemitism in Europe
(the Aryan myth); the rise of political antisemitism; the Nazi phenomenon, antisemitism in
Canada and the United States. RLG345H1 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. RLG346H1 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. RLG351H1 The revelatory process and the textual formation of the
Qur'an, its pre-eminent orality and its principal themes and linguistic forms; the
classical exegetical tradition and some contemporary approaches to its interpretation. RLG352H1 Aspects of the relationship of Islam with other religions and
cultures. Topics treated may include attention to both the medieval and the modern periods
as well as to contemporary challenges faced by Muslim populations in Europe and North
America. RLG360H1 Hindu responses to Western influences (imperial and
post-imperial) on Indian religious life in the modern age. Hindu fundamentalism,
communalist politics, secularization, lowcaste alienation, feminist activism in India. RLG361H1 Readings in Vedic, Pauranic, Tantric and folk myths;
traditional Hindu understandings of myth; recent theories of interpretation, e.g. those of
Levi-Strauss, Eliade, Ricoeur, applied to Hindu myths. RLG362H1 Hindu ideas of self, world and ultimate reality. Hindu ways
of interpreting sacred texts. Readings from the Upanishads and later Vedanta texts. RLG363H1 Hindu ritual in its Vedic, Pauranic, Tantric, and popular
forms; the meaning that ritual conveys to its participants and the relation of ritual to
Hindu mythology and to social context. RLG371H1 The schools of Buddhism in East Asia, with focus on two
principal ones: Ch'an (Zen) and Pure Land. Readings in translation from their basic
sutras. RLG380H1 A comparative examination of Christian (Latin and Orthodox),
Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Islamic mystical traditions. RLG381Y1 The role and social context of prophets and prophetic
movements in the religions originating in the Middle East. Illustrations from the
literature and experience of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam. RLG384H1 The contemporary phenomenon of religious pluralism: its
historical emergence, social context and intellectual justifications. Achievements,
techniques and outstanding issues in inter-religious dialogue. RLG398H0/399Y0
RLG430Y1/431H1/432H1
RLG440Y1 TBA RLG445H1 TBA RLG446H1 TBA RLG447H1 TBA RLG450H1 TBA RLG455H1 TBA RLG460H1 TBA RLG465H1 TBA RLG470H1 TBA RLG475H1 TBA RLG480H1 TBA RLG485H TBA RLG490Y1 TBA RLG491H1/492H1/493H1/494Y1 TBA |
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