Fall 2012

This course will familiarize students with the basic concepts of mental illness to facilitate their collaboration with multidisciplinary teams (including both health and mental health professionals) serving the mental health needs of Muslim communities.  The course aims to do the following:  (1) to provide students with a general awareness of the cultural factors particular to Muslim communities they will serve  (2) to provide students with the specific skills they will need to serve individuals in mental health treatment contexts and (3) to teach students to recognize when they need to make referrals to mental health professionals.

This year long course will provide students with the tools for doctoral level research and opportunities for collegial interaction. The following topics will be included: a) Introduction to Research Skills; b) Logical Thinking; c) Quantitative and Qualitative Data; d) Writing Articles, Book Proposals, and Reviews; e) Developing a Career in Scholarship; and f) Theories of Religious Studies.

There are over 350 religious denominations in the United States, and yet few of us know who they are or how they all fit together in the fabric of contemporary American religious life.  Where did all these groups come from, what do they believe and how do they influence society?  This course introduces students to the religious diversity that has arisen in the U.S. over the past 50 years.  It also explores the prominent place of religion in ol.Jr seemingly secular nation.  Topics will include among others, the reshaping of mainline and evangelical Christianity, new varieties of religious organizations, immigrant, ethnic and interfaith religious diversity, fringe religiosity and internet religion and a deinstitutionalized "spirituality" as well as secularity of many modern Americans.

An introduction to psychological biblical criticism, exploring the contributions of C. G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Viktor Frankl, along with insights from cognitive , developmental and behavioral psychology, toward an understanding of the human psyche (soul) and its  role in the history of the Bible and biblical  interpretation.  It will examine biblical stories (from Adam and Eve to  the Wedding at Cana) , biblical religious experience ( dreams, visions, conversion, speaking in tongues) and biblical portraits (Ezekiel, Paul, Moses, and Jesus).  It will also study the transaction between biblical texts and readers, noting therapeutic and pathogenic effects.  Activities include sessions with Walter Wink’s “transforming Bible study.”

This course explores the content and structure of Islamic belief, as elaborated by Muslim classical thinkers (7th-15th centuries), in relation to a selection of representative texts. The Introduction questions the nature and modalities of theology in Islam. History studies the origins and growth of the science of Kalâm in its interaction with the other major religious disciplines of Sunnism -- exegesis, Prophetic tradition, jurisprudence, sects, Sufism and philosophy (falsafa). The Creed is then analyzed more theoretically in its major components: the lordship and divinity of God, the mediation of the Messenger, the servitude and ethics of the believers. Society offers a last avenue for enquiry, in so far as it was shaped by particular theological doctrines. The Way/Law (sharî’a), power, love, innovation, and alterity -- religious or other -- are among the topics envisaged. No knowledge of Arabic is required for this course.

As we struggle to adjust to a world that is continually changing, it is vital to revisit inherited assumptions and traditional perceptions foundational to our faith. In this course we return to Jesus, the Jewish mystic at the core of Christianity, to wrestle once again with such challenging questions as: “Who do people say that I am?’ and “Who do you say that I am?” Together we will seek to discern his 21^st-century spirit as we shape an emerging spirituality made visible through a quantum lens.