Course Offerings
Spring 2025, Fall 2024 & Summer 2024
*Course offerings are subject to change.
**Updated October 22, 2024
Summer 2024 | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025
Spring 2025
RLGN 1100 - Introduction to Religions
Multiple Sections (Online available)
Introduction to the world's major spiritual traditions from ancient times to the present. Topics include but are not limited to Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Native American religious traditions and African religious traditions.
RLGN 3100-M50 - Perspectives on Religion
CRN 20261
Meeting Time/Location: Online/Asynchronous
Instructor: Michael Hundley
Why do human beings believe in divinities? Why do some seek eternal life, while others seek escape from recurring lives? Why do the beliefs and behaviors we typically call "religious" so deeply affect the human personality and so subtly weave their way through human society?
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to select major theorists and their methodologies. Many of these theorists begin with the question "What is religion?" and offer their answer. Along the way, they introduce concepts old and new as they tease out the origins of religion, the functions that religions play in society and psychology, as well as the material conditions that give rise to religion. Along the way, we will learn methodologies and theoretical concepts that persist not just in Religious Studies but also Anthropology, Ethnography, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, and Women & Gender Studies.
RLGN 3102 - ST: Ancient Gods and Monsters
CRN 30342
Meeting Time: Monday/Wednesday, 12:40 - 2:05 pm
Meeting Location: Clement Hall 117
Instructor: Michael Hundley
RLGN 3805 - Race and Religion in the US 
CRN 30163
Meeting Time: Tuesday/Thursday, 9:40 - 11:05 am
Meeting Location: Clement Hall 213
Instructor: Simranjit Steel
What do race and religion have to do with each other? How do they shape our lives and our society?
In this course we study these questions and more, taking an interdisciplinary approach and applying it tot he world around us.
This course is cross-listed with RLGN 3805, AAAS 3805, and SOCI 3805.
Affiliated Courses
JDST 2850-M52 - Religions of Abraham
CRN 16098
Meeting Time/Location: Online/Asynchronous
Instructor: Shaul Bar and Dena Arendall
PHIL 3722 - Buddhist Philosophy
CRN 30080
Meeting Time: Tuesday/Thursday, 9:40 - 11:05 am
Meeting Location: Clement Hall
Instructor: Kevin Taylor
This course will explore Buddhist philosophy in its Indian origins of no-self and the role of mindfulness in the eightfold path and in Buddhist meditation, Zen developments with an attention to emptiness and mindfulness meditations, and contemporary approaches to the popularization of mindfulness.
Figures to be studied include Siddhartha Gautama, Nagarjuna, Huineng, Linji, Saigyō, Dōgen, Takuan Sōhō, and Hakuin Ekaku.
COMM 4212 - ST: Communication and Religion
CRN: 30249
Meeting Time: Tuesday/Thursday, 9:40 - 11:05 am
Meeting Location: Communication Building 247
Instructor: Kellie Carstensen
CLAS 2481 - Mythology
Multiple Sections
HIST 3881 - African American History
Multiple Sections
INTD 3010 - Social Justice
CRN 30176
Meeting Time/Location: Online/Asynchronous
Instructor: Amanda Lee Savage
INTD 3020 - East Asian Music, Arts, Culture
CRN 30177
Meeting Time/Location: Online/Asynchronous
Instructor: Jie Gao
PADM 3501 - Volunteerism
CRN 24405
Meeting Time: Tuesday/Thursday, 1 - 2:25 pm
Meeting Location: Manning Hall 332
Instructor: Candace Walsh
PADM 4226 - Nonprofit Orgs.
CRN
Meeting Time:
Meeting Location:
Instructor:
UNIV 3580 - Hebrew & Greek Legacy
CRN 13683
Meeting Time/Location: Online/Asynchronous
Instructor: Terrie Jackson
UNIV 3581 - Faith, Reason, Imagination
CRN 23377
Meeting Time/Location: Online/Asynchronous
Instructor: Johnathan Bennett
UNIV 4110 - Internship
Multiple Sections
UNIV 4506/ESCI 4307 - Thematic Studies of China
CRN 13807
Meeting Time: Tuesday, 6 - 9:00 pm
Meeting Location: Johnson Hall 222
Instructor: TBD
Fall 2024
RLGN 1100 - Introduction to Religions
Multiple Sections (Online available)
Introduction to the world's major spiritual traditions from ancient times to the present. Topics include but are not limited to Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Native American religious traditions and African religious traditions.
RLGN 3103-M50 - Religion and Ecology
CRN 97099
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: J. Scott Lencke
Course Description
What does the study of religion reveal about our views on the natural world? Are we
meant to be stewards of nature? Are we meant to live in harmony and simplicity with
our environment or are we meant to utilize natural resources for our own ends? What
role do animals play in religious beliefs and practices?
Before the concept of “ecology” was introduced, religions had proto-ecological views of nature that have informed our understanding of how humans are meant to be oriented towards our environment. After the study of ecology as a science, the “greening of religion” movement has revisited many of these views.
This course will provide a cross-cultural approach to how religion has been articulated by different religious traditions around the globe. This course will therefore explore religious texts and secondary literature from scholars and religious leaders as they engage with religious concepts of nature, ecology, environmental ethics, animals, and more. Abrahamic and Asian traditions will be analyzed as well as indigenous traditions, cults, and new religious movements.
RLGN 3515-M50 - Women, Gender, and Religion
CRN 96396
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Natalie Watson
RLGN 3592-M50 - Religious Perspectives of Death and the Afterlife
CRN 96393
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Dr. Ron Serino
JDST 2850 - Religions of Abraham 
CRN 86812
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Dr. Shaul Bar
PHIL 3720-001 - Asian Philosophy
CRN 96976
Instructor: Dr. Kevin Taylor
Course Description
This course covers the development of Asian philosophy and religious philosophical
thought. Concentration will be on those traditions with continuing significant sociological,
political, and literary influence. The course will include a survey of the foundations
of Chinese thought in Confucianism, Legalism and Daoism: Indian thought in the Vedas,
the Upanisads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga-sutras, followed by an introduction
to Buddhism (the four noble truths, no-self, the eightfold path) and major philosophical
developments of Buddhist philosophy in China and Japan. Contemporary approaches to
Asian Philosophy will be explored at the end of the course (including but not limited
to Comparative Philosophical approaches to Asian traditions).
ANTH 3253-M50 - Magic Witchcraft Religion
CRN 96272
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: John Marshall Gilmore
CLAS 2481 -Mythology
Multiple Sections (Online available)
HIST 3881 - African American History
Multiple Sections (Online available)
HIST 3881-M50 - The Arab-Israeli Conflict
CRN 96904
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Beverly Ann Tsacoyianis
PADM 3501-001 - Civic Engagement, Voluntarism
CRN 91931
Instructor: Candace McRae Walsh
PADM 4226 - Intro Nonprofit Organizations
Multiple Sections (Online available)
POLS 3102 - Religion and Politics
CRN 93896
Meeting Time: MWF 11:30 am-12:25 pm
Meeting Location: CL 415
Instructor: Emily Kate Fulmer
UNIV 3565-M50 - Comparative Christianity
CRN 91666
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: TBA
UNIV 3580-M50 - Hebrew and Greek Legacy
CRN 91667
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Terrie Jackson
UNIV 3581-M50 - Faith/Reason/Imagination
CRN 91107
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Jonathan Howe Bennett
UNIV 3592 - Religious Perspectives Death/Afterlife
CRN 94601
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Dr. Ron Serino
Summer 2024
RLGN 1100 - Introduction to Religions
Multiple Sections (Online available)
Introduction to the world's major spiritual traditions from ancient times to the present. Topics include but are not limited to Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Native American religious traditions and African religious traditions.
JDST 2850-M50 - Religions of Abraham
CRN 50378
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Shaul Bar
JDST 3661-M50 - Perspectives of Old Testament
CRN 52844
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: Shaul Bar
CLAS 2481 -Mythology
Multiple Sections (Online available)
HIST 3881 - African American History
Multiple Sections (Online available)
PADM 3501-301 - Civic Engagement, Voluntarism
CRN 57927
Instructor: Candace McRae Walsh
PADM 4226 - Intro Nonprofit Organizations
CRN 52606
Instructor: TBA
UNIV 3581-M50 - Faith/Reason/Imagination
CRN 55680
Online, Asynchronous
Instructor: TBA