There are no prerequisites for the course. The class offers a survey (not a deep analysis) of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, with three weeks on each religion. Week ten is given to atheism as part of the theistic story. For each religion, we’ll cover key historical events, major figures, basic ideas, essential practices, significant texts, material culture, and important trends in scholarship. The course approach is academic, not devotional; themes are religious, not political. Attendance at lectures is not taken. But attendance is highly recommended since test performance will come down to students’ note-taking skills, inasmuch as the professor is not publishing his lecture notes. Attendance  WILL  be taken for the once-a-week small-group discussion sections (meeting even in week one), and an absence from any discussion sections will detract points from your grade. Classwork entails reading from the textbook; and writing brief essays based on weekly ‘thought questions’ that help facilitate discussion sections (even in week one); and taking four in-class essay tests—one on Judaism, one on Christianity, one on Islam, one on atheism. A few test questions for each test will be take-home questions (answers to be written in the test booklets you bring to the in-class tests).  For the in-class essay test questions (not the take-home questions), you’ll be permitted to use a ‘cheat sheet’ during the in-class test. For the 4 tests, you’ll need to purchase 4  ‘Large’   Blue or Green test booklets at a campus Zot shop, the UCI bookstore, or Albertsons. There is one required textbook for the class, available in the campus bookstore and elsewhere.
(IV  and  VIII )
Same as History 16A
Days: TU TH  05:00-06:20 PM

Emphasis/Category: Thematic Approaches to Religion (Category 2)
Introduction to how basic economic concepts such as demand, supply, consumption, production, competition, free-riding, innovation, regulation, and rent-seeking can be applied to understand observed religious behavior.
Same as Econ 17

The Underworld: Ancient Literature on Life, Death, and Regeneration. Taking a spatial or topographical approach to mythology, this course will examine the significance of “the underworld” to ancient Greek and Roman thought. We will explore the role of the underworld in ancient cosmologies, examine its importance to notions of individual and national (im)mortality and terrestrial fertility, and investigate the central role of “the descent” in the ancient hero’s quest. To explore these ideas, we will read such authors as Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, and others. These readings will be supplemented with critical and theoretical texts, and the course will conclude with a look at modern adaptations of these ideas in literature. The final paper in the course will allow students to apply these ideas to contemporary films and video games or to focus exclusively on ancient texts.

Same as Classic 150

Days: MWF  11:00-11:50 AM

Emphasis/Category: Thematic Approaches to Religion (Category 2)
This course focuses on the experiences of women and men from roughly the end of the Heian period (794-1185) to the end of the 16th century. How did the roles and positions of women and men change in this time period, what were their problems, and how did they interact with each other and with the institutions and traditions that changed so markedly in the tradition from imperial to warrior rule? We will study women's and men's economic, social, political, and cultural roles, looking particularly at changes in women’s status, the spread of Buddhism, political movements and upheavals, warfare, entertainment, art, literature, and poetry.

Same as HIST 172G 120 & EAS 155
Days: MWF  10:00-10:50 AM

Emphasis/Category: World Religions (Category 1)
This course introduces students to the history of South Asia through the politics of religion. South Asia is the birthplace of major world religions, including Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Sarnaism, and Hinduism, and is also home to some of the world’s oldest and, in some cases, largest, populations of Muslims, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians. Why have scholars argued that mutually exclusive religious identities and religious antagonisms primarily emerged after colonial rule in the nineteenth century? The course will refute narratives that portray South Asian history as one indelibly shaped by religion and religious conflicts. We will assess the ways that colonialism remade religious boundaries and contributed to the causes of the Partition of India and Pakistan. In particular, we will ask how inequalities of caste, gender, and class shaped the making of religious “majorities” and “minorities.” Lastly, we will consider how religion has served both as the grounds for nationalist movements and as a terrain of anti-caste struggle in post-colonial South Asia. Course materials include translated poetry and literature, oral histories, and film.
Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

History 132D explores the history of Armenia and Armenians from ethnogenesis to the early modern period at the end of the 1700s within a regional and global context, which takes into account interactions and encounters with the empires and peoples that encompassed their orbit. It focuses on a number of key moments in the Armenian past that are crucial to understanding contemporary Armenian culture, identity, and memory: the politics of national identity and “ethnogenesis,” conversion to Christianity, invention of the Armenian script, the battle of Vardanank, the development of the global Armenian diaspora, print culture, national revival, early liberation movements, as well as relations between Armenians and their neighbors: Persians, Romans, Muslims, and others.

(Satisfies Pre-1800 Requirement)
Days: MO WE  09:30-10:50 AM

No description is currently available.

Emphasis/Category: Thematic Approaches to Religion (Category 1)
Over the past two centuries, the Jewish people have undergone unprecedented transformation—politically, socially, and spiritually. This course explores how Jews have navigated the challenges and promises of modernity, from emancipation in 18th- and 19th-century Europe to the fragmentation and pluralism of contemporary Jewish life. We begin with the breakdown of traditional communal autonomy and the emergence of new civic identities that challenged inherited religious authority.
The Haskalah, led by figures like Moses Mendelssohn, sought to reconcile Judaism with Enlightenment rationalism, while movements like Hasidism responded to spiritual alienation with mysticism, joy, and intimate devotion. Thinkers such as Abraham Geiger advocated for Reform, emphasizing ethics over ritual, while Zecharia Frankel and Samson Raphael Hirsch responded with competing visions of traditional continuity—one historical, the other synthetic. Meanwhile, Zionism arose as a bold answer to Jewish powerlessness, giving rise to diverse ideologies—from Herzl’s political vision and Ahad Ha’am’s cultural Zionism to Rav Kook’s religious messianism—as well as powerful countercurrents from the Bund, Satmar Hasidim, and early Reform critics. Through these case studies, students will consider how modern Jewish thought continues to shape—and be shaped by—the ethical, political, and spiritual dilemmas of our time.

Same as Political Science 139

Days: TU TH  02:00-03:20 PM

Some scholars claim that there is a fundamental difference in the cultural ethos of Muslims and the Western world and that the two clash as seemingly incompatible civilizations. Others suggest that such stereotypical contrasts between Muslims and Westerners wrongly view both sides as monolithic and overlook important ways in which Islam and the West overlap. The course explores this scholarly debate.

Same as SOC SCI 188A, POL SCI 158D.
Emphasis/Category: Thematic Approaches to Religion (Category 2)

Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM