Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Buddhist Literature

GRS RN664

Buddhist Studies

Focuses on Buddhist sutras and other literature to explore key issues of doctrine, philosophy, and praxis in the Theravada and Mahayana traditions of Buddhism. Topics include the Buddha's life, practicing the path, emptiness, and interdependence.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Art, Media, and Buddhism

GRS RN665

Buddhist Studies

Examines how textual, visual, and material forms of religious expressions have been conceptualized by Buddhists as well as how Buddhist objects are understood and re-contextualized in the West. Topics include self-immolation; museums; war propaganda, and pop culture.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

African Diaspora Religions

GRS RN683

Church History/History of Religions

This course introduces students to religions of the African Diaspora, with a specific focus on the
Caribbean and the Americas. Religious traditions such as Africanized Christianity, Cuban Santera, Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomble and African American Spiritualism will be explored.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Topics in Religion, Health, and Medicine

GRS RN750

Ethics (all traditions)

Topic for Fall 2022: Health and Medicine in Asian Religions. This seminar investigates how religious and moral narratives in Asian religions have informed understandings of the body in premodern and modern times. We will pay specific attention to how notions of embodiment and health surface in debates over gender differences. Our readings will focus on various traditions and geographic areas in Asia, with particular attention to East Asia

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Religion and the Problem of Tolerance

GRS RN766

Ethics (all traditions)

Explores the religious roots of tolerance as an alternative to secular, more liberal foundations for
pluralism. Grapples with the challenge of tolerance to the revealed religions and the ways different societies have met or failed to meet this challenge.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Philosophy and Mysticism: Jewish and Islamic Perspectives

GRS RN638

Interreligious Learning

Thematic introduction to mysticism and philosophy, with a focus on dynamics of religious experience. Readings from medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy; Sufi mysticism and philosophy; Kabbalah, Biblical interpretation, Sufi poetry, Hebrew poetry from the Golden Age of Muslim Spain.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

The Holocaust

GRS RN684

Judaic Studies

Rise of German (and European) antisemitism; rise of Nazism; 1935 Nuremberg Laws; the initial Jewish reaction; racial theory; organizing mass murder including ghettos, concentration camps, killing squads, and gas chambers; bystanders and collaborators (countries, organizations, and individuals); Jewish resistance; post-Holocaust religious responses; moral and ethical issues.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and Film

GRS RN685 A1

Judaic Studies

Questions of representation in literature and film about the Holocaust, including testimonial and fictive works by Wiesel and Levi, Ozick, and others; films include documentaries and feature films. Discussions of the Holocaust as historical reality, metaphor, and generative force in literature.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and Film

GRS RN685 B1

Judaic Studies

Questions of representation in literature and film about the Holocaust, including testimonial and fictive works by Wiesel and Levi, Ozick, and others; films include documentaries and feature films. Discussions of the Holocaust as historical reality, metaphor, and generative force in literature.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Maimonides

GRS RN720

Judaic Studies

A study of major aspects of the thought of Maimonides. Primary focus on the Guide of the Perplexed, with attention to its modern reception in works by Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Leo Strauss, and others.

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

FA22

Biblical Fakes and Forgeries

GRS RN706

Scripture & Biblical Studies

Examines forged documents and artifacts relating to Hebrew Bible and New Testament, probing
historical and ethical questions they raise. Examples (alleged and certain forgeries) include book of Daniel, Gnostic Gospels, Secret Gospel of Mark, and forged Dead Sea Scroll fragments.