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BTI Consortium | Last Updated April 11, 2023 - 5:00PM
SOCIOLOGY
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TA815
World Religions in Boston
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
A-TERM: In an increasingly pluralistic society it is essential to have some understanding of the beliefs and worship patterns of other religions and to be able to engage in dialogue with them. This course utilizes the Pluralism Project at Harvard to explore new forms of interfaith engagement. Seven weekly lectures introduce the issues surrounding interfaith work and a basic understanding of the tenets and practices of five major religions. Site visits (to Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Jewish worship services) offer first- hand experiences and the opportunity for discussion and interaction with religious leaders and lay people.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Andrew Shenton
A TERM
2:00-9:00
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TM856
Women in World Christianity: History, Lives, Issues
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
This course explores the history of women in the Christian movement from the early centuries to the present, with particular focus on women in global context from the 19th to 21st centuries. Starting with the reality that women make up the majority of Christians in the world, the course explores texts and sources for researching women's history, including hagiographies and biographies, spiritual and theological writings by women, women's mission literature, and gender analysis. The historic leadership roles of women as sisters, deaconesses, evangelists, missionaries, pastors, and social reformers will be examined. Selected issues for contemporary reflection include church controversies over women's leadership, women in evangelical/Pentecostal churches, and gendered social movements.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dana Robert
T
12:30-3:15
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Hamilton
IS/WM520
Understanding Culture
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
In a globalized world, profound opportunities for cultural interaction and exchange exist. Anthropology offers critical resources for understanding cultures, both our own and those of peoples worldwide. This course focuses on application of anthropological and sociological insights for engagement and witness in diverse cultural settings. Christianity must be translated into each culture where it abides as Christ rectifies what is broken and reinforces the sacred. Christ followers grow in our cultural awareness as we aim to develop cross-cultural competence, respect, and care for others.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rowe, Nicholas
F
9am-12pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
Y
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
Digital Live - Hamilton/online
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3117
Animals and the Unseen
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
This course considers how we can write histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Students will be introduced to academic literature that has criticized scholarly and popular conceptions of humans having a special status, and assumptions that the religious sentience of non-human animals and the materiality of spirits cannot be studied academically. Students will then be introduced to a variety of sources containing rich information on religious animals and the supernatural from Islamic societies of the globe. In doing so, the course pays particular attention to how human and non-human animals were understood to be religious beings whose bodies and activities were always tethered to the Unseen. Students will be encouraged to explore how the divide between human and non-human animals might not have been evident in societies of the past and the present. Students will moreover be encouraged to engage how these sources may prompt us to remember, or rather realize, that all aspects of material life, including animals� bodies, physical resources and technologies, were inextricably linked to the imagined non-material realms of the Unseen. On the whole, this seminar class takes steps towards recounting histories of religious animals and the Unseen.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Sevea, Teren
F
9:30-12:00pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3206
The Book of Baldwin
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
This is a seminar in Africana intellectual history engaging in close readings of the written corpus of James Baldwin. It is designed to address larger conceptual issues of religion, race, identity, gender, sexuality through the intensive study of a major thinker in North America. A working knowledge of African American social history is recommended but not required. This is a limited enrollment course. Interested students should attend the first course meeting on Tuesday, September 5. If the course is overenrolled, a selection procedure will be described at that first meeting. Selected students will then be invited to enroll in the course by the end of the day on Wednesday, September 6.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hucks, Tracey
T
3-5pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
Y
Notes
A working knowledge of African American social history is recommended but not required. This is a limited enrollment course. Interested students should attend the first course meeting on Tuesday, September 5. If the course is overenrolled, a selection procedure will be described at that first meeting. Selected students will then be invited to enroll in the course by the end of the day on Wednesday, September 6.
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TM835
Asian Christianity
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
This course explores the dynamism, co-option, stagnation and renewal of East Asian Christianity throughout its history--from the 7th century to the 21st. Special attention is given to Christianity's complex interaction with the religious, political, and social realities of Japan, China, and Korea. Students are introduced to important Christian leaders and movements across the centuries, and they investigate the implications of East Asian Christianity's recent expansion both at home and abroad.�
Professor
Class Day & Time
Daryl Ireland
W
6:30-9:15
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TS850
Social Science Approaches to Religion and Spirituality
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
TBD
Professor
Class Day & Time
Nicolette Manglos-Weber
R
12:30-3:15
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2965
Virginia Woolf and Religion
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
This course will examine some of the religious currents around Woolf--in her family, her society, her friendships and her reading--and explore their relationship to her work. Special attention will be given to Woolf as a religious thinker, the religious-literary practices that shaped her life and work, her experiments with the idea of God, her reimagining of the possibility of religious community, the spiritual trajectories of the modernist movement she helped to shape, and the religious dimensions of her attempt to reimagine literary realism.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Paulsell, Stephanie
T
9:00-11:45am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3128
Black Spiritual Borderlands
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
This course examines the intersections of Black Feminist, African Diaspora, and Religious and Border studies to explore the act of crossing throughout religions in the African diaspora. We will explore how Black people throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa create transnational geographies of belonging, traverse borders imposed upon them, and reimagine the world in new ways through spirituality.
Professor
Class Day & Time
TBA
TBA
TBA
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
Prerequisite: one year of college-level Latin or the HDS summer Latin course. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3694
Religion, Culture, and Society in Africa
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA23
Exploring the meaning of religion� and its� impact of on African culture and society broadly, this course will highlight both religious traditions and innovations. Instead of treating each of the religions of Africa, the triple heritage in the words of Ali Mazrui of indigenous African religions, Islam, and Christianity, as distinct and bounded entities, we will explore the hybridity, interaction, and integration between categories throughout Africa. Using case studies, a unique perspective on religious diversity on the African continent and diaspora will emerge. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as AAAS 186.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Olupona, Jacob
W
3:00-5:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
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