2022-2023 St. George Campus Course Descriptions
For courses with tutorials, please also see the Arts and Science timetable. Sessional dates are available on the Faculty of Arts & Science calendar.
Note: If the courses listed below are in conflict with the Arts & Science timetable, the information on the timetable takes priority. Additional information on some courses (i.e., Special Topics) are available on this page. All courses are planned for in-person delivery unless otherwise stated.
Please contact the Associate Chair, Undergradate, Srilata Raman at s.raman@utoronto.ca, or Undergraduate Program Assistant, Phoebe To at religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca, with any questions you may have.
RLG100H1 World Religions
Term: Winter
Description: An introduction to the history, philosophy, and practice of the major religions of the world, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taosim.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG101H1 Reason and Religion in the Modern Age
Term: Fall
Description: An introduction to critical thinking about religion as it took shape in modern European thought. We examine major thinkers such as Baruch Spinoza, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, and others. Issues covered include freedom of thought, the relationship between religion and politics, belief and truth, rational ethics in relation to religious ethics, etc. We explore how issues addressed by these classical authors remain relevant in today's world.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG102H1 Blood, Sex and Drugs
Term: Fall
Description: Religion can be understood as a set of aspirations that manages and moralizes the most intimate matters of social life, including sexual intercourse, bodily fluids, and mind altering substances. This course engages fundamental theories of religion to consider an eclectic set of case studies that troubles a clean divide between purity and danger.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG104H1 Conspiracies, Social Media, and the Rise of New Religious Movements
Jennifer Harris | Brief overview of course
Term: Fall
Description: Conspiracy theories are nothing new, but in the past few years we have all witnessed the rise of conspiracies that have taken on the elements of New Religious Movements. This course examines the QAnon conspiracy movement as one of a new breed of “conspiritualities,” that is, conspiracies with strong cult and religious overtones.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Note: This course is a fully online course.
RLG107H1 "It's the End of the World as We Know It"
Term: Winter
Description: Throughout history, many religious movements have envisioned the end of the world. This course will explore the ways in which different religious movements have prepared for and expected an end time, from fears, symbols, and rituals to failed prophecies and social violence. By examining traditions such as Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts through to fears of nuclear apocalypse and zombies, the course seeks to understand the ways in which ancient and modern claims of “the end” reflect the aspirations, anxieties, and religious concerns of communities.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Note: This course is a fully online course.
MHB155H1 Elementary Modern Hebrew l
Term: Fall
Description: Introduction to the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar and syntax. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
MHB156H1 Elementary Modern Hebrew II
Term: Winter
Description: Introduction to the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar and syntax. Emphasis on the development of oral and writing skills.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
JRC199H1 Truths & Reconciliations in Canada
Term: Winter
Description: In this course, we examine the idea of reconciliation among Indigenous and Canadian nations by considering the complicated role of religion and spirituality in "truth and reconciliation". Specifically, residential schools for Indigenous children were a collaboration of church and state that violently broke the spirit and intent of the treaties - or sacred promises - made between the Crown and Indigenous nations. The course will set the 2015 Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada in a longer history of twentieth-century commissions, reports, and petitions in which both Indigenous and Canadian people (and some churches) named the cultural and spiritual genocide of residential schools and called for action. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
JRN199H1 Exodus and Enslavement
Term: Winter
Description: Popular conceptions of enslavement in North America have influenced how we frequently imagine enslavement in Exodus and related biblical and related texts from the ancient Near East. Yet, depictions of enslavement in these ancient texts may be strikingly different from our ideas of enslavement in North America. This course explores similarities and differences between enslavement in these different historical contexts. It also examines how biblical texts were utilized in debates over and revolts against enslavement primarily in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew is required. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG195H1 Alt-Bible: What Could Have Been
Term: Fall
Description:Why does our contemporary Bible not include any daughters for Adam and Eve or any stories of Jesus as a young boy? What if Enoch was more prominent than Moses or Thomas more prominent than Paul? "The Bible" that we have is not a single book or a simple collection, but something that has grown over time, been the object of contention and argument, and has sometimes been a common ground across traditions. We examine side-by-side writings that have become canonical and writings that once held authority but have not found widespread canonical status, and strive to understand the processes by which we ended up with "the Bible" we have today. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/CNR option.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG196H1 Goddess Lessons: Gender, Religion and Pop
Erin Vearncombe
Term: Winter
Description: Is God a woman? How can we get to heaven without losing a piece of ourselves? What does it mean to follow Lesbian Jesus? Pop music provides us with some important - if often surprising - opportunities to think through deep questions. Increasingly, these questions tie together two of our most powerful human categories: gender and religion. This course will consider the diverse interactions between pop, gender, and religion. Examples might include Beyonce's self-representation as the Yoruba goddess Oshun and Lil Nas X's reinterpretation of the Garden of Eden in Montero. Restricted to first-year students. Not available for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG198H1 Dystopia: Religion & Gender in Science Fiction
Term: Fall
Description: This course will examine the “what ifs” and imagined worlds of ideal utopias and oppressive dystopias through the lens of religion and gender in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland. Because science fiction and utopian/dystopian literature expresses what an author sees as possible or hopes is possible, but also fears is possible, we will consider science fiction as a political and social critique. Themes to be covered include fundamentalism, totalitarianism, the relationship between technology and religion, religion and reproductive rights, and the potential relationship between religion, gender and oppression. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG199H1 Contagions
Term: Fall
Description: It is obvious that infections spread through social networks; what is less well known is that forms of human behaviour, including religious affiliation, have network characteristics. This course examines a variety of historical and contemporary contagions to introduce essential concepts in network analysis and the factors that account for the spread of innovation and other forms of human behaviour. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG200H1 The Study of Religion
Term: Fall
Description: An introduction to the discipline of the study of religion. This course surveys methods in the study of religion and the history of the discipline in order to prepare students to be majors or specialists in the study of religion.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG200H1 The Study of Religion
Jennifer Harris and Austin Simoes-Gomes
Term: Winter
Description: An introduction to the discipline of the study of religion. This course surveys methods in the study of religion and the history of the discipline in order to prepare students to be majors or specialists in the study of religion.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Note: This course is offered fully online for the Winter semester.
RLG201H1 Indigenous Spiritualities and Religions
Kevin White and Sarina Simmons
Term: Fall
Description: This course examines how Indigenous communities saw the world before contact—primarily exploring early creation narratives and ways of engaging with the natural world through ceremonials of reciprocity and acknowledgements. It engages with how early colonial societies and Western-based religions evaluated and understood Indigenous spiritualities and practices. We consider Indigenous critiques of Western religion as it has actually been practiced as opposed to what has been taught as constituting the ideals of civilization. Finally, we analyze how Indigenous communities and culture begin to create “New Religions” that blend Indigenous values and thinking with aspects of Western culture or emerge in direct response to re-imagining spirituality in attempts to prove humanness and civility in contexts where little of Indigenous culture and values has been seen as acceptable.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG202H1 Judaism
Term: Winter
Description: An introduction to the religious tradition of the Jews that explores key themes as they change from ancient times to today. The set of themes will include: the Sabbath, Study, Place, Household, Power. Each year will focus on one theme. We will read holy texts, modern literature, history, ethnography, and philosophy, covering each theme in a range of genres and across the diverse span of Jewish experience.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG203H1 Christianity
John Marshall and Katie Maguire
Term: Fall
Description: We explore the multiple religious traditions of Christianity and follow key themes as they have changed throughout the last two millennia. The themes might include: the Bible and its translation; missionizing and colonial practices; belief and conversion; authority and power; capitalism and Christianity. The course will equip students to understand how and why Christianity has come to exert such influence around the globe. No familiarity with the Bible, Christianity, or the academic study of religion is assumed.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG204H1 Islam
Term: Fall
Description: An introduction to the Islamic religious tradition that explores its diversity and development, from its inception to the modern period. Themes include Pre-Islamic Arabia, the life of Muhammad and the Qur'an, the development of the notion of Sunna and Hadith, Islamic religious communities (Sunni, Shiite and Ismaili traditions), Sufism, and religious practices. The course will emphasize the complexity of the Islamic tradition both in its classical phase and in modernity including Islam in the diaspora.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG205H1 Hinduism
Term: Fall
Description: This course explores themes relating to the religion of Hindus, called Hinduism since modernity. Topics include the canonical literatures, philosophies, and doctrines of Hinduism, along with the debates surrounding them; lived Hinduism, and the texts that inform its practice and experience; activities considered quintessential to Hinduism, such as temple visits, yoga, and venerating a guru; and the vibrant spectrum of Hindu expression one encounters in the diaspora. The course will equip students with fluency in core concepts and practices of Hinduism, as well as an understanding of Hindu history as one of dynamism and transformation.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG206H1 Buddhism
Term: Fall
Description: This course explores the development, spread, and diversification of Buddhist traditions throughout Asia and into North America. Basic Buddhist teachings will be explored through key themes, which might include embodiment, ethics, sexuality, race, art, sound and movement. In addition, students will investigate how Buddhist practics, such as mindfulness, have been shaped by, and even contributed to, forces like colonialism, Orientalism, capitalism, and white supremacy in the last hundred years or so in North America.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG209H1 Justifying Religious Belief
Term: Winter
Description: Beliefs typically characterized as “religious” concern such things as the existence and nature of the Deity, the afterlife, the soul, miracles, and the universe’s meaningfulness, ultimate purpose, or interest in the distribution of justice according to some plan. Common to these and other religious beliefs is that empirical evidence for them are lacking – at least so say all those who insist that rational beliefs require justification and that justification comes either from observing publically-accessible phenomena or some kind of solid scientific reasoning. Religious beliefs, it further seems, run counter to modern conceptions about who counts not only as an acceptably rational, but also as a fully moral agent. How might people who hold – and want to continue to hold – religious beliefs respond to these accusations and doubts?
The course examines these basic epistemological and moral challenges to religious belief as well as the various strategies available to religious believers who are confronted with such demands for justifications. By doing so, we will aim to understand better whether religious beliefs of various sorts could count as rational, whether reasonable people might disagree with each other about the very nature of reality and morality, and whether anyone who falls short of common intellectual and social ideals of rationality and reasonableness ought to be tolerated.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG211H1 Psychology of Religion
Marsha Hewitt and Filip Andjelkovic
Term: Winter
Description: The psychoanalytic study of religion examines the nature of religious beliefs, experiences and practices as creations of mind and culture. What is the nature of and relationship between belief and knowledge, subjective and objective experience/reality, phantasy, dreams and reality? How do the individual and social unconscious create and shape religious beliefs, experiences and practices? These and other questions are explored in order to understand the ways in which psychoanalysis, as a critical theory of religion, contributes to theorizing the ways in which individual psychology is also social psychology. Included in our focus is a consideration of mystical, visionary, esoteric and paranormal experiences in the psychoanalytic study of religion. Insights from evolutionary and cognitive psychology and neuroscience will be considered as well in our discussions of psychology and religion.
Distribution Requirement: Social Science
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG230H1 Religion, Law and Society
Term: Fall
Description: The role of religion in state law is a perennial source of contention across the globe. From the right to wear religious garments in public to constitutional commitments to a certain faith, such debates continuously reshape the notions of state and religion as we know them. However, these debates also have deep histories that revolve around foundational questions: What makes certain states "secular"? Who gets to determine what constitutes the "religious" from the secular? And what is so "modern" about modern secular law in the first place? In this course, we will develop the tools to critically address such questions and understand how they are continuously negotiated in practice. We will pay attention to the particularities of religion and state as they have emerged since the nineteenth century before turning to case studies from both Western Christian-majority and non-Western Muslim-majority contexts. In comparing these cases, we will discover how modern states differ significantly in their approaches to legislating and adjudicating religion in law. At the same time, whether proclaiming to separate religion and state or to conflate them, modern states often contend with the same underlying challenges.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG231H1 Music and Religion: From Bach to Kanye West
Term: Fall
Description: What is music to religion? This course is an exploration of religion and music from a global perspective. 'World' music will be placed in comparative frameworks with various 'world' religions in order to understand how music has been and continues to be at the core of religious narratives, rituals, beliefs, and cultural performances.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG232H1 Religion & Film
Term: Fall
Description: The role of film as a mediator of thought and experience concerning religious worldviews. The ways in which movies relate to humanity's quest to understand itself and its place in the universe are considered in this regard, along with the challenge which modernity presents to this task. Of central concern is the capacity of film to address religious issues through visual symbolic forms.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG233H1 Religion and Popular Culture
Term: Fall
Description: A course on the interactions, both positive and negative, between religion and popular culture. We look at different media (television, advertising, print) as they represent and engage with different religious traditions, identities, and controversies.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This course is a fully online course.
RLG234H1 Language and Religion
Elizabeth Mills and Anne-Marie Fowler
Term: Winter
Description: What is language to religion? And how is it used by humans and divine agents? This course moves across traditions, examining types of communications from speech to rhetoric to book to revelation; and types of communicators from hermit to evangelist to deity. We will see language used to clarify and to obscure; to exclude and to liberate. And we will think about miscommunication too: the message lost in transmission. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of other languages is required.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG235H1 Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Term: Winter
Description: This course equips students to understand how norms and practices of gender and sexuality are deeply entangled with religious imaginations and traditions. We will examine how ritual. scriptural and legal traditions enable and constrain embodied and political power. Readings will draw from feminist, womanist, queer, and other perspectives. With a combination of in-class discussions, critical reading exercises, and short essay assignments, students will strengthen their awareness of transnational intersections of religion, gender and "religio-racial" formations. You will develop skills in analyzing the role of popular culture and legal and religious texts in shaping norms and experiences of gender and embodiment.
Distribution Requirement: Social Science
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG239H1 Special Topics: Spirituality and Nature
Term: Winter
Description: Humans, in diverse cultures and throughout history, have felt a deep connection to their environment, and to the plants and animals, and cycles and seasons that characterise them. At times, this has fostered a deeply sustainable relationship between humans and the nature of which they are a part. While modernity has often marginalized spiritual connections to nature, in the context of the environmental crisis, they may be one of our greatest resources. This course will explore various nature spiritualities as they are expressed in literature, arts and practices, from various traditions, including world religions and indigenous traditions and folk practices.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG241H1 The Earliest Christians
John Kloppenborg and Martin Arno
Term: Winter
Description: What can the earliest writings of Early Christianity tell us about the movement and its founding figure? We examine these writings critically and historically in order to understand the immense variety of early Christianity as it grew within Judaism and within the Greco-Roman World. No familiarity with Christianity or the New Testament is expected.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG242H1 Bible in America
Term: Winter
Description: This course offers a critical examination of the role of biblical texts (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and New Testament) within the history, literature, and culture of the United States of America. It will employ a range of methodological perspectives to explore the use, influence, and impact of biblical interpretation especially regarding claims of American identity. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew or Greek is required.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
MHB255H1: Intermediate Modern Hebrew I
Term: Fall
Description: Intensive study of written and spoken Hebrew.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
MHB256H1: Intermediate Modern Hebrew II
Term: Winter
Description: Continued intensive study of written and spoken Hebrew.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG260H1 Introduction to Sanskrit I
Term: Fall
Description: The first semester of an introduction to Classical Sanskrit for beginners. Students build grammar and vocabulary, and begin to read texts in Sanskrit. Complete beginners are welcome. The course is held online via live webinar participation. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This course is a fully online course.
RLG261H1 Introduction to Tibetan I
Term: Fall
Description: An introduction to Classical Tibetan language for beginners. Development of basic grammar and vocabulary, with readings of simple texts. Two sections of the course may be offered: an on-campus class meeting and an online section. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This course has an in-person section and a fully online section.
RLG263H1 Introduction to Sanskrit II
Term: Winter
Description: The second semester of an introduction to Classical Sanskrit for beginners. RLG260H1, or equivalent, is a pre-requisite. Students continue to build grammar and vocabulary, and use that knowledge to read texts in Sanskrit. The course is held online via live webinar participation. The final exam will require attendance on the St. George campus, or in another authorized exam centre.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This course is a fully online course.
RLG264H1 Introductory Pali I
Term: Fall
Description: This introductory course offers an opportunity to students interested in Buddhism to read, analyze, and discuss select simple passages from the scriptures of the Theravada canon in their original language. It will cover philosophical, psychological, and narrative texts and their interpretation, as well as provide a first exposure to the Pali Language. Complete beginners are welcome.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This course has an in-person section and a fully online section.
RLG265H1 Introductory Pali II
Term: Winter
Description: This course offers an opportunity to students interested in Buddhism and with basic knowledge of Pali to read, analyze, and discuss select simple passages from the scriptures of the Theravada canon in their original language. It will cover philosophical, psychological, and narrative texts and their interpretation.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This course has an in-person section and a fully online section.
All 300-series courses normally presuppose that a student has already completed, by the first day of the course, at least 4.0 FCEs (or their equivalent). Students who do not meet the specific Prerequisites listed in the Calendar, but believe they have adequate academic preparation, should contact Phoebe, the Undergraduate Assistant, at religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca regarding entry to the course.
JCR303H1 Global Christianities
Reid Locklin and Edward Escalon
Term: Winter
Description: An advanced introduction to the diverse traditions and movements of contemporary Christianity, with special emphasis on the global South. Sample topics include new ecclesial communities, the rise of Pentacostalism and independent churches, liberation and indigenized theologies, and new forms of martyrdom in the 21st century.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
JNR301H1 The History of Buddhist Meditation
Michael Ium
Term: Fall
Description: This course will survey historical, cultural, and textual contexts for Buddhist meditative and contemplative practices and techniques.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Note: This course is fully online.
JRN301H1 Disability in the Hebrew Bible and Related Texts
Term: Fall
Description: The Hebrew Bible (sometimes called the Old Testament) has influenced ideas about disability in societies across the globe for thousands of years. Yet, notions of disability in the Hebrew Bible may be strikingly different from what we might imagine. This course explores how some biblical texts and related ancient literature conceptualize disability in relation to issues of ethnicity, sexuality, beauty, age, social class, religious expression and so on. We will examine a number of these issues both in their ancient context and in some more recent interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew is required.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
JPR374H1 Religion and Power in the Postcolony
Term: Fall
Description: This course examines the role of a variety of religious forms and spiritual practices in the politics of postcolonial societies, tracing their genealogies from the colonial period to the present. Cases taken principally from Africa and Asia.
(Given by the Departments of Political Science and Religion)
Distribution Requirement: Social Science
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG303H1 Evil and Suffering
Term: Fall
Description: The existence of evil poses a problem to theistic beliefs and raises the question as to whether a belief in a deity is incompatible with the existence of evil and human (or other) suffering. This course examines the variety of ways in which religions have dealt with the existence of evil.
Distribution Requirement: Social Science
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG304H1 Language, Symbols, Self
Term: Winter
Description: Theories of the self that involve the constitutive role of language in its various forms. Problems of socially-conditioned worldviews and sense of self as related to discourse. Myth, symbol, metaphor, and literary arts as vehicles for personality development and self-transformation along religious lines.
Distribution Requirement: Social Science
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG307H1 Museums and Material Religion
Term: Fall
Description: Museums have long collected and curated religious objects for public audiences, with missionaries as a primary collections source. Multiple visits to the Royal Ontario Museum and other museums will enable students to think critically about how museums received and presented these objects, while engaging with the challenges of museum curation.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG309H1 Religion and Human Rights
Term: Fall
Description: We will explore the dynamic inter-relations of women, religion and human rights within a contemporary global context. Our aim will be to include both theory and praxis. Our approach will be intersectional, cross-cultural, inter-religious and inter-disciplinary. In addition to weekly group meetings, there will also be an opportunity to integrate individual interest in student papers and oral presentations and reports. We will do this by drawing on both academic and non-academic resources including UN Women, and women’s grassroots and global initiatives.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Note: This course is offered fully asynchronous for Fall 2022.
RLG310H1 Modern Atheism and the Critique of Religion: Hobbes to Kant
Term: Fall
Description: This course examines select modern thinkers and their critical approaches to the nature and significance of religious beliefs and practices. Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant are among the major thinkers studied.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG313H1 Love, Sex, Family
Term: Fall
Description: This course equips students to understand the religious roots of modern formations of gender, sexuality, and kinship, focusing in particular on Judaism, Christianity and New Religious Movements. Topics we will cover include: the transformation of traditional religious structures into the modern “religion of romantic love, ” the reshaping of religious practices within the modern nuclear family and its gendered division of labour, the persistent religious entanglements within not only normative but also queer and transgressive gender performances and kinship structures, the political asymmetries within which different religious modernities emerge, and the role of literature in preserving religious enchantment in modernity.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG315H1 Rites of Passage
Term: Winter
Description: We examine rituals of transition from one social status to another (such as childbirth, coming of age, marriage,) from theoretical, historical and ethnographic perspectives. We to the importance of rites of passage in the construction of gendered identities.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG318H1 Religion and Nature
Alexander Hampton and Katarina Pejovic
Term: Fall
Description: How did we get to where we are now? What caused humans to become so alienated from the nature of which they are a part, that they are so destructive of it? This course will examine how religion, particularly that of the Latin West, has shaped our understanding of, and interaction with, nature. In particular, the course examines the shift from understanding nature as sacred and revelatory, to seeing it as a commodity and resource. Students will explore the ethical results of this shift for the environment, and contemporary attempts to recover a notion of sacred nature.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG319H1 Death, Dying and Afterlife
Term: Winter
Description: This course introduces students to various religious approaches to death, the dead, and afterlife. Through considering different ways in which death has been thought about and dealt with, we will also explore different understandings of life and answers to what it means to be human.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour
RLG321H1 Women and the Hebrew Bible
Term: Fall
Description: This course provides a critical examination of the Hebrew Bible (sometimes called the Old Testament) with an emphasis on women characters. It examines the historical and literary contexts of Hebrew Bible texts and engages diverse methods of contemporary biblical scholarship with particular attention to issues of gender. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew is required.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG324H1 The Apostle Paul and His Enemies
Term: Winter
Description: An examination of Paul’s life and thought as seen in the early Christian literature written by him(the seven undisputed letters), about him (the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of Paul)and in his name (falsely authored compositions in early
Christianity.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG325H1 The Uses and Abuses of the Bible
Term: Winter
Description: From politics to popular culture, the Bible has shaped people and nations for good and for ill. This course introduces the Jewish and Christian Bibles and considers case studies of how biblical texts have been interpreted. The Bible has been used to bolster slavery and white supremacy and to inspire political liberation movements. It has been used to justify annihilation of Indigenous people by Christian colonists yet given hope to Jews that next year in Jerusalem might be better. How can the same "book" be used for such different purposes? This course focuses on the cultural and political consequences of biblical interpretation. An underlying premise is that the Bible is not static but is rather a nomadic text as it is continuously interpreted in ways that sometimes contribute to human flourishing, but also can result in violence, human diminishment, or death.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG327H1 Hospitality and Ethics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Term: Winter
Description: Refugee crises in modern times have raised questions concerning what degree of hospitality is owed the stranger or foreigner whose motivation is a new, safe, and secure home rather than being treated as a guest passing through on a time-limited visa. Jacques Derrida's ideas of both conditional hospitality (e.g., tourists) and unconditional hospitality (e.g., strangers) need to be explored from the perspective of philosophical and ethical traditions including Jewish, Christian, and Muslim ethics.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG332H1 Reasonable and Radical Hope
Term: Winter
Description: Human beings have a natural and necessary interest in the prospects of their happiness, their moral improvement, and a progressively more just world. When, to what extent, and on what basis our hope for these things could be reasonable have been central questions in philosophy of religion since the Enlightenment. But genocides and cultural devastation (e.g., the Holocaust or the fates of some Indigenous communities) have compelled more recent philosophers to ask not only about rational hope, but also radical hope. This course explores reasonable and radical hope, first by unpacking the well-established philosophical question of our what we may reasonably expect from ourselves and our world, and then turning to the issue of humans' capacity to persist when their community and its culture face extinction, i.e., when they may no longer expect anything.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG335H1 How Religions Spread: Networks and Religion
Term: Fall
Description: Social neteworks are critical in the maintenance and spread of religions. This course offerse an introduction to network concepts and, focusing on ancient Mediterranean religions, examines how religious ideas diffuse; networks and the creation of social capital; intersections of religion and trade or business networks; and the collapse of networks.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG336H1 Religion and its Monsters
Jennifer Harris | Brief overview of course
Term: Winter
Description: A course looking at the theories about and responses to the monstrous in global religious traditions and practices.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG338H1 Religion and Religiosity in Israel/Palestine
Term: Winter
Description: Focusing on present-day Israel/Palestine, this interdisciplinary course is intended for students interested in exploring a wide range of theoretical questions and examining their applicability to the study of sites, texts, rituals, and politics in the region. We will address the history of the land's consecration from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim perspectives. Students will analyze specific sites associated with religious congregations and ritual practices, and study them within their local and regional contexts. Looking at the complex relationships between religious-political movements and institutions within Jewish and Muslim societies, we will delve into various attempts to secularize (and theologize) Jewish and Palestinian communities and their discontents. Rather than providing the typical emphasis on conflict, the course is a journey into the history and present of the land and its diverse communities.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG341H1 Dreaming of Zion: Exile and Return in Jewish Thought
Term: Fall
Description: An inquiry into the theme of exile and return in Judaism, often called the leading idea of Jewish religious consciousness. Starting from Egyptian slavery and the Babylonian exile, and culminating in the ideas of modern Zionism, the course will examine a cross-section of Jewish thinkers - ancient, medieval, and modern.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG342H1 Judaism in the Early Modern Era
Term: Fall
Description: The development and range of modern Jewish religious thought from Spinoza, Mendelssohn and Krochmal, to Coehn, Rosenzweig and Buber. Responses to the challenges of modernity and fundamental alternatives in modern Judaism.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG343H1 Kabbala: A History of Mystical Thought in Judaism
Term: Winter
Description: A historical study of Kabbala and the mystical tradition in Judaism, with emphasis on the ideas of Jewish mystical thinkers and movements.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG346H1 Time and Place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Term: Fall
Description: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each have their own sets of prayer times, frequency of prayers and their locations such as home, synagogue, temple, church or mosque. They have completely different calendrical systems. Holiness is also connected to geographical locations, which often serve as destinations of pilgrimage. This course will examine linear and cyclical times and the concepts of holiness in time and place by looking at primary sources in translation. We will investigate the persistence of holy places, how their names continue, and how gender issues are part of the jurisdictional politics of disputes over place and time.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG350H1 The Life of Muhammad
Term: Fall
Description: This course examines Muhammad's life as reflected in the biographies and historical writings of the Muslims. Students will be introduced to the critical methods used by scholars to investigate Muhammad's life. Issues include: relationship between Muhammad's life and Quran teachings and the veneration of Muhammad.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG351H1 The Quran: An Introduction
Term: Winter
Description: The revelatory process and the textual formation of the Quran, its pre-eminent orality and its principal themes and linguistic forms; the classical exegetical tradition and some contemporary approaches to its interpretation.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG355H1 Living Islam
Term: Winter
Description: This course introduces students to studies of contemporary Islam that are based on extensive periods of research with Muslim communities in their own languages using anthropological methods. What do such studies teach us about the varied ways Muslims engage their religious tradition in the modern world? And how can such studies make us think differently about gender, economy, medicine, and secularism?
Distribution Requirement: Social Science
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG362H1 Rama of Ayodhya: From Literature to Politics
Term: Fall
Description: A study of the figure of Rama, from his genesis in the Valmiki Ramayana, to his historical evolution as a cultural and political icon through mediaeval and modern India.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG371H1 Interdependence
Term: Winter
Description: This year, we will explore socially engaged Buddhist ethics and practice from Theravada and Mahayana perspectives. Our theme is interdependence - how this ethic informs, and manifests in socially engaged Buddhist approaches to human rights, peacebuilding, racial, gender, and environmental justice and inter- and intra-faith dialogue. Our focus will be contemporary, intersectional, and diverse.
Readings will include excerpts from English translations of Theravada and Mahayana scriptures, as well as contemporary readings by male and female monastic and lay teachers in Asian and North American contexts. In addition to weekly group meetings and discussions, there will also be an opportunity to integrate individual interests in student research papers and individual and/or group presentations and projects. We will draw on academic and non-academic resources, as well as local, grassroots, and global initiatives.
Weekly meetings will begin with the traditional land acknowledgement honouring our ongoing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. We will then have a presentation and discussion on the weekly topic and required readings, followed by a short break. In the second hour, we will focus on Buddhist mindfulness practices that are a support and training in socially engaged Buddhism.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG373H1 Buddhist Ritual
Term: Winter
Description: Daily worship, the alms round, life-crisis celebrations, healing rituals, meditation, festivals, pilgrimage, the consecration of artefacts and taking care of the ancestors are among the forms of Buddhist ritual introduced and analyzed in this course. Liturgical manuals, ethnographic descriptions and audiovisual records form the basis for a discussion of the role of ritual as text and event.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG375H1 Biohacking Breath
Term: Fall
Description: This course explores Buddhist practices of manipulating - or "biohacking" - the breath or "winds" (prāna) of the human body, covering relevant theories of human anatomy and physiology and the religious, philosophical, and medical teachings alongside which these practices developed. Intentional breathing practices in the history of European thought and the role of breathwork in contemporary global biohacking movements will also be studied for comparison and contrast. During experiential lab sessions, basic prānāyāma and other breathing practices will be learned and practiced with the guidance of qualified teacher-practitioners.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG376H1 Touching the Earth
Michael Ium
Term: Winter
Description: A study of Buddhist relationships with the earth, including “earth touching” contemplative practices, ritual ceremonies for land spirits or sacred sites, geomantic and cosmographic traditions, the use of landscape imagery to depict enlightenment, contrasts between wilderness and urban spaces, and contemporary ecological movements in Buddhist communities and their responses to climate disruption. The course combines experiential learning approaches and outdoor excursions with reading and written work.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG377H1 Intermediate Tibetan I
Term: Fall
Description: This course provides a review of classical Tibetan grammar through the study and translation of texts from a variety of genres. These include selections from Tibetan philosophical works, canonical Buddhist discourses, Tibetan historical writings, autobiographies, and dream narratives.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG383H1 Interpretation and Dialogue
Term: Winter
Description: Can we understand the beliefs and behaviours of people whose religious and cultural outlooks differ radically from our own? Do we always impose our preconceptions on them? Or are there cognitive, imaginative, and emotional resources that enable us to see poeple on their own terms? These questions, which beset the practices of anthropologists and historians of religions, are central to the philosophy of the human sciences. This course explores the theoretical issues involved in interpretation and dialogue across cultural and historical divides by reading seminal texts by Dilthey, Collingwood, Heidegger, Quine, Davidson, Winch, MacIntyre, Benedict, Geertz, and Rorty.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG389H1 Special Topics: Heretical and Irreligious Thought from Antiquity to the Modern Age
Term: Winter
Description: This course offers you the opportunity to explore philosophical, theological, political, and scientific ideas condemned by the religious establishments of their time from antiquity to the modern age. Penalties for perceived affronts ranged from censure to capital punishment and affected such diverse figures as Socrates, Al-Ma'arri, Sabbatai Zevi, Galileo, Hobbes, Spinoza, Thomas Paine, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Darwin, and many others. We will examine the critical and philosophical content of the ideas that earned these figures condemnation as heretical or irreligious thinkers, the differences between these labels, and the current acceptability or ongoing resistance of those ideas to contemporary religious and cultural values.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG393H1: Graphic Religion: Myth and the Spiritual in Graphic Novels
Term: Winter
Description: Survey of themes connecting religious ideas, symbols, and representations with graphic novels and sequential art. The course will explore techniques of story-telling in mythic and visual representations in religious traditions and explore how these techniques and images are mirrored within popular comic-style (sequential) art.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
(Looking for an independent study course instead?)
JPR458H1 Postsecular Political Thought: Religion, Radicalism and the Limits of Liberalism
Term: Fall
Description: The course will examine debates on postsecularism and religion's public, political role as articulated by political thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas, by focusing on politically radical or revolutionary challenges to liberalism in the 20th and 21st century, especially from the postcolonial world, whose theoretical arguments are grounded upon or draw their inspiration from religious traditions, doctrines and practices. (Given by the Departments of Political Science and Religion)
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG404H1 Departmental Capstone - Research
Term: Winter
Description: This seminar gives you the chance to explore the role of research in undergraduate education, and to construct a retrospective view of your and others' experience of studying religion in the university. Each student will also develop a research project and will examine a range of audiences for their research, from specialists in their field, to wider academic scholars, to an audience beyond the university. Interaction between students will be a central feature of the work of the seminar. Open to students in the Majors and Specialists of the Department for the Study of Religion.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG405H1 Departmental Capstone - Practical
Term: Fall
Description: A capstone seminar that emphasizes integration of the study of religion with contemporary public life in the development of a research project, locating a research specialization in relation to non-academic contexts, and communicating the process and results of a research project to non-academic audiences. Open to students in the Majors and Specialists of the Department for the Study of Religion.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG407H1 The World of "World Religion"
Term: Fall
Description: A seminar examining the development of western discourses of world religions. We shall explore the roots of these discourses and examine their implications in the academic study of religion in North America and in other parts of the world. Open to students in the Majors and Specialists of the Department for the Study of Religion.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG415H1 Performance, Gender, Religion
Term: Fall
Description: “Performance, Gender, Religion” will explore gendered religious experience through the lens of performance and theories of performativity. Topics include: The inculcation of religious norms through required gender performance, the performative dimension of religious ritual, and performance culture within religious communities. We will not only consider the ways in which "manhood" and "womanhood" are performed, we will also consider performances that critique and confront these categories. Students will have the opportunity to engage in a research project on gender performance from a specific cultural context.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG416H1 Topics in Religion and Gender: Imagining Bodies and Embodiment
Term: Winter
Description: What do religious communities assume about human bodies? What is the role of the body in religious practice? Do different kinds of bodies lead to different religious experiences? This course is an advanced study on the intersection of religion and gender, focused specifically on the topics of bodies and embodiment. It explores the different ways that human bodies have been imagined and presented within religious traditions. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, students will examine religious expressions concerning bodies and bodily experiences from a variety of religious traditions.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG418H1 Advanced Topics in the Philosophical Study of Religion: Shame and Humiliation
Term: Fall
Description: This seminar will try to understand shame's ambiguous place in our moral lives (shame's potential to motivate us to be better versions of ourselves versus its potential to cripple our sense of moral worth). It moreover considers shame's ambiguous potential in the light of a thesis - Nietzsche's - about the Greek versus Christian backgrounds of our current understanding of morality. I'd encourage especially students interested in religious ethics, psychology of religion, or the history of moral ideas to consider the seminar. But anyone who has noticed that public shaming has grown more common recently might also find lots of food for thought here.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG422H1 Kant's Theory of Religion
Term: Winter
Description: An advanced study of Immanuel Kant's theory of religion, as developed in major writings such as Critique of Practical Reason and Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Emphasizes rational ethical criteria as the basis for analyzing the doctrines, symbols, and institutions of historical religions.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG426H1: Religion in the Public Sphere Service-Learning Internship
Term: Winter
Description: In a 55-hour placement with a community partner, students are given an opportunity to learn about and reflect upon the ways that religion and religious diversity shape public life. How do individuals and organizations recognize and negotiate the intersections of religious diversity, culture, and public space in the context of engaging with public policy? Through critical classroom discussions, readings, reflections, and meaningful work for and with front-line community partners, community-engaged learning offers students the opportunity to integrate academic knowledge with experiences outside the classroom, to challenge themselves, and to explore their values and future directions.
Application Process: By the end of November, interested students must complete the online application form to indicate their interest in and expectations of community engaged learning, as well as any previous volunteer/co-op/internship experience they may have had. Following submission of student applications, the course instructor(s) will contact student applicants individually to conduct a brief informational interview. Interviews will be completed by December, at which time students will be directly enrolled by the Department.
Prerequisite: RPS coordinator's permission required for admission to course
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
RLG433H1 Maimonides and His Modern Interpreters
Term: Winter
Description: An introduction to The Guide of the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides, and to some of the basic themes in Jewish philosophical theology and religion. Among topics to be considered through close textual study of the Guide: divine attributes; biblical interpretation; creation versus eternity; prophecy; providence, theodicy, and evil; wisdom and human perfection. Also to be examined are leading modern interpreters of Maimonides.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG447H1 Magic and Miracle in Early Christianity
Term: Fall
Description: Magic, religion, astrology, alchemy, theurgy, miracle, divination: all of these phenomena characterize the context and practice of ancient Christianity. This course examines the constitution of these categories, the role and character of these phenomena in the Graeco-Roman world, and the interaction with and integration of these phenomena by ancient Christianity.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG460H1 Ramayana in Literature, Theology, and Political Imagination
Term: Winter
Description: This course explores how this conception is the result of a historical process by examining documentable transformations in the reception of the Ramayana. Our focus will be on the shift in the classification of the Ramayana from the inaugural work of Sanskrit literary culture (adi-kavya) in Sanskrit aesthetics to a work of tradition (smrti) in theological commentaries, the differences between the Ramayana's ideal of divine kingship and medieval theistic approaches to Rama's identification with Visnu, the rise of Rama worship, and the use of Rama's divinity in contemporary political discourse.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG463H1 Tibetan Buddhism
Term: Winter
Description: The course begins with a brief discussion of Indian Buddhism: the life of the Buddha and some important Buddhist doctrines. Then we turn to Tibet. After an overview of how Buddhism was adopted by the Tibetan imperial court, we turn our attention to four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Geluk) - their history, doctrines, and meditation practices. The course includes modules on death and dying, ritual violence, and on one important saint (Milarepa). We will also examine the Bön tradition (Tibet's indigenous religion) and the history of Islam in Tibet.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG476H1 Caste and its "Other"
Srilata Raman and Stephanie Duclos-King
Term: Fall
Description: This course focuses on works of South Asian fiction and non-fiction that deal with caste in Indian society. By looking at a range of texts from Classical Sanskrit literature in translation to contemporary radical Dalit perspective writings, we aim to arrive at an understanding of why, despite social and economic mobility, caste remains the indelible marker of modern Indian identity even today.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG481H1 Islamic Intellectual Tradition
Term: Winter
Description: This seminar covers three main areas of the Islamic intellectual tradition: legal, theological and mystical. Each section will be covered by reading an original work translated into English with the aid of secondary literature. The seminar will develop the students' knowledge of the classical Islamic tradition. Students will choose a research topic and develop and present to the class a synopsis of their research. The seminar culminates in writing a research paper on one aspect of the Isalmic religious tradition.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Independent Studies Courses
RLG490Y1 | RLG491H1 | RLG492H1 | RLG493H1 | RLG494Y1
Description: Student-initiated intensive research courses supervised by faculty mmebers of the Department. The student must obtain both a Supervisor's agreement and the Associate Chair's approval and fill out the Independent Studies Course form in consultation with the Supervisor with information on the proposed course in order to register. The form is available on our website. The maximum number of Independent Studies courses one make take is 2.0 credits. Deadline for submitting applications to the Department, including Supervisor's approval, is the end of the first week of classes of the session. A 1.0 credit course may be compressed into a single session or spread through two sessions; a 0.5 credit course may similarly be done in either one session or across two sessions. These courses are open to RLG majors and specialists only. Not eligible for CR/NCR option. Please send completed forms and direct any questions to religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities