2025-2026 St. George Campus Course Descriptions
Please see the Timetable Builder for course timings, and review Academic Dates & Deadlines.
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. Information and offerings are subject to change.
Questions? Please contact the Undergraduate Administrator at religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca.
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)
RLG104H1 Conspiracies, Social Media, and the Rise of New Religious Movements
Term: Fall
Description: Conspiracy theories are nothing new, but in the past few years we have all witnessed the meteoric rise of conspiracies such as QAnon via social media, which have taken on the elements of New Religious Movements. This course examines recent examples of new religious movements that might be thought of as "conspiritualities", that is, conspiracies with strong cult and religious overtones.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG105H1 Spirituality, Religion, and the Environment
Term: Winter
Description: This course explores the phenomenon of nature spirituality, and the wonder often associated with it. Readings will engage mystics and mountaineers, poets and painters, and farmers and foresters, all exploring the human-nature connection, often in the context of environmental crisis.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Note: This is a fully online course.
RLG106H1 Happiness
Kevin O'Neill | Happiness course couldn't be timelier in today's unsettled world (Article)
Term: Fall
Description: Are you happy? Today happiness is a metric by which a growing number of people asess the quality of their lives, with a range of experts offering innumerable life hacks and opportunities to optimize life. But what does it mean to be happy? And how have people tried to achieve this ever-elusive state? Situated squarely within the study of religion, this course considers how different traditions from around the world and for thousands of years have raised similar questions about happiness - not simply for the sake of reflection but also to do something about it. And their answers have varied: fast, meditate, pray, go to the desert, come together, get high, suffer, renounce God, and/or make lots of money. Readings will include selections from social theory and religious texts as well as a few authors who seem to be (against all odds) kind of happy.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG107H1 "It's the End of the World as We Know It"
Term: Fall
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)
RLG108H1 The Question of God
Term: Winter
Description: This course offers an introduction to the study of religion and to how the discipline has engaged with the figure of God. Issues covered include histories of God (including proclamations of the “death of God”); psychological and anthropological views on prayer, divine interventions, and God-human relations; God and empire/colonialism; feminist (and other subversive) re-imaginings of God; and atheism. Regardless of their own belief, students will learn to grapple with an inescapable figure, will learn about lived Islam and Christianity (and to a lesser extent Judaism), and will gain insights into a range of thinking tools offered by the study of religion.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG109H1 Heroes and Villains: Religion, Role Models & Cautionary Tales from Marvel and DC
Term: Fall
Description: What differentiates a hero from a villain? How are ethical issues addressed in the stories of such characters? Are Batman and Spiderman understood as role models? This course analyzes exemplary narratives from Pop Culture. We will consider examples from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as other forms of popular media. Students will compare these popular narratives with those produced by religious communities.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
MHB155H1 Elementary Modern Hebrew l
Term: Fall
Description: This course is designed for students with little or no experience in Hebrew. As such, it offers intensive training in the basics of 4 language skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Students will be able to recognize the Hebrew verb system's fundamental structures, learn its primary forms, and acquire the necessary basic vocabulary for everyday conversations. We will focus on reading: easy dialogues, passages without vowels, and short texts in simple Hebrew. Writing: short dialogues and paragraphs. Conversation: simple dialogues and stories. Comprehension: listening to short stories and recorded conversations.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
MHB156H1 Elementary Modern Hebrew II
Term: Winter
Description: The second half of a two-semester Modern Hebrew course for beginners is intended to strengthen the students' conversation skills and their reading, writing, and listening comprehension while further developing the cultural context of the language. Materials include simple stories and poems, digital media, film, comics, textbook exercises, and complementary class activities. In addition, students will be expected to deliver presentations in Hebrew and write about a range of topics, demonstrating an ability to acquire new vocabulary using print and digital dictionaries independently.
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
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 is offered fully online for the Winter semester.
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
Term: Winter
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 traces the socio-historical development of Buddhist traditions across the diverse regions of South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia from their foundations in early India to their transmission in the contemporary West. Although much of our time will be spent reading, grappling with, and discussing Buddhist literary works (premodern, modern), we will also consider the institutional and practical dimensions of Buddhism as a lived tradition. To that end, weekly readings and lectures will be supplemented with maps, images, and videos to highlight the vast geographical range and significance of Buddhist traditions over time, as well as their rich visual and material cultures. By the end of the course students are expected to have a solid understanding of the basic timeline of Buddhist history in Asia, together with the major figures, key concepts, central texts, and ritual practices comprising Buddhist traditions.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG209H1 Justifying Religious Belief
Term: Fall
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
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)
RLG213H1 Embarrassment of Scriptures
Term: Winter
Description: How do we interpret sacred texts? This course surveys interpretive approaches, methods, and traditions related to sacred texts. It covers a range of interpretive strategies such as scribal changes, commentary, visual interpretation, feminist retellings, and queer readings. The specific religious traditions, texts, and approaches will vary depending on the instructor. Students will increase their content knowledge of selected texts and their ability to critically engage texts. Prior exposure to the study of religion is not required. All readings will be in English.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG215H1 New Religious Movements
Instructor TBA
Term: Fall
Description: The saying goes that "Cult + Time = Religion". In this course, we will examine this assertion, looking especially at the development of recent religions, such as Scientology. This course will probe the history of scholarship on new religious movements (once known as "cult studies") and explore the challenges inherent in studying controversial movements.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG230H1 Religion, Law and Society
Term: Fall
Description: The course examines various issues, including: Canadian society and secularization; religious pluralism and legal pluralism; the role of religions in public contexts; land and property; marriage and women’s rights; and the place of minority religious communities.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG232H1 Religion and Film
Term: Winter
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)
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)
RLG237H1 Religion, Medicine, and the Human Body
Term: Winter
Description: Throughout much of human history, considerations of the wondrous workings and frightening frailty of the human body occupied a large role in religious thought and practice. This course examines how religion influenced the development of scientific thought about physiology and medicine, as well as how scientific knowledge was integrated into religious beliefs. Possible topics of discussion include attitudes towards the differences among the sexes, public health needs and the coercion of individuals, the significance of stages of life and aging, contraception and abortion, the relation between mental and physical health, and how to face the prospect of death and disease appropriately. We will also explore the role of pilgrimage sites in healthcare. Finally, we discuss the particular internal conflicts and religious experiences of medical care professionals. Regions and time periods under discussion will vary by instructor.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breath Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG239H1 Special Topics: Introduction to Modern Philosophy of Religion
Term: Winter
Description: This course studies basic writings of foundational figures in European Philosophy of Religion. These include Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Hegel and Marx. Topics include rational approaches to religious concepts, the interface of religious thinking and political order, skepticism concerning religious explanations of the world, and dialectical historical approaches to rethinking religious ideals and values.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breath Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG241H1 The Earliest Christians
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)
RLG243H1 Naked and Not Ashamed: The Book of Genesis
Term: Fall
Description: This course provides a critical introduction to the book of Genesis. It examines the historical and literary contexts of Genesis and engages diverse methods of contemporary biblical scholarship, such as narrative analysis, gender analysis, and history of interpretation. This course highlights the use of Genesis in various Jewish and Christian communities and in popular culture, including music, film, and visual arts. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew or Greek is required.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
MHB255H1 Intermediate Modern Hebrew I
Term: Fall
Description: This course will further enhance students' Hebrew language skills. With the context of contemporary Israeli and Jewish culture in mind, the course focuses on (1) Reading: unadapted texts and simple articles in regular Hebrew. (2) Writing: the beginning of practical writing on topics discussed in class, writing about personal experiences, and writing structured compositions. (3) Conversation: conversational skills developed by regular participation in class presentations and discussions of current events and cultural issues; role play and participation in dialogues and informal expressions. (4) Comprehension: listening to recorded short stories in easy Hebrew. (5) Grammatical Skills: Completing the syntactic study of verb conjugation in different tenses.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
MHB256H1 Intermediate Modern Hebrew II
Term: Winter
Description: This course of Intermediate Hebrew is intended for those who completed the requirements of intermediate Hebrew I. Intermediate Hebrew aims to instill more excellent proficiency, enrich vocabulary, and deepen the student's understanding of the cultural context of Israeli Hebrew. Subjects include current affairs, Israeli society, and cultural traditions. Added emphasis will be placed on language registers and grammatical and syntactic nuances, with materials ranging from children's books to television programs. By the end of the semester, students will complete their understanding of the Hebrew verb system and main preposition words.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG260H1 Introduction to Sanskrit I
Instructor TBA
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 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
Instructor TBA
Term: Winter
Description: The second semester of an introduction to Classical Sanskrit for beginners. 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.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This is a fully online course.
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 religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca regarding entry to the course.
JNR301H1 The History of Buddhist Meditation
Term: Winter
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)
RLG307H1 Museums and Material Religion
Instructor TBA
Term: Winter
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 Representation (1)
RLG308H1 Migration, Religion and City Spaces
Term: Fall
Description: Immigrants have transformed cities through religious practices. Explore how transnational migration has affected religious diversity and vitality in metropolitan areas. Through discussion, site visits and analysis, students will examine the ways that immigrants use religion to make home, challenges around the establishment of new religious structures, and policy designed to accommodate new religious practices and communities..
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG309H1 Religion and Human Rights
Term: Fall
Description: We will explore the dynamic inter-relations of women, ethnicities and minorities, among others, within the context of religion in this age of human rights, focusing on the contemporary global context. Our aim will be to include both theory and praxis. The approach will be intersectional, cross-cultural, inter-religious and inter-disciplinary. We will do this by drawing on both academic and non-academic resources, grassroots movements as well as global initiatives to approach these issues.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG311H1 Gender, Body and Sexuality in Asian Traditions
Guldana Salimjan
Term: Fall
Description: A study of women in the religious traditions of South and East Asia, including historical developments, topical issues, and contemporary women's movements.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG312H1 Gender, Body and Sexuality in Islam
Term: Fall
Description: This course explores attitudes towards sexuality, gender, and women’s bodies in Islamic thought and history. We will read foundational religious texts, classic works of law and ethics, poetry, and historical documents, as well as contemporary reflections by Muslim feminist thinkers. Topics to be discussed include sexual ethics within and outside of marriage, consent to marriage and divorce, contraception and abortion, menstruation, modest dress, gender-based segregation, same-sex sexual attraction, and gender non-conformity.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
JSR312H1 Queer Religion and Religiosities
Term: Fall
Description: This course will introduce students to key terms, theories, and debates in Queer and Religious Studies and to the history of queer identities as they are expressed within various religious traditions, textx, and communities. It asks how dominant heteronormative discourses on gender and sexuality are adhered to, legitimized, negotiated, and contested within various religious traditions. The course will also allow students to interrogate how power and power relationships are shaped by sex, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, age, and ability in the world of religion.
RLG317H1 Religion, Violence, and Non-Violence
Instructor TBA
Term: Fall
Description: People acting in the name of religion(s) have incited violence and worked for peace. How can we understand this tension both today and in the past? Through examination of the power of authoritative tradition, collective solidarity, charisma, and acts of resistance, this course addresses religious justifications of violence and non-violence across varied historical and geographical contexts.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour
RLG318H1 Sacred & Secular Nature in Christianity
Term: Fall
Description: How did we get to where we are now? How did humans come to be so alienated from nature? This course will examine how religion, particularly that of the Latin West, has shaped the understanding of, and interaction with, nature on a global level. It examines the complex shift from understanding nature as sacred and revelatory, to its conceptualisation as a commodity and resource. Students will explore the ethical and cultural consequences of this shift for the human-nature relationship, and contemporary attempts to recover sacred notions of nature in the context of the environmental crisis. Check out the promotional video!
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
Note: This is a fully online course.
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)
RLG322H1 Early Gospels
Term: Fall
Description: Careful examination of the earliest “lives of Jesus” (‘gospels’) shows that they offer very different portraits of Jesus of Nazareth. The course will compare ancient biographical accounts of famous ancient figures such as Alexander the Great, the Caesars, and wandering philosophers with early depictions of Jesus, both the gospels that eventually were included in the New Testament, and extra-canonical or “apocryphal” gospels such as the Gospels of Thomas, Peter, or Mary.
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 dand 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 resut 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)
RLG328H1 Religion, Race, and the Legacy of Cain and Abel
Term: Winter
Description: Cain's killing of his brother Abel is one of the best known but least understood stories in the Bible. For thousands of years, interpreters have puzzled over the gaps and ambiguities of the story in order to piece together the how, what, where and why of this violent incident. This course explores the legacies of Cain and Abel across various religious traditions and in art, literature, and popular culture. It considers the surprising roles that this biblical story has played in modern ideas about religion, politics, and race. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew is required.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG331H1 Creation Narratives and Epistemologies
Term: Fall
Description: The course will examine the importance of Indigenous cultural knowledge and values as presented in various Indigenous Creation Narratives. Creation Narratives or Cosmological narratives have long been studied as mere mythology. Yet, it is in these very narratives that complex, layered, and nuanced epistemologies emerge. Often, these narratives not only lay the epistemological frameworks of cultural value systems, but they also contain what many refer to as original instructions and purpose for the “Original People”.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG334H1 Religion, Space and Diaspora
Instructor TBA
Term: Winter
Description: This course explores the transformation of religion, space and practices in diasporic settings. How is space adapted to the sensibilities of diasporic subjects, and how are the ritual practices that take place in those spaces transformed? The course examines historical and contemporary examples of the impact of diasporas, exile, and immigration on spatial practices in synagogues, churches, mosques, and temples, and ritual transformations in diaspora.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG338H1 Religion and Religiosity in Israel/Palestine
Term: Fall
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: Society and Its Institutions (3)
RLG344H1 Antisemitism
Instructor TBA
Term: Winter
Description: Explores how “Jews” have been viewed (often mistakenly and confusedly) in various contexts from pre-Christian antiquity to the contemporary world. Emphasis is on problems involved in defining and explaining antisemitism, especially concerning the difference between religious and racial forms of antisemitism.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
RLG346H1 Time and Place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Term: Winter
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)
RLG352H1 Post-Colonial Islam
Term: Winter
Description: This course will study Islam in a post-colonial framework. It will introduce students to the work of post-colonial studies, and how critical scholarship has transformed our understanding of monolithic concepts such as modernity, the nation and Islam. It will focus on the particular case of Islam in South Asia and the Middle East by exposing students to the transformative impact of colonialism. It will equip students with the tools to challenge the hegemonic notion of a singular 'tradition' in Islam by tracing its lineages in the post-colony.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
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 traditioin in the modern world? And how can such studies make us think differently about gender, economy, medicine, and secularism?
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG361H1 Hinduism: The Great Books
Term: Fall
Description: A study of the literatures of Hinduism in India and the diaspora, including issues of identity formation, nostalgic constructions of the "homeland", fictional representations, and the quest for authenticity.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG363H1 God and Love in Hinduism
Term: Winter
Description: A study of Hindu bhakti traditions through classical and vernacular texts, in conversation with colonial and post-colonial theoretical perspectives on the notion of "bhakti" in Hinduism.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and Its Institutions (3)
RLG366H1 Hindu Philosophy
Term: Fall
Description: A study of different schools, texts, and issues of Hindu philosophy.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG368H1 Yoga, Ayurveda and Other Therapies
Term: Winter
Description: The course surveys the textual sources of the practices of Yoga, Ayurveda and Hindu traditions such as domestic rituals, rites of passage and community centered religious activity. It critically evaluates the assumption of an unbroken continuity of tradition of these practices from antiquity onwards and comes to consider what they have come to constitute as a result of modernity and globalization.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
JPR364H1 Religion and Politics in the Nation State
Term: Fall
Description: This course will engage with contemporary debates on religion and politics in the context of the nation-state in our post-9/11 world, and will do so comparatively across a wide range of contexts. The emphasis will be on understanding the evolving relationship between religion and politics in liberal democracies, and examining challenges facing democratic politics from the religious sphere, both in the West, where secular liberalism is the dominant framework for discussing these questions, and in Africa, India, and the Middle East, where such a framework is more likely to be contested. The themes explored will include secularization, religious pluralism and tolerance, human rights regims, the idea of "civil religion", the impact of religion on party politics, the formation of identity and political community, the legal regulation of sometimes-competing claims based on religious faith, gender, and sexuality, and the rise of extremist forms of religious politics, conspiracy thinking, new online communities that lead to dangerous political outcomes, such as 'QAnon' and 'Plandemic'. Case studies will include the USA, Canada, France, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria.
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG371H1 Interdependence
Term: Fall
Description: An exploration of the Buddhist concept of interdependence, or interdependent origination, from doctrinal and contemplative perspectives, as presented in classic Buddhist texts and as used in contemporary environmental and activist movements globally.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG374H1 Buddhist Life Stories
Instructor TBA
Term: Winter
Description: This course explores the genres of autobiographyh and biography in Buddhist literature. The course will begin with theoretical studies on narrative and religious life-writing. We will then consider the development and distinctive features of auto/biographies and hagiographies in the literature of one or more Buddhist cultures, analyzing representative examples of these genres from a range of traditions and historical periods, and considering how these sources have been understood and used in secondary scholarship.
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)
Note: This course has an in-person section and a fully online section.
RLG380H1 Trauma, Healing & Transformation
Term: Fall
Description: This course focuses upon the psychology of religion from the perspectives of psychoanalysis, affective neuroscience, attachment theory and evolutionary psychology. We explore the role of entheogens, psycholytics and dreams in facilitating and shaping mystical experiences of unseen realms. We will explore relationships and boundaries between belief and knowledge, subjective and objective experiences, as well as phantasy, dreams and visions. How are the insights of the founders of the field being updated by contemporary neuroscientific and evolutionary theories? We consider visionary, esoteric and paranormal experiences along with the distinctions between mental health and pathology.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG381H1 Buddhism and Science
Term: Winter
Description: An introduction to interdisciplinary research on Buddhism and science. Topics to be considered may include the rise of Contemplative Science as a field; contemporary methods for studying types of meditation; how research on contemplative practices is influenced by philosophical, feminist, and queer studies work on consciousness, self, and embodiment; the global commodification of “spiritual” practices; and the impact of Buddhist social justice movements on the field.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG382H1 God and Communism
Anna Shternshis
Term: Winter
Description: The Russian Revolution of 1917 proclaimed the separation of Church and State in the newly created Soviet Russia and later, Soviet Union. How did it work in practice? This course will examine both policies that addressed Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and other religious practices and practices of how these policies were received and interpreted on the ground. We will read anti-religious propaganda materials created in the 1920s, memoirs and diaries of priests, rabbis and imams making sense of the 1930s, often when imprisoned in Gulag for their work, press materials and ego-documents of World War II, novels, poems and short stories addressing religious beliefs in the post-war Soviet Union. Finally, we will discuss the religious revival of the 1990s, when both indigenous religions and those brought in by Western missionaries have entered post-Soviet public sphere. All course materials will be provided in English translation.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and Its Institutions (3)
RLG383H1 Interpretation and Dialogue
Term: Winter
Description: How do people negotiate across different religions? Can we understand the beliefs and behaviors of people whose religious and cultural outlooks differ radically from our own? This course explores the theoretical issues involved in interpretation and dialogue across cultural and historical divides by reading key texts within the study of religion, including anthropological, historical, and philosophical approaches.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG388H1 Special Topics: Mapping Diaspora and Religion in the Digital Age
Guldana Salimjan
Term: Winter
Description: TBA
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG392H1 The European Enlightenment and Religion
Term: Fall
Description: This course explores some of the major thinkers of the European Enlightenment and their philosophical inquiries into the meaning and significance of religion as a set of cultural institutions. Special attention is paid to the analysis of religious concepts and institutions along epistemological, ethical, and political lines.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG393H1 Graphic Religion: Myth and the Spiritual in Graphic Novels
Instructor TBA
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?)
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
RLG411H1 Advanced Topics in Religion: Mystical Poetics
Term: Winter
Description: This course will consider some of the consummate poet-mystics of Western Christianity, including Iacopone, Dante, Hadewijch, Silesius, Traherne, and Blake. It will examine how the recording of mystical experience in poetic form allows the mystical writer to achieve a result not otherwise possible in discursive communication. Readings will explore how, through the practice of mystical poetry, language becomes approximate and playful, capable of giving presence to absence, materiality to the immaterial, and lexicon to the non-lexical. It is recommended that graduate students have some facility in at least one language in addition to language of instruction (Italian, Dutch, German).
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG415H1 Performance, Gender, Religion
Term: Winter
Description: This course 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)
RLG417H1 Radical Evil: Philosophical, Psychoanalytic and Religious Perspective
Term: Winter
Description: Are people innately evil, or do they become evil due to negative life experiences? Can a universal internal moral imperative rooted in an innate good will exist independently of self-interest? Some argue that human beings are motivated by amoral internal forces that are only shaped into moral action through diverse cultural learning processes. These questions are discussed from philosophical, psychoanalytic and religious perspectives.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG426H1 Religion in the Public Sphere: Community-Engaged Learning
Term: Winter
Description: In a 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.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG434H1 Modern Jewish Thought
Term: Fall
Description: Close study of major themes, texts, and thinkers in modern Jewish thought. Focus put on the historical development of modern Judaism, with special emphasis on the Jewish religious and philosophical responses to the challenges of modernity. Among modern Jewish thinkers to be considered: Spinoza, Cohen, Rosenzweig, Buber, Scholem, Strauss, and Fackenheim.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG449H1 The Sources of the Gospels
Term: Winter
Description: Investigation of the history of solutions to the Synoptic Problem from the eighteenth century to the present paying special attention to the revival of the Griesbach hypothesis and recent advances in the Two-Document hypothesis.
Distribution Requirement: HumanitiesBreadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
RLG453H1 Christianity and Judaism in Colonial Context
Ronald Charles and John Marshall
Term: Fall
Description: Sets the study of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism into relation with postcolonial historiography. Topics include hybridity, armed resistance, the intersection of gender and colonization, diaspora, acculturation, and the production of subaltern forms of knowledge. Comparative material and theories of comparison are also treated.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
JPR459H1 Fanaticism: A Political History
Term: Fall
Description: This seminar in theory will explore the modern history of the concept of ‘fanaticism’ and its role in the development of political modernity. A focus on the concept of the “fanatic” (and its cognates) from the perspective of its various uses in political and religious thought from the Early Modern period through the Enlightenment and up to the present day, provides a fascinating opportunity for a critical review of the secular, rationalist, and scientific assumptions underwriting modern political forms and concepts, especially those of liberal democracy. At the same time, the course will offer critical insight into the ways in which religious and political differences among colonial “others” were, and continue to be, central to the elaboration of Western theoretical discourse on fanaticism and extremism as forms of “political pathology”.
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG463H1 Tibetan Buddhism
Term: Winter
Description: Close study of major themes, texts, and thinkers in Tibetan Buddhism.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
RLG468H1 Special Topics in Buddhism: Transnational Buddhism
Term: Winter
Description: How and why do Buddhists move across borders, and what builds transnational Buddhist networks? Since its emergence in 5th century BCE India, Buddhism has traveled through people, texts, objects, and ideas, actively shaping and being shaped by cross-cultural exchange. From ancient pilgrimages and monastic routes to modern diasporas and digital spaces, mobility has been central to its evolution. This course explores Buddhism’s transnational dimensions from philosophical, anthropological, and historical angles, examining how traditions are transmitted, adapted, and redefined. We’ll analyze Buddhist movements at both micro (individuals, families, sects, linguistic adaptations) and macro levels (imperial patronage, trade, migration, global institutions). Through primary sources and case studies, students will gain insight into Buddhism as a dynamic, border-crossing tradition that continually negotiates global adaptation and local continuity.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
RLG471H1 Special Topics in Hinduism: Women in South Asian Religions
Arti Dhand and Christine Chojnacki
Term: Fall
Description: In Indian society, the role models of the women can vary greatly today as in the past. To investigate diverse aspects of the roles of women in religion, the course will be organised around three main themes. In the lay life, we will examine the various images of virtue, practices of observance and acts of patronage; in the ascetic life, we will look at the role of saints and nuns and the debates about their access to salvation, which vary from tradition to tradition and from period to period; and in the divine world, we will study the positions of the goddesses and their specific functions.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
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
UTM and UTSC Timetables
Please note that UTM and UTSC courses do not automatically count towards completion of a RLG program. If you have taken or are planning on taking a course at another campus and would like it to count exceptionally towards your program requirements, please email the Undergraduate Administrator at religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca. You can view UTM and UTSC courses on Timetable Builder.