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Program Requirements
The Minor Concentration in Religion and Globalization offers students a comparative and historical exploration of the ways in which the world's religions are shaping (and are shaped by) the social, political, and economic dynamics of globalization, modernization, secularization, and postcolonialism.
Complementary Credits
18 credits with no more than 9 credits at the 200 level.
3 - 6 credits from:
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RELG 309 World Religions and Cultures They Create (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The constitution and mutual entanglements of selected religions and cultures originating and thriving in varied regional contexts. Focus on highlighting the symbolic (visual, aural) expressivity of religions via ritual, myth, and rational speculation and its impact on high and popular cultures.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Salvatore, Armando (Fall)
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RELG 331 Religion and Globalization (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : An exploration of the distinctive ways in which the world's religions are shaping and are shaped by the dynamics of globalization. It examines the multiple intersections of religion and globalization through a variety of themes and case studies in human rights, development, education, ecology, gender, and conflict
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Nelson, Samuel (Fall)
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 319 when topic was "Religion and Globalization"
Religious Traditions
3 - 6 credits from:
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ISLA 200 Islamic Civilization (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to, and survey of, the religious, literary, artistic, legal, philosophical and scientific traditions that constituted Islamic civilization from the 7th Century until the mid-19th Century.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Abisaab, Rula (Fall)
Fall
Note: All readings are in English.
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ISLA 210 Muslim Societies (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : An introduction to the different, often disparate, ways in which Muslims live and think in the modern world (19th-21st centuries). Muslim social contexts across the globe and cyberspace.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: G眉rb眉zel, Aslihan (Winter)
Winter
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RELG 204 Judaism, Christianity and Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : An introduction to the beliefs, practices, and religious institutions of these three world religions.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Salvatore, Armando (Winter)
Winter
-
RELG 207 Introduction to the Study of Religions (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This course is an introduction to classic and contemporary approaches to the academic study of religions. This includes perspectives from philosophy, theology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, phenomenology, and feminism. Students are also exposed to applications of these perspectives from visiting scholars who treat some aspect of a religious tradition in light of current-day interests and events. The primary objective is to introduce students to the principal theories and methods that have shaped our understanding of religion, its various meanings as well as its roles and functions in society.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Kanaris, Jim (Winter)
Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken RELG 255.
Winter
-
RELG 252 Hinduism and Buddhism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The interaction of Hinduism and Buddhism in India with special reference to the law of Karma, caste, women, ritual, death, yoga, and liberation. Determination of interpretative principles for understanding the religious psychology of Hindus and Buddhists.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Braitstein, Lara E; Stainton, Hamsa (Fall)
Fall
-
RELG 253 Religions of East Asia (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This course introduces East Asia's major religions comparatively by addressing the continuous exchange of ideas and practices between traditions. Rather than adopting a mere chronological approach, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism will be discussed thematically, taking in to account topics such as gender constructs, the secular and the sacred, material culture, and the apparent contrast between doctrine and practice.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Bauer, Mika毛l (Winter)
Winter
-
RELG 334 Christian Thought and Culture (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Examines selected cultural and countercultural features of Christianity, with attention to theological anthropology and, for example, to political and legal philosophy, or social and bioethics, or the creative arts.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Farrow, Douglas B (Fall)
Winter and Summer
Prerequisite(s): One prior course in Christianity, or permission of the instructor.
-
RELG 348 Classical Hinduism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Surveys classical Hinduism through Sanskrit learning traditions. Topics include: Vedic literature, fables, ethics, statecraft, erotics, liberation, and epic literature.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Sharma, Arvind (Winter)
All texts are read in English translation; no prior knowledge is assumed.
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RELG 387 Introduction to Jainism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This course provides an introduction to Jaina religious culture, including elements of its history, philosophy, cosmology, and monastic and lay practices. It also focuses on constructions of Jainism芒鈥⑴絪 precept of universal non-violence (ahimsa), and addresses Jaina responses to contemporary social and ethical issues.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): RELG 252
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RELG 388 Introduction to Sikhism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : An introduction to the historical and religious context in which the Sikh religion developed, its principal doctrines, practices and institutions and its evolution from its origins to the present, both inside and outside India.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Themes in Religion, Culture, and Globalization
9 credits from:
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ISLA 310 Women in Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The socio-legal status, conditions, and experiences of various groups of women in Middle Eastern societies. These features are explored within the framework of Islamic feminism and Western feminist discourses, and the tensions and conflicts between them. The dynamics of seclusion, veiling, and polygamy are explored in connection to Medieval Arab ruling elites as a background to some of the discussions and debates over the status of women in modern postcolonial Arab society. Socio-economic divisions, state policies, patriarchy, and colonialism are investigated as key factors in understanding the modern historical transformation of gendered relations and women's roles.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
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RELG 256 Women in Judaism and Islam (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The role of women in Judaism and Islam from the point of view of institutionalized religious traditions and of women's religious subjectivity; how women's spiritual and social roles within their religious traditions are shaped by Revealed Law, Holy Text and the Authority of Interpretation. Comparative sociology of religion approach.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Summer
-
RELG 270 Religious Ethics and the Environment (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Environmental potential of various religious traditions and secular perspectives, including animal rights, ecofeminism, and deep ecology.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Goodin, David (Winter)
Fall: Macdonald Campus (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue). Winter: Downtown Campus.
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RELG 271 Religion and Sexuality (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Exploration of intersections between religion, gender and sexuality in diverse cultural, historical and contemporary contexts.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Blake, Lisa; Robathan, Lucie (Winter)
Winter
-
RELG 315 Special Topics in Religion 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Topics of current interest in or between world religions.
Terms: Fall 2020, Summer 2021
Instructors: Kaell, Hillary Diane (Fall) Brockman, Andrew; Rosini, Amanda (Summer)
- RELG 317 Special Topics in Religion 2 (3 credits)
-
RELG 318 Special Topics in Religion 3 (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Topics of current interest in, or between, world religions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
-
RELG 319 Special Topics in Religion 4 (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Topics of current interest in, or between, world religions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
-
RELG 326 Christians in the Roman World (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A social-historical examination of Christians within the complex cultural, political, ethnic and religious contexts of later Greco-Roman antiquity, focusing on changing relations among different varieties of Christian, as well as on interactions and conflicts among Christians, Jews and polytheists. Other topics to be considered include martyrdom, orthodoxy and heresy, and Gnosticism.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
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RELG 332 Conversations Across World Religions (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Exploration of various themes across the world's religions, including a range of living faith traditions.
Terms: Summer 2021
Instructors: Robathan, Lucie; White, Anna Lee (Summer)
Prerequisite(s): One 200 level RELG course and permission of the instructor.
Field trips to local religious communities may be included as part of the course.
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RELG 339 Gender & Sexuality in Buddhism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Religious perspectives on the body, gender and sexual activity in Buddhist cultures.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Core course for the Women's Studies Minor program
Prerequisite: RELG 252 or permission of the instructor
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RELG 340 Religion and the Sciences (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Philosophies of science and of religion have created a more positive dialogue on questions of method, symbolism and rationality. Examines key issues (e.g. creation and evolution; objectivity and involvement; determinism and freedom) raised by natural and social sciences, and various possible solutions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Fall and Summer
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RELG 341 Introduction: Philosophy of Religion (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Introduction to the subject. Faith and reason, theistic arguments, values and destiny, the problem of evil, religious language.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Green, Garth (Fall)
Fall
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RELG 353 Gandhi: His Life and Thought (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A study of the life and thought of Gandhi.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Sharma, Arvind (Fall)
Winter
-
RELG 354 Chinese Religions (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This course studies the Confucian classics, philosophical and religious Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism and also examines the syncresis between the Chinese religions and Indian Buddhism.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Lai, Rongdao (Fall)
Fall
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RELG 356 Gender & Sexuality in Hinduism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Religious perspectives on the body, gender and sexual activity in Hindu cultures. Topics include: dharma and sexual practice; female sexuality; Bhakti and Tantra; same-sex relations; hijras; eroticism in the literary, visual, and performing arts; colonialism, Hindu nationalism, and the politics of gender.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prerequisite: RELG 252 or Permission of the instructor.
-
RELG 358 Religion and Cinema in India (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Surveys religion in India through key films, assuming no prior knowledge of South Asian cinema. Discussions will focus on issues of religion, visual culture, and representation in the study of Indian film. Thematic focus will vary from year to year, on a range of topics such as nationalism, devotion, secularism, and censorship.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Pinkney, Andrea Marion (Fall)
Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken RElG 547 when topic was "Religion and Cinema in India".
This course may require additional contact hours for the screening of films.
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RELG 366 Rivers, Religion, and Environment in South Asia (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This class explores the significance of major South Asian river systems, including Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, and Yamuna, in classical and contemporary terms. In Hindu scriptures, rivers may be incarnate, emplaced goddesses; in contemporary South Asia, rivers are central to Hindu pilgrimage while facing environmental pressures from pollution, overuse, flooding, and drought. Finally, rivers of the Indian subcontinent cross and delineate international boundaries, creating friction between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. As key lifelines shared in multi-religious South Asia, are rivers vulnerable wards of the state鈥攐r valuable 鈥榗itizens鈥� who must be recruited to do their part?
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): RELG 252 or Permission of Instructor
-
RELG 370 Religion and Human Rights (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Social justice and human rights issues as key aspects of modem religious ethics. Topics include: the relationship of religion to the modem human rights movement; religious perspectives on the universality of human rights; the scope and limits of religious freedom; conflicts between religion and rights.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Winter
-
RELG 371 Ethics of Violence/Non-Violence (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Forms of violence and the reaction of religious groups are assessed both for their effectiveness and for their fidelity to their professed beliefs. Different traditions, ranging from the wholesale adoption of violent methods (e.g., the Crusades) to repudiation (e.g., Gandhi; the Peace Churches).
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Summer
-
RELG 375 Religion, Politics and Society (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A study of contemporary religious traditions in the light of debates regarding secularization, the relation of religion and politics, and the interaction of religion with major social institutions.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Nelson, Samuel (Winter)
Fall
Restriction: U2 and U3 students
-
RELG 376 Religious Ethics (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A discussion of ethical theory will provide the background for an analysis of the relationship between religious world views and moral reason. Attention will be given to the way in which the dominant religious traditions view the exemplars of religious virtue, and to how the virtues exemplified are related to and justified by the faith tradition in which they operate.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
-
RELG 378 Pilgrimage, Heritage,
and Tourism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Explores the history of pilgrimage and emergence of religious tourism in global contexts. Introduces the religious heritage of Montreal and its history as a Roman Catholic pilgrimage centre (St. Joseph鈥檚 Oratory) and adopts thematic approaches to pilgrimage and tourism in interreligious perspectives (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish).
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Pinkney, Andrea Marion (Winter)
Class work includes a local field visit
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RELG 380 Religion, Philosophy, Modernity (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Through primary source readings, this class will examine the intellectual history of this change, will identify the agents of this change, both philosophical and theological, and will consider the significance and implications of inhabiting a 'modernity' that is, and understands itself as, 'secular.' Charles Taylor's recent book, A Secular Age, narrates a historical development, from a 'pre-modern' condition, in which it was 'virtually impossible not to believe in and encounter God,' to a modern and contemporary situation in which 'faith is an embattled option.' Within the 'context of our self-understanding,' 'secularism' has become a 'default option.'
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
-
RELG 444 Indian Ocean Religious Networks (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This seminar class explores cultural exchanges among maritime networks of Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims in South Asia and Southeast Asia, in classical, pre-modern, and contemporary terms. Key themes to be considered include: sovereignty, society, and religion, within the context of historically evolving cultural relations around the Bay of Bengal. Taking an inter-religious approach to understanding maritime cultural interactions, class readings and discussion include: foundational theories of 鈥淚ndianization,鈥� reflection on 鈥渓ocalization,鈥� the 鈥淪anskrit cosmpolis,鈥� and emerging theoretical contributions based on current archaeological, epigraphic, and art historical discoveries in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Deptl. approval: Nov.17, 2015.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): RELG 252 or permission of instructor
-
RELG 451 Zen Buddhism: Poetry
and Art (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A general overview of Japanese Zen Buddhism through the reading of poetry, diaries, sculpture and architecture.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Bauer, Mika毛l (Fall)
Prerequisite: six credits in EAST/RELG or permission of instructor
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RELG 454 Modern Hindu Thought (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A study of the developments in religious thought with special reference to such thinkers as Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Gandhi, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Radhakrishnan.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Sharma, Arvind (Winter)
Winter
Prerequisite: RELG 252
-
RELG 455 Religion and the Performing Arts in South India (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This course focuses on the place of religion in historical representations and performance practices of "classical" South Indian performing arts such as Bharatanatyam dance and Karnatak music. In particular, it lays emphasis on politics of the twentieth-century reinvention of these arts by elites in the Tamil and Telugu-speaking regions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Fall
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 363
-
RELG 456 Theories of Religion (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The history of the academic study of religion from its beginnings in the 19th century until the present. Key texts by figures such as Max Muller, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss and Clifford Geertz will be studied.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Kanaris, Jim (Fall)
Fall and Winter
Restriction: For Religious Studies Majors and Honours students or with permission of the Instructor.
-
RELG 479 Christianity in Global Perspective (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Examines varied expressions of Christianity as a global religion with a particular focus on Asia, Africa and Latin America from the 18th century to the present.
Terms: Fall 2020
Instructors: Zink, Jesse (Fall)
Winter
Prerequisite: A 300 level course in Christianity or permission of the Instructor.
-
RELG 544 Ethnography as Method in Religious Studies (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Ethnography as method informs disciplines from Area Studies and anthropology to linguistics and religious studies. Students will acquire a critical perspective on emic/etic subjectivity in Religious Studies, and a framework to apply ethnography in their research. Coursework covers classic ethnographies, new interventions, and ethnographies of particular relevance for religious traditions in a given year.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of six credits in 300 level RELG courses and/or permission of the instructor.
-
RELG 547 Special Topics in Hinduism (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A research-oriented seminar dealing with topics in Hindu studies.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Stainton, Hamsa (Winter)
Fall and Winter
Prerequisites: 6 credits in Indian religions, philosophy of religion, philosophy, or permission of the instructor
-
RELG 554 Religions of South Asia (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This course familiarises students with major issues in the interpretation of South Asian religions with concern for historical-, regional-, and socio-political studies. Students will become conversant with the work of key contributors in the study of South Asian religions in terms of methodologies, major works, and the reception and audience of their writings.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): 6 credits in Asian religions or permission of the instructor.
-
RELG 555 Honours Seminar (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Current trends in the study of religion, including the approaches of critical theory, feminism, post-modernism, and post-colonialism.
Terms: Winter 2021
Instructors: Kanaris, Jim (Winter)
Winter
Restriction: For Religious Studies Honours students or with permission of the Chair of the Religious Studies B.A. Committee
-
RELG 559 Caste and Dalits: Historical and Political Perspectives (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This seminar addresses religion, caste, and the Dalit community (formerly known as "untouchables" in India through a range of historical and ritual contexts. Topics include representation in the Hindu textual tradition, colonialism, conversion, caste-based violence, caste and nationalism, non-Brahmin political assertion, and the contemporary reservation system.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Winter
Prerequisites: RELG 252 and one 300 level course or higher in South Asian Religions
-
RELG 571 Ethics, Medicine and Religion (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The seminar will discuss a variety of topics related to medicine and religion from the point of view of ethics, such as the pact of care between a patient and a physician, the Hippocratic oath, the notions of autonomy and vulnerability, the definitions of personhood and human dignity, the question of rights for people with cognitive disabilities, the debate about the role of religion in bioethics.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
-
RELG 572 Religion and Global Politics (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : An exploration of the resurgence of global religions in geo-political and international relations in the post Cold-War era. It examines the complex roles that religious traditions play in democratization, human rights, conflict, and development.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
-
RELG 573 Religions in Global Society (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : This seminar is devoted to the study of a plurality of often intersecting religious traditions in a globalizing world, based on interdisciplinary scholarship drawing from history, sociology, anthropology and archaeology. It starts from locating religious phenomena within intersecting social, cultural and political fabrics around the world. It articulates the relation between a multi-faith appreciation of the role of religions in a variety of societies and the emergence of diverse patterns of secularity in them. It facilitates a rich understanding of a complex past to shed light on the new challenges of globalization, including the opening of horizons of postsecular understandings and arrangements.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2020-2021 academic year.
