This course examines how Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity interacted in late antiquity. It explores the processes by which each community (in competition with the other and shaped by a wider social context) formed an identity for itself by establishing an "orthodox" set of beliefs, rituals, moral guidelines, and spiritual ideals.

A detailed study of selected aspects of Judaism.

How have screen-based media technologies (cinema, television, computers, smart phones, video games, etc.) shaped the practice and representation of religion from 1890s till today? What is the relationship between screen cultures and visual religion? Topics may include: magic shows and early cinema; religion in classical Hollywood; devotional websites or zombies.

This course uses theories and methods from the study of religion to understand narrative and visual aspects of films that are not explicitly religious. Genres of films may include comedy, horror, action, drama, and sci-fi. Approaches may include the tudy of rituals, symbols, myth, gender, politics, sacred figures, and psychology.

This course examines the role and representation of various biblical traditions, teachings, and themes in a few selected works of fiction. Topics may include: covenant, freedom, evil, conquest, love, power, suffering, parables, education, and grace. No previous knowledge of the Bible is required.

A broad historical survey of Christmas ranging from the earliest accounts of Jesus’ birth in the New Testament up to contemporary debates about the place of Christmas and its celebration in the public sphere.

A detailed study of selected aspects of Christianity.

Though it promises eternal life, Christianity was forged in death. By considering narrative accounts of early Christian martyrdom, including the development of the cult of the saints, this course examines how persecution and death have shaped the culture of Christianity for two thousand years.

A study of the ways in which Protestant and Catholic Christians contributed to and reacted against the complex intellectual, political, and social changes in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

The course studies passages of Zoroastrian texts, principally from pre-Islamic times, in English translation. These passages are studied from the doctrinal point of view, and placed in the context of the history of Zoroastrianism. In addition, their points of contact with the texts of other religious literatures are analyzed.

The course analyzes the religious practices and the daily practices having a religious background, performed by the Zoroastrians in modern times. Their historical development is analyzed, considering, for the medieval and modern times, the influence of the environment of the countries where Zoroastrians lived, and where they represented a minority. Also highlighted is the significance of these practices in relationship to the Zoroastrian doctrinal system.

Spanning a millennium from the fall of Rome to the Protestant Reformation, this course explores the many ways in which the western branch of Christianity, based in Rome, shaped the religion, society, culture, and politics of emerging Europe.

A detailed study of selected aspects of Islam.

An introduction to the Quran, the scripture of Islam. Surveys of the history of the text and the development of traditions of Quranic interpretation and commentary, including tafsir and ta'wil, from early to modern times.

This course examines the encounter between Jews and Muslims during the Middle Ages, when a large majority of the Jewish people subsisted under Muslim rule: an overview of the religious, political, communal, material and intellectual settings of the Judaeo-Muslim experience.

This course will examine the origins of Syriac-speaking Christianity on the eastern fringes of the Roman world, and chart its spread into Persia, Central Asia, China, and India. In contrast to the situation in Byzantium and in the Latin West, Christians in Asia lived (with few exceptions) as religious minorities under Zoroastrian, Muslim, Confucian, or Hindu rulers. We shall consider how these Christians adapted to regional cultures, engaged the political structures of the day, and developed their own unique theological and spiritual traditions.

An exploration of the changing face of Christianity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries focusing on such topics as: Christianity in the Global South; new religious movements within Christianity; and intra- / inter-religious debates and conflicts in contemporary Christianity.

Beginning at the end of the Apostolic Age and continuing up to the seventh-century confrontation with early Islam, this course examines the evolution of Christianity from a persecuted sect to the predominant religion of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, with a particular focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamian contexts.

By the end of the fourth century, Constantinople was becoming the centre of a distinct branch of the Christian Church. This course will explore the formation and development of this "Eastern Orthodox" Christianity, including its theology, religious practices, social and cultural impact, and relationship to political power.

A detailed study of selected aspects of South Asian Religions.

This course explores historical encounters between Indo-Islamic and Hindu cultures in pre-colonial South Asia, including narratives of conquest and resistance, iconoclasm and the reuse of images, patterns of courtly dress, translations of Sanskrit sources into Persian, indigenous Islamic practices, and sufi and bhakti poetry.

Using primary texts as well as films, art, and architecture, this course explores the interbraided cultures of Islam and Hinduism in South Asia from the early modern period through the present day. It examines colonialism and nationalism’s effect on Hinduism and Islam and religion’s role in modern South Asian culture.

How does film capture religious experience? This course explores this question via nonfiction films about Hinduism in both South Asia and the diaspora, with attention to various nonfiction film genres and various modes of religious life (e.g., pilgrimage, Vedic ritual, asceticism, family-based devotion).

Since antiquity, icons and images have been a key mode of religious life in South Asia. How has the rise of mass media reshaped image-based religion? How has religion shaped mass-mediated visual culture in South Asia and beyond? This course pursues these questions through a series of case studies on topics like poster art, comic books, film, monumental statues, WhatsApp, TikTok, and other media.

This course focuses on the history of the image in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, and Islam in South Asia. What is an icon, an image, a representation, and what is the ritual function of each form? When is the destruction of an icon and act of “iconoclasm”? In this course we consider acts of political plunder, reuse and rebuilding (spolia), and the power of the visual in shaping South Asian religious lives.

A detailed study of selected aspects of Buddhism.

The course deals with the historical development of doctrines and controversies pertaining to the most important schools of Buddhist thought up to the end of the first millennium CE. It discusses the relationship of reason, belief and practice while giving a closer look at Buddhist positions on specific philosophical questions.

A study of Buddhist institutions and practices, this course varies in focus. Topics may include devotion, alms-giving, meditation practices, literature, hagiography, monastic codes, artistic and material histories, and/or the political and economic features of Buddhist institutions in particular times and places.

The course looks at popular Buddhist educational storytelling, courtly dramas, Buddhist poetry or the life-histories of the buddhas, bodhisattvas and Buddhist holy men and women. It reflects on how popular motifs, aesthetic styles and literary media have helped transport Buddhist doctrines across various times, regions and languages.

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.