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BTI Consortium | Last Updated November 14 - 9:00AM
Harvard Divinity School
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3694
Religion, Culture, and Society in Africa
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
Exploring the meaning of religion and its impact of on African culture and society broadly, this course will highlight both religious traditions and innovations. Instead of treating each of the religions of Africa, the triple heritage in the words of Ali Mazrui of indigenous African religions, Islam, and Christianity, as distinct and bounded entities, we will explore the hybridity, interaction, and integration between categories throughout Africa. Using case studies, a unique perspective on religious diversity on the African continent and diaspora will emerge. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as AFRAMER 186.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Jacob Olupona
R
3:00pm - 5:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3729
Anthropology of Ethics
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
This course provides an overview of recent anthropological scholarship on longstanding and difficult questions in the field of ethics, values, and moral philosophy. Drawing on a variety of case studies in anthropology broadly defined, some of the questions we will investigate are - the indivisibility between ethics and action, the tradeoffs between judgement, assessment, and fairness, the place of justification in practical reasoning and everyday life, the influence of avowed values on behavior, and the relation between violence and culpability.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Swayam Bagaria, Charles Hallisey
T
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3760
Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
This course explores the female divine - and supreme female beings - along with issues of gender and divinity. We read hymns praising Hindu goddesses Sri Laksmi, the great Goddess (Maha Devi), the Tamil goddess Apirami, and Bengal's Kali, while noting too how feminine divinity is constructed in environments where gods and goddesses both flourish. The course is also comparative, exploring the piety and cult of the Virgin Mary, also through famous hymns such as the Greek Akathistos, the Latin Stabat Mater, and a Tamil hymn praising Mary as mother of Tamil Catholics. This approach is sharpened by some attention to performative, social, visual dimensions, and by attention to contemporary feminist and theological insights, and thinking a bit about the fluidity of gender identities today. Not a survey, but an in-depth introduction. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1060.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Francis Clooney
MW
10:30am - 11:45am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4053
Elementary Pali II
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
This course is a continuation of Elementary Pali I. The goal of this course will be to complete the study of the major elements of grammar found in Pali and to strengthen the student's familiarity with the language patterns found in standard prose works. The student will begin to gain experience in a wider range of literary styles.
Professor
Class Day & Time
MWF
9:00am - 9:59am
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Elementary Pali I or equivalent (with the permission of the instructor). Note: Auditors not allowed. Additional section hour to be arranged.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4057
Reading Post-Canonical Pali II
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
This course is a continuation of HDS course offerings in Pali (Elementary Pali and Intermediate Pali) and focuses especially on the reading and interpretation of Theravada Buddhist commentarial texts composed in Pali. Course will include learning how to read Pali texts printed in non-Roman scripts; in the spring term, 2022, some texts will be read in Thai script.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Charles Hallisey
MW
9:00am - 10:15am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: Intermediate Pali II or equivalent (with instructor's permission).
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4212
Elementary Greek II
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
Continuation of 4211. Focus on the reading of portions of the New Testament, along with continued work in classical Greek grammar and syntax. Course has additional section hour to be arranged.
Professor
Class Day & Time
James Skedros
MWF
9:00am - 9:59am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: Successful completion of HDS 4211 or equivalent.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4229
Advanced Greek: Sacred Histories
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
In this course, we will read selections from Greek "historians of the sacred" - ancient authors who record the history, practices, and beliefs of their religious communities. We will spend some time on Jewish and "pagan" Greek authors, but the bulk of our course will be dedicated to reading selections from Christian ecclesiastical historians: Eusebius, Sozomen, Socrates and so forth. These authors are excellent examples of Late Antique Greek prose and vital sources for our understanding of early Christianity, but they are also foundational thinkers in the evolution of a western "philosophy of history." While reinforcing familiarity with Greek syntax and developing reading proficiency, this course will also provide an opportunity to ask interesting historiographical and philological questions, including: (1) how do different hisorians record the same events? (2) what language and terminology do historians use to refer to the Christian community? (3) what are the "theologies of history" suggested by the authors? (4) how are dissensions within the Christian community discussed by the authors?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Michael Ennis
W
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: Two years of college Greek or equivalent.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4453
Intermediate French Readings
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
This course is designed to help students gain proficiency in reading and translating texts related to theological French and religious studies, as well as academic French more broadly, at the intermediate level. Grammar and vocabulary are reviewed as needed. The syllabus may be adjusted according to the specific interests of the students enrolled in the course.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Pascale Torracinta
TR
5:00pm - 6:15pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: HDS 4451 Elementary French for Reading, one semester of French at the college level, or equivalent elementary language knowledge.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1103
Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 2: Latter Prophets and Writings
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
SP25
A critical introduction to the literature and theology of the Hebrew Bible, considered in light of the historical contexts of its formation and the interpretive contexts of its reception within Judaism and Christianity. The course, the second part of a divisible, year-long sequence, will focus on the Latter Prophets and the Writings. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as ANE 120b.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Andrew Teeter
TR
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1408
The Bible and the "Querelle des Femmes": From the Sacred Text to Women's Self-Awareness
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
SP25
This course will explore how the Bible became both a means to self-awareness and a defensive weapon for women in Renaissance Italy, women whose social opportunities had previously been limited by intentional marginalization and, above all, limited access to culture. Reading the Bible was not only a way for women to develop their spirituality: It gave them female role models from the Old and New Testaments, encouraging them to take their place in society and the political sphere. We will look particularly closely at texts written by women who, grounded in a strong classical tradition, re-interpreted Genesis in 16th- and 17th-century Venice to open up new social horizons using fresh biblical exegesis. These female readers overturned the condemnation of Eve and questioned her gender's subsequent inferior status, challenging the foundations of the patriarchal society around them and suggesting a path for how gender inequality could be overcome in Europe. Texts will be read in English translation.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Erminia Ardissino
T
9:00am - 10:59am
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1438
The Book of Proverbs: Seminar
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
SP25
A critical discussion of the Book of Proverbs in its entirety and a close reading of (at least) major sections of it in Hebrew. Among the topics considered are questions of worldview, literary design, poetic technique, ancient Near Eastern antecedents and parallels, and the relationship of the theologies in Proverbs to those of other currents in ancient Israelite thought. Includes a research-based paper. Prerequisites: an introductory course in the critical study of the Hebrew Bible and a very solid command of Hebrew grammar (any period). Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Hebrew 257.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Jon Levenson
R
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1672
Israel's Chosenness: Ancient Roots and Modern Manifestations
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
SP25
What is chosenness? What does it mean for God to choose a people? For a people to be chosen? What kind of role does this ideology play in Jewish tradition? In contemporary Judaism? In Zionism? These issues cannot be comprehended without tackling their ancient origins, from the Bible to the rabbis and early Christianity. At the same time, it is mandatory to acknowledge that contemporary processes are not simply modern manifestations of ancient debates. A double look is thus required in order to account for these issues: ancient roots and modern metamorphoses. It is this double look that this course is tailored to offer.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Shaul Magid, Ishay Rosen-Zvi
T
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2013
Christian Simplicity
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
Despite Jesus' teachings on simplicity of life defined as ordered relationships with time, money, food, and possessions the western Church today is largely silent on materialism and overconsumption, and their relationship to economic injustice and environmental degradation. In this course, we will explore the writings of the Christian counterculture that took Jesus at his word: the desert fathers and mothers of the 4th and 5th centuries; Benedict and the early monastics; St. Francis and the friars of the 13th century; John Woolman and the early Quakers; Thoreau; and Dorothy Day, and Wendell Berry among others. We will also engage with theologians and pastoral writers from the 1970s to the present who have argued that simplicity of life should concern not only vowed religious and intentional communities, but householder Christians as well. We will apply what we read to our own relationship with time, money, food, and possessions in a series of brief experiments.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Regina Walton
T
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2082
Spiritual Paths to Abstract Art
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
Approaching 20th-century abstract art through the lens of religious studies, this course explores alternatives to twentieth-century narratives of modern art centered on the existential crisis of a heroic-- usually male, Caucasian and secular individual. In contrast, we will center paths to abstraction in which a departure from or repurposing of the figure emanates from spiritual sources not usually associated with modernity. Locating the artists' work within their biographies and their communities, the course focuses on abstraction as a vehicle for delving intersections of spirituality with history, race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. Religious movements and experiences that led to abstraction, rather than the artistic styles that resulted, serve as the organizing principle for the syllabus. We will attend to the outsize interest of abstract artists in Theosophy, as well as to paths to abstraction originating outside of Europe, and/or grounded in Indigeneity, Judaism, Christian Science, and the Occult. Artists treated include Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Mary Sully, Hyman Bloom and Betye Saar, among others. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1571.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Ann Braude
R
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2173
The Sacramental Imagination
BTI Category
Semester
Systematic Theology & Philosophy (Western)
SP25
Taking the Christian theology and ministry of the sacraments as our central case, this course will explore several central issues through a variety of resources: literary fiction, poetry, film, philosophy, theology, and liturgy. With a special eye towards the Christian ritual meal of Holy Eucharist or communion, we will explore the following issues, among others: the sacred and the mundane, presence and absence, materiality and embodiment, desire and consumption, feast and sacrifice, and the Christian roots of modern fascism. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1499.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Matthew Potts
T
12:00pm - 2:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2202
Queering the World: Dismantling Heteronormativity in Congregations, Communities, and Organizations
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
Queering the World: Dismantling Heteronormativity in Congregations, Communities, and Organizations introduces students to three systematic and process-oriented approaches: (1) Personality-Driven Queering, (2) Top-Down Organizational Compliance Queering, (3) Communal Queering. Utilizing Queer theory, ethics, Queer theology, ecclesiology, gender studies, and post-colonial methods, the course examines the cultural backgrounds, beliefs, morals, values, and heteronormative structures of American congregations, communities, and organizations. It proposes methods for restructuring, reimagining, and subverting heterosexist paradigms and binary assumptions that perpetuate oppression. Examining mainline open and affirming congregations, LGBTQIAP+ affirming communities, and organizations, the class considers differences and similarities in their approaches to queering. Key questions include: (1) What occurs when a congregation, community, or organization is queered? (2) Can queering theology, culture, and systems lead to more than critique, pointing toward renewal with new, liberating structures, practices, performances, and self-understandings? (3) Is it possible to Queer the organization one wishes to queer?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Brandon Crowley
R
9:00am - 10:59am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. To apply, send a statement to bcrowley@hds.harvard.edu with the following information: your name, degree program, year of study, school or university, previous relevant academic background, and a brief statement of your goals for the course.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2307
Faith, Hope, and Resistance in Catholic Theology and Spirituality
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
In the United States and around the globe, many scholars and activists committed to the cause of social justice are becoming increasingly frustrated with the language of democracy and human rights, and its alleged defense of the dignity of all people. Similarly, they are becoming increasingly impatient with churches and other forms of organized religion. Their frustrations are the consequence of the many failures—religious, moral, and legal—to embody the ideals behind the defense of the dignity of all people. And yet, faith, hope and resistance seem to always emerge in moments of great crisis. In this class we will study the complex relationship between faith, hope, and resistance, and hopelessness and pessimism. We will do so by examining different responses to this relationship coming from Catholic theology and spirituality in the 20th and 21st centuries in Latin America and the United States. Readings include the work of Miguel de la Torre, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Ignacio Ellacuría, Ada María Isasi Díaz, Nancy Pineda Madrid, Shawn Copeland, Tony Alonso, among others.This seminar offers students an opportunity to write a research paper. No prerequisites.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Raúl Zegarra
R
3:00pm - 5:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2390B
Colloquium in American Religious History
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP25
Presentation and discussion of the research of doctoral candidates in American religious history. Available, with instructors' permission, to Harvard doctoral students in other fields of religious studies or American studies. Note: Second half of an academic year bi-weekly course. Credit will not be earned unless both the fall and spring semester of the course is completed. Course may be taken on a Sat/unsat basis only.Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 3505B.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Catherine Brekus
T
6:00pm - 7:59pm
Grading Option
P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2674
Kant: Seminar
BTI Category
Semester
Systematic Theology & Philosophy (Western)
SP25
A research seminar to engage in a careful reading of selected major works of Kant relevant to theology and philosophy of religion. The seminar will focus on issues such as the nature and limits of reason, the concepts of freedom, morality, faith, and the idea of God. Prerequisite: significant work in theology or philosophy of religion. Permission of the instructor required. To apply for admission to the seminar, consult the Canvas page. Jointly offered as Religion 2542.
Professor
Class Day & Time
David Lamberth
W
3:00pm - 5:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2907
Introduction to Public Preaching
BTI Category
Semester
Preaching, Liturgy, & Ritual
SP25
Carrying forth the preaching pedagogy of Rev. Peter Gomes, this course focuses on the practice of textual preaching from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The course is taught by Rev. Daniel Smith (Senior Minister, First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC). It emphasizes exegesis, worship context, sermon content and delivery. Participants will be expected to prepare and deliver three essays and three sermons. The course is limited to 8 students. Petitions will not be reviewed until the first day of classes. All interested students should attend the first day of class at Memorial Church on Thursday, January 30, 2025. If more than 8 students show for the first class and wish to take the course, a list of admitted students will be posted later that day.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Daniel Smith
R
12:00pm - 2:30pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2938
Womanist and Black Feminist Approaches to Spiritual Care
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP25
This course offers a womanist and Black feminist framework for understanding and practicing spiritual care, centering the lived experiences and well-being of Black women. Rooted in the principles of intersectionality, social justice, and activism, the course explores how race, gender, class, and sexuality intersect to shape Black women's realities, illuminating the social conditions that harm the human spirit and cause suffering. Drawing on the historical foundation of Africana Women's Studies, this course emphasizes the need for holistic care of mind, body, and spirit within communal and relational contexts. Students will examine how spiritual care can function as a practice of resistance, healing, and empowerment, with particular attention to the impact of systemic oppression. Through interdisciplinary readings, students will engage critical lenses to explore how care practices must address the structural forces such as racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, etc. that undermine spiritual flourishing. This course challenges students to develop care models that integrate activism and community care, fostering the capacity to respond to social injustices. By the end of the course, students will have resources to offer spiritual care that not only nurtures individuals but also advocates for the liberation and collective well-being of communities.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Stephanie Sears
T
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course and requires instructor permission. Prospective students may email the instructor prior to the first class meeting to indicate their interest and be placed on a preliminary class list. Please note, the instructor will not reply to requests for enrollment but will consider, degree program, year, and reason for taking the class. In the event that the course is overenrolled, prospective students will be asked to write a short paragraph during the first class meeting to indicate the above information. Selected students will then be invited to enroll in the course via email by the end of the first day.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2971
Reading Howard Thurman Today
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
Howard Thurman was a key religious leader and thinker in the twentieth century. A mystic who also was a social activist, Thurman was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King and other leaders of the American civil rights movement. The religious philosophy that Thurman crafted is subtle and manifold, centrally concerned with tracing how inner life and social responsibility can be mutually constitutive of each other. This colloquium will explore Thurman as a religious thinker who can be a teacher to us today.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Charles Hallisey, John Brown
R
9:00am - 10:59am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3036
Judaism: Text and Tradition
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
SP25
A wide-ranging introductory exploration of the Jewish religious tradition, from its inception in biblical Israel though its rabbinic, medieval, and modern iterations. The central focus lies on the literary meanings and existential questions of the classical tradition, as well as on the relationships between texts, religious claims, and practices. We shall also consider some of the restatements, reformulations, and challenges to tradition that have arisen in modern times. No prerequisites. By permission only: students should submit an application to the instructor by January 18, 2025. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1250
Professor
Class Day & Time
Jon Levenson
TR
10:30am - 11:45am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3089
Reparations as a Spiritual Practice
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
This course focuses on the social movement and practices utilized by spiritual, faith based and ethically communities to understand and engage in reparations as a healing, constructive and decolonial process. This journey will provide an introduction to reparations through its history and major figures and frameworks; it then explores economic, experiential, theoretical and legal bases for understanding reparations as articulated in academia, social movements, and in advocacy arenas. We will examine historical calls for reparations and the current movement and the possibilities toward reparations for Blacks in the U.S. Building on the key histories,theories and ideas that inform reparations, we will frame this contemporary discussion through the lens of spirituality and decoloniality to understand slavery, reconstruction, civil rights, truth and reconciliation, restorative and transitional justice. We will explore various understandings and approaches to reparations from organizations and individuals at the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, National African American Reparations Commission, Caribbean Reparations Commission,Reparations4Slavery, UHURU solidarity, and many others.
Professor
Class Day & Time
David Ragland
M
12:00pm - 2:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3095
Religion, Materiality, and the Senses: A Course in Sensory Ethnography
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
What is the role of the senses in academic research on religion? What and how can we know by engaging with bodies and materiality? How can acknowledging emotions and affects be useful in the study of spirituality? In this course, students will explore some spiritual and religious experiences in dialogue with recent studies in sensory anthropology, the anthropology of consciousness, affect theory, and material studies. Through multi- media ethnographic works, class discussions, creative works, and independent readings, students will be able to reflect on the theory and practice of body-centered engagements with the study of religion.
This course has two dimensions: one theoretical and one practical. In this course we will:
- Read about research on sensory ethnography and sensory anthropology;
- Read about how multi-sensory ethnography can be and is used in the study of religion;
- Read about the role of materiality and the senses in religion and in the study of religion;
- Learn how to apply some sensory ethnographic methods through (almost) weekly practical exercises;
- Reflect and discuss together on some of the practical, theoretical, and ethical implications of ethnographic fieldwork.
- Experiment with participant observation and other qualitative methods
- Create and perform a non-denominational ritualEnrollment petitions will be reviewed as soon as they will be received. A wait list will be created, if necessary.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Giovanna Parmigiani
R
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3117
Animals and the Unseen
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
This course considers how we can write histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Students will be introduced to academic literature that has criticized scholarly and popular conceptions of humans having a special status, and assumptions that the religious sentience of non-human animals and the materiality of spirits cannot be studied academically. Students will then be introduced to a variety of sources containing rich information on religious animals and the supernatural from Islamic societies of the globe. In doing so, the course pays particular attention to how human and non-human animals were understood to be religious beings whose bodies and activities were always tethered to the Unseen. Students will be encouraged to explore how the divide between human and non-human animals might not have been evident in societies of the past and the present. Students will moreover be encouraged to engage how these sources may prompt us to remember, or rather realize, that all aspects of material life, including animals' bodies, physical resources and technologies, were inextricably linked to the imagined non-material realms of the Unseen. On the whole, this seminar class takes steps towards recounting histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1014TS.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Teren Sevea
T
12:30pm - 2:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3175
Indian Ocean Islam
BTI Category
Semester
Islamic Studies
SP25
Does thinking oceanically influence the study of Islam? Can we remember a people's history of the Indian Ocean world? This course considers these questions and others as it focuses on religious worlds within port cities and the networks of Indian Ocean Islam. The course examines how religion in port cities and islands was centered upon a plethora of saints, missionaries, divinities and other agents of Islam, who have been marginalized in academic literature on the Indian Ocean. It simultaneously examines how oceanic religion was intimately connected to economic, political and technological developments. Students will be introduced to scholarship on oceanic Islam and monsoon Islam, before they are introduced to a variety of sources on transregional Islamic networks and agents of Islam, including biographies, hagiographies, travelogues, novels, poems and ethnographic accounts. Students will, moreover, be encouraged to consider ways in which approaches to studying Islam could be enhanced by a focus on religious economies and networks, as well as the lives of "subalterns" who crossed the porous borders of the Indian Ocean world and shaped its religious worlds. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1821 and Islamic Civilizations 136.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Teren Sevea
M
3:00pm - 5:30pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3185
Mind, Spirituality, and Mental Health in Hinduism II
BTI Category
Semester
Hinduism Studies
SP25
This two semester course will interrogate the various ways in which discussions on Hinduism have been included or have illuminated issues in the contemporary psychological sciences. We will read how different intellectual approaches ranging from psychoanalysis, folk psychology, cognitive anthropology, global mental health, and psychedelic sciences engage the archives of Hinduism as well as how ideas and practices from Hinduism are employed to provide an alternative to the therapeutic and treatment registers found in these approaches. The second part of the course in the Spring semester will be more empirically oriented and will look at contemporary work in global mental health, medical anthropology, and public health to understand the assessment, design, and implementation issues related to the coverage and scaling of mental health services in India. Taking HDS 3184 Mind, Spiritual, and Mental Health in Hinduism I in the Fall semester is recommended though not required.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Swayam Bagaria
T
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3202
The Religious and Ecological Dimensions of Octavia Butler's Life and Literature
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
Amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and the rapid progression of climate change, there has been a renewed interest in the works of science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Known for her keen insights into ecological degradation, ecofascism, authoritarianism, and urban survival in her 1990s Parable series, Butler has been hailed by scholars and activists as a prophetic voice for our times. Social media platforms have been flooded with hashtags like #OctaviaTriedToTellUs and #OctaviaKnew as people seek to make sense of our global environmental and health crises.If Butler's visionary perspective on today's political and ecological crises is to be fully appreciated, it must be understood through the lens of her identity as a Black woman coming of age during the Black Power and Civil Rights Movements, and her engagement with Black religious expressions' particularly African traditional religions, Black Christian traditions, and Black new religious movements' all of which profoundly influenced either Butler's personal life or her characters.The course will primarily focus on Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, various essays and interviews, as well secondary articles.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Nikki Hoskins
R
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Students interested in the course should contact the instructor via email.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3235
Taking the World Seriously: A Madhyamaka Buddhist Perspective on Engagement
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
SP25
The Madhyamaka, or Middle Way tradition teaches that the entire world is illusory and ultimately empty, only conventionally real. How then are we supposed to take the world seriously? How can we make sense of reality, of knowledge, and of the importance of ethics? This problem preoccupied 7th and 8th century Mādhyamikas in India and their commentators in medieval Tibet. Candrakīrti (c. 600-650) addresses the metaphysical and epistemological challenge in Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra). Śāntideva (8th c.) addresses the ethical challenge in How to Lead an Awakened Life (Bodhicāryāvatāra), a text that builds on Candrakīrti’s. Their answers inform much subsequent Madhyamaka Buddhist thought and are important for contemporary debates and practice as well. We will read these two texts with relevant canonical commentary and contemporary secondary literature to develop an understanding of how this tradition engages seriously with a world it takes to be ultimately empty.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Jay Garfield
T
12:00pm - 2:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3402
Occult South Asia
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
The adjective “occult” (literally “hidden”) and noun “occultism” usually refers to an amalgamation of modern esoteric theories and practices, often exclusively perceived as “Western,” which are stigmatized as spooky, kooky, or worse. However, there is growing consensus that this view is unnecessarily Eurocentric and that such stigmas also arose in part out of an exoticization (and possibly fear) of occultism’s deep entanglement with the religions of South Asia. The first part of the course accordingly explores how the precursors of occultism, namely the medieval and early modern European “occult sciences” of astrology, alchemy, and magic, were sometimes historically linked to South Asian sources, even if often mediated by Islamicate authors. In the second part we analyze the modern integration and cross-pollination of South Asian philosophies and practices, especially yoga and tantra, among social movements as diverse as mesmerism, spiritualism, fringe freemasonry, and new thought, with special reference to the foregrounding of South Asian ideas and practices in social orders, organizations, and movements such as the Theosophical Society and Thelema. Along the way we encounter religious authors and practitioners of South Asian origin (e.g., Sri Sabhapati Swami and Rama Prasad) who explicitly framed their knowledge as “occult” as well as the movement Latent Light Culture or The Holy Order of Krishna that arose in modern South Asia itself and used the language of occultism in its teaching. Throughout this course we test the outer limits of postcolonial theory and Saidian post-orientalist criticism by inquiring into how several enduring practices mediated by Occult South Asia continue to attract great interest today (e.g., modern yoga, chakra meditation, astral projection, tantric sex) despite often sparking popular debates over perceived cultural appropriation and commodification.
Professor
Class Day & Time
TR
10:30am - 11:45am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
No prerequisites, prior knowledge of South Asia or esotericism beneficial but not required.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3555
The Buddhist Path to Eco-empathy: Why We Should NOT Colonize Mars
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
SP25
The course will be based on a philosophical investigation of the similarities between the effects of Buddhist meditation and immersion in the wilderness on humans. It will be structured around the scheme of the seven factors of awakening (bojjhan_ga), often translated as mindfulness, investigation of the phenomena, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. The results of the studies on human organisms' immersion in nature have come up with a similar collection of words.
The course will propose that in order to survive as a species, we need a new human presence on planet Earth, which can be achieved by rethinking Buddhist philosophy and meditation in light of the challenges of the contemporary world. The students will be presented with recent neuro-research on the human-nature relationship and philosophical reflection about the state of our society. They will be reffered to the tradition of virtue ethics (Buddhist and Western) as something that can enrich the strategies of fighting fear, uncertainty, and anhedonia so widespread in contemporary developed societies, especially in younger generations. Students will be invited to meditate (including meditating outdoors) and to relate the experience to their personal lives.
As an impulse for discussion, students will be presented with a hypothesis that human flourishing and perhaps even human survival can only happen in attunement to nature. It can be perceived as a personal, intimate possibility of opening a new dimension in our life, omitted by our culture obsessed with hedonistic self-satisfaction. From this perspective, we can look at our dependence on the planet not as a limitation but as a road to genuine freedom. Escaping Earth and moving to another planet to consume its resources ceases to be an option. We are not consumers of the planet Earth. We are the planet itself.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Marcin Fabjanski
M
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3563
Tibetan Buddhisms
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
SP25
This course will study the variety of Buddhisms in Tibet, along with their connection to indigenous religions on the plateau. We will take up this vast topic through four main lenses. One will be facilitated by reading autobiographies and biographies of individual lives, written by women and men from various social positions and historical contexts, as a way to study how ritual practices and philosophical doctrines impact human relations, especially teacher-student, and lay-monastic, in Tibetan Buddhist worlds. The autobiographers range from the current Dalai Lama to an impoverished hermitess of the 17th century, a cave-dwelling visionary, a powerful aristocrat, a philosopher/monk, and others. Secondly, we will have the fortune to have a visiting lecturer for 3 classes, Dr. Tashi Dekyi, originally from Khams, who studies indigenous values and ways that the land itself is an agent in moral person-building in Tibet. This perspective will impact the way we study all of our readings for the semester. Thirdly, the course as a whole will take an eco-feminist perspective on the range of Buddhisms in Tibet, including an introductory study of tantric Buddhism, in anticipation of another course, on Buddhist tantra, to be taught in fall 2025. And finally we will pay attention throughout to religio-medical understandings of the human body in Tibetan Buddhism, including yogic practices and death practices. No previous background in Buddhism is required; both advanced and introductory students will be accommodated.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Janet Gyatso
TR
10:30am - 11:45am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3716
The Animal Imaginary
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
This conference course considers the history and meaning of fantastic beasts, holy animals, and magical creatures in religion, folklore, and mythology. In light of the past global abundance of animal species, and now in the face of their rapid, large-scale extinction, why have existing animals not been "enough" for the human imagination?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Kimberley Patton
R
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Enrollment limited; please e-mail instructor to request application: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3750
The Bhagavad Gita and Its Greatest Commentary
BTI Category
Semester
Hinduism Studies
SP25
The Bhagavad Gita is a very Hindu classic of devotion and theology. Deep and complex, it has received extensive classical and contemporary interpretation, as to what it means, and how it affects life in any time and place. The seminar reads the Gita itself, and then interprets it according to the classic commentary of Madhusudana Sarasvati (16th century), who sought to synthesize liberative knowledge, detached action, yoga, with love of Krishna - in essence melding together Nondualist and Devotional readings of the Gita. Other approaches too will be noticed. This course is meant for students interested in closely reading a great Hindu text, honoring both its past and its present. Sanskrit useful but not required; some background knowledge of Hinduism helpful. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1615.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Francis Clooney
T
3:00pm - 5:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3983
Logic in the Islamic Intellectual History: A Feminist Critical Reading
BTI Category
Semester
Islamic Studies
SP25
Islamic philosophers, theologians, jurists, and mystics have grappled with the nature of logic. This course explores this challenge through the lens of feminist criticism. As many feminist philosophers argue, knowledge cannot be a purely theoretical activity. Even logic, the most theoretical form of knowledge, is rooted in the practical (social, cultural, and political) aspects of embodied, material life. In this course, we will: 1) Review the history of struggles for and against logic in the Islamic tradition. 2) Uncover hidden layers of logic in the logical treatises of Muslim scholars. 3) Interpret and understand these hidden logical structures in terms of what feminist critics refer to as the material conditions of knowledge. Readings, all in English, include feminist and Muslim philosophers, Muslim theologians, jurists, and Sufis.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Zahra Moballegh
R
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4055
Intermediate Pali II
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
This course is the final part of a two-year program designed to allow the student to read Buddhist canonical materials in Pali independently. The readings are taken from the canonical collections and are chosen and arranged thematically, exposing the student to key aspects of the teachings of Theravada Buddhism. The course readings are chosen to enrich the student's understanding of these teachings, at the same time as strengthening language skills. The course will also introduce the student to commentarial material. The Theravada tradition has a rich body of material that explicates and comments on the canonical texts. Gaining familiarity with this style of writing will greatly benefit the student in subsequent reading of Pali material.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Beatrice Chrystall
MWF
10:30am - 11:29am
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisites: Intermediate Pali I or equivalent (with the permission of the instructor). Note: Auditors not allowed.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4102B
Elementary Syriac
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
A thorough introduction to classical Syriac, a Christian dialectic of Aramaic. The first semester will cover the basics of grammar, and the second will introduce students to texts from the Syriac tradition. Daily preparation and active class participation mandatory. This is an indivisible year-long course. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Syriac AB.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Ute Possekel
TBA
TBA
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4221
Intermediate Greek II
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
Selected readings of early Christian and Hellenistic Jewish authors, selected from the Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, hagiographic, apocryphal, gnostic materials, Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, Philo or Josephus. Texts will be chosen to consolidate Greek skills and, where possible, to reflect the interests of the class; each will be set in its historical and linguistic context as an essential part of translation and interpretation. Designed both for those who wish to gain reading skills with a variety of authors and for those who plan further study of Greek, e.g., in Advanced Greek (4230).
Professor
Class Day & Time
Judy Haley
MW
6:00pm - 7:15pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: Intermediate Greek I (4220) or equivalent.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4413
Intermediate German Readings
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
Second semester course to cover German grammar, syntax, and translation; reading and translation practice of selected texts at the intermediate level related to theological and religious studies.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Karin Grundler-Whitacre
W
9:00am - 10:59am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: One semester of German at the college-level or German AX (offered by FAS).
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 4465
Communication Skills for Spanish Ministry
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
SP25
An intermediate/advanced course to develop communication skills particularly suited to those planning to minister in Spanish-speaking environments. Exercises and exams center on outreach vocabulary as well as appropriate contexts for this field (congregations, counseling, hospital and/or correctional pastoral work, education, etc.).
Professor
Class Day & Time
Christopher Eldrett
W
5:00pm - 7:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Prerequisite: An intermediate knowledge of spoken Spanish.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1260
History of Early Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP25
This course will provide a basic historical introduction to early Christianity from the first to fourth centuries CE. How did different Christians in this period navigate the diverse teachings, rituals, and social practices associated with Jesus of Nazareth to produce a religious movement that came to dominate the Roman Empire, even as it was itself always complex, variegated, and internally contested from its earliest moments? Throughout the course, we will explore the diversity of early Christian thought and practice across a range of topics and geographical areas, as well as the ways in which Christians situated themselves within the larger Roman world and in relation to others both internal and external. This is an introductory-level course and it offers the possibility of writing a research paper. Note that the course is designed to complement and build upon HDS 1202 "Introduction to the New Testament." Each can be taken as a standalone class or the two can be taken in any order; but overlap between them will be kept to a minimum. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 2432.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Giovanni Bazzana
R
3:00pm - 5:30pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1430
Studies in Biblical Law
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
SP25
A close examination of the linguistic formulation and literary design of collections of legal material within the Pentateuch, with a focus on the so-called "Covenant Code" (Exod 20:23) and its relationship to the "Holiness Code" (Lev 17:27) and the Deuteronomic laws (Deut 12:26). The course will devote particular attention (1) to compositional poetics (i.e., to the discovery and elucidation of compositional strategies on the micro- and macro-structural levels, to principles of literary organization, to textual logic, and analogical patterns); and (2) to the textual, literary, and hermeneutic relationship between and among these collections with regard to the specific formulations of the laws in each. This will be undertaken with a view toward understanding the overall expectations made of readers, ancient and modern. The Hebrew text of biblical legal collections and their underlying principles of design will be considered in the context of major critical debates within the current state of the field.The course presumes proficiency in Biblical Hebrew. Two years of Biblical Hebrew (or equivalent) required.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Andrew Teeter
T
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
The course presumes proficiency in Biblical Hebrew. Two years of Biblical Hebrew (or equivalent) required.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1508
Jewish-Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
This advanced seminar will explore those ancient sources traditionally studied under the rubric "Jewish Christianity," as well as the historiography of this rubric and debates about its utility. Primary sources to be discussed include Matthew, Acts, the Didascalia Apostolorum, and the Pseudo-Clementine literature, and secondary sources will include writings from Augustus Neander, F. C. Baur, and Henrich Graetz. We will also consider its heurism for the study of other texts and groups, ranging from Revelation to the Elchasites. Students should have taken at least three semesters of ancient Greek; exceptions may be made for students with substantial knowledge of Hebrew and Rabbinic literature. Limited enrollment.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Annette Reed
T
12:00pm - 2:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1680
The Jewish Jesus in Modernity
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
One of the more interesting developments in Jewish modernity, especially after the emancipation of the Jews in Europe, was how Jews understood Jesus as a figure in the Jewish imagination. Whereas most medieval Jewish thinkers challenged the theological presumption of the church regarding incarnation and church doctrine, the rise of Protestantism and its ostensible "humanization" of Jesus, enabled modern Jews to reconsider Jesus as a Jew and a figure that can be viewed in a positive light in and for Judaism. We will examine Jewish sermons and studies on Jesus in Europe and especially 19th century America.This course will explore the "Jewish Jesus" in modernity, beginning with Spinoza and Moses Mendelssohn up the present-day movements of "Jews for Jesus" and "Messianic Jews" and contemporary Jewish theological investigations of Jesus' messianic claims. We will examine the role of Jesus in German and American Reform Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, and Zionism.This course will traverse three continents: Europe, America, and Israel. In Europe, how was Jesus a part of Jews' response to emancipation and becoming "European"? In America, how did Jews respond to Jesus as a cultural as well as a religious figure, that is, how did Jews relate to a "secularized" Jewish Jesus? And In Israel, we will examine how Zionists reappropriated Jesus for their national project as a Jew who lived and died in the land of Israel. And finally, in our contemporary world, what role does Jesus have in ecumenicism and emerging movements of religious syncretism.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Shaul Magid
W
1:00pm - 2:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2034
Leading Music in Ritual
BTI Category
Semester
Preaching, Liturgy, & Ritual
SP25
This course will explore the leadership of music in the public rituals of religious, liturgical, and social movements, drawing on historical research, current practice in local communities, and students' own experience to answer questions about the role of music across religious and spiritual traditions as well as in movement-based activism. How does music inspire, connect, celebrate, and console? Where is the boundary between performance and prayer/meditation/worship? How does a song interact with its text to enhance and define the ritual space? Students will learn practical tools in leading song with their voices or musical instruments through the study of hymns, psalm chanting, and other folk and popular music traditions. The course is designed for students interested in ministerial or other ritual leadership who would like to expand their knowledge of musical literature, its current practice, and the history of music in the development and practice of religious traditions.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Chris Hossfeld
M
9:00am - 10:59am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2142
Women in World Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Systematic Theology & Philosophy (Western)
SP25
Historian Dana Robert famously described World Christianity as a "woman's movement," citing the female majority in churches worldwide and gendered reasons for conversion to Christianity throughout history. Drawing from historical and social scientific perspectives, this course investigates the ways in which World Christianity can be considered a "woman's movement." This course introduces students to a global history of women's involvement in churches and discusses the centrality of their contributions to World Christianity, both past and present. The course takes a historical approach in discussing Christian women's roles and responsibilities from roughly the 19th-21st centuries; a geographical approach by focusing on women in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania; as well as a diverse ecclesial approach in discussing trends among Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal women. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, Christianity and gender-based violence, peacebuilding, theological education, and debates over women's leadership. All course materials (assignments, announcements, readings, grades, etc.) can be found on Canvas, and students will have the opportunity to write a final research paper.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Gina Zurlo
M
3:00pm - 5:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2185
Narratives of American Religion: The Canon and Its Revisions
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP25
This course will examine the writing of American religious history from the nineteenth century until the present. In the first part of the course, we will trace the creation of an American religious historical "canon." Readings will include Robert Baird's Religion in America (1844), William Warren Sweet's The Story of Religions in America (1930) and Sydney E. Ahlstrom's A Religious History of the American People (1972). In the second part of the course, we will explore the transformation of the field of American religious history since the 1970s. In addition to reading textbooks such as Catherine Albanese's America: Religion and Religions (1981) and George Marsden's Religion and American Culture (1990), we will read case studies of new approaches and methodologies. Our goal is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of both the canon and the new religious history that has taken its place. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 2510.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Catherine Brekus, David Holland
W
1:00pm - 3:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2299
Racial Liberalism and the Ethics of Law and Justice
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
The course will examine the relationship between race and liberalism in the formation of the U.S. legal system, focusing in particular on the use of moral (and religious) doctrines both to reinforce and repudiate legal codes and institutional practices designed to enslave and subjugate dispossessed and "disinherited" groups in the U.S. Framed by Charles Mills' category of "racial liberalism" -- the racialization of personhood, rights and public duties -- the course will explore through court cases, trial transcripts, first-person narratives, and political philosophy how efforts to promote a color-blind society often appeal to religious claims that undermine liberal theories of justice and equality. At issue is the role of religion and ethics in debates on law and justice. How, if at all, can religion as well as ethical frameworks explain the tension between law and justice and grapple with social matters that are legally protected but morally offensive.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Terrence Johnson
T
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2319
Evangelicalism and Political Culture in the United States Since c.1950
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
SP25
The aim of this course is to investigate the relationship between evangelical religion and political culture in the United States from the end of the Second World War until the present. Key questions to be asked include: What is evangelicalism? When, where, and how did it arise? What were its religious, cultural, and political characteristics from its origins in Europe to its establishment in the United States? How is evangelicalism to be distinguished from fundamentalism? What were the most important demographic and political characteristics of evangelicalism at the end of the Second World War? What factors shaped its political evolution in the decades after World War Two, especially around issues relating to race, gender, culture, media, identity, political parties, and foreign affairs? How does the political culture of white evangelicals differ from that of evangelicals of color? Who were the most important personalities, and which were the most notable events and processes shaping evangelical political consciousness? What is the current state of evangelicalism's political consciousness and how can one explain its close relationship with the Republican Party and Donald Trump? What contribution will/did evangelicals make to the 2024 presidential election? What factors need to be considered in assessing what may happen to evangelical political consciousness in the next several decades? What impact has political consciousness had on evangelical religiosity and spirituality?Jointly offered with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as REL XXXX.
Professor
Class Day & Time
David Hempton
T
9:00am - 11:59am
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2507
Fallen Angels
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
This course surveys Jewish and Christian traditions about fallen angels beginning with the oldest attested articulations in relation to the Flood, especially in Enochic and related traditions, and tracing late antique and medieval reinterpretations within and between Judaism and Christianity, from the Epistle of Jude to Sefer Hekhalot. Readings will include selections from apocryphal, biblical, magical, mystical, Patristic, and Rabbinic corpora, and key themes will include the origins of sin, aetiology of magic and civilization, the enduring impact of non-canonical writings, and the shared ideas of an antediluvian past among different religious groups in Late Antiquity. Although the class will focus on premodern Judaism and Christianity, students will have opportunities to explore later trajectories and transformations, from Islamic angelology to Japanese anime.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Annette Reed
M
3:00pm - 5:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2844
Unitarian Universalist Faith Development
BTI Category
Semester
Church Polity/Canon Law
SP25
Unitarian Universalist lifespan faith development practices have been evolving in response to changes in the religious and cultural landscape. Intentional faith formation for all ages is more crucial than ever to the spiritual health of people and our world. This seminar will explore how theory and practice from our forebears offer a foundation for innovation in faith development programming to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Exploration of material from past and present theorists, our own experience and understandings, as well as guest presentations from current religious education innovators will encourage students to bring a faith development perspective to all aspects of their congregational and community ministries.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Gail Forsyth-Vail, Cathy Seggel
F
9:30am - 11:59am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2922
Preaching and Worship in the Black Church Tradition
BTI Category
Semester
Preaching, Liturgy, & Ritual
SP25
This course engages students in historical, theological, and practical study of preaching and worship in the Black Church tradition. Readings in black homiletics and practical theologies of worship introduce students to a variety of approaches for the development and delivery of sermons and for the construction and ministerial leadership of worship within black Christian church contexts. The course considers these proposals for ministry practice against the backdrop of the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics that shape the contemporary context of black communal life in the United States. The purpose of the course is to increase students' ministerial capacity through the incorporation of theological and practical wisdom from the Black Church tradition into their own understandings and uses of ritual and rhetoric.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Theodore Hickman-Maynard
T
3:00pm - 5:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. To apply, send a statement to thickmanmaynard@hds.harvard.edu with the following information: your name, degree program, year of study, school or university, previous relevant academic background, and a brief statement of your goals for the course.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2951
The Varieties of Ecstatic Experience
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP25
Visions, spirit possession, near-death experiences - experiences of ecstasy are universal in the history of religions. Psychology of religion attempts to explain such experiences using current understandings of the mind. At times, the study of ecstatic experiences has led psychologists to posit revised, even novel, models of the mind.This course will examine the dialectic between ecstatic experience and psychological theory. Starting with the work of William James, the course will survey writings on the psychology of ecstasy from the late 19th century up to contemporary authors like Tanya Luhrmann, Jeffrey Kripal, and Gananath Obeyesekere. We will read a mix of psychoanalysis, history of religions, and cognitive-neuroscience. Thematically, the course will focus on visionary events, spirit possession, revelations, and out-of-body or near-death experiences. We will balance readings in theory with historical accounts of ecstatic experiences.All students will have the option of writing a research paper.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Matthew Dillon
W
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Interested students should email mdillon@hds.harvard.edu to request the course petition.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3013
Binding the Raft: Buddhist Polity in Sangha and Practice
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
SP25
Sangha, or the "Buddhist spiritual community," as one of the Three Jewels is seen to be a refuge for community support, dharma practice, and personal transformation through the teachings of the Buddha. This course explores sangha from a range of Buddhist traditions in the context of "polity," the way a lived spiritual community is organized and functions to meet the needs of its members. Themes central to the course will include: how monastic traditions are being adapted in the present-day modern West; the nature and organizational structure of various forms of American sanghas and their practices; leadership, power and governance; the concept of a "Buddhist identity" in community; issues of race, gender and diversity; and the nature of power and authority between ordained and lay leadership. We will also explore liturgical practices and together seek to build a resource for ritual and core texts that support and represent a diverse range of community praxis. We will also discuss shaping sustainable polity among developing Buddhist communities in terms of "skillful means" as attending to the specific needs and structure of a given organizational vision. The course will include group discussion, in-class presentations, guest speakers, and research and analysis of a dharma community or Buddhist-inspired organization.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Chris Berlin
W
3:00pm - 5:30pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course and requires instructor permission. Interested students can email the instructor prior to the first class meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26, to assess their interest and be placed on a preliminary class list. In the event that the course is overenrolled, prospective students will be asked to write a paragraph during the first class meeting to indicate their degree program, school, year, and interest in taking the class. Selected students will then be invited to enroll in the course via email by the end of that first day. Please note that this is not an introduction to Buddhism course, and so a basic knowledge of Buddhist principles and practices is required for this course.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3063
Spiritual Care from a Muslim Perspective
BTI Category
Semester
Islamic Studies
SP25
This course introduces students to practices of spiritual care from a Muslim Perspective. As we will survey spiritual care practices of different Muslim cultures, our focus will be the relevant application of these practices in North America with a special focus on contemporary issues. We will study meditative/ritualistic, medical, philosophical, counseling, and psychological practices that have relevance and meanings in personal journeys of Muslim spiritual experience in different settings such as hospital, prison, university, community, social, and professional settings. Through a combination of readings, class discussions, practical exercises and expert guest lecturers in each class, students will begin to develop their own approaches to spiritual care in different circumstances such as the issues involving spiritual crises, trauma, mental illness, marriage/divorce, refuge related mental and spiritual complications, substance abuse, and others. Different stake holders such as pastoral care/chaplaincy (minister) candidates, students in education, social work, counseling, psychology, and health sciences as well as medical school students will find much value and benefit in this course. Class format will include weekly expert guest speakers including medical doctors, counselors, social workers, psychologists, clergy, and chaplains, from different disciplines who provide service to Muslim clients, patients, students, or inmates followed by a class discussion.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Yunus Kumek
M
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3092
Ethical Discernment in Business Contexts
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
Using lenses from religious texts, corporate strategy, practical wisdom, frameworks for action, and the standard responsibilities and obligations that coincide with select stakeholders, the class will examine the ethical dimensions in a range of business contexts for both organizations and individuals. The objective of the course is to provide students with tools to interrogate and enhance their efficacy as managers, future leaders, global citizens, and colleagues in various settings including ministerial pursuits, policymaking, the social sector, government, and organizations engaged primarily in commerce. Among the topics that will be addressed are what happens when faith collides with the roles and responsibilities associated with work-related expectations; the intersection(s) of religion / faith traditions and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies; the role of one's values in decision making; and giving voice to values. Reading materials will include selected works by Howard Thurman, Peter Gomes, Reinhold Niebuhr, Mary Gentile, Clay Christensen, Paul Polman, Eugene Soltes, and Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. Students will be required to submit a 500-word op-ed and a 15-20-page final paper.
Professor
Class Day & Time
John Brown
W
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3113
Magic Today: An Anthropological Perspective
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
What is magic? Is it different from religion? Is magic a way of knowing? In this course, we look at magic from an anthropological perspective. We focus, in particular, on contemporary magic in Europe and North America, addressing for example contemporary paganisms, Wicca, chaos magic, new age spirituality, and contemporary esotericism. By engaging with ethnographic works, students become acquainted with or deepen their knowledge of the main issues, traditions, debates, and research in the field of the anthropology of religion and of magic. Students analyze contemporary magic vis-á-vis popular culture, feminism, globalization, medicine, social media, history, and well-being. They do so through ethnographic readings, films, music, arts, discussions, and independent research.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Giovanna Parmigiani
M
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3120
Secularization: History, Religion, and Ideology
BTI Category
Semester
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
SP25
What is the meaning of secularization? Do greater modernization, education, and existential security lead to the decline of religious belief? Or is such a conclusion an ideological construct? In this class, we will address these and many related questions taking an interdisciplinary and global approach. Our goal is to gain conceptual clarity regarding the meaning of secularization, distinguishing between the social process of institutional differentiation (church/state, faith/science, etc.) and the decline/privatization of religious belief. To do so, we will study key historical developments from the Reformation era to our time, in the context of Western Christianity; while paying attention to parallel developments in areas where Christianity was/is not dominant. We will examine how those key developments shaped multiple patterns of secularization in the globe and will try to ascertain their significance for religious faith and practice in our time. Readings include the work of social theorists and anthropologists such as Charles Taylor, José Casanova, Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Hans Joas, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Marilyn Ivy, among others.This seminar offers students an opportunity to write a research paper. No prerequisites.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Raúl Zegarra
T
3:00pm - 5:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3178
Introduction to Iranian Religions and Persian Philosophy
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
Throughout historical and contemporary periods, Persia (Iran) has occupied a central role in global religious thought and spirituality. The ancient Persian religions, including Zoroastrianism (Mazdayasna) and Manicheanism, had highly developed theological and philosophical worldviews with monotheistic and dualistic theologies. These included cosmologies of Light and Darkness, Good versus Evil, End-Times messianism, and resurrection that have greatly impacted world religious and philosophical traditions, including Greek philosophical schools, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, among others. In the post-Islamic period, Persia retained a distinctive place in the development of various Islamic philosophies, including among scholars, sages, poets, and philosophers such as al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Sohrevardi, Attar, Rumi, Hafez, and Mulla Sadra. This has included highly mystical (Sufi/Irfani) understandings of religion that have shaped Islamic thought and culture to the present time, especially in Iran as the main center of Shi'a Islam, heavily impacting the development of Shi'a Islamic thought, philosophy, and identity. This course provides an introductory survey of several Iranian religions and philosophical-mystical traditions from the pre- to post-Islamic periods, ending with Muslim scholars of the 20th century and the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. It also examines the Western reception of Persian thought and religion, especially in American religion and contemporary popular culture, exploring the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harold Bloom, and other media.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Payam Mohseni
W
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3195
Womanist Theology
BTI Category
Semester
Systematic Theology & Philosophy (Western)
SP25
In 1979 Alice Walker coined the term "womanist" in her short story "Coming Apart." In 1981, Walker re-introduced the term with a four-part definition in her anthology, "In Search of Our Mother's Garden: A Womanist Prose." It was then that Black women religious scholars adopted the term womanist to identify theological and ethical frameworks that emerged from Black women's experience. This course will explore the roots, the development, sources and major themes of womanist theological and ethical discourse as it emerged in the United States in the 20th century. It will highlight the dialogues between womanist religious scholars. This course will examine the works of pioneering womanist thinkers as well as that of emerging womanist scholars.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Kelly Brown Douglas
R
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3221
American Religious Ecofascism
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP25
The blending of climate action and resource preservation with antisemitism, antiblackness, Islamophobia, sexism, transphobia, and xenophobia tactics typically linked to the far-right or advocating for the destruction of the earth to "level the playing field" for all creatures, a strategy often associated with the far left, exemplifies the characteristics of ecofascism. These dangerous ideologies often masquerade as environmental consciousness.While contemporary discussions frame such rhetoric as a reaction to the growing awareness of climate change, it has deeper historical roots, particularly visible in American religious environmental writings. Lest we forget that religion (and race) were central to the ecofascist manifestos espoused by the perpetrators of several tragic events: the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, where a gunman targeted Muslims during Friday prayers at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Center; the 2015 mass shooting of Black churchgoers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; the 2019 Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas that targeted the Latinx community; and the 2022 attack at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. In the manifestos, the shooters identified as ecofascists whose mission was to protect and preserve white Christian nationalism in the wake of climate disaster.The manifestos accompanying these attacks have brought greater visibility to ecofascism today, compelling us to examine its historical roots and current operations. Is there a longer history of American religious ecofascism? How can we characterize this history, and what insights does it provide into the functioning of ecofascism in contemporary society? How have communities resisted ecofascism?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Nikki Hoskins
R
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3349
Before and After Muhammad: The Rise and Rivalry of Monotheisms in Late Antiquity
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
The period known as Late Antiquity (c. 3rd-9th cent. CE) witnessed major religious transformations that still define our world today, including most importantly the rise of rival monotheisms, the "Abrahamic" traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After suffering initial persecutions, Christianity gained imperial favor and grew rapidly in Asia, Europe, and Africa, supplanting traditional cults and overtaking other religions. During this same period, the rabbinic movement developed its foundational texts and became the chief expression of Judaism. Finally, ardent monotheists from Arabia conquered much of West Asia and North Africa and founded a distinct religion, Islam, to which the majority of the populations of these conquered regions eventually converted. This course examines some of the important figures, texts, trends, and controversies involved in these transformations, especially the rise of these rivals. We will also study how different religious communities - Christians, Jews, and Muslims, among others - interacted with each other during these centuries. Topics include revelation, theology, persecution, taxation, warfare, ethnic identity, polemic, law, and conversion.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Mohsen Goudarzi, Charles Stang
T
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3512
Buddhism and Social Justice
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
SP25
The Buddhist tradition is deeply rooted in the cultivation of mental discipline, moral purification, and philosophical analysis. However, its social and political dimensions are often overlooked or regarded as the inadvertent byproducts of the inward path. This course aims to shed light on the relationship between personal and social expressions of Buddhist thought and practice. Additionally, it seeks to explore the influential roles played by Buddhist thinkers and institutions in times of social injustices, religious oppressions, and focuses on way forward in the modern world. Uniquely, the Buddhist movement initiated by Dr Ambedkar offers a way forward from the complex oppressive problems created by Indian socio-cultural and political history and is one of the most dynamic and optimistic Buddhist social movements in the world today.This seminar will explore Buddhist responses to some of the major social justice challenges of our time. Justice issues explored include both caste-based oppression in India and anti-Black racism. The course seeks not merely to theorize the narratives of caste and racial oppression, but to uncover what that has to do with people's lives and potential of leadership in contemporary Buddhism. We will discuss how we ourselves might contribute to understanding and addressing aspects of these challenges. This course will comprise lectures, discussions, films, art, meditations, and talks by Buddhists engaged in social justice work.No previous study of Buddhism is required.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Santoshkumar Raut
R
3:00pm - 4:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3556
Women, Gender, and Religious Citizenship in South Asia
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP25
This seminar will explore how religion and gender impact citizenship. The modern secular state is conventionally seen as a vehicle for protecting or advancing the rights of gendered and religious minorities, but this conversation does not always consider how citizenship is dependent on defining such minorities to begin with. In this seminar we will consider how ritual and devotional life, as they intersect with sexuality, desire, and kinship, are translated by states as specific forms of citizenship. We will focus on Hindu and Islamic traditions in South Asia to understand how gendered forms of religious life have been received by the region's contemporary nation-states, especially when they have tried to fix the borders between minority and majority citizens.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Ghazal Asif
R
12:00pm - 1:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
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