Courses

This course provides the critical analysis and intellectual examination of leadership. The course is designed to integrate and synthesize various leadership modalities through open discussion, honest self assessment, experiential exercises, and participatory observation of real life leadership in practice.Pre-Requisites: REL 101

This course is designed to introduce students to the major religions of the world. Although the title of the course is comparative religion, the conceptual framework, and philosophical approach will not be comparative but will lend itself to engaging in an analysis which is centered in the epistemological and ontological framework of the respective traditions. Each religion and or spiritual tradition will be studied based on its own social, historical, and theological developments and trajectories. An integral aspect of the course will be visits to holy sites, including mosques, temples, and sacred shrines. Students will be required to conduct a field research project in which include oral histories, and ethnographies of self identified practitioners of these major traditions.Pre-Requisites:

This is a sophomore-level course in moral philosophy that will consider fundamental questions in both theoretical and applied ethics, such as the nature of ethical value and whether a rational basis for morality is possible. The course will consider some important normative ethical theories which have been proposed in the history of philosophy and their possible applications to contemporary moral controversies.Pre-Requisites: ENGL 112 & PHIL 101

Although conversations and debates between various religions and spiritual traditions have transpired gone on for centuries, the interfaith movement formally began in 1893, organized by the Parliament for World Religions in Chicago. For the first time in history, religions and spiritual traditions came together for the purpose of establishing better communications and cooperation among the world?s religions. The Parliament continued its efforts to engage the world?s religions and spiritual traditions in interfaith dialogue. Although it was not until 1993 that the Parliament convened its second meeting, interfaith dialogues and multi-religious programs and activities were initiated by various religious organizations locally, nationally, and internationally. Most of the early interfaith activities were organized by Christians, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, who, after the Second Vatican Council and Nostra Aetate in 1965, called for ?all to forget the past? and officially recognized Muslims as ?those who worship God,? and instructed all of its churches to engage in dialogue with Muslims as well as with Jews. Additionally, it was the World CouncilPre-Requisites: ENGL 112 & REL 101

This course is designed to introduce students to some of the central aspects of African Traditional Religion(s) presented in selected, influential studies by African scholars of religion. Utilizing interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approaches, we will examine the profile of religious plurality in Africa and pursue reading in the literature of the field.Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150

Students will engage in philosophical reflection on a range of questions that arise from the experiences of black people in the United States and throughout the African Diaspora. Topics to be covered will include the complexities of black identity, theories of racism, the significance of Africa and its Diaspora, gender and sexuality, and the role of the arts in black liberation struggles.Pre-Requisites: PHIL 101

This course is designed as an historical and geographical overview of the religious traditions of South and East Asia. Emphasis will be placed upon identifying and understanding the themes of renunciation and popular practices throughout the various religions of Asia. Students will also discuss definitions of religion in order to facilitate their understanding of religious traditions that are not their own.Pre-Requisites: REL 111 and ENGL 150

This course explores the significance of religious symbols for human self-understanding and cultural values in selected religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Native American traditions. The course raises questions related to human identity, religious symbol, and cultures.Pre-Requisites: REL 111 and ENGL 150

The primary purpose of this course is to explore classical issues in the philosophy of religion, such as the reality of God, the problem of evil, religious language, life after death, and the pluralism of religious traditions. Discussion focuses on proofs for and against the existence of God and various critiques and defenses of religious belief in general. The course will also explore how the claims of European thinkers translate into the African-American experience of religion.Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150 and REL 101

This course on Peace Education will introduce students to the historical development of peace education as a field of study and as a discipline. Students will examine the contemporary discourse on peace education and the current trends and perspectives that permeate the literature. Students will also explore some of the definitions articulated by various cultures in order to establish a conceptual framework for what it means to educate for peace.Pre-Requisites: REL 101 and ENGL 150

This course is designed to deepen student understanding of how religion serves as an epistemological foundation for moral reasoning and action. Religious texts and communities are presented that show how differing moral communities have justified their ways of life to themselves and others in their quests for societies of virtue, responsibility, freedom and duty.Pre-Requisites: PHIL 201 and ENGL 150

In a selective survey of Caribbean religious beliefs and practices, this course focuses upon the historical factors that shaped the development of the multi-religious community of the Caribbean. Students will study such Caribbean traditions as Vodoun, Shamanism, Santeria, Rastafarianism, and Obeah. Students will further explore the relationship between these African diaspora religions and the Christian Church, and the intersection of religion with other vital issues such as race, history, home and migration, belief and ritual, social (in)justice, as well as postcolonial resistance and rebellion.Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150 & SSC 101

This course will provide an intensive survey of the historical roots, critical developments, influences, ideologies, and the function of the church in the Black community in America. The role of church religion as an instrument of protest, escape mechanism, emotional outlet, and focal point of political organizing and of social life will also be analyzed. The narrative voice will be featured to allow students to hear historic agents’ tell their story in their own voice and to evoke a deeply personal and visceral encounter with certain historical periods and personalities.Pre-Requisites:

This course is designed to introduce students to some of the central aspects of African Traditional Religion(s) presented in selected, influential studies by African scholars of religion. Utilizing interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approaches, we will examine the profile of religious plurality in Africa and pursue reading in the literature of the field.Pre-Requisites: ENGL 150