Darryl A. Smith, Religious Studies, Pomona College
Sine of Spirit / 47 Evocations:
Sound Portraits from Sacred Geometry
Steel rods, mirrors, wood, rubber mallets, violin bow, etc.
36 x 66 inches
This project involved construction of a Jammachrome —
a modified 19th-century instrument called a “Kaliedophone” — for recording illuminated vibration.
How might awareness of soundlines be implicated in the sacred geometry of objects and spaces?
5C Intercollegiate Religious Studies Program - Religious Studies Faculty
Claremont McKenna College
- Esther Chung-Kim (World Christianity, European Reformation, History of Poverty), Chair
- Gastón Espinosa (U.S. Religions, Religion & Civil Rights, Religion & Film, Religion & Politics)
- Gary Gilbert (Jewish Civilization, Early Christianity, Jewish-Christian Relations)
- Cynthia Humes (South Asian Religions, Goddess & Guru Worship, Transcendentalism)
- Mark Juergensmeyer (Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding), Visiting
- Daniel Michon (Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Archaeology, Theory)
- Troy Mills (African American Religions), Visiting
- Chloe Martínez (South Asian Religions, Hinduism, Sikhism, Literature & Poetry), Visiting
- Jay Ramesh (South Asian Religions, Hinduism, Religion and Environment), Visiting
- Jamel Velji (Islamic Apocalypticism & Eschatology, Islam Intellectual History, Shiism)
Harvey Mudd College
- Erika Dyson (Religion & Science, Religion & Law, Gender)
Pitzer College
- Carina Johnson (Religion in the Early Modern World, Medieval Christianity, Gender), Coordinator
- Ahmed Alwishah (Islamic Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Islamic Theology)
Pomona College
- Oona Eisenstadt (Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Literature)
- Zayn Kassam (Islam, Religion & Environment, Religion & Gender)
- Zhiru Ng (Buddhism, Chinese & Japanese Religions) Chair
- Erin Runions (Hebrew Bible, Gender & Sexuality)
- Darryl Smith (Philosophy of Religion, Black Religions)
- Jenny Rose (Zoroastrianism) Visiting
- Larisa Reznik (Jewish Studies, Politics) Visiting
- Ayat Agah (Islam American Religion) Visiting
- Nikia Robert (Christian Theology, Ethics, Critical Carceral Studies, Gender) Mellon Chau Fellow
- Jenny Rose (Zoroastrianism), Visiting
Scripps College
- Luis Josué Salés (Early, Medieval, Pre modern Christianity, Postcolonial/Queer Theory), Chair
On Leave
- Oona Eisenstadt (Pomona) – On Sabbatical – Fall 2021 and Spring 2022
- Carina Johnson (Pitzer) – On Sabbatical - Spring 2022
- Daniel Michon (McKenna) – On Sabbatical - Fall 2021 and Spring 2022
- Cynthia Humes (McKenna) - On Sabbatical - Fall 2021 and Spring 2022
5C Religious Studies Course Offerings & Description Spring 2022
Course Location & Sponsor
CM = Claremont McKenna
HM = Harvey Mudd
PO = Pomona
PZ = Pitzer
SC = Scripps
RLST 10 CM – Introduction to South Asian Traditions (Ramesh) T/Th 4:15-5:30 PM
A historical study of major South Asian religious traditions, including Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Islam. Comparative methodology used to examine a significant number of specific themes in each religious traditions will be explored.
RLST 58 CM – End of the World As We Know It Seminar (Velji) M/W 11:00 AM–12:15 PM Apocalypticism remains one of the most potent and enduring dimensions of human religiosity. Apocalyptic symbolism has been implicated in the rise and renewal of major religious traditions, revolutions (of both “secular” and “religious” varieties), and major historical events. The events of the apocalypse have also provided material for some of the most creative expressions of artistic, literary, and cultural phenomena throughout human history. This course explores some of the ways in which the apocalyptic is expressed across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and beyond while also addressing key theoretical concerns in apocalyptic studies.
RLST 84 CM – Religion, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement (Espinosa) W 2:45-5:30 PM
After exploring a brief history and sustained analysis of racism, slavery, segregation, discrimination, and white supremacy in America, this seminar analyzes the influence of religion on the Black, Mexican-American, and American Indian (AIM) civil rights movements from 1950-1975. It analyzes these struggles via critical race theory, social change, spiritual intelligence, and leadership theories. It takes a biographical and comparative approach through the struggles of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, César Chávez, Reies López Tijerina, Dolores Huerta, Dennis Banks, Leonard and Mary Crowdog, Russell Means, and others. It analyzes how they drew on their Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal, Muslim, Baptist, and Native spiritualities, symbols, rhetoric, traditions, and resistance music and art to create counter-narratives to overcome segregation, white supremacy, and structural inequality and disenfranchisement in U.S. society.
PHIL 096 JT - God and Philosophy: A Conflict in Reason (Alwishah) W, 2:45-5:30 PM
An examination of philosophical reasoning pertaining to belief in, and the concept of, God in the monotheistic traditions.
RLST 98 SC – Queering Christian Mysticism (Salés) T, 2:45-5:30 PM
This course applies the analytical and conceptual resources of queer theory to a range of premodern Christian sources on mystical experiences of the divine that were penned by women and men primarily in the Ethiopian, Roman, Persian, and Arab states.
RLST 107 PO – Buddhist Modernity in China (Ng) T/R, 9:35-10:50 AM
During China's transition from imperial rule to modern state, traditional religions were challenged with the seemingly inevitable fate of being erased by modernizing and secularizing forces. To meet intellectual, social and political challenges that included state persecution. Buddhist leaders poured their efforts into rearticulating Buddhism under a spectrum of approaches defined by two polarities: (1) those who emphasized restoring Tradition and (2) those who favored modernization. We will look at the Buddhist adaptations to modernity, particularly the modern state, from the perspective of religious history, exploring how metaphors of "Tradition" versus "Innovation" can be used toward the preservation and revitalization of religion. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: Any previous course in Religious Studies or Asian Studies.
RLST 109 CM – Readings in the Hindu Tradition (Ramesh) T/R 11:00 AM–12:15 PM
This is an advanced, seminar-style course designed for students who already have a background in the Hindu Tradition. Reading and discussion topics are changeable and selected in line with the students’ interests. The course aims to develop the students’ ability to read both primary Hindu texts and academic interpretations of such texts. Emphasis is also placed on writing critical essays.
RLST 110 PO – Death, Dying, and the Afterlife (Ng) T/R 2:45-4:00 PM
This course will explore various ways East Asian religious traditions deal with death and the dead. We will examine how the Daoist, Buddhist, and folk traditions of East Asia historically and currently address the question of "What happens when we die?" We will look at different ritual practices surrounding death, dying and the dead in their ongoing relationships with the living. We will also explore various descriptions of the terrain of the afterlife or postmortem world by critically engaging a variety of textual and visual records of China, Korea and Japan. Some of the topics that will be discussed in the course include the nature of the self, the function of funerary rites, the geography of the afterlife, communication with the dead and religious notions of salvation/liberation. By exploring a variety of narratives and practices regarding death and the afterlife, students will develop a rich and detailed picture of the relationship between the living and the dead in the East Asian religious landscape.
RLST 111 PO – Theology, Morality and Policy (Robert) T/R 9:35-10:50 AM
This course will examine tensions between law and morality within the context of survival and the criminalization of impoverished Black motherhood in the U.S. carceral state. We will explore the ways in which these social dilemmas correspond to public policy paradoxes that assign punitive consequences to target populations considered unworthy of moral concern. Students will also consider the ways in which Christian teachings and practices work together with societal perceptions and policies to reproduce punitive harms that cause individual blame rather than systemic accountability. Finally, students are encouraged to reimagine these retributive teachings and practices within Church and society to realize emancipatory visions for abolition and human flourishing, particularly for poor Black mothers.
RLST 113 HM – God, Darwin, Design (Dyson) M/W 9:35-10:50 AM
Course examines the relationships between science and religion in the United States from the early 19th century to the present. Starting with the Natural Theologians, who made science the "handmaid of theology" in the early Republic, we will move forward in time through the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and Andrew Dickson White's subsequent declaration of a war between science and religion, into the 20th century with the Scopes trial and the rise of Creationism, the evolutionary synthesis, and finally the recent debates over the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools.
RLST 130a CM - MLK Jr., Malcolm X, and Human Rights (Mills) T/R 2:45-4:00 PM
This course is designed to introduce students from a variety of majors to the religion and politics of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the context of U.S. civil rights and international human rights in West Africa and the Muslim world. Emphasis is placed on civil rights connections to Gandhi, the Nobel Peace Prize, and other international experience that have impacted Pan Africanists, such as Stokely Carmichael who worked on human rights. The course will engage students in critical and creative thinking about the cultural, historical, and political issues that have undermined the human rights of African Americans in the United States.
RLST 130b CM - Religion and the Environment (Ramesh) MW 4:15-5:30 PM
This course offers a survey of how both practitioners and scholars have engaged with the natural world through the lens of religion. We will focus on four topics over the course of the semester. First, we will examine studies of sacred landscapes as venerated in several different contexts. Second, we will explore the role that colonial encounters – as represented by examples from South Asia, Malawi, New Zealand, and the United States – have played in shaping contemporary issues surrounding environmentalism and religion. Third, we will examine contemporary theological, ritual, practical and theoretical responses to climate crises and their consequences. Finally, we will explore how the categories of nature and religion are especially fraught with respect to contemporary disputes over access to sacred lands in modern secular democracies.
RLST 135 CM – Jerusalem, the Holy City (Gilbert) T/R 1:15-2:30 PM
Survey of the religious, political, and cultural history of Jerusalem over three millennia as a symbolic focus of three faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Focus on the transformation of sacred space as reflected by literary and archaeological evidence by examining the testimony of artifacts, architecture, and iconography in relation to the written word. Study of the creation of mythic Jerusalem through the event and experience, and discussion of the implications of this history on Jerusalem’s current political situation.
RLST 142 AF – Problem of Evil in African American Engagements (Smith) W 7:00-9:50 PM Thematically explores the many ways African-Americans have encountered and responded to evils (pain, wickedness and undeserved suffering) both as a part of and apart from the broader Western tradition. We will examine how such encounters trouble the distinction made between natural and moral evil, and how they highlight the tensions between theodicies and ethical concerns.
RLST 150 AF – The Eye of God: Race, Sun, & Empire (Smith) M 7:00 – 9:00 PM
In mythic cycles from the “Western Tradition,” there has been a sustained intrigue over the relationship between the human eye and the heavenly sun. From the Cyclops of Homer’s Odyssey to its refiguring in D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” the powers of the eye are equated with those of its celestial counterpart. This intrigue has been reshaped—but not lost—with the advent of modern visual surveillance techniques. In this course, we will examine a range of manifestations of the solar eye, paying particular attention to the relationship(s) it bears to reality and the ways in which the solar eye operates in schemes both great and small of confidence and illusion. We will consider works by Plato, Foucault, Ellison and Morrison; documents in government policy; and movies like “The Fly,” “Cube,” “9” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Letter grade only.
RLST 156 CM – Revolt and Reform in Early Modern Europe (Chung-Kim) MW 11:00 AM-12:15 PM
This course examines the origin and development of various reform movements in early modern Europe, including Renaissance (Italian and northern European versions), Protestant (Lutheran, Calvinist, Swiss Reformed, Anglican), Radical (Swiss Anabaptist, Spiritualist, Mennonite), as well as Catholic movements (Spanish vs. Italian movements). It will analyze key religious figures, major political events, and social controversies in order to understand the ways in which the religious reform prompted, supported, or resisted social change in early modern Europe. The purpose of this course is to learn about the reform movements in early modern Europe, the diverse religious landscape in this era, and the impact of religious differences.
RLST 157 PO – Post - Holocaust Responses (Reznik) MW 2.45-4.00 PM
According to some thinkers, the event of the Holocaust has called into question all Western thought that preceded it. We examine this claim, focusing on the question of whether, after the Holocaust and similar contemporary horrors, theology and philosophy must change in order to speak responsibly. Thinkers taken up include Arendt, Fackenheim, Browning, Bauman, Spiegelman, Voegelin, Adorno, Jabes and Levinas.
RLST 167 SC – Early Christian-Muslim Relations (Salés) M 2.45-5.30 PM
Between the sixth and seventh centuries, approximately half of the world’s Christian population found itself living under Islamic rulers across an immense, three-continental geographical expanse from China to the Atlantic Ocean. This course will investigate how Christians and Muslims interacted in this new matrix of power. We will pay particular attention to non-military encounters-especially since these were less frequent than many suppose, and as such we will focus primarily on texts and material evidence between the seventh and eleventh century that point beyond the dominant “clash of civilizations” model to a more constructive, collaborative, and mutually-understanding model that is based on groundbreaking work in the field of pre-Crusade Christian-Muslim relations.
RLST 169 CM – Christianity and Politics in East Asia (Chung-Kim) MW 1:15-2:30 PM
This course analyzes the political, cultural and economic impact of and resistance to Western Christian missions, colonialism, and imperialism in China, Japan, and Korea from the early modern period to the present vis-à-vis nationalist movements for and against Christianity in Japan (Shimabara, Nonchurch Movement), China (Taiping Rebellion, Boxer Rebellion, Kuomintang-KMT, Maoism), and Korea (Confucianism, Buddhism, Japanese Imperialism, Minjung Thought). The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of religious developments in light of the political settings of East Asia and the Asian American context. This course seeks an interdisciplinary approach to religion and politics in order to understand the complex dynamic between the reception of Christianity, international relations and the multi-religious East Asian contexts.
RLST 171 CM – Religion and Film (Espinosa) W 6:00–10:00 PM
This class analyzes the intersection of religion and ideology in American film. After examining film structure and screenwriting, it explores how writers, directors, and producers use the film via religious motifs, symbols, and rhetoric to engage in social, religious, gender, racial, and political commentary. We will draw on religious, mythological, ideological, feminist, race, and post-colonial theories to explore how films can function as a vehicle for social, religious, and political commentary consciousness raising, and protest. We will compare and contrast the film’s reception by the masses v. elite critics. Films often analyzed include 10 Commandments, Gandhi, Little Buddha, Yentl, Malcolm X, Romero, Joan of Arc, Exorcist, Matrix, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Paradise Now, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Apostle, Pulp Fiction, Avatar, and Silence.
RLST 180 CM – Interpreting Religious Worlds Seminar (Velji) W 2:45-5:30 PM
Examines current theoretical and methodological approaches to the academic study of religion. This course is offered every year, alternating between Claremont McKenna, Pomona, and Scripps.
RLST 184 PO – Queer Theory and the Bible (Runions) R 1.15–4.00 PM
This course will look at how the Bible can be read productively through queer theory. We will examine biblical passages that are central to prohibitions on homosexuality and the larger discourses of heteronormativity (constructed around gender, sexuality, class, national identity, state formations, kinship, children, etc.) in which homophobic readings of the Bible emerge. We will also look at the ways in which these discourses and the identities they shore up can be “queered,” as well as at biblical texts that can be read as queer friendly. This process of queering will allow and require us to approach the biblical text in new ways.
RLST 189D PO – Religion and Politics (Reznik) M/W 11:00 AM–12:15 PM
Separating religion and politics is a hallmark of modernity. Yet what counts as "religion" or "politics" continues to be a point of conflict. Does politics imitate or even rival divine sovereignty? Is politics possible precisely because it is distinct from divine sovereignty? Does (and should) separation protect religion from politics or politics from religion? What do terms like "faith-based," "free exercise," "establishment," or "toleration" mean? Do religious discourses like prophesy or love of neighbor function as socio-political critiques or do they, instead, depoliticize injustice? We examine how these questions show up in Western thought, through theological works, political theory, court cases, current events, and debates on secularism. While focusing on Christianity and its legacy, we also examine the effects ofthese issues on Judaism and Islam in their confrontations with Christianity, on the one hand, and the rise of the "secular" nation-state, on the other.
RLST 189K PO – Muslim (Auto) Biographies (Agah) M 7:00-9:00 PM
First and secondhand accounts of the lives of Muslims, from the famous to the unfamiliar, will provide a glimpse into what it means to be Muslim. The accounts take the form of poetry, personal essays, hagiographies, biographies, autobiographies, films, documentaries. These various expressive mediums will function as a way of exploring how Muslims shape what Islam looks like as a lived religion. These texts will also be read for how local, global, cultural, and other contexts impact the ways Islam and Muslim identity transform and are perceived. In addition to weekly class discussions, students will offer short reflective writings on the readings and produce a final biographical work on a Muslim figure of their choosing. Students will gain an understanding of Islam as a social phenomenon that is shaped by its practitioners within diverse social, political, and historical contexts.
RLST 189L PO – Encountering the Qur’an (Agah) W/F 11:00 AM-12:15 PM
This course explores the significance of the Qur'an as both a scriptural text and a source of cultural and religious expression. Students will gain an understanding of the Qur'an as a source of religious law, as inspiration for artistic expression, as a form of auditory experience, and other various ways in which the Qur'an is situated within Islamic practice and culture. Students will engage with interpretations of the Qur'an and other scholarly work on the text, and with produce their own guide to understanding the Qur'an.
RLST 189U PO – Islam in the United States (Agah) W 7:00-9:50 PM
Students will explore the roots of Islam in the United States and the development of Muslim communities within this country. In addition to historical analysis, students will consider the socio-political and cultural contexts that shape 'American' expressions of Islam, as well as the impact of slavery, immigration laws, and most recently, the "war on terror" in shaping the lives of Muslims in the United States.
RLST 189Z PO – The Zoroastrian Tradition (Rose) T/R 9.35-10.50 AM
This course examines the background and beginnings of the Zoroastrian religion, then explores its development during the three great Iranian Empires: Ancient Persian, Parthian, and Sasanian; and its relationship with neighboring religions, including Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, Christianity and Islam. The course concludes with a focus on the forms and function of the religion in Iran, India, and diaspora, and its impact upon some of the great European literati, including Voltaire, Mozart and Nietzsche.
RLST 191 PO – Senior Thesis To Be Arranged
Required of all senior majors in Religious Studies
RLST 199 PO Independent Study in Religious Studies