Bulletin--Religious Studies

Religious Studies


College of Humanities
Dean: Nancy McDermid

Religious Studies Program
HUM 388
415-338-1596
Director: Jacob Needleman

Undergraduate Advisers: Bailis, Epstein, Kidner, Martin, A., Miller, R., Needleman

Program
Minor in Religious Studies


Program Scope
The Religious Studies Minor offers students the opportunity to consider their own and others' religious heritage from an interdisciplinary perspective. Religion is an individual as well as a social phenomenon and the curriculum takes the students through both realms. Basic value questions are investigated from the viewpoint of religion, of disciplines looking at religion and of the individual in a pluralistic, unsettled world. More than half the minor is individually selected in consultation with an adviser, though the courses must represent the different dimensions of the religious experience as listed below. Students may focus their course combination in the minor on a specific religious tradition such as Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism; on a particular issue common to different religions; or on a particular culture or historical period.

As an interdisciplinary minor, Religious Studies can be taken in conjunction with any major.

Career Outlook
The Religious Studies Minor provides an excellent background for those considering the ministry, social work, counseling, politics, law, or teaching at any level. As a help in shaping a person's own view of the meaning and purpose of life, it can be of lasting value whatever one's career.

MINOR IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Courses for this program are listed in alphabetical sequence (see course discipline listing in the Announcement of Courses section).

Introduction to Religious Traditions		Units
PHIL 502	World Religions (3) or a compar-
		able course taken at another 
		institution			 3
The Nature of Religious Experience
PHIL 525/RELS 300  The Nature of Religious 
		Experience			 3
The Dimensions of Religious Experience
Normally one course should be taken from each of 
the following categories and no more than two 
courses from a single discipline		12
The Expressive Dimensions of Religious 
Experience
ART 201		Western Art History I
ART 202		Western Art History II
ART 205		Asian Art History
BLS 610		African Art, Myth, and 
		Religion
CHIN 580	Religious Texts
ENG 503		Arthurian Romance
ENG 525		Modern American Mystics
ENG 580		William Blake
ENG 586		Milton
ENG 630		Selected Studies: The Bible 
		as Literature
ENG 630		Selected Studies: Religious 
		Themes in Contemporary Literature
ENG 630		Selected Studies: The Visionary 
		Child in Literature
ITAL 581	The Divine Comedy (taught in 
		the language)
MUS 505		Music of the World's People
DANC 415	Dance in Religion
DANC 430	Historical Survey of Dance in 
		the Western World: 1300-Present
DANC 657	Dance Ethnology
THA 401		Theatre Backgrounds: 
		500 B.C.-1642
WCL 260		Myths of the World
WCL 400		The Bible as Literature
The Study of Particular Religious Traditions
AIS 310		American Indian Religion and 
		Philosophy
AIS 450		American Indian Science
BLS 326		Black Religion
CLAS 330	Myth in Ancient Epic
CLAS 360	Greek and Roman Mythology
ENG 501		Age of Chaucer
ENG 509		Age of Humanism
ENG 630		Selected Studies: Bible and 
		English/American Literary 
		Tradition
HIST 110	History of Western Civiliza-
		tion I
HIST 111	History of Western Civiliza-
		tion II
HIST 321	Hellenistic Greece
HIST 325	Late Antiquity
HIST 326	The Byzantine Empire
HIST 328	Early Christian Church to 313
HIST 329	Early Christian Church, 
		313-787
HIST 331	The High Middle Ages
HIST 336	The Reformation
HIST 480	Thought and Culture in America
HIST 600	The Ancient Near East
HIST 635	Recent History of the Jewish 
		People
HUM 375		Biography of A City: Rome
HUM 420		The Early Middle Ages
HUM 421		The High Middle Ages
HUM 440		Baroque Culture
MUS 532		Music of Latin America
PHIL 302	Medieval Philosophy
PHIL 504	History of Christian Thought I
PHIL 508	Indian Philosophy and Religion
PHIL 510	Far Eastern Philosophy and 
		Religion
PHIL 510	Spiritual Traditions in China
PHIL 515	Semitic Religious Thought
PHIL 520	Modern Religious Thought
PHIL 530	Feminist Religious Thought
PHIL 530	Selected Religious Thinkers
SNSK 350	Sanskrit Language and Literature
WOMS 590	Women's Myth and Ritual
WOMS 560	Jewish Women
WCL 420		Studies in Comparative Litera-
		ture: Biblical Prophesy
The Study of Religious Phenomena: Disciplinary 
Perspectives
ANTH 570	Anthropology of Religion
HIST 482	Religion in America
HUM 345		Humanism and Mysticism
NEXA 281	Myth and Scientific Thought
NEXA 380	Cosmologies and World Views
NEXA 387	Origins of Modern Science
PHIL 500	Philosophy of Religion
The Senior Experience
RELS 696	Directed Reading in Religious 
		Studies				 3
		Total				21

Bulletin 1994-96 Table of Contents, SFSU Home Page

last modified July 26, 1995