Sample Courses

Adversus Iudaeos Dialogues: Christian-Jewish Relations and Rivalries from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages

From the end of the classical period to late antiquity until the High Middle Ages, Christian authors engaged with the composition of works in which they depicted meetings and conversations between Christians and Jews on matters of their Christianity’s belief and practice. These works collectively constitute the corpus of the Adversus or Contra Iudaeos dialogues, that is, dialogues against the Jews. Who wrote these compositions and what type of Christianity did their authors represent? Who were the Jews of these dialogues, and did such meetings and conversations occur? What are the roles of scripture, paradoxography, and miracles in the rhetoric deployed by the Christian authors? And what is the historical context within which these dialectical compositions were written?

In this course, we will answer these questions by investigating topics such as relations between Jews and Christians in the ancient world, anonymity of authorship, rhetoric, paradoxography, biblical/scriptural reception, debate, and disputations, (forced) conversions, and Christian representations of the Jews and the Synagogue in art as a form of polemics. Students will gain an understanding of the circumstances that led to the (in)famous medieval disputations in the Latin West and the role of psōgos (insulting or degrading speech) in them, helping us to understand the correlation between the Christian anti-Jewish disputation tradition and the gradual rise of anti-Semitism that led to Jewish persecutions and modern-era atrocities against the Jews.

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What is Judaism?

This course provides an overview of the development of Jewish civilization from its origins to the present. Students will gain insight into the remarkable diversity that has marked Jewish cultural and religious expression throughout its more than 3000-year history in multiple regions. Our guiding premise is that Judaism is a constantly-changing set of traditions, texts, beliefs, ideas, and practices that have developed through interactions with surrounding cultures and in response to changing historical conditions. First, we will focus on the emergence of rabbinic Judaism out of a variety of different expressions of Judaism during the Second Temple Period. Then we will see how this tradition changed with the addition of mystical and philosophical perspectives. Finally, we will explore the massive transformations of Jewish identity during the modern period (i.e., from the 18th century onward), which has given rise to new movements, including Hasidism, Zionism, and Reform Judaism. Our method of study will involve a close study of selected primary sources, from biblical and rabbinic texts to philosophical works.

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Introduction to the Study of Religion I & II

Religion has played a protagonist role in the history of humankind and has been an integral part of the human experience throughout the centuries. Due to the vastness of the topic, in this course, we will not cover all religious systems of beliefs, but we will examine the phenomenon of religion as it is manifested through the most prevalent systems of belief, also known as world religions. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We will analyze questions that pertain to the complexity of religious phenomena by examining comparatively the similar and diverse practices that aim to bring human closer to the divine. At the same time, we will examine theories of religion and approaches to its study. In the second part of the class, “Introduction to the Study of Religion II,” we will examine Native American Religions, traditional African Religions, Oceanic Religions, and Religions of the Caribbean that center on the individual’s contact with divination, healing, and the world of spirits.