Instructor
Annette Yoshiko Reed
1879 Hall
Department of Religion
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ  08544
areed@princeton.edu

Institution
Rutgers The State University of New Jersey

Course level and type
Introductory course for undergraduates

Hours of Instruction
3 hrs per week for 13 weeks

Enrolment and year last taught
35 students in fall 2001

Pedagogical Reflections
This is a syllabus for a course that I taught once as an adjunct in the Department of Religion at Rutgers. The main challenge of the course was to cover a broad sweep of material while still doing some justice to the richness of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although the necessity of teaching about three religions in a single course made any depth of inquiry difficult, I came to realize that it was an ideal introduction to the academic study of Religion in one sense: every student approached at least one of the religions as an "outsider" surrounded by other students who were "insiders" and most approached one as an "insider" surrounded by other students who were "outsiders" and that juxtaposition gave them a first-hand experience of the complex issues involved the academic study of Religion as distinct from Theology. I designed the course with a heavy focus on history and primary texts; the former was more successful than the latter, in part because each section overlapped with the others (e.g., we revisited Second Temple Judaism at the beginning of the Christianity section) but also because my quizzes each included a section in which students had to arrange a group of key events in chronological order. Students seem to have some difficulty with the primary texts assigned for each meeting, particularly in light of the different genres of the relevant texts. They did, however, seem to appreciate the chance to work closely with a single primary text for each of their papers, as well as to choose the text on which to write from among those assigned.

This course aims to introduce students to the three major religious traditions of the Western world: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. One could easily dedicate a whole course to each religion (and, indeed, to nearly every era, event, and thinker that we will survey!). In my choice of topics and sources, I have attempted to forefront what these three Abrahamic religions uniquely share and to explore the significance of the cultural, intellectual, and spiritual heritage of these three religions--not only for present-day Jews, Christians, and Muslims--but also for Western civilization more broadly.

Each religion, as we will see, appeals to tradition and history in order to articulate their relationship with the divine. Hence, each of our sections will proceed chronologically; in the process of tracing the long and rich histories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we will examine the beliefs and practices that became central and definitive for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We will begin with the ancient heritage of each religion (scriptures; founders; early institutions). Then, we will explore how these foundational traditions were preserved and re-invigorated in response to centuries of social change and critical moments of political upheaval. Most significant, in this regard, is the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim encounter with their respective holy Scriptures--as generation after generation of believers have attempted to understand the revealed words of God, to proclaim their continual relevance for all places and all times, and to inscribe them upon their bodies and hearts through prayer, worship, and daily life.