RELIGN 110
Religion and Violence
Description: Seminar, three hours; discussion, one hour. Exploration of capacity of religion to mobilize and legitimate violence. Materials include theoretical texts by Rene Girard, Walter Burkert, Jonathan Z. Smith, and David Rapoport and case studies dealing with religion and violence in India, Northern Ireland, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and the U.S. Letter grading.
Units: 0.0
Units: 0.0
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Religion 110 was an excellent class. Some really engaging conversations lead to camaraderie with classmates. As other reviews say, pay attention to the lecture slides. In exchange for the slides being pretty guarded (though he will show you at office hours if you missed something), the slides actually contain all the info you need to know for the midterm and final. He gives a very comprehensive study guide for each. Prof. Joseph actually wants his students to learn, and he cares about them as people. Take this class if you’re willing to do a little work for a great reward—the grading is really generous if you show up and pay attention (not a ton of outside work besides some interesting readings). And the conversations are always thought-provoking. It’s refreshing to have a class where grading is uncomplicated enough to actually enjoy participating. This is one of those classes.
Fall 2022 - Religion 110 was an excellent class. Some really engaging conversations lead to camaraderie with classmates. As other reviews say, pay attention to the lecture slides. In exchange for the slides being pretty guarded (though he will show you at office hours if you missed something), the slides actually contain all the info you need to know for the midterm and final. He gives a very comprehensive study guide for each. Prof. Joseph actually wants his students to learn, and he cares about them as people. Take this class if you’re willing to do a little work for a great reward—the grading is really generous if you show up and pay attention (not a ton of outside work besides some interesting readings). And the conversations are always thought-provoking. It’s refreshing to have a class where grading is uncomplicated enough to actually enjoy participating. This is one of those classes.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - Professor Scull is amazing (and has a great sense of humor to liven up the class)!!! This class had many deep/complex ideas but Professor Scull did a great job at making sure we understood and also considered multiple viewpoints as this subject can definitely bring about some difficult and personal topics. There is A LOT of reading for this class that is very specific and often had the opinions of 5 to 6 scholars in a single document. You cannot expect to succeed without doing the readings as there were small weekly online quizzes based on them. Also the final grade was basically based on one midterm and one 8-10 paper so you really had to study and know your stuff (mainly focused on early Judaism/Israelites).
Winter 2016 - Professor Scull is amazing (and has a great sense of humor to liven up the class)!!! This class had many deep/complex ideas but Professor Scull did a great job at making sure we understood and also considered multiple viewpoints as this subject can definitely bring about some difficult and personal topics. There is A LOT of reading for this class that is very specific and often had the opinions of 5 to 6 scholars in a single document. You cannot expect to succeed without doing the readings as there were small weekly online quizzes based on them. Also the final grade was basically based on one midterm and one 8-10 paper so you really had to study and know your stuff (mainly focused on early Judaism/Israelites).