The origins, growth, and current practices of religion in the American South. The interaction between religion and other aspects of Southern culture, such as racial and gender concerns, education, Darwinian science, temperance, and politics.

Offered every even-numbered year.

The religious traditions of African Americans from Colonial times to the present; major religious movements, personalities, and ideas and their relationship to various aspects of American culture.

Offered every odd-numbered year.

A biographical survey of significant Catholic figures in the Americas whose faith, thought, and actions continue to shape our cultural landscape in the realms of cinema and television, politics, economics, morality, and religion. A multi-media approach showcases figures from Martin Sheen to Flannery O'Connor to Pope Francis.

Examines the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and religion through the words and activities of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1950s and 1960s and poses questions regarding the continuing impact of religion on the quest for racial freedom and vice versa.

Biblical interpretation in black America from 1865 to the present.

Offered every even-numbered year.

An examination of the history of selected Caribbean religions from the European conquest to the twentieth century. Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, Jamaican Rastafarianism, and Spiritism will receive special attention. An exploration of the cultural processes (creolization, syncretism, etc.) that brought these traditions into existence and account for their social and political impact.

Islam as a religious and sociocultural phenomenon. The fundamental principles of the Islamic faith, Qu'ran, the Sunna of Muhammad, Islamic sectarianism, Islamic law, theology, and mysticism, and themes in Islamic art. The course will also survey Islam in its various forms throughout the world.

Offered every even-numbered year.

Islamic modernism and revivalism as a response to Western cultural penetration since the eighteenth century. Subjects covered will include Sufi reformism, Wahhabism, the Salafiyya movement, Islamic "Fundamentalism," the Iranian Revolution, women's rights, and Western perceptions of Islam.

Offered every odd-numbered year.

Islamic scholarship from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. Principal topics covered will include the Qur'an and Qur'anic exegesis, the Hadith tradition, Islamic law, theology, philosophy, and Sufi mysticism.

Offered every even-numbered year.

Islamic mysticism, both as a set of metaphysical doctrines and as it is expressed in religious practices. Particular attention will be given to the doctrinal development of Sufism, its literature, major figures, and the process of consciousness transformation.

Offered every odd-numbered year.