This essay explores the persistent scholarly desires and motivations that structure the historical study of conversion in religious studies. Most “conversion studies” take a phenomenological approach, which acknowledges the diverse processes, contexts, and meanings of conversion but nonetheless sees the phenomenon as a way to access the con…[Read more]

A historical survey course on the religions and religious practices of America from colonial encounter with native peoples to the contemporary period, with a special focus on the morphing natures and historical complexities of American Christianities, religious pluralism and secularism.

What happens to humans after they die? Are they reborn into another body? Do they enter a spiritual realm? Does consciousness hibernate, only to be reborn in a body at a later date? Or does consciousness simply cease? In this course, we will analyze a range of beliefs concerning the afterlife drawn from world religions, new religions, the…[Read more]

No individual has been written about, debated, or depicted over the last 2000 years as much as Jesus of Nazareth. Depictions of Jesus, however, are far from uniform. Christian groups have conceived him differently from the period of Christian origins until the present. Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, and New Age commentators also have their own…[Read more]

In this course we will analyze mystical literature in the west from 500 BCE to the present. Beginning with the mystical matrix (Platonism, Apocalypticism, and Mystery Religions), we will proceed to the primary mystical literature from three major western religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), culminating in the study of more recent authors in…[Read more]

The Star Wars films contain one of the richest fictional universes of our time. Four generations of fans line up around the block for each new film. Characters in this universe–from Princess Leah and Han Solo to Yoda–are household names. How are we to understand the abiding influence and popularity of these films? What meaning do viewers find in…[Read more]

The seventh-century apocalyptic dialogue text Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati (“Teaching of Jacob, Newly Baptized”) depicts forcibly baptized Jews coming to terms with their new situation in hidden meetings led by Jacob. At a key moment in the text, the last voices of Jewish resistance belong to the wife and mother-in-law of one of the dialogue…[Read more]

This course provides an overview of the basic approaches in the psychological understanding of religious belief and practice. Topics to be addressed in religious systems East and West include: sex, religious experience, ritual, myth, ecstasy, God and meditation.

Throughout recorded history, human beings have claimed to make contact with supernatural powers from beyond this world. In the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions these beings are known as angels. Angels play an enormously important role in these traditions. They help create the first human beings. They reveal sacred scriptures and help found…[Read more]

This article examines the impact of academic discourses on Neo-Gnosticism.