Units Running in the Department of Religion and Theology for Year
2 Students
The descriptions below are intended to act as a brief and user-friendly guide to the units we
are offering in 2014/15. Please note that we do not guarantee that all the listed units will
run. A unit may be withdrawn, for instance, if there is insufficient demand for it. If you have
any queries regarding the information below, we would strongly recommend that you seek
advice from your Personal Tutor
Units Running in Teaching Block 1
THRS20097 Symposium II in Religion and Theology
Unit Director: Dr Rita Langer
TB1
In this mandatory unit, students will be assigned to two different symposium groups (one focusing
upon Judeo-Christian religions and one upon Asian religions) and will participate in two parallel sets
of ten weekly hour-long seminars. The tutor of each small group will guide students through the indepth discussion and analysis of a central theme or key text in theology and religious studies, with
an emphasis on the in-depth critical analysis of a specialist body of material. Emphasis will be placed
on (a) student participation, which will take the form of (i) oral presentation of independent work
and (ii) working with other students to develop close readings of a text or texts; and (b) enhancing
essay writing skills.
THRS20194 Contemporary Ethics
Unit Director: Dr David Leech
TB1
In this unit students are introduced to the major contemporary rival ethical theories – religious and
secular - and the large-scale systems of thought and practice out of which they emerged. The unit
will focus on the historical development of the major ethical traditions on the one hand, including in
some cases their historical uncoupling from a religious context, and on the other, their differing
treatments of ethical issues which are the subject of ongoing moral discussion. Through these
students will develop an appreciation of the tradition-based and contended nature of contemporary
ethical reflection and practice, and their embeddedness within more general narratives.
Aims:
 To introduce students to a number of key issues in contemporary ethical thinking.
 To provide a sense of the tradition-based nature of contemporary ethical conceptions and
their links to broader metaphysical assumptions about the nature of reality.
 To provide an overview of the major contemporary ethical traditions.
 To develop critical interaction with primary and secondary materials.
 To develop written presentation skills through the course assessment.
THRS20193 Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy
Unit Director: Dr Eric Greene
TB1
In this unit we will explore some of the most important philosophies of ancient China that developed
during the so-called "Warring States" period (between roughly 500 and 200 BCE). Often considered
the golden age of Chinese, this period saw the rise of numerous thinkers and texts that were
influential for the rest of Chinese history down to the present day. We will explore the thought of
this period – in which ideas about religion, ritual, ethics, cosmology, and statecraft all play a part –
through the close reading of many of its major texts and authors, such as the writings of Confucius,
Laozi, Zhuangzi, Modi, and Hanfeizi. Selected readings of these texts will be supplemented by
modern academic interpretations, traditional commentaries, and consideration of whether or not
"philosophy" is the proper way of approaching the activity of ancient Chinese thinkers.
THRS20197 The Thought of John Calvin
Unit Director: Dr Jon Balserak
TB1
This unit examines the life, teachings and legacy of the Sixteenth-century reformer, pastor,
theologian, biblical interpreter, lawyer, social visionary, and humanist, John Calvin. One of the most
significant thinkers in the Western tradition, Calvin has been called profoundly forward-looking,
hopelessly conservative, shamefully licentious, ruthlessly dictatorial. Whatever he was, his thought
has had a massive impact on our society and on us. The unit will examine Calvin's context and seek
to understand his theology: both its broad contours and the positions he takes on a range of
subjects—doctrine of God, creation and the fall of humankind, predestination and soteriology, the
church, etc. It will also consider his thinking on government, economics and other "secular" subjects.
Aims:
 To introduce students to the thought of John Calvin, to Protestant theology more broadly
and to the religious, cultural and institutional contexts informing them.
 To provide a framework for analysing and evaluating a variety of perceptions of these topics.
 To develop critical interaction with primary and secondary materials.
 To develop written presentation skills through the course assessment.
HIST25009 The Early Reformation
Unit Director: Dr Jon Balserak
TB1
The Reformation was an event of seismic importance: it shattered the unity of Christendom, which
had existed for more than a thousand years, into a series of competing confessions; the legacy of
this is still apparent today. The unit is particularly concerned with the first wave of the Reformation
movement. It adopts a combination of perspectives, sometimes focusing on the experiences of
individual countries, and at others seeking to bring out broader themes. Above all the unit looks to
emphasise the diversity of the Reformation in Europe, and the different areas of life which were
affected by it. While due attention will be paid to the theological ideas that underpinned the
movement, greater consideration will be given to the transmission and reception of these ideas, and
how they related to the political, social, economic and cultural environments in which they were
accepted, modified or rejected.
Aims:
 To provide a broad grounding in the history of the Reformation in Europe between 1517 and
c.1555.
 To provide particular perspectives on that history to which students can react critically and
build their own individual views and interpretations.
ARCH20046 Anthropology of Islam
Unit Director: Dr David Shankland
TB1
This unit introduces a wide range of ethnographic material concerning the peoples and cultures of
Islam. Largely anthropological in orientation, it covers ritual, religion and society in the region,
drawing in particular on the example of Turkey, where the Unit Director has lived for many years,
and upon which he is a specialist. It also covers, albeit to a lesser extent, questions of interaction
both between Muslim societies and their neighbours, and also the diverse ways toward which the
heritage of other cultures may be reacted to within Islam. Whilst current writers are featured, the
unit also looks at famous established works such as the writings of Ernest Gellner, or those of
Clifford Geertz and the group of researchers he encouraged in North Africa. Theoretically, amongst
the themes that it considers are religion and gender, orientalism, social and political organisations,
migration, conflict and the rise of nationalism.
Aims:
The Unit's aim is to introduce students to a wide range of ethnographic illustration drawn from
Islamic societies, and combine this study with themes of immediate practical relevance such as
modernisation, gender, faith, conflict or nationalism. Within anthropology, the North Africa has also
been particularly a theoretical debating ground in which theories of faith, kinship and modernisation
have been argued through, sometimes in great detail. Whilst not concentrating overmuch on these
issues, they are nevertheless highlighted through examining the work of Gellner, Geertz and the
school of 'thick' description that he partly implemented in North Africa. It is also part of the Unit's
aim to encourage a certain greater depth of study of Turkey, the Balkans, and the Middle East as
distinct areas, and to this end systematic attention is paid to recent historical developments and the
international setting. It is also part of the course's aims to look at the interaction between the west
and Islam, and the importance of debates concerning this for recent academic work, including the
changing ideas embodied in the term 'Orientalism'.
Units Running in Teaching Block 2
THRS20031 The Foundations of Buddhist Thought and Practice
Unit Director: Professor Rupert Gethin
TB2
The ideas and practices of Buddhism from the perspective of primarily, but not exclusively, the
Theravadin ('Southern') tradition of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand Laos and Cambodia. Topics covered
include Buddhist cosmology, kamma and rebirth Buddhist ethics, the stages of the path, the teaching
of 'no self', dependent arising (paticcasamuppada), meditation, Buddhist monasticism.
THRS20090 The Religious World of Dante
Unit Director: Dr George Ferzoco
TB2
The unit is designed to give students an understanding of the content and the context of Dante's
*Inferno* within the framework of medieval understandings of God, morality, and the afterlife. The
unit will be taught through two hours of class meetings weekly: one hour will be in lecture form, and
the other will be a seminar which actively involves the entire class; student participation (and, in
some cases, presentations) will also be expected. Topics covered include: the theology and religious
culture of late medieval Italy; the life and works of Dante; the structure of the *Comedy* and, more
importantly, the *Inferno*; medieval understandings of sins' causes, effects and punishments; and
the notion of intercession.
Aims:
 To provide an understanding of the religious culture of medieval Italy
 To provide an understanding of the role of religion within medieval culture
 To provide an understanding of major theological premises and innovations of Dante
Alighieri
 To develop written presentation and argumentation skills through written work (formative
essay, summative examination) and group work.
THRS20101 Religious and Cultural Change in India: from Indus to Islam
Unit Director: Dr Rita Langer
TB2
This unit will focus on the religious thought and practice of ancient India from the Indus civilisation
up to and including the coming of Islam. We will explore the religious milieu and cultural changes
that led to the rise of the three principal Indic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism) and their
early interaction with Islam. Topics include: Indus civilisation, Ashoka’s empire, the “golden age” of
the Guptas, the changing concept of karma (from ritual to ethical), social structure (class, caste and
renouncers), women (mothers, nuns and courtesans); shared cosmologies, myths and epics, art and
literature, and reception of the “other” (Aryan and Muslim “invasions”).
THRS20099 Issues in the Study of Religion
Unit Director: Dr Eric Greene/Dr David Leech
TB2
In this unit students will engage with a number of issues central to the study of religion and
theology, such as the environment, gender, orientalism, pluralism, secularism and fundamentalism.
Taking relevant chapters from John R. Hinnels, The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion
(2009; also available as an ebook) as the starting point, unit tutors will address a range of key issues
relating to religion that feature prominently in news stories, current affairs and political debates.
THRS20167 Ghosts, Death and the Afterlife
Unit Director: Dr Rita Langer
TB2
In the study of any culture, ancient or modern, attitudes towards death and the afterlife are
of central importance, and representations of the dead, ghosts, and those who
communicate with the dead reveal much about the living. This unit will take as its theme
one of the most ancient and important of classical and theological subjects - that of
'thanatology', the study of death, its rituals, its narratives and representations. We will
explore death, ghosts and the afterlife both in the classical literary tradition of ancient
Greece and Rome (looking in particular at communications with the underworld in Homer
and Virgil, tragedy and comedy) and in various traditions drawn from Christianity, Buddhism
and Chinese religions (looking at e.g. the doctrinal, philosophical and cultural understanding
of death and the afterlife, the process of death, reincarnation, ghosts, zombies, ancestors
and hell beings).Students will explore the parallels of themes and motifs across different
styles and types of narratives both literary and theological.
Aims:
The aim of this unit is to introduce students to the key issues relating to contemporary
studies of death, ghosts and the afterlife both in the classical literary tradition of ancient
Greece and Rome and in various traditions drawn from Christianity, Buddhism and Chinese
religions (Daoism, Confucianism), and to explore the parallels of themes and motifs across
different styles and types of narratives (both literary and theological), highlighting in
particular common themes associated with journeys to the underworld.