REL 141 - Ancient Christian Mercy: Texts, Traditions, and Critical Approaches in Religious Studies

This course introduces the history of early Christianity and the critical study of religion through the examination of the concept of mercy from its origins in Greek-speaking Judaism and the Hellenistic world through the formative centuries of early Christian thought, reading primary texts in translation from the Septuagint, the New Testament, and the patristic tradition. Students will engage some of the most rigorous moral writing of the ancient Mediterranean - on poverty and the socially marginal, the conditions and limits of social obligation, the body as the locus of charity, and the nature of the Christian good - before turning to examine that tradition through the critical methods of contemporary religious studies: historical analysis, ideological critique, comparative religious ethics, and the social-scientific study of altruism and benevolence. The course is designed as an introduction to the discipline of religious studies and presupposes no prior training in Christian history, theology, or religious studies. All primary texts are read in translation.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Instructional Method: Lecture-conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.