Great Religions of the World

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

Familiarize students with the specificity of the great religions, their characteristics, and their role in the history of the world

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

1. Religion as a research problem – a review of theories.
2. Religion as a cultural system.
3. Judaism and its history.
4. Buddhism and its history.
5. Hinduism and its history.
6. Christianity and its branches.
7. Islam and its history.
8. Native religions and their specificity.

Reading list

Obligatory

1. Eliade, M., A History of Religious Ideas. Vol. 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries, trans. W.R. Trask, University of Chicago Press; William Collins Sons & Co, Chicago–Glasgow, 1978.
2. Jensen, J.S., What is Religion?, Routledge, London–New York, 2014.
3. Selezkine, Y., The Jewish Century, Princeton University Press, Princeton–Oxford, 2019.
4. Mittal, S. and Thursby, G.R. (eds), Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods, Routledge, London–New York, 2006.
5. Lim, T.H. and Collins, J.J. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010.
6. Pratt, D. and Woodlock, R. (eds), Fear of Muslims? International Perspectives on Islamophobia, Springer, Cham, 2016.
7. Gwynn, D.M., Christianity in the Later Roman Empire: A Sourcebook, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2015.

Optional

1. Eleff, Z., Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2016.
2. Idinopulos, T.A. and Wilson, B.C. (eds), What is Religion?: Origins, Definitions, and Explanations, Brill, Leiden, 2002.
3. Wood, J.C. (ed.), Christianity and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe: Conflict, Community, and the Social Order, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2015.
4. Tatum, W.B., Jesus: A Brief History, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden–Oxford–Chichester, 2009.