Religion
Exploring the meanings, rituals, and ethics of transcendence.
Study The Complex Dynamics of Religious Culture and Thought
Religious Art at the Allen
Art plays an integral role in liberal arts learning at Oberlin. Religion classes often draw on the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s wide-ranging collection of religious art from Roman mosaics and Tibetan Mandalas to Renaissance oil paintings and contemporary artists’ reflections on the sacred.
Senior Capstones
Senior Capstone courses provide a culminating experience to the religion major. Students pursue faculty-mentored independent research projects within a collaborative cohort, honing transferable skills and enriching appreciation for the dynamics of knowledge production.
Featured Courses
Religion and Violence
Religion and violence have often intersected, though often not in simple or straightforward ways. This course will examine categories and interconnections of religion and violence to provide a critical framework for investigating perpetuations of, sufferings of, and resistances to violence in various religious traditions. Examinations of these traditions in concrete historical circumstances will clarify, stretch, and challenge the theoretical and philosophical approaches. Though particular attention will be devoted to Christianity, examples will also be drawn from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and New Religious Movements.
- Taught by
- Corey Barnes ’98
Faith and the Ballot Box
While Thomas Jefferson argued for a “wall of separation” between church and state, in reality, there has been a thoroughfare of exchange. This course traces the intersection of religion and politics historically and in current events. We will examine issues central to the 2020 presidential election such as immigration, mass incarceration, definitions of marriage and family, gun control, and religious freedom. When do candidates use religious language and to what effect? How does religious identity affect voting patterns? What is the significance of the 116th Congress being the most religiously diverse delegation in history?
- Taught by
- Cynthia (Cindy) Chapman
Devotion and Performance in South Asia
How does devotional literature and performance interact with and become shaped by social and historical circumstances in different South Asian traditions? In this course, students think comparatively about how South Asian Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu communities express devotion through literature and performance. We will learn to read, view, listen to, and critically engage with various genres of medieval and modern literature and performing and visual arts that express passionate devotion to diverse conceptions of the divine, as well as a range of emotions—fear, longing, liberation. We will be attentive to what is shared and distinct in articulations of devotion across traditions, periods, and regions.
- Taught by
- Emilia Bachrach
Religious Rituals in East Asia
Ritual has always played a central role in the religions of East Asia. In this course, students conduct case studies of ritual practices representative of each major tradition (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Shinto), as well as several that defy neat categorization. We will study ritual as compelling practices through which religious actors have sought to transform self, society, and cosmos. Orthopraxy, performance, affect, and the body are some the key themes we’ll consider in our engagements with textual primary sources as well as video and audio recordings of rituals as performed and recreated in contemporary settings.
- Taught by
- Andrew Macomber
Student Profiles
Winner of the Jacobs Prize
Hayley Segall ’20, a religion major from Maryland, was awarded the Jacobs Prize for the study of religion. Segall will use the $25,000 award to support graduate studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School. After graduate school, she hopes to begin a career in interfaith dialogue and diplomacy.
Critical Language Scholarship to Study Urdu
Katie Ryan-O’Flaherty ’19, a religion major and environmental studies minor, was awarded the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study Urdu in Lucknow, India. The CLS Program is a fully-funded summer program for American undergraduate and graduate students.
From Oberlin to Indonesia
At Oberlin, Eli Fisher ’16, a religion major, played for the men’s lacrosse team, practiced tai chi with a local instructor, and organized concerts as a member of the Oberlin College Program Board. After graduation, he was awarded a Shansi Fellowship to teach English in Indonesia.
