2013-2014 Catalog - Virginia Wesleyan College

160 RELIGIOUS STUDIESSOCIAL SCIENCES161communities and to express and communicate theirfaith. Prerequisite: at least 3 semester hours inEnglish, history, philosophy, or religious studies.Offered each spring.232 Religion and American Politics (4) VInvestigates the relationship between religion andpolitics in the United States, especially the role oftraditional religious identities and issues, whileacknowledging non-traditional religious movements,ideas, and issues. Emphasizes upcoming elections.Students are expected to be informed on the currentdebates in the various national elections which formbasis of class discussions and student presentations.Identical to CRSF 232. Offered fall of evennumberedyears.233 Religious Battles in Court (4) VIntroduces students to the relationship betweenreligion and American law. Students explore theorigins, history, and current legal foundations guidingdisputes over religious freedom, providing thebackdrop for discussions of current issues such asabortion, gay marriage, and euthanasia. Identical toCRSF 233. Offered spring of odd-numbered years.238/338 Topics In American Religion (4) VA focused examination of religion in specific areasof American culture. May include the study ofspecific religious traditions (e.g., Catholicism),movements (e.g., evangelicalism, new religions), orareas of cultural interaction (e.g., education, science)in American religion. May be repeated for credit astopics vary. Offered spring when circumstancespermit.250 Religion and Popular Culture (4) VIntroduces students to the role religion plays increating and maintaining culture through suchpopular venues as motion pictures, television, sports,and fashion, as well as the impact of religious valueson popular cultural expressions. Offered in selectedWinter Sessions.251/351 Religion and Literature (4) VExamines works selected from the fiction, nonfiction,biography and mythology of the world’sliterature, both classic and modern, academic andpopular. These works are discussed from the point ofview of belief, unbelief, values, and spiritualorientation. Offered intermittently.253/353 Topics in Religious Ethics (4) VA focused examination of ethical theory andmethods and of issues in moral theology withinreligious traditions. Courses offered under thisdesignation may focus on a particular religion, on aspecific practice, or on a comparative approach toreligious ethics. May be repeated for credit as topicsvary. Offered when circumstances permit.265 Extreme Religion: The Body, Pain,Sex, and Martyrdom inReligious Experience (4)For the sake of their soul and their faith, religiousindividuals engage in a variety of actions which—inother contexts—would be considered extreme: selfmutilation,snake-handling, fasting, celibacy, tantricsex, polygamy, suicide, martyrdom, etc. Focuses onthe role of religious experience, particularly onecstatic or extreme religious expressions in worldreligions today. After examining the roles andfunctions of “experience” within religion, studentsfocus on specific cases of “extreme” religious practices,seeking to understand their meaning and significancefor their practitioners. Prerequisite: at least 3 semesterhours in: history, English, philosophy, or religiousstudies. Offered in selected Winter Sessions.303 Saints and Heretics: HChristian History I (4)Traces the “plot” of the development of Christianthought about questions of fundamental humanimportance from the formation of the medieval worldto the Reformation. Students examine the mutualdependence of theology and wider culture withspecial attention to developing strategies for readingthe Bible. May be taken in conjunction with RELST304 or independently. Prerequisite: at least 3 semesterhours in: English, history, philosophy, or religiousstudies. Offered fall of even-numbered years.304 Damned and Saved: HChristian History II (4)Continues the “plot” of the development ofChristian thought. Students trace the creation of ourown modern world view from the wake of theReformation through the Enlightenment and into the19th and 20th centuries. Emphasizes thedevelopment of strategies for reading the Bible asstudents examine the interrelation of theology and itscultural context at each step of the way. May be takenin conjunction with RELST 303 or independently.Prerequisite: at least 3 semester hours in: English,history, philosophy, or religious studies. Offeredspring of odd-numbered years.320 Science and Religion (4) VExplores the impact of science on theology andwhether science and religion are compatible. The firstquestion is primarily historical. Students examine keyadvances in the history of science (the heliocentrictheory of the universe or evolution, for example) andtheological responses to them. The second question isprimarily philosophical. In each case, discussionsbegin with the issues raised in important primarytexts. Prerequisite: junior/senior status, at least onecourse in the natural sciences, or consent. Offeredintermittently.326 Methodism (4) HAn interdisciplinary exploration of the history ofMethodism, with special attention given to theWesleys, Asbury, other early itinerant preachers, andthe religious and cultural development of theMethodist denomination and its Wesleyan offshoots(such as the AME Church). Prerequisite: 4 semesterhours of religious studies or history. Offered spring ofeven-numbered years.335 Christian Theology and Film (4) V,WExplores how the fields of theology and filmstudies cross-fertilize each other, with specialattention given to the ways in which film functions asreligious discourse. Students investigate the historicalevolution of film as a means of communicatingtheological doctrines or themes through its narrativepatterns and analyze how religious and secular filmscan be constructed as cultural texts that advise notonly how one should live, but what one shouldbelieve. Emphasizes the sermonic nature of film,various hermeneutics of film, and how audiencesreceive and appropriate both manifest and latentreligious meanings. Prerequisite: 3 semester hours incommunication, English, history, philosophy, orreligious studies. Identical to COMM 335. Offeredfall of even-numbered years.336 Sociology of Religion (4) VExamines the origin and development of religionas a social institution: theories concerning its natureand function; sociocultural dimensions of religiousbeliefs, values, and conduct; contemporarydenominations, sects, and cults in the United States;the relationship between religion and other socialinstitutions. Identical to SOC 336. Offeredintermittently.341 War, Peace, and Christian Ethics (4) VExamines Christian ethical perspectives on warand peace. Topics include the justifications for andlimitations on the use of force, just war and pacifism,alternative approaches such as just peacemaking, andapplication of these perspectives to current issues.Prerequisite: junior/senior status or consent. Offeredfall of odd-numbered years.352/452 Seminar in C. S. Lewis (4) VInvestigates the literary, historical, and theologicalcontributions of British author C. S. Lewis, exploringkey literary and philosophical influences upon his lifeand literature and examining how his thought andimagination have affected contemporary religiousdiscourse and practice. May be offered either as anon-campus course or as a travel course. Prerequisite: 4semester hours of religious studies or English. Offeredspring of even-numbered years.361/461 Thinkers/Topics in Religion (4) VI*Focused, in-depth study of one importantreligious thinker (or thinker about religion), or anarrowly defined topic of current importance inreligious studies. May be repeated for credit with theinstructor’s permission. Prerequisite: junior/seniorstatus or consent. Offered each year. *RELST361:(V); RELST 461:(I).363/463 Sports and Religion (4) I*Examines the relationship between sports andreligion. From the use of sports as a means ofacculturation, the use of legitimate competition as asurrogate for interreligious conflict, and thecompetition between organized sports and organizedreligion for money, attention, and devotion, to thesacrality of the time and space of the field of play andelevation of athletes to modern gods, the world ofathletic competition overflowing with religiouselements. Using a variety of disciplinary methods,students examine this relationship, the ways in whichreligion and sport reinforce similar ideals, and theways in which they compete with one another for theminds, hearts, and bodies of the “fans.” Offeredspring of even-numbered years. *RELST 463 only.SCIENCE(See Earth and Environmental Sciences)SOCIAL SCIENCESDR. ROBERT B. ALBERTSON, Program CoordinatorThe Social Sciences Divisional Major (SSDM) isdesigned for students with a natural curiosity inseveral fields of study across the spectrum of the socialsciences. It consists of 48 semester hours, 32 of whichmust be at the 300/400 level and 20 of which mustbe concentrated in one department or disciplinewithin the division. This area of concentration mustinclude 16 hours at the 300/400 level. The majormust also include at least 8 semester hours ofenrichment courses at the 300/400 level in each oftwo other disciplines within the division. Finally, themajor must include one research course, which maybe a research methods course or one with an extensive