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At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:
1. Discover and describe the complex evolution of Judaism and Islam
and their interaction with Christianity.
2. Discover and describe the internecine conflicts and variations in the histories of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam.
3. Identify sources for specific religious concepts, stories and rituals in the monotheistic religions
in Egyptian, Canaanite, Mesopotamian, Hittite, and Iranian indigenous religions.
4. Identify seminal thinkers within the context of the course and the unique characteristics of
their thought within the historic circumstances and literary understandings of their own time.
5. Analyze and evaluate persistent religious themes and controversies within rival hermeneutics
of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
6. Trace the historic and religious sources of contemporary values and belief systems.
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I. The Ancient Near Eastern Origins of "Western" or "Monotheistic" Religions
A. Egyptian "monotheism" under Akhenaten
B. The Divine Council of the autochthonous Canaanites
II. The Evolution and Diversity of Pre-Exilic Israelite Religion
A. Yahwistic monolatry
B. Polytheism and syncretism in Biblical Israel
III. The Emergence of Judaism After the Exile
A. The evolution of rabbinic Judaism: temple to Torah
B. Hellenistic Judaism: allegorizing the God of Torah
C. Other sects and movements such as the Essenes, apocalyptic
D. The development of the sacred texts: Tanak, Mishnah, Talmuds and Midrashim
IV. The Origins and Early Development of Christianity
A. The diversity of early Jesus movements
B. Orthodoxy and heresy: for example, Gnosticism, Arianism, Ebionitism, Modalism
C. Rival Jewish and Christian hermeneutics
D. Christian apologetics and polemics
E. The triumph of orthodoxy under Constantine and his successors
F. The Ecumenical Councils: the Trinity and Christology
G. The establishment of the papacy and East-West conflict
V. The Origins and Early Development of Islam
A. The Arabian context
B. Muhammad and the Quran, thoroughgoing monotheism
C. The evolution of Muhammad's prophetic career: Mecca to Medina and back
D. The Rashidun: first four Caliphs and success of Islam's conquest
E. The Hadith: the evolution of tradition and Muslim practice
F. The Sufis and the relationship between mysticism and orthodoxy
G. The House of Islam as empire: the sharia, education, science and culture
H. The dhimmis: Jews and Christians under Islam
VI. The Middle Ages: Interaction and Conflict
A. The Crusades
B. The Inquisition
C. The God of the philosophers: scholasticism and the sharing of scholarship in
Maimonides, Ibn Rushd and Thomas
D. Theological interaction with the Renaissance
VII. The Protestant Reformation
VIII. The Enlightenment: Science and Historical-Critical Biblical Scholarship
A. The trial of Galileo
B. The excommunication of Spinoza
IX. Modernity and the Rise of Fundamentalisms and Ultra-Orthodoxy
X. Contemporary Issues such as Ecology, Economic Policy, and Social Justice
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New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha. 5th ed. 2018. (classic).
God: A Human History. Aslan, Reza. Penguin Random House. 2017. (classic).
Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict. Norenzayan, Ara. Princeton University Press. 2015. (classic).
The Evolution of God. Wright, Robert. Back Bay Books. 2009. (classic).
Al-Qur'an: A Contemporary Translation. Ali, Ahmed. Princeton University Press. 2001. (classic).
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: The Classical Texts and Their Interpretation (3 volumes). Peters, F.E. Princeton University Press. 1990. (classic).