RST 416 - The Book of Genesis (3)

This course is designed as a one-semester seminar that will examine the book of Genesis. We will read and discuss this text, as well as Jewish and Christian works based on it, in order to understand it as sacred literature and its impact on religion and culture today. For students, the objectives of the course are: 1) to be familiar with as well as have an appreciation of the book of Genesis; 2) to understand this literature in terms of its historical and cultural context (i.e., events, movements, values, ideologies, and self-understandings), as well as have engaged it as literature; 3) to explore the influence this text has had and continues to have on our culture(s) and thought(s) through engaging aesthetic and popular cultural interpretations; and 4) to develop study skills and time-management talents as well as an informed view of the subject matter through reading primary and secondary sources, in-class discussion, and independent research.

Offered even spring terms.