REL 7103a, The Medieval Bible  Volker Leppin and John Dillon

The Bible has been transformed throughout its history. Commentaries helped believers understand the text according to the standards of their time, sermons applied Biblical doctrine to the existential needs of the faithful, and images made it visible. Translations even changed the text remarkably at times. The course traces the Bible’s trajectory in the Middle Ages, including a guided journey into the Latin originals that opens up access to language and concepts even for those who never learned ancient languages. The course includes visits to the Beinecke and the Yale University Art Gallery to kindle a feeling for the material basis of medieval Biblical culture. Prerequisite: REL 7718, History of Christianity: An Introduction.  3 Course cr
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7104a, The History of Early Christianity from the Beginnings to the End of the Fourth Century  Teresa Morgan

This course explores the development of Christianity (some would now say,  Christianities) from the beginnings to the end of the fourth century. We will investigate the emergence of Christ-following in the social, cultural, and religious context of the Roman empire; how it spread; and the role of the physical environment in its development. We will consider what kind of group(s) Christians understood themselves as being (an ‘elective cult’? A school? A race?). We will explore the development of key aspects of community organization, theology, ethics, religious experience, worship, textual culture, and the arts. We will look at how outsiders saw Christians and how Christians viewed the ‘other’, human and demonic. One of the distinctive aspects of this course is that it will take a ‘phenomenological’ approach to Christian history. We will take ‘Christians’ as meaning anyone who invokes Jesus Christ as Lord or divine patron, and we will encounter very varied forms of Christ-following, including groups that were attacked by other Christians as ‘heretical’ or ‘gnostic’, or simply ignored as vulgar, as well as groups that defined themselves as ‘catholic’ or ‘orthodox’. Rather than assuming that certain churches were destined to triumph over others and over the Roman empire, we will discuss the processes by which some churches, texts, and practices came to define what Christianity was (and is), while others were marginalized or repressed. In addition to being historically a fascinating story, this will also help us reflect on the relationship between studying Christianity historically and studying it theologically or as an exercise of faith. Students will encounter a wide range of primary sources, secondary literature, and historical methods and approaches. In many ways this is the most formative and influential period of Christian history, and it is both fascinating in itself and provides a vital basis for understanding later developments in Christian history, theology, and ecclesiology. Prerequisites: introductory NT course; Introduction to the History of Christianity or equivalent course.  3 Course cr
T 9:20am-11:10am

REL 7105a, Introduction to Rabbinic Literature  Ra'anan Boustan

This course offers an introduction to rabbinic culture through a close reading in translation of representative rabbinic texts from late antiquity (c. 200–800 CE). We consider the formal and rhetorical features characteristic of the various genres of classical rabbinic literature (midrash, mishnah, and talmud). We also explore the relationship of rabbinic sources to the wider corpus of Jewish writings from this period (e.g., apocalypses, liturgy, targum, magic, and mysticism). Readings illuminate key themes or concerns within formative Judaism, such as divine revelation and scriptural interpretation; empire, war, and martyrdom; animal sacrifice and prayer; gender and sexuality; economic ethics and social justice; interreligious and interethnic relations; and messianism and apocalypticism. The course assumes no prior knowledge of rabbinic literature or Hebrew or Aramaic. An additional weekly session is held for students enrolled in the course wishing to read texts in their original languages.  3 Course cr
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7106a, Byzantine Italy: Empire, Liturgy and Identity from Ravenna to Sicily  Gabriel Radle

This seminar examines Christian religious practice in medieval Italy as part of the broader Byzantine world, with particular emphasis on sacred institutions and ritual life. From late antique Ravenna and Rome to the medieval Greek monasteries of Salento, Calabria, and Sicily, we explore how liturgy shaped religious identity, social organization, and cultural exchange across the Mediterranean. Our approach to the topic draws on a variety of sources, including hagiography, liturgical manuscripts, and material culture, allowing participants to investigate how Byzantine Christian practices developed in Italy and endured long after the (Eastern) Roman Empire’s political retreat from the peninsula. Particular attention is given to migration, monastic networks, and the lived religious experiences of Christian communities through different political shifts and alongside other communities, including Jewish, Muslim, and Latin Christian. By approaching Italy through the lens of Byzantine religious practice, the course introduces liturgy as a primary historical source for understanding power, community and memory in the medieval Mediterranean, and restores Italy as a dynamic cultural protagonist of early and middle Byzantium.  3 Course cr
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7703a, Methods and Sources of Religious History  Scott Libson

This course introduces students to the study of sources, primary and secondary, relating to the history of Christianity. Students work with YDS faculty in the history of Christianity on materials from antiquity to our contemporary world. Students develop their projects over the course of the term under the guidance of their adviser and in workshops. The course prepares students to proceed toward thesis research. The course is not, however, limited to those intending to write a thesis. Prerequisites: some background in history and permission of the instructor.  3 Course cr
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7714a, History of Early Modern Christianity: Reformation to Enlightenment  Dorothy Chang

This course introduces students to the rapidly changing world of early modern Christianity, a period that ranges from the Reformation to the Enlightenment and the transatlantic worlds of the eighteenth century. This age saw the dramatic expansion of Christianity beyond Europe to Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and the course explores the global nature of the early modern world. Themes such as colonization, slavery, and the diversities of religious experience are examined. Students are exposed to a range of primary sources and historical methods to examine rival interpretations and perspectives. The course focuses on the reading of a wide variety of primary sources from the period. Above all, it challenges students to consider the past both on its own terms and how it continues to shape our present. Area III.  3 Course cr
TTh 10am-11:20am

REL 7739a, Pentecostals in Africa: Perspectives, Practice, and Prospects  Kyama Mugambi

African Pentecostalism represents one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the world. After decades of dismissal of the movement as a marginal phenomenon, religious scholarship has only recently begun to conduct in-depth research on it. This course uses a World Christianity studies lens to critically engage with elements of the African Pentecostal experience. Students explore the ways in which this diverse religious expression interacts with hope in the midst of the rapid change occurring on the continent. The class probes multidimensional perspectives of the pathologies that ail some strains of African Pentecostalism. The course draws from examples in East, West, and South Africa to illuminate a broad range of elements. The course considers conversion; pathologies and pathways to hope; storytelling and epistemology; the miraculous as spiritual power dynamic; sermons and prayer as dialectics of hope; the paradox of spontaneity and tradition in oral worship; the mediation of identity through aesthetics; the pragmatism of public engagement; communality and leadership; and the Pentecostal vision within African religion. Area III and Area V.  3 Course cr
Th 9:20am-11:10am

REL 7745a, Byzantine Art and Architecture  Vasileios Marinis

This lecture course explores the art, architecture, and material culture of the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of its capital, Constantinople, in the fourth century to the fifteenth century. Centered around the Eastern Mediterranean, Byzantium was a dominant political power in Europe for several centuries and fostered a highly sophisticated artistic culture. This course aims to familiarize students with key objects and monuments from various media—mosaic, frescoes, wooden panels, metalwork, ivory carvings—and from a variety of contexts—public and private, lay and monastic, imperial and political. We give special attention to issues of patronage, propaganda, reception, and theological milieux, as well as the interaction of architecture and ritual. More generally, students become acquainted with the methodological tools and vocabulary that art historians employ to describe, understand, and interpret works of art. Area III and Area V.  3 Course cr
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7747a, Islamic Art and Architecture in the Mediterranean  Orgu Dalgic

This course surveys the history of Islamic cultures through their rich material expressions beginning from the time of the Prophet Muhammed in the seventh century to the present and extending across the Mediterranean from Spain to Syria. The course aims to familiarize students with the major periods, regions, monuments, and media of the Islamic cultures around the Mediterranean and with basic principles of Islam as they pertain to the visual arts and, in particular, their interactions with the Christian world. We discuss architecture (mosques, madrasas, mausolea, etc.) as well as works of art in various media (calligraphy, illuminated manuscripts, textiles, ceramics, etc.) within both the Islamic and the larger, universal, and cross-cultural contexts. Area III and Area V.  3 Course cr
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7750a, Readings in Early Evangelicalism in Europe and North America, 1580–1830  Kenneth Minkema

This graduate-level seminar focuses on consideration of important classic interpretations and recent studies in the development of the religious phenomena known as “evangelicalism,” with the intention of giving students a historiographical and methodological grounding in the subject. Readings, lectures, and discussion consider topics such as the rise of a distinct phase known as “early evangelicalism” in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which included a distinct brand of exegesis, a millennialist impulse, and other features; the spread of “religion of the heart” among Reformed, Pietist, and other protestant movements, as well as among more mystical strains of Catholicism; the coalescing of a conversionist religious culture featuring revivalism, including specific instances in the Netherlands, England, Wales, Scotland, and North America during the eighteenth century, epitomized by the so-called “Great Awakening”; the emergence of sects and movements, such as Moravianism, Methodism, Separatism, Shakerism, and Mormonism; the birth of Native and Black churches out of this period, with their own theologies, views of Scripture, preaching styles, and bodies of hymns; and the institutionalization of the movement(s) in British Evangelicalism and the Second Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century, which engendered publishing empires, reform movements, and domestic and international missions. Area III.  3 Course cr
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7755a, A History of Byzantine Monasticism  Vasileios Marinis

Monastics and monasteries constituted a quintessential element of Byzantine society. This seminar investigates Byzantine monasticism in its historical, theological, and social contexts from its origins in the third century to the codification of Hesychastic practice in the fourteenth. The course aims to familiarize students with the foundational texts of this tradition; inquire into lives of monastic saints as both rhetorical constructs and historical sources; analyze foundation documents that regulated liturgical and everyday life in Byzantine monasteries; explore the architecture of and artistic production in Byzantine monasteries; and understand the ways and means by which cults of saints were developed and cultivated in a monastic context. Area III and Area V.  3 Course cr
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7759a, Land, Ecology, and Religion in U.S. History  Tisa Wenger

This course explores the varied intersections among land, ecology, and religion in U.S. history and situates American religion within a broader history of the Anthropocene. How have religious ideologies and institutions worked to shape American spaces, places, and landscapes? In an age of accelerating ecological crisis, how have diverse religious groups interacted with, participated in, or reacted against the environmental movement? How have race, gender, settler colonialism, and other intersectional social formations shaped these histories? How are the social formations we call religions implicated in and reinvented by the climactic transformations of the Anthropocene? Area III.  3 Course cr
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7771a, Francis and Clare of Assisi  Volker Leppin

In 2026, we commemorate the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis, who died on October 3, 1226. He, together with his follower and spiritual companion Clare, was one of many who rebelled against the structures of the increasingly commercialized world of trade and questioned whether it could be reconciled with Christian values. Both Francis and Clare were later canonized by the Catholic Church. They showed sincere efforts to live true Christian discipleship according to the rules of the Sermon on the Mount. In this course, we explore their biographies and thinking. The sources we read were both written by themselves and by their hagiographers. Some might be legendary, others constitute reliable historical material. They might allow us to find a historical and theological image of Francis and Clare, despite many unresolved historical questions.  3 Course cr
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7778a, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa: A History of the African Church  Kyama Mugambi

The rapid, previously unexpected growth of Christianity in Africa in the twentieth century calls for deeper scholarly reflection. Keen students of global trends are aware that Africa is now home to more Christians than Europe or North America. While the rapid growth can be traced to a century of vigorous activity, Christianity has a long eventful history on the continent. This course provides a broad overview of Christianity in Africa over two millennia. The early part of the course focuses on the beginnings and development of the Church in Africa. The material highlights the role of African Christian thinkers in shaping early Christian discourses in increasingly dynamic global and continental contexts. The course weaves critical themes emerging in African Christianity north of the expansive Sahara desert, and then south of it. Students encounter critical issues in missionary Christianity in Africa and gain a historical understanding of the milestones in Christian growth that contribute to Christianity’s status as both an African and global religion. Area III.  3 Course cr
HTBA

REL 7781a, Readings in US Law and Religion  Tisa Wenger and Sally Promey

Under the logics of Western modernity, “religion” and “law” are commonly perceived to be easily distinguishable from one another, with each operating as a distinct and largely self-contained aspect of societal organization and social life. Applying the theories and methods of religious studies, this course seeks to critically interrogate that assumption by scrutinizing the complex ways in which religion and law have mutually influenced one another in both historical and contemporary contexts. With a particular focus on the United States, this seminar explores how various religious histories and practices as well as theological claims have helped to structure American legislation, public policy, and judicial doctrines. In turn, it also examines how the American legal system has operated to shape and constrain the possibilities of religious expression and flourishing. Course participants begin by developing a set of critical frameworks from within which to consider and assess interrelationships between religion and law. In relation to this critical rubric, the course then generally proceeds chronologically, focusing on moments in US history and politics when intersections of religion and law are especially salient. Topics, for example, include First Amendment doctrine, the (mis)recognition of Native American traditions, the aesthetics of civic religious displays, and the enduring legacies of slavery and gender subordination. Prior coursework in US religious and/or legal history is preferred. Area III and Area V.  3 Course cr
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

REL 7975a / REL 9975a, Bach Among the Theologians  Markus Rathey

Johann Sebastian Bach has occasionally been called “The Fifth Evangelist” and his music is often viewed as an expression of deep theological insight and devotion. But what does that actually mean? How does Bach’s music relate to the religious and devotional traditions of his time? Was Bach indeed exceptional in that regard? The course explores the religious landscape of Bach’s time and demonstrate how Bach’s music relates to the contemporary trends in theology and private devotion. The basis for the course is a new theological Bach reader (translated and edited by Markus Rathey), which makes accessible important theological documents from Bach’s religious environment. The first half of the course provides a broad overview of central theological topics and their representation in Bach’s music. In the second half, we explore selected cantatas and their relationship to the sermons and devotional texts from theologians who served with Bach in eighteenth-century Leipzig. Area III and Area V.  3 Course cr
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm