New Honors Class for Spring 2026!: Honors Foundational Religious Texts
Honors: Foundational Religious Texts
Professor Charles Townsend
Online Mix, 12 weeks (late start, starts 2/17): partially asynchronous, with synchronous meetings on Zoom M 6:00pm-8:50pm
Register for PHL 245 HC1 (CRN: 11952)
Gen Eds: Humanities, Global Studies
Concentrations: Global Studies, Great Books, Jewish Studies, Writing Intensive
Description: This course will begin with the question, “what is ‘scripture’”? We will introduce ourselves to the body of academic literature that interprets scriptures as much more than just “texts”, but rather as living documents that diverse communities interact with in a variety of ways beyond just quiet reading. We will spend the rest of the class deeply reading together excerpts and whole (shorter) scriptures from several different living global religious traditions. The class is on a 12 week session (starts on 2/17) in an “online mix” format, with online materials plus once-weekly discussion meetings (on Zoom) for 12 Monday evenings (6:00pm-8:50pm). Discussions will take an informal weekly “book club” approach to unpacking and understanding the scripture readings together.
The assignments are structured to offer flexible options for fulfilling the course requirements (you can tailor a mixture of different kinds of response papers, thematic papers, and/or site visits). Students will finish the course with an individually guided final project on a current topic of their choice in the broad field of scripture and religious texts with opportunities to share your work beyond the class.
For more information, email Prof. Townsend.
