Courses
Greek
GREK-101 Elementary Koine Greek I
First-year principles of grammar and syntax for New Testament Greek. Using a first-year grammar and graded readings from the NT, the goal is quickly to develop reading skills for the New Testament in its original language.
GREK-102 Elementary Koine Greek II
First-year principles of grammar and syntax for New Testament Greek. Using a first-year grammar and graded readings from the NT the goal is quickly to develop reading skills for the New Testament in its original language.
GREK-201 Intermediate Greek Exegesis
This course develops and matures the skills acquired in first-year Greek by further exploring the grammar and syntax of Koine Greek using New Testament texts and other Jewish and Christian Greek literature from the 1st Century. In addition to exploring these texts grammatically, the class will explore the texts in their cultural contexts. The course operates inductively via the translation of texts. This course fulfills the Central Curriculum Language requirement.
Go Preparation
OFFP-PHILIPP Philippines: Service Learning
OFFP-PHILIPP is the planning course for the service learning trip to the Philippines. In this is spring semester class, students study Filipino culture, history, language, religion, and cuisine. The two-week service learning trip to the Philippines: the first week focuses around a service project in the provincial city of Lipa City in Batangas Provice. The majority of the second week is spent in Manila working at the Kanlungan Shelter for children.
OFFP-SUCASA Images of Jesus in Central America
Pre-trip planning for two-week on-site study with service at clinics, churches and mission sites in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This course examines icons, paintings, hymns, communal life, liturgies, devotional practices, and theological statements as expressions of the Christologies that are operative in a variety of Central American churches. Travel occurs during winter break.
Go Reflection
OFFR-PHILIPP Philippines: Service Learning
The reflection course following the two-week service learning trip to the Philippines.
OFFR-SUCASA Images of Jesus in Central America
Post-trip reflection, following the two-week on-site study with service at clinics, churches and mission sites in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This course examines icons, paintings, hymns, communal life, liturgies, devotional practices, and theological statements as expressions of the Christologies that are operative in a variety of Central American churches. Students must complete the pre-trip planning, 2-week winter trip, and post-trip reflection.
GO-Short Trip
OFFS-GRKCLT Greek Culture: Ancient and Modern
In order to understand more deeply both Greek culture as well as our own, this course includes preparation for and reflection upon a two-week experience of ancient and modern Greek culture. Focusing on Greek philosophy, literature, architecture, sports, food, and history, we will attempt to access ancient Greek culture and compare it to modern culture. We will investigate important ancient sites and artifacts in addition to engaging in relection, discussion, lectures, and hands-on activities in order to discover how rational explanations of the world first burst upon the scence of ancient Greece. All the while we will ask whether the ancient Greeks still have something to offer us as we try to understand the world and our place in it.
OFFS-PHILIPP Philippines: Service Learning
This class is a two-part course. The first part is a spring semester class wherein students study Filipino culture, history, language, religion, and cuisine. The second part of the program is a two-week service learning trip to the Philippines. the first week focuses around a service project in the provincial city of Lipa City in Batangas Provice. The majority of the second week is spent in Manila working at the Kanlungan Shelter for children.
OFFS-SUCASA Images of Jesus in Central America
SU-CASA (Susquehanna University Central American Service Adventure) is an intensive course combining two weeks of on-site study with service at clinics, churches and mission sites in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This course examines icons, paintings, hymns, communal life, liturgies, devotional practices, and theological statements as expressions of the Christologies that are operative in a variety of Central American churches. Travel occurs during winter break and is followed by a 2-credit reflection component during the following spring semester.
Philosophy
PHIL-101 Problems in Philosophy
An introduction to philosophy and philosophical problems. Emphasizes standards and ideals of morality and truth.
PHIL-105 Philosophy of Love & Desire
An introduction to philosophy, this course examines theories of love, desire, and friendship from ancient, medieval, modern, 19th and 20th century philosophers.
PHIL-111 Introduction to Logic
Basic aspects of logical argument. Emphasizes deduction and presents some of the related problems of language.
PHIL-122 Resolving Moral Conflicts
Investigates problems involved in moral decision making, providing students with a better understanding of what it means to be a good individual, a good family member, and a good citizen of the nation and world.
PHIL-125 Justice
This introductory course is a philosophical inquiry into the idea of justice. Rather than focusing on personal morality, we will investigate issues of public policy. How ought we, through our laws and institutions, distribute the benefits and burdens of society -- income and wealth, duties and rights, powers and opportunities, offices and honors? Philosophical writings as well as practical issues that illustrate competing theories of justice will be investigated.
PHIL-150 Everyday Ethics
This course is an examination of ethical theory and practice in connection with the relevant social and political philosophy, focusing on the philosophical issues that arise in everyday life.
PHIL-210 Philosophy of Religion
Focus on classical and contemporary writings to determine the credibility of religious faiths and beliefs.
PHIL-212 Feminist Philosophy
An examination of the various forms of feminist philosophy (e.g., liberal feminism, radical feminism, existential feminism, Marxist/socialist feminism, psychoanalytic feminism, postmodern feminism, eco-feminism, multicultural & global feminism). Emphasizes how feminism differs from common (mis)understandings of it. Some attention is also given to various women in professional philosophy.
PHIL-213 Symbolic Logic
Examines basic procedures for determining the validity or invalidity of deductive arguments. Emphasizes standard notations, principles and methods used in modern symbolic logic. Also covers aspects of set theory.
PHIL-221 Applied Ethics
Examines a variety of practical ethical issues and problems using the tools of philosophical analysis and moral theory. Subject area for course will change on a rotating basis and will include bioethics, ethics of war and peace, business ethics, and environmental ethics.
PHIL-222 Advanced Ethical Theory
Principal theories of moral value and duty in the history of Western thought as well as in contemporary philosophy. Readings may include works from such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Held, Korsgaard, Hursthouse, Hooks, Bordo, de Waal, MacIntyre, Blackburn, and Lear.
PHIL-223 Business Ethics
A systematic and philosophically informed consideration of some typical moral problems faced by individuals in a business setting, and a philosophical examination of some common moral criticisms of the American business system.
PHIL-224 Bioethics
Examines the major ethical controversies in medicine, subjecting them to close philosophical analysis. Subjects addressed include the patient/doctor relationship, informed voluntary consent, beginning and end of life issues, abortion, reproductive rights, genetic therapies and cloning, human subject medical experimentation, and health care resource allocation.
PHIL-225 Just War Theory
Examines from a philosophical perspective the ethical issues raised by the Just War Tradition. Subjects addressed include pacifism, realism, the criteria for starting and conducting a just war, international law, terrorism, humanitarian interventions, and the moral responsibility for war and war crimes.
PHIL-235 Aesthetics
Examines artistic and aesthetic values reflected in both past and present philosophies of art and beauty. Readings may include selections from Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant and Tolstoy, as well as 20th-century philosophers and artists.
PHIL-241 Ancient Philosophy
The origins of Western philosophical thought in ancient Greece and Rome. Emphasizes Plato, and Aristotle, and the Stoics.
PHIL-243 Modern Philosophy
Focuses on the ideas of European and British philosophers from Descartes through Kant.
PHIL-245 19th and 20th Century Philosophy
This course is a study of works by noted philosophers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that represent the dominant movements which arose in response to the critique of idealism and metaphysics, such as existentialism, phenomenology, psychoanalytic theory, analytic philosophy, and postmodern philosophy.
PHIL-255 The Republic & HBO's The Wire
This course examines HBO's The Wire in comparison with Plato?s Republic. Both the Republic and The Wire concern life in a city and which factors foster justice and which foster injustice. These texts raise philosophical questions, such as: What is justice? Who should rule? What are the obligations of rulers? How should children be educated? Who is best suited to protect the city, and how should they be educated for this important job? and How should desire be managed in society? Our task is, first, to work to understand the philosophizing being done in both these texts, and second, to philosophize on our own about the topics raised by both texts.
PHIL-301 Plato Seminar
An intensive study of the works of Plato. Topics may vary, including: Plato's theory of education, Plato and the Greek literary tradition, Plato's Republic, the role of the body in Plato's epistemology, dialectic and dramatic dialogue.
PHIL-302 Philosophy in the Wake of the Holocaust
This course examines the validity of certain traditional philosophical assumptions in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide. In this effort the class will read texts by scholars in a variety of fields who throw doubt on the moral value of rational thought, the telelogical worldview, the western conception of 'human nature' and the legacy of the Enlightenment through an analysis of the Holocaust and other genocides in the 20th and 21st centuries.
PHIL-305 Topics in Philosophy
Examines selected topics in philosophy, depending on student and instructor interest. Course may be repeated for credit if topic is different. 2 - 4 SH.
PHIL-310 Philosophy of Science
Investigates the logic of the scientific method, the history of scientific thought, and the philosophical underpinnings of modern science. Focuses on developing an understanding of the nature, origins, and growth of modern science and the application of scientific knowledge to human affairs.
PHIL-312 Epistemology-Theories of Knowledge
Do we have knowledge of the world around us, the so-called external, objective world? Are there any objective truths about the world for us to discover? If there are, how do we come to have knowledge of these truths? These and other related questions of epistemology will constitute the subject matter of this course.
PHIL-350 Metaphysics-Theories of Reality
Investigations into the nature of being and the structure of reality, as well as the epistemological and ethical status of such inquiries, as conducted by such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche.
PHIL-443 Political Philosophy
The ideas of the major philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Hegel and Marx. Juniors or seniors only or by instructor's permission.
Religion
RELI-102 Applied Biblical Ethics
Ethics Examines what contributions biblical texts can make to specific moral dilemmas in contemporary society, using the biblical traditions of the Old and New Testaments together with ethical theory and the Christian traditions of biblical interpretation. Specific problems vary, but at least six of the following areas are covered each time the course is offered: economics and consumerism; personal vocation; environmentalism; recreation and entertainment; sexual issues; health care; violence and war; education and moral development; media; and racism.
RELI-103 The New Testament
An introduction to those texts identified as Christian scripture. Particular focus on the social, historical and religious contexts that helped shape this literature and the ways in which these texts witness to the early history of Christianity.
RELI-105 World Religions
Examines both historical and contemporary aspects of the world's major religions.
RELI-107 Faiths and Values
Examines the contemporary personal and social consequences of religiously based values from a multicultural perspective.
RELI-110 Introduction to Religious Studies
Explores the human phenomenon of religion via the interdisciplinary perspectives and methods of religious studies. Seeks to gain understanding of a wide range of cross-cultural human religious experiences such as ritual, the sacred, the divine, religious community, religious ethical norms, mysticism, myth and doctrine. An emphasis on analysis of gender, power, privilege, and justice in religion. Provides a foundation for understanding religious studies as a discipline.
RELI-113 Introduction to Judaism
Examines Judaism as it has been defined and developed as a way of thought and a way of life. The course focuses on central religious concepts, holidays, life-cycle ceremonies, and various forms of religious expression, including prayer and ritual, in order to help students understand what it means, and has meant, to be a Jew. Sponsored in part by the Jewish Chautauqua Society.
RELI-115 Jewish Philosophy and Ethics
Explores issues and problems related to the spiritual literature and philosophy of the Jewish people, from the Talmudic period through the present. Topics vary, and may include classical Jewish texts, spiritual traditions, mysticism, religious organization, gender and community, and Judaism in America. The course encourages students to recognize in Jewish texts reflections of Judaism that are diverse and, at times, antithetical to one another. Sponsored in part by the Jewish Chautauqua Society.
RELI-117 Introduction to Asian Religions
This course provides students with an introduction to various religious traditions in Asia. It will provide an overview of the history, beliefs, and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, with the intent of helping students to understand the culture, history, and values of Asian communities.
RELI-201 The Hebrew Bible
An introduction to the texts of the Hebrew Bible, with concern for their socio-historical contexts, literary forms, and theological insights. Attention also to the variety of ways in which this literature has been and continues to be valued.
RELI-203 The Gospels and Jesus
Close reading of both the canonical and non-canonical gospels and their various representations of Jesus. Consideration of the search for the historical Jesus and the nature of the communities from which the gospels derived.
RELI-205 Paul
The life and teachings of Paul in the context of his times. Analysis of the Pauline writings and their treatment of such theological themes as faith, the nature of the church, and the expectations for the future, plus Paul's views on such social issues as marriage and sexuality, slavery, society, and the state.
RELI-207 Women in Biblical Tradition
An extensive inquiry into women?s stories and images in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and related literature from the biblical period. Explores the range of roles played by women within biblical narratives, the variety of metaphorical/symbolic uses of femininity in biblical traditions, and legal and ethical precepts related to the status of women in the biblical period. Methods and approaches from the social sciences, history, literary studies, and theology, as shaped by feminist theory, will serve as the main guides for this study.
RELI-209 The Bible and Archaeology
A study of the events, persons, and socio-cultural processes of ancient (biblical) Israel. Examines carefully the ways in which both the Bible and archaeology can and cannot serve as prime source material for a history of ancient Israel. Considers also the relationships between the biblical text and archaeological findings for historical reconstructions.
RELI-210 Philosophy of Religion
Focus on classical and contemporary writings to determine the credibility of religious faiths and beliefs.
RELI-213 Christian Worship
A survey of the development of Christian worship from the New Testament to the present day, which examines the impact of religious beliefs, historical and denominational traditions, and societal influences on the forms and architecture of worship.
RELI-214 Hymnology
A survey of hymnody in the Christian church from early Greek and Latin hymnody through present-day trends in hymn-writing. Texts and music will be examined.
RELI-215 Music in Christian Rituals
Examines the theological and musicological aspects of artistic contributions to Christian worship as recognized in cultural settings.
RELI-220 Magic, Witchcraft & Religion
Examines anthropological concepts of magic, witchcraft, and religion in a cross-cultural context. Drawing on ethnography, anthropological theory, history, and film, the class explores the nature of magic, witchcraft, and religion; the relations among them; and the ways in which they interact with other social formations, for example gender, politics, and economics. Countries studied have included South Africa, India, Haiti, and the U.S.
RELI-225 Women in Religion
Critically studies how women are perceived, portrayed, and involved in a number of the world's religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and women's spiritual movements.
RELI-300 Apocalypticism
Using interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, cultural anthropology, religious studies, history, cultural studies, theology, and biblical studies, this course examines the role and modes of speculation about the end of the world as a contemporary interpretive and cultural problem in the Western religious and secular traditions. The origins of apocalyptic world views in ancient Judaism and Christianity and how it is we continue to use these traditions in our own time are explored, as well as how medieval and early modern developments to contemporary utopianism and millennialism impact us.
RELI-301 Biblical Studies
Advanced studies in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and/or the New Testament. Potential course offerings may include: Wisdom Literature, the Narrative Art of the Bible, or the Art and Archaeology of the Biblical World.
RELI-305 Topics in Religion
Examines selected topics in religion, depending on student and instructor interest. Course may be repeated for credit if topic is different. 2 - 4 SH.
RELI-309 Luther: Life and Thought
Through readings from the writings of Martin Luther (1483-1546) and major secondary sources, this course examines the life, thought and importance of Luther in the context of his times and with attention to his significance for today's Christian churches and interfaith dialogues.
RELI-311 Historical Studies
Advanced studies in religious and cultural topics historically considered.
RELI-321 Current Religious Issues
Advanced studies in religious issues, both personal and social, ethical and theological.
RELI-350 Science and Religion
RELI-360 Religious Fundamentalisms Modern World
This course examines religious beliefs, practices, and ways of life that have come to be labled "fundamentalist." We will attend in particular to their emergence in the modern world and the ways in which they critically engage secular convictions about morality, aesthetics, and epistemology. We will focus on Protestant Fundamentalism and the Islamic Revival, but, depending on student interest, may also consider ultra-orthodox Judaism or Hindu nationalism.
RELI-400 Independent Study
Study of a particular topic under the guidance of an instructor. This option is available to all students, not just majors and minors.
RELI-502 Practicum
Experiential learning in a social, political, religious or academic setting. Includes reflective study and analysis under faculty supervision and a term paper or equivalent writing. No more than six hours may be taken for major credit; no more than four hours for minor credit.
