Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

Bachelor of Arts programs in the School of Religious Studies explore the many cultural, historical and political issues related to both Eastern and Western religions, and to religion in comparative perspective. Majors and minors in Religious Studies are available, as well as听honours and joint honours programs in Religious Studies. Students frequently combine Majors and Minors in Religious Studies听with a wide range of other B.A. concentrations, highlighting the importance of the rigorous study of religion to many other areas of inquiry.

Any course that needs approval to register please e-mail admincoord1.relig [at] mcgill.ca and include your student ID number.

Programs

Major

Please note that due to a technical issue, it is not possible to add the Major concentration in Religious Studies via Minerva. Please submit a request via the Major Concentration Change Webform for program selection issues related the major concentration in Religious Studies.

Please note that there is a new B.A. Major Concentration in Religious Studies which is effective Fall 2020. Students enrolled in the Major starting Fall 2020 and after will follow this course of study.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) -听 Major Concentration Religious Studies (36 Credits)

Students already registered in the Major in World Religions听may continue on this path, or choose to switch to the Major Concentration in Religious Studies.

Program requirements:

RELG 207 Introduction to the Study of Religions

RELG 456 Theories of Religion

Students in a Religious Studies Major, Honours or Joint Honours programme have to take RELG 456, ideally in their final, graduating year.

To register for RELG 456, please e-mail admincoord1.relig [at] mcgill.ca for an 'approval code', including your student number, and program.

Minor

Please note that there is a new B.A. Minor Concentration in Religious Studies which is effective Fall 2020. Students enrolled in the Minor starting Fall 2020 and after will follow this course of study.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Minor Concentration Religious Studies (18 Credits)

Students already registered in the Minor in World Religions or Religion and Globalization may continue on these paths, or choose to switch to the Minor Concentration in Religious Studies.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Minor Concentration Religion and Globalization (18 Credits)

Honours

Please note that there is a new B.A. Honours in Religious Studies which is effective Fall 2020. Students enrolled in the Honours starting Fall 2020 and after will follow this course of study.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Honours Religious Studies (60听Credits)

Students already registered in the Honours Religious Studies - Asian Religions or Honours Religions Studies - Western Religions may continue on this path, or choose to switch to the Honours in Religious Studies.

Program requirement:

RELG 456 Theories of Religion

Students in a Religious Studies Major, Honours or Joint Honours programme have to take RELG 456, ideally in their final, graduating year.

To register for RELG 456, please e-mail admincoord1.relg [at] mcgill.ca (Administrative Coordinator) for an 'approval code', including your student number, and program.

Joint Honours

Please note that there is a NEW B.A. Joint Honours in Religious Studies听effective Fall 2023. Students enrolled in the Joint Honours starting Fall 2023 and after will follow this course of study.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Joint Honours Component Religious Studies

Students听 registered in the Joint Honours Religious Studies - Asian Religions or Joint Honours Religions Studies - Western Religions prior to Fall 2021 may continue on this path, or choose to switch to the Joint Honours in Religious Studies.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Joint Honours Component Religious Studies - Asian Religions (36 Credits)

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Joint Honours Component Religious Studies - Western Religions (36 Credits)

Program requirements:

RELG 456 Theories of Religion

Students in a Religious Studies Major, Honours or Joint Honours programme have to take RELG 456, ideally in their final, graduating year.

To register for RELG 456, e-mail a request for an 鈥渁pproval code鈥� to听admincoord1.relg [at] mcgill.ca (Administrative Coordinator), including your name, student number, and program.

RELG 456听Theories of Religion听3 Credits

RELG 489 Joint Honours Thesis

Students in a Religious Studies Joint Honours programme will also have to take RELG 489 in the Winter Term of their final year, graduating year.

No permission is required to register for RELG 489.

RELG 489听Joint Honours Thesis听3 Credits

Courses

200 level courses

200 level courses are the听main听introductory courses听in all departments. Most courses do not have pre-requisites and are often 鈥榮urvey鈥� courses. These sometimes split into smaller conferences that go into depth about class topics.听 The two additional characters (D1, D2) at the end of the seven-character course number identifies multi-term courses.

Course	Syllabi
RELG 201. Religions of the Ancient Near East. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Introduction to the religions of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Syria-Palestine (excluding Israelite religion) from the fourth to first millennium B.C.E. Themes that will be discussed include: gods and goddesses, divine kingship, deification of kings, temple cult, death and afterlife, magic, piety, oracles, prayer, lament, myth and epic. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 202. Religion of Ancient Israel. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An examination of the religion of Ancient Israel by a study of selected texts (narratives, laws, prophetic sayings, wisdom traditions, and psalms) from the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament in translation. Restriction: Not open to students who are required to take or have taken RELG 302 Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 203. Bible and Western Culture. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description To provide students of the humanities with knowledge of the Bible as a tool for interpreting religious references in Western literature, art and music. Biblical stories (e.g. Creation, Exodus), key figures (e.g. David, Job, Mary), and common motifs (e.g. Holy City, Pilgrimage, Bride) are explored, then illustrated by later cultural forms. Fall and Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 204. Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the beliefs, practices, and religious institutions of these three world religions. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 205. Death and Dying. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description How people in contemporary North America use traditional religious concepts and rituals, scientific understandings and medical procedures, or innovative combinations of both, to cope with, and make sense of, the concept of death. Exploration of how culture, politics, and other societal infrastructure interact in/through the bodily fact of death. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 207. Introduction to the Study of Religions. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This course is an introduction to classic and contemporary approaches to the academic study of religions. This includes perspectives from philosophy, theology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, phenomenology, and feminism. Students are also exposed to applications of these perspectives from visiting scholars who treat some aspect of a religious tradition in light of current-day interests and events. The primary objective is to introduce students to the principal theories and methods that have shaped our understanding of religion, its various meanings as well as its roles and functions in society. Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken RELG 255. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 210. Jesus of Nazareth. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A critical study of selected ancient and modern accounts of the aims and person of Jesus. Attention will be given also to the question of the historical sources and to the relationship between faith and history. Fall, Winter and Summer Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 222. World Christianity. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Explores the global nature of Christianity. Examines the roots of the rapid growth of Christianity in the Global South and the influence of its 2 billion adherents around the world. Considers the variety of forms of the Christian faith around the world, including historic denominations, Pentecostalism, and other new forms of the faith. Particular attention to African, Asian, and Latin American forms of Christianity, and their relationship to developments in Europe and North America. Key themes include migration, modernity, politics, gender and sexuality, and globalization. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 252. Hinduism and Buddhism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The interaction of Hinduism and Buddhism in India with special reference to the law of Karma, caste, women, ritual, death, yoga, and liberation. Determination of interpretative principles for understanding the religious psychology of Hindus and Buddhists. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 253. Religions of East Asia. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This course introduces East Asia's major religions comparatively by addressing the continuous exchange of ideas and practices between traditions. Rather than adopting a mere chronological approach, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism will be discussed thematically, taking in to account topics such as gender constructs, the secular and the sacred, material culture, and the apparent contrast between doctrine and practice. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 254. Introduction to Yoga Traditions. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This course is an historical and thematic investigation into yoga, including its classical formulations, esoteric practices, and contemporary developments and debates. It explores early yoga traditions as well as the development of modern yoga in India and 鈥渢he West,鈥� along with themes such as the body, asceticism, secularism, and cultural exchange. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 264. Introductory Tibetan 1. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the language of Classical Tibetan, specifically Tibetan script and basic grammar. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 265. Introductory Tibetan 2. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A continuation of the introduction to the language of Classical Tibetan, specifically Tibetan script and basic grammar. Winter Prerequisite: RELG 264 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 270. Religious Ethics and the Environment. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Environmental potential of various religious traditions and secular perspectives, including animal rights, ecofeminism, and deep ecology. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 271. Religion and Sexuality. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Exploration of intersections between religion, gender and sexuality in diverse cultural, historical and contemporary contexts. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 288. Introduction to Sikhism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the historical and religious contexts relevant to understanding Sikh religious traditions, including its principal doctrines, practices and institutions and its evolution from its origins in South Asia to the present, with particular attention to Sikh-Canadian transnational connections. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 388. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听

300 level courses

300 level courses are听intermediate courses, meaning they are typically smaller and provide a more in-depth look at a subject than a 200 level introductory course. Often, there will be 200 level pre-requisites you must complete before you are allowed to register for the 300 level courses.听The two additional characters (D1, D2) at the end of the seven-character course number identifies multi-term courses.

course	Syllabi
RELG 300. Second Temple Judaism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A survey of Jewish history and thought from Ezra to the Mishnah; religious developments and groups, e.g., apocalypticism, Hellenistic Judaism, Essenes, Pharisees, Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism; and Biblical Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Paul, Mishnah and Midrashim. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 302. Literature of Ancient Israel 1. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the literature of Ancient Israel in English translation. Reading and interpreting representative selections. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 303. Literature of Ancient Israel 2. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Approaches to historical-critical scholarship and to the historical background of the Old Testament. Part of the course will be an examination of methods of biblical analysis through the use of learning cells. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 307. Bible, Quran and Interpretations. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures as responses to earlier sacred texts and in the light of post-scriptural interpretations. The debates, polemics, interpretative strategies, and intellectual and spiritual sharing produced by these three religions in accepting, explaining, amplifying, modifying, and selectively rejecting their and other sacred scriptures. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 309. World Religions and Cultures They Create.. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The constitution and mutual entanglements of selected religions and cultures originating and thriving in varied regional contexts. Focus on highlighting the symbolic (visual, aural) expressivity of religions via ritual, myth, and rational speculation and its impact on high and popular cultures. Prerequisite: RELG 204, RELG 207, RELG 252, or RELG 253 recommended Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken RELG 208. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 311. Formation of the New Testament. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the formation and interpretation of the New Testament, excluding the Gospels. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 312. The Gospels. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the critical study of the Gospels. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 315. Special Topics in Religion 1. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Topics of current interest in or between world religions. Section 005 (02-JUL-2003/31-JUL-2003) Social Scientific Survey of Religion in Canada. The use of social scientific methods to explore the development of religious pluralism in Canada. Through a series of case studies that include writings from religious scholars, religious leaders, internet sources, films, field trips and presentations by practitioners. The course will serve to broaden the knowledge of religious practice in Canada. Section 006 (02-JUL-2003/31-JUL-2003) Buddhist Ethics and the Environment. The examination of the logic of Buddhist ethics within Theravada and Mahayana traditions. Key environmental issues and the means of establishing philosophical and political ethos for grass-roots environmental organizations will also be explored. Section 003 (31-May-2004/28-June-2004) NARRATIVE ART IN GENESIS. Many of the narratives in Genesis can be described as "artful." In this course, we will apply concepts derived from other art forms, especially cinematography, painting, and literature, to the narratives in Genesis in an attempt to describe them also as art. We will discuss Gen. 1-15 (selections), 24, 37, 39-45 (selections), and 50:15-21 under the following titles: Creation and Covenant, Paradise Lost, East of Eden, A Tale of Two Cities, The Wedding Planner, and Conspiracy Theory. Section 004 - (29-June-2004/29-July-2004) THE GIFT OF LOVE: A CONVERSION OF SUBJECTIVITY. This course will examine what could be said to constitute a 鈥渃onversion to religious love鈥� from a strictly phenomenological perspective. Focusing on the work of contemporary philosopher Jean-Luc Marion, consideration will be given to the nature of the conversion as a gift the revelation of which to the subject reconstitutes the subject in an entirely new 鈥減osture of subjectivity,鈥� or, religiously speaking, 鈥渘ew life.鈥� 200409-Topic for Section 002: Civic Religion and Public Spirituality. Situated at the interstice of religion, culture and politics, through lectures, viewings, readings, listenings, field trips and dialogic sessions, this course explores the religious, political, artistic nexus of culture. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 496 Winter and Summer Prerequisites: RELG 204 or RELG 252 or RELG 253 Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 496 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Winter 2023	RELG 315 Topics in Catholic Studies: Indigenous Religiosity and Spirituality
RELG 317. Special Topics in Religion 2. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Topics of current interest in, or between, world religions. Due to the intensive nature of this course, the standard add/drop and withdrawal deadlines do not apply. Add/drop is the second lecture day and withdrawal is the fourth lecture day. Summer Prerequisites: RELG 204 or RELG 252 or RELG 253. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 496. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Winter 2023	RELG 317 Special Topics in Religion 2: Varieties of Modern Buddhism
RELG 318. Special Topics in Religion 3. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Topics of current interest in, or between, world religions. Fall and Summer Prerequisites: RELG 204 or RELG 252 or RELG 253. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 496. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Fall 2022	RELG 318 Catholicism in a Global Context: African Christianity
RELG 321. Western Intellectual Tradition. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Introduces essential sources in western philosophy and theology; examines the interdependence of these disciplines in their historical development; exposes students to the means and methods of argumentation that will allow them to compare and contrast these sources, and to develop and defend their own positions with respect to them. Prerequisite: U0 students must obtain permission from instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 322. Church and Empire to 1300 . Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A survey of major institutional developments in the history of Western Christianity in Church and Empire from the end of the apostolic age to 1300. **Due to the intensive nature of this course, the standard add/drop and withdrawal deadlines do not apply. Add/drop is the second lecture day and withdrawal is the fourth lecture day. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Fall 2022	RELG 322 Church and Empire to 1300
RELG 323. Church and State since 1300. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Significant events and persons in the history of Western Christendom from 1300 to the present. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 325. Varieties Religious Experience in Christianity. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A survey of varieties of religious experience in Christianity. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 326. Christians in the Roman World. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A social-historical examination of Christians within the complex cultural, political, ethnic and religious contexts of later Greco-Roman antiquity, focusing on changing relations among different varieties of Christian, as well as on interactions and conflicts among Christians, Jews and polytheists. Other topics to be considered include martyrdom, orthodoxy and heresy, and Gnosticism. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 322 or RELG 323 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 331. Religion and Globalization. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An exploration of the distinctive ways in which the world's religions are shaping and are shaped by the dynamics of globalization. It examines the multiple intersections of religion and globalization through a variety of themes and case studies in human rights, development, education, ecology, gender, and conflict . Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 333. Principles of Theology. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An introduction to the central questions, claims, and categories of Christian thought, considered in their narrative and credal context, with discussion of the nature of theology and the relation between faith and reason. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 334. Theology of History. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A study of Christian readings of history, and especially of the present age, including apocalyptic literature and political theology. Winter and Summer Prerequisite(s): One prior course in Christianity, or permission of the instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 336. Contemporary Theological Issues. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A study of contemporary theological issues. Topic varies by year. Topic for Winter 2004: The Lover, the Beloved and Love Itself: The Trinity and Art. Identifies key issues in major areas of trinitarian enquiry and explores the development of the trinitarian doctrine through art and the study of classical "texts". Discussions will include: the role of trinitarian images/imagery for engagement in theological discourse, the function of the trinitarian formula in the relationship between doctrine and liturgy/teaching and practice, the nature/scope of contemporary trinitarian dialogue, etc. Summer - Section 001 (04-JUN-2009/07-JUL-2009) Winter Prerequisite: 3 credits in Christianity or permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 337. Themes in Buddhist Studies. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A focused examination of major themes within a branch of Theravada, Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhism. Emphasis will be placed on both the close study of primary texts (in translation) in historical context and the application of recent methods to fundamental Buddhist concepts, ritual practices and community institutions. Prerequisite: RELG 252 or RELG 253 or permission of instructor Summer Prerequisite: RELG 252 or RELG 253 or permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 338. Women and the Christian Tradition. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Survey of women's involvement in the Christian tradition. Topics include feminist interpretation of scripture, ideas of virginity, marriage and motherhood, mysticism, asceticisms, European witchhunts, contemporary women's liberation theories. Fall Core course for the Women's Studies Minor program Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 341. Introduction: Philosophy of Religion. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Introduction to the subject. Faith and reason, theistic arguments, values and destiny, the problem of evil, religious language. Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 348. Classical Hinduism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Surveys classical Hinduism through Sanskrit learning traditions. Topics include: Vedic literature, fables, ethics, statecraft, erotics, liberation, and epic literature. Prerequisite: RELG 252 or permission of the instructor All texts are read in English translation; no prior knowledge is assumed. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 352. Japanese Religions: History and Thought. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This course provides an in-depth introduction to the religious traditions of Japan from the emerging of the Japanese state to the role of religion in contemporary Japan. Kami worship, the Buddhist tradition, Yin Yang divination, Confucianism, and the modern construct of Shinto are addressed in an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account insights from the fields of History, Literature, and Art. Fall Prerequisite: RELG 253 or permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 353. Gandhi: His Life and Thought. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A study of the life and thought of Gandhi. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 354. Chinese Religions. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Introduction to the diverse religiosities in the Chinese cultural sphere. Examination of the everyday practice of ancestor worship, longevity practices, morality, rituals, and the veneration of deities and spirits. Fall Prerequisite: RELG 253 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 358. Religion and Cinema in India. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Surveys religion in India through key films, assuming no prior knowledge of South Asian cinema. Discussions will focus on issues of religion, visual culture, and representation in the study of Indian film. Thematic focus will vary from year to year, on a range of topics such as nationalism, devotion, secularism, and censorship. This course may require additional contact hours for the screening of films. Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken RElG 547 when topic was "Religion and Cinema in India". This course may require additional contact hours for the screening of films. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 364. Intermediate Tibetan 1. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Advanced Tibetan grammar, and translation of selected Tibetan texts. Fall Prerequisite: RELG 265 or permission of the instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 366. Rivers, Religion, and Environment in South Asia. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This class explores the significance of major South Asian river systems, including Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, and Yamuna, in classical and contemporary terms. In Hindu scriptures, rivers may be incarnate, emplaced goddesses; in contemporary South Asia, rivers are central to Hindu pilgrimage while facing environmental pressures from pollution, overuse, flooding, and drought. Finally, rivers of the Indian subcontinent cross and delineate international boundaries, creating friction between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. As key lifelines shared in multi-religious South Asia, are rivers vulnerable wards of the state鈥攐r valuable 鈥榗itizens鈥� who must be recruited to do their part? Prerequisite(s): RELG 252 or Permission of Instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 370. Religion and Human Rights. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Social justice and human rights issues as key aspects of modem religious ethics. Topics include: the relationship of religion to the modem human rights movement; religious perspectives on the universality of human rights; the scope and limits of religious freedom; conflicts between religion and rights. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 372. Hindu Goddesses. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The mythology, theology, soteriology, history, ritual, and texts of the goddess-centred (Sakta) branches of Hinduism. Summer - Section 001 (04-JUN-2009/07-JUL-2009) Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 373. Christian Ethics of Love. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This course will focus on the philosophical sources of love and on their uses by Christian authors. By comparing both their premises and methods, we will see how different authors in a particular tradition (Christianity) offer various answers to the themes of love, friendship and charity. Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 375. Religion, Politics and Society. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A study of contemporary religious traditions in the light of debates regarding secularization, the relation of religion and politics, and the interaction of religion with major social institutions. Restriction: U2 and U3 students Fall Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 381. Advanced New Testament Greek. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A review of grammar and syntax with an emphasis on rapid reading of sections chosen from different parts of the New Testament. Fall Prerequisites: RELG 280, CLAS 222, or equivalent, with a minimum grade of 70% Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 399. Christian Spirituality. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Seminar exploring the phenomena of internal religious experience in their relation to received formularies of Christian thought and practice. Summer Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听

400 level courses

400 level courses are听advanced courses听or seminar courses. There will often be 300 level pre-requisite courses you must complete before you are allowed to register for the 400 level courses.

course	Syllabi
RELG 407. The Writings. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A study of Job with some attention to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (in English translation). Winter Prerequisites: RELG 202, or RELG 302 and RELG 303, or equivalent Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 408. The Prophets. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A study of significant texts selected from the prophetic tradition in the Old Testament. Prerequisites: RELG 202, or RELG 302 and RELG 303 Prerequisites: RELG 202, or RELG 302 and RELG 303 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 411. New Testament Exegesis. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A seminar in exegesis on the basis of representative passages chosen from different parts of the New Testament in English. Winter Prerequisites: RELG 311 and RELG 312 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 423. Reformation Thought. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An examination of issues and persons in Europe and the British Isles that contributed to ecclesiastical and social change during the 16th and early 17th centuries. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Fall 2022	RELG 423 Reformation Thought
RELG 434. Advanced Theology. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Examination of the nature of theology, and particular theological loci, through readings in major theologians. The Lord鈥檚 Prayer is added to the Nicene Creed as a second lens for theological study. Fall Prerequisite(s): RELG 333 or permission of the instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 442. Pure Land Buddhism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The concept of Buddha Countries and Pure Lands in Buddhism, the Western Pure Land of Amida (Jodokyo) and its basic scriptures, the Chinese Buddhist schools, the introduction to Japan and the foundation of the Pure Land school by Honen, the Pure Land School of Shinran and its development, and the other Pure Land related schools. Prerequisite: RELG 252 and RELG 253, or RELG 342 or RELG 344, or permission of instructor Prerequisite: six credits in EAST/RELG or permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 444. Indian Ocean Religious Networks. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This seminar class explores cultural exchanges among maritime networks of Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims in South Asia and Southeast Asia, in classical, pre-modern, and contemporary terms. Key themes to be considered include: sovereignty, society, and religion, within the context of historically evolving cultural relations around the Bay of Bengal. Taking an inter-religious approach to understanding maritime cultural interactions, class readings and discussion include: foundational theories of 鈥淚ndianization,鈥� reflection on 鈥渓ocalization,鈥� the 鈥淪anskrit cosmpolis,鈥� and emerging theoretical contributions based on current archaeological, epigraphic, and art historical discoveries in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Deptl. approval: Nov.17, 2015. Prerequisite(s): RELG 252 or permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 456. Theories of Religion. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The history of the academic study of religion from its beginnings in the 19th century until the present. Key texts by figures such as Max Muller, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss and Clifford Geertz will be studied. Fall and Winter Restriction: For Religious Studies Majors and Honours students or with permission of the Instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 464. Advanced Tibetan 1. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Translation of specially selected Tibetan texts. Fall Prerequisite: RELG 365 or permission of instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 470. Theological Ethics. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Examines ancient and modern sources of Christian moral thought against a backdrop of contemporary alternatives. Fall Prerequisites: One course in theology or Christian thought and one course in philosophy or ethics. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 479. Christianity in Global Perspective. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Examines varied expressions of Christianity as a global religion with a particular focus on Asia, Africa and Latin America from the 18th century to the present. Winter Prerequisite: A 300 level course in Christianity or permission of the Instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 482. Exegesis of Greek New Testament. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An intensive seminar in exegesis on the basis of representative passages chosen from different parts of the New Testament. Winter Prerequisite: RELG 381 or equivalent, and RELG 311, RELG 312 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 489. Joint Honours Thesis. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Introduction to the research and writing of a Joint Honours thesis. Formulation of a coherent thesis based on independent research. Upon approval from adviser, production of a Joint Honours thesis based on original proposal. Restrictions: Only open to students in the Joint Honours - Religious Studies Component program. Students must register for RELG 489 in their last term of study. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 491. Biblical Hebrew Narratives. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Exegesis and translation of certain narratives from the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible. Fall Narratives to be determined by the instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 492. Biblical Hebrew Poetry. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Translation and exegesis of certain poetic passages of the Masoretic Hebrew Bible and or Qumran corpus. Winter Passages to be determined by the instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 496. Special Studies. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Special studies in Religious Studies. Topic varies by year. Section 001 (01-MAY-2003/28-MAY-2003) Section 002 (02-JUL-2003/31-JUL-2003) Fall and Winter Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听

500 level courses

500 level courses are听high-level seminar courses, usually intended for听students in Honours programs and graduate level students.

course	Syllabi
RELG 502. Greco-Roman Judaism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The religion and literature of wisdom and apocalyptic traditions, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo and Josephus, with special attention to the Jewish matrix of Early Christianity. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 532. History of Christian Thought 1. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The development of Christian theology in the Patristic and Medieval periods. Focus on the controversial development of Christian doctrines and disciplines through intensive exposure to primary texts. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 320 Prerequisite: At least six (6) credits at the 300 level in Christianity or the Christian Bible. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 320 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 533. History of Christian Thought 2. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The development of Christian theology in the Reformation, Post Reformation and Modern periods through intensive exposure to primary texts. Fall Prerequisite: At least six (6) credits at the 300 level in Christianity or the Christian Bible. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 327 Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 544. Ethnography as Method in Religious Studies. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Ethnography as method informs disciplines from Area Studies and anthropology to linguistics and religious studies. Students will acquire a critical perspective on emic/etic subjectivity in Religious Studies, and a framework to apply ethnography in their research. Coursework covers classic ethnographies, new interventions, and ethnographies of particular relevance for religious traditions in a given year. Prerequisite(s): A minimum of six credits in 300 level RELG courses and/or permission of the instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 545. Ramayana: Multiple Lives. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Focus on the Rama story in South Asia. Exploration of the multiple versions of the narrative from classical Sanskrit textual versions, to rural vernacular retellings, to contemporary TV versions, and examination of the various religious, social, cultural and political significations of the narrative in these contexts. Winter Prerequisite: RELG 252 Hinduism & Buddhism Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 546. Indian Philosophy. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Introduction to the orthodox systems of Hindu Philosophy leading up to Vedanta i.e., Nyaya, Vaisesika, Sankhya, Yoga and Mimamsa, which will include discussion of such topics as: grounds for belief and disbelief in God, the nature of revelation, means of knowledge, etc. Prerequisites: 6 credits in Indian religions, philosophy of religion, philosophy, or permission of the instructor Prerequisites: 6 credits in Indian religions, philosophy of religion, philosophy, or permission of the instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 547. Special Topics in Hinduism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A research-oriented seminar dealing with topics in Hindu studies. Fall and Winter Prerequisites: 6 credits in Indian religions, philosophy of religion, philosophy, or permission of the instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 549. Japanese Buddhism in Historical Context. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This research-oriented seminar critically analyses key-questions from the field of pre-modern Japanese Buddhism. By engaging with recent research, students are expected to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and address questions and methodologies from both History and Buddhist Studies. Prerequisites: RELG 344, or RELG 451, or permission of the instructor. Note: Taught in alternate years. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 551. Special Topics in Buddhism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A research-oriented seminar dealing with topics in Buddhist studies. Fall and Winter Prerequisite: RELG 344 or Permission of instructor. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 552. Advaita Vedanta. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The relation of Nyaya-Vaisesika and Mimamsa to Kevaladvaita with concentration on Sankara's Brahmasutrabhasya, Pada 1 and 2. Prerequisites: 6 credits in Indian religions Prerequisites: 6 credits in Indian religions Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
Course information not available.	听
RELG 556. Issues in Buddhist Studies. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A graduate seminar taught by the Numata Visiting Professor on critical issues in contemporary Buddhist Studies. Emphasis will be placed on the intensive application of different methods - philological, philosophical or social scientific - to some area of modern Buddhist research. Fall Prerequisite: permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 558. Indian Tantric Traditions. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Study of esoteric Tantric culture (philosophy, ritual, pilgrimage, art, and iconography) with focus on either Hindu or Buddhist Tantric traditions. Prerequisites: Any two 300-level courses in Hinduism or Buddhism. Prerequisites: Any two 300-level courses in Hinduism or Buddhism. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 560. Buddhist Poetry. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description Since the time of Buddha, poetry has been used by Buddhist to express devotion, to compose philosophical treatises, and to communicate insight into the experience of awakening. The seminar's content will vary, treating the history, poetics, esthetics, roles and genres of Buddhist poetry in India, Tibet, China and Japan. Prerequisite (s): RELG 252 or RELG 253 or RELG 344 or permission of the instructor This course is expected to be offered every 3 years Readings will be English translations of the original texts Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 571. Ethics, Medicine and Religion. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description The seminar will discuss a variety of topics related to medicine and religion from the point of view of ethics, such as the pact of care between a patient and a physician, the Hippocratic oath, the notions of autonomy and vulnerability, the definitions of personhood and human dignity, the question of rights for people with cognitive disabilities, the debate about the role of religion in bioethics. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
RELG 572. Religion and Global Politics. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An exploration of the resurgence of global religions in geo-political and international relations in the post Cold-War era. It examines the complex roles that religious traditions play in democratization, human rights, conflict, and development. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.

CATH courses

These are Catholic Studies courses.

courses	Syllabi
CATH 200. Introduction to Catholicism. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description This course offers an exploration of the Roman Catholic tradition in its intellectual, religious, moral, and cultural dimensions. It provides an interdisciplinary study of the ways in which Catholicism has shaped Western civilization. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
CATH 325. Mystery and the Imagination. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An exploration of Catholic perspectives on faith, reason, meaning and mystery through literature, art, music, and film. Restriction: Not open to those who have taken 190-370A in 2001-02 or CATH 370 in 2002-03. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.	听
CATH 330. Catholicism in a Global Context. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description An exploration of Catholicism as a global phenomenon through case studies of its multiple expressions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Topics include transnational Catholic movements and interreligious engagement. Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Fall 2022	CATH 330 Catholicism in a Global Context: African Christianity
CATH 370. Topics in Catholic Studies. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. Credits: 3 Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts) This course is not offered this catalogue year. Description A review of selected topics in Catholica studies. Topics vary by year. Restriction: Permission of instructor Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more. Winter 2023	CATH 330 Catholicism in a Global Context: African Christianity

RELG 456 Theories of Religion

Students in a Religious Studies Major, Honours or Joint Honours programme have to take RELG 456, ideally in their final, graduating year.

To register for RELG 456, e-mail a request for an 鈥渁pproval code鈥� to samieun.khan [at] mcgill.ca (Ms. Samieun Khan), including your name, student number, and program.

RELG 456. Theories of Religion.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3

Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)

This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

The history of the academic study of religion from its beginnings in the 19th century until the present. Key texts by figures such as Max Muller, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss and Clifford Geertz will be studied.

Fall and Winter
Restriction: For Religious Studies Majors and Honours students or with permission of the Instructor.

Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.

Special studies courses

Students in B.A. Religious Studies programs may apply special studies courses to their programs ONLY with the prior written approval of their program advisor. The student is responsible to provide the advisor with written evidence of a thorough, practical plan for a course of study deserving 3 credits in Religious Studies.

Additional information

Frequently asked questions:

The class I want to take is full. What should I do?

Get yourself on the听waitlist. Waitlists open up after registration is complete for听all听different registration groups, which might mean you have to wait and check back if the waitlist is not open. These dates vary from year to year, but typically waitlists open up in late June.
If the waitlist is full, you can always听听to see if students drop. Meanwhile, be sure to have a back-up plan!
If there听is a class that you really need/want to take, note that only the听course instructor听can grant you special permission to enroll in the course. Many instructors will tell you to wait until the semester gets going to see if students drop the course.

I do not have the prerequisites for a course but Minerva let me register. Is this okay?

No, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have completed all of the listed course prerequisites (or have special permission from the instructor) before enrolling in the course.听

I disagree with my grade in a RELG course. What can I do?

In accordance with the Charter of Students' Rights, and subject to the conditions stated therein, students have the right to consult any written submission for which they have received a mark and the right to discuss this submission with the examiner. Before initiating a formal reassessment or reread, students are advised to request an informal review of any graded material.

If dissatisfied with the informal review students can proceed to request a formal review.

Please see the following websites on the 黑料社 policy for requesting a reread:听/study/2019-2020/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/gi_final_examinations#booknode-3699

And the Arts OASIS advising page on reassessments and rereads:听/oasis/academic/exams-evaluations/reassessments-and-rereads

Advising

More information about undergraduate advising including advisors and advising sheets can be found here.

The Arts OASIS website听provides Arts students with general academic information and advice about issues such as faculty and degree requirements, registration issues, inter-faculty transfer, study away, academic standing, or graduation. In addition to advising students about such issues, either by appointment or on a daily drop-in basis, the听Arts OASIS Faculty advisors听offer a number of information sessions every term, such as degree planning workshops, study away workshops, and freshman information sessions.

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