Introduction

Agenda for first class, Monday 1/22, 3-5:50 in Adams 304

Please come to our first class having done the preparation noted below in bold.

Setting up the class

Goals

Requirements

Format

Individual approaches and research

We will spend some time tracing the coursework you have done in the OU Religious Studies program, using advising sheets and syllabi, to establish a collective memory of the various approaches and goals that you have encountered in this program.  *To prepare, please gather as many syllabi as you can find from the religious studies courses you have taken at OU, and bring them with you to class.

We will take our first stab at writing out tentative one-paragraph statements of our individual approaches to religious studies.  *To prepare, begin to think through the different ways you have studied religions in your classes at OU, and how you would formulate how you want to be doing when you study religions.

We will brainstorm ideas for your individual research topics.   *To prepare, begin to think about what aspect of Muslim-Christian interaction you might like to make the focus of your research project.  For ideas, look through the kinds of Muslim-Christian encounter listed in the schedule of classes.

Analysis of primary texts

Jesus and Christians in the Qur'an and Hadith

(You do not need to read anything in advance for this part; I will pick some texts for us to look at together in class.)

Selected passages from the Qur'an.

Selected sayings and stories from Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus:  Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature.

Resources

The Qur'an, translated by Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem.  Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, 2004.  ISBN 0192805487.  (This is the translation I would recommend most highly.)

Khalidi, Tarif, ed. and trans.  The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature.  Cambridge:  Harvard, 2001.  Bizzell BP172 .K495 2001