History/Religious Studies113
Professor Penny S. Gold

This course centers on three religious traditions that have developed in close relationship to each other:  Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Our study of these traditions will be both comparative and historical as we focus on several key aspects of religious life:  scripture, tradition, ritual, and ethics.  Our evidence for comparison will come largely from primary source materials, many of them ancient and difficult.  We'll also draw on observation of ritual practice as another direct source, and will use a modern textbook for background information and a larger picture.  The assigned readings are but a minute selection from the wealth of resources of these traditions.