98964 - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, students obtain a critical knowledge of the socio-cultural matrix of the main religious traditions and are familiar with the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They apply research methods to address issues relating to contexts characterized by cultural, linguistic, and religious pluralism, being capable to critically promoting their relevance. They are able to communicate in written and oral form the knowledge they have acquired, using communication methods appropriate to the above contexts and taking into account their audience.

Course contents

Module of Themes in the History of Religions A) & B) 

The objective of this course is to offer an analysis of the relations between Judaism, Christianity and Islam both from the perspective of their religious evolution in the first centuries of the vernacular era and from the perspective of their historical relations. Students will be introduced to the most current debates in the field of studies of the so-called 'Abrahamic religions,' to the methods and problems of comparison, and to the study of complex interactions that include conflict and coexistence.

Week 1 - Introduction: Defining religions: 'Abrahamic religions' or 'monotheisms'? A look at the contemporary debate. The characters of Jewish religion in the ancient world and the formation of the Bible. Second Temple Judaisms and the birth of Christianity.

Week 2 - Interactions 1: The spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire: socio-political conditions, religious reactions, characters, authors, strategies, interpretations. The relationship with other religious traditions. The debate on 'the partying of the ways'. Late antique religious revolutions? Some historiographical perspectives. The birth and spread of Islam. Judaism and Islam: Cross-views and interpretive theories.

Week 3 - Interactions 2: Becoming minorities: Jews, Christians and Muslims in contact and conflict. Religious minorities and Islamic and Christian civilization. The case of Al-Andalus and Christian Europe.

Week 4 - Interactions 3: Becoming minorities: Jews, Christians and Muslims in contact and conflict. Conversion and knowledge: The European gaze on Islam and Judaism between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Week 5 - Interactions 4 - the complex relationship with 'modernity'. The long nineteenth century: science, colonialism, empires, nation-states. Implementing 'religious tolerance' and building modern religions. Final reflections and a case study.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending and Not-Attending Students

For this first part of the Integrated Class, students must choose 2 texts on two different religious traditions:

Mercedes Garcia Arenal, Gerard Wiegers, Eds. The Expulsion of Moriscos from Spain, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2014.

Guy Stroumsa, The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015.

Guy G. Stroumsa, The Idea of Semitic Monotheism: The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Aaron Hughes, Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012. (Questo libro solo in combinazione con Guy Stroumsa, The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015.)

Aaron Hughes, Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam, Columbia University Press, New York, 2013.

Pier Mattia Tommasino, L'Alcorano di Macometto. Storia di un libro del Cinquecento europeo, Bologna Il Mulino 2013

Pier Mattia Tommasino, The Venetian Kur'an, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018

L. Biasiori, G. Marcocci, Eds., Machiavelli, Islam, and the West, Cham, Palgrave MacMillan, 2018

Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004

Katell Berthelot, Jews and their Roman Rivals: Pagan’s Rome Challenge to Israel, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.

Michael Satlow, E il Signore parlò a Mosè. Come la Bibbia divenne sacra, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2015.

Carole Hillenbrand, Islam. Una nuova introduzione storica, Einaudi, Torino, 2016.

Alfred Louis de Prémare, Alle origini del Corano, Roma, Carocci, 2015.

Sarah Stroumsa, Andalus and Sefarad: On Philosophy and its History in Islamic Spain, Princeton & Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2019.

David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Martin Goodman, Storia dell’ebraismo, Torino, Einaudi, 2019

Robert Louis Wilken, I primi mille anni. Storia globale del cristianesimo, Torino, Einaudi, 2021

Teaching methods

Lectures based on seminar methodology focused on discussions of texts and sources. Students are required to read the material which is listed in the Syllabus. 

Assessment methods

Oral exam. 

The evaluation takes into account the soundness of preparation, analytical and synthetic skills, clarity of exposition and the ability to use appropriate terminology.
- The achievement of a comprehensive and synthetic view of the topics covered, combined with the ability to critically analyze them and the use of precise and appropriate language will be evaluated with grades 28-30L.
- Fair but not in-depth knowledge of the subject matter, limited ability to synthesize and analyze, and the use of imprecise language will be assessed with grades from 24-27.
- Poor knowledge of course topics, use of imprecise terminology, and lack of familiarity with the course bibliography will result in grades from 18-23.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint, primary sources, visual aid, historiography

 

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Office hours

See the website of Cristiana Facchini