ANTH 1703 - THE HISTORY OF GOD

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
God has a history. In the earliest days of that history, God was worshiped as one of a plethora of deities controlling various spheres of cosmic activity or the human world. Students in this course will learn about this ancient pantheon - how gods functioned in society and how their presence was experienced by those devoted to them. They will then trace the evolution of the God of Israel from a mountaintop deity of the southern Levant in the late second millennium BCE to a supreme deity worshiped by a small group of absolute monotheists based in Jerusalem in the mid-first millennium BCE. Students will become more sophisticated readers of biblical texts in the process. The sources of the Hebrew Bible reflect not a homogeneous monotheism, but rather a diverse set of belief systems tending toward henotheism or even polytheism. By appropriating and reinterpreting the religious myths of their neighbors, the Israelites arrived at a character of the divine that has proven problematic to many contemporary theologians, particularly on issues of LGBT rights, women's rights, and the environment.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis

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