Goucher College 2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalogue 
    
    Apr 24, 2024  
Goucher College 2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalogue PLEASE NOTE: This is an archived catalog. Programs are subject to change each academic year.

JS 242 - The Modern Jewish Experience (4 Cr.)

(LER-TXT)
Through an analysis of various forms of literature and media-autobiography, theological and philosophical writings, political treatises, fiction, and film-we will consider the ways in which secular Jewish identities and commitments in the modern world have been articulated and contested. We will work to define the meaning of “the secular,” “secularization,” and “secularism” and consider how these terms may be applied to Judaism. We will be attentive throughout to the complex dialectical relationship between Judaism as a religion and secular manifestations of Jewishness. Topics will include Spinoza and the theological-political critique of Judaism, the varieties of Jewish nationalism, and the phenomenon of “non-Jewish” Jews. Fall semester