Colgate University

First-Year Course Offerings — Fall 2022

FSEM 149   Religion & Contemporary World
Credits1
RestrictionsNo 2025 2024 2023 Instr perm req during Drop/Add
Pre-Requisites
Co-Requisites
Core Area
Area of InquiryHuman Thought and Expression
Liberal Arts Practices

Faculty Profile for Professor Abbas

Explores religion's complicated role in our contemporary world. Focusing on Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity, students wrestle with pressing questions about how religion intersects with politics, ethics, and the personal search for meaning in our lives. For example, is religion prone to violence? Is secular modernity a blessing or a curse? What's the purpose of living and dying? In our search to answer these questions, students encounter a diverse range of fascinating sources, including academic scholarship on religion, documentary films, and religious manifestos by Gandhi and Osama bin Laden. This seminar challenges students, whether you're religious or non-religious, to see our world through new perspectives. Students who successfully complete this seminar will earn credit for RELG 102 and satisfy one half of the human thought and expression areas of inquiry requirement.

Megan Brankley Abbas studies and teaches about the modern history of Islam, especially in Indonesia. She has long been fascinated with the relationship among religion, politics, and morality and looks forward to sharing this interest with incoming first years!