Mar 28, 2024  
2022-2023 Academic Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

REL 295-01 - Special Topic: Religion and Hip-Hop

4 credits (Spring)
Religious thought and religious experience are often theorized and found beyond the bounds of “established” spaces such as churches, mosques, or synagogues. This course, adopting that same mindset, privileges unconventional knowledge and mechanisms of human meaning within rap and hip-hop music and culture. In addition to providing a grounding theorization of religion as complex human meaning-making, this course explores religious, theological, and ethical commitments in past and contemporary hip-hop music demonstrating how the art form grapples with quintessential human concerns and how these concerns bespeak matters of ultimate significance. Course modules will include “Rap Music and the Problem of Evil,” “Black religious music and social critique,” and “Christian hip-hop vs. Hip-hop artists who are Christian.” 

Prerequisite: REL 101 REL 102 REL 103 REL 104 REL 105 , or second-year standing.