Lecture, four hours. Recommended requisite: History 4. Survey of major modern theories, methods, and approaches to study of religion to situate them within their own historical, philosophical, and social contexts. Critical consideration of changing and contested meanings of term religion and its relationship to such categories as science and magic, as well as to other domains of social experience. Examination of how study of religion has interacted with other academic fields, especially biblical studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and evolutionary biology. P/NP or letter grading.