Has anyone taken these course and can tell me about it?

Religious Studies 2DD3 The Five Books of Moses
Religious Studies 2HH3 Paul and Christian Origins
Religious Studies 2JJ3 Christianity in the Medieval Period (800-1500)
Religious Studies 2Q03 Introduction to Islam

Basically all I'm wondering is if it they are taught like a history course, ie writing research papers where you have to use other peoples opinion to support someone else argument (well that's what I've found in history courses) as opposed to papers that are more based on your opinion. Or are the courses hard/boring.

I've taken 2HH3 and there was no research papers. We had two midterms and a final exam. The only material we used outside of the letters written by Paul in the Bible was a small book written by the professor. I've never taken a history course, so I'm not entirely sure how that compares.

The course was a bit dry at points, especially if you have no interest in Christianity and how it was understood in the Early Church. The professor explains the context in which the letters were written and how they were probably interrupted at the time (opposed to how they're interrupted and used today). You will need to know each of the letters fairly well, especially since a section in the midterm and exam were sight passages, where he would quote something from a letter and you had to write which letter it came from and/or the importance of that quote.

I think my friend took 2DD3 and liked it, but she likes courses that require memorization, so I don't know... I've never had the professor for that course before, so I can't really guess what it would be like.

And I have no idea about 2JJ3 or 2Q03. I took a course on Islam in the Modern World and ended up switching out because it was all names and dates, which I'm awful at. I know that's not what you asked, but if it ends up being taught by the same person, I wouldn't expect anything different.

If you want to look at course material, then you should check out the course outlines on the religious studies page. They don't have all the course outlines posted, but they might have these ones.

2009/10: http://www.religiousstudies. mcmast...ines-2009-2010
2008/09: http://www.religiousstudies. mcmast...ines-2008-2009

I always use these when picking a course. They're especially useful if the same prof. is teaching the course.

Well the usefulness of the course outlines is negated a bit when the 08-09 ones aren't offered lol

I took relig st 2q03 last year. I thought it was totally reasonable. Tests need some memorization, but we also had small essay questions. We also had 2 research assignments for tutorial, which were marked pretty fairly.
I don't like too much essay writing, but this course wasn't so bad. I ended up with an 11, also cause I thought the material was interesting.

Originally Posted by naimaa

I took relig st 2q03 last year. I thought it was totally reasonable. Tests need some memorization, but we also had small essay questions. We also had 2 research assignments for tutorial, which were marked pretty fairly.
I don't like too much essay writing, but this course wasn't so bad. I ended up with an 11, also cause I thought the material was interesting.

What kinds of topics were covered and what sorts of research was required for the assignments? Also, it would be really great if you can write a short review with your opinions, course breakdown etc, in the course reviews section!