🐯 Princeton Religion unofficial reading list 2026
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Freshman level
Religion & the Public Conversation REL 100 (fa26)
- ✔️ Religion: A Very Short Intro. by Thomas A. Tweed
Sophomore level
Jews Across the Americas REL 205 (fa26)
- Like a Bride by Rosa Nissán
- Like a Mother by Rosa Nissán
- God of Vengeance by Donald Margulies
- The Implacable Urge to Defame: Cartoon Jews in the American Press, 1877-1935 by Matthew Baigell
- Jews Across the Americas: A Sourcebook, 1492–Present by Brodsky & Leibman
The Buddhist World of Thought & Practice REL 225 (fa26)
- The Experience of Buddhism: Sources & Interpretations by John S. Strong
- Buddhisms: An Intro. by John S. Strong
Great Books in Buddhism REL 229 (fa26)
- The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha
- Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma
- Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side: A Guide to the Lotus Sūtra by Lopez & Stone
- The Life of Milarepa by Tsangnyön Heruka
- The Words of My Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche
Muslims & the Qur’an REL 240 (fa26)
- The Qur’an
- A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity by Michael A. Cook
- An Introduction to Islamic Law by Wael B. B. Hallaq
Judaism, Christianity & Islam: Their Emergence in Antiquity REL 244 (fa26)
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha
- The Qur’an
The New Testament & Christian Origins REL 251 (fa26)
- The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Levine & Brettler
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers by Louth & Staniforth
- The New Testament: A Historical Intro. to the Early Christian Writings by Ehrman & Méndez
Junior level
Junior Seminar REL 300 (fa26)
- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim
- The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz
- How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others by T.M. Luhrmann
- The Thing about Religion: An Intro. to the Material Study of Religions by David Morgan
- Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival & the Feminist Subject by Saba Mahmood
- The Politics of Ritual by Molly Farneth
- Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan by Jolyon Baraka Thomas
- Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation by Liz Bucar
- Wild Experiment: Feeling Science & Secularism after Darwin by Donovan O. Schaefer
The Difficulty of Being Good: Ethics, War & Dharma in Hindu Epic REL 310 (fa26)
- Mahābhārata
- Disorienting Dharma: Ethics & the Aesthetics of Suffering in the Mahabharata by Emily T. Hudson
- The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna, and Species by Ruth Vanita
Women, Gender & the Body in Islamic Societies REL 328 (fa26)
- Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
- Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
- So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba
Gods, Poets & Thinkers of Ancient India: Readings in Advanced Sanskrit REL 342 (fa26)
- Vedic Grammar by A. A. Macdonell
- Sanskrit Grammar by William Dwight Whitney
- A Sanskrit English Dictionary by M Monier-Williams
- Scholastic Sanskrit: A Manual for Students by Tubb & Boose
- A Concise Elementary Grammar of the Sanskrit Language by Jan Gonda