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At Santa Clara University, students are immersed in love and romance, but not for the regular college reasons. While their pursuit isn’t entirely academic, in a class called “Theology of Marriage,” the approach is scholarly, if not particularly romantic:

“We break down the ‘knight in shining armor’ idea that there is one person just for you,” said Frederick J. Parrella, a religious studies professor at the Jesuit-run university who has been teaching the popular marriage course, which constantly has a waiting list, for more than 15 years. “We’re all made in God’s image,” the theologian stressed, adding that based on that idea, there is not necessarily one soul mate out there for everyone.

Finding the right person for a committed relationship involves meeting people, making the right decisions and not just going by feelings, which are bound to go away, he told Catholic News Service in a Feb. 4 telephone interview from Santa Clara, Calif.

In the span of the 10-week course, Parrella steers his students through the sometimes tricky love terrain by juxtaposing current books and movies that deal with love with deeper theological writings that delve into marriage as a sacrament and a reflection of God’s love. The students watch clips from popular movies that present romantic love, such as Disney films, or Oscar-winners such as “American Beauty” and “As Good as it Gets,” and read “I and Thou,” by the late Jewish scholar Martin Buber, and “The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts,” by Judith Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee.

(JDaters Anonymous is thrilled to note that “He’s Just Not That Into You” and “The Rules” are nowhere on this list.)

For students in this class, assignments include writing down deepest fears about relationships, doing interviews with couples who have been married more than 10 years, and “engaging in plenty of discussion about love on the big screen compared to a day-in-day-out commitment over the long haul.”

If you were teaching a class on love, romance, or marriage, what reading materials would you assign? What kinds of projects would you ask your students to create? Is there any movie, book or other cultural influence that you think has had a positive or negative impact on you in terms of shaping your expectations of love and romance?

You’ve got plenty of uncoupled compadres to keep you company.

Ken just wants to believe: “But the sorry truth of the matter is I still want to believe, if not for me, then for the rest of you. Hell, even when I get all melodramatic about being alone on Valentine’s Day, it’s still tinged with some sort of weird hope. I’m like the Fox Mulder of pathetic holidays.”

If you’d like to laugh at the whole prospect of marriage, try Veiled Conceit, the snarky spoof of the NY Times Sunday Styles wedding announcements.

Whatever you do this Valentine’s Day, don’t drink and dial.

Jmerica gives a nod to both JDaters Anonymous and JDatesGoneWrong.

Over at Single Status, Gail Simons tells you about being a bridesmaid. Again.

Chronicles of a JDater shares a very special IM conversation.

My approach? Reclaim the whole damn thing as a day to concentrate on what you really need. (Although I always have the “it’s not a Jewish holiday” crutch to lean on…which I do…heavily.)

Check out my latest article on the subject: The Single’s Guide to a Heart-Smart Valentine’s Day (GenerationJ.com — February 2005).

News bulletin: JDate co-founder resigns…

[“Nothing to to with the growing power of fledgling weblog JDaters Anonymous,” says an unnamed source…]

Alon Carmel, one of the company’s co-founders and co-chairmen, has resigned his positions with the company to pursue other entrepreneurial and philanthropic interests. Mr. Carmel has agreed to continue to serve the company, as a consultant, and Joe Shapira, the company’s co-chairman, will become chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Since launching JDate(R).com, eight years ago, Mr. Carmel helped build the company from a fledgling startup into one of the true leaders in the online personals space. In addition to JDate.com, Spark Networks owns AmericanSingles(R).com and a host of other growing vertical market players in the online personals industry.

One industry insider indicated that, inspired by the “truth in advertising” theme of his new favorite movie, “Crazy People,” the 1990 comedy starring Dudley Moore and Darryl Hannah, Carmel has taken on a quest of a personal nature that he could not legally undertake as co-founder: to count by hand the number of JDate users who are actually active and contactable, and offer up this new number as the number of actual profiles available on JDate.

This move would be a momentous step towards honesty, as it would thin out the pool of perceived availables, which currently includes men and women who are now married and forgot to take their profiles down, or people who have been so dissatisfied with the online dating service that they cancelled their paid plans and now receive email notifications in their inboxes that they cannot read.

Thanks to H for really getting the ball rolling on this discussion.

Have you ever dated anyone of a different faith? Is dating intrafaith important to you and/or your family? Why have you chosen to date people from other faiths, or why do you choose not to?

Comment here or Chez Superjux. Up to you.