RELIGST 3:
The Religious Life of Things
Temples, prayer beads, icons, robes, books, relics, candles and incense, scarves and hats, sacred food and holy water; objects of all sorts play a prominent role in all religions, evoking a wide range of emotional responses, from reverence, solace and even ecstasy, to fear, hostility and violence. What is it about these things that makes them so powerful? Is it beliefs and doctrines that inspire particular attitudes towards certain objects, or is it the other way around? Many see a tension or even contradiction between religion and material pursuits and argue that the true religious life is a life without things. But is such a life even possible? This course adopts a comparative approach, drawing on a variety of traditions to examine the place of images, food, clothing, ritual objects, architecture and relics in religious thought and practice. Materials for the course include scholarship, scripture, images and at least one museum visit.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 4:
What Didn't Make the Bible (CLASSICS 9N, HISTORY 112C, JEWISHST 4)
Over two billion people alive today consider the Bible to be sacred scripture. But how did the books that made it into the bible get there in the first place? Who decided what was to be part of the bible and what wasn't? How would history look differently if a given book didn't make the final cut and another one did? Hundreds of ancient Jewish and Christian texts are not included in the Bible. "What Didn't Make It in the Bible" focuses on these excluded writings. We will explore the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic gospels, hear of a five-year-old Jesus throwing temper tantrums while killing (and later resurrecting) his classmates, peruse ancient romance novels, explore the adventures of fallen angels who sired giants (and taught humans about cosmetics), tour heaven and hell, encounter the garden of Eden story told from the perspective of the snake, and learn how the world will end. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history. It is designed for students who are part of faith traditions that consider the bible to be sacred, as well as those who are not. The only prerequisite is an interest in exploring books, groups, and ideas that eventually lost the battles of history and to keep asking the question "why." In critically examining these ancient narratives and the communities that wrote them, you will investigate how religions canonize a scriptural tradition, better appreciate the diversity of early Judaism and Christianity, understand the historical context of these religions, and explore the politics behind what did and did not make it into the bible.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 6N:
Religion in Anime and Manga
Religious themes and topoi are ubiquitous in Japanese anime and manga. In this course, we will examine how religions are represented in these new media and study the role of religions in contemporary Japan. By doing this, students will also learn fundamental concepts of Buddhism and Shinto.WIN '24: This class will be meeting in room 338 in the East Asia Library.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 8N:
Gardens and Sacred Space in Japan
This seminar will explore gardens and sacred spaces in Japan. We will study the development of Japanese garden design from the earliest records to contemporary Japan. We will especially focus on the religious, aesthetic, and social dimensions of gardens and sacred spaces. This seminar features a field trip to a Japanese garden in the area, in order to study how Japanese garden design was adapted in North America. Note: This course will be offered in East Asia Library, Room 212.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 10N:
The Good Death
We often discuss what makes a 'good life' - that is a life worth living, a life exemplary of one's values and ideals, a life full of meaning. But what makes a 'good death'? Far from being a topic to avoid, ideas of death - what it means, its variations, how it relates to the preceding life, how it should unfold - are rich topics in religion. For religious people, the question of how life is lived in preparation, anticipation, or ignorance of death is often quite central. So, how do religious people imagine what death is and what lies beyond? What guidance exists for the time of death and its aftermath? How is the body understood in relation to death and beyond - and how is it managed? How do the living coexist with the dead in various forms? How do changing ecological and technological concerns shape death practices in the USA and elsewhere? In this class we will explore conceptions of the good death through a variety of religious traditions and perspectives, looking at issues such as the after/next life, death rituals, burial practices, corpses, the holy dead, martyrs, ghosts and spirit guides, and others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 12N:
Perspectives on the Good Life
The question is how to approach and evaluate different perspectives on the good life, especially when those perspectives are beautifully, and elusively, presented to us as texts. We will consider both classic and modern writers, from the West and from China; some are explicitly religious, some explicitly secular; some literary, some philosophical. Most of the class will revolve around our talk with each other, interpreting and questioning relatively short texts. The works we will read - by Dante, Dickenson, Zhuangzi, Shklar, and others - are not intended to be representative of traditions, of eras, or of disciplines. They do, however, present a range of viewpoint and of style that will help frame and re-frame our views on the good life. They will illustrate and question the role that great texts can play in a modern 'art of living.' Perhaps most important, they will develop and reward the skills of careful reading, attentive listening, and thoughtful discussion. (Note: preparation and participation in discussion are the primary course requirement. Enrollment at 3 units requires a short final paper; a more substantial paper is required for the 4-unit option.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 23X:
Democracy and Disagreement (COMM 3, CSRE 31, HISTORY 3C, PHIL 3, POLISCI 31, PSYCH 31A, PUBLPOL 3, SOC 13)
Each class will be focused on a different topic and have guest speakers. This class will be open to students, faculty and staff to attend and also be recorded. Deep disagreement pervades our democracy, from arguments over immigration, gun control, abortion, and the Middle East crisis, to the function of elite higher education and the value of free speech itself. Loud voices drown out discussion. Open-mindedness and humility seem in short supply among politicians and citizens alike. Yet constructive disagreement is an essential feature of a democratic society. This class explores and models respectful, civil disagreement. Each week features scholars who disagree - sometimes quite strongly - about major policy issues. Students will have the opportunity to probe those disagreements, understand why they persist, and to improve their own understanding of the facts and values that underlie them.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 4 units total)
RELIGST 26S:
Contemporary Islam & Muslims in America
In this course, we will explore contemporary Islam and Muslims in a post-9/11 and Trump-era America. Following some brief grounding history in Week 1, we will use ethnographic studies and digital media content to understand the American Muslim experience in the 21st century. Each week, we will also address how the lived experience of American Muslims interacts with theoretical and normative conceptions of Islam, and whether these interactions eventually create a distinctive American Islam. Topics covered include: racial & gender dynamics, ideological debates, institutions, social media wars, politics, and specific communities as case studies. Together we will develop a critical perspective on the American Muslim experience, particularly as a case of how one diverse religious community negotiates religion in a complex sociopolitical setting.
Last offered: Summer 2020
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 35X:
Introduction to African American Studies: Black Religion, Culture, and Experience to the Civil War
Beginning in 16th century West Africa and ending in the 19th century United States, this course will survey the religious, cultural, and experiential histories of African-descended people in the Atlantic world. From the early histories of the slave trade to the violence of American racial hierarchies, we will delve into the cosmologies, practices, rituals, aesthetics, and other cultural expressions of free and enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on the United States. What did Africa mean to those displaced from their ancestral homelands? How did African descended people perceive, navigate, and resist their racialization? How did they reshape the Americas through their intellect, creativity, and culture? Prioritizing the voices, thought, and sensory registers of the persons involved in these historical processes, this course will explore African Americans¿ experiences - from the spectacular to the quotidian - as windows into the human experience. This course has no prerequisites.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 36X:
Dangerous Ideas (ARTHIST 36, COMPLIT 36A, EALC 36, ENGLISH 71, ETHICSOC 36X, FRENCH 36, HISTORY 3D, MUSIC 36H, PHIL 36, POLISCI 70, SLAVIC 36, TAPS 36)
Ideas matter. Concepts such as progress, technology, and sex, have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like cultural relativism and historical memory, play an important role in contemporary debates in the United States. All of these ideas are contested, and they have a real power to change lives, for better and for worse. In this one-unit class we will examine these "dangerous" ideas. Each week, a faculty member from a different department in the humanities and arts will explore a concept that has shaped human experience across time and space.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 4 units total)
RELIGST 41:
Just Religion: Spirituality, Social Action, and the Climate Crisis
This course explores how certain religions--Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism--have addressed the ecological crisis, and how they might be drawn upon to address climate change in the future. Preserving the distinctiveness of each religious tradition, this seminar examines: the issue of religion as the cause of the environmental crisis; the resources for ecological responses within each tradition; the emergence of new religious ecologies and ecological theologies; the contribution of world religions to environmental ethics; and the degree to which the environmental crisis has functioned--and will function--as the basis of inter-faith collaboration. We will work to develop a shared vocabulary in environmental humanities, and special attention will be given to the contribution of religion to animal studies, ecofeminism, religion and the science of ecology, and the interplay between faith, scholarship and activism. But this class will be more: students will learn by engaging in social action. As our readings are put into practice through community campaigns that address real-world problems, my hope is that your knowledge of these sources will be deepened -- and challenged -- by what you learn in your social action campaigns, and that you will develop a more critical and thoughtful understanding of public issues and community change through action and reflection. Thus, this course is an action-oriented, solutions-based, course on community activism and an exercise in civic democracy. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
RELIGST 50:
Exploring Buddhism
A comprehensive historical survey of the Buddhist tradition, from its beginnings to the 21st century, covering principal teachings and practices, institutional and social forms, and artistic and iconographical expressions. (Formerly RELIGST 14.)
Last offered: Spring 2020
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 51:
Exploring Buddhism in Tibet and the Himalayas
From elaborate sand mandalas, masked dances, and entrancing ritual music to meditating yogis, robed monks, and the Dalai Lama himself, Tibetan forms of Buddhist traditions have for decades been an integral part of our modern globalized world. This course introduces the history, institutions, doctrines, and practices of Buddhism in Tibet and the broader Himalayan region.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 53:
Exploring Jewish Spirituality (JEWISHST 53)
It was once accepted as fact that Judaism is, at its core, a rational religion devoid of any authentic mystical tradition. But the past century of scholarship has reversed this claim, demonstrating that the spiritual life has been integral to Judaism's vital heart since ancient times. This yearning for a direct immediate experience of God's Presence, a longing to grasp the mysteries of the human soul and know the inner dynamics of the Divine realm, has taken on many different forms across the centuries. <br>This course will introduce students to the major texts--from theological treatises to poems and incantations--and core ideas of Jewish mysticism and spirituality, tracking their development from the Hebrew Bible to the dawn of modernity. Close attention will be paid to the historical context of these sources, and we will also engage with broader methodological approaches--from phenomenology to philology--regarding the academic study of religion and the comparative consideration of mysticism in particular. <br>This course assumes no prior background of Judaism or any other religious traditions. All readings will be made available in English. Students are, however, invited to challenge themselves with the "optional/advanced" readings of sources both primary and secondary. Pending interest, students with facility in the original languages (Hebrew or Aramaic) will be given the opportunity to do so.
Last offered: Autumn 2020
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 55:
Exploring Zen Buddhism
This course is an introduction to Chan/Zen Buddhism. We will study the historical and doctrinal development of this tradition in China and Japan and examine various facets of Zen, such as the philosophy, practices, rituals, culture, and institution. For this aim, we will read and discuss classical Zen texts in translation and important secondary literature. This class will further feature a visit of a Zen teacher, who will give an introduction to sitting meditation.
Last offered: Spring 2023
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 56:
Exploring Chinese Religions
An overview of major themes and historical developments in 5000 years of Chinese religion. In this course, we will try as much as possible to appreciate Chinese religion from the Chinese perspective, paying particular attention to original texts in translation, artifacts and videos, all in an attempt to discern the logic of Chinese religion and the role it has played in the course of Chinese history. To a greater extent perhaps than any other civilization, Chinese have left behind a continuous body of written documents and other artifacts relating to religion stretching over thousands of years, providing a wealth of material for studying the place of religion in history and society.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 61:
Exploring Islam
Explorations, like those of the so-called New World, have historically aimed at capturing the object of their discoveries, which may explain why the word appears to have been originally used within the context of the hunt. It is in this sense that we will attempt to uncover how Islam continues to be "explored" by observers in the West. Yet in doing so; that is, by collapsing the dam of secular discourse which would attempt to contain Islam in order to regulate its movement, we will also be able to "explore" Islam so as to cause it to flow once again, as the other etymology of the term would suggest (pluere). This (de)constructive task?of analyzing Islam as both a discursive object and a way of life?will be achieved through a collective historical-philosophical study of Islamic texts, performances, practices, sounds, events, communities, and images.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 62:
Exploring Islamic Mysticism
What is Sufi Islam? For many Sufis it concerns the search for a personal, experiential knowledge of and encounter with God. To that end, Sufis may be scrupulously observant of behavioral, ethical, ritual, and legal guidelines in their quest. For others, such practices are merely external formalities that obscure the essence of the divine behind a veil of prescriptive norms. For these Sufis, immediate knowledge of God is best sought outside of the structures of religious orthodoxy. But Sufis are not only otherworldly oriented mystics. On the contrary, Sufis are and have been rulers, politicians, warriors, and business leaders as well as poets, pilgrims, recluses, and social critics. Sufis and their collectives exist and have existed in every part of the world where there are Muslims, in bodies marked as male, female, and neither, and in every social strata. This course will explore many key elements of Sufi Islam, including history, teachings, practice, places, and people. While it is impossible to encompass the diversity of Sufism in a single course, each unit of the course will have a central theme situated in a geographic and temporal location in order to introduce students to as wide a range of Sufi times, places, and communities as possible.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 86:
Exploring the New Testament (CLASSICS 43, HISTORY 111B, JEWISHST 86)
To explore the historical context of the earliest Christians, students will read most of the New Testament as well as many documents that didn't make the final cut. Non-Christian texts, Roman art, and surviving archeological remains will better situate Christianity within the ancient world. Students will read from the Dead Sea Scrolls, explore Gnostic gospels, hear of a five-year-old Jesus throwing divine temper tantrums while killing (and later resurrecting) his classmates, peruse an ancient marriage guide, and engage with recent scholarship in archeology, literary criticism, and history.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 103:
Buddhism and Medicine
How did ancient Buddhist practices like mindfulness come to be promoted today as essential for our mental and physical wellbeing? How have Buddhists responded to the global COVID-19 health crisis? If Buddhist practice can indeed heal and keep us healthy, how does it claim to heal, and from what? This class explores these and other related questions by studying how Buddhism has throughout its history been intertwined with the theory and practice of medicine. No prior knowledge of Buddhism or medicine is required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
RELIGST 115:
Interfaith Peacebuilding and Global Justice
Can religions get along, and can interreligious relations be used to achieve positive social change in a complex global world? Efforts to pursue interfaith cooperation by a number of development agencies, policy think tanks, non-profit organizations, and local activists have become ever-more popular in the past decades, producing an avalanche of materials and approaches on how to promote and achieve interfaith harmony. These efforts come with a new set of thorny questions: who gets to be included at the interfaith table? How do religious worldviews change the aims and methods of peacebuilding? How do global relations of power affect the aims and means of justice? This class will travel around the world to explore the promises and limitations of changing the world through interfaith relations. We will explore groups attempting to preserve the Amazonian rainforest, Indian sacred sites shared by Hindus and Muslims, the work of interfaith icons like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, the challenges of LGBTQ+ interfaith organizers, and the utopian visions of large interfaith organizations like the Parliament of the Worlds' Religions. We will take a hands-on approach based on case studies in order to assess best practices, persistent challenges, and limitations in the work of leveraging religion to foster global peace and justice. Guest speakers and active class discussion will encourage students¿ own reflections on what religion is, its political import, and the historical and ongoing challenges of applying the lens of interfaith relations to conflict resolution and transformation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 115X:
Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1500 (HISTORY 15D, HISTORY 115D)
(HISTORY 15D is 3 units; HISTORY 115D is 5 units.) This course provides an introduction to Medieval Europe from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. While the framework of the course is chronological, we'll concentrate particularly on the structure of medieval society. Rural and urban life, kingship and papal government, wars and plagues provide the context for our examination of the lives of medieval people, what they believed, and how they interacted with other, both within Christendom and beyond it. This course may count as DLCL 123, a course requirement for the Medieval Studies Minor.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
RELIGST 116X:
The Hebrew Bible: Readings in religion and culture (JEWISHST 116)
This course will provide an introduction to the Hebrew Bible as well as later, classical Jewish literature. We will examine ancient Jewish texts in their social context and explore both the history of Ancient Israel as well as later, diasporic forms of Jewish practice and culture. The class will begin at 11:00 am. This course is under review for WAYS SI and EDP.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 122:
Theological Reading Group
What happens when you put a group of smart undergraduates - many of whom are alienated from "organized religion," some of whom consider themselves "spiritual" - into conversation with the most sophisticated (and honest) Christian theologian of the past three centuries? This reading group aims to find out. We will focus on a single, recent proposal in constructive theology, paying special attention to its philosophical and methodological underpinnings. Just what "theology" was, is, or should be will be central to the conversation. This is an un-course, even an anti-course: Bleeding-edge classroom technology, innovative pedagogical practices, the cesspool of opinion that is social media, the instructor's politics, and even Canvas will be quietly ignored. Our syllabus will fit on a page and take shape as we go - depending on student interest and where the shoe pinches. The amount of reading will be modest, given the subtlety of the proposal under consideration. Students who attend all meetings and participate actively will receive 1 unit of credit. Those wishing to pursue something in more depth may receive a second unit of credit by writing a short paper. It goes without saying in a non-sectarian university that all interested brains and minds, bodies and souls, are welcome. Enrollment limited; permission of the instructor required. Please complete this brief survey before December 25: https://forms.gle/PPG5Tm3abDdSSGty7.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 141:
Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, JR.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom (AFRICAAM 221, AMSTUD 141X, CSRE 141R, HISTORY 151M, POLISCI 126)
Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) and Martin Luther King, Jr. are both icons of the twentieth-century civil rights and black freedom movements. Often characterized as polar opposites - one advocating armed self-defense and the other non-violence against all provocation - they continue to be important religious, political, and intellectual models for how we imagine the past as well as for current issues concerning religion, race, politics and freedom struggles in the United States and globally. This course focuses on the political and spiritual lives of Martin and Malcolm. We will examine their personal biographies, speeches, writings, representations, FBI Files, and legacies as a way to better understand how the intersections of religion, race, and politics came to bare upon the freedom struggles of people of color in the US and abroad. The course also takes seriously the evolutions in both Martin and Malcolm's political approaches and intellectual development, focusing especially on the last years of their respective lives. We will also examine the critical literature that takes on the leadership styles and political philosophies of these communal leaders, as well as the very real opposition and surveillance they faced from state forces like the police and FBI. Students will gain an understanding of what social conditions, religious structures and institutions, and personal experiences led to first the emergence and then the assassinations of these two figures. We will discuss the subtleties of their political analyses, pinpointing the key differences and similarities of their philosophies, approaches, and legacies, and we will apply these debates of the mid- twentieth century to contemporary events and social movements in terms of how their legacies are articulated and what we can learn from them in struggles for justice and recognition in twenty-first century America and beyond.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
RELIGST 141X:
Ancient Greek Religion (CLASSICS 141, CLASSICS 241)
Survey of the religious practices of the ancient Greeks. Readings will be both from original sources and from modern scholarship. There are no prerequisites. Knowledge of ancient Greek will be useful, but not required. Undergrads should give one short oral presentation and write one short paper. Grad students should give two presentations and write a longer paper.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 3
RELIGST 147:
Building Heaven and Hell (CEE 147, CLASSICS 147R)
How did early Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians imagine space? How did they construct heaven and hell and the afterlife through their written texts? Can we take written images of the earthly and heavenly Jerusalem and her temple, such as those found in Ezekiel, the Book of Revelation and the Apocalypse of Paul and transform them into three-dimensional space? Can we visualize Homer's Hades or Dante's Inferno? We are going to try! We will meet in the architecture studio and build out of foam board and hot glue. A number of themes will emerge through the course: the interpretive move in rendering a once real space as a literary icon, the relationship between text and imagined space, the connection between space and ritual, and how to construct an image of a society from whom it imagines in hell. Learn more about the course here: https://youtu.be/J9q8CCQ9NkA
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 149:
Finding Utopia: New Religious Movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries
What is the connection between new religious movements and secularization? As the religious concept of freedom was expanded in the 19th century, so was secular culture: there was a vast array of possible routes a person might take to pursue transcendent wisdom, and this was increasingly a matter of personal choice. Whether in the form of new religious movements such as the Oneida community, reactions against institutionalization of religion such as the rise of atheism, the creation of syncretic religions such as theosophy, or the combination of religious expression and scientific discourse in practices such as scientology, the last two hundred years have been an era of profound religious experimentation. But challenges to traditional religious expression not only consisted of new beliefs, they also led to innovative forms of community.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 150:
Texts that Changed the World from the Ancient Middle East (COMPLIT 31, HUMCORE 111, JEWISHST 150)
This course traces the story of the cradle of human civilization. We will begin with the earliest human stories, the Gilgamesh Epic and biblical literature, and follow the path of the development of law, religion, philosophy and literature in the ancient Mediterranean or Middle Eastern world, to the emergence of Jewish and Christian thinking. We will pose questions about how this past continues to inform our present: What stories, myths, and ideas remain foundational to us? How did the stories and myths shape civilizations and form larger communities? How did the earliest stories conceive of human life and the divine? What are the ideas about the order of nature, and the place of human life within that order? How is the relationship between the individual and society constituted? This course is part of the Humanities Core: https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
RELIGST 158:
Spiritualism and the Occult
This course will examine the popular mystical practices of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when millions of people in Europe and America described themselves as spiritualists and shared a recognizable set of practices. These served as a platform for spiritual immediacy guided by the central questions: What is the relationship between seen and unseen? How can the living communicate with the dead? What technologies apply to our inner lives? This course considers the historical emergence of spiritualism, spiritualism and art, spiritualism and technology, and mysticism and women to explore how the invisible became a central metaphor for the ambition to expand and remake the real.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 168:
Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction
Most attitudes toward religion found on college campuses today trace their origins back to the European Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Calls for social justice, a political order free of ecclesiastical domination, and the recognition of legitimate religious pluralism; the rejection of the authoritarianism, obscurantism, and fanaticism associated with the monotheistic faiths; skepticism about the rationality of belief in God, miracles, and otherworldly salvation-these and other familiar themes were fiercely debated by philosophers in early modern Europe, often at great personal risk. What's more, central branches of philosophy such as epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and political theory were transformed in the modern period amidst debates over the credibility of religious belief - primarily Christian theism - in a world come of age. After a brief look at some "natural theology" in the Middle Ages, we will study and discuss what Descartes and Pascal; Spinoza and Rousseau; Hume and Kant; and Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard had to say about matters religious.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 170A:
Biblical Hebrew, First Quarter (JEWISHST 107A)
Establish a basic familiarity with the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew and will begin developing a facility with the language. Students that are enrolled in this course must also enroll in Beginning Hebrew. This course requires no prior knowledge of Hebrew and will begin with learning the alphabet. By the end of the year, students will be able to translate basic biblical texts, will be familiar with common lexica and reference grammars, and will have sufficient foundational knowledge to enable them to continue expanding their knowledge either in a subsequent course or own their own.
Last offered: Spring 2017
| Units: 2
RELIGST 170D:
Readings in Talmudic Literature (JEWISHST 127D, JEWISHST 227D)
Readings of Talmudic texts. Some knowledge of Hebrew is preferred, but not necessary. The goal of the ongoing workshop is to provide Stanford students with the opportunity to engage in regular Talmud study, and to be introduced to a variety of approaches to studying Talmudic texts and thought.
Last offered: Spring 2023
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
6 times
(up to 6 units total)
RELIGST 171A:
Biblical Greek (CLASSICS 6G, JEWISHST 5)
This is a one term intensive class in Biblical Greek. After quickly learning the basics of the language, we will then dive right into readings from the New Testament and the Septuagint, which is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. No previous knowledge of Greek required. If demand is high for a second term, an additional quarter will be offered in the Spring.
Last offered: Autumn 2018
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 173X:
Latin 400-1700 CE (CLASSICS 6L, CLASSICS 208L)
Readings in later Latin, drawing on the vast bodies of texts from the late antique, medieval and early modern periods. Each week students will prepare selections in advance of class meetings; class time will be devoted to translation and discussion. Students taking this course will gain exposure to a wide range of later Latin texts; hone translation skills; and develop an awareness of the grammatical and stylistic features of post-classical Latin. The course is aimed both at classical Latinists seeking to broaden their reading experience and at medievalists and early modernists seeking to consolidate their Latin language skills. May be repeat for credit.nnPrior experience in Latin is required, preferably CLASSICS 11L. Equivalent accepted. Classics majors and minors may repeat for credit with advance approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Does not fulfill the language requirement in Classical Studies track.
Last offered: Summer 2023
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 174:
Religious Existentialism
Existentialism is often thought to be a secular or anti-religious philosophy of life, a replacement for Christian belief and ethics in a post-theistic "world come of age." And yet, this twentieth-century philosophical movement owes many of its concerns and much of its vocabulary to the hyper-Protestant Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard. Conversely, most of the best Christian and Jewish thought in the 20th century embraced existentialism as the "right philosophy" for (re)articulating the deepest insights of these ancient traditions. After a careful study of some of Kierkegaard's most important ideas, we will explore a series of modern religious classics associated with the existentialist movement. Works by Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Buber, Karl Barth, Simone Weil, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Marcel, and Paul Tillich.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 196:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
Undergraduate interns will assist in the publication of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., the authoritative fourteen-volume edition of Dr. King's most historically significant speeches, sermons, correspondence, and other works. Since Mrs. Coretta Scott King sponsored the Project in 1985 and with the help of hundreds of undergraduates, we have published seven volumes of the edition, which have become essential reference works. Research consists of archival, library, internet, and database research; analyzing primary-source materials for use in scholarly writing; and basic processes of scholarly publication. Interns receive individual supervision from an assigned Project staff member. Prerequisite: Instructor consent required.
| Units: 1-3
RELIGST 199:
Individual Work
Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
(up to 99 units total)
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Huntington, E. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Willburn, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 202A:
Monsters, Ghosts and Other Fantastic Beings: The Supernatural and the Mysterious in Japanese Culture (RELIGST 302A)
Examine the development of strange and fantastic creatures in Japan. Mysterious creatures in folklore, literature, art, manga and movies. Through them see how the concept of the strange or mysterious have evolved and how they inform Japanese modernity.
Last offered: Autumn 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 204:
The Buddhist Body: Exorcism, Self-Immolation, and Tattoo Art (RELIGST 340)
In Buddhist practices, devotees have long used their bodies to express religious devotion. This can be seen through asceticism, exorcism, hallucination, mummification, immolation, and even tattoo art. This course examines such themes through textual readings, material culture, and visual imagery. In regards to asceticism, ascetic practices can be used to alter one's physical form, through starvation, fire, practices in the mountains, or other such means. Examples of this include the mountain practitioners who mummified in Japan, immolation practices in China and Tibet, and the "marathon monks" of Mount Hiei. Subthemes of this course include gender and the body, and the body and violence. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 208:
Women of the Movement (AFRICAAM 208, AMSTUD 208, FEMGEN 208, FEMGEN 308, HISTORY 268, HISTORY 368, RELIGST 308)
This seminar will examine women and their gendered experience of activism, organizing, living, and leading in the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
RELIGST 210:
Translating Religion (RELIGST 310)
What happens to Buddhism when the Buddha speaks Chinese? Is the Qur'an still the Qur'an in English? What did Martin Luther do for the German language? We try to answer these and other such questions in this course, which explores the translation of sacred scripture and other religious texts from the earliest times to the present day. Taking a global perspective, and looking at Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, the course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of translation and get them thinking about its broader cultural, aesthetic and political significance. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 210X:
Doing Religious History (AFRICAAM 200P, AFRICAST 200, HISTORY 200P)
What is religion, and how do we write its history? This undergraduate colloquium uses case studies from a variety of regions and periods - but with a specific focus on the African continent - to consider how historians have dealt with the challenge of writing accounts of the realm of religious and spiritual experience. We will explore the utility of oral history alongside written documentary sources as well as explore issues of objectivity and affiliation in writing religious histories. (This course has been submitted for WAY-SI and WAY-ED certification.)
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 212:
Zhuangzi
The 'Zhuangzi' (Chuang Tzu) in its original setting and as understood by its spiritual progeny. Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required. Please complete the questionnaire at: https://forms.gle/ZzYe45S6rV2wY8gB6
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 217:
The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Buddhism (JAPAN 217A, JAPAN 317A, RELIGST 317)
This seminar explores the influence of the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important Mahayana scriptures, in Japan. We will study how different Japanese Buddhist schools have interpreted this sutra and analyze a wide range of religious practices, art works, and literature associated with this text. All readings will be in English. Prerequisites: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies. You must have taken at least one other course in Buddhist Studies. NOTE: Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 218X:
The Holy Dead: Saints and Spiritual Power in Medieval Europe (HISTORY 218, HISTORY 318, RELIGST 318X)
Examines the cult of saints in medieval religious thought and life. Topics include martyrs, shrines, pilgrimage, healing, relics, and saints' legends.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 221C:
Aramaic Texts (JEWISHST 221C, JEWISHST 321C, RELIGST 321C)
Readings in Aramaic/Syriac with special focus on grammar and syntax of ancient texts.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 1-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 224:
Ritual and the Senses in Asian Religions (RELIGST 324)
This seminar studies how practitioners throughout Asian religious traditions have utilized and theorized the senses in rituals. We will study primary sources, secondary literature, visual culture, and multimedia expressive forms. Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units. WIN '24: This course will be meeting in room 212 in the East Asia Library.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 226:
The Bible in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (HISTORY 216B, HISTORY 316B, RELIGST 326)
This seminar investigates the central role of the Christian Bible in European religion, culture, and society from ca. 1000-1700 CE. In the medieval and early modern periods, the Bible not only shaped religious attitudes, practices, and institutions, but also exercised profound influence over learning and education, politics, law, social relations, art, literature, and music. Students will obtain an overview of the role of the scripture as both a religious text and a cultural artifact, exploring the history of biblical interpretation in commentaries and sermons; textual criticism, study of biblical languages, and the translation of scripture; manufacturing of Bibles in manuscript and in print; the commercial dimensions of Bible production; illustrated Bibles, biblical maps, and biblically-inspired artwork; religious uses of scripture in monastic houses, public worship, and domestic settings; biblical foundations for political and legal traditions. Students will also have the opportunity to suggest topics consonant with their own fields of interest and use the seminar to workshop on-going projects related to the Bible in this period. All of the readings will be in English, though students with the ability to read German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, or Hebrew will be encouraged to pursue projects that utilize their linguistic skills. Students will have the opportunity to utilize materials in Special Collections. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. Send an email to pitkin@stanford.edu explaining your interests and background. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 227:
Political Theology Revisited (RELIGST 327)
"Political theology" is the name that academics give to a tradition of inquiry in which the distinction between these two terms is continuously troubled. In other words, like modern language and modern thought more generally, it is "woven into the very fabric it is unrolling" (to borrow a line from Foucault). In this class, however, we will attempt to weave them together, which will in turn allow us to recall what is always potentially good and beautiful in the encounter between politics and theology and not only what is evil and ugly (though this recognition will be of equal importance to our endeavor). Our collective pursuit will be facilitated through the slow, meticulous reading of texts along with the discussions that emerge from the threads which we unravel. The readings will consist of a range of dense philosophical treatises (Benjamin, Arendt, Derrida, Foucault, Koj¿ve, Agamben), literary creations (Shakespeare, Kafka, Baldwin), and films (Kurosawa, Gigineishvili, Malick). All students who are interested are welcome. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 unit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 228:
The Earliest Christians (RELIGST 328)
This seminar focuses on the emergence of second- and third-century Christianity. Together we'll explore a wide range of primary sources in English translation as well as recent scholarship in the field. For graduate students, regardless of their specialty, the focus will be on achieving a good knowledge and teaching competence of early Christianity. Undergraduates must already have strong background in the academic study of late antiquity and must obtain permission from the instructor.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 230X:
Religion, Radicalization and Media in Africa since 1945 (AFRICAST 248, AFRICAST 348, HISTORY 248, HISTORY 348, RELIGST 330X)
What are the paths to religious radicalization, and what role have media- new and old- played in these conversion journeys? We examine how Pentecostal Christians and Reformist Muslims in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia have used multiple media forms- newspapers, cell phones, TV, radio, and the internet- to gain new converts, contest the authority of colonial and post-colonial states, construct transnational communities, and position themselves as key political players.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 231X:
Learning Religion: How People Acquire Religious Commitments (AMSTUD 231X, EDUC 231, JEWISHST 291X)
This course will examine how people learn religion outside of school, and in conversation with popular cultural texts and practices. Taking a broad social-constructivist approach to the variety of ways people learn, this course will explore how people assemble ideas about faith, identity, community, and practice, and how those ideas inform individual, communal and global notions of religion. Much of this work takes place in formal educational environments including missionary and parochial schools, Muslim madrasas or Jewish yeshivot. However, even more takes place outside of school, as people develop skills and strategies in conversation with broader social trends. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to questions that lie at the intersection of religion, popular culture, and education. May be repeat for credit.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
RELIGST 232:
Buddhist Meditation: Ancient and Modern (RELIGST 332)
An exploration of the theory and practice of Buddhist meditation from the time of the Buddha to the modern mindfulness boom, with attention to the wide range of techniques developed and their diverse interpretation. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 233:
Comparative Mysticism (JEWISHST 333, RELIGST 333)
This seminar will explore the mystical writings of the major religious traditions represented in our department: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. It will address major issues in the study of mysticism, exposing students to a wide variety of religious thinkers and literary traditions, while simultaneously interrogating the usefulness of the concept of "mysticism" as a framework in the study of religion. We will consider various paradigms of method (comparative, constructivist, essentialist), and examine the texts with an eye to historical and social context together with the intellectual traditions that they represent. Preserving the distinctiveness of each religious tradition, the class will be structured as a series of five units around these traditions, but our eyes will be continuously trained upon shared topics or themes, including: language; gender; notions of sainthood; scripture and exegesis; autobiography and writing; mysticism and philosophy; poetry and translation; mysticism and social formation; the interface of law, devotion, and spirit; science and mysticism; perceptions of inter-religious influence; mysticism and the modern/ post-modern world. Advanced reading knowledge of at least one language of primary-source scholarship in one of the above traditions is required. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 unit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 234:
Islam and Material Culture (RELIGST 334)
Material objects are essential elements of Islamic cultures and practices. This course examines Islamic art, sculpture, architecture, devotional objects, and clothing, as well as basic concepts in studying religion and material culture.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 234X:
Church, State, & Schools: Issues in Education & Religion (AMSTUD 293, EDUC 293, JEWISHST 293X)
This course will examine interactions between religion and education, focusing on both formal and experiential sites in which people and communities explore, articulate, encounter, and perform religious ideologies and identities. The class will focus on different religious traditions and their encounters the institutions and structures of education in American culture, both in the United States and as it manifests in American culture transnationally.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 235:
Sacred Space (RELIGST 335)
The marking off of sacred space is often posited as central to the production of the sacred as a generic category. Moving from Durkheim and Eliade's contrasting views of the sacred as either a collective imaginary reflecting society's self-image or the result of perceivable incursions of the divine into the mundane realm, this course will proceed to explore phenomenological (Lefebvre, Heidegger, Casey), anthropological (Basso, Albera, Couroucli), ritual studies (Smith, Bell), religious studies (Bigelow, Pesantubbee, Linenthal, Friedland & Hecht), and art historical (Flood) approaches, as well as primary sources (fa'il or praise literature, pilgrimage manuals). We will engage such questions as: What is sacred space? What are the possible relationships between sacred space and religion, politics, economies, material culture, and other social structures? Can sacred space be shared by multiple religious traditions and, if so, under what conditions? How does sacred space work as a repository of collective memory, a symbol of identity, a wellspring of community wisdom, a marker of spiritual or social division? Participants will study a particular site of their choosing (in time and space) and produce biographies of that place.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 237:
William James on Religion (RELIGST 337)
Among the extensive and influential writings of William James, from technical texts on psychology to popular essays on education, this course will focus on the 'Varieties of Religious Experience' and its importance for a contemporary understanding of religion. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units. Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 239:
Philosophy of/in Religious Studies (RELIGST 339)
TO BE DETERMINED. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 unit.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 241:
Black Religion in America (AFRICAAM 242, AMSTUD 241, RELIGST 341)
Since Africans arrived on North American shores, their religious cultures have anchored them to the traditions of their originating homelands; offered outlets for communal innovation; and structured their responses to the everyday realities of life in the United States. More than a cornerstone of Black American culture, religion has helped to define U.S. African-American identities. At the same time, performances identified with Black religions have transcended racial barriers and become ubiquitous features of the American religious landscape. In this course, we will trace the history of African-descended peoples in the United States through their religious expressions, explore major questions in the study of African-American religions, and analyze representations of African-American religiosity in the popular imagination. Zigzagging across regions and through chronological periods, we will engage primary "texts" ranging from the antebellum "confessions" of Nat Turner to the contemporary rituals of a Vodou priestess, in order to interrogate the questions: "Are there continuities and/or features that mark U.S. Black religions?" "If so, what are they?" "If not, what is the function of the category?" In doing so, we aim to discover the histories of the diverse traditions subsumed under the category of Black religion and register our voices in debates that continue to preoccupy scholars in the field.Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 246:
Constructing Race and Religion in America (AMSTUD 246, CSRE 246, HISTORY 256G)
This seminar focuses on the interrelationships between social constructions of race and social interpretations of religion in America. How have assumptions about race shaped religious worldviews? How have religious beliefs shaped racial attitudes? How have ideas about religion and race contributed to notions of what it means to be "American"? We will look at primary and secondary sources and at the historical development of ideas and practices over time.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 250:
Readings in Tibetan Literature (RELIGST 350)
Introduction to Tibetan literature through reading texts in Tibetan. Prerequisite: intermediate level facility in classical Tibetan.nnUndergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
6 times
(up to 30 units total)
RELIGST 252:
Hearts and Diamonds: The Lives of Buddhist Sacred Texts
An exploration of two key Mahayana Buddhist scriptures (the Heart & Diamond Sutras) and their histories, looking at what they say and how they have been used, from the first millennium to the present day.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 253:
Recent Research on Japanese Buddhism (RELIGST 353)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Japanese Buddhism. nUndergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units. Prerequisite: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies (5 units for 253, 3-5 units for 353) May be repeat for credit.
Last offered: Spring 2019
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 15 units total)
RELIGST 255:
Perspectives on Caste and Religion in South Asia (RELIGST 355)
Caste, as a plurality of ideas about systemic exclusion or social hierarchy, has shaped the lifeworlds of South Asians past and present, across regions, languages, and religious boundaries. But is caste a unitary concept? And what does it have to do with religion? This seminar turns to the archive to explore a series of case studies about how caste, as an actively contested concept and set of social practices, has interfaced with meaning-making and community formation in Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian traditions. We are interested both in the social history of religion as well as the phenomenology of oppression and liberation, taking a comparative approach that allows us to defamiliarize our assumptions about the varied relationships between religion, culture, hierarchy, and violence. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 256:
Readings in Buddhist Tantra: Wheel of Time (RELIGST 356)
The emergence of tantric scriptures in medieval India marked a major turning point in the development of religious thought and practice throughout Asia. These scriptures introduced myths, rituals, contemplative techniques, and artistic expressions that transformed the religious traditions of India¿from Hinduism to Jainism and Buddhism. Tantric forms of worship subsequently shaped the religious traditions of Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, and everywhere else Indian religions spread. This seminar examines the history of Buddhist tantra through English translation of one of the most popular collections of tantric literature in the history of Buddhism: the Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time blends models of the cosmos, time, embodiment, and aesthetics with rich contemplative and ritual techniques. Since its origin, the Wheel of Time and its associated body of texts and practices has become immensely popular throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world. The influence of the Wheel of Time continues to this day, as the current Dalai Lama frequently offers the Wheel of Time initiation as a blessing for world peace, and scholars and practitioners continue to study its literature and practice its contemplative techniques. Undergraduates are expected to have at least one prior course in Buddhism or the consent of the instructor. Undergraduates register for 256 for 5 units. Graduate students register for 356 for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 257:
Women in Japanese Buddhism (RELIGST 357)
This seminar explores the role of women in Japanese Buddhism, starting from the earliest records until today. All readings will be in English. Prerequisites: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies. You must have taken at least one other course in Buddhist Studies. NOTE: Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 257X:
Female Divinities in China (FEMGEN 293E, HISTORY 293E, HISTORY 393E, RELIGST 357X)
This course examines the fundamental role of powerful goddesses in Chinese religion. It covers the entire range of imperial history and down to the present. It will look at, among other questions, what roles goddesses played in the spirit world, how this is related to the roles of human women, and why a civilization that excluded women from the public sphere granted them a dominant place, in the religious sphere. It is based entirely on readings in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 258:
Readings in Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 358)
In this course, we will read premodern Japanese Buddhist texts. Prerequisite: Chinese and/or Japanese.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 261:
What Does It Mean to be Secular? (RELIGST 361)
"Secularism" and "secularization" are two concepts whose importance to modern life is only matched by their ability to elude our understanding. Our aim in this seminar, therefore, will be to make sense of them as historical and sociological phenomena, as well as objects of theoretical and philosophical inquiry. Among other issues, we will probe the question of religious decline in modern societies, the formation of secular identity and subjectivity, the theological underpinnings of the separation of religion and state, the politics of religious minorities, and the broader transformation of religion in the modern age. Our approach to the subject will consist primarily in the discussion of a wide range of primary sources and scholarly writings, which will span the disciplines of political theory, anthropology, theology, history, and literature.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 262:
Sex and the Early Church (CLASSICS 262, FEMGEN 262, FEMGEN 362R, RELIGST 362)
Sex and the Early Church examines the ways first- through sixth-century Christians addressed questions regarding human sexuality. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between sexuality and issues of gender, culture, power, and resistance. We will read a Roman gynecological manual, an ancient dating guide, the world's first harlequin romance novels, ancient pornography, early Christian martyrdom accounts, stories of female and male saints, instructions for how to best battle demons, visionary accounts, and monastic rules. These will be supplemented by modern scholarship in classics, early Christian studies, gender studies, queer studies, and the history of sexuality. The purpose of our exploration is not simply to better understand ancient views of gender and sexuality. Rather, this investigation of a society whose sexual system often seems so surprising aims to denaturalize many of our own assumptions concerning gender and sexuality. In the process, we will also examine the ways these first centuries of what eventually became the world's largest religious tradition has profoundly affected the sexual norms of our own time. The seminar assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 263:
The Religions and Cultures of Enslaved People in America (AMSTUD 263, RELIGST 363)
More than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery--its histories and legacies--remains the subject of heated debate among the institution's descendants and the millions of others who live in its wake. As a global institution predicated upon the exchange of human bodies, slavery helped to forge political and economic empires, divided nations, and crystallized racialized caste hierarchies that persist into the present. Yet, the politically and emotionally charged nature of conversations about slavery has obscured the lives of the women, men, and children who bore the legal status of "slave." In this course, we will explore the meanings of enslavement from the perspectives of those who experienced it, and in doing so, interrogate broader questions of the relationship between slavery and the construction of racialized group identities. Using autobiographical narratives, eyewitness accounts, slaveholder diaries, images, and archeological evidence from the United States, we will examine the religious, philosophical, and experiential orientations that grounded the enslaved psyche and found expression in bondspeople's music, movement, foodways, dress, and institutions. Although the United States South will be our primary region for interrogation, we will analyze the thought and culture formations of U.S. bondspeople in light of the discursive and aesthetic productions of African-descended peoples throughout the diaspora. In this way, we will endeavor to know the people who helped birth American culture. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
RELIGST 264:
Hindu Tantra (RELIGST 364)
What is Tantra? Tantric forms of ritual and philosophy have been integral to the practice of Hinduism for most of its history. Tantra has provided initiates with a spiritual technology for embodying the divine and transcending the cycle of rebirth; on a social and political level, Tantra has mediated the institutions of Hindu kingship and appealed to a diverse population of initiates. This course covers a number of influential and well-documented Hindu tantric traditions, exploring several prominent features of Tantric religion as they develop historically, including: tantric ritual practice (core technologies of the subtle body, mantras, ma, alas, etc., along with the more notorious elements of sex and transgression), theology and philosophical speculation, as well as Tantra's relationship to the outside world and state power.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 270:
Comparative Religious Ethics (RELIGST 370)
The difference that the word religious makes in religious ethics and how it affects issues of genre. Theoretical analyses with examples from W. and E. Asia. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| Units: 4
RELIGST 281:
Asian Religions in America; Asian American Religions (AMSTUD 281, ASNAMST 281, RELIGST 381)
This course will analyze both the reception in America of Asian religions (i.e. of Buddhism in the 19th century), and the development in America of Asian American religious traditions.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
RELIGST 283:
Religion and Literature
A wide-ranging exploration of religious themes in literary works. Readings will include prose and poetry stemming from various world regions, time periods, and religious traditions. Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required. Please complete the questionnaire at: https://forms.gle/JnHAcXDXNJU8eQXt8
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
RELIGST 286:
Goodness and the Literary Imagination
In her Ingersoll lecture at Harvard Divinity School, Toni Morrison probed the issue of literary presentations of goodness. We will begin with that very rich lecture, and a collection of essays by scholars of religion and religious leaders exploring that lecture in the context of Morrison's own work. We'll then discuss a novel by Morrison, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, at least one story by Flannery O'Connor, and related (short) works of literature and commentary. The inquiry will involve both conceptual and literary analysis, all of it focused on the character and presentation of goodness. (Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required. Please complete the questionnaire at https://forms.gle/8D6XxLdUj4T645Lh9)
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 5
RELIGST 290:
Majors' Seminar: Theories of Religion
Required of all majors and combined majors. The study of religion reflects upon itself. Representative modern and contemporary attempts to "theorize," and thereby understand, the phenomena of religion in anthropology, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, and philosophy. WIM.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 297:
Senior Essay/Honors Thesis Research
Guided by faculty adviser. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Willburn, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 298:
Senior Colloquium
For Religious Studies majors writing the senior essay or honors thesis. Students present work in progress, and read and respond to others. Approaches to research and writing in the humanities.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
RELIGST 300:
Researching Religious History
Although researchers use historical and other academic research methods to access questions of religiosity across time, space, and culture, methodology contours the parameters of 'religion' or the 'religious' for a given study. While method defines a systematized means of deriving information from sources and is often subject to disciplinary boundaries, methodology references the premises and assumptions that govern the application of the method. Together, method and methodology shape the sources used and the questions asked within a given project. In this course, we will interrogate theoretical issues related to historical methods, such as historical and epistemic archival violence, alongside the methodological challenges of triangulating religion and religiosity across cultural and chronological chasms in our own work. By exploring research technologies and dissecting groundbreaking work, we will also consider the ways innovative methods can challenge and expand methodological approaches and questions. Finally, moving beyond theory, students will contemplate their own methods and methodologies, explore various ways of accessing and cataloging sources, discuss best practices, and other practical questions related to researching religious history.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 302A:
Monsters, Ghosts and Other Fantastic Beings: The Supernatural and the Mysterious in Japanese Culture (RELIGST 202A)
Examine the development of strange and fantastic creatures in Japan. Mysterious creatures in folklore, literature, art, manga and movies. Through them see how the concept of the strange or mysterious have evolved and how they inform Japanese modernity.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 304A:
Theories and Methods
Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
RELIGST 304B:
Theories and Methods
Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
RELIGST 308:
Women of the Movement (AFRICAAM 208, AMSTUD 208, FEMGEN 208, FEMGEN 308, HISTORY 268, HISTORY 368, RELIGST 208)
This seminar will examine women and their gendered experience of activism, organizing, living, and leading in the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 310:
Translating Religion (RELIGST 210)
What happens to Buddhism when the Buddha speaks Chinese? Is the Qur'an still the Qur'an in English? What did Martin Luther do for the German language? We try to answer these and other such questions in this course, which explores the translation of sacred scripture and other religious texts from the earliest times to the present day. Taking a global perspective, and looking at Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, the course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of translation and get them thinking about its broader cultural, aesthetic and political significance. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 312:
Religion and 20th Century US Politics
Graduate seminar examining the major topics in US Religion and Politics.
Last offered: Spring 2023
| Units: 4
RELIGST 313X:
The Education of American Jews (EDUC 313, JEWISHST 213, JEWISHST 393X)
This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to the question of how American Jews negotiate the desire to retain a unique ethnic sensibility without excluding themselves from American culture more broadly. Students will examine the various ways in which people debate, deliberate, and determine what it means to be an "American Jew". This includes an investigation of how American Jewish relationships to formal and informal educational encounters through school, popular culture, religious ritual, and politics.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
RELIGST 314:
Seminar in Buddhist Historiography
The focus of this course is on approaches to the past from within Buddhist traditions rather than modern academic writing on Buddhist history. We will briefly examine research on religious conceptions of the past in other religions before turning to the full range of Buddhist historiography, including writings from India, Ceylon, China, Tibet and Japan. The first half of the class will be dedicated to reading and discussing scholarship as well as some primary sources in translation. In the second half of the course, students will develop projects based on their interests, culminating in presentations and a research paper.
Last offered: Spring 2023
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 315A:
Chinese Buddhism
This year the seminar will focus on the twentieth century, perhaps the most vibrant and certainly the most tumultuous period in two thousand years of Chinese Buddhist history. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, leading Buddhists proposed a series of radical reforms to the sangha in a frantic effort to adapt to the modern era. External changes forced creative Buddhist responses to imperialism, democratic government, communism, revolution, war and famine. By the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, it seemed as if reform had come too late, the persecution had been too brutal and too thorough, for Buddhist institutions and ideas to ever play a significant role in China again. But from the 1980s on, Buddhist rituals and practices resurfaced, at first through Buddhist organizations in Taiwan and then, increasingly, on the Mainland. By the end of the century, Buddhist leaders were posed to play a more prominent role than they had for a hundred years. In this course, we will focus on biographies and autobiographies by and about monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen in an attempt to work out from individuals to the wider trends that shaped Chinese Buddhism in the twentieth century. There is now enough material in English for a seminar on the subject, but students who can read Chinese will be encouraged to draw on the growing body of relevant material in Chinese as well.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 316:
Tantric Buddhism
This course explores many of the key issues in the study of tantric Buddhism, including aspects of its historical development, ritual ideology, visual and material culture, notions of identity and embodiment, and variations across different times and cultures. Focusing on the traditions of India, Nepal, and Tibet, students will read primary texts in translation, debate secondary literature, view artworks in museum galleries, and develop final projects based on their research interests. Course readings are in English.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| Units: 4
RELIGST 317:
The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Buddhism (JAPAN 217A, JAPAN 317A, RELIGST 217)
This seminar explores the influence of the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important Mahayana scriptures, in Japan. We will study how different Japanese Buddhist schools have interpreted this sutra and analyze a wide range of religious practices, art works, and literature associated with this text. All readings will be in English. Prerequisites: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies. You must have taken at least one other course in Buddhist Studies. NOTE: Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 318X:
The Holy Dead: Saints and Spiritual Power in Medieval Europe (HISTORY 218, HISTORY 318, RELIGST 218X)
Examines the cult of saints in medieval religious thought and life. Topics include martyrs, shrines, pilgrimage, healing, relics, and saints' legends.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 319:
Readings in Hindu Texts
Readings in Hindu texts in Sanskrit. Texts will be selected based on student interest. Prerequisite: Sanskrit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
RELIGST 321C:
Aramaic Texts (JEWISHST 221C, JEWISHST 321C, RELIGST 221C)
Readings in Aramaic/Syriac with special focus on grammar and syntax of ancient texts.
Last offered: Autumn 2020
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 324:
Ritual and the Senses in Asian Religions (RELIGST 224)
This seminar studies how practitioners throughout Asian religious traditions have utilized and theorized the senses in rituals. We will study primary sources, secondary literature, visual culture, and multimedia expressive forms. Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units. WIN '24: This course will be meeting in room 212 in the East Asia Library.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 326:
The Bible in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (HISTORY 216B, HISTORY 316B, RELIGST 226)
This seminar investigates the central role of the Christian Bible in European religion, culture, and society from ca. 1000-1700 CE. In the medieval and early modern periods, the Bible not only shaped religious attitudes, practices, and institutions, but also exercised profound influence over learning and education, politics, law, social relations, art, literature, and music. Students will obtain an overview of the role of the scripture as both a religious text and a cultural artifact, exploring the history of biblical interpretation in commentaries and sermons; textual criticism, study of biblical languages, and the translation of scripture; manufacturing of Bibles in manuscript and in print; the commercial dimensions of Bible production; illustrated Bibles, biblical maps, and biblically-inspired artwork; religious uses of scripture in monastic houses, public worship, and domestic settings; biblical foundations for political and legal traditions. Students will also have the opportunity to suggest topics consonant with their own fields of interest and use the seminar to workshop on-going projects related to the Bible in this period. All of the readings will be in English, though students with the ability to read German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, or Hebrew will be encouraged to pursue projects that utilize their linguistic skills. Students will have the opportunity to utilize materials in Special Collections. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. Send an email to pitkin@stanford.edu explaining your interests and background. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 327:
Political Theology Revisited (RELIGST 227)
"Political theology" is the name that academics give to a tradition of inquiry in which the distinction between these two terms is continuously troubled. In other words, like modern language and modern thought more generally, it is "woven into the very fabric it is unrolling" (to borrow a line from Foucault). In this class, however, we will attempt to weave them together, which will in turn allow us to recall what is always potentially good and beautiful in the encounter between politics and theology and not only what is evil and ugly (though this recognition will be of equal importance to our endeavor). Our collective pursuit will be facilitated through the slow, meticulous reading of texts along with the discussions that emerge from the threads which we unravel. The readings will consist of a range of dense philosophical treatises (Benjamin, Arendt, Derrida, Foucault, Koj¿ve, Agamben), literary creations (Shakespeare, Kafka, Baldwin), and films (Kurosawa, Gigineishvili, Malick). All students who are interested are welcome. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 unit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 328:
The Earliest Christians (RELIGST 228)
This seminar focuses on the emergence of second- and third-century Christianity. Together we'll explore a wide range of primary sources in English translation as well as recent scholarship in the field. For graduate students, regardless of their specialty, the focus will be on achieving a good knowledge and teaching competence of early Christianity. Undergraduates must already have strong background in the academic study of late antiquity and must obtain permission from the instructor.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 330X:
Religion, Radicalization and Media in Africa since 1945 (AFRICAST 248, AFRICAST 348, HISTORY 248, HISTORY 348, RELIGST 230X)
What are the paths to religious radicalization, and what role have media- new and old- played in these conversion journeys? We examine how Pentecostal Christians and Reformist Muslims in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia have used multiple media forms- newspapers, cell phones, TV, radio, and the internet- to gain new converts, contest the authority of colonial and post-colonial states, construct transnational communities, and position themselves as key political players.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 332:
Buddhist Meditation: Ancient and Modern (RELIGST 232)
An exploration of the theory and practice of Buddhist meditation from the time of the Buddha to the modern mindfulness boom, with attention to the wide range of techniques developed and their diverse interpretation. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 333:
Comparative Mysticism (JEWISHST 333, RELIGST 233)
This seminar will explore the mystical writings of the major religious traditions represented in our department: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. It will address major issues in the study of mysticism, exposing students to a wide variety of religious thinkers and literary traditions, while simultaneously interrogating the usefulness of the concept of "mysticism" as a framework in the study of religion. We will consider various paradigms of method (comparative, constructivist, essentialist), and examine the texts with an eye to historical and social context together with the intellectual traditions that they represent. Preserving the distinctiveness of each religious tradition, the class will be structured as a series of five units around these traditions, but our eyes will be continuously trained upon shared topics or themes, including: language; gender; notions of sainthood; scripture and exegesis; autobiography and writing; mysticism and philosophy; poetry and translation; mysticism and social formation; the interface of law, devotion, and spirit; science and mysticism; perceptions of inter-religious influence; mysticism and the modern/ post-modern world. Advanced reading knowledge of at least one language of primary-source scholarship in one of the above traditions is required. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 unit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 333X:
Workshop in Religion and Education (EDUC 412)
This 1-unit workshop will explore the intersection of religion and education across a variety of learning environments and demographics. It invites an ongoing conversation of the relationships between schools, congregations, religious bodies, learners, seekers, philanthropy, and public education. Advanced students and visiting scholars will have an opportunity to present their work for discussion. May be repeat for credit
Last offered: Spring 2023
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
10 times
(up to 10 units total)
RELIGST 334:
Islam and Material Culture (RELIGST 234)
Material objects are essential elements of Islamic cultures and practices. This course examines Islamic art, sculpture, architecture, devotional objects, and clothing, as well as basic concepts in studying religion and material culture.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 335:
Sacred Space (RELIGST 235)
The marking off of sacred space is often posited as central to the production of the sacred as a generic category. Moving from Durkheim and Eliade's contrasting views of the sacred as either a collective imaginary reflecting society's self-image or the result of perceivable incursions of the divine into the mundane realm, this course will proceed to explore phenomenological (Lefebvre, Heidegger, Casey), anthropological (Basso, Albera, Couroucli), ritual studies (Smith, Bell), religious studies (Bigelow, Pesantubbee, Linenthal, Friedland & Hecht), and art historical (Flood) approaches, as well as primary sources (fa'il or praise literature, pilgrimage manuals). We will engage such questions as: What is sacred space? What are the possible relationships between sacred space and religion, politics, economies, material culture, and other social structures? Can sacred space be shared by multiple religious traditions and, if so, under what conditions? How does sacred space work as a repository of collective memory, a symbol of identity, a wellspring of community wisdom, a marker of spiritual or social division? Participants will study a particular site of their choosing (in time and space) and produce biographies of that place.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 336:
Calvin's Theology
Graduate student colloquium on issues in classical Protestant thought. Permission of instructor required.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 337:
William James on Religion (RELIGST 237)
Among the extensive and influential writings of William James, from technical texts on psychology to popular essays on education, this course will focus on the 'Varieties of Religious Experience' and its importance for a contemporary understanding of religion. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units. Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 338:
Seminar in Spiritualism and the Occult
T.W. Stanford, Leland Jr.'s uncle, left money for founding psychic studies at Stanford. The Stanford's were like millions of people in the nineteenth century who described themselves as spiritualist. Far from being the rejection of science, this movement saw itself and often was seen by others as the forefront of scientific inquiry. Its practitioners often drew a thin line between physics and metaphysics.nnOur class will examine spirit photographs, explore novels and treatises, and handle artifacts that T.W. Stanford used to communicate across the astral plane. In addition to reading primary and scholarly sources, this course will also provide the opportunity for archival research and several field trips to area sites of occult interest.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 339:
Philosophy of/in Religious Studies (RELIGST 239)
TO BE DETERMINED. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 unit.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 340:
The Buddhist Body: Exorcism, Self-Immolation, and Tattoo Art (RELIGST 204)
In Buddhist practices, devotees have long used their bodies to express religious devotion. This can be seen through asceticism, exorcism, hallucination, mummification, immolation, and even tattoo art. This course examines such themes through textual readings, material culture, and visual imagery. In regards to asceticism, ascetic practices can be used to alter one's physical form, through starvation, fire, practices in the mountains, or other such means. Examples of this include the mountain practitioners who mummified in Japan, immolation practices in China and Tibet, and the "marathon monks" of Mount Hiei. Subthemes of this course include gender and the body, and the body and violence. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 341:
Black Religion in America (AFRICAAM 242, AMSTUD 241, RELIGST 241)
Since Africans arrived on North American shores, their religious cultures have anchored them to the traditions of their originating homelands; offered outlets for communal innovation; and structured their responses to the everyday realities of life in the United States. More than a cornerstone of Black American culture, religion has helped to define U.S. African-American identities. At the same time, performances identified with Black religions have transcended racial barriers and become ubiquitous features of the American religious landscape. In this course, we will trace the history of African-descended peoples in the United States through their religious expressions, explore major questions in the study of African-American religions, and analyze representations of African-American religiosity in the popular imagination. Zigzagging across regions and through chronological periods, we will engage primary "texts" ranging from the antebellum "confessions" of Nat Turner to the contemporary rituals of a Vodou priestess, in order to interrogate the questions: "Are there continuities and/or features that mark U.S. Black religions?" "If so, what are they?" "If not, what is the function of the category?" In doing so, we aim to discover the histories of the diverse traditions subsumed under the category of Black religion and register our voices in debates that continue to preoccupy scholars in the field.Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 344:
Feminist Theory and the Study of Religion
This seminar aims to put feminist theory and religious studies into conversation with each other in order to explore the resulting intersections. It will examine new directions in current scholarship. What does it mean to apply a gender studies lens to the study of religion? How do feminist conceptions of embodiment reinforce and/or context religious conceptions of the body? What are the implications of the "return of religion" currently invoked in feminist discourses? We will read works by Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Saba Mahmood, Shawn Copeland, a.o. Other thematic choices may be determined by interest of graduate students enrolled in the course.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 345:
Readings in Late Ancient Christianity
Topics in the study of Christianity for doctoral students. Recent scholarship and approaches to research.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 347:
Chinese Buddhist Texts
Chinese Buddhist texts from the Han Dynasty onwards, including sutra translations, prefaces, colophons, story collections and biographies. Prerequisite: reading competence in Chinese.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 348:
Readings in Race and Religion in America
This graduate-level readings course investigates the relationship between "religion" and "race" in the United States, showing how the categories cannot be understood separately, even as they are often considered as such. The course will focus on preparing students for general exams as well as for teaching, giving students the opportunity to create and collaboratively share lecture notes on chosen topics with each other.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
RELIGST 350:
Readings in Tibetan Literature (RELIGST 250)
Introduction to Tibetan literature through reading texts in Tibetan. Prerequisite: intermediate level facility in classical Tibetan.nnUndergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
6 times
(up to 30 units total)
RELIGST 351:
Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts
Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit. WIN '24: This class will be meeting in the Ho Center Library in Littlefield Management Center, Room 340.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 353:
Recent Research on Japanese Buddhism (RELIGST 253)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Japanese Buddhism. nUndergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units. Prerequisite: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies (5 units for 253, 3-5 units for 353) May be repeat for credit.
Last offered: Spring 2019
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 15 units total)
RELIGST 354:
Recent Contributions to Buddhist Studies
The goal of this course is to familiarize graduate students with themes, debates and methodologies in Buddhist Studies. Works covered are not all recent (though most are), but rather works that raise issues that scholars continue to address in recent works. Some weeks will focus on topics (e.g. Indian monasticism, defining meditative experience), and others on bodies of evidence (e.g. hagiography, material culture). "Buddhist Studies" encompasses a range of discrete disciplines (philosophy, history, anthropology etc.). This course is an opportunity for you to familiarize yourself with some of the most common approaches to Buddhist studies and the specific challenges they pose.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 355:
Perspectives on Caste and Religion in South Asia (RELIGST 255)
Caste, as a plurality of ideas about systemic exclusion or social hierarchy, has shaped the lifeworlds of South Asians past and present, across regions, languages, and religious boundaries. But is caste a unitary concept? And what does it have to do with religion? This seminar turns to the archive to explore a series of case studies about how caste, as an actively contested concept and set of social practices, has interfaced with meaning-making and community formation in Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian traditions. We are interested both in the social history of religion as well as the phenomenology of oppression and liberation, taking a comparative approach that allows us to defamiliarize our assumptions about the varied relationships between religion, culture, hierarchy, and violence. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 356:
Readings in Buddhist Tantra: Wheel of Time (RELIGST 256)
The emergence of tantric scriptures in medieval India marked a major turning point in the development of religious thought and practice throughout Asia. These scriptures introduced myths, rituals, contemplative techniques, and artistic expressions that transformed the religious traditions of India¿from Hinduism to Jainism and Buddhism. Tantric forms of worship subsequently shaped the religious traditions of Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, and everywhere else Indian religions spread. This seminar examines the history of Buddhist tantra through English translation of one of the most popular collections of tantric literature in the history of Buddhism: the Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time blends models of the cosmos, time, embodiment, and aesthetics with rich contemplative and ritual techniques. Since its origin, the Wheel of Time and its associated body of texts and practices has become immensely popular throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world. The influence of the Wheel of Time continues to this day, as the current Dalai Lama frequently offers the Wheel of Time initiation as a blessing for world peace, and scholars and practitioners continue to study its literature and practice its contemplative techniques. Undergraduates are expected to have at least one prior course in Buddhism or the consent of the instructor. Undergraduates register for 256 for 5 units. Graduate students register for 356 for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 357:
Women in Japanese Buddhism (RELIGST 257)
This seminar explores the role of women in Japanese Buddhism, starting from the earliest records until today. All readings will be in English. Prerequisites: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies. You must have taken at least one other course in Buddhist Studies. NOTE: Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 357X:
Female Divinities in China (FEMGEN 293E, HISTORY 293E, HISTORY 393E, RELIGST 257X)
This course examines the fundamental role of powerful goddesses in Chinese religion. It covers the entire range of imperial history and down to the present. It will look at, among other questions, what roles goddesses played in the spirit world, how this is related to the roles of human women, and why a civilization that excluded women from the public sphere granted them a dominant place, in the religious sphere. It is based entirely on readings in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 358:
Readings in Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 258)
In this course, we will read premodern Japanese Buddhist texts. Prerequisite: Chinese and/or Japanese.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 359A:
American Religions in a Global Context: Proseminar
This 1-unit proseminar is open to graduate students interested in American Religions in a Global Context. We will meet once a month to discuss student and faculty work-in-progress and important books in the field. Enrollment in the proseminar is required for students pursuing the Graduate Certificate in American Religions.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
10 times
(up to 10 units total)
RELIGST 361:
What Does It Mean to be Secular? (RELIGST 261)
"Secularism" and "secularization" are two concepts whose importance to modern life is only matched by their ability to elude our understanding. Our aim in this seminar, therefore, will be to make sense of them as historical and sociological phenomena, as well as objects of theoretical and philosophical inquiry. Among other issues, we will probe the question of religious decline in modern societies, the formation of secular identity and subjectivity, the theological underpinnings of the separation of religion and state, the politics of religious minorities, and the broader transformation of religion in the modern age. Our approach to the subject will consist primarily in the discussion of a wide range of primary sources and scholarly writings, which will span the disciplines of political theory, anthropology, theology, history, and literature.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 362:
Sex and the Early Church (CLASSICS 262, FEMGEN 262, FEMGEN 362R, RELIGST 262)
Sex and the Early Church examines the ways first- through sixth-century Christians addressed questions regarding human sexuality. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between sexuality and issues of gender, culture, power, and resistance. We will read a Roman gynecological manual, an ancient dating guide, the world's first harlequin romance novels, ancient pornography, early Christian martyrdom accounts, stories of female and male saints, instructions for how to best battle demons, visionary accounts, and monastic rules. These will be supplemented by modern scholarship in classics, early Christian studies, gender studies, queer studies, and the history of sexuality. The purpose of our exploration is not simply to better understand ancient views of gender and sexuality. Rather, this investigation of a society whose sexual system often seems so surprising aims to denaturalize many of our own assumptions concerning gender and sexuality. In the process, we will also examine the ways these first centuries of what eventually became the world's largest religious tradition has profoundly affected the sexual norms of our own time. The seminar assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 363:
The Religions and Cultures of Enslaved People in America (AMSTUD 263, RELIGST 263)
More than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery--its histories and legacies--remains the subject of heated debate among the institution's descendants and the millions of others who live in its wake. As a global institution predicated upon the exchange of human bodies, slavery helped to forge political and economic empires, divided nations, and crystallized racialized caste hierarchies that persist into the present. Yet, the politically and emotionally charged nature of conversations about slavery has obscured the lives of the women, men, and children who bore the legal status of "slave." In this course, we will explore the meanings of enslavement from the perspectives of those who experienced it, and in doing so, interrogate broader questions of the relationship between slavery and the construction of racialized group identities. Using autobiographical narratives, eyewitness accounts, slaveholder diaries, images, and archeological evidence from the United States, we will examine the religious, philosophical, and experiential orientations that grounded the enslaved psyche and found expression in bondspeople's music, movement, foodways, dress, and institutions. Although the United States South will be our primary region for interrogation, we will analyze the thought and culture formations of U.S. bondspeople in light of the discursive and aesthetic productions of African-descended peoples throughout the diaspora. In this way, we will endeavor to know the people who helped birth American culture. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 364:
Hindu Tantra (RELIGST 264)
What is Tantra? Tantric forms of ritual and philosophy have been integral to the practice of Hinduism for most of its history. Tantra has provided initiates with a spiritual technology for embodying the divine and transcending the cycle of rebirth; on a social and political level, Tantra has mediated the institutions of Hindu kingship and appealed to a diverse population of initiates. This course covers a number of influential and well-documented Hindu tantric traditions, exploring several prominent features of Tantric religion as they develop historically, including: tantric ritual practice (core technologies of the subtle body, mantras, ma, alas, etc., along with the more notorious elements of sex and transgression), theology and philosophical speculation, as well as Tantra's relationship to the outside world and state power.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 367:
Seminar in Religion and Material Culture
The first part of the course will examine approaches to the role of material culture in religion, including scholarship on icons, sacred space, clothing and food. In the second part of the course, students will develop research projects in their area of specialization.
Last offered: Winter 2018
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 370:
Comparative Religious Ethics (RELIGST 270)
The difference that the word religious makes in religious ethics and how it affects issues of genre. Theoretical analyses with examples from W. and E. Asia. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| Units: 4
RELIGST 371:
Writing Religious History
This course offers graduate students a sustained opportunity to think about the craft of writing religious history. We will work together on issues ranging from structuring sentences, to revising an article, to conceptualizing a dissertation. Students will be encouraged to establish a daily writing habit and to formulate clear and searchable research strategies. Readings will include exemplars of different kinds of writing in the field. Students will write and workshop several brief (3-5 page) papers applying different approaches. The final project will be a revision of an article-length paper.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 5
RELIGST 374F:
Science, Religion, and Democracy (ETHICSOC 374R, PHIL 374F)
How should conflicts between citizens with science-based and religion-based beliefs be handled in modern liberal democracies? Are religion-based beliefs as suitable for discussion within the public sphere as science-based beliefs? Are there still important conflicts between science and religion, e.g., Darwinian evolution versus creationism or intelligent design? How have philosophy and recent theology been engaged with such conflicts and how should they be engaged now? What are the political ramifications? This is a graduate-level seminar; undergraduates must obtain permission of the instructors.
Last offered: Spring 2018
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
RELIGST 381:
Asian Religions in America; Asian American Religions (AMSTUD 281, ASNAMST 281, RELIGST 281)
This course will analyze both the reception in America of Asian religions (i.e. of Buddhism in the 19th century), and the development in America of Asian American religious traditions.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 5
RELIGST 382:
Research in American Religions
Graduate independent study in American Religions. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 383:
Research in Late Antiquity
Graduate independent research in Late Anitquity. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor
Last offered: Summer 2023
| Units: 1-15
RELIGST 384:
Research in Christian Studies
Graduate independent study in Christianity. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 385:
Research in Buddhist Studies
Graduate Independent study in Buddhism. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 386:
Research in Islamic Studies
Graduate Independent study in Islamic Studies. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 387:
Research in Jewish Studies
Graduate Independent study in Jewish Studies. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 388:
Research in Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy
Graduate Independent study in Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 389:
Individual Work for Graduate Students
May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kelman, A. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Peterson, J. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Willburn, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 390:
Teaching Internship
Required supervised internship for PhDs.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Willburn, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 391:
Teaching Religious Studies
This seminar will help prepare you for your role as a university teacher both at a practical and a theoretical level. We will focus on how to best obtain (and keep) a new academic position. We will thus often work together on "nuts and bolts" issues such as syllabus design, engaging lectures, lively seminar discussions, positive classroom dynamics, and producing a strong teaching portfolio. We will also explore recent developments in pedagogical theory, cognitive science, and educational psychology that have bearing on effective university level teaching. These will be situated within the specific demands of the religious studies classroom and supplemented by guest speakers who will help us explore how institutional context affects the ways one teaches.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
RELIGST 392:
Paper in the Field
Prerequisite: consent of graduate director. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Willburn, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 395:
Master of Arts Thesis
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 2-9
| Repeatable
9 times
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 399:
Readings in Theories and Methods
Directed readings in secondary literature for Religious Studies doctoral students. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 801:
TGR Project
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
RELIGST 802:
TGR Dissertation
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abbasi, R. (PI);
Bigelow, A. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gentry, J. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Martin, L. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI);
Willburn, S. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI)
