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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.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Mross, M. (PI)

RELIGST 23X: Democracy and Disagreement (PHIL 3, POLISCI 31, PUBLPOL 3)

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)
Instructors: ; Brest, P. (PI); Satz, D. (PI)

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)
Instructors: ; Safran, G. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Mayse, E. (PI)

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 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
Instructors: ; Willburn, S. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Sockness, B. (PI)

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)

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 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
Instructors: ; Yearley, L. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Mross, M. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Pitkin, B. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Abbasi, R. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Harrison, P. (PI)

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 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
Instructors: ; Schwartz, J. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Yearley, L. (PI)

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

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
Instructors: ; Pitkin, B. (PI)

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 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
Instructors: ; Kelman, A. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Mross, M. (PI)

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)
Instructors: ; Fisher, E. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Pitkin, B. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Abbasi, R. (PI)

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
Instructors: ; Harrison, P. (PI)

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 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
Instructors: ; Schwartz, J. (PI)

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)
Instructors: ; Lum, K. (PI)

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 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

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
Instructors: ; Penn, M. (PI)

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
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