RELIGST 1:
Religion Around the Globe
This course surveys major religious traditions of the world. Through examination of a variety of materials, including scriptures and other spiritual writings, religious objects and artifacts, and modern documentary and film, we explore Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Daoism as rich historical and living traditions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 2:
Is Stanford a Religion?
This course seeks to introduce students to the study of religion by posing a two-part question: What is a religion, and does Stanford qualify as one? Scientific, pragmatic, seemingly secular, Stanford may not seem at all similar to religions like Christianity, Judaism or Buddhism, but a deeper look reveals that it has many of the qualities of religion--origin stories, rituals and ceremonies, sacred spaces and times, visions of the future, even some spirits. By learning some of the theories and methods of the field of religious studies, students will gain a better understanding not just of Stanford culture but of what motivates people to be religious, the roles religion plays in people's lives, and the similarities and differences between religious and secular culture.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 9N:
What Didn't Make it into the Bible
Over two billion people alive today consider the New Testament 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 the history of the world's largest modern religion look differently if a given book didn't make the final cut and another one did? nHundreds of ancient Christian texts are not included in the New Testament. What Didn't Make It in the Bible focuses on these excluded writings. We will explore Gnostic gospels, hear of a five-year-old Jesus throwing temper tantrums while killing (and later resurrecting) his classmates, peruse ancient Christian romance novels, tour heaven and hell, read the garden of Eden story told from the perspective of the snake, and learn how the world will end.nnThe seminar 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 learn about the content and history of the New Testament, better appreciate the diversity of formative Christianity, understand the historical context of the early church, and explore the politics behind what did and did not make it into the bible.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 10Q:
Literature, Medicine and Empathy (MED 10Q)
In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in empathy as a key competency of the emotionally intelligent, and a primary motivator of moral behavior. But what is empathy, exactly? This seminar will seek to find out, exploring the concept through the lens of literature and medicine. nReading novels and exploring the philosophical beginnings of the term empathy, we will learn about the range of ways in which human beings have attempted to know and understand the other. Guided by research studies and our own experience, we will explore the critical question of whether empathy really does lead to altruism. We will consider why it can be so hard for human beings to walk in another's shoes and why we so often fail to do so. Through memoirs of suffering, we will learn about empathy in medicine and about what the latest studies in biology and neuroscience can teach us about how we relate to each other. Lastly, we will explore the dangers and limitations of empathy, reading scholarly circuits and discussing the role of empathy in life and society.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
RELIGST 11N:
The Meaning of Life: Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Religious Perspectives
Raise ultimate questions about life. Yes, the unexamined life is not worth living, but also the unlived life is not worth examining. Students and professor examine their own lives in the light of questions that the readings and lectures bring up: 1. The big picture: Is there such a thing as "the" meaning of life? 2. What is entailed in making personal-existential sense of one's own life? 3. What constitutes the good life, lived in society? 4. How can a university education bear upon the search for a meaningful life? 5. What "methods" for or approches to life can one learn from studies in the humanities? After introductory lectures, the seminar studies a series of artworks, poems, diverse texts, and a film, all of which bear on the questions mentioned above -- works such: 1. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from "The Republic" 2. Manet's "A bar at the Folies Bergere" 3. A comparison/contrast of Monet's early (1862) "Still Life" and van Gogh's late (1889) "Irises" 4. Lyric poetry T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," and "East Coker"; Edwin Muir: "The Heart Could Never Speak"; Philip Larkin: "Days" 5. Martin Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics?" 6. Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "Nausea" 7. Marx's Paris Manuscripts of 1844 8. Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
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: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 13N:
Losing My Religion: Secularism and Spirituality in American Lives (AMSTUD 117N, EDUC 117N)
In this seminar you will explore theory and practice, sociological data, spiritual writing, and case studies in an effort to gain a more nuanced understanding about how religion, spirituality, and secularism attempt to make legible the constellation of concerns, commitments, and behaviors that bridge the moral and the personal, the communal and the national, the sacred, the profane, and the rational. Together we will cultivate critical perspectives on practices and politics, beliefs and belonging that we typically take for granted.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 13Q:
Mystical Journeys: Beyond Knowing and Reason
What makes a mystic a mystic? This question has many sides. Why do we call someone a mystic? Is there such a thing as mystical experience? Do experiences make a mystic? Do beliefs? Practices? Many religious traditions have records of visionaries whose lives and writings open windows on the more hidden and aspirational aspects of belief and practice. These writings also take many forms: poems, letters, teachings, and accounts of visions, which we will encounter in the course of the quarter. Readings for the course will cover a cross-section of texts taken from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Native American sources.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
RELIGST 21X:
Dangerous Ideas (ARTHIST 36, COMPLIT 36A, EALC 36, ENGLISH 71, FRENCH 36, HISTORY 3D, MUSIC 36H, PHIL 36, POLISCI 70, SLAVIC 36)
Ideas matter. Concepts such as race, progress, and evil have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like religious tolerance, voting rights, and wilderness preservation 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. Some weeks will have short reading assignments, but you are not required to purchase any materials.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
RELIGST 24:
Sexuality, Gender, and Religion (FEMGEN 24)
From ancient times to the present, religious texts, authority figures, adherents, and critics have had a great deal to say about sexuality and gender, with powerful impacts in personal, social and political spheres. Today these debates are more wide ranging and public than ever. In this lecture and discussion series, distinguished scholars from within and beyond Stanford will consider how sexuality and gender become ¿religious¿ in Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 2
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 6 units total)
RELIGST 25:
Mystical Journeys: Beyond Knowing and Reason
What makes a mystic a mystic? This question has many sides. Why do we call someone a mystic? Is there such a thing as mystical experience? Do experiences make a mystic? Do beliefs? Practices? Many religious traditions have records of visionaries whose lives and writings open windows on the more hidden and aspirational aspects of belief and practice. These writings also take many forms: poems, letters, teachings, and accounts of visions, which we will encounter in the course of the quarter. Readings for the course will cover a cross-section of texts taken from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Native American sources.
| Units: 3
RELIGST 26:
The Bible and its Interpreters
Introduction to major stories, figures, and themes of the Christian Bible and their retellings in theological writing, art, literature, film, and music throughout the ages.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 31:
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.
Last offered: Winter 2017
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 32:
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?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 32S:
Buddhism in America (ASNAMST 32, CSRE 32H)
This course examines the transmission, growth, and transformation of Buddhism in America from the nineteenth century to the present day. We will treat American Buddhism as a distinct regional variety of Buddhism with its own history, characteristics, and debates. Through select readings, films, discussions, and research, students will explore the main events and issues that have shaped the American encounter with Buddhism. We will learn the history of Buddhism in the United States, major traditions of American Buddhism, and contemporary issues and debates. Topics covered will include Orientalism, gender, race, science and meditation, and Buddhism in classrooms and prisons.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 36:
Philosophy of Religion (PHIL 77S)
(Formerly RELIGST 62S) Explores fundamental questions about the existence of God, free will and determinism, faith and reason, through traditional philosophical texts. Course is divided into four sections: first asks what is religion; second surveys the western philosophical tradition from Boethius through Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard regarding the foundation for theist beliefs; third investigates questions mystical experience raises through both western and Buddhist materials; and fourth takes up the ethics of belief, what we have a right to believe, through the Clifford and James debate and the opposing stances of Camus and Pascal.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 50:
Exploring Buddhism
From its beginnings to the 21st century. Principal teachings and practices, institutional and social forms, and artistic and iconographical expressions. (Formerly RELIGST 14.)
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 53:
Exploring Jewish Spirituality (JEWISHST 53)
It was once accepted as fact that Judaism is a purely 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. This course will introduce students to the major texts and core ideas of Jewish mysticism and spirituality, tracking their development from the Hebrew Bible to the present day. Close attention will be paid to the sources¿ historical context, and we will also engage with broader methodological questions regarding the academic study of religion and the comparative approach to mysticism.
Terms: Win
| 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 course will further feature a fieldtrip to a local Zen center.
Terms: Spr
| 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 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.
Last offered: Spring 2017
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
RELIGST 61:
Exploring Islam
This course introduces some of the most important features of the Islamic religious tradition. It explores the different ways in which Muslims have interpreted and practiced their religion. The main subjects of discussion --- including the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur¿an, law, ritual, mysticism, theology, politics, and art --- will be considered with reference to their proper historical contexts. Some of the topics covered include abortion, gender, rebellion and violence, and the visual vocabulary of paintings. Students will be exposed to important theories and methods in the academic study of religion. No prior knowledge is required.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 71:
Jews and Christians: Conflict and Coexistence (JEWISHST 71)
The relationship between Judaism and Christianity has had a long a controversial history. Christianity originated as a dissident Jewish sect but eventually evolved into an independent religion, with only tenuous ties to its Jewish past and present. Since the Holocaust, Jews and Christians have begun the serious work of forging more meaningful relationships with each other. This course explores the most significant moments that have shaped the relationship between Judaism and Christianity and examines some of the theological complexities imbedded in these traditions, while searching constructive ways of situating oneself amidst such complexities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 86:
Exploring the New Testament (CLASSICS 43, 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 91:
Exploring American Religious History (AMSTUD 91, CSRE 91, HISTORY 260K)
This course will trace how contemporary beliefs and practices connect to historical trends in the American religious landscape.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 114:
Yoga Ancient and Modern
Originating in ancient India, yoga went through many developments over more than 4000 years in India and other parts of Asia. Having migrated to Euro-America in the late nineteenth century, today yoga is everywhere--studios, schools, gyms, malls, resorts, ashrams, retreat centers. It comes in many flavors¿austere, with meditative instructors and Sanskrit chants; stylish, in 105-degree heat, with portable-miked instructors loudly motivating students to go through poses with speed and intensity; niche-crafted to meet the needs of busy professionals, pregnant women, senior citizens, or people with back problems. It may appear as a spiritual path or as a heavily marketed commodity. It generates lawsuits as teachers dispute ownership of certain styles, or as some Americans oppose its teaching yoga in public schools. In the first half of the course we will study the history of yoga in India, reading primary texts composed between about 500 BCE and 1600 CE. In the second half we will learn about yoga's globalization in the last century. Participating in a yoga class is recommended. 2 units of independent study (S-NC) are offered for those who participate in a weekly yoga class and write short reflections on the experience.
Last offered: Winter 2017
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 115X:
Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1500 (HISTORY 15D, HISTORY 115D)
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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
RELIGST 117:
Christianity in 21st-century America (AMSTUD 117R)
As the largest religion practiced in the United States, Christianity not only shapes the lives of a large number of its citizens but also impinges on public discourse, policies, and debates. This course investigates the ways in which Christianity in America is changing and what these changes bode for its role in the public and private spheres. Issues include shifting demographics lead to declining numbers in 'mainline' denominations; the polarization of Christian conservatives and religious 'nones'; interfaith toleration and cooperation alongside interreligious conflict; the rise of 'spiritual, not religious' young adults; the effects of immigration; religion and science.
Last offered: Spring 2017
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 119:
Religion, Violence, and Nonviolence
College courses and public events often address "religion and violence"--an important topic, but one-sided. We will study ways in which religious leaders, movements, and discourses have (1) promoted violent conflict, aggression, and oppression; and (2) contributed to nonviolence, peacebuilding, and liberation of the oppressed. An overarching theme will be a view of religions as fields of interpretation. No religion is essentially violent or peaceful; intricately connected to the world around them, religions become what they become through interpretation and action. Each week will have two meetings: one featuring an outstanding guest lecturer and one to discuss the lecture topic, with assigned readings and films. Topics under consideration include: Buddhism and Violence; Dorothy Day and Catholic Nonviolent Resistance to Nuclear Weapons; Just War and Jihad; The Contribution of Negro Spirituals to Liberation; The Quakers: Pacifist Convictions and Activism; Violence/Nonviolence in Jainism; The Role of Christian Faith in M.L. King's Political Work; Spirituality and Religious Peacebuilding. For lecture series with required attendance and written reflections for 2 units, take RELIGST 29.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
RELIGST 126:
Protestant Reformation (HISTORY 126B)
The emergence of Protestant Christianity in 16th-century Europe. Analysis of writings by evangelical reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Sattler, Hubmeier, Müntzer) and study of reform movements (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Spiritualist) in their medieval context and as expressions of new and influential visions of Christian belief, life, social order.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 132:
Jesus the Christ
How did Jesus of Nazareth, who never claimed to be Christ or divine, become the son of God after his death? Sources include the history of first-century Judaism and Christianity.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 4
RELIGST 132C:
How Jesus the Jew became God
Contemporary historical-critical methods in investigating how one might study Jewish and Christian texts of the 1st century CE. Social contexts including economic realities and elite ideological views. What can be known historically about 1st-century Judaism and Jesus' part it in it. How Jewish apocalyptic messianism shaped the birth of Christianity and its trajectory through the 1st century.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 135:
Islam in America (AFRICAAM 135A, AMSTUD 135X, CSRE 135, GLOBAL 137)
This course explores the history of Islam in North America with special emphasis on the experience of Muslims in the United States. Contrary to popularly held belief, Muslims have been critical participants in the construction of American identity from the 16th century onwards when Muslim slaves were forcibly brought to Colonial America. Our course will explore the diverse ways Muslims in America have imagined, practiced, and negotiated their religious identity. We will move chronologically, and we will focus upon three crucial themes: the convergence of constructions of racial, religious, and national identities in America; the ever-shifting terrain of notions of authority and authenticity amongst Muslims in America; and global resonances of the practices and ideas of American Muslims.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 139:
Religion along the Silk Road
From roughly the year 1 to the year 1000, a vibrant trade route stretched across Central Asia, linking Europe, India and East Asia. Along this route, merchants bought and sold the silk that gave the route its name, along with paper, ceramics, spices, precious stones and any number of other commodities. Together with these trade goods, merchants, missionaries, farmers and artisans who participated in this vast commercial network, exchanged ideas, scriptures, practices and beliefs, including those associated with major religious traditions; Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism, Manichaeism and Islam followed the same routes as silk and spice. In this course we will examine the spread of all of these religions across the Silk Road, what happened when they interacted, and what this tells us about the relation between commerce, trade and geography in the pre-modern world.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 143:
Empathy
Empathy is fashionable these days - whether in Silicon Valley or the latest neuroscience. There is a deep sense that we need to learn how to walk in the shoes of another. This course will trace the meaning and practice of empathy through Buddhist compassion; Christianity's commandments to love our neighbor; Enlightenment moral philosophy; nineteenth-century aesthetics; and twenty-first century neuroscience. We will also explore how the arts - drama, novels, poetry, and the visual arts - especially enable us to understand and empathize with the other.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
RELIGST 144:
John Calvin and Christian Faith
Close reading and analysis of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion as a classic expression of Christian belief.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 148:
From Jesus to Paul
Jesus considered himself God's definitive prophet, but he did not think he was God, and had no intention of founding a new religion. How did this Jewish prophet become the gentile God and the founder of Christianity? The role of Paul.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 150:
The Lotus Sutra: Story of a Buddhist Book
The Lotus school of Mahayana, and its Indian sources, Chinese formulation, and Japanese developments.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 161:
Modern Religious Thought: From Galileo to Freud
The three centuries following the Protestant Reformation led to a gradual clarification of the notions of the religious and secular and gave rise to a new genre of religious thought, ideally freed from theology, church or synagogue-a secular philosophy of religion, or in some cases a religiously-imbued philosophy. We will examine some of the foundations of religious thought in modernity, including Galileo, Spinoza, Diderot, Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud.
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 162X:
Spirituality and Nonviolent Urban and Social Transformation (CSRE 162A, URBANST 126)
A life of engagement in social transformation is often built on a foundation of spiritual and religious commitments. Case studies of nonviolent social change agents including Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement, César Chávez in the labor movement, and WIlliam Sloane Coffin in the peace movement; the religious and spiritual underpinnings of their commitments. Theory and principles of nonviolence. Films and readings. Service learning component includes placements in organizations engaged in social transformation. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 165:
Modern Jewish Mystics: Devotion in a Secular Age (JEWISHST 125)
The twentieth-century was a time of tremendous upheaval and unspeakable tragedy for the Jewish communities of Europe. But the past hundred years were also a period of great renewal for Jewish spirituality, a renaissance that has continued into the present day. We will explore the mystic writings of figures from the Safed Renaissance, the Hasidic masters, with a particular focus on the works of Martin Buber, Hillel Zeitlin, Abraham Isaac Kook, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Arthur Green. We will examine their teachings in light of the challenges of the two World Wars, the Holocaust, and the processes of modernity and secularism. Consideration will be made of the unique cultural contexts of modern Israel and contemporary America.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 166:
The Divine Feminine in India (FEMGEN 166)
What happens when God is a woman? Is the Goddess a feminist? The Goddess, in her numerous incarnations, is foundational to much of Indian religiosity, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or even Jain¿and in turn, without her story, much of the theology and practice of these religions remains incomprehensible. This course examines the principal expressions of the theology and ritual worship of the Goddess in Indian history, from the Vedas to the Hindu Epics, to Indian philosophy, tantric ritual practice and modern global and new age movements in order to understand how the gendering of divinity affects theological speculation, religious experience, and embodied religious identity.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 168:
Philosophy of Religion
Course traces efforts within the Western tradition from Boethius through Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard to Camus to establish a rational foundation for theist belief and its consistency or coherence with everyday experience. We will deal extensively with the criticisms that that effort has cast up and then turn to investigate issues that extraordinary or mystical experience raises. We will incorporate a look at Buddhist traditions as well as those in the west to gain insight into these questions. And finally, we will look at the ethics of belief, at our responsibility toward our commitments, and some of the varying positions available to us.
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 169:
Sacred Words: Jewish Thought and the Question of Language (JEWISHST 129)
Jews have long been referred as the people of the book, but they might better be referred to as the people of the word. Drawing upon texts from the Hebrew Bible to the works of modern Hebrew writers like of Hayyim Nahman Bialik and Amoz Oz, this seminar will chart the development of Jewish thinking on language over the past two millennia. We will explore issues such as: the idea of canonization; oral versus written language; the nature and possibility of translation; the origins of language; notions of negative theology; mystical approaches to the word; the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken and cultural language; and the limits of language after the Holocaust. This course will also bring Jewish thought into dialogue with contemporary philosophical reflections on issues of language. Modern explorations of language will prove an interesting way of deepening our understanding of the Jewish thinkers on one hand, and enriching contemporary intellectual discourse on the other.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 170A:
Biblical Hebrew, First Quarter (AMELANG 170A, 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 the talmudic texts. Some knowledge of Hebrew is preferred. The ongoing seminar is designed to study the making of the talmudic sugya (unit of discourse), along with classic commentaries. Students will consider some of the recent developments in the academic study of Talmudic literature, introduced by the instructor. The goal of the ongoing seminar is to provide Stanford students and faculty with the opportunity to engage in regular Talmud study, and to be introduced to a variety of approaches to studying Talmudic texts. Class meets on Fridays, from 12:00-1:15 pm in Hillel (Koret Pavilion Taube Hillel House; Ziff Center for Jewish Life). May be repeat for credit
Last offered: Spring 2017
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 5 units total)
RELIGST 171A:
Biblical Greek (CLASSICS 6G, JEWISHST 5)
(Formerly CLASSGRK 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.
Terms: Win
| 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.nnSample readings:nK.P. Harrington et al, Medieval Latin 2nd edn.nM. Riley, The Neo-Latin Reader: selections from Petrarch to RimbaudnnPrior experience in Latin is required, preferably CLASSICS 11L. Equivalent accepted. Anyone unsure whether to take this course is encouraged to contact the instructor in advance.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 176:
Religious Diversity: Theoretical and Practical Issues
What does it mean for a religion to be true? If one religion is true, what about the truth of other religious possibilities? How, and why, should religious traditions be compared? Readings address tolerance and pluralism, relativism, comparative theory, and new religious virtues.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 179:
Doing the Sacred: Religion and Performance
This course investigates religion as practice and performance, rather than as belief and doctrine. A performance-centered emphasis helps us understand how domination and authority, as well as creativity and individual resistance, underlie culture. From initiatory rites to cyber sermons, human action offers raw, physical data that unveils the mechanisms of social control, ideology, and individual resistance. Reorienting religion from the perspective of religious acts / actors -- those who are doing something they consider sacred -- evokes many interpretive possibilities: How do these performances create and maintain communities? How do they resolve conflicts that arise within everyday affairs? In what ways do they generate meaning and shape identity? What can these enactments reveal about the constructions of power, gender, and race? This course explores such issues, probing the complicated relationship between human intention and social reality. Ultimately, a study of religion and performance seeks to understand how performance and transcendence interact to make participants into who they are.nnThe readings cover an array of religious traditions -- medieval and evangelical Christian, Hindu, Native American, Jewish, Buddhist, African and Haitian Vodou -- all of which present a rich repertoire of sacred drama, dance, and music. We will discuss performances that make modern readers uncomfortable, such as sacrifice and flagellation, and examine why they are meaningful within their specific cultural context. Finally, we will consider how secular practices and the internet mimic religious behavior. However divergent, all of these examples demonstrate how religious performance is no mere artifice, but a vehicle for the practitioner's own pious posturing -- one that is spiritually innovative and self-affirming -- yet shaped by hierarchical regimes.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 180:
Gender Relations in Islam (FEMGEN 180)
This course investigates the ways in which gender identities and relationships between men and women have been articulated, constructed, and refashioned throughout the Muslim world. Starting with problematizing the fixed notions of gender and sexuality, we map the attitudes toward these notions through visiting a diverse array of sources from the Qur¿an, Sunna, and legal documents to historical and anthropological case studies, literature, and film from South East Asia to Europe and North America. We examine the notions of femininity and masculinity in the Qur¿an, family laws, and attitudes toward homosexuality and transgendered populations. We read examples of ambiguous use of language with regards to gender and sexuality in Persian poetry and mystical traditions. We study the dynamic relationship between Islam and Feminism in the Muslim world. Finally, we witness the implications of these attitudes in our case studies and stories, from a divorce court in Iran to a wedding in Sudan.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 181:
Heidegger and Mysticism (PHIL 133S)
The new paradigm for understanding Heidegger makes possible a fresh look at his long-standing interest in western mysticism as well as in Daoism. Part One: a radical recasting of Heidegger's thought, including his readings of the Presocratics (6th century BCE). In light of that, Part Two: a reading of selected texts of western mystics as well as Laozi's Dao De Jing / Tao Te Ching (6th century BCE).
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 185:
Prophetic Voices of Social Critique
Judges, Samuel, Amos, and Isaiah depict and question power, strong leaders who inevitably fail, the societal inequities and corruption inevitable in prosperity, and the interplay between prophet as representative of God and the human king. How these texts succeed in their scrutiny of human power and societal arrangements through attention to narrative artistry and poetic force, and condemnation of injustice. Includes service-learning component in conjunction with the Haas Center.
Last offered: Spring 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
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: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Harvey, V. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Huntington, E. (PI);
Kelman, A. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Morgan, A. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
RELIGST 201A:
Gender in Classical Islamic Law (RELIGST 301A)
The course examines classical Islamic society and law. It covers historical development, the unity and diversity of Muslim legal traditions, and the relationship between laws and values. Constructions of gender in law are examined through rituals, marriage, divorce, birth control, child custody, and sexuality.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 202A:
Monsters, Ghosts and Other Fantastic Beings: The Supernatural and the Mysterious in Japanese Culture
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 208A:
Ex Oriente Lux: Orientalism and the Study of Religion (RELIGST 308A)
This seminar is designed to expose students to issues relating to discourse and subjectivity within the textual constructions of Oriental religions in the colonial era. We will begin with Edward W. Said¿s provocative work on notions of representation and power embedded in the discourse on the Orient that established, produced, and, ultimately, perpetuated western knowledge about the Other. We will then discuss the impact of the Oriental Renaissance and the vital role that Eastern wisdom played in constructing the field of Comparative Religious Studies. In addition, students will also read ethnographies, fables, and travelogues that both support and undermine Said¿s thesis of an active West constructing a largely passive East.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 208C:
Architecture, Acoustics and Ritual in Byzantium (ARTHIST 208C, ARTHIST 408C, CLASSICS 175, MUSIC 208C, MUSIC 408C, REES 208C, REES 408C, RELIGST 308C)
Onassis Seminar "Icons of Sound: Architecture, Acoustics and Ritual in Byzantium". This year-long seminar explores the creation and operations of sacred space in Byzantium by focusing on the intersection of architecture, acoustics, music, and ritual. Through the support of the Onassis Foundation (USA), nine leading scholars in the field share their research and conduct the discussion of their pre-circulated papers. The goal is to develop a new interpretive framework for the study of religious experience and assemble the research tools needed for work in this interdisciplinary field.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 9 units total)
RELIGST 209:
Priests, Prophets, and Kings: Religion and Society in Late Antique Iran (CLASSICS 147, CLASSICS 247, RELIGST 309)
This course is designed as a broad introduction to the religious and social history of the Sasanian Empire, encompassing the period from 224-651 CE as well as the early years of Islamic rule in Iran. Among the topics we will discuss are: the lives and deeds of the powerful Iranian emperors such as Shapur I and II in relation to the the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine; the transformation of Zoroastrianism into a powerful official religion of the state and its subsequent orthodoxy; the emergence of the prophet Mani and the confrontation of Manicheism with the Zoroastrian priesthood; the conversion of Constantine to Christianity and its political and social ramifications in Iran; the establishment of an independent Iranian Christian church; the importance of Armenia in the Sasanian- Roman conflict; and a brief discussion of the history of the Jewish community under the Sasanians. We will end the quarter by examining the Arab¿Islamic¿conquests of Iran and the profound social changes experienced by the Zoroastrian communities in the early centuries of Islam in Iran.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
RELIGST 209A:
Sugar in the Milk: Modern Zoroastrianism as Race, Religion, and Ethnicity (RELIGST 309A)
Modern Zoroastrian experience¿as race, religion, and ethnic identity. Some 60,000 Zoroastrians now live in India and have resided there for a millennium. In the 19th century, these peoples from Persia¿Parsis¿became colonial elites yet were acutely aware that they were not quite Indian, British, or Persian. Diverse ways this experience of dislocation has served as a defining characteristic in Parsi communal identity and contrast these South Asian experiences with the minority socio-politics of those who remained in Iran. Survey the colonial and post-colonial communities in England, East Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and North America and examine the expression of these global diasporic experiences in literature and the arts.
Last offered: Winter 2012
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209D:
`Crow Eaters' & `Fire Worshippers': Exploring Contemporary Zoroastrianism Thru Reading Parsi Lit (RELIGST 309D)
In the past three decades Parsi fiction has rapidly emerged as a unique and creative voice in modern Anglophone literature from South Asia. From Bapsi Sidhwa to Thrity Umrigar to Rohinton Mistry, Parsi novelists address the most poignant concerns of Zoroastrians living in an era of rapid social, political, and religious transformation. The erosion of tradition; the breakdown of the Parsi family; the demise of religion among the young; and the cultural losses and gains of living in diaspora are common themes in their works. The unique vantage point of the Parsis; neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither quite Indian nor quite British; will serve as a lens for examining the inherent tensions in multicultural societies both East and West.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209E:
Imperishable Heroes and Unblemished Goddesses: Myth, Ritual, and Epic in Ancient Iran (CLASSICS 148, CLASSICS 248, RELIGST 309E)
Designed as a broad introduction to the world of ancient Iran, students will be introduced to the Indo-European inheritance in ancient Iranian culture; the shared world of ritual, religion, and mythology between Zoroastrianism in Iran and Vedic Hinduism in India; and to the contours of early Zoroastrian religious thought. We will also survey mythoepic literature in translation from the archaic Avesta through the late antique Zoroastrian Middle Persian corpus to the early medieval national epic of Iran, the Book of Kings of Ferdowsi.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
RELIGST 212:
Chuang Tzu
The Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) in its original setting and as understood by its spiritual progeny. Limited enrollment.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 217:
Japanese Studies of Religion in China (RELIGST 317)
(Graduate students register for 317.) Readings in Japanese secondary sources on Chinese religions.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 3
RELIGST 218:
Islam, Race and Revolution: A Pan-American Approach (AMSTUD 218, CSRE 218, RELIGST 318)
Taking a pan-American approach to the study of religious traditions, this upper-level course traces the history of the critical intersection between race, religion and revolution among Muslims from the turn of the nineteenth century until the present day. Moving from the Atlantic Revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to the United States, to the decolonizing Third World, and then finally to the contemporary Middle East, this class will emphasize that Islam and race together have been used by many groups in order to challenge existing power structures, agitate for change, and more than occasionally, transform the social, cultural and governmental structures comprising their worlds. Moreover, although this class is concentrated upon religious formations in the Americas, students will explore global events throughout the Muslim world in order to examine how global politics contribute to religious formations, solidarities and identities. At the conclusion of this course, students will be expected to write a 10-15 page research paper, and a topic will be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Students will also be expected to write weekly reflection papers, which will serve to facilitate class discussion. 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 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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 221:
The Talmud (RELIGST 321)
Strategies of interpretation, debate, and law making. Historical contexts. Prerequisite: Hebrew.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 224B:
Unveiling the Sacred: Explorations in Islamic Religious Imagination (RELIGST 324B)
Poetry and prose in translation as well as historical studies. Islamic movements invested in the idea that the sensory world has a hidden or esoteric counterpart that can be understood or experienced through following particular religious programs. Various forms of Shi'ism and Sufism, millenarian and apocalyptic movements, the Nation of Islam and its offshoots. Philosophical propositions, historical contexts, and the role of ritual in the construction of religious systems.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 226A:
Judaism and Hellenism (RELIGST 326A)
interactions and conflicts between Jews and Greeks in the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the cultural/religious repercussions of their encounter. In what ways were Jews influenced by Greek culture? In what ways, and for what reasons, did they resist it? And how the interaction of these cultures shape the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity? Jewish texts in the Greco-Roman period, including Jewish-Greek writers like Philo of Alexandria, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, selected writings from the New Testament, and the Passover Haggadah.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 226D:
Jewish-Christian Relations in Antiquity (CLASSGEN 126B)
Constructions of identity, community, ethnicity: these nnconsiderations frame the investigation of ancient Christian rhetoric nnand theology contra Iudaeos. This historical project will be set nnwithin the larger intellectual and cultural context of a) learned nnGraeco-Roman traditions of ethnic stereotyping; b) forensic nnrhetoric; and c) philosophical paideia; and these nntraditions will be considered within their larger social context of the Mediterranean nncity (I-III). Specifically, various Christian, and especially Latin nntraditions contra Iudaeos (IV-VI) will be studied.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 228:
The Buddha's Word at Stanford (RELIGST 328)
Linked to an exhibition at the Cantor Museum, this course investigates the history of Buddhist manuscript and print culture in Asia using manuscripts and woodblock prints in Stanford's own collections (5 units for 228)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 229:
Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire (CLASSICS 146, CLASSICS 246, RELIGST 329)
Stretching from India to Ethiopia, the Persian Empire the largest empire before Rome has been represented as the exemplar of oriental despotism and imperial arrogance, a looming presence and worthy foil for the West and Greek democracy. This course will provide a general introduction to the Persian Empire, beginning in the 6th century BCE to the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. We shall not only examine the originality of the first world empire of antiquity, but the course will also attempt to present a broad picture of the diverse cultural institutions and religious practices found within the empire. Readings in translation from the royal edicts and the inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes will allow us to better appreciate the subtle ways in which these Persian kings used religion to justify and propagate the most ambitious imperial agenda the world had ever seen. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations of Persia and the Persians in politics and popular culture in a wide array of media, such as the recent film 300 and the graphic novel on which it is based, in an attempt to better appreciate the enduring legacy of the Greco-Persian wars.
Last offered: Autumn 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 230B:
Zen Studies (RELIGST 330B)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Chan and Zen Buddhism
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
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: Spring 2017
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
RELIGST 234:
Emmanuel Levinas: Ethics, Philosophy and Religion (JEWISHST 224, JEWISHST 324, RELIGST 334)
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) is a major French philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century and is among the half-dozen most important Jewish thinkers of the century. Born in Lithuania, Levinas lived most of his life in France; he was primarily a philosopher but also a deeply committed Jewish educator who often lectured and wrote about Judaism and Jewish matters. Levinas was influenced by Bergson, Husserl, Heidegger, and others, like Buber and Rosenzweig. We will look at the philosophical world in which he was educated and explore his unique development as a philosopher in the years after World War Two. Levinas reacted against the main tendencies of Western philosophy and religious thought and as a result shaped novel, powerful, and challenging ways of understanding philosophy, religion, ethics, and politics. n In this course, we will examine works from every stage of Levinas's career, from his early study of Husserl and Heidegger to the emergence of his new understanding of the human condition and the primacy of ethics, the face-to-face encounter with the human other, the role of language and the relationship between ethics and religion, and finally his understanding of Judaism and its relationship to Western philosophy. We will be interested in his philosophical method, the relevance of his thinking for ethics and religion, the role of language in his philosophy and the problem of the limits of expressibility, and the implications of his work for politics. We shall also consider his conception of Judaism, its primary goals and character, and its relation to Western culture and philosophy.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
RELIGST 235:
Religion in Modern Society: Secularization and the Sacred (RELIGST 335)
What is the status of religion in modern life? Is the modern world "secular" in some fundamental, irreversible way and what does this mean? This course will explore these questions through variety of readings from leading sociologists, philosophers, and anthropologists. Our goal will be to understand in what ways industrialization, political liberalization, the rise of technology, and the success of modern science have been used to support the "secularization" thesis that the modern West rendered religion a thing of the past. A central question to be asked will be: do assessments of the place of religion in modernity necessitate a philosophy of history i.e., a theory not only of historical change, but of the meaning of this change as well?n The course will begin by looking at the origins of the theory of secularization from its beginnings in Enlightenment attempts to understand the meaning of history. We will then turn to contemporary debates over the term "secular" against its counterpart, "religious", and the problems with their application to non-Western societies. We will read works by Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Max Weber, Charles Taylor, Jürgen Habermas, and Pope Benedict XVI.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 238:
Christian Neo-Platonism, East and West (RELIGST 338)
Christianity's shift to neo-Platonic Greek philosophical categories and its significance for contemporary spirituality. Readings from Plotinus, Proclus, Greek fathers such as Pseudo-Dionysus, and from Ambrose and Augustine.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 244:
Explaining Religion (RELIGST 344)
There are broadly two different, and sometimes mutually exclusive, ways of explaining social religious phenomena: idealism and materialism. One gives ideas ultimate causal primacy while the other emphasizes economic, technological, geographical, and demographic factors. This course examines arguments for and against each approach. Topics include rational choice theory, functionalism, Marxism, cultural materialism, and the unconscious. Case studies include Jewish and Indian dietary restrictions, competition between Christian denominations, survival strategies of minority religions, apocalyptic movements, etc. For the final paper, each student will write on a religious tradition of his/her choice.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 246:
Constructing Race and Religion in America (AFRICAAM 236, AMSTUD 246, CSRE 246, HISTORY 256G, HISTORY 356G, RELIGST 346)
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 247B:
Readings in Chinese Religious Texts: The Lingbao Scriptures (RELIGST 347B)
A survey of the original Lingbao scriptures. Composed in the late-4th / early 5th century, these texts radically revised Daoist practice, incorporated elements of Buddhist thought and practice, and created liturgies that are still used in Daoist communities today. (Reading knowledge of Literary Chinese ¿¿ required).
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 248A:
Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall (RELIGST 348A)
The thought, practice, and cultural resonance of the sorts of originally Chinese Buddhism that flourished to the north and northwest of China proper during the two to three centuries following the fall of the Tang - i.e., under the Khitan Liao (907-1125) and the Tangut Xixia (1032-1227) dynasties - with special emphasis on the later fortunes of the Huayan, Chan, and Mijiao (Esoteric) traditions. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 251:
Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 351)
(Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit. 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: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 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: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 252A:
The Story of a Buddhist Megascripture: Readings in the Avatamsaka (RELIGST 352A)
In this course we will explore the massive Mahayana Buddhist scriptural compilation known as the Avatamsaka Sutra (more correctly: Buddhavatamsaka Sutra). We will investigate the development of the text in India, study its contents, and consider its later reception in East Asia. Since much of the course will be devoted to reading sections of the Buddhavatamsaka, a reading knowledge of Chinese is required.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 253:
Recent Research on Japanese Buddhism (RELIGST 353)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Japanese Buddhism. nnUndergraduates 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)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 256:
The Brahma Net Sutra (Fanwang Jing) (RELIGST 356)
A study of an important Chinese Buddhist apocryphal work, with special attention to interpretation of content, impact on monastic codes in medieval China, transmissional history and commentarial tradition.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
RELIGST 257:
Readings in Daoist Texts (RELIGST 357)
Readings from primary sources. Prerequisite: classical Chinese.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
20 times
(up to 99 units total)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 258:
Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 358)
Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 259:
Religion and Music in South Asia (MUSIC 186, MUSIC 286)
How music and other arts in South Asia are intertwined with religion. Classical, devotional, folk, and popular examples introduce Gods as musicians, sound as God, music as yoga, singing as devotion, music as ¿ecstasy¿-inducing, music as site for doctrinal argument, music and religion as vehicles for nationalism. Co-taught by professors of Music and Religious Studies, focusing Hinduism and Islam in India, Pakistan, and the diaspora. Music practice along with academic study; guest artists and films; no background required.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 260:
Buddhism & Modernity (RELIGST 360)
Is Buddhism a philosophy? A mind science? An ancient mystical path? A modern construct? This seminar will evaluate a variety of answers to these questions by exploring how Buddhism has been understood in the modern era. Our primary source materials will range from Orientalist poetry to Zen essays to Insight Meditation manuals to 21st-century films. We will examine how these works shape Buddhism, consider their pre-modern influences, and turn to recent scholarship to discuss how romantic, imperialist, anti-modern, nationalist, therapeutic, and scientific frames depict one of today's most popular religions.nnnThis course is cross-listed as RELIGST 260/360. Undergraduates must enroll in RELIGST 260 for 5 units. Graduate students must enroll RELIGST 360 for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 262:
Sex and the Early Church (FEMGEN 262, 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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 263:
Judaism and the Body
Representations and discourses of the body in Jewish culture; theories of body and ritual. Case studies of circumcision, menstrual impurity, and intersexuality. Readings include classical texts in Jewish tradition and current discussions of these textual traditions.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 263A:
A Ripple on the Ocean of Zen: Reading the Zenkai Ichiran (RELIGST 363)
Imakita Ksen (1816-1892), the master of D. T. Suzuki's teacher, wrote the Zenkai Ichiran in 1862 for his feudal lord, a staunch supporter of Confucianism, in order to convey the attraction of Zen to him in Confucian language. One way of reading this short work in Classical Chinese is as a product of religious conflict within the nineteenth century Japanese world, but the text also reflects the form that had been taken by a lengthy tradition of polemical Buddhist writing dating back over one and a half millennia in East Asia at the very point that Buddhists were about to turn to resisting the inroads not of Confucianism but of Christianity. This reading class will allow students familiar with original East Asian Buddhist materials to appreciate some related non-Buddhist sources. But it possible to translate into English a book that itself translated Buddhism into Confucian terms? Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
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: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 265:
Creating the Universe: Buddhist Science, Ritual and Art (RELIGST 365)
Much of Buddhist ritual and art can usefully be thought of as technology--physical pieces that, when arranged systematically, make a given practice effective. This class is about the Buddhist scientific perspectives underlying the production of such ritual and art in Tibet, Nepal, and India. The course is organized around cosmological and biological topics such as physical models of the universe, the types of beings that dwell in the world, and the cycles of life and death. Within these topics, we will investigate the relationships between sacred texts, ritual practices, and visual arts as the material culture of religion.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
RELIGST 269:
Plotinus and Augustine (PHIL 229, PHIL 329, RELIGST 369)
Professor's permission required to register. A reading course focused on the influence of Plotinus Enneads on Augustine's Confessions, early dialogues, and sections on reason and memory in the De trinitate. Proficiency in Greek and Latin will be helpful but is not required. Professor's prior permission required, interested students should contact the professor about course schedule: tsheehan@stanford.edu . Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 272:
Kant on Religion (RELIGST 372)
Critical examination of Kant¿s principle writings on religion against the background of his general theoretical and practical philosophy and guided by the hypothesis that his philosophy of religion continues to offer significant insights and resources to contemporary theories of religion. Recent reassessments of Kant on religion in the secondary literature will also be read and discussed
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 278:
Heidegger: Confronting the Ultimate (RELIGST 378)
Heidegger's work on meaning, the self, and the sacred. Texts include Being and Time, courses and opuscula up to 1933, the Letter on Humanism, and Contributions of Philosophy.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 279A:
Heidegger on human being and God (RELIGST 379A)
This lecture-seminar first raises the question of essential characteristics of human being, such as temporality, mortality, hermeneutics and the relation to meaning, and then, via readings from Karl Rahner, asks whether human being is open to a possible relation to a supernatural divinity.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
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 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
RELIGST 282:
King Solomon and the Search for Wisdom (RELIGST 382)
What is wisdom according to the Bible? The course addresses this question by surveying various biblical and post-biblical texts associated with King Solomon. Other topics include the on-going debate over the historical existence of a Solomonic kingdom, the origins and history of the Jerusalem Temple, and Solomon's role in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
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.
Last offered: Winter 2017
| Units: 4
RELIGST 283A:
Heidegger, Hölderlin, and the Gods (RELIGST 383A)
The radical transformations in Western notions of God between the death of Hegel and the birth of historical materialism, arguing that questions about theism and atheism, humanism, and history formulated in the period 1831-50 are still pertinent. Texts from Hegel, the young Hegelians, Feuerbach, and Marx on issues of God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 290:
Majors Seminar
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 Essay 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: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Gelber, H. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Harvey, V. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Huntington, E. (PI);
Kelman, A. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Morgan, M. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Vevaina, Y. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Brabeck, S. (GP);
Covington, J. (GP)
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: 5
RELIGST 300:
Theory in the Study of Religion
This course explores how religious belief, ritual, and tradition, interact with, embed, or respond to aspects of social reality or human nature, such as economics, institutions, law, art, values, and psychology. The course examines a number of approaches to the study of religion, including sociological and anthropological ones. The course is intended for Religious Studies MA students and graduate students from other departments.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
RELIGST 301A:
Gender in Classical Islamic Law (RELIGST 201A)
The course examines classical Islamic society and law. It covers historical development, the unity and diversity of Muslim legal traditions, and the relationship between laws and values. Constructions of gender in law are examined through rituals, marriage, divorce, birth control, child custody, and sexuality.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 304A:
Theories and Methods
Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 4
RELIGST 304B:
Theories and Methods
Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
RELIGST 308A:
Ex Oriente Lux: Orientalism and the Study of Religion (RELIGST 208A)
This seminar is designed to expose students to issues relating to discourse and subjectivity within the textual constructions of Oriental religions in the colonial era. We will begin with Edward W. Said¿s provocative work on notions of representation and power embedded in the discourse on the Orient that established, produced, and, ultimately, perpetuated western knowledge about the Other. We will then discuss the impact of the Oriental Renaissance and the vital role that Eastern wisdom played in constructing the field of Comparative Religious Studies. In addition, students will also read ethnographies, fables, and travelogues that both support and undermine Said¿s thesis of an active West constructing a largely passive East.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 308C:
Architecture, Acoustics and Ritual in Byzantium (ARTHIST 208C, ARTHIST 408C, CLASSICS 175, MUSIC 208C, MUSIC 408C, REES 208C, REES 408C, RELIGST 208C)
Onassis Seminar "Icons of Sound: Architecture, Acoustics and Ritual in Byzantium". This year-long seminar explores the creation and operations of sacred space in Byzantium by focusing on the intersection of architecture, acoustics, music, and ritual. Through the support of the Onassis Foundation (USA), nine leading scholars in the field share their research and conduct the discussion of their pre-circulated papers. The goal is to develop a new interpretive framework for the study of religious experience and assemble the research tools needed for work in this interdisciplinary field.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 9 units total)
RELIGST 309:
Priests, Prophets, and Kings: Religion and Society in Late Antique Iran (CLASSICS 147, CLASSICS 247, RELIGST 209)
This course is designed as a broad introduction to the religious and social history of the Sasanian Empire, encompassing the period from 224-651 CE as well as the early years of Islamic rule in Iran. Among the topics we will discuss are: the lives and deeds of the powerful Iranian emperors such as Shapur I and II in relation to the the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine; the transformation of Zoroastrianism into a powerful official religion of the state and its subsequent orthodoxy; the emergence of the prophet Mani and the confrontation of Manicheism with the Zoroastrian priesthood; the conversion of Constantine to Christianity and its political and social ramifications in Iran; the establishment of an independent Iranian Christian church; the importance of Armenia in the Sasanian- Roman conflict; and a brief discussion of the history of the Jewish community under the Sasanians. We will end the quarter by examining the Arab¿Islamic¿conquests of Iran and the profound social changes experienced by the Zoroastrian communities in the early centuries of Islam in Iran.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 309A:
Sugar in the Milk: Modern Zoroastrianism as Race, Religion, and Ethnicity (RELIGST 209A)
Modern Zoroastrian experience¿as race, religion, and ethnic identity. Some 60,000 Zoroastrians now live in India and have resided there for a millennium. In the 19th century, these peoples from Persia¿Parsis¿became colonial elites yet were acutely aware that they were not quite Indian, British, or Persian. Diverse ways this experience of dislocation has served as a defining characteristic in Parsi communal identity and contrast these South Asian experiences with the minority socio-politics of those who remained in Iran. Survey the colonial and post-colonial communities in England, East Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and North America and examine the expression of these global diasporic experiences in literature and the arts.
Last offered: Winter 2012
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 309D:
`Crow Eaters' & `Fire Worshippers': Exploring Contemporary Zoroastrianism Thru Reading Parsi Lit (RELIGST 209D)
In the past three decades Parsi fiction has rapidly emerged as a unique and creative voice in modern Anglophone literature from South Asia. From Bapsi Sidhwa to Thrity Umrigar to Rohinton Mistry, Parsi novelists address the most poignant concerns of Zoroastrians living in an era of rapid social, political, and religious transformation. The erosion of tradition; the breakdown of the Parsi family; the demise of religion among the young; and the cultural losses and gains of living in diaspora are common themes in their works. The unique vantage point of the Parsis; neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither quite Indian nor quite British; will serve as a lens for examining the inherent tensions in multicultural societies both East and West.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 309E:
Imperishable Heroes and Unblemished Goddesses: Myth, Ritual, and Epic in Ancient Iran (CLASSICS 148, CLASSICS 248, RELIGST 209E)
Designed as a broad introduction to the world of ancient Iran, students will be introduced to the Indo-European inheritance in ancient Iranian culture; the shared world of ritual, religion, and mythology between Zoroastrianism in Iran and Vedic Hinduism in India; and to the contours of early Zoroastrian religious thought. We will also survey mythoepic literature in translation from the archaic Avesta through the late antique Zoroastrian Middle Persian corpus to the early medieval national epic of Iran, the Book of Kings of Ferdowsi.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 313:
Graduate Seminar in Chinese Buddhist Texts
Graduate Seminar in Chinese Buddhist Texts: An in-depth reading of Zongmi's Chanyuan zhuquanji duxu ("Preface to the Collected Writings on the Source of Chan") (T#2015). Written in 833, the "Preface" is Zongmi's most ambitious and well-known work. It seeks to delineate the historical and doctrinal origins of the Chan tradition. In doing so, it is the first work to formulate the paradigm of a multi-branched genealogical tree that becomes the template in terms of which the subsequent Chan tradition described itself. It also tries to harmonize Chan (the practice of meditation) with the canonical teachings (doctrinal study) by adapting a Huayan philosophical framework to correlate different Chan traditions with different Chinese Buddhist doctrinal schools. In addition, it is particularly noteworthy for its analysis of the so-called sudden/gradual controversy, in which Zongmi develops an overarching scheme in which the different contending positions can all be seen to fit.nnnThe text is an excellent vehicle for giving students a grounding in both Tang-dynasty Chan history and teachings as well as the teachings of the main philosophical schools of Chinese Buddhism. The seminar will focus on a close reading of selected sections from Zongmi¿s text¿especially those bearing on his strategies for harmonizing Chan and doctrinal teachings as well as his analysis of the sudden/gradual controversy. In doing so it will pay special attention to problems of translation.nnnMeetings will be held in Buddhist Studies Library, located in Bldg 70 (Main Campus Quad)
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 313X:
The Education of American Jews (EDUC 313, 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: Aut
| Units: 4
RELIGST 315:
Third Bhavanakrama & the Writings of Héshang Moheyan: Scripture in Buddhist Scholastic Polemics
Readings in the original languages (Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese) of materials from the debates of late 8th Century Tibet (so-called debate at Bsam-yas). The course focuses on the use of scriptural quotations in those passages where the arguments of Kamalasila, the leading Indian representative at the debates, best map on to the arguments of his Chinese rival, Héshang Moheyan.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 315A:
Chinese Buddhism
This course provides an overview of the major themes and historical developments in 2000 years of Buddhist history in China, from its early transmission from India to contemporary developments in the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Themes include monasticism, doctrine, popular devotion, state policy and the encounter with modernity.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 317:
Japanese Studies of Religion in China (RELIGST 217)
(Graduate students register for 317.) Readings in Japanese secondary sources on Chinese religions.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 3
RELIGST 318:
Islam, Race and Revolution: A Pan-American Approach (AMSTUD 218, CSRE 218, RELIGST 218)
Taking a pan-American approach to the study of religious traditions, this upper-level course traces the history of the critical intersection between race, religion and revolution among Muslims from the turn of the nineteenth century until the present day. Moving from the Atlantic Revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to the United States, to the decolonizing Third World, and then finally to the contemporary Middle East, this class will emphasize that Islam and race together have been used by many groups in order to challenge existing power structures, agitate for change, and more than occasionally, transform the social, cultural and governmental structures comprising their worlds. Moreover, although this class is concentrated upon religious formations in the Americas, students will explore global events throughout the Muslim world in order to examine how global politics contribute to religious formations, solidarities and identities. At the conclusion of this course, students will be expected to write a 10-15 page research paper, and a topic will be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Students will also be expected to write weekly reflection papers, which will serve to facilitate class discussion. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level 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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 321:
The Talmud (RELIGST 221)
Strategies of interpretation, debate, and law making. Historical contexts. Prerequisite: Hebrew.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| Units: 4
RELIGST 324B:
Unveiling the Sacred: Explorations in Islamic Religious Imagination (RELIGST 224B)
Poetry and prose in translation as well as historical studies. Islamic movements invested in the idea that the sensory world has a hidden or esoteric counterpart that can be understood or experienced through following particular religious programs. Various forms of Shi'ism and Sufism, millenarian and apocalyptic movements, the Nation of Islam and its offshoots. Philosophical propositions, historical contexts, and the role of ritual in the construction of religious systems.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 326A:
Judaism and Hellenism (RELIGST 226A)
interactions and conflicts between Jews and Greeks in the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the cultural/religious repercussions of their encounter. In what ways were Jews influenced by Greek culture? In what ways, and for what reasons, did they resist it? And how the interaction of these cultures shape the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity? Jewish texts in the Greco-Roman period, including Jewish-Greek writers like Philo of Alexandria, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, selected writings from the New Testament, and the Passover Haggadah.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 328:
The Buddha's Word at Stanford (RELIGST 228)
Linked to an exhibition at the Cantor Museum, this course investigates the history of Buddhist manuscript and print culture in Asia using manuscripts and woodblock prints in Stanford's own collections (5 units for 228)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 328S:
The Study of the Midrash
Two-week block seminar; four sessions. Talmudic philology; development and transmission of the Talmudic text and manuscripts. Relationship between Midrash and Mishnah and between Mishnah and Tosefta; development of talmudic sugiot; relationship between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 1-2
RELIGST 329:
Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire (CLASSICS 146, CLASSICS 246, RELIGST 229)
Stretching from India to Ethiopia, the Persian Empire the largest empire before Rome has been represented as the exemplar of oriental despotism and imperial arrogance, a looming presence and worthy foil for the West and Greek democracy. This course will provide a general introduction to the Persian Empire, beginning in the 6th century BCE to the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. We shall not only examine the originality of the first world empire of antiquity, but the course will also attempt to present a broad picture of the diverse cultural institutions and religious practices found within the empire. Readings in translation from the royal edicts and the inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes will allow us to better appreciate the subtle ways in which these Persian kings used religion to justify and propagate the most ambitious imperial agenda the world had ever seen. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations of Persia and the Persians in politics and popular culture in a wide array of media, such as the recent film 300 and the graphic novel on which it is based, in an attempt to better appreciate the enduring legacy of the Greco-Persian wars.
Last offered: Autumn 2016
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 330B:
Zen Studies (RELIGST 230B)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Chan and Zen Buddhism
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
RELIGST 332X:
Religion and Modernity (ANTHRO 347)
What role has the category of religion played in the development of the modern state, both colonial and national? How have central concepts of liberal political thought, such as freedom, progress, and history, depended on certain normative ideas of religion? Through various genealogical, historical, and ethnographic inquires, this course examines how the category of religion has both subtended and disturbed formations of colonial and post-colonial modernity.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 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
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
10 times
(up to 10 units total)
RELIGST 334:
Emmanuel Levinas: Ethics, Philosophy and Religion (JEWISHST 224, JEWISHST 324, RELIGST 234)
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) is a major French philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century and is among the half-dozen most important Jewish thinkers of the century. Born in Lithuania, Levinas lived most of his life in France; he was primarily a philosopher but also a deeply committed Jewish educator who often lectured and wrote about Judaism and Jewish matters. Levinas was influenced by Bergson, Husserl, Heidegger, and others, like Buber and Rosenzweig. We will look at the philosophical world in which he was educated and explore his unique development as a philosopher in the years after World War Two. Levinas reacted against the main tendencies of Western philosophy and religious thought and as a result shaped novel, powerful, and challenging ways of understanding philosophy, religion, ethics, and politics. n In this course, we will examine works from every stage of Levinas's career, from his early study of Husserl and Heidegger to the emergence of his new understanding of the human condition and the primacy of ethics, the face-to-face encounter with the human other, the role of language and the relationship between ethics and religion, and finally his understanding of Judaism and its relationship to Western philosophy. We will be interested in his philosophical method, the relevance of his thinking for ethics and religion, the role of language in his philosophy and the problem of the limits of expressibility, and the implications of his work for politics. We shall also consider his conception of Judaism, its primary goals and character, and its relation to Western culture and philosophy.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
RELIGST 335:
Religion in Modern Society: Secularization and the Sacred (RELIGST 235)
What is the status of religion in modern life? Is the modern world "secular" in some fundamental, irreversible way and what does this mean? This course will explore these questions through variety of readings from leading sociologists, philosophers, and anthropologists. Our goal will be to understand in what ways industrialization, political liberalization, the rise of technology, and the success of modern science have been used to support the "secularization" thesis that the modern West rendered religion a thing of the past. A central question to be asked will be: do assessments of the place of religion in modernity necessitate a philosophy of history i.e., a theory not only of historical change, but of the meaning of this change as well?n The course will begin by looking at the origins of the theory of secularization from its beginnings in Enlightenment attempts to understand the meaning of history. We will then turn to contemporary debates over the term "secular" against its counterpart, "religious", and the problems with their application to non-Western societies. We will read works by Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Max Weber, Charles Taylor, Jürgen Habermas, and Pope Benedict XVI.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
RELIGST 338:
Christian Neo-Platonism, East and West (RELIGST 238)
Christianity's shift to neo-Platonic Greek philosophical categories and its significance for contemporary spirituality. Readings from Plotinus, Proclus, Greek fathers such as Pseudo-Dionysus, and from Ambrose and Augustine.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 341:
Comparative Perspectives on Classical Chinese Texts
Classical Chinese texts, in prose and poetry, interpreted through comparative perspectives drawn from both inside and outside China. Consent of the instructor required.
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 344:
Explaining Religion (RELIGST 244)
There are broadly two different, and sometimes mutually exclusive, ways of explaining social religious phenomena: idealism and materialism. One gives ideas ultimate causal primacy while the other emphasizes economic, technological, geographical, and demographic factors. This course examines arguments for and against each approach. Topics include rational choice theory, functionalism, Marxism, cultural materialism, and the unconscious. Case studies include Jewish and Indian dietary restrictions, competition between Christian denominations, survival strategies of minority religions, apocalyptic movements, etc. For the final paper, each student will write on a religious tradition of his/her choice.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 345:
Christianity Seminar
Topics in the study of Christianity for doctoral students. Recent scholarship and approaches to research.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 346:
Constructing Race and Religion in America (AFRICAAM 236, AMSTUD 246, CSRE 246, HISTORY 256G, HISTORY 356G, RELIGST 246)
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
RELIGST 347B:
Readings in Chinese Religious Texts: The Lingbao Scriptures (RELIGST 247B)
A survey of the original Lingbao scriptures. Composed in the late-4th / early 5th century, these texts radically revised Daoist practice, incorporated elements of Buddhist thought and practice, and created liturgies that are still used in Daoist communities today. (Reading knowledge of Literary Chinese ¿¿ required).
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
RELIGST 348A:
Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall (RELIGST 248A)
The thought, practice, and cultural resonance of the sorts of originally Chinese Buddhism that flourished to the north and northwest of China proper during the two to three centuries following the fall of the Tang - i.e., under the Khitan Liao (907-1125) and the Tangut Xixia (1032-1227) dynasties - with special emphasis on the later fortunes of the Huayan, Chan, and Mijiao (Esoteric) traditions. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 349:
Meditation and Mythology in Chinese Buddhism
Readings in Chinese texts and English scholarly literature on issues such as specific techniques and hagiographical imagery in Chinese Buddhist traditions of self-cultivation. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 350:
Modern Western Religious Thought Proseminar
Selected topics in recent and contemporary religious thought. May be repeated for credit.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
RELIGST 351:
Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 251)
(Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 352A:
The Story of a Buddhist Megascripture: Readings in the Avatamsaka (RELIGST 252A)
In this course we will explore the massive Mahayana Buddhist scriptural compilation known as the Avatamsaka Sutra (more correctly: Buddhavatamsaka Sutra). We will investigate the development of the text in India, study its contents, and consider its later reception in East Asia. Since much of the course will be devoted to reading sections of the Buddhavatamsaka, a reading knowledge of Chinese is required.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 353:
Recent Research on Japanese Buddhism (RELIGST 253)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Japanese Buddhism. nnUndergraduates 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)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 356:
The Brahma Net Sutra (Fanwang Jing) (RELIGST 256)
A study of an important Chinese Buddhist apocryphal work, with special attention to interpretation of content, impact on monastic codes in medieval China, transmissional history and commentarial tradition.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
RELIGST 357:
Readings in Daoist Texts (RELIGST 257)
Readings from primary sources. Prerequisite: classical Chinese.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
20 times
(up to 99 units total)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 358:
Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 258)
Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 360:
Buddhism & Modernity (RELIGST 260)
Is Buddhism a philosophy? A mind science? An ancient mystical path? A modern construct? This seminar will evaluate a variety of answers to these questions by exploring how Buddhism has been understood in the modern era. Our primary source materials will range from Orientalist poetry to Zen essays to Insight Meditation manuals to 21st-century films. We will examine how these works shape Buddhism, consider their pre-modern influences, and turn to recent scholarship to discuss how romantic, imperialist, anti-modern, nationalist, therapeutic, and scientific frames depict one of today's most popular religions.nnnThis course is cross-listed as RELIGST 260/360. Undergraduates must enroll in RELIGST 260 for 5 units. Graduate students must enroll RELIGST 360 for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 361:
Precepts and Ordinations in East Asia
Japanese Buddhism is well-known for its very loose interpretation of monastic precepts and ordinations. Although some may think that these subjects are nothing more than out-of-date lists of rules, the study of the precepts involves social history, doctrine, and religious practice. In this course, we examine the origins and the development of the bodhisattva precepts, beginning with a brief outline of the vinaya, and then progressing to Indian and Chinese views of the bodhisattva precepts. The last half of the course focuses on how Japanese Tendai¿s unique interpretation of the precepts was based on Chinese apocryphal texts and Chinese Tiantai doctrines. We conclude with reading Japanese Tendai texts written in Chinese. Because the Tendai tradition had a loose administrative structure, a variety of interpretations developed.nnThe course is composed of reading texts written in Chinese by East Asian monks. Although I will lecture for approximately 30 minutes of each class, the focus of the class will be on reading and translating short sections of primary sources together. We will also pay attention to the use of such tools as dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, and data bases of texts. Students are expected to participate in discussions and to come to class prepared to read the primary sources in class.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 4
RELIGST 362:
Sex and the Early Church (FEMGEN 262, 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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
RELIGST 363:
A Ripple on the Ocean of Zen: Reading the Zenkai Ichiran (RELIGST 263A)
Imakita Ksen (1816-1892), the master of D. T. Suzuki's teacher, wrote the Zenkai Ichiran in 1862 for his feudal lord, a staunch supporter of Confucianism, in order to convey the attraction of Zen to him in Confucian language. One way of reading this short work in Classical Chinese is as a product of religious conflict within the nineteenth century Japanese world, but the text also reflects the form that had been taken by a lengthy tradition of polemical Buddhist writing dating back over one and a half millennia in East Asia at the very point that Buddhists were about to turn to resisting the inroads not of Confucianism but of Christianity. This reading class will allow students familiar with original East Asian Buddhist materials to appreciate some related non-Buddhist sources. But it possible to translate into English a book that itself translated Buddhism into Confucian terms? Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| 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: Spr
| Units: 4
RELIGST 365:
Creating the Universe: Buddhist Science, Ritual and Art (RELIGST 265)
Much of Buddhist ritual and art can usefully be thought of as technology--physical pieces that, when arranged systematically, make a given practice effective. This class is about the Buddhist scientific perspectives underlying the production of such ritual and art in Tibet, Nepal, and India. The course is organized around cosmological and biological topics such as physical models of the universe, the types of beings that dwell in the world, and the cycles of life and death. Within these topics, we will investigate the relationships between sacred texts, ritual practices, and visual arts as the material culture of religion.
Terms: Win
| Units: 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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 368:
Language, Scripture, and Community in Indian Religions
Scripture has meant many things across religions and cultures: absolute truth, divine revelation, a manual for correct practice, a site of political contestation. In an age of rising religious fundamentalism around the globe, it is timelier than ever to reflect on the concept of divine revelation and how, as an artifact of language, scripture can generate religious meaning and move people to act with conviction. Does ¿iva only speak Sanskrit, the language of the Gods? Or is scripture the natural, spontaneous utterances of wandering poets who speak the language of the people? In this course, we will examine the category of scriptural revelation as articulated in South Asian religions, and how scriptural texts are recited and embodied, focusing in particular on how particular religious communities come to be defined by the language in which their scriptures were composed.
| Units: 4
RELIGST 369:
Plotinus and Augustine (PHIL 229, PHIL 329, RELIGST 269)
Professor's permission required to register. A reading course focused on the influence of Plotinus Enneads on Augustine's Confessions, early dialogues, and sections on reason and memory in the De trinitate. Proficiency in Greek and Latin will be helpful but is not required. Professor's prior permission required, interested students should contact the professor about course schedule: tsheehan@stanford.edu . Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 370:
Comparative Religious Ethics
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 2010
| 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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
RELIGST 372:
Kant on Religion (RELIGST 272)
Critical examination of Kant¿s principle writings on religion against the background of his general theoretical and practical philosophy and guided by the hypothesis that his philosophy of religion continues to offer significant insights and resources to contemporary theories of religion. Recent reassessments of Kant on religion in the secondary literature will also be read and discussed
| Units: 3-5
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
RELIGST 378:
Heidegger: Confronting the Ultimate (RELIGST 278)
Heidegger's work on meaning, the self, and the sacred. Texts include Being and Time, courses and opuscula up to 1933, the Letter on Humanism, and Contributions of Philosophy.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 379A:
Heidegger on human being and God (RELIGST 279A)
This lecture-seminar first raises the question of essential characteristics of human being, such as temporality, mortality, hermeneutics and the relation to meaning, and then, via readings from Karl Rahner, asks whether human being is open to a possible relation to a supernatural divinity.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 4
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 2014
| Units: 4
RELIGST 382:
King Solomon and the Search for Wisdom (RELIGST 282)
What is wisdom according to the Bible? The course addresses this question by surveying various biblical and post-biblical texts associated with King Solomon. Other topics include the on-going debate over the historical existence of a Solomonic kingdom, the origins and history of the Jerusalem Temple, and Solomon's role in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
RELIGST 383A:
Heidegger, Hölderlin, and the Gods (RELIGST 283A)
The radical transformations in Western notions of God between the death of Hegel and the birth of historical materialism, arguing that questions about theism and atheism, humanism, and history formulated in the period 1831-50 are still pertinent. Texts from Hegel, the young Hegelians, Feuerbach, and Marx on issues of God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature.
| Units: 3-5
RELIGST 384:
Research in Christian Studies
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
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 387:
Research in Jewish Studies
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 Modern Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy
Independent study in Modern 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
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
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: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Fisher, E. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Harvey, V. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Huntington, E. (PI);
Kelman, A. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Mayse, E. (PI);
Morgan, A. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Penn, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
RELIGST 390:
Teaching Internship
Required supervised internship for PhDs.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
RELIGST 391:
Teaching Religious Studies
Workshop/seminar for doctoral students in Religious Studies and adjacent fields designed to cultivate methods for teaching Religious Studies in an academic setting.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
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: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Copeland, K. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
RELIGST 395:
Master of Arts Thesis
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 2-9
| Repeatable
9 times
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
RELIGST 399:
Recent Works in Religious Studies
Readings in secondary literature for Religious Studies doctoral students. May be repeated for credit.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 1-2
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 801:
TGR Project
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
RELIGST 802:
TGR Dissertation
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bashir, S. (PI);
Fonrobert, C. (PI);
Harrison, P. (PI);
Hess, L. (PI);
Kieschnick, J. (PI);
Lum, K. (PI);
Mross, M. (PI);
Pitkin, B. (PI);
Sadeghi, B. (PI);
Shaw, J. (PI);
Sheehan, T. (PI);
Sockness, B. (PI);
Yearley, L. (PI);
Covington, J. (GP)
