181 - 190 of 236 results for: RELIGST

Readings in and discussion of theological and social aspects of sixteenth century reformations: Luther, Radical Reform, Calvin, and Council of Trent, missionary expansion, religious conflict, creative and artistic expressions. Texts include primary sources and secondary scholarly essays and monographs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Luther's theology, ethics, biblical interpretation, and social reforms and their significance for the remaking of Western Christianity. Readings include Luther's own writings and secondary sources about Luther and his world.

Focus is on normative and prescriptive proposals by recent and contemporary philosophers and theologians, as opposed to the domination of Religious Studies by textual, historical, cultural, and other largely descriptive and interpretive approaches. Do such normative and prescriptive proposals belong in the academy? Has Religious Studies exorcised its theological nimbus only to find contemporary religious reflection reappearing elsewhere in the university?

Classical Chinese texts, in prose and poetry, interpreted through comparative perspectives drawn from both inside and outside China. Consent of the instructor required.

This seminar will focus on classic anthropological studies of Buddhism to consider how this discipline has contributed to the larger field of Buddhist studies. We will read and discuss ethnographies of modern Buddhist communities, paying particular attention to the theoretical concerns and methodological practices that shape these works. By considering the ways these ethnographies attend to particular topics such as ritual, material culture, vernacular languages, gender, and economics, this seminar will reflect on broader changes in the study of Buddhism. Over the course of the semester, students will develop research projects on anthropological material related to their dissertation interests.