printer friendly pageRELIGST 17N: Love, Power, and Justice: Ethics in Christian Perspective
From its inception, the Christian faith has, like all religions, implied an ethos as well as a worldview, a morality and way of life as well as a system of beliefs, an ethics as well as a metaphysics. Throughout history, Christian thinkers have offered reasoned accounts of the moral values, principles, and virtues that ought to animate the adherents of what eventually became the world's largest religion. We will explore a variety of controversial issues, theological orientations, and types of ethical reasoning in the Christian tradition, treating the latter as one 'comprehensive doctrine' (John Rawls) among many; a normative framework (actually a variety of contested religious premises, moral teachings, and philosophical arguments) formally on par with the religious ethics of other major faiths as well as with the various secular moral theories typically discussed in the modern university. We will learn to interpret, reconstruct, criticize, and think intelligently about the coherence and persuasiveness of moral arguments offered by a diverse handful of this religious tradition's best thinkers and critics, past and present.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Sockness, B. (PI)
RELIGST 20A: The Sun Also Shines on the Wicked: The Problem of Evil in Religious Thought
The problem of Evil has plagued religious thinkers and philosophers for centuries. If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, then why is there Evil in the world? We will read and discuss the key thinkers and foundational texts from Plato and the Book of Job to Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud in order to appreciate the diverse responses to this most vexed of questions. We will survey some of the major approaches to the problem of Evil such as skepticism and theodicy in the works of the Classical authors and in those of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic thinkers like Augustine, Maimonides, and al-Ghazali. We will also engage with dualist traditions such as Zoroastrianism and Manicheism, and with the ethics of the major figures of the Enlightenment such as Leibniz, Hume, and Kant. We will end the quarter by reading the most strident atheistic responses from contemporary scientists and philosophers such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Vevaina, Y. (PI)
RELIGST 21: Religion in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Science fiction and fantasy create alternate worlds that incorporate religious institutions and beliefs that illuminate how we think about religion now and for the future. Texts work off diverse religious traditions: Islam, Buddhism, Catholic and Protestant forms of Christianity, Mayan religion, and Voudou are some that appear. Themes of free will and determinism, immortality, apocalypse and redemption. Myth, ritual, prophecy, the messianic hero, monasticism and mysticism. Texts like Dune, Count Zero, Sandman, Grass and the like explore religion in the contemporary imagination. Main assignment: write a short story.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 22: Method in the Sciences of Nature and Society
This course considers whether there are any fundamental differences between natural science and social science. Students are introduced to the philosophy of science, social theory, evolutionary epistemology, and debates about the influence of ideologies on the contents of science and scholarship.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Sadeghi, B. (PI)
RELIGST 28SI: Interfaith@Noon
This student-initated course explores the intersections of faith, compassion, and happiness. Faculty speakers from across the campus provide theoretical perspectives from a range of disciplines and share personal insights about the nature of faith, compassion, and happiness and their relationship to one another and role in a meaningful life. Student organizers provide a forum for participant discussion and reflection on these important topics. As part of Stanford's response to President Obama's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, the course is a collaboration between the Office for Religious Life, the Department of Religious Studies, the Haas Center for Public Service, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Class meets on Tuesdays starting March 31, 12:00 pm. Location TBD. Open to the public.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 3 units total)
Instructors:
Karlin-Neumann, P. (PI)
;
Pitkin, B. (PI)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| 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. At the same time, Judaism has at times considered Christianity a form of idolatry. It seems that only since the catastrophe of the Holocaust, Jews and Christians (Catholics and Protestants) have begun the serious work of forging more meaningful relationships with each other. This course explores the most significant moments, both difficult and conciliatory ones, that have shaped the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and introduces students to some of the most important literature, art, and music that are part of it. nSelected literature: Gospel according Matthew, the letters of St. Paul, St. Augustine, the Talmud (selections), Maimonides, Martin Luther's sermons on the Jews, Nostra Aetate (Vatican II)nArt and Music: Medieval art and sculpture, Haendel's Messiah.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Fonrobert, C. (PI)
RELIGST 105: Religion and War in America (HISTORY 154D)
Scholars have devoted much attention to wars in American history, but have not agreed as to whether religion was a major cause or simply a cover for political, economic, and other motives. We will compare interpretations that leave religion out, with those that take it into account. We will also look at the impact of war on the religious lives of ordinary Americans. We will examine both secondary as well as primary sources, beginning with King Philip's War in the 17th century, and ending with the "War on Terror" in the present day.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Lum, K. (PI)
RELIGST 109: Emperor, Explorer, and God: Alexander the Great in the Global Imagination (CLASSICS 142)
(Formerly
CLASSGEN 109.) This course will survey the changing image of Alexander the Great from the Hellenistic world to the contemporary. We shall study the appropriation of his life and legend in a variety of cultures both East and West and discuss his reception as both a divine and a secular figure by examining a variety of media including texts (primary and secondary) and images (statues, coins, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, film, and TV) in the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Islamic, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern contexts. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations in film and popular culture, such as Alexander directed by Oliver Stone and Pop Art in order to better appreciate his enduring legacy.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Vevaina, Y. (PI)
RELIGST 113C: Asceticism: The Discipline of Desire
Asceticism is an intense negotiation of the self with its desires, usually taking the form of the attempt to repress or curtail desire. Asceticism is often understood as a radical response to the problem of obsessive desire. Excessive attachments to food, money, and sex are among the most common of these concerns¿today we refer to these as addictions¿both in the contemporary world and to those living in a pre-modern context. In this course, we will discuss the experiences of ascetic figures throughout history not as relics of history but as intelligible responses to the problem of obsessive desire common to all ages. We will comparatively examine case studies from the ancient Christian world and the modern Indian world. The first part of the course will be devoted to understanding some of the most notable theoretical approaches to ascetic behavior in the field of religious studies while the second part of the course will be devoted to close readings of the cases in light of these theoretical approaches. Cross-cultural comparison and contrast will also be stressed. In the final part of the course, we will turn to modern philosophical reflections on ascetic behavior, attempting to answer the question, does the ascetic response to obsessive desire make sense in the world we live in today?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
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