printer friendly pageRELIGST 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
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 239: Luther and the Reform of Western Christianity (RELIGST 339)
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.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| 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
RELIGST 245: Religion, Reason, and Romanticism
The late 18th-century European cultural shift from rationalist to romantic modes of thought and sensibility. Debates about religion as catalysts for the new
Zeitgeist. Readings include: the Jewish metaphysician, Mendelssohn; the dramatist, Lessing; the philosopher of language and history, Herder; the critical idealist, Kant; and the transcendental idealist, Fichte.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 246: Constructing Race and Religion in America (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: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Lum, K. (PI)
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
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 248: Chinese Buddhism in World Historical Perspective (RELIGST 348)
Shared cosmologies, trade routes, and political systems. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.
Last offered: Spring 2009
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
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 250: Classics of Indian Buddhism
Texts in English translation includING discourses (sutras), philosophical treatises, commentaries, didactic epistles, hymns, biographies, and narratives.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| 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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
Instructors:
Hartmann, J. (PI)
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