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RELIGST 247: Chinese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 347)

Chinese Buddhist texts from the Han Dynasty onwards, including sutra translations, prefaces, colophons, story collections and biographies. Prerequisite: reading competence in Chinese.

Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum | Repeatable 5 times (up to 25 units total)

Instructors: Kieschnick, J. (PI)

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: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum | Repeatable 5 times (up to 25 units total)

Instructors: Harrison, P. (PI)

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 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

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 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum | Repeatable for credit

RELIGST 271A: Dante's Spiritual Vision

Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Students may take 271A without taking 271B. Consent of the instructor required.

Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

Instructors: Yearley, L. (PI)

RELIGST 271B: Dante's Spiritual Vision

Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Prerequisite: 271A

Terms: Win | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

Instructors: Yearley, L. (PI)

RELIGST 273: Historicism and Its Problems: Ernst Troeltsch, the Study of Religion, and the Crisis of Historicism (RELIGST 373)

Examination of the early twentieth-century historian of religion, philosopher of culture, sociologist of religion, Christian theologian, and philosopher of history, Ernst Troeltsch, within the context of the late nineteenth-century "crisis of historicism," i.e., the historicization and relativization of religious, ethical, social, and political norms. Attention to seminal theorists of history (Herder, Kant, Ranke, Hegel, Nietzsche) in the post-Enlightenment German intellectual tradition and the attempts of Christian and Jewish thinkers in the Weimar era (Barth, Gogarten, Rosenzweig, L. Strauss) to "overcome" the crisis wrought by a radically historical approach to human culture.

Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

Instructors: Sockness, B. (PI)

RELIGST 274: From Kant to Kierkegaard (RELIGST 374)

(Graduate students register for 374.) The main currents of religious thought in Germany from Kant's critical philosophy to Kierkegaard's revolt against Hegelianism. Emphasis is on the theories of religion, the epistemological status of religious discourse, the role of history (especially the figure of Jesus), and the problem of alienation/reconciliation in seminal modern thinkers: Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.

Last offered: Spring 2006 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

RELIGST 275: Kierkegaard (RELIGST 375)

(Graduate students register for 375.) Close reading of Kierkegaard's magnum opus, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in its early 19th-century context.

| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

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.