51 - 60 of 240 results for: RELIGST

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).

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.

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.

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

(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.

Equivalent to two quarters of Biblical Greek ( CLASSICS 6G, 7G). Students will learn the core of New Testament Greek with the goal of learning to accurately translate and read the New Testament. Students will read one-third of the Gospel of John during the course and will be well-prepared to read the Greek New Testament independently after the course. Focus on knowledge of key vocabulary and grammar needed to read the Greek Bible with ease. No previous knowledge of Greek required. Course does not fulfill the Stanford language requirement.

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with medieval Latin and neo-Latin through a reading of various short texts drawn from philosophical, religious, political, historical, and literary works. Students will devote most of their efforts to preparing translations for class. We shall also discuss some peculiarities of post-classical Latin grammar. Prerequisite: CLASSLAT 1, 2 & 3, or equivalent.

Existentialism is often understood to be a secular or anti-religious philosophy of life, a substitute for Christian ethics in a post-theistic world come of age. Yet this twentieth-century philosophical movement owes many of its concerns and much of its vocabulary to the hyper-Protestant Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard, and much of the best Christian and Jewish thought in the 20th-century (Bultmann, Buber, Tillich) adopted existentialism as the 'best philosophy' for making sense of these traditions in a secular age. This course will examine the origins of existentialist thought in the writings of Kierkegaard and its appropriation by a handful of influential 20th-century religious thinkers.

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.nThe 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.