11 - 20 of 201 results for: RELIGST

We take the fact of living for granted, as we should. Why focus on each breath if it just comes and goes without thinking? Or so we think. But the same logic need not apply to the idea of "life" itself. For instance, we speak today of many lives: our love lives, our sex lives, the nightlife, the meaning of life, feeling alive, and so on and so forth. In this course, we will probe into these various facets of our lives today through a critical reflection on the ways we live today (and the ways we talk about life today). But we will also do so by considering how other societies, ancient and foreign (or just hidden in plain sight), have lived (and talked about life) in ways that challenge our very conception of what life entails. All of this will be facilitated through an eclectic array of activities: watching films together, reading poetry and novels, field trips (to an LSD museum or a scent shop), philosophical discussions, and collective writings/vlogging and self-examination. The purpose of this course, in short, is to introduce students to the life of the humanities--or, at the very least, what that life could be. Advance sign-up process and deadlines at https://exploreintrosems.stanford.edu/.

Questions surrounding religion, especially when considered in relation to law, politics, and culture have always been of contentious nature. In this course, we will dissect this nature and explore the roots and reasons of such contention. We will pay special attention to the difficulty of defining religion legally, as well as to the meanings and practices of secularism and religious freedom. During the course, we will think critically about these issues in countries across the world with a comparative, interdisciplinary approach. Course readings will include academic writings by religion scholars, political scientists, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, and others as well as documents concerning legal cases. Assignments including participation in group projects/presentations and annotation of select readings will encourage students to establish their own understanding of the course material and deliberate with their peers as we discuss the contemporary debates and cases throughout the course.

Although belief in the devil has reached historic lows in the United States, the influence of the demonic still runs deep in today's culture. Yet the devil we recognize today as the embodiment of evil was once a far more complex figure - sometimes even a cosmic guardian or helpful guide. So where did this image come from? And why does this figure still loom so large in our imagination? This course surveys how the idea of the devil has taken shape across different times and cultures, and why it continues to matter today. Each class, we explore a new moment in the devil's story to see how this shape-shifting figure has stirred fear, sparked imagination, and helped define order and chaos. We begin with ancient sources that introduce serpents, spirits, and other ambiguous beings, before turning to early Christian texts where Satan emerges as a more defined adversary. In the medieval world, we examine depictions of hell, biographies of the Antichrist, and the rise of witch-hunting manuals. In colonial America, the devil surfaces in fiery sermons and the Salem Witch Trials. Finally, we examine how modern films, fashion, and political rhetoric continue to adapt this figure, leaving traces of older fears in new cultural forms. By examining the devil in his many roles - feared supernatural being, agent of disorder, moral scapegoat, political symbol, and cultural mirror - this course aims to strengthen critical thinking and writing skills. At the same time, it invites us to consider how societies have used the figure of the devil to confront fear, enforce norms, and draw lines between good and evil. Whether in medieval theology or modern media, the devil remains a revealing lens through which we define not only evil - but ourselves.

Deep disagreement pervades our democracy, from arguments over issues ranging from foreign policy, free speech, and reparations to college admissions policy and the professionalization of college athletics. Loud voices drown out discussion. Open-mindedness, humility, and critical thinking seem in short supply among politicians, citizens, and other residents alike. Yet constructive disagreement is an essential feature of a democratic society. This class explores and models respectful, civil disagreement. Each week features scholars who disagree - sometimes quite strongly - about major policy issues. Students will have the opportunity to probe those disagreements, understand why they persist, and improve their own understanding of the facts and values that underlie them. The course may be taken for one or two units. The basic, one-unit class is open to all Stanford students, with other members of the Stanford community welcome to audit individual classes. The requirements are to do readings in advance of each class, attend, and listen attentively and critically. Because the topics are different, students who took the course in 2023-24 may enroll this year as well. A limited number of undergraduates may take a second unit of credit. Students enrolled in the two unit course will participate in weekly small group discussion seminars about the topics discussed by guest presenters in the course that week. The discussion seminars will be led by peer facilitators, with the goals of developing critical thinking skills and discourse skills, such as active listening and curiosity. The peer facilitators are undergraduate students who have completed training in dialogue facilitation. Each discussion seminar will have a maximum of 10 students. If interest in discussion seminars exceeds the number offered, students will be chosen by lottery.

As the seventeenth century drew to a close, the town of Salem Village in colonial Massachusetts was in a state of crisis. In early 1692, a group of girls began exhibiting strange behaviors, deemed by a doctor to be supernatural in origin. When interrogated, they confirmed the Puritan colonial officials' greatest fears: their "afflictions" were signs of Satanic possession. The girls claimed they had been the victims of witchcraft; and they knew exactly who was to blame. Over the course of the next few months, the numbers of victims of witchcraft, and those accused of "afflicting" them, rose dramatically, fueling widespread concerns about a diabolical plot threatening to destroy Salem's "godly" community. Between 1692 and 1693, more than two hundred people were accused of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Although this witchcraft crisis was over almost as quickly as it emerged, it left deep marks on Salem, New England, and the American imagination.What happened here? How did ideas of witchcraft and Satanic possession fit into the Puritans' larger world view? Who was accused of practicing witchcraft and why? Focusing on these and other questions, this course explores the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting in colonial North America and the broader Atlantic World. Over the course of the term, we will read contemporary diary entries, letters, sermons, and trial transcripts to gain a better understanding of the experiences and belief systems of victims, accusers, magistrates, and Puritan clergy involved in events such as the Salem Witch Trials, as well as lesser-known incidents of witchcraft and possession. We will aim to make sense of these phenomena within the religious, cultural, and social context of seventeenth-century New England, paying close attention to questions of power, gender, race, and colonialism.

Each week of this course is dedicated to a particular moment in which the Jewish community has responded constructively or creatively to crises, from Biblical times down to the present. The class meets over lunch on Mondays, with food being served starting at noon and the class itself running from 12:30-1:20pm. Each session will feature a different faculty guest, who would assign a very short text (5pp max) to be discussed as part of their presentation. The course is offered for 1 or 3 credits (this second option requiring additional assignments). Please note that we will provide a casual lunch outside from 12:00pm-12:30pm to meet the speakers and chat informally.

Beginning in 16th century West Africa and ending in the 19th century United States, this course will survey the religious, cultural, and experiential histories of African-descended people in the Atlantic world. From the early histories of the slave trade to the violence of American racial hierarchies, we will delve into the cosmologies, practices, rituals, aesthetics, and other cultural expressions of free and enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on the United States. What did Africa mean to those displaced from their ancestral homelands? How did African descended people perceive, navigate, and resist their racialization? How did they reshape the Americas through their intellect, creativity, and culture? Prioritizing the voices, thought, and sensory registers of the persons involved in these historical processes, this course will explore African Americans' experiences - from the spectacular to the quotidian - as windows into the human experience. (Course is the same as AFRICAAM 104 and AMSTUD 104A)

Beginning in 16th century West Africa and ending in the 19th century United States, this course will survey the religious, cultural, and experiential histories of African-descended people in the Atlantic world. From the early histories of the slave trade to the violence of American racial hierarchies, we will delve into the cosmologies, practices, rituals, aesthetics, and other cultural expressions of free and enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on the United States. What did Africa mean to those displaced from their ancestral homelands? How did African descended people perceive, navigate, and resist their racialization? How did they reshape the Americas through their intellect, creativity, and culture? Prioritizing the voices, thought, and sensory registers of the persons involved in these historical processes, this course will explore African Americans' experiences - from the spectacular to the quotidian - as windows into the human experience.

This course explores how certain religions--Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism--have addressed the ecological crisis, and how they might be drawn upon to address climate change in the future. Preserving the distinctiveness of each religious tradition, this seminar examines: the issue of religion as the cause of the environmental crisis; the resources for ecological responses within each tradition; the emergence of new religious ecologies and ecological theologies; the contribution of world religions to environmental ethics; and the degree to which the environmental crisis has functioned--and will function--as the basis of inter-faith collaboration. We will work to develop a shared vocabulary in environmental humanities, and special attention will be given to the contribution of religion to animal studies, ecofeminism, religion and the science of ecology, and the interplay between faith, scholarship and activism. But this class will be more: students will learn by engaging in social action. As our readings are put into practice through community campaigns that address real-world problems, my hope is that your knowledge of these sources will be deepened -- and challenged -- by what you learn in your social action campaigns, and that you will develop a more critical and thoughtful understanding of public issues and community change through action and reflection. Thus, this course is an action-oriented, solutions-based, course on community activism and an exercise in civic democracy. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center.