111 - 120 of 201 results for: RELIGST

This course offers an in-depth comparison of two major figures in the history of Europe and Asia, Alexander III of Macedon (r. 336-323 BCE), famed since ancient times as the Greek world's conqueror par excellence, and Asoka Maurya (r. 268-232 BCE), remembered not only as the ruler of an Indian empire of unprecedented extent, but also as an influential proponent of Buddhism. What are the makings of history and memory in relation to these figures? How do we distinguish between fact and fantasy? In this course we will sift through selected sources, both contemporary documents and later literary texts. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

Buddhism and arts have long been intimately related. In this course, we will explore various artistic expressions of Buddhist ideas, such as mandalas, gardens, landscapes, and musical liturgies. We will further study iconography and Buddhist sculptures. We will study primary sources, secondary literature, visual culture, and multimedia expressive forms through class discussions, presentations, field trips, and guest lecturers. Undergraduates must enroll for 5 units; graduate students can enroll for 3-5 units. Note: This is a graduate /upper level seminar with a high reading load. Prerequisites: Solid foundation in either Buddhist studies or East Asian Studies. Students must have taken at least one course in Buddhist studies. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units. This course will be in East Asia Library, room 212.

This course stages a series of encounters with the concept of devotion, or "bhakti," a theological framework whose varied, vivid, and heartfelt expressions form an integral part of how religion is experienced in South Asia. Though most commonly identified with one particular literary genre, devotional lyric poetry written in north Indian vernaculars, and one particular religion, Hinduism, bhakti comes in many guises. We will examine bhakti as part of a phenomenology of authentic and personal religious experience but also as an emblem of legitimacy that empowers specific communities and values at the expense of others. We will explore the vital role that bhakti has played in Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim and even South Asian Christian religious imaginations. We will look at how bhakti is inscribed within Indian history, in the context of ephemeral performance, as well as within colonial and contemporary South Asian politics and political theology. As the course unfolds, we will trace the multi-dimensional impact of devotional religion within literate and non-literate media, through languages and regions, among different castes, classes, traditions, even across and beyond the category of religion itself. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

Visionary experiences - meditation, dreams, and deathbed visions - hold a central place in Buddhist traditions, and have gone on to inspire modern practices such as mindfulness and lucid dreaming. Many forms of Buddhist visionary experience are thought to involve conscious and voluntary visualizations, in contrast to spontaneous and passive visions. Through readings about visionary aspects of meditation, dreams, and deathbed visions in classical Buddhist literature (in translation) in a pan-Buddhist context, we will reflect upon the following questions: Do the modern ideas of Buddhist visualization practices truthfully represent early Buddhist understanding? What do these visionary experiences reveal about Buddhist epistemologies and soteriologies? Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

Given South Asia's rich religious diversity, is communal conflict inevitable? Since the colonial era and partition, Muslims and Hindus are, at times, at odds with each other, with interreligious relations intermittently marred by violent conflict. And yet, from early modernity through the present day, Hindu-Muslim encounters extended far beyond the confines of communalist conflict. In this seminar, we explore moments of interreligious encounter and exchange between Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia from the earliest Muslim polities in the subcontinent up through the present day. We begin by re-examining the stories we tell about how Islam and Hinduism came to co-exist in South Asia, and continue with explorations of Hindu-Muslim translation enterprises, the intersections between Sufi and Yogic practice, and Mughal patronage of Hindu temples. We then build on this foundation to explore the complex dynamics of conflict and coexistence in the colonial period through the present-day. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

Idealist philosopher, Moravian pietist, early German Romantic, co-founder of the University of Berlin, co-pastor of Trinity Church, opponent of Hegel, translator of Plato, pioneering hermeneutician, "the father of modern theology." This course examines Friedrich Schleiermacher's ground-breaking theory of religion and his epoch-making reformation of the task and method of theology.

This course will analyze both the reception in America of Asian religions (i.e. of Buddhism in the 19th century), and the development in America of Asian American religious traditions. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

A wide-ranging exploration of religious themes in literary works. Readings will include prose and poetry stemming from various world regions, time periods, and religious traditions. Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required. Please complete the questionnaire at: https://forms.gle/JnHAcXDXNJU8eQXt8

In her Ingersoll lecture at Harvard Divinity School, Toni Morrison probed the issue of literary presentations of goodness. We will begin with that very rich lecture, and a collection of essays by scholars of religion and religious leaders exploring that lecture in the context of Morrison's own work. We'll then discuss a novel by Morrison, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, at least one story by Flannery O'Connor, and related (short) works of literature and commentary. The inquiry will involve both conceptual and literary analysis, all of it focused on the character and presentation of goodness. (Limited enrollment; consent of instructor required. Please complete the questionnaire at https://forms.gle/8D6XxLdUj4T645Lh9)