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Existentialism is often thought to be a secular or anti-religious philosophy of life, a replacement for Christian belief and ethics in a post-theistic "world come of age." And yet, this twentieth-century philosophical movement owes many of its concerns and much of its vocabulary to the hyper-Protestant Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard. Conversely, most of the best Christian and Jewish thought in the 20th century embraced existentialism as the "right philosophy" for (re)articulating the deepest insights of these ancient traditions. After a careful study of some of Kierkegaard's most important ideas, we will explore a series of modern religious classics associated with the existentialist movement. Works by Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Buber, Karl Barth, Simone Weil, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Marcel, and Paul Tillich.

This seminar will chart the genealogical roots that led to the making of the Leviathan, the modern sovereign body politic. Political Theology seeks to provide an irresistible answer to the quandaries of political legitimacy - the source of authority of the supreme authority. The seventeenth-century classics of political thinking - Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise will play an axial role in our discussion. These works draw upon long traditions from antiquity on the one hand, and on contemporary legitimation crisis on the other. Understanding the political imaginaire they hope to forge and the theology they invest in doing so, the configuration of a subject capable of sovereignty, is our task. Seminar is open to both grads and undergrads.

Only for undergraduate students majoring in Religious Studies or in the combined major in Philosophy & Religious Studies. Students arrange a summer internship or other research activity and integrate that work into their academic program. Prior to the internship or research activity, students must submit a brief report detailing the proposed internship or research activities to the Religious Studies DUS, who serves as the faculty sponsor. Upon completion, students submit to the DUS a two-page reflection on the work completed, skills learned, and relevance of the experience for their study of religion. This course may be repeated for credit twice and students may count up to 2 units toward their major. Offered only in summer quarter. Meets requirements for curricular practical training (CPT) for students on F-1 visas; international students must consult with Bechtel International Center before enrolling. Prerequisite: prior approval by the Religious Studies Department is required. Contact the Department's Student Services Office for instructions.

Undergraduate interns will assist in the publication of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., the authoritative fourteen-volume edition of Dr. King's most historically significant speeches, sermons, correspondence, and other works. Since Mrs. Coretta Scott King sponsored the Project in 1985 and with the help of hundreds of undergraduates, we have published seven volumes of the edition, which have become essential reference works. Research consists of archival, library, internet, and database research; analyzing primary-source materials for use in scholarly writing; and basic processes of scholarly publication. Interns receive individual supervision from an assigned Project staff member. This course may be repeated for credit and students may count up to a total of 2 units toward their major or minor in Religious Studies. Prerequisite: Instructor consent required.

Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department. May be repeated for credit.

This course offers an account of the history of Indian religions through the lens of their material cultures and privileges the self-understandings of the artisans who made religious worlds out of pigment and stone over those who mostly imagined them inside of books. We focus primarily on the periods and religious sub-cultures with the richest documentation, especially the Buddhism and Jainism in the Classical period, Saiva and Sakta monastic art patronage in early medieval Gujarat, the Western Deccan, Bengal, and Tamil Nadu, the overlapping Muslim and Hindu worlds of Mughal, Pahari, and Rajput Court painting, and colonial North India. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

When Buddhism spread from India to China along the Silk Roads in the first millennium CE, the cultural interactions it encountered on its journey east also transformed Buddhism itself. Who were the individuals and groups behind this transmission of Buddhism? How were personal religious beliefs articulated against broader political and ecological contexts? In what ways did their gender, ethnicity, occupation, and religious identities contribute to the transformation of Buddhism? And how, in turn, did Buddhism shape the civilizations along the Silk Roads? Each week we explore a stop or a group of migrants along the Silk Roads, a text or an artifact associated with them, and a Buddhist idea to be transformed through them. This course also reflects on the modern adaption of Buddhist ideas through similar decentralized cultural contacts. No prerequisite. Undergraduates register for 200 level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

This course, designed for graduate and advanced undergraduates, offers an extended exploration of contemporary antisemitism through three key themes: institutions, ideologies, and definitions. Students will explore how various institutions (like law or education) shape antisemitism. The course will also examine ideologies that underpin antisemitic beliefs and behaviors, including religious, political, and cultural factors. Finally, students will explore the challenges of defining antisemitism in the contemporary moment, considering its evolving nature and the debates over definitions.

Walter Benjamin, the intellectual fugitive at the heart of Critical Theory (the most excoriated form of thinking today), famously held his work to be "theological." This annual seminar will dwell in the apparent paradox of the fact that the origins of secular criticism lie squarely in the domain of religion by reading various works of theory theologically, so to speak. In doing so, we will not be the "speaking about the divine," as Plato first construed it, but rather, as Benjamin says, to think in relation to theology "as blotting pad is related to ink," which would be to absorb it thoroughly. This saturation will be achieved through a close reading of important works of theory that have approached the matter of thinking from the standpoint of opposition to the secular, de-godded production of knowledge (as well as some that haven't). The theme this year will be "desire"; authors may include Agamben, Baldwin, Benjamin, Butler, Derrida, Deleuze/Guattari, Foucault, Zora Neale Hurston, Marion, and Tennessee Williams. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.