printer friendly pageRELIGST 168: Philosophy of Religion
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.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 173: What is Enlightenment? Religion in the Age of Reason
Many contemporary attitudes towards religion were forged in 17th- and 18th-century Europe in the midst of heated debates over the meaning and value of Christianity in a world 'come of age': Liberal calls for justice, toleration, and pluralism in matters religious; secular suspicions about religious superstition, fanaticism, and ideology; skepticism regarding the solubility of ultimate questions of meaning and metaphysics. Seminal readings on religion from Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Voltaire, Hume, Mendelssohn and Kant.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 176: Religious Diversity: Theoretical and Practical Issues
What does it mean for a religion to be true? If one religion is true, what about the truth of other religious possibilities? How, and why, should religious traditions be compared? Readings address tolerance and pluralism, relativism, comparative theory, and new religious virtues.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 183: Atheism: Hegel to Heidegger (PHIL 183T)
The radical changes in ideas of God between Hegel and Heidegger, arguing that their questions about theism and atheism are still pertinent today. Texts from Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Heidegger: on God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature. N.B.: Class size limited. Apply early at tsheehan@stanford.edu.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Sheehan, T. (PI)
RELIGST 185: Prophetic Voices of Social Critique
Judges, Samuel, Amos, and Isaiah depict and question power, strong leaders who inevitably fail, the societal inequities and corruption inevitable in prosperity, and the interplay between prophet as representative of God and the human king. How these texts succeed in their scrutiny of human power and societal arrangements through attention to narrative artistry and poetic force, and condemnation of injustice. Includes service-learning component in conjunction with the Haas Center.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 201A: Gender in Classical Islamic Law (RELIGST 301A)
The course examines classical Islamic society and law. It covers historical development, the unity and diversity of Muslim legal traditions, and the relationship between laws and values. Constructions of gender in law are examined through rituals, marriage, divorce, birth control, child custody, and sexuality.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 203: Myth, Place, and Ritual in the Study of Religion (RELIGST 303)
Sources include: ethnographic texts and theoretical writings; the approaches of Charles Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Victor Turner, Michael D. Jackson, and Wendy Doniger; and lived experiences as recounted in Judith Sherman's
Say the Name: A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry, Jackson's
At Home in the World, Marie Cardinal's
The Words to Say It, and John Phillip Santos¿
Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209A: Sugar in the Milk: Modern Zoroastrianism as Race, Religion, and Ethnicity (RELIGST 309A)
Modern Zoroastrian experience¿as race, religion, and ethnic identity. Some 60,000 Zoroastrians now live in India and have resided there for a millennium. In the 19th century, these peoples from Persia¿Parsis¿became colonial elites yet were acutely aware that they were not quite Indian, British, or Persian. Diverse ways this experience of dislocation has served as a defining characteristic in Parsi communal identity and contrast these South Asian experiences with the minority socio-politics of those who remained in Iran. Survey the colonial and post-colonial communities in England, East Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and North America and examine the expression of these global diasporic experiences in literature and the arts.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209D: `Crow Eaters' & `Fire Worshippers': Exploring Contemporary Zoroastrianism Thru Reading Parsi Lit (RELIGST 309D)
In the past three decades Parsi fiction has rapidly emerged as a unique and creative voice in modern Anglophone literature from South Asia. From Bapsi Sidhwa to Thrity Umrigar to Rohinton Mistry, Parsi novelists address the most poignant concerns of Zoroastrians living in an era of rapid social, political, and religious transformation. The erosion of tradition; the breakdown of the Parsi family; the demise of religion among the young; and the cultural losses and gains of living in diaspora are common themes in their works. The unique vantage point of the Parsis; neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither quite Indian nor quite British; will serve as a lens for examining the inherent tensions in multicultural societies both East and West.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 212: Chuang Tzu
The
Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) in its original setting and as understood by its spiritual progeny. Limited enrollment.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Yearley, L. (PI)
Filter Results: