Origins of Christian Culture in the Art, Literature, and Philosophy in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Cultures.
Exploration of central problems of the human condition, such as meaning of life; death; self-deception; authenticity, integrity and responsibility; guilt and shame; love and sexuality.
The course is a comprehensive historical survey of the main religious traditions in China, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and popular religion. Through lectures, discussions, and reading of select primary and secondary sources, we will explore the formulations and subsequent transformations of key beliefs, doctrines, practices, and institutions that characterized specific religious traditions. We will also examine the patterns of interaction among different traditions, as well as the general character of religious life in both traditional and modern China.
What does it mean to imagine the Buddha? This course guides students in narrating the lives of Buddhist images by tracing their creation and movement in Asia as well as in cultural encounters within Europe and the U.S. Today art critics continue to discuss "Buddhist" elements in the work of iconic artists like Georgia O'Keefe and Mark Rothko, Tibetan mandala coloring books are being used for stress relief, and "Zen" aesthetics inform a broad range of fashion and design platforms. This course provides tools for critically reexamining the categories of "East" and "West" within this cultural moment. Through creative processes such as drawing, writing, and conversation, students interact with diverse imagery such as Chinese painted caves, Himalayan esoteric portraits of enlightened reality, and Japanese temple complexes. They interpret Buddhist texts describing the construction of buddha bodies in art, ritual, and in the mind. Students also engage with the work of contemporary performance artists inspired by Buddhist ideals of discipline and impermanence. Reflecting upon these experiences, students uncover how the categories of "East' and "West" have obscured the understanding of Buddhist art, artists, and communities. They document the ways in which power dynamics of colonialism and Orientalism have been integral to making these categories. In response to their findings, students work together to generate a virtual exhibition reimagining images of Buddhism and telling their stories.
This course will study critical theories about the role of religion in acts of terrorism and violence. Through the examination of a range of case studies, this course will explore ways in which religion has been the motivation and justification behind violent conflict, aggression, and persecution.
The United States is, by all accounts, a God-fearing nation: sessions of congress are opened with a prayer, and "In God We Trust" is printed on the money. On the other hand, we are a pluralistic nation, with no official religion and almost a quarter of citizens not believing in a Judeo-Christian God. Both views have long and respectable intellectual histories. In this course we will examine these intellectual histories from the perspective of philosophy. In the first part of the course, we consider the traditional arguments for theism; in the second part, we consider traditional arguments against theism. Finally, we turn to an evaluation of this way of proceeding: Do we need to be able to prove or disprove God's existence in or to be justified in believing or disbelieving?
An introduction to religions that originated in India - Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism - as well as other religious traditions in India. The Study Abroad version of the course will focus on the religions and cultures related to the travel locations in India.
This course explores religion and its relationship with visual storytelling culture. We will analyze, explore, and challenge various religious, pop-cultural, ideological, and moral messages as presented in various types of film, from art house cinema to blockbuster movies, and genres ranging from horror to comedy.
This course is designed to introduce students to the history,teachings,and practice of Zen Buddhism in China,Japan, Korea and the United States. The course will discuss Zen from a variety of perspectives but will center around the question of the meaning of history. Zen is a tradition of Buddhism that claims to have inherited and to pass on, in an unbroken historical transmission from patriarch to patriarch, the living experience of the Buddha's enlightenment. The course will discuss how Zen's conception of its history is related to its identity as a special tradition within Buddhism, as well as its basic teachings on the primacy of enlightenment, the role of practice, the nature of the mind, and the limitations of language.
The "New Testament" includes some of the most famous stories we have: the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the birth of the ancient Christian communities, and the end of the world in a massive apocalypse. We will explore who wrote these texts, what their new religious ideas were, and what features of the ancient world gave rise to them. We will adopt the disciplinary perspectives of a Religious Studies Scholar, a Literary Critic, and a Historian to do a deep dive into Jewish and Christian culture and society in the age of the Roman Empire, including how it dealt with ancient inequalities of class, gender, and religion. We will look at the different literary genres that appear in the New Testament, explore the religious views of their authors, and consider their origins and contexts in the history of early Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean.