A selective survey of the history of Japanese religion from the 16th century through the present. Topics may include Shinto and Buddhism; Christianity and its suppression; Edo-period official and popular religion; State Shinto; and Japan's "new religions" and "new new religions."
Selective survey of the history of religions in Japan from the 11th century through the 16th. Topics covered may include the medieval worldview; apocalyptic thought and related practices; Pure Land Buddhism; Zen; and proselytization and religious competition in medieval Japan.
A selective survey of Japanese religious history from earliest times through the 11th century. Topics covered may include prehistoric religions; the development of Shinto; Nara-period state Buddhism; tantric Buddhism in the Heian period; and spirit possession and exorcism.
Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan with emphasis on the relationship between East Asian Buddhist thought and practice and the various historical contexts in which they emerged.
What is ritual? Tantric Buddhism employs ritual in radical ways to work towards the goal of enlightenment in this very lifetime. This course provides an introduction to the principles of tantric ritual, including themes of guru devotion, rites of consecration, vows of secrecy, and visualization practice. In particular, the course guides students in contemplating what it means to imagine oneself as a deity as a means of attaining enlightenment. The importance of ritual to the practice of Tantric Buddhism invites us to reflect upon the larger significance of "ritual" for understanding tantra, Buddhism, and religion at large. The course culminates in an in-class colloquium aimed at defining ritual in dialogue with tantric materials.
This course explores Judaism from Late Antiquity through the beginning of the Middle Ages. Rather than a traditional survey format, we will cover this period through historical, literary, and cultural approaches to primary literature (including focus on rabbinic literature) organized thematically. Throughout, we will read primary and secondary sources on two levels: exploring the historical and literary narratives they weave about this period in Jewish history, while paying close attention to their rhetorical choices. We discuss rabbinic self-representation simultaneously as we analyze the ways historical narratives and primary texts have been mobilized in the contemporary Jewish clime. Finally, we will treat the question of how this body of literature came to be of such central importance in Jewish culture.
The evolving relationship between law and religion has had a profound influence on American political life and discourse since the country's founding. This course is designed to develop familiarity with that history and the resulting major tenets of the First Amendment's religion clauses. Taking as our starting point the concept of the separation of church and state, we examine what this idea has meant in U.S. Constitutional law. Class time will be structured around in-depth study of the Constitution and of Supreme Court precedents, and will integrate these formative Supreme Court decisions and decisions from state and lower federal courts into the social and historical contexts from which they derive meaning. In addition, the course will survey the scholarly treatment of such threshold questions as the meaning of "religion" in society, and will evaluate the evolving notion of religious liberty in a pluralistic society. We conclude with an examination of current legal debates and cases and of the prominent role of religious discourse about law, social change, politics and culture in today's society.
An exploration of debates and arguments in European and American philosophy, theology and the history of ideas in response to the rational project of the Enlightenment, from the sixteenth century to the present.
Major topics in world religion, religion and culture, and philosophy of religion.