1 - 10 of 36 results for: RELIGST ; Currently searching autumn courses. You can expand your search to include all quarters

Preference to freshmen. Who was the historical Buddha Gautama and what is known about him, and his time and society? The oldest texts attributed to him and what they reveal about him, and his ideas and spirituality. Sources include Indian literary works in translation, Buddhist art, and contemporary films about the Buddha's life.

Raise ultimate questions about life. Yes, the unexamined life is not worth living, but also the unlived life is not worth examining. Students and professor examine their own lives in the light of questions that the readings and lectures bring up: 1. The big picture: Is there such a thing as "the" meaning of life? 2. What is entailed in making personal-existential sense of one's own life? 3. What constitutes the good life, lived in society? 4. How can a university education bear upon the search for a meaningful life? 5. What "methods" for or approches to life can one learn from studies in the humanities? After introductory lectures, the seminar studies a series of artworks, poems, diverse texts, and a film, all of which bear on the questions mentioned above -- works such: 1. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from "The Republic" 2. Manet's "A bar at the Folies Bergere" 3. A comparison/contrast of Monet's early (1862) "Still Life" and van Gogh's late (1889) "Irises" 4. Lyric poetry T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," and "East Coker"; Edwin Muir: "The Heart Could Never Speak"; Philip Larkin: "Days" 5. Martin Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics?" 6. Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "Nausea" 7. Marx's Paris Manuscripts of 1844 8. Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"

Bravery, Temperance, Generosity, Justice, Wisdom, and Friendship. Plato and Aristotle on human virtues, and select Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and secular appropriations and transformations of that Greek heritage.

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.

How do religious texts, traditions, believers and interpreters argue and act with regard to violence and nonviolence, war and peace? A series of distinguished lecturers from Stanford and beyond will speak on topics such as just war theory, pacifism, martyrdom, gender violence, law, nationalism, and inner peace, viewed through the lenses of religious identity, thought and practice.

The history of technology (depending on how we choose to define the term) in South Asia is deeply connected to the history of colonialism and the practice of religion. In this class we will trace the arrival of the printing press, cinematic technology and television in the subcontinent and look at the impact it had on the practice of religion, national identity and consumption. This seminar is inter-disciplinary in approach and will study the intertwining of Hinduism and visual culture through Indian literary texts, sculpture, painting, dance, theatre and film¿with a focus on the visual and the modern. No attempt will be made to comprehensively survey all related modes and texts; rather the seminar will focus on specific forms based on their relation to contemporary themes of technology, the self, the popular, divinity and power. Each body of material will be placed within its specific socio-economic, historical, religious and artistic context.

Themes in premodern and modern Japanese religion though animations, movies and documentaries

'Caste' points to systems of social hierarchy based on birth, long prevalent in India, associated with Hinduism but also practiced by non-Hindu groups. 'Dalit' is a modern, politically positive name for the most oppressed caste groups, the so-called 'untouchables.' Though specific to India, the study of caste touches themes relevant to social inequality everywhere. A series of lectures and films by distinguished scholars and directors, illuminating the nature and history of caste and modern movements to end untouchability,

As the largest religion practiced in the United States, Christianity not only shapes the lives of a large number of its citizens but also impinges on public discourse, policies, and debates. This course investigates the ways in which Christianity in America is changing and what these changes bode for its role in the public and private spheres. Issues include shifting demographics lead to declining numbers in 'mainline' denominations; the polarization of Christian conservatives and religious 'nones'; interfaith toleration and cooperation alongside interreligious conflict; the rise of 'spiritual, not religious' young adults; the effects of immigration; religion and science.