Religious Studies

This course surveys China’s unique religious heritage through a selective survey of major thinkers, texts and cultural expressions. The primary emphasis is on the historical development and mutual influence of the “three teachings”— Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism — with special attention given to the relationship between philosophy and popular practice, and to the interaction among political and religious institutions. Topics include gods and the sacred, ritual, ethics, human nature, meditation, mysticism and salvation. Offered every other year. Also offered as ASIA 223

This course considers the interaction between visuality and religion: the role that seeing might play in religious practice and the role that religion might play in visual practice. It explores not just the ways that images and objects can embody and communicate meaning, but also how they can elicit powerful responses (e.g. fascination, excitement, faith, desire, or fear) in those who view them, and how they help humans to constitute the worlds that they inhabit. The course draws upon case studies from multiple religious traditions. Also offered in Asian Studies.

Throughout human history, religion has profoundly shaped human life ethically, socially, politically, psychologically, and existentially. And yet, how religion is defined-what we identify as something religious-- is, by definition, controversial. What is religion? How do we go about substantively describing it? What power does religion play in human life and why? How does it function in human life? What meaning and values do people find in their religious or spiritual experiences? Does religion play an important role in the contemporary world?