Religious Studies

This course is offered as a companion course to the course, Buddhism and Social Change in Contemporary Asia taught by the same instructor in the first half of the semester. Students are not required to take both courses, but it is recommended to do so for a fuller understanding.

This course analyzes Buddhism in Japan in a very different way – through the actions of Buddhist priests and followers-- to confront the real life problems and suffering of the people in Japan today. The course looks at issues such as:
1) human relationships in terms of: a) dying and grieving, and b) alienation and suicide; 
2) economic development in terms of: a) social and economic gaps, aging society, community breakdown and depopulation of the countryside; b) alternatives to globalization and Buddhist economics, and c) alternative energy and the environment; 
3) politics in terms of: a) nuclear power and peace, and b) Buddhist complicity with war and work for peace. 
 

The creative solutions some individual Buddhists are developing in response to these problems mark an attempt to revive Japanese Buddhism, which has been primarily associated with funerals and tourism. These efforts are trying to remake the temple as a center of community in an increasingly alienated society.
 

A variety of teaching methods are employed - from homework, readings, group processes, in-class videos, and guest speakers and this course will aim to be interactive. Students should be ready to reflect on the issues personally as they experience them as residents of Japan, and to express these reflections not only intellectually but emotionally as well. Field trips will be offered on the key issues above so as to deepen appreciation and understanding. 

This course offers a unique opportunity to study some of the world’s oldest religions in a comparative perspective. It is an interdisciplinary initiative between the disciplines of the Study of Religions, Egyptology, and Assyriology. The course is theme-oriented and each unit has both a more theoretical part along with an empirical component that focuses on texts and objects from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Themes studied include deities and concepts of the divine, mythologies, temples and sacred space, ritual leaders and other religious agents, rituals and festivals, hymns and prayers, magic, healing rituals and divination, conceptions of death and afterlife. The course also introduces the main textual sources (such as the Gilgamesh Epic, the Babylonian Epic of Creation, the Myth of Isis and Osiris, and the Book of the Dead), excerpts of which are read in English translation. The course provides a general overview of the basic theoretical debates in the history of religions, as well as a basic overview of religious beliefs and practices in ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia (c. 3300 BCE – 300 CE). The empirical material in class come from the religions of the ancient Near East, but the analytical tools used are applicable on historical religions at large.

This course provides a survey of Islam and its history from the formative period to its manifestations in modern times. It discusses sectarian movements such as Kharijism, Shi’ism and Sunnism; various schools of thought in law, theology, philosophy, and mysticism; as well as modern interpretations of Islam, especially with regard to political, social, and gender issues.

Since ancient times, people have traveled to sacred places in search of sacred power, listened to the legends of these places and the miraculous experiences of the gods and Buddha. Particularly in the Middle Ages, engi-e, paintings of the origins and history of a temple or shrine, which glorified miraculous experiences and visualized the stories of the gods and Buddha; and pilgrimage mandalas, which skillfully depicted the past and present of sacred places, were actively produced, and were sometimes displayed in front of people. This course discusses religious paintings such as engi-e and pilgrimage mandalas, as well as related stories and legends, to decipher the beliefs in sacred places and the stories that support them. The course aims to acquire the ability to read narrative pictures while exploring the origins of power spots that attract even modern people and the spiritual culture of the Japanese people, and examining methods of picturing sacred places and the specific aspects of faith.

The course introduces theoretical perspectives on the "public sphere" by drawing on political and philosophical arguments, and illustrating them in the context of the competition/complementarity of political and religious discourses and movements in the age of mass communication. The course also focuses on how religious and political authority is communicated through both conventional and new global media. Topics include the study of religion in the public sphere, power, media, and religion, media representations of religion, media and religious political conflict, and others.

This course examines the history of European Jewry from the late eighteenth century until the eve of WW2. During this period ancient traditions met the modern forces of enlightenment and emancipation, industrialization, democratization and nation building. External pressures provoked profound internal responses as the challenges and opportunities of modernity radically reshaped Jewish thought and life. Students will develop an understanding of the intricacy of relations between Jews and non-Jews and an appreciation of the mosaic of European Jewish life destroyed during the Holocaust.

This course aims to do a 'Law and Religion' studies from the perspectives of comparative law and legal history in the background of international law developments. It helps us better understand the relations between law and religion, or politics and religion. Students have an overview of law and religion in domestic and international background, make sense of the freedom of religion and separation between politics and church, and are deeply and sincerely motivated to undertake their academic training. The first half of the course is concentrated on historical investigation into the different doctrines regarding the relations between politics and religion, or government and church in any sense of any confession, and the second half is on many current issues in international law related to the course subject. Topics include Law and Religion in Christian Doctrines: Augustine, Aquinas, and the Salamanca School, Natural Law and God in the Arminian Doctrine, Hebraic Law and Religion in the 17th-Century Political Thought, Law and Religion in Baruch Spinoza, Islamic Jurisprudence, Economic Activities in Religions, and French/German/American/Islamic Experience in Law and Religion.

The course covers inter-religious relations between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from a variety of thematic and interdisciplinary perspectives. The content provides an understanding of the historical roots and contemporary effects of the relations between the three religions. The basics of inter-religious relations are learned and analyzed. Themes covered include gender and sexuality, eschatology and apocalypticism, the intersection of religious and civil law in Western societies, and the challenges of maintaining individual and community identity in a shifting cultural, social, and political landscape.

The course is based on a religious studies perspective to discuss the concepts of antisemitism and islamophobia concept which refers to fears and prejudices relating to Jews, Judaism, Muslims, and Islam. By focusing on the historical, theological/ideological, political, and cultural aspects of antisemitism and islamophobia, the historical roots and the contemporary forms of these fears and prejudices are explored. The course starts by problematizing the concepts of antisemitism and islamophobia and continues by analyzing how these concepts have been used to designate "the enemy" and in processes of religious, cultural, and political "alienation". Thereafter, the historical roots and ideological contexts in which antisemitism and islamophobia arise and develop are studied. The course concludes by focusing on modern and contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and islamophobia, such as, how conspiracy theories are used to heighten hostility towards Jews and Muslims today.