An introduction to environmental ideas, texts and practices of Buddhism in broad historical and geographical context. Engages Buddhist "environmental imagination" through readings of primary texts, considers the ways that contemporary Buddhists around the world have interpreted environmental problems, and the ways that Buddhist modernist movements draw upon Buddhist ideologies in the service of social-environmental change.

This course explores the close and dynamic relationship between religion and environmental thinking in East Asia.

Buddhist Mysticism and Modernity

Classical Tibetan language has been an essential language of Buddhist teachings for 1500 years and is still an active part of Buddhist and Tibetan life across Asia--a Latin of the Buddhist world. This course is an introduction to Classical Tibetan, a gateway to the vast worlds of Tibetan and Indian Buddhism. In the second year you will use this knowledge to read Buddhist texts in Classical Tibetan.  No prior experience is necessary.

This course is about the felt experience of religion across time and place. Through readings, essays, presentations and exercises we will become familiar with a variety of perspectives on the relationships between religions and bodies in their multiple cultural contexts.

This course offers third- and fourth-year Religious Studies majors resources for conceiving and executing a major research project. As a follow-up, students usually take RELG 4900 ("Distinguished Major Thesis"), which affords them an opportunity to write the research project they have conceived in this course. Whether you plan to write a thesis or not, RELG 4800 offers an accessible introduction to the craft of research in Religious Studies.

Systematic readings in a selected topic under detailed supervision. Prerequisite: Permission of departmental advisor and instructor.

Study of the Pali and Sanskritic Buddhist philosophical traditions.

An examination of religion and culture of the rabbinic movement (c. 70-600 CE) in the social and cultural contexts of Greco-Roman antiquity. Among the issues to be examined: rituals and institutions of the rabbis, social organizations within the rabbinic movement, engagement with other sectors of Jewish and gentile society.

Topics in Islamic Studies