Graduate courses in Religious Studies

(Same as RELIGST 201.) Emphasis is on methods of textual interpretation. History of premodern Islamic law, including origins, formation of schools of law, and social and political contexts.

3-5 units, Win (Sadeghi, B)

RELIGST 303. Myth, Place, and Ritual in the Study of Religion

(Same as RELIGST 203.) Sources include: ethnographic texts and theoretical writings; the approaches of Charles Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Victor Turner, Michael D. Jackson, and Wendy Doniger; and lived experiences as recounted in Judith Sherman's Say the Name: A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry, Jackson's At Home in the World, Marie Cardinal's The Words to Say It, and John Phillip Santos' Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.

3-5 units, Spr (Carrasco, D)

RELIGST 304A. Theories and Methods

Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

4 units, alternate years, not given this year

RELIGST 304B. Theories and Methods

Required of graduate students in Religious Studies. Approaches to the study of religion. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

4 units, Aut (Bashir, S)

RELIGST 308. Medieval Japanese Buddhism

Japanese religion and culture, including Buddhism, Shinto, popular religion, and new religions, through the medium of film.

3-5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 312. Buddhist Studies Proseminar

Research methods and materials for the study of Buddhism. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese.

1-5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 317. Japanese Studies of Religion in China

(Same as RELIGST 217.) (Graduate students register for 317.) Readings in Japanese secondary sources on Chinese religions.

3 units, not given this year

RELIGST 321. The Talmud

(Same as RELIGST 221.) Strategies of interpretation, debate, and law making. Historical contexts. Prerequisite: Hebrew.

4 units, not given this year

RELIGST 324. Classical Islamic Texts

(Same as RELIGST 224.) Premodern Islamic scholarship. Genre-specific historical research methods. The hadith literature, tafsir, biographical dictionaries, fiqh, tarikh, and geographical works. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Arabic.

3-5 units, Spr (Sadeghi, B)

RELIGST 326. Philosophy and Kabbalah in Jewish Society: Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

(Same as RELIGST 226.) Characteristics of religious philosophy from Saadia Gaon to Maimonides, Jewish opposition to and support of philosophy in the medieval Christian and Muslim world, texts from the early development of Kabbalah, the relationship between philosophy and Kabbalah, and conflicting views of Kabbalah from the 16th through 18th centuries.

5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 327. The Qur'ân

(Same as RELIGST 227.) Early history, themes, structure, chronology, and premodern interpretation.relative chronology of passages.

5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 338. Christian Neo-Platonism, East and West

(Same as RELIGST 238.) Christianity's shift to neo-Platonic Greek philosophical categories and its significance for contemporary spirituality. Readings from Plotinus, Proclus, Greek fathers such as Pseudo-Dionysus, and from Ambrose and Augustine.

3-5 units, Win (Staff)

RELIGST 339. Luther and the Reform of Western Christianity

(Same as RELIGST 239.) Luther's theology, ethics, biblical interpretation, and social reforms and their significance for the remaking of Western Christianity. Readings include Luther's own writings and secondary sources about Luther and his world.

3-5 units, Spr (Pitkin, B)

RELIGST 340. Contemporary Religious Reflection

(Same as HUMNTIES 196S, RELIGST 240.) Focus is on normative and prescriptive proposals by recent and contemporary philosophers and theologians, as opposed to the domination of Religious Studies by textual, historical, cultural, and other largely descriptive and interpretive approaches. Do such normative and prescriptive proposals belong in the academy? Has Religious Studies exorcised its theological nimbus only to find contemporary religious reflection reappearing elsewhere in the university?

3-5 units, Aut (Sockness, B)

RELIGST 347. Chinese Buddhist Texts

(Same as RELIGST 247.) From the first millennium C.E., including sutra translations, prefaces, colophons, and biographies. Prerequisite: reading competence in Chinese.

3-5 units, Aut (Staff)

RELIGST 348. Chinese Buddhism in World Historical Perspective

(Same as RELIGST 248.) Shared cosmologies, trade routes, and political systems. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.

3-5 units, Spr (McRae, J)

RELIGST 349. Meditation and Mythology in Chinese Buddhism

Readings in Chinese texts and English scholarly literature on issues such as specific techniques and hagiographical imagery in Chinese Buddhist traditions of self-cultivation. Prerequisite: background in Chinese or Japanese.

3-5 units, Win (McRae, J)

RELIGST 350. Modern Western Religious Thought Proseminar

Research methods and materials. May be repeated for credit.

1-5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 351. Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts

(Same as RELIGST 251.) (Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit.

3-5 units, Win (Harrison, P)

RELIGST 353. Mountains, Buddhist Practice, and Religious Studies

(Same as RELIGST 253.) The notion of the sacred mountain. Readings from ethnographic and theoretical works, and primary sources.

3-5 units, Aut (Blair, H)

RELIGST 357. Readings in Daoist Texts

(Same as RELIGST 257.) Readings from primary sources. Prerequisite: classical Chinese.

4 units, not given this year

RELIGST 358. Japanese Buddhist Texts

(Same as RELIGST 258.) Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.

3-5 units, Spr (Bielefeldt, C)

RELIGST 359A. Religion and Performance in South Asia

(Same as RELIGST 159A.) What happens when religion is viewed through the lens of performance? Texts become dramas, songs, recitations, oral commentaries, dances, movies, and political appropriations. Beliefs become embodied enactments; doctrine puts on a costume and indulges in role play. Approaches to performance theory through religious enactments such as ritual, prayer, festival, drama, music, and film. Most examples from S. Asian religions; students may undertake research projects into other cultures and traditions.

4 units, Spr (Hess, L)

RELIGST 370. Comparative Religious Ethics

The difference that the word religious makes in religious ethics and how it affects issues of genre. Theoretical analyses with examples from W. and E. Asia. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

4 units, not given this year

RELIGST 373. Historicism and Its Problems

(Same as RELIGST 273.) The emergence, varieties, and crises of historicism as a world view and approach to the study of religion in the 19th and 20th centuries. The implications of historical reason and historical consciousness for the philosophy of religion, ethics, and theology.

3-5 units, Spr (Sockness, B)

RELIGST 374. From Kant to Kierkegaard

(Same as RELIGST 274.) (Graduate students register for 374.) The main currents of religious thought in Germany from Kant's critical philosophy to Kierkegaard's revolt against Hegelianism. Emphasis is on the theories of religion, the epistemological status of religious discourse, the role of history (especially the figure of Jesus), and the problem of alienation/reconciliation in seminal modern thinkers: Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.

3-5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 375. Kierkegaard and Religious Existentialism

(Same as RELIGST 275.) (Graduate students register for 375.) Close reading of Kierkegaard's magnum opus, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in its early 19th-century context.

3-5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 378. Heidegger: Hermeneutics of the Self

(Same as RELIGST 278.) Heidegger's work on meaning, the self, and the sacred. Texts include Being and Time, courses and opuscula up to 1933, the Letter on Humanism, and Contributions of Philosophy.

3-5 units, Aut (Sheehan, T)

RELIGST 379. Heidegger and the Holy

(Same as RELIGST 279.) Heidegger's philosophy as opening a new door onto the possibility of experiencing the sacred after the collapse of traditional metaphysical theology. A close reading of Being and Time as an introduction to the question of the holy.

4 units, not given this year

RELIGST 380. Schleiermacher

(Same as RELIGST 280.) Idealist philosopher, Moravian pietist, early German Romantic, co-founder of the University of Berlin, head preacher at Trinity Church, translator of Plato's works, Hegel's opponent, pioneer in modern hermeneutics, father of modern theology. Schleiermacher's controversial reconception of religion and theology in its philosophical context.

3-5 units, not given this year

RELIGST 389. Individual Work for Graduate Students

May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-15 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

RELIGST 390. Teaching in Religious Studies

Required supervised internship for PhDs.

3-5 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff)

RELIGST 391. Pedagogy

Required of Ph.D. students. May be repeated for credit.

1 unit, Aut (Rosenberg, J)

RELIGST 392. Candidacy Essay

Prerequisite: consent of graduate director. May be repeated for credit.

1-15 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff)

RELIGST 395. Master of Arts Thesis

2-9 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff)

RELIGST 399. Recent Works in Religious Studies

Readings in secondary literature for Religious Studies doctoral students. May be repeated for credit.

1-2 units, not given this year

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Stanford Bulletin, Archive 2008-09

Stanford Bulletin, Archive 2008-09

Alphabetical Index

Bulletin Archive

Graduate courses in Religious Studies