RELI 350 - Comparative Studies in Religion

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

An examination of selected themes, issues, or approaches u see in illuminating the religious dimensions and dynamics within particular cultures and societies, with attention to the benefits and limits of the comparative method. Past seminars have focused on such topics as myth, ritual, mysticisms, and iconography. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.

Topic for 2023/24a: Imagining Gender in Hindu Literature. (Same as ASIA 350 and WFQS 350) Literature is prime territory for thinking about gender in Hindu traditions as an expansive, contested, interrogative category. Given that gender is often understood to exhibit deep dimensions of performance and affect—not to mention the idea of its being more social construction than ontological truth—perhaps it is no surprise that when it comes to Hinduism, we find some of the most intricate, profound reflections on gender in sources that are highly aware of the social and emotional realities of human life: epics, narratives, poems, and performance genres. Inspired by Mrinalini Sinha’s challenge to “distinguish between merely exporting gender as an analytical category to different parts of the world and rethinking the category itself in light of those different locations,” (2012) this course asks how works of Hindu literature develop and convey their own theories of gender and sexuality. What tensions do they explore? Where do they seem to prescribe, and where do they seem to question? How do the specifics of literary forms and Hindu practices allow them to do that? The course is organized thematically, with students exploring early, medieval, and contemporary sources in each unit. Themes include: impersonation and performance; ritual possession; devotional voices; masculinity when threatening and masculinity when threatened; epic heroines (Sītā, Draupadī); and stories of gender transformation and affirmation.

Topic for 2023/24b: Ecospirituality and Planetary Consciousness. (Same as STS 350) This course examines twentieth-century space exploration and emerging discourses about “one world,” planetary consciousness, the environment, and spirituality. It begins with the Apollo space technologies and how they produced a set of unexpected reflections about the earth and its place in the cosmos. That process began in 1968 when the Apollo 8 astronauts captured the now-famous “Earthrise” photograph of the Earth rising above the lunar surface. Seeing the earth from space for the first time led to a kind of “no frames, no boundaries” mysticism for many astronauts, who reported feeling awe that all humans lived together on a tiny, glittering, blue planet. This mysticism was taken up by many others in the wake of Apollo—by key figures in the counter-culture, new religious and spiritual figures, “Gaia” movement preachers and ecologists, cosmologists such as Carl Sagan, esoteric engineers at NASA such as Jack Parsons and many others convinced that technology had delivered a new era of planetary awareness and spiritual evolution. Christopher White.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS