RELG 215   Buddhism

Explores the many faces of Buddhism across time and space, from the “pre-lives” of the Buddha to modern Buddhists and Buddhist modernists today. Through the close reading of mythical narratives, hagiography, philosophical tracts, canonical sermons and legal codes as well historical and ethnographic accounts, students seek to understand what Buddhism is and what it has meant and continues to mean for Buddhists around the world. Topics that are regularly featured include the motif of renunciation, meditation, the importance of scripture in orienting devotion, the economy of merit, the monastic ideal and the social realities of monastic life, Buddhist kingship, Buddhist philosophical deconstruction, the bodhisattva ideal, and Buddhism's confrontation with modernity, the West, and science.