In this lecture, Dr. Mostafa Hussein will explore the ways the Jewish intelligentsia in pre-state Palestine interacted with Arabo-Islamic civilization, as demonstrated in Hebrew works treating the geography and the nature of the Holy Land. The talk will also highlight how the Jewish engagement with Islamic culture contributed to the Jewish connection to the land...
The sudden intensification of ‘love,’ ‘union,’ or ‘belonging’ generates a distinct emotion to which we give the scientific name, kama muta. In vernacular language, depending on the context, moments of kama muta may be called being moved, touched, stirred, enraptured, mystical ecstasy, slain in the Spirit; être ému; bewegt sein or gerührt sein; 感动 (gǎn...
Why did early Christians conclude that four distinct narratives about Jesus and Nazareth and the letters of Paul of Tarsus belonged together in their authoritative Scripture?What do these diverse writings have in common apart from the name "Jesus"? Many prominent 20th century New Testament scholars ignored this question while they focused on contending that Paul...
Students come and learn more about the majors/minor for The Study of Religion! Come mingle with other current students and faculty members within the department. Please RSVP for Event religion.ucla.edu/event/pastries-with-professors/
What might it mean to recover medicine as a moral art – medicine and health as something beyond a physical, empirical practice? Drawing heavily on my fieldwork of CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda, a pediatric neurosurgical site that pioneered a revolutionary treatment of hydrocephalus, we’ll explore an integrative healing approach based on their specific practical...
It’s not surprising that many of the familiar Hebrew Bible tales concerning the four Matriarchs portray them very favorably. However, the Book of Genesis also relates some episodes about these women that seem to imply mixed or even negative judgments about particular aspects of their moral characters. We’ll examine how the contributions of classical rabbinic...
Over the last hundred years or so, a number of theories have been proposed to explain the origins of ancient Israel. All these have been informed to some degree by the biblical text and all have considered the role of New Kingdom Egypt and the collapse of empires throughout the Near East circa 1200-1100 BCE. The lecture...
Sound—whether thunder or psalmody—plays a role in the formation and perception of the sacred. Religions acknowledge the importance of sound, manifested in the voice of God, the call to prayer, collective chant, and other profound ways. Sound unifies communities in sacred worship and arms sacred hierarchies. It is captured in images and contained in built...
The Multi-Faith Forum is back! Please join us for reflection and discussion on Wednesday January 31st 4:00PM-5:30PM. Come for the cookies and stay for the conversation! The Multi-Faith Forum was established in 2014 in order to address the needs of students who want to engage topics related to faith, religion, religious identity and spirituality, and...
Throughout the ages, Satan has been seen as God’s implacable enemy, fiercely determined to keep as many human beings as he can from entering the heavenly kingdom. But according to Henry Ansgar Kelly, this understanding dates only from post-biblical times, when Satan was reconceived as Lucifer, a rebel angel, and as the serpent in the...
When Muhammad began his mission in Arabia in the early 7th century, he preached his new revelation not only to the pagan Arabs among whom he was raised but also to the Jewish (and Christian) community among whom he came to live. How did the Jews of Muhammad’s day react? What did they think of...
Ziony Zevit is Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages at the American Jewish University since 1974. Prior to joining AJU, Dr. Zevit taught at the University of Haifa, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and UC Berkeley. He has held visiting professorships at Univ. of Pennsylvania, UCLA, USC, UCSD,...
The Center for the Study of Religion invites students to participate in Heart & Sole, an innovative workshop designed to educate students about religious diversity, help them explore their own beliefs and values, and teach the skills needed to engage in inter-religious dialogue with their peers on campus. Join us in our effort to make Heart...
The Hebrew Aljamiado Research Group of the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies are offering a workshop in learning to read 14th-16th century Judeo-Spanish texts written using the Hebrew alphabet: Hebrew “aljamiado” writing. Attendees will also learn about the cultural context of Hebrew aljamiado writing in the Peninsula...
Karen Muldoon-Hules, UCLA Sponsored by: UCLA Center for the Study of Religion RSVP HERE
How is it that Jesus came to be viewed by the earliest Christians as “sinless,” and what did this mean for them? In this presentation I will explore the process by which early Christianity claimed that Jesus was a perfectly sinless human being, setting the stage for his apotheosis as God. As we will see,...
In this talk I examine recent sociological research on the relationship between religion and science for the public. This research suggests that while religion may have at one time been concerned with fact claims in the natural world that could be contradicted by science, it largely is no longer. This post-1960s development has coincided with...
Sponsored by: Center for Korean Studies Co-Sponsored by: Center for Study of Religion, Center for Buddhist Studies In 1801, in the midst of a bloody anti-Catholic persecution, one of the persecuted Catholics, Hwang Sayŏng, tried to send a letter to the bishop in Beijing requesting European military intervention to force Chosŏn to stop killing...
November 21 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm During the previous half-century, Johannes Vermeer has emerged as one of the greatest painters of the Baroque era. Nevertheless, the uncommon depth and subtlety of his religious allegories have not been adequately noted in scholarship. In this lecture, we will look at a pair of paintings that figures forth...
UCLA Center for the Study of Religion is sponsoring a talk with Azzan Yadin-Israel (Jewish Studies, Rutgers University). With the exception of the cross, the apple—as the forbidden fruit—may be the most widely-recognized biblical image. Yet the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew original does not name the species of fruit that caused the Fall...