Are idols real? Do gods or demons dwell in them or around them? Or are they empty, devoid of existence except in the mind of the idolater? Ancient Christians and Jews gave very different answers to these questions. RSVP for this in-person event. Sonja Anderson (UCLA, B.A.; University of Notre Dame, M.T.S.; Yale University, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.) teaches courses in ancient Christianity and Judaism, religious violence, gender and Catholicism, apocalypticism, and religion and medicine. Her current book project, Idol Talk: False Worship in the Early Christian World, will be published with Edinburgh University Press and explores how ancient Christians and…
Why do people grieve a faith they have chosen to leave? If they no longer believe, what exactly have they lost? Ultimately, leaving a religion is rarely the simple loss of a world. Recent philosophical work has argued that deconversion can be an occasion for grief, comparable to bereavement in its power to unsettle one’s experiential world (Williams, 2024). Such accounts describe what this grief is like but leave unexplained why some deconversions take this experiential shape and others do not. This talk by Joshua Waugh (UCLA) aims to offer an explanatory account. RSVP here for the in-person event by…
This Workshop explores the cultural, religious, and intellectual legacy of Daisetsu Teitaro (D. T.) Suzuki (1870–1966), the preeminent figure who introduced Zen and Mahayana Buddhism to the modern Western world. This event brings together scholars, curators, and practitioners to discuss and reflect on Suzuki’s polymath contributions and their enduring, cross-cultural impact. Discussions will span a broad range of topics, including interpretations and evaluations of Suzuki’s Buddhist philosophy and translations, archival discoveries of his lecture manuscripts and interpersonal correspondence, and his connections with Japanese American communities and local religious institutions. Generously funded by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies, this one-day…
Why do we suffer? Why do people die young? Is there any point to our excessive pain, physical or emotional? This talk explores the ways that we have tried to minimize or eliminate suffering, and examines people’s attempts to find ways to live with pointless suffering. Ultimately, to be fully human—and to have healthy culture—means to acknowledge a mysterious paradox: we must simultaneously accept suffering and oppose it. RSVP to attend in person Register for Zoom link Scott Samuelson studied philosophy at Grinnell College (BA, 1995, valedictorian) and Emory University (PhD, 2001). He is currently a Professor of Practice in the…
Lift a glass to the new academic year and meet friends old and new! Welcome remarks by Dean Stern and Professor Bakhos at 4:30p. RSVP required by October 11. See you there!
In this talk, Miki Chase (U of Wisconsin-Madison) explores how trajectories of illness and care, such as terminal cancer or anticipated cognitive decline, are reinterpreted through Jain doctrinal frameworks in the narratives of adult children of women who undertake the Jain ritual fast to death (sallekhanā or santhāra). Drawing on ethnographic accounts of women’s deaths in contemporary urban Jain households, Chase traces how narratives of bodily decline are reframed not as losses to be managed through medical intervention but as conditions of spiritual possibility that invite ascetic detachment and renunciation. Rather than resisting biomedical or bioethical paradigms outright, these narratives…
Since the 1960s religious practitioners have created their own music to express their beliefs and values to shield the community from popular culture. The Irony is they use the popular culture that they reject from American culture in their music. This presentation by Mark Kligman (UCLA) will highlight important composers and groups with audio and video examples of Orthodox Jewish and Christian Contemporary Music. RSVP required here for in-person attendance. Register for Zoom link here. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.
Muslim charities and community organizations have assumed a significant role in refugee support since the Syrian catastrophe: in Jordan and Canada, as elsewhere, they deliver food aid, house orphans, and organize remedial education. But Islam is more than just a resource for humanitarian projects. The Dread Heights details how the Islamic tradition guides refugees, relief workers, and religious scholars in a world of brutal sieges and mass displacement. Even as refugees become objects of humanitarian concern suspended between national orders, this ethnography brings another suspension into view: a form of life whose gestures are illuminated by the Quranic figure of…
The Tangut Xia kingdom flourished in the Ordos region and the Gansu Corridor between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. This talk will provide an introduction to the Tangut Xia kingdom, its unique writing system, and its dynamic religious traditions, highlighting the complex Chinese and Tibetan cultural interactions that shaped its historical development. By integrating elements of Chinese and Tibetan cultures, the Tanguts forged a unique religious and cultural amalgam. The Tangut Xia kingdom flourished in the Ordos region and the Gansu Corridor between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Despite its relatively brief existence, it developed a distinctive literary culture and…
In our deeply fractured world, religion serves both to connect and offer wisdom and to foster conflict and division. Over the course of centuries, it has been frequently invoked to justify brutal violence, but can it be an effective tool to advance justice? To explore different perspectives on the topic of faith, forgiveness, and justice, we will be joined by a distinguished panel of religious leaders: Father Greg Boyle, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Valarie Kaur, and Imam Dr. Jihad Turk. Father Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest and director of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. Rabbi…
