The concept of a “thing”—a distinct entity that exists in and of itself whether or not human beings attach a name to it—is nothing but a useful fiction. In the final analysis, there are no such things as “things.” This, in a nutshell, is the startling proposition advanced by the Buddhist doctrine of sunyata  or “emptiness,” as the Sanskrit term is usually translated. Often misconstrued by critics as a form of nihilism (“nothing exists”), idealism (“it is all in the mind”), or skepticism (“we cannot know anything with certainty”), the emptiness doctrine is better interpreted as a radical critique of the fundamental conceptual categories that we habitually use to talk about and make sense of the world. This course has several specific aims. The first is to impart a clear, accurate understanding of the emptiness doctrine, as it developed in the context of Buddhist intellectual history and found expression in various genres of classical Buddhist literature. The second is to engage in serious criticism and debate concerning the “truth” of the doctrine: Is it merely an article of Buddhist faith, or does it also stand up to the standards of logical consistency and empirical verification that have been established in Western traditions of philosophy and science? The third aim of the course is to explore ways in which the emptiness doctrine, if taken seriously as a critique of the mechanisms and inherent limitations of human knowledge, might impact a variety of contemporary academic disciplines. More generally, the course is designed to help first-year students gain the kind of advanced analytical, research, and writing skills that will serve them well in whatever areas of academic study they may pursue in the future. Both in class and in conference work, students will be encouraged to apply the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness in creative ways to whatever fields in the humanities, social sciences, or sciences that interest them.

Within the maelstrom of current events, caricatures and apologetics too often supply shortcuts for understanding a world largely unknown to Americans—obscuring rather than informing people of the richness and variety of the traditions of Islam and Muslim cultures. This course will provide an introduction to these rich traditions by addressing the early history of Islam, its foundational texts, and the development of Sunni, Shi‘i and Sufi thought. In addition to studying the formative and classical periods of Islam, primarily located in the Middle East, we will look to the ways in which Islam spread throughout the world to regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Europe, and the United States. Muslims in the Middle East now represent a mere 20% of Muslims worldwide; from jihadis to mystics to hip-hop artists, Muslims are not easily categorized. To address how being a Muslim is understood in specific contexts, we will study not only religious texts but also how Islam and Muslim practices are represented in autobiographies, fiction writing, films, music, and art. 

From its beginnings as a loose-knit group of wandering ascetics in ancient India, Buddhism developed into a monastic religion that diversified and spread across Asia—producing great buildings and monuments of wood and stone and furnishing them with a rich array of paintings and sculptures. This course focuses on the Buddhist art and architecture of South, Central, and East Asia, seeking to understand and interpret it within the specific social, institutional, mythical, and ritual contexts in which it was produced and used. Thus, for example, when examining the ground plans and architectural features of Buddhist monasteries in different parts of Asia, we will also study the internal organization and operation of those institutions—reading the rules of individual and group discipline that regulated them and learning about the various religious practices and ceremonial observances that took place in them. The aim is to explore the complex connections that exist between architectural forms and social and religious functions and meanings. By the same token, when looking at works of Buddhist art, we will not only concern ourselves with matters of iconography, style, provenance, and dating but will also learn about the various iconic and non-iconic functions that Buddhist art has had in a wide range of cultic and social settings and will study the religious doctrines, ideology, mythology, and folklore that has informed its production and use at different times and places.

The Hebrew Bible has been called “The Great Code” of Western culture. At the foundation of this great work are the Five Books of Moses, the Torah. Its stories permeate our literature, our art—indeed, our sense of identity. Its ideas inform our laws and have given birth to our structure of state, our social movements, and our revolutions. The narrative itself embodies a great epic of liberation. What are these books? Who wrote them? Who preserved them? In order to answer these questions, we will closely read Torah itself and do so in the light of its ancient Near Eastern context. As such, we will also read the Babylonian creation story, as well as the Epic of Gilgamesh. 

There is perhaps no one who has not heard the name of a seemingly obscure carpenter’s son executed by the Romans around the year 33 CE. Why? His friends and followers preserved the memory of his life and teaching—orally at first and then, after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE, in written records that we have today in the New Testament. This class will focus on the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Why were they written, what do they have to say, and how were they intended to be read? We will immerse ourselves in the religion of the Holy Land—that is, the various forms of Judaism—and the role of the dominant world empire of Rome. Our study will consist mainly of primary texts in the New Testament; but we will also have recourse to some Rabbinic materials, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

The Jews of Eastern Europe, constituting more than two-thirds of the world’s Jewish population by the end of the 18th century, created a veritable Jewish renaissance. The extensive autonomy granted them during the Middle Ages enabled the development of a flourishing religious society, with the Torah as its constitution. And although secularization began to make inroads by the second half of the 19th century, it often resulted in a potent synthesis of traditional and secular culture. This course poses a challenge to the reduction of Eastern European Jewry to an insular, persecuted minority popularized by plays such as Fiddler on the Roof. After exploring different facets of the vital rabbinical culture, we follow the rise of movements that clashed with and, at times, displaced normative Jewish practice. Such challenges included the hedonistic messianic movement of Jacob Frank, the popular mystical movement known as Hasidism, the secular-oriented Jewish enlightenment (Haskalah), modern political ideologies such as Zionism and Jewish Socialism, and the emergence of a rich modern literature in Yiddish and Hebrew. Near the end of the course, we follow the emigration of more than two million Eastern European Jews to America following the pogroms of 1881-2 and attempt to confront the annihilation of more than four million Eastern European Jews during the Holocaust. Throughout, an effort will be made to appreciate the various ways that Jewish life was shaped by its non-Jewish Eastern European environment.

The Holocaust raises fundamental questions about the nature of our civilization. How was it that a policy of genocide could be initiated and carried out in one of the most advanced and sophisticated countries of Europe? To what extent did residents of the countries in which mass murder occurred, especially in Eastern Europe, facilitate or obstruct this ghastly project? And finally, what were the various reactions of the various victims of this lethal assault by one of the great powers of Europe? In this course, we will attempt to explain how these events unfolded, beginning with the evolution of anti-Semitic ideology and violence. At the same time, we will attempt to go beyond the “mind of the Nazi” and confront the perspectives of victims and bystanders. How victims chose to live out their last years and respond to the impending catastrophe (through diary writing, poetry, mysticism, violence, hiding, etc.) is reflected in memoirs, literature, and sermons. The crucial but neglected phenomenon of bystanders—non-Jews who stood by while their neighbors were methodically annihilated—has been the subject of several important recent studies. We shall inevitably be compelled to make moral judgments, but these will be of value only if they are informed by a fuller understanding of the perspectives of various actors in this dark chapter of European history.

This course traces the history of Jewish mysticism from late antiquity through modernity. After an overview of early Jewish mysticism from the biblical and rabbinic periods, as well as the mystical-based asceticism of medieval German pietists, we will concentrate on the medieval flowering of the erotically charged “Kabbalah” of Spain and Southern France—covering such topics as: God, evil, demonology, sin, death, sexuality, prayer, and magic. We will particularly focus on the biblical exegesis of The Zohar, the most central text of Jewish mysticism that, traditionally, one was forbidden to study until the age of 40. After tracing the further development of Kabbalah in 16th-century Safed (Land of Israel), we will study the mass eruption of the Kabbalah-based Messianic movement, which centered around Shabbetai Tzevi. We then begin our study of Hasidism, the movement of popular mysticism founded on the teachings the Ba’al Shem Tov (The Besht) in 18th-century Eastern Europe, which was forged into a mass movement by charismatic miracle workers called “Tzaddikim.” We will consider the vigorous opposition to Hasidism both by traditionalists and by proponents of the rationalistic, Enlightenment-based movement of social reform known as “maskilim.” We then consider Hasidism’s war against modernity, its unique response to the Holocaust, and its continued flourishing in tight-knit communities from Brooklyn to Jerusalem. Finally, we examine the revival of Kabbalah and Hasidism by modern, secularized Jews (and non-Jews) in search of spirituality and authenticity. Throughout this course, we will strive to appreciate the theoretical, literary, and experiential aspects of Jewish mysticism within its various historical contexts.

In current global circumstances, Islam is all too frequently represented solely in terms of political and militant ideologies. For those who wish to dig deeper, there are the rich and varied traditions of classical religious scholarship and jurisprudence. But to look at Islam through these lenses alone is to miss alternate sensibilities that are just as important in providing the material from which many Muslims construct their identities. In this course, we will be studying some of the distinctive themes and aesthetic traditions associated with Muslim cultures. When the contemporary Syrian poet Adonis speaks of a “Sufi aesthetic,” what does he mean? What is the dynamic underlying the text/image art movement named hurufiyya, after the medieval Islamic study of the occult properties of letters? In what ways do the religious elements of controversial novels such as Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses and Naguib Mafouz’s Children of the Alley—engage with long-standing traditions of story-telling? How is a theme such as the veil addressed in works that take into account Western responses as much as other symbolic histories? How is a medium such as film used to portray the role of religion in motivating or responding to acts of violence? Although most of the material that we will be studying will be from the contemporary period, premodern works will be used to illustrate the ways in which Muslim artistic and literary works have historically adapted themes, genre, and media from pre-Islamic and other cultures.