World Religions

(1)       We begin with a study for the Parliament of the World’s Religions (PWR), held at the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago in 1893, because it is so often regarded as one of the great annunciatory moments for the field. A number of the 19th-century European “founding fathers” were invited or present, as was Swami Vivekananda, who has been at least as significant as any of them for the development of the field as a global idea. The PWR’s American location broadens Tomoko Masuzawa’s magisterial description of the “invention of world religions” by initially shifting attention away from its European base. It also introduces us to the element of display involved in announcing this idea and to one of its most important institutional partners: the University of Chicago.

(2)       In the second part of the course we investigate the consolidation/invention of the conceptual entities that comprise “world religions,” as well as debates about just how many of them they are, and by what principle of accounting:  To exemplify the production of “isms” that are said to comprise the world religions, we investigate the conceptual origins of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and most recently The Indigenous.  

(3)        At the end we consider an institution founded around the idea of World Religions—Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions—and wonder how it compares to what has been done at Columbia and its neighbor institutions in New York: the Interfaith Center of New York, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary.

(4)       The course includes a workshop (2/21) in which we discuss various materials we might use if we ourselves were asked to teach a “world religions” course. We conclude with a mini-conference (4/24) in which you present your work and respond to that of others. There are two possibilities for the sort of work you might do, as listed below. Whichever you choose, please discuss your intentions with me by Friday, February 23.  A two-page proposal and draft bibliography are due by midnight that day. OPTIONS:

            (a) You can do a research paper on some aspect of the course—possibly