Fall 2018: Buddhism — RELB 2100

The goal of the course Introduction to Buddhism is to enable students new to the study of Buddhism to do two—not necessarily mutually exclusive—things: enter into the ethos and worldview of Buddhism and think critically as a scholar about it.

 

To accomplish these two ends, we will begin with the Buddha’s life and the earliest doctrinal teachings. In this first part of the course, we will delve deeply into the basics of Buddhism that are shared among almost all Buddhists across the world. In the second part of the course, we will consider particular intellectual developments and cultural changes in India, Tibet, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the U.S., in order to consider the transformations that have affected how particular Buddhist groups view the world. In both parts of the course, as we consider Buddhist understandings of the world, we will also reflect upon those understandings as scholars of religion who look to historical, anthropological, political, economic, and other "worldly" factors to explain Buddhism.