Religion 350 - Cool Buddhist Texts

Fall
2021
01
4.00
Maria Heim

TTH 01:00PM-02:20PM

Amherst College
RELI-350-01-2122F
CHAP 101
mrheim@amherst.edu
RELI-350-01,ASLC-350-01

(Offered as RELI 350 and ASLC 350) This course explores scripture, commentary, literature, and philosophy from the whole Buddhist world. We will seek the pleasures of encountering brilliant texts that have spoken to human beings across the millennia. The focus is on close analysis of primary texts, but we will also consider the historical and intellectual contexts in which they were produced and subsequently interpreted. All readings are in English translation, but we will also investigate the textual and linguistic worlds of classical Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Tibetan, and Japanese, and consider questions of translation. No prerequisites are required and the course is open to first-year students.

Fall semester. Professor Heim.

Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.