On modern Hinduism and popular visual culture: I want to use this seminar to relate the work of David Morgan (Visual Piety, Sacred Gaze) to Indian popular visual culture scholars (Kajri Jain, Chris Pinney, Jyotindra Jain, and others).
Through a consideration of figures like Bharat Mata, Tamilttay, the Gau Mata, Kannagi, Santoshi Ma, and a few others, I want to look at the phenomenon of why Indian modernity has seen such an eruption of the female divinity and the maternal body.
There are two main branches of Vaishnava Theology: Pancaratra and Vaikhanasa. Of these Pancaratra is followed in most of the temples in North and the South whereas in the North the Vaishnava ritual is also highly influenced by the Gaudiya Vaishnavism. The way of worshipping the Deity has some marked differences in all the systems though basically the spirit is the same. The course shall introduce the students to the rite of Puja ceremony as it is performed in the temples and as it is ideally supposed to be performed also in home. The Puja ritual of a particular sect represents at the same time its philosophical structure and sheds light on the religious beliefs of the followers of that particular school.
India's film industry is the second largest in the world, currently providing stories that negotiate the cultural transition between tradition and innovation in one of the world's fastest growing economies. These filmic arts are often uniquely Hindu; Bollywood's approach to plots, heroes, ethics and the divine image bring ancient models to life in new ways.
But are these only shallow imitations, or are they new incarnations of a deeply rooted theology, which has now adapted to the visual media of the modern age?
Using clips from three of India's most successful films of the last ten years, we will explore contemporary depictions of Hindu devotion in Hindi cinema.
Dr J M Frazier
Wednesday 30 April, 2.30pm, OCHS Library
A seminar for Masters and Undergraduate students offering pointers for writing essays and dissertations. We will talk about essay structure, developing original arguments, showing awareness of methodological and theoretical issues, incorporating primary texts and secondary readings, balancing explanation and argumentation, and aiming at excellence.
Turning long essays into exams is never easy, but it is crucial to success. In fact, exam essays are an art of their own, and in this class we will look at strategies and suggestions for writing the best essay within that pivotal hour.
The Jayakhya-samhita is one of the three gems of the Pancaratra or tantric Vaishnavism. This early medieval text contains material on cosmology, ritual, and the construction of mantras. The seminar will focus on selected chapters.
This seminar series continues the Michaelmas term’s work by focusing on a single text in the phenomenological tradition. The text we shall be reading is Merleau Ponty’s The Phenomenology of Perception. This is an important work of phenomenology which develops many key ideas and is striking for its contemporary relevance. Key ideas it deals with are the world that precedes knowledge, the lived body as that which gives access to a world, and subjectivity as being inseparable from body and world. The seminar will begin with a brief introduction to Merleau Ponty, situating him in the history of phenomenological thinking, and thereafter will be based on reading the text. It is assumed that participants in the seminar will have read the text prior to each session in order that a good level of discussion can be sustained.
The seminar is a presentation of a thesis that deals with a controversial contribution to modern Hinduism by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (1874–1937), within the frame of the encounter with Western colonialism and culture. It explores his life in colonial India, his social and philosophical background, motives and sources of inspiration, and impact in forging a new distinctive movement for the transformation of Hinduism within the frame of modernity. Bhaktisiddhanta grew up in the cultural milieu of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a tradition founded in Bengal by Caitanya (1486–1534) and popular throughout East India. Sections of this tradition went through a dramatic process of modernisation through the agency of Bhaktisiddhanta’s father, Bhaktivinoda Thakura (1834–1914), a judge in the British colonial administration. Bhaktisiddhanta developed his father’s work and founded a movement popularly known as the Gaudiya Math, which had branches in London and Berlin, and now has offshoots around the world. The study fills a neglected gap in the history of modern Hinduism and focuses on an intriguing stage of its development from medieval tradition to global institutions, shaped by the tumultuous encounter between Hinduism, Christianity and European modernity.
Fernando Sardella, MA in Religious Studies with major in History of Religions from Gothenburg University, 2005. Ferdinando is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Gothenburg University in Sweden. He has received a scholarship from The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education and will spend two terms in spring 2008 at the OCHS as a visiting scholar. He is working on a project that explores Vaishnavism in Bengal during the early 20th century. He has studied and carried out field work in India for a total period of eight months since 2004. He is currently affiliated to the Department of Sociology, Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
The Shakti Rupa Yogini, composed and choreographed by the late Guru Surendranath Jena in his unique style of odissi, a 20th century Indian classical dance genre, is a piece inspired by and dedicated to the yoginis of the Chausat Yogini temple at Hirapur, in Orissa, an ASI archaeological site. An extraordinary performance of Shakti Rupa Yogini was filmed in 2005 at Hirapur as part of a documentary about the work of Guru Surendranath Jena. Pratibha Jena Singh, Sura Babu’s eldest daughter, danced the composition at the Chausat Yogini temple, in order to bring out more explicitly the sense of connection between the dance and the ancient site.
This performance raises a number of questions, about the relationship between dance and temples in contemporary India, going beyond stereotypical notions of sculpturesque poses and sacred devadasi dancing. The seminar will give us an opportunity to discuss, from a new perspective, the use we make of archaeological sites and of dance performance in our project of re-imagining history and re-imagining the past.
Dr Alessandra Lopez y Royo lectures in Visual Culture at Roehampton University, London. She has a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in Art and Archaeology and has researched the visual and performing arts of India and Indonesia for two decades. She has written and directed two documentary films on DVD, both produced by the AHRC Research Centre for Cross-cultural Music and Dance Performance at SOAS, and has published extensively. Her most recent endeavour is an online interactive book, ReConstructing and RePresenting dance: exploring the dance/archaeology conjunction, published by Metamedia, at the Archaeology Center, Stanford University (http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/Metamedia/9)
This paper offers a literary and ideological deconstruction of the Bhagavata Purana. It traces the Purana's formation through the convergence of the Vedantin, the Aesthetic, and the Vaishnava traditions, and argues that it is the doctrine of Parinama which underlies the treatise. I first examine the Bhagavata Purana’s literary components; the roots of these are traced back historically to the Vedanta and Alvar traditions, and the Bhagavata Purana’s nature as an opus universale, representing an all Indian cultural melting pot, is highlighted. The paper then looks at the relations of Vaisnavism and dramaturgy, both historically as well as theologically, and argues that the Bhagavata Purana was traditionally read as a drama. It proceeds to decipher the aesthetic theory underlying the Bhagavata Purana, and argues that it is Bharata’s dramaturgical rasa theory. Within the rasa tradition, Abhinavagupta’s and Bhoja’s positions are highlighted and compared through three seminal points and it becomes apparent that the Bhagavata Purana’s underlying aesthetic theory is close to the Parinama doctrine of Bhoja where srngara is considered to be the supreme rasa. As Bhoja's date is no doubt later than the Bhagavata Purana's it is assumed that the Bhagavata Purana was influenced by one of Bhoja's predecessors. The paper ends by reinforcing this analysis by highlighting a later tradition – the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition – which had actually accepted this point of view.
Dr. Ithamar Theodor is a Visiting Fellow at the Divinity Faculty and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. Based at the University of Haifa, Israel, he received his M.Litt. in Theology from the University of Oxford, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Haifa, both engaged with the Bhagavata Purana. His publications include a translation of the Bhagavad-gita into Hebrew along with a commentary (Carmel, Jerusalem), ‘The Parinama Aesthetics as Underlying The Bhagavata Purana’ (Journal of Asian Philosophy), and ‘Deciphering the structure of the Bhagavad-gita through comparative Theology’ (Nidan, University of KwaZulu-Natal).
Scriptural Reasoning is a practice, developed mainly at the Universities of Virginia and Cambridge, of reading the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in groups. At OCHS we have the opportunity to extend this model beyond the Abrahamic traditions to the group reading of the scriptures of Hinduism. Indian traditions have developed interpretative strategies for reading their own scriptures which go back over a long period of time and scriptural reasoning might be seen as an extension of these reading practices in the contemporary context. To adapt a phrase by one of the practitioners of scriptural reasoning, Hindu scriptural reasoning is the reasoning that occurs when scripture is discussed by a group of interpreters (see Kepnes ‘A Handbook of Scriptural Reasoning’, pp. 367–83). It works through the reasoning implicit within the source texts themselves and the reasoning that interpreters bring to the scriptures in dialogue both with the text and with each other. In the Abrahamic context, Kepnes points out that scriptural reasoning has functioned within a triadic semiotic that assumes that meaning arises out of the relationship between sign, referent, and community of interpreters who bring to the texts their own disciplines of theology, indology, history, sociology or whatever. Thus scriptural reasoning is non-teleological, open-ended, and intends only to secure deep, engaged reflection upon, in our case Hindu, scriptures.
Scriptural reasoning arose in the context of the deconstructive critique of modernity, disillusion with liberal theology, and an abhorrence of religious fundamentalism. Scriptural reasoning is intended to allow tradition to be heard, but to be heard in the context of forms of reasoning that have developed within modernity. But rather than seeking some overarching logos that governs the outcomes of discourse, scriptural reasoning has sought to develop reasoning about scriptures that comes from both scripture and secular reason. Philological rigour is completely assumed to ensure the adequacy of the texts read, but scriptural reasoning seeks to develop interpretative strategies that go beyond philology to the interpretation of scriptures in the contemporary context. Commentaries on the texts can be consulted from time to time.
While the expertise in the languages of the texts will be present in all groups, the primary focus is in reading the texts in scholarly English translations. We will focus on passages from two texts in the first instance from the Upanishads and Bhagavad-gita. In due course the range of texts can be extended. The first texts during the term will be the Brhadaranyaka-upanisad 1.2.1–7 and 1.4.1–15, and Bhagavad-gita, chapter 2.
Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century that has had a deep impact on theology and religious studies. This seminar series seeks to engage with some of the fundamental concepts of phenomenology which underlie much work in theology and the phenomenology of religion. While the readings themselves are not directly about the phenomenology of religion, in order to understand the phenomenology of religion we need to address these fundamental ideas and to raise the basic questions of phenomenology. The aim is not so much a comprehensive overview of the phenomenological movement, but rather an attempt to come to grips with key phenomenological ideas that influence theology, the phenomenology of religion, and other areas in the human sciences. Thus we will pay attention to phenomenology as ‘showing’; as that which shows itself by coming into the light. The series will begin with a reading from the ‘father of phenomenology’, Edmund Husserl, and then move on to readings from Heidegger, Levinas, Ricoeur, and Henry. Our starting point will be Husserl’s Cartesian Meditations which provide us with some of the fundamental tools of phenomenology. In week two we look at a different understanding of phenomenology as ontology in contrast to ‘worldview’ with Heidegger’s first lecture in The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. With two different understandings of phenomenology we then go on to a reading that responds to the Heideggerian understanding with Levinas and then examine the application of phenomenology to memory in the later work of Ricoeur. Finally, as an example of the application of phenomenology, we examine the Christian theological phenomenology of Michel Henry.
While these readings are diverse it is hoped that by the end of the seminar series we will have grasped some of the range of phenomenology and its applications. The course will be based on selected readings and reasoning from the texts to other texts and applications that the interpreters (the class) bring to the table.
The Cartesian Meditations is a good introduction by Husserl which shows some of his concerns about the nature of knowledge and about method. It introduces some of the key ideas such as bracketing, the eidetic reduction, and the life-world. This seminar will focus on the idea of bracketing or suspending the natural attitude, the philosophy of consciousness that this entails, and begin to consider its application to the broader field of theology and religious studies.
Heidegger’s understanding of phenomenology is that it is concerned not with the multiplicity of existents but with existence or being itself. Phenomenology on this account is, in fact, ontology. These lectures of the problems of phenomenology are clearer than many of Heidegger’s other texts and articulate a different understanding of phenomenology to Husserl’s.
Levinas is deeply influenced by Husserl and his early works engage with Husserl’s texts. He later responds against the emphasis on being in western thought and shifts from consciousness as a first philosophy to ethics as a first philosophy. Phenomenology becomes open to the apprehension of the other such that the ‘I’ can become a ‘you’ and in so doing I truly become myself. This seminar will explore the idea of phenomenology in relation to the ethical demand of the other and the implications this might have for the broader study of religions.
Ricoeur presents a hermeneutical phenomenology and applies it to memory. In examining memory and the idea that ‘all memory is of the past’ Ricoeur presents us with a concrete phenomenology that raises questions about the history of ideas, about historicism, historiography, and temporality. The text draws (critically) on Husserl’s phenomenology of time and its concerns are applicable to wider fields in the human sciences.
In recent years there has been a turn to phenomenology in theology, particularly in France. While the key figure in this turn to phenomenology is Jean-Luc Marion (especially his important text Being Given), others include Michel Henry, Chretien, and Lacoste. The predecessor of this movement is Levinas although the ‘new phenomenology’ also sees itself as a transformation of Husserl in following the idea of ‘giveness’ to allow for the seeing of a religious dimension to human experience that Husserlian phenomenology excluded through simply not paying attention and being blinded by Husserlian presuppositions. The broader implication of this for the phenomenology of religion is that ‘religious’ phenomena cannot be excluded from any account of human experience. Dominique Janicaud’s reaction against the theological turn will form part of our discussion. This week’s seminar will focus on Michel Henry’s provocative and radical text, which raises questions about truth, especially Christian truth, and which can have application beyond Christianity.
Week 3, Monday 7 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
This seminar examines representations of the deity Shiva, and explores the possibilities of the image of the dancing Shiva as a pedagogical focus in teaching cultural diversity.
Dr Anne-Marie Gaston is an expert on Indian dance. Her work over the years has focused on the deity Shiva with particular reference to the god’s expression through dance and other arts.
Week 4, Thursday 17 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
The study of great religious texts demands much of the scholar, in part because such texts require professional linguistic and historical expertise, familiarity with the tradition in which the text arose, and a sense of the wider and often unstated context. But such religious texts also make demands on the reader, drawing him or her into thinking and feeling in specific ways about the topics discussed in the text. The reader then has to make choices about where, if anywhere, to draw a line between scholarly detachment and engaged participation. If the reader comes from a religious tradition, then he or she also brings the expectations of that tradition to the reading process, complicating even the initial scholarly learning practice. Prof. Clooney will illustrate the complexities of this learning with respect to his current study of the Srimad Rahasyatrayasara of Vedanta Desika (fourteenth century, South India).
Professor Frank Clooney, SJ, is Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard. Prof. Clooney is the author of numerous articles and books in the area of Hindu Studies and comparative theology, including Fr. Bouchet's India: An 18th-Century Jesuit's Encounter With Hinduism (2005), Divine Mother, Blessed Mother (2005), and Hindu God, Christian God (2001).
Please note, during weeks 1 to 3 the Shivdasani Seminars are held on Thursday afternoons. On week 4, it will be on Monday afternoon.
Week 1, Thursday 26 April, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
The seminar intends to discuss the nature of consciousness as expounded in the early system of Vaisesika, which deals with the problem of consciousness in relation to the process of cognition in general. In other words, knowledge is an adventitious attribute which inheres in the substance called atman (soul) only when it is embodied. During this seminar, the various implications and formulations of this view in Vaisesika sources will be examined.
Week 3, Thursday 10 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
The seminar examines the nature of sabda in the Vaisesika system which has been discussed there both as a guna of akasha, and as a pramana. The former is expressed in the ancient Vaisesika tradition, from Kanada up to Udayana, whereas the latter is explored in the later tradition, starting from its amalgamation with Nyaya and opposition to Buddhism. This seminar will cover both these aspects, with an emphasis on the role of sabda as a pramana.
Dr Shashiprabha Kumar is Professor in Sanskrit Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University and specialises in Nyaya-Vaisesika. She has published widely in this field over the past thirty years and has particular interest in the idea of consciousness in Nyaya, as well as the early history of the school.
Week 2, Thursday 3 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
The seminar will examine Hindu ideas of love and the idea of divine love ('love beyond'). The seminar will pay particular attention to the Narada Bhakti Sutras.
Week 4, Monday 14 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
This seminar will discuss the concept of ‘philosophy’ in the Hindu context and will examine foundational concepts as well as explore their psychological and spiritual import.
Dr Sangeetha Menon graduated in Zoology, and then took her postgraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Kerala, with a thesis entitled ‘The Concept of Consciousness in the Bhagavad Gita’. A gold-medalist and first rank holder for postgraduate studies, she has been a fellow at the National Institute of Advanced Studies since 1996.
Week 2, Monday 30 April, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
Ancient Hindu lawgivers have always viewed spiritual merit as arising from the spirit of dana. Marriage dana especially kanyadana has been considered as such.
A father, by giving away his kanya was assured of spiritual merit. In ancient India the kanya was designated as the super-gift and all the other gifts which accompanied her were secondary. Marriage gifts continue to form an integral part of modern marriage system, (in the form of dowry); the kanya continues to be given away but her role is subsumed by the property she carries with her to the marital family and as a result she is reduced to a conduit.
The shift in status of the daughter from super-gift to a vehicle that facilitates the dowry custom has closely and significantly affected the status of women in contemporary Indian society. The practice has spread all over India and its wider ramifications are visible in the spate of cases of bride-burning, suicides, and harassment. This paper will compare and contrast the role of the daughter in the exchange while taking into account factors that may have contributed to this shift in the status of a kanyadana.
Ms Pulane Lizzie Motswapong is a Ph.D. student in Canterbury Christ Church University (Department of TRS). She is currently working on her thesis entitled 'Marriage Dana in Ancient and Modern India: Focus on Hindu Dahej (Dowry) Custom'.
This short seminar series is a thematic and historical introduction to Hindu tantric traditions. Beginning with a survey of general features such as systems of mantra, ritual, cosmology, and yoga, we will then go on to examine particular tantric traditions focused on Shiva, Vishnu, and the Goddess.
The seminars will mainly explore the medieval period and examine tantrism in the context of political systems of the time, folk religion, traditions of brahmanical learning, and knowledge systems. Part of the seminars will focus on the study of particular texts and reasoning about them with an emphasis on understanding their theological concerns.
The seminars will be held in the OCHS library.
Tuesday 1 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
While the term ‘tantrism’ can be unhelpful in understanding medieval religion in India there are nevertheless texts and traditions for which ‘tantra’ is part of their self description. Indeed, tantric traditions might be defined by the mantra system that they use. In this introductory seminar we will examine the broad parameters of tantric traditions and look at ritual and ideas they commonly share.
Tuesday 8 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
Traditions focused on Shiva and the Goddess in what can be called the mantramarga are prototypically tantric. The Shaiva Siddhanta provides the normative, orthodox tradition in the context of which the more extreme cults of the Kula and Krama need to be understood. The later Sri Vidya develops out of these earlier traditions and illustrates a process in which marginal cults become absorbed by the mainstream, brahmanical tradition.
Tuesday 15 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
Tantric Vaishnavism or the Pancaratra developed alongside the Shaiva and Shakta traditions with its own texts regarded as revelation. This tradition was a major influence on Sri Vaishnavism, both in theology and ritual procedures. Later Vaishnava traditions such as the Sahajiyas are also tantric in orientation in their emphasis on the male-female polarity as a structuring principle in the cosmos and systems of soteriology.
Tuesday 22 May, 2–3.30pm, OCHS Library
In Kerala tantric Hinduism is normative and Nambudri Brahman families have been the holders of tantric ritual knowledge for generations. Kerala Tantrism is a synthetic tradition which develops in the late middle ages and is formed in two traditions based on the Tantrasamuccaya and the Ishanashivagurudevapaddhati.
‘What did Ramakantha contribute to the Buddhist-Brahmanical atman debate?’
Alex Watson
Week 4, Thursday 8th February 2.00, OCHS Linbrary.
In attempting to refute the Buddhist doctrine of no-Self, Ramakantha absorbed many features of Buddhism. For example, he sided with Buddhism against Nyaya and Vaisesika in denying the existence of property-possessors (dharmins) over and above properties (dharmas), and in denying a Self as something that exists over and above cognition. For him the Self simply is cognition (jnana, prakasa, samvit) and so he has to prove that cognition is constant and unchanging. I will present those arguments of Ramakantha's that strike me as his strongest and most original. I will spend at least the first 10 minutes of the talk introducing, and giving an overview of, the Buddhist-Brahmanical atman debate.
Dr Alex Watson did a DPhil in Oriental Studies. He is an expert in Saiva Siddhanta and related traditions whose work has particularly focussed on Ramakantha. He has published The Self's Awareness of Itself. Bha??a Ramakathas's Arguments against the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self (De Nobili Research Library, 2006) and is currently working on a book on Ramakantha’s understanding of moksa.
Icon and Murti
Ken Valpey (OCHS) and Matthew Steenberg (Greyfriars)
This seminar series will examine the issue of representation of the divine in Christian Orthodoxy and Vaisnava Hinduism. Given that God is unknowable and beyond all representation in these traditions, questions will be raised about how a transcendent reality can be represented, the function of such representations, and the degree to which such mediations are thought to be required by tradition. The first two seminars will offer theological backgrounds to Orthodoxy and Vaisnava Hinduism and the remaining two will examine in more detail conceptual and historical problems in the history of the traditions.
The four seminars will be held at 2.00 on Tuesdays at 2.00 in the OCHS library.
Week 2, Tuesday 23rd January, 2007 – Seminar 1
Week 4, Tuesday 6th February, Seminar 2
Week 6, Tuesday 8th February Seminar 3
Week 8, Tuesdays 6th March, Seminar 4.
Graduate seminars
Towards a comparative theology of the person: neo-vedantic and Byzantine convergence.
Nicholas Bamford
Tuesday 27th Feb, 2.00-2.30.
Comparative theology is an important area of research in the contemporary world. This paper will develop the idea of the person as a fruitful category for comparative theological inquiry. The seminar will raise questions about the person as an ontological category and its possible future development with particular reference to Saiva theology in dialogue with Orthodox Christianity.
Nicholas Bamford is a PhD candidate in the Theology Dept, University of Chichester. He has research interests in Orthodox Theology and Kashmir Saivism.
A ‘super gift’ or a conduit: The place of a daughter in the Indian marriage exchange
Ms Pulane Lizzie Motswapong
Tuesday 30th January 2.00-3.30, OCHS Library
Hindu law books thought that merit arose from giving (dana) and from marriage and that the giving away of a daughter (kanyadana) was particularly meritorious. By giving away his daughter a father was assured of spiritual merit. The marriageable girl (kanya) was regarded as a supreme or ‘super’ gift and all the other gifts accompanying her were secondary. Indeed, marriage gifts continue to form an integral part of the modern marriage system in the form of the dowry. The girl continues to be given away but her role is subsumed by the property she carries with her to the marital family. This shift in the status of the daughter from supreme gift to conduit or vehicle that facilitates the dowry custom has affected the status of women in contemporary Indian society. This paper will examine this issue and compare and contrast the role of the daughter in the exchange while taking into account factors that may have contributed to this shift in the status of kanyadana.
Ms Pulane Lizzie Motswapong is a Phd student in Canterbury Christ Church University (Department of TRS). She is currently working on her thesis entitled “Marriage Dana in Ancient and Modern India: Focus on Hindu Dahej (Dowry) Custom”
Beyond the Classical: Tagore and Modern Dance in Bengal
Dr Prarthana Purkayastha
This seminar will address Rabindranath Tagore's contribution to dance performance and the evolution of the Bengali dance-drama genre in Bengal in the early 20th century in relation to the religious, cultural and political milieu of that time. Dr Purkayastha has pursued research on dance and currently teaches on the Dance Programme, School of Arts, Roehampton University, London.
Week 3 - Thursday 26th October, 2.00 - 3.30pm OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
Understanding the Pancaratra
Prof. M. Narasimhacary and Prof. Gavin Flood
This seminar presented by the Prof. Narasimhachary (OCHS Shivdasani Fellow) and Prof. Gavin Flood (OCHS Academic Director) will explore issues of text and interpretation through focussing on texts of the Pancaratra corpus.
Week 8 - Thursday 30th November, 2.00 - 3.30pm OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
Gradute Seminars
Baladeva Vidyabhusana's Premeya-ratnavali and the Issue of Lineage
Kiyokazu Okita
This seminar will present an account of the Vaishnava philosopher Baladeva Vidyabhusana and his place in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. The paper will address the problem of lineage and raise questions about authenticity, authority, and the legitimacy of practice claimed by tradition. Kiyokazu Okita is a graduate student in the Theology Faculty at Oxford, pursuing research for his DPhil on Baladeva. He has degrees from Japan and the USA.
Week 1 - Thurs 12th October, 2.00 - 3.30pm OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
The Teleology of Meditation
Christopher Wood
Drawing from a range of examples, this seminar will present a thesis about the ways in which the goal of meditation within specific spiritual traditions affects practice. It will raise questions about the nature of meditation and other spiritual practices and about individual and communal experience. Christopher Wood is a DPhil student in the Theology Faculty. His background is in Theology (Birmingham) and he has research interests in the history of ideas, comparative religion, and the interface between Theology and Psychology.
Week 7 - Thurs 23rd November, 2.00 - 3.30pm OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
Theories of the Text Series
Prof. Gavin Flood
In association with the Theology Faculty
OCHS Library Weeks 3-6 Tuesdays 2.00 - 3.00pm
The study of texts is fundamental to Theology and Religious Studies. The aim of this series of seminars is to examine some theories of the text that have arisen within the human sciences over the last fifty years and to examine their implications for the study of religions. These developments have broadly occurred within what has become known as the 'linguistic' turn and 'postmodernism', along with reactions to it. As we now move beyond these intellectual movements ('beyond theory' to borrow a recent term by Terry Eagleton) we need to reassess the role of the text, particularly the religious text, and examine the kinds of reading practices that are available to us.
Schedule
Intention in the text: Phenomenology
Week 3 - 24th October
This seminar will introduce the basics of phenomenology from Husserl and raise questions about intentionality, bracketing, and subjectivity. The suggested reading by E. D. Hirsch exemplifies the application of a Husserlian perspective to literary study and raises the question of author's intentionality and the act of interpretation as the uncovering of authorial intention which contrasts sharply with the idea of the death of the author. This theme will be broadened beyond literary texts to religious texts as well.
Sign in the text: Semiotics (and Deconstruction)
Week 4 - 31st October
Moving away and responding to phenomenology we have semiotic approaches to text which recognise the structure that a sign refers to a signified for someone or some group. Kristeva was a particularly important thinker in developing the idea of the sign in the text and we shall focus on her work on sign in relation to symbol in this seminar. The semiotic understanding the text will be contrasted with the phenomenological and we will examine the sign-signified relationship with respect to sacred text (of what is sacred text a sign, for whom is sacred text a sign, and how does sacred text signify?).
The text in action: Social Science
Week 5 - 7th November
This seminar raises the question of the relation of text to social action. Can social action, as Ricoeur claims, be understood as being like a text? We will examine Ricoeur's claim in the context of his broader thinking and extend the question to ask to what extent is text the fundamental category of culture? We will also raise the question of the ways in which religious text pervades religious action and examine the importance of text for liturgical action.
The text in the reader: Theories of Reception
Week 6 - 14th November
A text is read or received by someone or some group. Here we will examine in more detail the third aspect of the semiotic triangle, those for whom the text signifies. After presenting some account of reception theory (as in the work of Iser and Jauss), the seminar will discuss Stanley Fish' famous paper and its relevance for religious text reception. This latter question will be taken up in relation to the work of Paul Griffiths and Peter Ochs, time permitting.
Shivdasani Seminars
Images and Ideas of the Goddess in the Hindu Tradition
Prof. Mandakranta Bose (Emeritus Professor, Centre for India and South Asia Research, University of British Columbia, Canada)
The idea of Devi, the goddess on whom all creation depends for both protection and nurture, is fundamental to the Hindu way of life. This profound philosophical idea found powerful expression in Hindu myths from early times, influencing both religion and culture in South Asia. This lecture will take note of the intensely emotional impact of the idea of the goddess figure in Hindu thought and trace how through the ages it has been reworked into the rich fabric of South Asian literature, art and the performing arts.
Tuesday 2nd May, 2.00–3.30pm, OCHS library
Value Ethics in the Early Upanishads: A Hermeneutic Exercise
Prof. T.S. Rukmani (Professor of Hindu Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada)
The general view amongst scholars, and western scholars in particular, is that there is not sufficient attention paid to ethics in Hinduism. While no one holds that view seriously these days it does surface in discussions on Hinduism even today. This presentation tries to tackle that issue from the point of view of the early Upanishads. The main argument I develop is that moral theory and ethical behaviour is culture specific and there cannot be a uniform standard moral theory for all cultures. Moreover, it is axiomatic that no culture, particularly one that has survived thousands of years like that of the Hindus, could have survived without a moral code. Moral theory grows in consonance with the values that each society considers of ultimate importance. Keeping this as the background, this paper looks at a number of the early and middle Upanishads to build a behaviour pattern based on the twin concepts of dharma and moksa. Along the way the paper also tries to answer criticisms from scholars like Zaehner for whom a jivanmukta (one liberated while still in the body) is beyond all morality. The conclusion drawn is that there is a close connection between moral behaviour and the realization of what it means to be human.
Thursday 4th May, 2.00–3.30pm, OCHS Library
Women Poets of Hinduism
Prof. Mandakranta Bose
Poetry by women can be traced back in South Asia to the 6th century BCE, when Buddhist nuns recorded their joy at finding freedom from the drudgery of everyday life and at achieving not merely social but spiritual liberation in religion. Centuries later, from the 9th century onward, a more durable and powerful tradition of poetry appeared in songs by the women poets of devotional Hinduism, which afforded space to people on the margin, such as, women, lower castes and outcastes, and sparked a cultural awakening that retains its vitality even today. Women, powerless and silent in many domains of community life, found strength in their sense of the divine and their own voice in poetry and songs. Against this historical background this lecture will introduce the poetry of Antal, a 9th century Vaisnava a poet, of Akka Mahadevi of the Virasaiva sect from the 12th century, of Lalla, a 14 century Saiva poet, and songs by the 16th century Vaisnava princess Mirabai. Understanding the intensity of their approaches to the idea of the divine will aid us in appreciating how these works have affected the people of India and continued as a living tradition of women's spiritual quest.
Tuesday 9th May, 2.00-3.30, OCHS Library
How much of Yoga did Shankara accept in his formulation of Advaita Vedanta
Prof. T.S. Rukmani
Shankara opposes the dualistic Yoga as much as the Samkhya in his Brahmasutrabhasya and other works. But one clearly sees that his opposition does not extend to the methodology of Yoga. He generally speaks favourably of yogic practices and even accepts the siddhis of Yoga. Sankara mentions the threefold sravana, manana and nididhyasana as of paramount importance for brahman-realization. While sravana is translated as hearing and studying the relevant sacred texts and manana as reflection on what one has learnt from the texts, nididhyasana is usually translated as samadhi as well as dhyana. Samadhi and dhyana are already well defined terms in yoga philosophy and one struggles to find a proper understanding of the word nididhyasana in Advaita Vedanta. Sankara tries to define nididhyasana but is not able to convincingly point out the distinction between dhyana/samadhi and nididhyasana. It is this difficulty that makes one, like Sadananda, the author of the Vedantasutras, define nididhyasana in a two-fold manner as savikalpaka and nirvikalpaka samadhi, and blur the difference between yogic samadhi and Advaita Vedanta nididhyasana. This paper discusses these various issues.
Thursday 11th May, 2.00-3.30, OCHS Library
Graduate Seminars
A Way to Relate Hinduism and Science
Jonathan Edelmann (Harris-Manchester College)
Tuesday 25th April, 2.00–3.30pm, OCHS library
The Place of Devotion and Grace in Shankara’s Soteriology
Jean-Marie Schmitt (St Cross College)
Monday 8th May, 2.00–3.30pm, OCHS Library
A Cherished Gem or a Bitter Fruit? Renunciation in Kavikarnapura's Caitanya-candrodaya-nataka
Rembert Lutjeharms (Blackfriars)
Tuesday 16th May, 2.00–3.30pm, OCHS Library
Theories of the Text Seminar Series
Prof. Gavin Flood
OCHS is association with the Theology Faculty
OCHS Library on five Thursdays 2.00-3.00
The study of texts is fundamental to Theology and Religious Studies. The aim of this series of seminars is to examine some theories of the text over the last fifty years that have arisen within the human sciences and to examine their implications for the study of religions. These developments have broadly occurred within what has become known as the ‘linguistic’ turn and ‘postmodernism’ along with reactions to it. As we now move beyond these intellectual movements (‘beyond theory’ to coin a recent term by Terry Eagleton) we need to reassess the role of the text, particularly the religious text, and examine the kinds of reading practices that are available to us.
Questions concerning the nature of texts, the nature of reading, the importance of narrative, the relation of sign to symbol, the relation of text to author and of text to reader or community of readers are fundamental to any understanding of religion and culture. The seminars are therefore intended to provide a preliminary overview of developments within phenomenology, hermeneutics, semiotics and narratology. Because of the vast nature of the topic, these seminars can only hope to offer pointers in particular directions, raise questions about textuality, and encourage the raising of questions about the text within students’ particular fields of interest. Perhaps the most pervasive theme that the seminars will often return to concerns the question of the subject of the text which itself entails questions about agency and reception. Other questions might also be considered such as the implications of broadening the concept to text to include oral texts. Through examining questions shared by all scholars concerned with texts it is hoped that the cross fertilisation of ideas will facilitate new understandings and applications.
26th January, Introduction: What is a text? What is a sacred text?
The introductory session will firstly outline some developments in textual study, very briefly describing the historical trajectory from nineteenth century hermeneutics, through phenomenology, modern hermeneutics, semiotics, deconstruction, narrative, and feminist study to postcritical textual reasoning. Secondly through this historical survey we will raise questions that we will seek to address through the course, such as what is a text in general and what is a ‘sacred text’ in particular? What is the relation of text to temporality? Does the term ‘sacred text’ entail something ahistorical (or even anti-historical)? And, perhaps most importantly, who is the narrator of the text and what is the relation of the narrator to the text’s receivers?
2nd February, Intention in the text: Phenomenology
This seminar will introduce the basics of phenomenology from Husserl and raise questions about intentionality, bracketing, and subjectivity. The suggested reading by E.D. Hirsch exemplifies the application of a Husserlian perspective to literary study and raises the question of author’s intentionality and the act of interpretation as the uncovering of authorial intention which contrasts sharply with the idea of the death of the author. This theme will be broadened beyond literary texts to religious texts as well.
Seminar Reading
Hirsch, E.D. Validity in Interpretation (Yale UP, 1967), pp. 209-44.
Background
Hammond, M. et al Understanding Phenomenology (Blackwell, 1991), ch. 2.
Husserl, E. Cartesian Meditations trs Dorian Cairns (Kluwer 1988), esp pp. 18-26. Greetham, D.C. Theories of the Text (OUP, 1999), ch. 4.
16th February, Sign in the Text: Semiotics (and Deconstruction)
Moving away and re
ssionsponding to phenomenology we have semiotic approaches to text which recognise the structure that a sign refers to a signified for someone or some group. Kristeva was a particularly important thinker in developing the idea of the sign in the text and we shall focus on her work on sign in relation to symbol in this seminar. The semiotic understanding the text will be contrasted with the phenomenological and we will examine the sign-signified relationship with respect to sacred text (of what is sacred text a sign, for whom is sacred text a sign, and how does sacred text signify)?
Seminar Reading
Kristeva, Julia ‘The Semiotic and the Symbolic’ from Revolution in Poetic Language (1974) in Toril Moi (ed.) The Kristeva Reader (Blackwell 1986), pp. 90-136
Background
Barthes, R. Elements of Semiology (Cape, 1967).
Chandler, Daniel Semiotics, the Basics (Routledge, 2002), ch. 1.
Culler, J. The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, and Deconstruction (Routledge, 1981).
23rd February, The text in action: Social Science
This seminar raises the question of the relation of text to social action. Can social action, as Ricoeur claims, be understood as being like a text? We will examine Ricoeur’s claim in the context of his broader thinking and extend the question to ask to what extent is text the fundamental category of culture? We will also raise the question of the ways in which religious text pervades religious action and examine the importance of text for liturgical action.
Seminar Reading
Ricoeur, Paul ‘Social Action Considered as a Text’
Background
Ricouer, P. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences trs John B. Thompson (CUP,1982)
9th March, The text in the reader: Theories of Reception
A text is read or received by someone or some group. Here we will examine in more detail the third aspect of the semiotic triangle, those for whom the text signifies. After presenting some account of reception theory (as in the work of Iser and Jauss), the seminar will discuss Stanley Fish’ famous paper and its relevance for religious text reception. This latter question will be taken up in relation to the work of Paul Griffiths and Peter Ochs, time permitting.
Seminar Reading
Fish, Stanley ‘Is there a text in this class?’ in Is There a Text in this Class? The Auhtority of Interpretative Communities (Harvard University Press, 1980).
Griffiths, P. Religious Reading: The Place of Reading in the Practices of Religion (OUP, 1999), chapter 2.
Ochs, Peter ‘Introduction’ The Return to Scripture in Judaism and Christianity: Essays in Postcritical Scriptural Interpretation (Paulist, 1993)]
Background
Iser, W. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response (Johns Hopkins, 1978).
Tompkins, Jane P. (ed.) Reader Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism (Johns Hopkins, 1980)
Religion & Film Seminars
OCHS Library, 3.30pm – 5pm
A new series of seminars combines talks, clips and lively discussion to explore the many manifestations of Religion in Film. Speakers will discuss the ideals and the realities of religion, as it shapes public consciousness through one of our most powerful and popular art forms.
Monday 23rd January
Action movies and American ideals: The Growth of Buddhism in Hollywood
Jessica Frazier, Divinity Faculty, Cambridge, and OCHS
Monday 6th February
The Neo-Islamicisation of Public Space in Egyptian Cinema and Television
Dr Walter Armbrust, Middle East Centre, St Anthony’s College, Oxford
Monday 27th February
The Mediator: the Priest in Film
Prof. George Pattison, Theology Faculty, Christchurch College, Oxford
Monday 6th March
Shouting at Shiva: Religion in the Films of Amitabh Bachchan
Jessica Hines, Author and Biographer
Text, Context and Interpretation Seminar Series
A series of seminars begins this term which broadly focuses on texts, their interpretation, and the relation of text to wider cultural, social and philosophical concerns. We anticipate that a number of common themes will emerge during the series.
The Poetics of Sovereignty in Early Vedic Liturgies
Dr T. Proferes (SOAS)
Friday, 17th February 2.00, OCHS Library
Recently there has been a general interest in the relation of religion to kingship in the history of Indian religions. In the context of this interest, the seminar examines the relationship between power and ritual through showing how sovereignty is expressed in Vedic liturgies.
Interconnecting parallel times: Notions of time in the Caitanya tradition of Hinduism
Dr Angelika Malinar (SOAS)
Thursday, 2nd March 2.00, OCHS Library
While the idea that ancient Indian cultures lack a “sense of history” has been questioned and even rejected in recent years, the notion of “cyclical time” is still regarded as the concept of time prevalent in Hinduism. The paper examines this view by dealing with Mircea Eliade’s understanding of “cyclicity” and “eternal return”. It will be argued that “time” is not only in Western religions, but also in Hinduism conceived of as a complex, multi-layered phenomenon. This will be shown in a case-study of the Caitanya tradition.
Introduction to the Shivdasani Series of Seminars
The Archaeology of Sacred Space:
The Hindu Temple in Peninsular India (2nd Century BC – 8th Century AD)
This series of two lectures (see lectures) and two seminars presents the social context of the Hindu temple in peninsular India from its inception in the 2nd-1st centuries BC to the 8th century AD. Archaeological data encompasses not just religious structures and standing monuments, but more importantly it also includes an analysis of the location of religious architecture within the social domain. Temple architecture is thus an important indicator of interaction with diverse interest groups, such as worshippers, ritual specialists, patrons, artisans, etc. No temple can survive without adequate maintenance and we do know that shrines and other sacred architecture far outlived their patrons. The focus within this larger canvas is on the biography of temple complexes at Alampur, Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami, which evolved as major centres for Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist worship from 6th to 8th centuries, thus epitomising a microcosm for religious developments in peninsular India and the larger Indian Ocean world.
Shivdasani Seminars
Narratives in Stone: The Ramayana in Early Deccan
Dr Himanshu Prabha Ray (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
Week 3, Thursday October 27th, 2pm
OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
Recitation from sacred texts including the Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata was a crucial part of ritual activities at temples further reinforced by representations of themes from literature in narrative panels on temple walls. The most sustained visual narrative based on the Valmiki Ramayana dates from 5th to 8th centuries and is to be found on the Visnu temple at Deogarh dated to 425 AD, the contemporary temple at Nachna, as well as in the Deccan on the Durga, Papanatha and Virupaksa temples at Aihole – Pattadakal and at the Kailasa temple at Ellora. The Ramayana travelled to Southeast Asia towards the end of the first millennium AD, but the selection of themes and episodes to be depicted on monuments varied from place to place. This presentation analyses the Ramayana panels with a view to understanding the religious and cultural milieu of these shrines.
The Biography of Temple Complexes:
Alampur – Aihole – Badami – Pattadakal
Dr Himanshu Prabha Ray (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
Week 6, Thursday November 17th, 2pm
OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
The distribution of Buddhist and early temple sites shows that they overlap in the lower Krishna basin. But more noticeable is the clustering of early temple sites in the two interior districts of Mahboobnagar and Kurnool in Andhra where no Buddhist sites have been found, for example temple sites such as Keesaragutta and Alampur. The most ornate of the early temples located in the Eastern Deccan are those at the site of Alampur situated at the confluence of the rivers Tungabhadra and Krishna. The sites of Aihole, Badami and Patadakal formed the core area of temple construction in central Deccan. Inscriptions dating from 8th to 12th centuries from these temple sites, especially Aihole provide valuable information on the operations of the merchant guild Ayyavole and donations made by them to the temple complex. The importance of the sites of Aihole-Pattadakal-Badami in the development of multi-layered sacred space in central Deccan is undeniable and this presentation locates these temple complexes within their social domains.
Trinity Term 2005 (April–June)
OCHS Shivdasani Seminars Series
Select Thursdays, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
Week 1: April 28
Semantic history of “Vedanta” and its implications for the study of Indian philosophy
Prof. Ashok Aklujkar, University of British Columbia, Canada
Week 3: May 12
Yoga and Vyaakarana
Prof. Ashok Aklujkar, University of British Columbia, Canada
Week 4: May 19
Dextrous Deity, Diffident Devotee – A Study of the Shivanadalahari
Nilima Chitgopekar, Delhi University, India
Week 6: June 2
The Devotion to and Puissance of Beauty: The Case of the Saundaryalahari
Nilima Chitgopekar, Delhi University, In
Hilary Term 2005 (January–March)
Select Thursdays, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
Advaitavedanta in Bhartrhari's Vakyapadiya
K.Maheswaran Nair, (Professor, Department of Sanskrit, University of Kerala)
Week 2, January 27th, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
Advaitavedanta and the Kerala Renaissance of the 19th Century
K.Maheswaran Nair, (Professor, Department of Sanskrit, University of Kerala)
Week 6, February 24th, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
Female Speakers in the Upanishads and Mahabharata
Brian Black (SOAS, University of London)
Week 7, March 3rd, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
Pilgrimage as a "Geographic Ritual" in South Indian Hinduism
Remy Delage (Dept of Anthropology, SOAS, University of London)
Week 8, March 10th, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
OCHS Consciousness Seminar Series:
'Means of Knowing' in Indian Traditions and Cognitive Science
Tuesdays, 3pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St
18th January 2005:
"Indian and Western Approaches to the Mystery of Consciousness"
Jonathan Edelmann, Jean-Marie Schmitt, Jessica Frazier
25th January 2005:
"Psychiatric views on Consciousness"
Dr Sepehr Hafizi (Pharmacology)
1st February 2005:
"Vaishnava views on Consciousness in dialogue with the West"
Jonathan Edelmann (Theology)
8th February 2005:
"Saivite views on Consciousness"
Christopher Wallis (Oriental Studies)
15th February 2005:
"Neurological views on Consciousness"
Prof. John Marshall (Psychology)
22nd February 2005:
"Advaita views on Consciousness"
Jean-Marie Schmitt (Theology)
1st March 2005:
"Buddhist Views on Consciousness"
Prof. Richard Gombrich (Oriental Studies)
8th March 2005:
"Conclusions: Mapping the Mind in India and the West"
Jessica Frazier (Theology)
Michaelmas Term 2004 (October–December) Seminars
Thursdays, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St,
October 21th : " A poet and a philosopher: Two women in the Sri Vaishnava tradition. "
Vasudha Naryanan
(University of Florida, USA and Tamal Krishna Visiting Fellow)
October 28th : " Board games a metaphor for spiritual growth."
Vasantha Rangachar
(Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur, and Andhra Pradesh and Shivdasani Visiting Fellow)
November 4th : " Do games and play have a religious character "
Vasantha Rangachar
(Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur, and Andhra Pradesh and Shivdasani Visiting Fellow)
Trinity Term 2004 (April–June) Seminars
Thursdays, 2pm, OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St,
First Week ( April 29 th )
S. Ramaratnam , Vivekananda College, (Chennai) and Shivdasani Visiting Fellow "Funerals and Life after Death: Some Hindu Perspectives"
Second Week ( May 6 th )
Nick Allen , Social Anthropology, Oriental Institute
"The importance of Bhishma for Indo-European cultural comparativism"
Third Week ( May 13 th )
Christopher Melchert , Arabic and Islam, Oriental Institute
"Islamic Monotheism and Islamic Piety: in Conversation with Hindu Perspectives"
Forth Week (May 20 th )
S. Ramaratnam and Francis Clooney (OCHS Academic Director)
"A Conversation on Western and Indian Perspectives on Reading a Hindu Text: the case of the Bhagavad Gita."
Fifth Week ( May 27 th )
George Pattison (Lady Margaret Professor, Theology)
"A Christian Understanding of Monotheism: in Conversation with Hindu Perspectives"
Sixth Week ( June 3 rd )
Jessica Frazier (Cambridge University, D.Phil. Cand.)
"Continental Philosophy and Hindu Devotion: towards a metaphysics of passion."
Special History Seminar
Co-Sponsored by the South Asia Sub-Faculty (History) and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Indian Texts in Historical Context: Problems and Possibilities
Presentations include:
"Textual History and Social
Reality in the Manavadharmasastra"
Patrick Olivelle (Asian Studies, University of Texas)
"Pandits and Sanskrit
Grammarians in 16th and 17th Century North India"
James Benson (Sanskrit, Oriental Faculty)
"Rethinking Niti texts
in medieval and early modern South India"
Sanjay Subrahmanyam (Indian History, Oriental Faculty)
"Community, Text,
and Context in Vedanta Desika's 14th CenturySrimadrahasyatrayasara"
Francis Clooney SJ (OCHS Academic Director, Theology Faculty)
"A'zam al-karamat:
Making 'Muslim' Saints in Early Twentieth Century Hyderabad
State"
Nile Green (Lady Margaret Hall)
Friday, 7 th May, 10.30am - 5pm St Antony's College
Fin de Siecle Seminar Series
Two South Indian
Hindu Comparativists: J. M Nallaswamy Pillai (Saiva) & Algonda
Govindacharya (Vaisnava)
Francis X Clooney SJ , OCHS Academic Director
Thursday, May 6th, 5pm Florey Room, Wolfson College
Convenor: Carol Peaker, e -mail: carol.peaker@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Science and Religion Seminar
"Cultural Myths, Biological
Forms and Subjective Qualities: Western and Hindu Views on
the Philosophy of Biology."
Dr Brian Goodwin Professor of Biology at the Schumacher College,
UK
Wednesday, May 26 th , 5pm OCHS, Magdalen Street.
Convenor: Jonathan Edelmann e -mail: jonathan.edelmann@theology.oxford.ac.uk
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies & The Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies
The Hindu - Jewish Seminar Trinity 2004
"A Jewish Understanding of Monotheism in the Hebrew Bible: in Conversation with Hindu Perspectives."
Madhavi Nevader
OCHJS & Oriel College
Week 4, Tuesday 18 th May, 2pm Campion Hall
All are welcome
Convenors: Francis X Clooney (OCHS) & Miri Freud-Kandel (OCHJS)
Enquiries: E-mail: clooney@bc.edu & miri.freud-kandel@orinst.ox.ac.uk
Tel: 01865-304300 (Prof. Clooney) & 01865-278212 (Dr Freud-Kandel)
The Hindu-Jewish Seminar
Presented by the Centre for Hindu Studies & the Centre for Hebrew
and Jewish Studies
The Truth(s) of Translation
Dr
Julius Lipner, Cambridge University
& Dr Norman Solomon, OCHJS
This is the third of our joint seminars. We began with two sessions
entitled, "Around the Table: A conversation on Jewish and Hindu
dietary and dining customs". Dr Miri Freud-Kandel and Prof. Ramaratnam led these seminars, in Trinity term 2003. This term we
hope to journey from the kitchen to the temple and delve deeper
into both traditions and their approaches to truth and interpretation
Week 5, Thursday 19th February, 2pm - 4pm
OCHS Library, 15 Madgalen St. All are welcome
OCHS
Seminars
Wednesdays, 2.15pm – 3.45pm, OCHS Library,
15 Madgalen St.
First Week (21th January)
Prof. FX Clooney SJ, Academic Director
OCHS
“Overview of participants academic projects”
Second Week (28th January)
Prof. FX Clooney SJ, Academic Director
OCHS
“A Hindu Theology of Revelation, Scripture, and Tradition:
Comments
on Vedanta Desika's 14th Century Guruparamparasaram”
Third Week (4th February)
Dr Daniela Rossella, University of
Milan, Italy, OCHS Shivdasani Visiting Fellow
“Kavya, (literature as an art form) and Bhakti”
Fifth Week (18h February)
Dr Nilima Chitgopekar, Delhi University,
India, OCHS Shivdasani Visiting Fellow
“Devised Lineages and Pliant Biographies: A Study of Shiva
and his Retinue ”
Sixth Week (25th February)
Dr Daniela Rossella, University of
Milan, Italy, OCHS Shivdasani Visiting Fellow
“Christian nuptial mysticism and parallels with Indian mystical
trends”
Seventh Week (3rd March)
Dr Nilima Chitgopekar, Delhi University,
India, OCHS Shivdasani Visiting Fellow
“The Abundance and Vicissitudes of Multiplicity: The Case
of 'Chaunsatha' Yoginis”
Eight Week (10th March)
Prof. FX Clooney SJ, Academic Director
OCHS
“Reviewing Hilary term”
The Centre welcomes suggestions for other lectures and seminar topics. Contact the Academic Director at clooney@bc.edu or 01865 304 300.
Trinity
Term 2003
Wednesdays, 2.15pm - 3.45pm, OCHS Library,
15 Madgalen St. (Except where otherwise stated.)
First Week (30th April)
Jan Olof Bengtsson, D.Phil. Student,
St Cross College
"'Person' as an Intellectual Category in the West, and as Applied
to India"
Second Week (7th May)
Dr Stephanie Jamison, University of
California, USA
"On the new translation of the Rig Veda"
Third Week (14th May)
Dr Anne-Marie Gaston, (Oriental Inst,
Lecture Room 1)
"Siva in sculpture, painting and dance"
Fourth Week (21st May)
Dr Madhuvanti Ghose, (Ashmolean Museum)
"De-mystifying the Divine: The early Brahmanical pantheon"
Fifth Week (28h May)
Savita Bhanot, D.Phil. Student, University
of Birmingham,
"Second Generation Hindus: Foreign Diplomats in the Everyday
Mela's of the Multiculture"
Seventh Week (11th June)
Rev Dr Murray Rogers
"Fifty Years of Ashram Life: Reminiscences from Jyotiniketan"
Hillary
Term 2003
(Wednesdays, 2.15-3.45 pm, all at OCHS)
February 12th: "Faith and Reason in the Scholarship of Tamal Krishna Goswami" (Francis X. Clooney, S.J. and Kenneth Valpey, D.Phil. Cand.)
February 19th: "Jesuits and Brahmins in 16th-18th Century India," (Francis X. Clooney, S.J.)
February 26th: "Second Generation Hindus: Foreign Diplomats in the Everyday Mela's of the Multiculture" (Savita Bhanot, University of Birmingham, D.Phil. Cand.)
March 5th: "The Apirami Antati and Mataracamman Antati: Hindu and Christian theological hymns in a Tamil style" (Francis X. Clooney, S.J.)
Michaelmas
Term 2002
OCVHS Graduate Seminars
Trinity
Term 2002
OCVHS Theology Seminar
Hillary
Term 2002
Developing the Study of Comparative
Theology