Archives: Lectures

Readings in Phenomenology: Week Eight (TT19)

This term we will be reading Thiemo Breyer’s On the Topology of Cultural Memory: Different Modalities of Inscription and Transmission (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2007).

In the wake of the large literature now developed on memory and particularly cultural memory, this book creates a topology of cultural memory, linking anthropological work with phenomenological reflection. Breyer looks at cultural memory, memory as occupying an inter-personal realm, memory in oral and literate cultures, and the philosophical implications of empirical study. I can photocopy relevant chapters.

Sanskrit Prelims I: Session one (MT19)

The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and its importance for the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. Students will learn to appreciate the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions.
By the end of the course students will have gained a basic competency in translating classical Sanskrit and reading relevant passages from texts such as the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the Bhagavadgītā and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language. Sanskrit Prelims continues throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and for the first four weeks of Trinity.

Pāli for Sanskritists: Session one (MT19)

The course provides an introduction to Pāli Buddhist texts for students with prior knowledge of Sanskrit (e.g. Sanskrit Prelims). We will read classical Theravāda Buddhist discourses from the Pāli Canon such as the Fire Sermon (Ādittapariyāya-sutta) and Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) providing an easy philological introduction to the Pāli language via Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce to the essentials of Pali grammar and vocabulary with a focus on key terms and their importance for the exegesis of Buddhist texts. The course will contribute to an appreciation of the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions. The course book will be Dines Andersen’s A Pāli Reader supplementet with Rune E.A. Johansson’s Pali Buddhist Texts: An Introductory Reader and Grammar.

Readings in Vedānta: Bhedābheda Vedānta: Session one (MT19)

These reading sessions are intended for students who have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit and are interested in Vedānta texts. This term we will be reading Bhāskara’s commentary on the Brahma-sūtras. Bhāskara was a bhedābheda (‘difference-and-nondifference’) theologian and early critic of Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta whose ideas strongly influenced the early history of Vedānta.

Sanskrit Prelims I: Session one (MT19)

The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and its importance for the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. Students will learn to appreciate the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions.
By the end of the course students will have gained a basic competency in translating classical Sanskrit and reading relevant passages from texts such as the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the Bhagavadgītā and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language. Sanskrit Prelims continues throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and for the first four weeks of Trinity.

Hinduism: Sources and Formations: Session one (MT19)

These lectures offer a thematic and historical introduction to the sources and development of Hindu traditions from their early formation to the medieval period. We will explore the formation of Hindu traditions through textual sources, such as the Vedas, Upaniṣads and Bhagavad Gītā, along with the practices and social institutions that formed classical Hindu traditions. The lectures will include an introduction to Hindu philosophy.

Readings in the Netratantra: Session one (MT19)

The Netratantra is an important early medieval Śaiva/Śākta tantric text in Kashmir and Nepal, dating from around the early ninth century, and widely disseminated during the eleventh and probably tenth centuries. The text is a ‘universal’ (sarvasāmānya-) tantra, which overrides the distinctions between various tantric traditions and branches (e.g. between the Mantramārga and Kulamārga).

This term we will continue our reading of the Netratantra and discuss chapter seven on the subtle visualising meditation (sūkṣmadhyāna) based on the oldest available manuscript found in the National Archives of Kathmandu (NAK). In our translation of the text we will refer to and compare with other Nepalese manuscripts as well as the published edition in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies (KSTS). Apart from reading the text we will discuss its meaning from the perspective of the history of religions with an emphasis on models of the human in tantric Hinduism.

Sanskrit Prelims I: Session two (MT19)

The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and its importance for the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. Students will learn to appreciate the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions.
By the end of the course students will have gained a basic competency in translating classical Sanskrit and reading relevant passages from texts such as the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the Bhagavadgītā and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language. Sanskrit Prelims continues throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and for the first four weeks of Trinity.

Pāli for Sanskritists: Session two (MT19)

The course provides an introduction to Pāli Buddhist texts for students with prior knowledge of Sanskrit (e.g. Sanskrit Prelims). We will read classical Theravāda Buddhist discourses from the Pāli Canon such as the Fire Sermon (Ādittapariyāya-sutta) and Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) providing an easy philological introduction to the Pāli language via Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce to the essentials of Pali grammar and vocabulary with a focus on key terms and their importance for the exegesis of Buddhist texts. The course will contribute to an appreciation of the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions. The course book will be Dines Andersen’s A Pāli Reader supplementet with Rune E.A. Johansson’s Pali Buddhist Texts: An Introductory Reader and Grammar.

Readings in Vedānta: Bhedābheda Vedānta: Session two (MT19)

These reading sessions are intended for students who have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit and are interested in Vedānta texts. This term we will be reading Bhāskara’s commentary on the Brahma-sūtras. Bhāskara was a bhedābheda (‘difference-and-nondifference’) theologian and early critic of Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta whose ideas strongly influenced the early history of Vedānta.