Archives: Lectures
Krishnadasa Kaviraja’s Caitanya-caritamrta: Its characteristics as a sacred biography
Sacred biographies of Visvambhara Misra, aka Krishna-Caitanya, (1486–1533) constitute an unusually ample array of texts that for half a century have provided an enduring basis for an otherwise loosely coordinated community of Vaishnava devotees in Bengal and elsewhere. The Caitanya-caritamrta (Nectar-like Acts of Caitanya) of Krishnadasa Kaviraja is the culmination of an inter-related series of such texts. Relying primarily on the Caitanya-caritamrta (in the Bengali and Sanskrit original and in its translation by Edward C. Dimock, Jr.) and drawing upon Tony K. Stewart’s The Final Word, the seminar examines how theological-cum-devotional concerns and institutional loyalties are mediated through the literary forms and strategies employed by the series of ‘biographers’ of Caitanya culminating in Krishnadasa Kaviraja.
Readings in Sanskrit Commentaries: Session Seven (HT11)
Hindu theology is grounded in the reading of sacred texts and has been largely developed in commentaries on those texts. This reading class will focus on a single sacred text and a few commentaries on it by authors of various theological schools. It aims to introduce students with an elementary knowledge of Sanskrit to the style and reasoning of Sanskrit commentaries. Dr Rembert Lutjeharms is the librarian of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and completed his D.Phil. in Theology in 2010.
Elementary Sanskrit: Week Eight (HT11)
This course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper in Elementary Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology to the basics of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. By the end of the course students will have competency in translating simple Sanskrit and reading sections of the Bhagavad-gita and passages from other texts.
Elementary Sanskrit: Week Five (HT11)
This course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper in Elementary Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology to the basics of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. By the end of the course students will have competency in translating simple Sanskrit and reading sections of the Bhagavad-gita and passages from other texts.
Approaches to Religion 1: Phenomenology
This seminar will discuss the foundational ideas of the phenomenology of religion derived from Husserl, namely bracketing (the epoche), the reduction to essences, and the transcendental reduction. We will raise questions as to the viability of this approach.