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.
Archives: Lectures
Hinduism II: Hindu Traditions, Lecture Five
These lectures will begin from where Hinduism 1 left off. We will trace the development of devotion (bhakti) and examine bhakti and yoga in the Bhagavad-gita before moving into the medieval period. Here the lectures will describe some developments of bhakti in vernacular literatures, focusing both on texts that advocate devotion to iconic forms and the later texts that advocate devotion to an absolute without qualities. Here we will also examine the importance of ritual texts and the relation between ritual, devotion, and yoga. We will then trace the themes of liberation and path with examples from selected tantric traditions within Vaisnavism and Saivism. Lastly we will examine the development of Hinduism in the nineteenth century with the Hindu reformers and the development of a politicised Hinduism in the twentieth century.
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.
Elementary Sanskrit: Week Four (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.
Mysterium Horrendum: Mysticism & the Negative Numinous
Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Study of Religions/Mysticism Seminar
According to Rudolf Otto’s ‘Idea of the Holy’, while elements of a so-called ‘mysticism of horror’ are well-acknowledged in Hindu traditions, this remains an under-recognised, yet undeniably present, strain in Western Christian mysticism. This paper explores Otto’s account of the ‘negative numinous’ with specific reference to the under-examined notion of the mysterium horrendum: a variant of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans in which the element of dread is ‘cut loose’ and ‘intensified’ to the point of ‘the demonic’. Drawing particular attention to accounts of the darkness, absence, and wrath of God in Western Christian mysticism, the lecture questions the essential relation between the demonic and the divine elements encountered in the numinous. Dr Simon D. Podmore is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Gordon Milburn Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College. He is author of Kierkegaard & the Self Before God: Anatomy of the Abyss (Indiana University Press, 2011). His current research explores notions of ‘spiritual struggle’ in Western Christian mysticism.
Elementary Sanskrit: Week Two (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.
Readings in Sanskrit Commentaries: Session One (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.
Hinduism I: Introduction (HT11)
Session 1: Introduction to Hinduism: History, Sources, and Ethos Session
2: Upanishadic Teachings: Idea of Brahman, Self, and Liberation Session
3: Hindu Laws (dharma): Ramayana and Manu’s Laws Session
4: God and the Goddess: Bhagavad-Gita and Devi Gita