Dinah, the only (mentioned) daughter of the patriarch Jacob, emerges in Genesis 34, only to disappear from the text. Dinah goes out to visit the women of the land. She is seen by Shechem, the prince of the local village, also named Shechem, who takes her and has sex with her (Gen 34:2). He then...

One of the most enduring conclusions in pentateuchal studies is that the legal and narrative elements of the Pentateuch have distinct origins. Yet this argument is based more on outdated ideas of what counts as “literary” than on any textual or compositional evidence. In this talk, I will present an example from my recent book...

In this talk I will discuss Nicolas Poussin adaptation of two biblical narratives in two masterpieces: “The Plague at Ashdod” (1630) inspired by an episode in 1 Samuel, namely the theft and desecration of the Arc of the Covenant by the Philistines; and “Eliezer and Rebecca” (1648) inspired by the episode in Genesis in which...

Taking the example of Northern Wei Empress Dowager Ling (d. 528 CE) as a case study, this talk asks the question of “What new things can we learn about women in medieval China through Buddhist Studies?” Particularly, by contrasting the ways in which the Empress Dowager is depicted in normative dynastic histories and other historiographical...

Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies U.S. officials who occupied Japan after World War II claimed that the defeated country lacked religious freedom, but this tidy narrative masked a messy history. Japan’s 1889 constitution had guaranteed religious freedom, and over subsequent decades Japanese clerics had fiercely debated and vigorously defended the religious freedom...

In November 2017, the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission of Dharampur, Gujarat (SRMD) unveiled a 34-foot bronze statue of Srimad Rajacandra (1866-1901), a Jain layman and spiritual leader who is best known for his correspondence with a young Mahatma Gandhi. Over the previous decade, the SRMD's founder, Rakeshbhai Jhavery (b. 1966), has developed a sizable following, in...

In South Asia’s distinctive history of religious diversity, the Jains stand out as a perpetual but prominent minority especially attentive to the range of doctrinal options surrounding them. This talk will delineate some classical Jain philosophical efforts to conceptualize differences, navigate disagreements, and seek agreement with others as exemplified in the emblematic and transformative figure...

Dr. Kristine Henriksen Garroway will present on the place of children in the household religions of the Ancient Near East. She will explore the delicate balance between a child's life and the forces out to destroy it. Topics addressed include dangers posed to a child in the womb, infancy, early years, and beyond and how...

Across various Buddhist texts we find, again and again, a story of how the Buddha in a past life (as Bodhisattva) made a great sacrifice in exchange for a single verse of true teaching. Although we can interpret such stories as simply glorifications of Buddha or dharma, more interesting questions also arise, such as: How...