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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230511T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230511T170000
DTSTAMP:20230509T232304Z
CREATED:20230329T215425Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230509T232304Z
UID:5931-1683820800-1683824400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Ethics in Paul and Paul in Ethics
DESCRIPTION:  \nThis talk looks at a few examples of Paul’s ethical reasoning and then discusses how his ethical discourse compares with those of several types current today. \nRSVP required for Zoom access. Click here \n  \nAdela Yarbro Collins is the current president of the Society for Biblical Literature and an American author and academic who has served as the Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School. Her research focuses on the New Testament\, especially the Gospel of Mark and the Book of Revelation\, and she has also written on early Christian apocalypticism and eschatology. Collins has also served as the President of the Society of New Testament Studies (2010–2011) and as the President of the New England Region of the Society of Biblical Literature (2004–2005). \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/ethics-in-paul-and-paul-in-ethics/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230509T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230509T130000
DTSTAMP:20230406T182122Z
CREATED:20230329T215141Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230406T182122Z
UID:5946-1683635400-1683637200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Mark of Contradictions: The Creation of Judah's History and the Case of Samson
DESCRIPTION:  \nIn biblical texts\, we find preserved the “mark of contradictions\, fragmentations\, and adjunctions\,” as intellectual historian Michel de Certeau once wrote (The Writing of History 1988: 313). This talk will explore the mark of contradictions in what may seem a peripheral set of texts within the broader biblical narrative\, the Samson stories of Judges 13-16. Buried in the book of Judges\, these quirky stories have consistently baffled scholars: where do they come from\, why were they preserved\, and what role do they serve? In the talk\, Mahri Leonard-Fleckman will trace shifting portrayals of Samson through different biblical witnesses and rewritings through the first century C.E. to demonstrate how Samson preserves an important mark of contradictions as he is drawn into the fabric of Judah’s history. In doing so\, her broader aim is to probe the relationship between fluidity and fixity in scribal production\, history writing\, and tradition itself. Moderated by William Schniedewind (UCLA). \nRSVP here \n  \nMahri Leonard-Fleckman is an assistant professor of Hebrew Bible in the Religious Studies Department at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester\, MA. She specializes in Iron Age history and the composition history of the Hebrew Bible\, and is the author of The House of David: Between Political Formation and Literary Revision (Fortress Press\, 2016) and co-author of The Book of Ruth in the Wisdom Commentary Series (Liturgical Press\, 2017). Her current book project\, provisionally titled Scribal Representations and Social Landscapes of the Iron Age Shephelah\, focuses on scribal representations of the “Other” in ancient Israel in relation to broader questions of identity in the Iron Age Levant\, and is under contract with Oxford University Press. Leonard-Fleckman has published numerous scholarly and public-facing books and articles\, is currently the Catholic Biblical Quarterly Book Review Editor for the Old Testament and Qumran\, and is active on numerous other editorial boards and professional committees. \n  \n  \nCo-sponsored with the lead sponsor UCLA Alan D Leve Center for Jewish Studies as part of their Bible and the Ancient Near East series\, in addition to and the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/mark-of-contradictions-the-creation-of-judahs-history-and-the-case-of-samson/
LOCATION:290 Royce Hall
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies":MAILTO:cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230508T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230508T170000
DTSTAMP:20230504T163212Z
CREATED:20230329T214919Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230504T163212Z
UID:5924-1683561600-1683565200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Mothers\, the Mamzers\, and the Rabbis: Reconstructing Family and Community in Post-Holocaust Jewish Law
DESCRIPTION:  \nThis talk centers on the little-known story of the children of illicit unions that resulted from a highly unusual situation in post-Holocaust Munkacz\, a SubCarpathian town that had been a major Jewish center before World War II. A number of women who returned to Munkacz in 1945 believed their husbands had perished in the camps\, remarried\, had children\, and then saw their first husbands return. In 1965\, two major Eastern European Orthodox rabbis tried to find solutions to keep the children of these children from also being considered Mamzerim\, children of misbegotten unions who are considered outcasts in the Jewish community. In texts that at first glance appear highly formalistic and technical\, these Jewish legal decisors tackled many of the central dilemmas of postwar European Jewry\, and are thus illuminated by contemporary writings of policymakers\, international relief agencies\, novelists\, and historians. \nThis event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. \n  \nEthan B. Katz is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of California-Berkeley\, where he has taught since the fall of 2018. He is an affiliate faculty of the Center for Middle East Studies\, the Institute of European Studies\, and the Center for the Study of Religion. Dr. Katz also serves as the Chair of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Life and Campus Climate. Since the spring of 2019\, he has been the co-founder and co-director of the Antisemitism Education Initiative at Berkeley\, an effort that has received national attention and funding. \nRSVP required for Zoom access. Click here
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-mothers-the-mamzers-and-the-rabbis-reconstructing-family-and-community-in-post-holocaust-jewish-law/
LOCATION:Haines 39/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230504T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230504T170000
DTSTAMP:20230406T181241Z
CREATED:20230329T214842Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230406T181241Z
UID:5944-1683216000-1683219600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Lost Books: The Forgetfulness of Writing and the Forgetting of Jewish Pasts
DESCRIPTION:  \nIt is often noted how the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls transformed our understanding of ancient Judaism\, radically expanding our evidence for Jews and Judaism prior to the rise of Christianity. Yet this material also stands as a striking reminder of how much of the literary heritage of Jewish antiquity has been lost to us. How and why was this material lost to the Jewish tradition\, and what might its forgetting tell us about Jewish memory-making\, past and present? This lecture explores these questions with a focus on lost books\, real and imagined\, and the shifting meanings of writing within Jewish cultural history. \nRSVP here \n  \nAnnette Yoshiko Reed is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. She studies ancient Jews and Christians\, with a focus on questions of knowledge\, identity\, and difference. Her recent books include Jewish-Christianity and the History of Judaism and Christianity​ (2018 and Demons\, Angels\, and Writing in Ancient Judaism (2020). She is currently working on a book on the cultural power of forgetting\, focusing on the Jewish reception of the Second Temple past. \nThursday\, May 4\, 2023 • 314 Royce Hall • 4 PM \nAnnette Yoshiko Reed (Harvard University)\nModerator: Sarah Abrevaya Stein (UCLA)\nLost Books: The Forgetfulness of Writing and the Forgetting of Jewish Pasts\nEtta and Milton Leve Scholar-in-Residence \n  \nThis event is co-sponsored with lead sponsor UCLA Alan D Leve Center for Jewish Studies’ Etta and Milton Leve Scholar in Residence.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/lost-books-the-forgetfulness-of-writing-and-the-forgetting-of-jewish-pasts/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies":MAILTO:cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230502T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230502T150000
DTSTAMP:20230406T182247Z
CREATED:20230329T214816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230406T182247Z
UID:5941-1683036000-1683039600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Ancient Judaism between Christian Memory and Jewish Forgetting
DESCRIPTION:  \nDrawing on her in-progress book project on Forgetting\, this seminar will explore the place of memory and forgetting in the reception of Second Temple Judaism\, revisiting the supposed Rabbinic retreat from “history” after the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and exploring Christian and Jewish contestation over pre-70 Jewish pasts\, from antiquity to the present. \nRSVP here \n  \nAnnette Yoshiko Reed is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. She studies ancient Jews and Christians\, with a focus on questions of knowledge\, identity\, and difference. Her recent books include Jewish-Christianity and the History of Judaism and Christianity​ (2018 and Demons\, Angels\, and Writing in Ancient Judaism (2020). She is currently working on a book on the cultural power of forgetting\, focusing on the Jewish reception of the Second Temple past. \nTuesday\, May 2\, 2023 • 314 Royce • 2 PM \nAnnette Yoshiko Reed (Harvard University)\nModerator: Catherine Bonesho (UCLA)\nAncient Judaism between Christian Memory and Jewish Forgetting\nEtta and Milton Leve Scholar-in-Residence \n  \nThis event is co-sponsored with lead sponsor UCLA Alan D Leve Center for Jewish Studies’ Etta and Milton Leve Scholar in Residence.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/ancient-judaism-between-christian-memory-and-jewish-forgetting/
LOCATION:Royce Hall\, Rm 314
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies":MAILTO:cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230427T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230427T170000
DTSTAMP:20230412T174547Z
CREATED:20230329T211205Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230412T174547Z
UID:5908-1682611200-1682614800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple
DESCRIPTION:With the exception of the cross\, the apple—as the forbidden fruit—may be the most widely-recognized biblical image. Yet the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew original does not name the species of fruit that caused the Fall of Man\, nor do any of its many translations. While early Christian and rabbinic commentators identify various species as the forbidden fruit—the fig\, the grape\, the citron—they never include the apple. How\, then\, did the forbidden fruit come to be identified as the apple? Examining the history of biblical translation and of the artistic representation of the Fall of Man\, the presentation offers a new explanation for the emergence of the apple as a symbol of temptation and forbidden knowledge. \nRSVP required for Zoom access. Click here \n  \nAzzan Yadin-Israel is professor of Jewish studies and classics at Rutgers University. He is the author of several books\, including Scripture and Tradition: Rabbi Akiva and the Triumph of Midrash and The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen. \nThis event is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History and CMRS Center for Early Global Studies.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/how-the-forbidden-fruit-became-an-apple/
LOCATION:Haines 39/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230427T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230427T133000
DTSTAMP:20230417T164416Z
CREATED:20230329T211141Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230417T164416Z
UID:5918-1682596800-1682602200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:History and Ideology: Is There A Second Temple Judaism?
DESCRIPTION:Periodization is a critical tool for historians\, but it is also practice fraught with difficulty. As scholars have come to recognize\, the division of historical narratives into broad analytic rubrics is anchored in the ideological commitments—often implicit and unrecognized—of their authors. A great deal of work has been devoted to examining these questions as they pertain to the assumptions informing modern history\, particularly in the fields such as colonial history and women’s history. And while the issue has received less attention among scholars of the ancient world\, it is no less pressing. This talk will address the broader theoretical question of periodization itself\, and provide a detailed discussion of one example—the assumption that there is a Second Temple period.  \n  \nAzzan Yadin-Israel is professor of Jewish studies and classics at Rutgers University. He is the author of several books\, including Scripture and Tradition: Rabbi Akiva and the Triumph of Midrash and The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen. \nJoining us in-person? Registration is required in order to have lunch. Click here \nRegister here for Zoom link \nThis talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/history-and-ideology-is-there-a-second-temple-judaism/
LOCATION:Haines 39/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Chronicles-Image_cropped.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221019T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20221019T170000
DTSTAMP:20221011T224224Z
CREATED:20220922T005749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221011T224224Z
UID:5735-1666195200-1666198800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Tending the Garden: Ahimsa in the Early Indian Literature
DESCRIPTION:Source: Shakyamuni Buddha – Jataka (Previous Lives). 1800\, Zanabazar Mongolia National Museum\, Mongolia\, https://www.himalayanart.org/items/50191. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022. \n  \nThe practice of ahiṃsā (non-violence) has a long and illustrious history both in South Asia\, where it originated\, and elsewhere. This talk will tour a selection of the rich body of texts composed by Jains\, Buddhists and Hindus in premodern India that engage with the theme of ahiṃsā to non-humans. These works range from imperial propaganda to stories that illustrate with engaging vividness the karmic dangers of injuring other living beings\, the rewards earned by those who refrain from doing so and the relationship between ahiṃsā and the doctrine of reincarnation. \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Center for India and South Asia \n  \nDr. Anahita Hoose is a scholar of Indian languages\, texts and cultures. Originally from England\, she crossed the pond in 2016 to join the UCLA Program in Indo-European Studies as a PhD student and moved to the Center for the Study of Religion after graduating in 2022. In her PhD dissertation\, based on texts composed in Hindu\, Buddhist and Jain circles over a period of more than a thousand years\, she discusses the use of verbs in multiple premodern Indian languages. Her linguistic research is complemented by her interests in religion\, myth and literature and she has published articles on both linguistic and cultural topics. \n  \n  \nRSVP [gravityform id=”134″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/tending-the-garden-ahimsa-in-the-early-indian-literature/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220518T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220518T170000
DTSTAMP:20220510T222915Z
CREATED:20220324T184948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220510T222915Z
UID:5626-1652889600-1652893200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Antisemitism in the Pagan World
DESCRIPTION:What counts as antisemitism? Did antisemitism exist among Greeks and Romans? How far and how deep did hostility to Jews extend in the pagan and pre-Christian world? What impact did it have on Jewish experience in the period of the Second Temple? In short\, was there a “Jewish problem” in Greco-Roman antiquity? \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Department of Classics\, History Department\, and the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies \n  \nErich Gruen is Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics\, Emeritus\, University of California\, Berkeley. His research and writing have been primarily in Roman history\, Hellenistic history\, and Jews in the Greco-Roman world. He has published or edited 14 books\, the most recent of which is Ethnicity in the Ancient World – – Did it Matter? (2020). Most important\, he has supervised or served on the PhD dissertation committees of over 100 students\, most of whom are now teaching in various colleges and universities in this country and abroad. \n  \n  \n  \n  \n[gravityform id=”128″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/antisemitism-in-the-pagan-world/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220517T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220517T170000
DTSTAMP:20220517T203750Z
CREATED:20220324T185054Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220517T203750Z
UID:5624-1652803200-1652806800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Wolakota kagapi: The Study of Peace Making on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
DESCRIPTION:Unfortunately\, the Center for the Study of Religion must postpone this event due to extenuating circumstances. We apologize for the inconvenience\, and look forward to welcoming you at our next event. \n  \nThe Oglala Lakota Peace Making Team\, was instrumental in putting together a number of training sessions for community members to become Peace Makers. The tribe developed a Peace Making Room in the new court house. The Peace Making room is used for Peace Making for the community membership. \nA Peace Maker has a vision for the future\, knows traditional ways\, shares and develops leadership\, serves and protects the tribal community\, develops trust\, and shows respect for all tribal people. Native communities are centered on culture\, spirituality\, language\, and stories. They are not centered on financial profit\, politics\, or religion. These elements of culture are important for explaining the practice of (Wolakota) Peace making. \n  \nRichard Iron Cloud Ph.D.\, Oglala Lakota\, Richard is a founding member of the Oglala Lakota Peace-Making Team. A group of Oglala Lakota individuals who came together to look for alternatives to the Colonial System of Justice. Richard has been involved in social justice issues\, researching systems of oppression in its various forms. Richard believes in looking out for others needs rather than one’s own\, such behavior is salient in the Lakota (ounye) way of life. \n  \n  \n  \n  \n[gravityform id=”127″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/wolakota-kagapi-the-study-of-peace-making-on-the-pine-ridge-indian-reservation/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220512T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220512T180000
DTSTAMP:20220426T190500Z
CREATED:20220324T183321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220426T190500Z
UID:5621-1652374800-1652378400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Losing Control of the gods: How Religion Slipped Out of the Hands of Men in the Early Roman Empire
DESCRIPTION:The dignified and extravagant public rituals of Romans – ancestral institutions as the last generations of the Republic imagined them – definitively failed in the last century BCE. Future senatorial priests presided only over the cults of a city that was less and less a capital. In place of a narrative of early imperial religion that sets the worship of the emperors at its center\, I shall argue for a systemic shift in the religious order\, a disintegration of authority that reflected much wider changes in the nature of Roman culture. \n  \nReferences \nBeard\, Mary\, John North and Simon Price (1998). Religions of Rome. 2 volumes. Cambridge\, Cambridge University Press. \nFeeney\, Denis (1998). Literature and religion at Rome. Culture\, contexts and beliefs. Cambridge\, Cambridge University Press. \nFeeney\, Denis (2016). Beyond Greek. The beginnings of Latin literature. Cambridge MA\, Harvard University Press. \nGasparini\, Valentino\, et al. Eds. (2020). Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Berlin & Boston\, de Gruyter. \nMacRae\, Duncan (2016). Legible religion. Books\, gods\, and rituals in Roman culture Cambridge MA\, Harvard University Press. \nNongbri\, Brent (2013). Before Religion. A history of a modern concept. New Haven & London\, Yale University Press. \nRüpke\, Jörg (2018). Pantheon. A New History of Roman Religion. Princeton NJ\, Princeton University Press. \nRüpke\, Jörg and Greg Woolf\, Eds. (2021). Religion in the Roman Empire. Stuttgart\, Verlag W.Kohlhammer. \nScheid\, John (2016). The gods\, the state\, and the individual. Reflections on civic religion in Rome. Philadelphia\, University of Pennsylvania Press. \nVárhelyi\, Zsusanna (2010). The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire. Power and the beyond. Cambridge\, Cambridge University Press. \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Department of Classics and the History Department \n  \nGreg Woolf arrived in UCLA in September 2021 to become the first Ronald J Mellor Professor of Ancient History. Before then he directed the Institute of Classical Studies in the School of Advanced Study in London for six years\, and before that was Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has held visiting appointments in Brazil\, France\, Germany\, Italy and Spain. His work straddles the fields of ancient history and archaeology\, and he has published on a range of cultural historical subjects from the history of libraries and the impact of Roman imperialism on ancient societies to (more recently) numerous studies of Roman religion and Roman urbanism. His most recent books are the second edition of Rome. An Empire’s Story (Oxford 2022) and (with his long term collaborator Jörg Rüpke the edited collection Religion in the Roman Empire.) He is a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Center for the Study of Religion. \n  \n  \n  \n[gravityform id=”126″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/losing-control-of-the-gods-how-religion-slipped-out-of-the-hands-of-men-in-the-early-roman-empire/
LOCATION:Dodd Hall 248
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220511T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220511T130000
DTSTAMP:20220329T172533Z
CREATED:20220324T182523Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T172533Z
UID:5618-1652270400-1652274000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Ten Commandments: Who What When Where Why
DESCRIPTION:For over two thousand years the Ten Commandments have been understood as the fundamental set of divine laws in the Hebrew Bible. Even for those who do not believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch\, the Ten Commandments have retained their place as especially ancient\, and especially important in the religious and communal life of Israel. In this lecture\, Joel Baden will explain why this is\, essentially\, all wrong – and how we should understand\, and grapple with\, the true origins of these most famous words. \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and its Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series \n  \nProf. Joel Baden works widely in the field of Hebrew Bible\, with special attention to the literary history of the Pentateuch. He is the author\, most recently\, of The Book of Exodus: A Biography (Princeton University Press\, 2019). His other books include J\, E\, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch (Mohr Siebeck\, 2009); The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (Yale University Press\, 2012); The Promise to the Patriarchs (Oxford University Press\, 2013); The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero (HarperOne\, 2013); Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (with Candida Moss; Princeton University Press\, 2015); and Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby (with Candida Moss; Princeton University Press\, 2017). He is the co-editor of the volumes The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary Debate and Future Directions (TVZ\, 2009)\, Sibyls\, Scriptures\, and Scrolls (Brill\, 2017)\, and The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch (with Jeffrey Stackert; Oxford University Press\, 2021).  \nCurrent projects include editing The Routledge Handbook of Marginalization in the Bible and a special issue of the journal Religions devoted to the Hebrew Bible\, race\, and racism\, along with writing forthcoming commentaries on Deuteronomy (IECOT)\, Exodus (Anchor)\, and Lamentations (Oxford). \nProf. Baden has published numerous scholarly articles and essays. He has also written widely for a popular audience\, in venues such as The New York Times\, The Washington Post\, The Atlantic Monthly\, Slate\, The Los Angeles Times\, Politico\, CNN\, and The Daily Beast.   \n  \n[gravityform id=”125″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-ten-commandments-who-what-when-where-why/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220428T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20220428T170000
DTSTAMP:20220329T172510Z
CREATED:20220324T181426Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T172510Z
UID:5613-1651161600-1651165200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Song of Songs\, Time after Time
DESCRIPTION:The Song of Songs has been subject to numerous and varying interpretive approaches since its emergence. Drawing from her recently published book\, Perils of Wisdom: The Scriptural Solomon in Jewish Tradition\, Dr. Keiter will focus on varying Jewish interpretive strategies toward the Song\, highlighting the development of Jewish biblical exegesis and its impact on the King Solomon legend in Jewish thought. \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and its Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series \n  \nDr. Sheila Keiter is a Near Eastern Languages and Cultures alumna and former Teaching Fellow in the UCLA English Department. She is currently an instructor at Shalhevet High School and a Regular Contributor for the “Table for Five” Torah panel column in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. Keiter recently published\, Perils of Wisdom: The Scriptural Solomon in Jewish Tradition (2021). \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n[gravityform id=”124″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/song-of-songs-time-after-time/
LOCATION:Haines 39/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211201T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211201T130000
DTSTAMP:20211115T231023Z
CREATED:20210813T211721Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211115T231023Z
UID:5438-1638360000-1638363600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:“Surely There is No Fear of God in This Place” – The Biblical Plagues and OUR Plague:  An Anthropocentric “Theology” and a Lesson for Our Times
DESCRIPTION:**Please note this talk has been postponed to Wednesday\, December 1 at 12pm via Zoom**\n  \n\n  \nThe onset of the coronavirus brought with it a slew of perverse efforts to identify the ‘sinful’ behaviors for which the plague was God’s punishment. Through an analysis of “Vehaya im Shamoa”(Deut.11:13-21) I offer an alternative understanding of punishment as a disciplinary act attributed to God but\, actually\, the direct consequence of human conduct. Proceeding to outline the Pharoanic behavioral antecedents of the Egyptian plagues I move on to focus on the causal chain of human missteps that have led to the current crisis. In doing so I hope to diminish the degree of randomness with which we frame the pandemic and argue that this human induced ‘plague’ imposes on us a moral obligation to take corrective actions that could bring healing to our beleaguered planet. \n  \nChaim Seidler-Feller recently celebrated his fortieth year of working with students and faculty as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. He is currently Director Emeritus. He was ordained in 1971 at Yeshiva University where he completed a Masters in Rabbinic Literature. Chaim has been a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is currently a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute\,North America and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. He was the founding director of the Hartman Fellowship for Campus Professionals and a founding member of Americans for Peace Now. In 2014 he initiated a fact finding mission for non-Jewish student leaders to Israel and the Palestine Authority which is now offered on ninety campuses. In 2020 a Festschrift entitled Swimming Against the Current: Reimagining Jewish Tradition in the 21st Century was published in Chaim’s honor. He is married to Dr. Doreen Seidler-Feller\, a clinical psychologist\, and is the father of Shulie\, a photojournalist and Shaul\, an ordained rabbi who is currently serving as a Judaica consultant at Sotheby’s while pursuing a doctorate in Jewish History at the Hebrew University.\n \n  \nEvent Flyer\n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n  \n[gravityform id=”116″ title=”true” description=”true”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/surely-there-is-no-fear-of-god-in-this-place-the-biblical-plagues-and-our-plague-an-anthropocentric-theology-and-a-lesson-for-our-times/
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211028T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211028T170000
DTSTAMP:20211012T173444Z
CREATED:20210813T205948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211012T173444Z
UID:5432-1635436800-1635440400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Constantinian Compromise:  Senators\, Bishops and the Emperor in Late Antique Rome
DESCRIPTION:Given the historic role played by the victorious Constantine in spreading Christianity\, it is ironic that senatorial aristocrats were more cooperative with Constantine than were the early fourth-century bishops of the city. Although the bishops of Rome and the clergy\, along with other Christians\, benefitted greatly from the restoration of their property and the recognition of their legal standing under Constantine\, their resistance to imperial intervention in the Donatist controversy marginalized the bishop of Rome for centuries to come\, as I demonstrate based on a range of texts and documents from the fourth-fifth centuries. \n  \nEvent Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Department of Classics and the UCLA Department of History \n  \nMichele Renee Salzman is Professor and Chair of History at the University of California at Riverside. Her research focuses on the religious and social history of late antiquity. She is the author of numerous books and articles\, including The Making of a Christian Aristocracy (Harvard University Press\, 2002); and The Letters of Symmachus: Book 1 Translation with Michael Roberts\, Introduction and Commentary by Michele Renee Salzman\, (Society of Biblical Literatures\, 2011; Brill Press\, 2012). Her new book\, The Falls of Rome: Crises\, Resilience and Resurgence in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press\, 2021)\, offers a new perspective on the fate of this vast city and the remarkable families who returned again and again to renew it in the last three centuries of its empire. She is the recipient of numerous awards\, with Fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton\, the NEH\, the American Academy in Rome\, and the Bogliasco Foundation.\n \n  \nEvent Flyer\n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\nThe event will be offered via Zoom only. \n[gravityform id=”114″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-constantinian-compromise-senators-bishops-and-the-emperor-in-late-antique-rome/
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211014T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211014T180000
DTSTAMP:20210817T162754Z
CREATED:20210817T162622Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210817T162754Z
UID:5443-1634227200-1634234400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Fall 2021 Welcome Reception
DESCRIPTION:You are cordially invited to attend the Center for the Study of Religion Fall 2021 Welcome Reception. We look forward to seeing you there!\n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Below:\n[gravityform id=”115″ title=”false” description=”true”]\n  \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/fall-2021-welcome-reception/
LOCATION:Haines 39/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210519T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210519T130000
DTSTAMP:20210421T151115Z
CREATED:20210416T152330Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210421T151115Z
UID:5403-1621425600-1621429200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Bodily Sacrifice for a Single True Verse: Implications  of a Cluster of the Buddha’s Past-Life Stories
DESCRIPTION: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 can the Bodhisattva access properly true teachings before he has realised the dharma for himself and made it available to others as the Buddha? If there is dharma available\, is it a properly Buddhist dharma\, or just a pithy generic well-spoken verse\, and is it there independently of buddhas? How does the Bodhisattva’s sacrifice – of wealth\, body\, life and family – in exchange for a verse of teaching relate to other stories in which he makes similar sacrifices for other reasons? Why is no such story found in the huge Pali Jataka collection? In this paper I will offer some preliminary answers to these questions\, and explore the implications of this cluster of stories for our understandings of the relationship between the dharma and buddhahood. \n  \nEvent Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies \n  \nNaomi Appleton is Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the role of stories in the construction\, communication and challenge of religious ideas in early India. She has a particular passion for jātaka stories (stories of the Buddha’s past lives) but also enjoys exploring the ways in which the narrative traditions of Buddhist\, Jain and Hindu traditions interact. She is the author of three monographs and many other articles and books on related themes\, including translations of Pali and Sanskrit narrative texts. \n  \nEvent Flyer\n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”113″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/bodily-sacrifice-for-a-single-true-verse-implications-of-a-cluster-of-the-buddhas-past-life-stories/
LOCATION:Online on Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210518T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210518T150000
DTSTAMP:20210504T181723Z
CREATED:20210413T235516Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210504T181723Z
UID:5395-1621346400-1621350000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Dangerous Children: The Role of Children in Ancient Near Eastern Household Religion
DESCRIPTION: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 caregivers tried to successfully navigate everything from diseases to demons. The talk will conclude with a discussion of enculturation and ways in which children would come to emulate the rituals modeled for them. \n  \nEvent Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures \n  \nKristine Henriksen Garroway was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of Bible at the HUC-JIR’s Skirball Campus in Los Angeles in 2011. She received her doctorate in Hebrew Bible and Cognate Studies at the HUC-JIR/Cincinnati in 2009. She has spent time studying and researching in Israel and has participated in excavations at Ashkelon\, Tel Dor\, and Tel Dan. Garroway’s scholarship focuses on children using archaeology and texts of ancient Israel and Mesopotamia. She has published in various scholarly journals and is a regular contributor to thetorah.com. Garroway’s books include: Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household (Eisenbrauns 2014) and Growing Up in Ancient Israel: Children in Material Culture and Biblical Texts (Society of Biblical Literature 2018)\, and co-edited with John Martens Children and Methods: Listening To and Learning From Children in the Biblical World (Bril\, 2020). She is the recipient of the Biblical Archaeological Society’s 2019 Publication Award for Best Book Relating to Hebrew Bible. \n  \nEvent Flyer\n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”112″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/dangerous-children-the-role-of-children-in-ane-household-religion/
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210421T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210421T130000
DTSTAMP:20210419T180337Z
CREATED:20210402T221239Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210419T180337Z
UID:5390-1619006400-1619010000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Acquiescing to Necropolitics? The Church and Same Sex Relations in Africa
DESCRIPTION:In this lecture I offer provisional perspectives on the question\, acquiescing in necropolitics? In the first part of the lecture I highlight some of the debates on same sex relations in Cameroon. In the second part of the lecture I discuss the recent genealogy of necropolitics in Michele Foucault and Achille Mbembe. This will lead me to the major part of the essay where I argue that by advocating for death sentences for members of the LGBTQI persons as some Africans have done\, they are reverting to necropolitics to solve what they think is a problem as it was during the reign Kabaka Mwanga of Uganda when he resorted to necropolitics to punish the male pages who rejected his sexual advances. My goal in this short thought experiment is to demonstrate that some of the positions taken by members of different churches\, and articulated largely by leading church men and women\, amounts to acquiescing to necropolitics in African societies. \n  \nEvent Co-Sponsored by the UCLA African Studies Center and LGBTQ Studies \n  \nElias Kifon Bongmba is Chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University. He earned his PhD from the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology and was awarded the DTheo. h.c. from Lund University. Bongmba studied African Religions and the Social Sciences in Africa at the University of Iowa with Professor Allen Roberts. Bongmba’s scholarship covers religion\, philosophy\, and theology. His book The Dialectics of Transformation in Africa won the Franz Fanon Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Bongmba is the 2020 recipient of the Ray Hart Service Award from the American Academy of Religion. \n  \nEvent Flyer\n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”111″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/acquiescing-to-necropolitics-the-church-and-same-sex-relations-in-africa/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210420T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210420T130000
DTSTAMP:20210330T154439Z
CREATED:20210329T210617Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210330T154439Z
UID:5367-1618920000-1618923600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Identity through Diversity: Classical Jain Philosophical Responses to Religious Difference
DESCRIPTION: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 of Haribhadrasūri. Thought to have been born a Brahmin in the eighth century CE\, this scholar-monk is credited with ushering Jain commentarial literature into the lingua franca of Sanskrit\, initiating a doxographical tradition of cataloguing the doctrinal landscape\, and setting the terms for the famously enigmatic Jain theory of non-one-sidedness (anekāntavāda). A survey of each of these phases displays some critical ways in which a marginalized but important group of intellectuals has carved out its own identity–not through retreat into insularity\, but through active engagement with the diversity in their midst. \nEvent Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures \n  \nAnil Mundra is a PhD candidate in the Philosophy of Religions program at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His work has appeared in the journal Religions and the Journal of Ecumenical Studies\, and is forthcoming in the Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies and Routledge’s Contemplative Studies & Jainism: Meditation\, Devotion\, Prayer\, and Worship. \n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”110″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/identity-through-diversity-classical-jain-philosophical-responses-to-religious-difference/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210415T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210415T130000
DTSTAMP:20210330T154557Z
CREATED:20210329T205652Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210330T154557Z
UID:5356-1618488000-1618491600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Globalized Guru\, Nationalized Icon: The Shrimad Rajchandra Mission and the Birth of "Globalized Jainism"
DESCRIPTION: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 part by creating and publicly worshipping images of the Mission’s eponymous “inspiration.” In this talk\, Dr. Steven Vose analyzes the visual aesthetics of the images of Rajacandra to show that a semantic shift has allowed the emaciated body of Rajacandra to be read as a new model of ascetic perfection and modern Jain spirituality. Vose argues that these images enabled the creation and growth of a “Globalized Jainism” specifically marketed to middle- and upper-class Indian and diaspora Jains that allows them to connect to their religious and national heritage in new ways. An examination of the cultural and religious implications of India’s turn toward neoliberalism\, this talk argues that the appeal of the SRMD’s Globalized Jainism lies partly in its ability to connect modern\, “philosophical” aspects of Jainism with nationalist spectacle through these images in ways that replicate traditional\, ritual-based displays of piety while circumventing the structures of power that have historically linked Jain monastic orders to specific caste communities in western India. \n  \nEvent Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures \n  \nDr. Steven M. Vose is the Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant Professor of Jain Studies at Florida International University in Miami. He holds a doctorate in South Asia Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an MTS from Harvard Divinity School. His research interests focus on the formation of Jain communities and articulations of Jain identity from the late medieval period to today. His forthcoming book\, Reimagining Jainism in Islamic India: Jain Intellectual Culture in the Delhi Sultanate (Routledge)\, which examines the role of Jain monks’ intellectual and literary production in normalizing relations between the Jain community and the first Islamicate empire in South Asia\, is the winner of the 2020 American Institute of Indian Studies’ (AIIS) Edward C. Dimock\, Jr. Book Prize in the Indian Humanities. His current research examines the roles of colonialism\, post-coloniality\, globalization and neoliberalism on articulations of Jain identity. His teaching and research interests also include the social history of “tantra” and devotion (bhakti) in South Asia; gender\, caste\, and identity; religious visual culture and temple building practices. \n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”109″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/globalized-guru-nationalized-icon-the-shrimad-rajchandra-mission-and-the-birth-of-globalized-jainism/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210303T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210303T160000
DTSTAMP:20210106T164311Z
CREATED:20210106T164311Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210106T164311Z
UID:5291-1614783600-1614787200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Religious Freedom\, Buddhist Liberation
DESCRIPTION:Co-Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies  \nU.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 clause. Yet even as Buddhists in Japan generally used religious freedom to secure privileges for themselves while excluding “foreign” religions like Christianity\, Japanese Buddhists living in the U.S. Territory of Hawai`i tried and failed to get the American guarantee of religious freedom to work for them. For example\, although the landmark 1927 Supreme Court case Farrington v. Tokushige upheld the right of Japanese Americans to educate their children at Buddhist-operated language schools\, racist depictions of Buddhism as “un-American” made it impossible for the plaintiffs to use religious freedom law in making their case. This talk juxtaposes competing claims about religious freedom in the Japanese and U.S. empires to show that religious freedom is never simply present or absent in any given polity\, nor has “it” ever been just one thing in any time or place. \n  \nJolyon Thomas is Assistant Professor and Interim Graduate Chair of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His research on religion investigates media\, law\, politics\, education\, and capitalism in Japan and the United States. He is the author of Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan (University of Chicago Press\, 2019) and Drawing on Tradition: Manga\, Anime\, and Religion in Contemporary Japan\n(University of Hawai`i Press\, 2012). \n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”105″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/religious-freedom-buddhist-liberation/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210224T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210224T130000
DTSTAMP:20210108T171826Z
CREATED:20210108T171742Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210108T171826Z
UID:5303-1614168000-1614171600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Studying Buddhism to Study Women: Sources\, Topics\, and Questions from Medieval China
DESCRIPTION: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 material against the image of her that arises by surveying Buddhist materials\, the presentation shows how\, for women’s history\, Buddhist sources constitute an extraordinary and relatively untapped archive of potentially ground-breaking source material. Looking to this archive\, the paper argues\, allows us to tell completely different stories about women who lived in China between the 4th and 6th centuries than the ones that we are accustomed to reading and hearing. With their stories told in in donative and mortuary epigraphy\, and reflected in architectural remains and the sponsorship of Buddhist texts and monastic communities\, many women in early medieval China actively supported the popularization and spread of Buddhism in East Asia. We will meet many such women in this talk and try to answer the question of why it was that Buddhism\, per se\, was so attractive to them. \n  \nStephanie Balkwill is Assistant Professor of Religion and Culture at The University of Winnipeg\, in Canada. Her research area is medieval Chinese Buddhism and she publishes on Buddhist literatures of sexuality and gender\, Buddhism and the state\, and the lives of Buddhist women. She is currently completing a monograph on elite Buddhist women at the court of Northern Wei Empress Dowager Ling. She is looking forward to joining the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA in 2021. \n  \n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”106″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/studying-buddhism-to-study-women-sources-topics-and-questions-from-medieval-china/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210223T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210223T130000
DTSTAMP:20210126T220617Z
CREATED:20210126T211713Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210126T220617Z
UID:5330-1614081600-1614085200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Nicolas Poussin’s Visual Adaptation of Two Biblical Themes
DESCRIPTION: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 Abraham sends his servant Eliezer on a mission from Canaan to Babylonia to find a bride for Isaac\, his son. In these paintings\, Poussin is willfully unfaithful to important aspects of the biblical texts that inspired him\, and he freely invents characters and details that are central to his purposes\, and yet not present in the biblical texts. In the case of “The Plague at Ashdod” Poussin transforms the theme of the “wrath of God” against infidels into a meditation on human suffering and compassion; and in the case of “Eliezer and Rebecca” the French painter transforms the theme of the marriage proposal from private to a public event\, in which the offer is not made to the bride’s male relatives\, as in the biblical text\, but directly to the young woman herself. In the talk I’ll discuss these transformations of the biblical passages into paintings\, and speculate on their significance. \n  \nEfraín Kristal is Distinguished Professor and Chair of UCLA’s Department of Comparative Literature. Kristal specializes in Latin American literature and intellectual history in comparative contexts from the 16th century until the present. He is also interested in aesthetics and works on the role of translation in the creative process of writers who translate\, as a creative process in its own right\, in the transmission of culture\, and as a practice with philosophical implications. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly articles and several books including Temptation of the Word. The Novels of Mario Vargas Llosa and Invisible Work. Borges and Translation. Kristal is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and an honorary professor at the Universidad del Pacífico in his native Lima\, Peru. \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”108″ title=”false” description=”false”]\n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/two-biblical-themes-of-the-jewish-past-adapted-by-nicolas-poussin-in-his-paintings/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210217T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210217T130000
DTSTAMP:20210106T002721Z
CREATED:20210106T002627Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210106T002721Z
UID:5283-1613563200-1613566800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Can Sacrifice be Literary?  Ritual and Narrative in the Priestly Inauguration Day Episode
DESCRIPTION: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 (The Story of Sacrifice: Ritual and Narrative in the Priestly Source). I will argue that the seemingly non-standard ritual procedures in Lev 9 can only be understood when read in light of the section’s broader narrative context\, and that the adaptation of the ritual procedure in Lev 9 then becomes the catalyst for a narrative scene in Lev 10. I use this example to highlight two main points: 1) the pentateuchal priestly source is characterized in large part by the mutual dependence of its ritual and narrative materials\, and 2) by foregrounding the possibilities of narrative artistry\, we can generate new insights about religious thought and literary composition in the ancient world. \n  \nLiane Feldman is an Assistant Professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Her work focuses primarily on priestly literature\, with an emphasis on the literary representation of sacrifice and sacred space in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple literature. She is the author of The Story of Sacrifice: Ritual and Narrative in the Priestly Source (Mohr Siebeck\, 2020). \n  \n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”104″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/can-sacrifice-be-literary-ritual-and-narrative-in-the-priestly-inauguration-day-episode/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210209T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210209T130000
DTSTAMP:20210126T210838Z
CREATED:20210126T210810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210126T210838Z
UID:5324-1612872000-1612875600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Reading the Story of Dinah in Context and in the Age of #MeToo
DESCRIPTION: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 wants to marry her. Her brothers\, Jacob’s sons\, insist that Shechem and his people be circumcised. They consent\, and while they are recovering from their circumcision\, Simeon and Levi massacre them\, while the other brothers plunder the town. Feminist scholars have debated what happens to Dinah in Genesis 34:2. Was she raped? Abducted? Something else? How can we read sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible and within the context of ancient Israel? When reading the Hebrew Bible\, with attention to linguistic and historical realities\, how do we also read in our contemporary context? \nThis talk will address the questions of what happens to Dinah\, what’s at stake in the reading of this story\, and how can we deal with this biblical story and others like it in the age of #MeToo? \n  \nAlison L. Joseph is Senior Editor of The Posen Library of Jewish Civilization and Culture. She earned her PhD in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies from the University of California\, Berkeley. Her research explores the processes by which the Hebrew Bible was produced\, bringing together historiographical\, literary\, and gender criticism as it illuminates the author/redactor’s role in interpreting and rewriting earlier texts. Her current project\, Damning Dinah: The Priestly Battle against Intermarriage\, looks at intermarriage and women’s sexuality in the Hebrew Bible and explores how late authorial voices reflect a growing concern with foreign infiltration. Her first book\, Portrait of the Kings: The Davidic Prototype in Deuteronomistic Poetics (Fortress\, 2015)\, received the 2016 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. She is co-editor of the recently published Reading Other Peoples’ Texts: Social Identity and the Reception of Authoritative Traditions (Bloomsbury\, 2020). \n  \nEvent Flyer\n  \nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”107″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/reading-the-story-of-dinah-in-context-and-in-the-age-of-metoo/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210126T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210126T170000
DTSTAMP:20210114T193946Z
CREATED:20210106T165140Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210114T193946Z
UID:5297-1611680400-1611680400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Music and Hebrew Infusion
DESCRIPTION:Join Sarah Bunin Benor\, Co-Author of Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps (2020)\, and sociologist Dan Lainer-Vos as they discuss the role of music in how camps infuse Hebrew in Jewish summer camps. This event will be moderated by Mark Kligman\, Director of the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience. \n  \nClick to Access More Information and RSVP\n  \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/music-and-hebrew-infusion/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201201T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201201T160000
DTSTAMP:20201125T002522Z
CREATED:20201020T160853Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201125T002522Z
UID:5229-1606838400-1606838400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Religion in a Time of Crisis: In the Shadow of the Holocaust
DESCRIPTION:During the latest installment of the Center for the Study of Religion’s “Religion in a Time of Crisis” series\, panelists Dr. Michael Berenbaum and Dr. Aaron Hass will discuss Susan H. Brown’s recent memoir. A stirring collection of poetry and prose\, Circles: A Legacy will serve as an occasion to talk about the ways in which the Holocaust impacted Jewish beliefs and practices. Raised by a Holocaust survivor mother and an ideologue socialist father\, Brown recreates childhood and coming of age experiences riddled with secrets\, fears and uncertainty. Berenbaum is a rabbi\, writer\, filmmaker\, current director of the Sigi Ziering Institute\, and professor at American Jewish University. The author and editor of eighteen books\, he also co-produced the Academy Award-winning One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissmann Klein Story and has served as historical consultant on other award-winning films and History Channel specials. Hass\, professor emeritus of psychology at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine\, is an expert on the generational trauma stemming from the Holocaust. His book about children of survivors\, “In the Shadow of the Holocaust: The Second Generation\,” was a nominee for a Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. Berenbaum and Hass will join Brown for a discussion of her book\, a multi-generational tapestry across countries and continents. \nThis event co-sponsored by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. \nNOTE: Please register for this Zoom webinar by registering below. Registrants will be sent an email with Zoom access information. \nSusan Brown\, a daughter of survivors\, (mother at Bergen Belsen\, father in Rákosi’s prison)\, a hidden Jew\, guarded her secrets. Born in Communist Hungary in 1947\, she escaped to Austria in 1957. In 1969 she settled in Los Angeles\, finally free to voice her ideology and religion. As a speech therapist with multiple language degrees\, she translates her skills to teach children to communicate. Her writing explores history\, Judaism and her identity as an outsider. \nMichael Berenbaum is a writer\, lecturer\, and teacher consulting in the conceptual development of museums and the development of historical films. He is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at the American Jewish University where he is also a Professor of Jewish Studies. He was the Executive Editor of the Second Edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica. For the three years\, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. From 1988–93 he served as Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum\, overseeing its creation. He was Deputy Director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust where he authored its Report to the President. Berenbaum is the author and editor of twenty-two books\, scores of scholarly articles\, and hundreds of journalistic pieces. His work in film has earned Emmy Awards and films he was worked on have earned Academy Awards. \nAaron Hass\, professor emeritus of psychology at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine\, is an expert on the generational trauma stemming from the Holocaust. His book about children of survivors\, “In the Shadow of the Holocaust: The Second Generation\,” was a nominee for a Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. \n  \nRSVP Below (RSVP REQUIRED FOR ACCESS):\n[gravityform id=”100″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/religion-in-a-time-of-crisis-in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201119T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201119T130000
DTSTAMP:20201109T222932Z
CREATED:20201028T201958Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201109T222932Z
UID:5259-1605787200-1605790800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Talmud Talks and We Listen: How the Talmud Became the Authoritative Voice in Jewish Life
DESCRIPTION:The Talmud is an obscure\, elitist document that emerged from a small community of scholars who held no recognized authority\, living as a minority in a land not their own. How did such a document become the authoritative voice of Jewish life and practice? In this session\, Prof. Kraemer will discuss the journey of the rabbis from obscure to dominant\, and of the Talmud from marginal to—arguably—the embodiment of “Torah” par excellence. \nCo-Sponsored by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. \n\nDavid Kraemer is Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian (Director of The Library) at The Jewish Theological Seminary\, where he has also served as Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics for many years. As Librarian\, Prof. Kraemer is at the helm of the most extensive collection of Judaica—rare and contemporary—in the Western hemisphere. On account of the size and importance of the collection\, Prof. Kraemer is instrumental in setting policy and establishing vision for projects of international importance. Prof. Kraemer is a prolific author and commentator. His books include The Mind of the Talmud (1990)\, Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature (1995)\, The Meanings of Death in Rabbinic Judaism (2000)\, and Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages (Routledge\, 2007\, 2009)\, among others. His most recent book is A History of the Talmud (Cambridge U. Press\, 2019). \n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”102″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-talmud-talks-and-we-listen-how-the-talmud-became-the-authoritative-voice-in-jewish-life/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/t.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201112T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201112T140000
DTSTAMP:20201028T202605Z
CREATED:20201028T202605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201028T202605Z
UID:5266-1605189600-1605189600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Religion is Physics: A Different Kind of Theory. A Different Kind of Everything.
DESCRIPTION:(Fear not! No math is required for this talk!) \nReligion is accused of being many things\, but how could Religion be Physics? Physics aims to understand everything with the most economical set of basic concepts\, the so-called Theory of Everything. So what is the most economical explanation of Religion? What are its most basic elements? \nTo some\, Religion is the failure of rationality\, a “maladaptive” byproduct of evolution. To others\, Religion maintains and disseminates moral and cultural values. Some believe that Religion is a psychological phenomenon\, while others believe it is a means of mass coercion. Still others believe that their religion is good and the worship of their deities is absolutely necessary for a meaningful life. None of these approaches to Religion present a rigorous definition of religious phenomena. Taking advantage of recent discoveries (some right here on UCLA’s main campus) we will apply the physics of Information processes to Religious systems. It will be shown how Religious phenomena emerge from fundamental physics. The actions and events of Cultural and Religious processes will be distinguished. To explain Religion\, a Theory of Everything will not suffice. We need a Theory of Every Thing. \n  \n\nMalcolm Dean is a published author\, journalist\, and computer consultant. He served as Principal Editor in UCLA’s Dept. of Academic Computing\, and as a Principal Investigator for a major scientific fund. He is a member of the Higher Cognitive Affinity Group\, BRI\, and was a Research Affiliate of UCLA’s Human Complex Systems program. \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \nEvent Flyer\nRSVP Required for Zoom Access:\n[gravityform id=”103″ title=”false” description=”false”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/religion-is-physics-a-different-kind-of-theory-a-different-kind-of-everything/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
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