Colonial Encounters: Sor Juana, Guaman Poma, and the Birth of the Brown Church

Kaplan 365

In person (Kaplan 365) This guest lecture examines the little known multicultural religious protests to the Spanish Conquest of colonial Latin America.  Such protests began in 1511 under the guidance of Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos and led to “The Great Debate” in which, for the first time in recorded human history, an entire nation...

Making a Refuge of Resistance: A History of the U.S. Sanctuary Movement

314 Royce Hall

In person (Royce 314) Is sacred space protective space? This question lies at the heart of the Sanctuary Movement, the most confrontational progressive religious social movement in the United States since the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement. Modern Sanctuary Movement activists adopted the ancient practice of protecting in designated sanctuaries individuals who stood in...

The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel

UCLA Faculty Center

Presented by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion and the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. The story of the Twelve Tribes of Israel begins in the Hebrew Bible. But all around the world, there are stories about what happened next...

My Grandfather’s Altar

UCLA Faculty Center

Registration closed. The room is at capacity. VENUE CHANGE: This event will now be held at the UCLA Faculty Center. Richard Moves Camp, in conversation with the editor and producer of his book My Grandfather’s Altar: Five Generations of Lakota Holy Men, shares stories from this oral-literary narrative account of five generations of Lakota religious tradition....

EVENT CANCELLED – Confusion of the Babels: Multilingualism and Translation in Ancient Judaism

Royce Hall 306

EVENT CANCELLED. While the usual rendering and  understanding of the Tower of Babel narrative (Gen 11:1–9) presumes the existence of one unified divine and human language (usually Hebrew, but with other candidates) between Eden and Babel, an alternative narrative imagines there having already existed a totality of ‘seventy” languages from the beginning, and only at...

Signs of Faith Against Fascism

Kaplan 365

In this book talk, Eric Martin will explore how people of faith can connect their religious traditions with the rise of overtly fascist violence in the United States. With first-hand accounts from the largest white supremacist gathering in modern American history at Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia, Martin will share how the clergy resisting...

Cappella Romana – “In the Footsteps of St. Demetrios”

Cappella Romana presents a world première program - IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. DEMETRIOS - Directed by Alexander Lingas, Founder and Director of Cappella Romana. Sunday, October 27, 2024 / 5:00 PM / Reception following the performance This concert brings to life the vibrant soundscape of medieval Thessaloniki, Byzantium’s second largest city. Hear ancient hymns honoring the...

How Religion Matters in an Age of Extinction

Kaplan 365

In person (Kaplan 365) or on Zoom Could knowledge about biodiversity loss be advanced through inquiry into the study of religion? Emerging from a lab that integrates humanities, arts, and sciences into research on coastal change in Virginia, this talk shows how different conceptions of religion and spirituality open unique lines of inquiry into human...

Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes

314 Royce Hall

Who wrote the Bible? Its books have no bylines. Tradition long identified Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, with Ezra as editor. Ancient readers also suggested that David wrote the psalms and Solomon wrote Proverbs and Qohelet. Although the Hebrew Bible rarely speaks of its authors, people have been fascinated by the question of...

And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible

Online on Zoom

Since the Hebrew Bible is a sacred text for Jews and Christians many readers naturally assume it cannot contain any humor. This talk will explore several biblical narratives that employ humor to make serious theological points. Becoming aware of such biblical humor can enrich our understanding of these stories and of certain theological ideas the...