POSTPONED: And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible

Online on Zoom

In light of the current circumstances confronting the Los Angeles region, UCLA is currently operating on remote status through Friday, January 17th. As a result, the Leve Center has postponed...

The Great Search with John Philip Newell

314 Royce Hall/Zoom

The story of Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden is a mythical account of humanity’s broken relationship with the divine, with Earth, and with themselves....

Seeking Liberation: Contemporary Female Ascetic Orders Among the Jains

Online on Zoom

Present day records show an overwhelming numerical preponderance of nuns in Jain mendicant orders. Their striking presence demands that we question the androcentric models of renunciation in South Asia, as well as interrogate the commonsensical assumptions about the attraction that a lifetime of mendicancy may hold for women. By privileging the voice of the nuns,...

Spread and Stack: The Development of the Roman Catholic Church from 33-461

Kaplan 365

In this talk by Gabriel Rossman, he attempts to explain the development of Christianity over its first six centuries from a highly localized charismatic sect to a hierarchical structure spanning much of the world. Rossman conceives of the formation of the Catholic Church as an illustrative case of large social structures forming in three overlapping...

Symposium – (Mis)Using the Bible: White Evangelicalism & Christian Nationalism in America

Royce Hall 306/Zoom

White Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism has occupied an increasingly prominent position since—and in many ways before—the first Trump administration. Events such as January 6 and the second Trump presidency have highlighted the entanglement of politics and religious belief that is central to Christian Nationalism. This symposium brings together several scholars to discuss various aspects of...

Progressive Activists and the Bible

Online on Zoom

Some of America's most effective reformers did not just refer to the Bible, but fused their own struggles with its narratives, seeing themselves as part of a cosmic divine battle within history. Claudia Setzer will have us consider how abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and others used multiple methods of biblical...

Power and Alterity in Black Religious Thought

Kaplan 365

Who is the human? What is legitimate religion? Who is left out of these discourses? Questions of power, humanity, and alterity animate religious discourse and responses to oppression. Leveraging the Rastafari movement and interrogating religious racism this talk will allow us to grapple with 20th century Black religious discourses and their continued relevance for thinking about how...