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This course is an introduction to the basic texts, institutions, and practices of three religious traditions of South and East Asia, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Using central primary sources, as well as specialized secondary literature, this course sets out to introduce students to the fundamental concepts and practices that characterize each tradition. At the same time, the course will introduce students to the problems inherent to comparative religion, by analyzing the historical presuppositions that ground the comparison of different traditions according to the Western faith-based definitions of what is and is not religion. The course begins by looking at the Western study of the East in what has come to be called orientalism, and ends by looking at the influence of Eastern wisdom traditions, analyzing the contemporary phenomenon of New Age religion and its political implications.
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