In this course, we will study some of the women in the Buddha’s life: his biological mother Maya, who dies seven days after she gives birth; his wife Yasodhara, who is left behind when he makes his Great Departure; and his stepmother Mahapajapati Gotami, who raises him after Maya’s death and eventually follows him into a life of renunciation, be
In this two-part interactive online discussion class, we will apply philosophical questions to the world of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit (focusing specifically on this book and not the trilogy). How does the riddle game played by Bilbo and Gollum help us think about how we interpret language?
It seems that Americans have always searched for utopia, and some have made the attempt to establish utopian societies.
This class will examine the roots of Christmas in the first four centuries. We will look at the role of holidays in ancient religions, Roman midwinter festivals, calendrical variations, as well competing theories on why December 25th is observed by most Christians as the date of the birth of Jesus.