RELG 008. Patterns of Asian Religions

A thematic introduction to the study of religion through an examination of selected
precepts and practices of several religious traditions of India, China, and Japan structured
as patterns of religious life. Materials taken from the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of
India, Confucian and Taoist traditions of China, and from Zen traditions of Japan.
Themes we will consider include issues of religious symbols, cosmology, and ritual; the
gods, personhood/self, and religious transformation; liberation, gender, and sexuality;
philosophy, narrative and popular piety; and the place of the body in meditation, worship
and religious experience.
Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Eligible for ASIA, GLBL-Paired, ASAM
Spring 2025. Hopkins.
Spring 2026. Hopkins.
Catalog chapter: Religion
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/religion

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