Past Events

This is a listing of past campus events tied to the scholarly study of religion.

Fall, 2018

October 22nd – 26th: Tibetan Buddhist Monks Visit from Tashi Kyil Monastery

Monday, October 22 

6:30 p.m. – 45-minute Tibetan Mantra Meditation

Tuesday, October 23

12:00 p.m. – Lunch discussion cosponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute; light lunch provided

7:00 p.m. – Arts Workshop: Sand painting, butter sculpting, and mani stones

Wednesday, October 24

2:30 p.m. – 75-minute class discussion on mindfulness and mantra recitation

6:30 p.m. – Skeleton, Panda, and Black Hat dances with explanations

Thursday, October 25

2:00 p.m. – Slideshow on death and dying from the Buddhist perspective

Tuesday, September 11th, 12 – 1 pm in 102 Weaver: “Yoga, the Bhagavad Gita, and Ethical Responsibility.”

 

 Jeremy Engels, Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute; Associate Professor of Rhetoric
“Setting the tone for our year long exploration of how religious and spiritual traditions approach ethical responsibility, in this brief talk I will describe the ethics of the Bhagavad Gita and then complicate that ethics by situating the Gita in the narrative arc of the epic Mahabharata, of which the Gita is a chapter. I ask, under what circumstances is it ethical to act out of duty without concern for “the fruits”–i.e., the consequences–of one’s actions, as the Gita teaches.”

Spring, 2018

Wednesday, January 31st, 4 – 5pm in Sparks 133: Roundtable on Social Science approaches to the Study of Religion.

Gary Adler, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Wendell Schwab, Senior Undergraduate Studies Adviser
Cathy Wanner, Professor of History, Anthropology and Religious Studies, Barry Director of the Paterno Fellows Program

Wednesday, February 21st, 4 – 5pm in Borland 121:  “Exploring the Resources of the The Association of Religion Data Archives (theARDA.com)”

Roger Finke, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Religious Studies, and International Affairs, Director of the Association of Religion Data Archives

Respondent, Scott Bennett, Associate Dean for Research, Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science

Quick Facts on theARDA.com

Tuesday, March 27th, 2:30 – 4pm at Center for Spiritual and Ethical Development, Memorial Lounge: “A GlobalPlus conversation: How religion and science can work together for the common good”

Join three leading scholars, Elaine Ecklund, Christopher Scheitle, and Jenny Trinitapoli, in a global dialogue on science and religion. The GlobalPlus conversation, the second of a five-part series exploring critical issues in religion at major universities throughout the world, features groundbreaking research offering new pathways to cooperative efforts on issues from evolution and climate change to eradicating disease.

Tuesday, March 27th, 7 – 8:30pm in Alumni Lounge at the Nittany Lion Inn: Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies.

WHAT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE THINK ABOUT SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS THINK ABOUT RELIGION

Elaine Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, Rice University

Based on five years of data collection Ecklund will tell us the real story of the relationship between science and religion in American culture, one that is more nuanced and complex than the media and pundits would lead us to believe.

CO-SPONSORED BY
The Humanities Institute, The Rock Ethics Institute, Center for Ethics and Spiritual Development, The Department of Sociology, The Association of Religion Data Archives and the International Association of Religion Journalists.

Tuesday, April 3rd, 5 – 6pm in Alumni Lounge, Nittany Lion Inn: “Qayrawā­n in the making of the new Jewish ‘Bookshelf’”

Menahem Ben-Sasson, Chancellor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor of the History of the Jewish People

Wednesday, April 4th, 2 – 5p in 102 Weaver: Symposium. Kairouan – a Mediterranean Society model

2:00pm –  Linked States of Knowledge in the Islamic West (c. 800-1150):
Nina Safran

2:30pm –  The Jewish communities of Kairouan as part of a Mediterranean Society:
Menachem Ben Sasson

3:00pm – Muslim scholarly communities – a deep dive into the libraries of Kairouan:
Jonathan Brockopp

3:30pm – Break

4:00pm – Roundtable on recovering the lost histories of early Muslim North Africa

Readings:

“The Mature Scholarly Community of Kairouan, 880–950”, Jonathan Brockopp

“Linked States of Knowledge”, Janina Safran

“Varieties of Inter-Communal Relations in the Geonic Period”, Menahem Ben-Sasson

Friday, March 17, 2017 3:30-4:30 p.m. 121 Borland round table discussion with Penn State colleagues, second in our series of discussions this semester on the future of Religious Studies at Penn State

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 10-11 a.m., 121 Borland with Jon Butler (Yale), last of our series of discussions this semester on the future of Religious Studies at Penn State

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 3-4:30 pm., 102 Weaver. Annual Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies

Jon Butler (Yale University)

“Manhattan: Modern America’s Spiritual Hothouse.”

New York City has long epitomized modern secularism in its various guises. Yet between 1890 and 1970, New York became America’s most theologically innovative city — perhaps, the world’s. Figures such as Dorothy Day, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Norman Vincent Peale, Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik, among others, transformed the ways Americans, not just New Yorkers, conceived of God and the meaning of religion in a place and century more commonly associated with rising secularism. Was this just accidental, or did New York and their experience of it catalyze their transforming theologies?
Jon Butler is Howard R. Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale University. He was Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2004-10, and among his many publications is Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People (Harvard UP, 1990) which won the Beveridge Award for Best Book in American History.
The Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies is an annual lectureship made possible by a generous donation in honor of Luther H. Harshbarger, former professor and head of the Religious Studies Department at Penn State.

 

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