Smith College Religion Department

03/24/2023

Professor Joel Kaminsky is speaking in Indianapolis and Dayton, Ohio next week -- open to the public and of course to alums!

11/29/2022

https://www.oxfordinterfaithforum.org/programs/thematic-international-interfaith-reading-groups/psalms-in-interfaith-contexts/psalm-3725-innocent-suffering-and-divine-recompense/
An opportunity to join a discussion led by Professor Joel Kaminsky on December 15!

15 December We are deeply honoured to welcome Professor Joel Kaminsky, Morningstar Professor of Jewish …

04/15/2022

Senior Naomi Brill's essay "Jesus, James, and Job: Christian Perspectives on Innocent Suffering", first written for her Religion department seminar class on Job, was published in the winter 2021 volume of The UCLA Journal of Religion --https://religion.ucla.edu/ucla-journal-religion/ucla-journal-of-religion-vol-5/. Congratulations, Naomi!
We are very proud of you.

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 5 (Complete) Click on the link above to download Volume 5 in its entirety, including a graphically designed cover, editor’s introduction, and hyperlinked table of contents “Luck as Contemporary Folkloric Magic: A Multidisciplinary Approach.” By Alexandre Duceppe-L...

03/28/2022

Robert A.F. Thurman will give the first Marylin Rhie memorial lecture on April 7 at 5 pm in Seelye 201. Open to the public on proof of vaccination. To attend by Zoom, register here: https://smith.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_93ulKGhcRwaYYECIlugACw

"Smith College’s eminent art historian, the late Professor Marylin M. Rhie, is well known in scholarly circles for her consummate expertise in tracing the development of Buddhist art, particularly the transformative vision of the Buddha and the great bodhisattvas, as the tradition traveled within India and beyond, through Central Asia and into China. Not so well known is her historical discovery and elucidation of the distinctive vision of the seers and artists of Tibet. As Buddhist civilization was transmitted into Tibet during the period from the 7th to the 14th centuries, the Tibetan seers and artists carefully absorbed the visionary and artistic traditions from the Post-Gupta empires from Bengal to Nepal and Kashmir, from Central Asia, and eventually from Buddhist China as well. With the Tibetan Renaissance of the 1400’s, they integrated these disparate traditions with their own, spiritual and material “high-altitude” sensibility and created unique styles and masterpieces that brought the Buddhist celestial imaginary of enlightened beings and pure lands down to earth, so to speak, evolving a visionary aesthetic style that Professor Rhie elucidated as what we called “surrealistic naturalism,” or just as validly, “naturalistic surrealism.” That is to say, she opened our eyes to enable us to see how the Tibetans made the inconceivably beautiful imagined celestial figures of buddhas and bodhisattvas and gods and goddesses seem at least subliminally credible as vividly alive and immediately present to the viewer, by depicting their supernormal bodies and environments with a precise realism of form and color. This illustrated lecture will draw on Professor Rhie’s seminal works in this area to highlight her remarkable insight, and its breakthrough contribution to the appreciation of Tibetan art and culture."

03/21/2022

How did Apostle Paul understand the nature and purpose of Israel’s election as compared to the kinds of understandings that we find in the Hebrew Bible? Professor Joel Kaminsky discusses!

In this episode of our Anti-Judaism series we turn to discuss the nature and purpose of Israel’s election. Specifically, we discuss how this may have been understood by the Apostle Paul relative to…

03/02/2022

Duncan Ryuken Williams lecture -- tonight at 7 pm!

Duncan Ryuken Williams Professor of Religion, Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity, and Professor of East Asian Languages and Culture University of Sout...

02/24/2022

Next Wednesday, March 2 at 7 pm, Duncan Ryuken Williams delivers the annual Taitetsu Unno Memorial Lecture.

In person attendance at Neilson Library Browsing Room restricted to members of the Smith community in the testing program and Five College students and staff. But livestream will be available on the Smith College Buddhist Studies YouTube channel!

A few months after the Pearl Harbor attack, Taitetsu Unno turned 13 years old. Around his birthday, his family was forcibly removed from their home by the U.S. Army and incarcerated in a concentration camp in Arkansas, purportedly as threats to national security. The incarceration of roughly 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry during WWII has been widely recognized as one of the most extensive denials of due process for U.S. citizens ever recorded. Yet despite the attempts to remedy this harm through such means as reparations legislation and more recently the Supreme Court overruling of the Korematsu case, there has never been a comprehensive and accurate list of the individuals who were caught up in this mass incarceration. Professor Williams will speak about his research in making such a list and a project to display these names in a Buddhist-inspired monument that draws on memorials designed by Buddhist priests during WWII at the concentration camps.

02/03/2022

Punchlines providing insight: Professor Joel Kaminsky has recently had published in The Christian Century an article that highlights the ability of humor to communicate Jewish-Christian dialogue. A fun read!

Have you heard the one about the priest, the minister, and the rabbi?

01/19/2022

Smith Jewish Studies Professor Justin Cammy will talk about his recently published translation from Yiddish of the great Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever's memoir From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg next Wednesday, January 26 at 7pm in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The panelists also speaking include Anna Shternshis of the University of Toronto, Keith Weiser of York University, and Francine Hirsch of UWisconsin-Madison. If you are available and want to listen in, you are most welcome to register in advance for this virtual event!

Register now for Indigo Events's event on Crowdcast, scheduled to go live on Wednesday January 26, 2022 at 7:00 pm EST.

09/22/2021

And a second event with Professor Kaminsky later on September 30 --

FREE Webinar: Death & End of Life Issues

Date: Thursday, September 30, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. EST

Webinar Description:

Death and end of life of issues affect all of us, and yet we are often reluctant to address them honestly, even in churches. Rather than facing our mortality, we often talk about ways to prolong our days, surgeries that will restore youthful appearances, and how quickly we can “move on” from the loss of a loved one.

This webinar will address this topic openly by bringing together five experts known for their pastoral and theological insights. This webinar stems from the most recent themed issue of Union’s flagship journal, Interpretation. This journal is read by pastors, rabbis, academics, students, and interested laypersons all over the world. We will cover such matters as responding to a loved one with dementia, conducting a funeral, the content of Scripture on death, pastoral care with those who are dying and their families, and how to deal with the decline of a beloved family member. There will be time for audience interchange with our excellent panel.

FREE Webinar: Death & End of Life Issues Date: Thursday, September 30, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. EST Webinar Description:...

09/22/2021

A talk by Professor Kaminsky, hosted by the SUNY Purchase Jewish Studies Program, on September 30 at 4 pm (EDT)

Topic: Does the Idea of "God's Chosen People" Divide Jews and Christians?

Description: Professor Kaminsky will examine how early Christians and ancient rabbinic Jews each adopted the concept of “chosenness” in the Hebrew Bible, as historically each group identified themselves as the true descendants of the Israelites. These approaches to chosenness both united and divided their communities.

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://purchase.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEod-2trj0iEtwYRJ8SbZ5MeCfJZFdb4Vz4

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Professor Kaminsky will examine how early Christians and ancient rabbinic Jews each adopted the concept of “chosenness” in the Hebrew Bible, as historically each group identified themselves as the true descendants of the Israelites. These approaches to chosenness both united and divided their co...