Course Requirements:
   i. Prepared attendance in class meetings.  Each student should come to class with written observations or questions for discussion.  These will be turned in and, together with actual contributions to discussion, will cumulatively amount to 20% of final grade.
   ii. Two ca. 1000-word essays based on readings and discussion (20% each).
   iii. An in-class midterm exam (20% of final grade).
   iv. A one-hour final exam (20% of final grade).

Books for Purchase:
Richard C. Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road (Saint Martin's Press, 1999).
Antonia Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman age (Eerdmans, 2002).
Richard Valantsis, ed., Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice (Princeton UP, 2000).
Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism in Chinese History (Stanford UP, 1959).

* Other readings (marked with an asterisk) will be made available as the term progresses.

Tentative Class Schedule (subject to revision as the term progresses)

Introduction

            9-5       Merchants, soldiers, and monks: Taking religion on the road

Week 1        Mystery Cults and Hellenistic Religious Philosophies

9-10     Tripolitis, ch. i.a-b; 
* Koester, pp. 1-16, 31-36, 164-203, (Historical Survey; The Development of Greek Religion; The New Religions); 
RLA, ch. 32 (An Isis Aretology).

            9-12     Tripolitis, ch. i.c; 
RLA, chs.  2 (Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius), 3 (Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus), 44 (Iamblichus, de Mysteriis)   

Week 2        Mithraism and Zoroastrianism

9-17      Foltz, chs. 1-2; 
Tripolitis, ch. ii; 
* Malandra, An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion, pp. 35-64, 71-72, 150-158

9-19      RLA, ch. 24 (Mithras Liturgy and Sepher ha-Razim).

Week 3        Hellenistic Judaism

9-24      Tripolitis, ch. iii; 
* Cansdale 1998;
RLA, ch. 36 (4 Maccabees).

9-26      * Lubin 2002; 
RLA, chs. 9 (Talmud), 26 (Seal of the Merkevah)

Week 4        Early Christianity in the Late Antique World

10-1      Tripolitis, ch. iv.      

10-3      RLA, chs. 15 (Acts of Thomas), 19-20 (Chrysostom), 28 (Amulets), 39 (Christian Oracle Shrines).

Week 5        Gnosticism

10-8      Tripolitis, ch. v-vi; 
* Gnostic Gospels.

10-10    Reading Day (No Class Meeting)
            FIRST ESSAY DUE SUNDAY by 6pm (in my mailbox)

Week 6        Nestorianism and Manichaeism

10-15    Foltz, ch. 4; 
* Lieu 1998; 
RLA, chs. 12 (Cologne Mani Codex), 43 (Theology).

10-17    RLA, chs. 8 (Asceticism), 25 (Liturgy).

Week 7        Islam on the Silk Road

10-22    Foltz, chs. 5-7; 
* Qur’an 1 (al-Fatiha), 2 (The Cow), 5 (The Spread Table), 30 (The Romans).

10-24    MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Week 8        Religions in Ancient India and the Mauryan Age

            10-29    * Lubin, “Vedic Religion and Its Transformations”; 
                        * Upanishads.

10-31    * Life of the Buddha; 
* Edicts of Asoka.

Week 9        The New Brahmanism, Initiatory Sects, and the Royal Courts

11-5      * Lubin, “Arya Society and the Dharma of the Brahmins”; 
* The Atharvashiras-Upanishad.

            11-7      * Lubin, “Kings and Gods: State-Sponsored Temple Traditions”; 
                         * excerpts from the Puranas.

Week 10        The Indianization of Southeast Asia

11-12    * Coedes, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, chs. 2-4.

11-14    * Robinson and Johnson, “Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia”; 
* Mahavamsa (Chronicle of Lanka) 1.12-43, 11-13, 24-25.

Week 11        Buddhism on the Silk Road / Chinese Culture

11-19    Foltz, ch. 3; 
* The Questions of King Milinda.

11-21    Wright, ch. 1; 
* Sources of Chinese Tradition, ch. 9.
SECOND ESSAY DUE IN CLASS

        Thanksgiving Recess

Week 12        Buddhism Comes to China

12-3      Wright, chs. 2-4; 
* Sources of Chinese Tradition, ch. 15.

12-5      Wright, chs. 5-6; 
* Sources of Chinese Tradition, ch. 17.

FINAL EXAM

Occasional Readings (more to come)

Helmut Koester. 1982. Introduction to the New Testament. Vol. 1. History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age, pp. 1-16, 31-36, 164-203. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

William W. Malandra, trans. 1983. An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion: Readings from the Avesta and the Achaemenid Inscriptions, pp. 35-64, 71-72, 150-158. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Samuel Lieu. 1998. “From Iran to South China: The eastward passage of Manichaeism.” Silk Road Studies II. Worlds of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern, ed. by D. Christian and C. Benjamin, pp. 1-22. Brepols.

Lena Cansdale. 1998. “Jews on the Silk Roads.” Silk Road Studies II. Worlds of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern, ed. by D. Christian and C. Benjamin, pp. 23-30. Brepols.

Timothy Lubin. 2002. “The Virtuosic Exegesis of the Brahmavadin and the Rabbi.” Numen: International Journal for the History of Religions 49.4, 33pp.

Relevant Links:
 Buddhism on the Silk Road - a website of the British Library
 Monks and Merchants - a website of the Asia Society
 Silkroad Foundation
 Silk Road Seattle - a website of the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, Univ. Washington
 Bulletin of the Asia Institute - "studies in the art, archaeology, numismatics, history, and languages of ancient Iran, Mesopotamia, and Central Asia and connections with China and Japan along the Silk Route"
 Journal of Ancient Civilizations - "a forum for the discussion of various aspects of the cultural and historical process in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean world, encompassing studies of individual civilizations as well as common elements, contacts and interactions among them"
 Zoroastrianism: An Ancient Religion of Iran and Its Diaspora