Learning outcomes

History of religions is not a religious discipline, but historical. It is an inductive research based on the investigation of original sources, therefore founded on philology and comparison. It uses the terms “religion” and “religious” for those facts that the historian, due to his own culture and background, considers to be so. Considering the events that he considered to be religious in his own culture, he learns to find analogies and make comparisons with other cultures. In this way he reaches an understanding of some “universals” of humans, which are however concrete, historical facts. These universals will derive from knowledge of ethnology and comparative-history: therefore religion is, in the last analysis, a human universal.

Program

Prerequisites: Knowledge of religious problems in a wide historical and geographical perspective.

Course contents:
1. First part (institutional): The course proposes to give students an historical awareness of human religions and the methodological problems which have always been, and continue to be, connected to the discipline of History of religions.
2.Second part (monographical): The Upanishadic development of Vedic Religion.

Reading list:
1 First part (institutional):
A. Brelich, Introduzione alla Storia delle religioni,Edizioni dell'Ateneo,Roma 1966 and following editions.
P.A. Carozzi, Storia delle religioni. Metodi e contributi della “scuola italiana”, Chimera Editore, Milano 2008. Previous, out of print editions are no longer sufficient to prepare the exam.
2. Second part (monographical):
Tre Upanishad: Aitareya, Isa, Kena, a cura di P. A. Carozzi, ad usum manuscripti, Verona 2013.
Upanishad antiche e medie, introduzione, traduzione e note a cura di Pio Filippani-Ronconi, Boringhieri, Torino 1977.
G. R. Franci, L’Induismo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2000.
P. A. Carozzi, Rendere sensibile il divino. Le arti nelle religioni, Chimera Editore, Milano 2009.

It is requested that students have at least a basic knowledge of the sacred religious texts,and of the significance and expression of religious rites and doctrines. Further reading lists will be given during the course.

Didactic methods: Lectures and seminars.

Examination Methods

Written test.