Asian Religions

In the framework of this subject, the students will be acquainted with the following scopes of content:
- Historical overview of religions in East Asia.
- The problem of distinguishing and defining the concept of religion and its characteristics in relation to other ideological discourses (philosophy, science, art).
- Knowledge of the causes and effects of cultural spread of religions.
- The issue of institutionalisation of religions.
- Confucian ethics and its social impact.
- Philosophical (dao jia) and folk or religious Daoism (dao jiao).
- Buddhism in general: philosophical or ideological foundations, historical development; Indian roots, Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism, spread of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, China and Japan.
- The central school of sinologised Buddhism.
- The influence of traditional beliefs (Shamanism, bon).
- Development and schools of Chan (Zen) Buddhism.
- Shintoism.
- Christianity, Islam and Judaism in East Asia.