Seminars

  • Founded
    1945
  • Seminar Number
    405

The approaches to religion in this seminar range from the philosophical through the anthropological to the historical and comparative. We concern ourselves with religion in all of its manifestations—ancient and modern, primitive and civilized, heretical and orthodox, individual and cosmic. The guiding thread is whatever subjects are uppermost in the minds of those composing the membership at a given time. Since members come from different disciplines as well as different traditions and have a variety of personal orientations, we are assured maximum openness and flexibility.


Co-Chairs
Tony Carnes
editor@nycreligion.info

Sidney Greenfield
sidneygreenfield@gmail.com

Rapporteur
Shreyaa Suresh
ss6957@columbia.edu

Meeting Schedule

09/13/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM

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10/04/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM

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11/15/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM
Regimes of Happiness: Civilizations, Disease and the Search for a Fulfilled Life--Joint meeting with (411)
Yuri Contreras-Vejar, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
Abstract

Abstract

The notion ‘regimes of happiness’ is an attempt to capture and define the elusive nature and role of the ideals of human fulfillment in human societies. They are not mere mores or ethical aspirations. Regimes of happiness are social configurations that enact and articulate ethical ideals, which as complex articulations of ideologies concatenations of iconographic imageries and discourses—help social groups and societies to navigate natural and social uncertainties and catastrophes. Regimes of happiness are practical; they effect praxes, and their efficacies determine their abilities to produce lasting effects: institutions. Either as structured organizations or as ensembles of social roles, institutions are key articulators of authority. Regimes of
happiness define what is desirable, acceptable, and permissible.

To illustrate these analytical distinctions, the lecture “Regimes of Happiness: Civilizations, Disease and the Search of a Fulfilled Life” will focus on the rise of monasticism at the end of the Latin Roman Empire, the transformation of religious orders in Medieval Europe and the reorganization of social life during the Protestant revolutions.





12/06/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM

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03/06/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM

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03/20/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM
Reflections on the Queens Religion Project--Joint meeting with (411)
Richard Cimino, Founding Editor, Religion Watch

Hans Tokke, New York City College of Technology



04/03/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM

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05/01/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:30 PM

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