On the evening of February 22nd, in the inviting ambiance of the Common Room at the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR), an event unfurled that beckoned the searching and the sincere alike: "What is the Point of Life? Theosis in Yoruba Traditions." Ayodeji Ogunnaike, esteemed Visiting Scholar at CSWR and Assistant Professor at The University of Virginia, guided attendees through the interwoven paths of Yoruba spirituality, addressing the enigmatic queries that touch the very essence of existence. 

In a cosmology teeming with myriad òrìṣà (divinities), the...

Read more about Theosis in Yoruba Spirituality: A Journey into Divine Unity

In 2023 the Society of Biblical Literature released a print edition of the newest scholarly translation of the Bible: the “updated edition” of the New Revised Standard Version, or NRSVue. This new version introduced minor alterations to the NRSV, which was itself a revision of the Revised Standard Version first published in 1952. New translations and critical editions of the Bible are nothing new in biblical studies; the field is grounded in new discoveries and developments in textual...

Read more about The Vulnerable Bible in Fact and Fiction

In a six-part series from January 24 through February 28, 2024, Ayodeji Ogunnaike, Assistant Professor of Afro-Brazilian studies at the University of Virginia, will introduce the Yoruba wisdom tradition of Ifa divination in a workshop titled “Ifa Divination, Pedagogy, and the Cultivation of Wisdom in Modern Settings”. The workshop will explore Yoruba philosophical concepts and the training of Ifa devotees, with each session focusing on themes like embodied wisdom, sacred arts, narrative pedagogy, mnemonics, diversity, and poetic form. 

CSWR: So, the...

Read more about CSWR Ifa Divination Workshop: An Interview with Ayodeji Ogunnaike 

As part of its broader “Embodied Wisdom” programming, the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) is offering a unique workshop series in winter 2024, titled “Ifa Divination, Pedagogy, and the Cultivation of Wisdom in Modern Settings.” Led by Ayodeji Ogunnaike, Visiting Scholar at the CSWR and Assistant Professor of Afro-Brazilian studies at the University of Virginia, this six-part series will introduce participants to Ifa divination and Yoruba philosophical concepts. Sessions will focus on themes such as embodied wisdom, sacred arts, narrative pedagogy, mnemonics, diversity, and...

Read more about Ifa Divination Workshop: A Journey into Yoruba Wisdom

From January 16-19, 2024, the Multifaith Space of Swartz Hall at Harvard Divinity School turned around the dynamic corporeal axes, guided by William Robert, Professor of Religion at Syracuse University, through his “Embodied Wisdom Workshop”. Robert invited participants to explore uniquely relational entanglements with Euripides’ Bakkhai. 18 bodies, gathering in the round, formed a living tableau prefiguring their collective journey around the ancient Greek tragedy’s narrative. 

Each session of the workshop built upon the previous, creating an imbricated and...

Read more about Embodied Wisdom Workshop: Rolling into the Depths of Bakkhai

January 16 - 19, 2024, William Robert of Syracuse University lead the CSWR Embodied Wisdom Workshop: Studying Religion in Play. The workshop explored the study of religion through the embodied performance of Euripides’s Bakkhai, combining analytical and performative techniques to transform participants' understanding of religion.  

CSWR: What inspired the conception of the Embodied Wisdom Workshop?  

William: The workshop comes out of my long-standing commitment to bringing performance into the classroom...

Read more about Embodied Wisdom Workshop: An Interview with William Robert

On the evening of November 30, 2023, the much-anticipated event celebrating the launch of Peripheries, the Center for the Study of World Religions’s (CSWR) annual literary and arts journal, unfolded with a blend of poetry, music, and art, drawing over 140 attendees both in-person and virtually. The air buzzed with excitement as guests, including Chef Daniella Malfi, a MRPL candidate and musician deeply inspired by the journal, expressed their eagerness to delve into the 6th edition. 

Read more about Video: Peripheries Launch Event 2023

As we bid farewell to 2023, I wish to highlight two outstanding events from the final weeks of the fall semester: the launch of the latest issue of Peripheries, the literary and arts journal published annually by the CSWR; and a celebration of the life and writings of Enheduanna (c. twenty-third century B.C.E.) – Akkadian princess, priestess, and poet, and the first named author in human history. Our focus...

Read more about Director Charles Stang Welcomes in the Spring 2024 Semester

On December 12, 2023, the CSWR hosted a special evening celebrating the life and writings of Enheduana, also En-hedu-Ana; (c. twenty-third century B.C.E.) who is the first named author in human history. Enheduana, an Akkadian princess and daughter of King Sargon I, was appointed high priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sîn) in the holy city of Ur. Her poems and hymns offer unique, first-hand accounts of her personal experiences of the goddess Inana, and provide insights into issues of gender, sexuality, theology, and goddess-worship in early Mesopotamia.... Read more about Video: Enheduanna: Voicing the Feminine Divine Presentation and Musical Performance

The following "Researcher Reflection" from Dr. Ayodeji Ogunnaike is part of an ongoing series where we spotlight CSWR scholars and their research.

In part as a result of discussions with others affiliated with the Center for the Study of World Religions, over the past several years I have become increasingly interested in not only the way the body is engaged in Yoruba religious practice but specifically the way Yoruba traditions can change and divinize the body. Traditional Yoruba religious and philosophical thought is inseparable from both ritual and deep engagement with the human body, even in Ifá divination, arguably the most widely practiced and celebrated indigenous African intellectual system.... Read more about CSWR Researcher Reflection: "The Body in Yoruba Religion", Ayodeji Ogunnaike

by Tristan Angieri, MDiv Student and CSWR Student Research Assistant

On the evening of November 30, 2023, the much-anticipated event celebrating the launch of Peripheries, the Center for the Study of World Religions’s (CSWR) annual literary and arts journal, unfolded with a blend of poetry, music, and art, drawing over 140 attendees both in-person and virtually. The air buzzed with excitement as guests, including Chef Daniella Malfi, a MRPL candidate and musician deeply inspired by the journal,...

Read more about An Evening of Poetry, Music, Art: Celebrating Peripheries No. 6

by Gosia Sklodowska

Peripheries, our annual literary and arts journal, occupies a special place at the CSWR. The journal publishes poetry, prose, visual art, and music that is, broadly understood, "peripheral"; work that, in form, explores the interstices between discourses, traditions, languages, art forms, and genres; and, in topic, explores the marginal, the incidental, the tangential, and boundary- and limit-experiences, such a mystical experiences on the margins of religious traditions. In this, the journal is consistent with the Center’s focus on the...

Read more about Poetry, Philosophy, and Religion at the CSWR: Peripheries Launch 2023

As part of the CSWR Poetry Series, the Center hosted award-winning poet, Don Revell for the Fall 2023 Poetry Symposium, Almost a Prayer: The Afterlife of Enchantment.  The symposium and Revell were introduced by literary critic, poet, and professor of english at Harvard, Stephanie Burt.  After a reading by Revell, conversation was joined by audience members and on-line guests including Jorie Graham.... Read more about Video: Don Revell, Reading and Conversation (with Intro by Stephanie Burt): Almost a Prayer: The Afterlife of Enchantment

Sri Sabhapati Swami, a nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Tamil yogin named Sri Sabhapati Swami (Śrī Sabhāpati Svāmī, Capāpati Cuvāmikaḷ, ca. 1828–1923/4), had a significant impact on the development of modern yoga as well as modern occultism yet whose historical context and literature remains little-understood. Sabhapati’s works introduced elements of Tamil Śaiva cosmology to North India (especially British Punjab and Bengal), and he pioneered a yogic system that—on the surface—anticipates one later popularized by Swami Vivekananda, about whom by contrast there are enough books...

Read more about Introducing "Like a Tree Universally Spread Sri Sabhapati Swami and Śivarājayoga", Keith Cantú, Author

The Center’s Gnoseologies Series led by Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani has played a prominent role in the Transcendence and Transformation (T&T) Initiative at the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR). Launched in September 2021, the T&T initiative affirms the existence of the sacred, different levels of reality, seen and unseen, and different modes of access to them.  

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Read more about Gnoseologies and Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani