Center for the Study of Religion

Sher-Dar (Tiger-Gate) Madrasa in Samarqand, Uzbekistan was built in the seventeenth century by a member of the Shaybanid dynasty. It is one of the three traditional Islamic schools (madrasas) of the Registan,... (Photo by Edward M. Schoolman)

Tableau of the Principal Religions of the World” (detail). Frontispiece for The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the Known World; together with historical annotations and several curious discourses.

Bethlehem graveyard and steel mill, Pennsylvania. 1935. This photograph is part of the “America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black and White Photographs from the Farm Security Administration—Office of War Information”... (Photo by Walker Evans)

Shaman performing ritual purification dance in a small Cheju Island village, November 1987. (Photo by Tim Tangherlini)

The Late Bronze Age temple of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess, in the Timnah copper mines was erected during the reign of Ramesses III. (Photo by Aaron Burke)

1.3AztecColonial_MatriculadeTributos_facsimile

This mid sixteenth-century painted manuscript is one of a number that were created during the decades following the Spanish conquest of Central Mexico in 1521. This one, the Matrícula de los tributos,

Professor Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney at an ancient Coptic cemetery in the Fayum, near the temple site of Karanis (Photo by Neil Crawford)

Watercolor by Piet de Jong (1887–1967) of an Athenian black-figured krater from the north slope of the Acropolis, depicting a procession of gods, including Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, and Hermes

Aztec stone statue, over 8’ high, of the creator goddess Coatlicue, “Snakes-[Her]-Skirt,” now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. The statue was one of a set of statues believed to have been set up on or near the Templo Mayor

Main ritual officiants of the p’oje ceremony, Cheju Island, February 1988. (Photo by Tim Tangherlini)

Jewish synagogue mosaic of Hamat Tiberias (Tiberias, Israel) illustrating the zodiac, a pagan calendrical motif, in the center of the synagogue floor. Helios is depicted in the center of the design.

Speaking before the bowed Diet members in the House of Peers, Emperor Hirohito addresses the chamber to “sanction and promulgate” the newly amended constitution, November 3, 1946.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Saint Teresa in Ecstasy in Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, completed 1652 (Photo by Robert Walser).

This large, hollow clay incense burner represents the Aztec corn goddess Chicomecoatl, “Seven Serpent,” who was believed responsible for the germination and growth of corn.

A private altar in the home of Irma Matos, Bánica, Elias Piña, Dominican Republic, for the Catholic saint San Francisco and the marassa or sacred twins of Haitian and Dominican vodú.

Medinet Habu, the funerary temple of Ramses III in western Thebes. (Photo by Neil Crawford)

Shaman performing ritual purification dance in a small Cheju Island village, November 1987. (Photo by Tim Tangherlini)

The Late Bronze Age temple of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess, in the Timnah copper mines was erected during the reign of Ramesses III. (Photo by Aaron Burke)

Professor Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney at an ancient Coptic cemetery in the Fayum, near the temple site of Karanis (Photo by Neil Crawford)

Watercolor by Piet de Jong (1887–1967) of an Athenian black-figured krater from the north slope of the Acropolis, depicting a procession of gods, including Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, and Hermes

Main ritual officiants of the p’oje ceremony, Cheju Island, February 1988. (Photo by Tim Tangherlini)

Speaking before the bowed Diet members in the House of Peers, Emperor Hirohito addresses the chamber to “sanction and promulgate” the newly amended constitution, November 3, 1946.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Saint Teresa in Ecstasy in Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, completed 1652 (Photo by Robert Walser).

This large, hollow clay incense burner represents the Aztec corn goddess Chicomecoatl, “Seven Serpent,” who was believed responsible for the germination and growth of corn.

A private altar in the home of Irma Matos, Bánica, Elias Piña, Dominican Republic, for the Catholic saint San Francisco and the marassa or sacred twins of Haitian and Dominican vodú.

Medinet Habu, the funerary temple of Ramses III in western Thebes. (Photo by Neil Crawford) Aztec stone statue, over 8’ high, of the creator goddess Coatlicue, “Snakes-[Her]-Skirt,” now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City...

Welcome to the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion

The UCLA Center for the Study of Religion was established in June 1995 in order to coordinate and promote the academic study of religion at the University for members of the campus community as well as for a wider public. In addition to housing an undergraduate major and minor, the Center sponsors seminars, lectures, and conferences as well as films and artistic performances that explore the role of religious ideas, practices, and institutions within human societies, both historical and contemporary and throughout the regions of the world.

Winter 2017 Calendar of Events

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Thu Jan 19 @12:00 - 01:30PM
Quaker Mobility and the Threat to English America

Tue Feb 07 @12:00 -
Drumming Away Demons