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November 30, 2010 | Catholic University of America offers Hinduism courses |
Nevada (US):The Catholic University of America (CUA), national university of the Catholic Church in the United States located in Washington DC, is offering various Hinduism
related classes. Courses include: introduction to Hinduism, Hinduism-Religion
and Art, classic texts of Hinduism, God and Goddess in Hinduism, and Core Theological
Texts and Motifs of Hinduism. These Hinduism classes aim to acquaint students
with iconography, temples, and theologies of the gods and goddesses of India:
Vishnu, Krishna, Shiva, and Devi; wisdom of Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, devotional
literature, and Indian philosophy; pilgrimages; culture and religious practices
of contemporary Hindu communities in the Washington DC area; divine in Hinduism;
nature of the soul and the body in relation to the divine; religious meanings
of masculine and feminine in the divine; "chosen" divinities; forms of devotion;
Hindu holy men and women; God(s) and Goddesses in "Hindu Theology"; etc. Distinguished
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, described CUA's
action as "a step in the right direction". Zed, who is president of Universal
Society of Hinduism, argued that religion was a complex element of our lives and
religion comprised much more than one's own individual experience or specific
tradition. God, as a sign of God's munificence and benevolence, constructively
wished presence of different faiths. Rajan Zed urged the schools/departments of
religion and philosophy of other major world universities to strengthen their
Hinduism sections. Hinduism being the oldest religion with rich philosophical
thought and a vast array of scriptures needed more exploration. Zed especially
asked the Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Stanford, Columbia, McGill,
Australian National, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Uppsala, and Utrecht universities
to further enrich their Hinduism resources. CUA, founded in 1887 by the United
States Catholic bishops with the support of Pope Leo XIII, as a graduate research
center just north of Capitol Hill, is now home to 12 schools and 21 research facilities
and claims to be the only American university with ecclesiastical faculties granting
canonical degrees in three disciplines. John H. Garvey is the President while
Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron is Chairman of Board of Trustees. Roman Catholicism
is the largest of the Christian denominations and is headed by His Holiness Pope
Benedict XVI. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with
about a billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
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