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German for Reading and Translation in the Study of Religion

Graduate Course
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German for Reading and Translation in the Study of Religion

Course LGER 8001

A significant amount of Indological scholarship considering the Jain tradition was written in German, making learning German for the study of Jainism crucial. And indeed for many students engaged in the study of religion, understanding German for reading and translation is a critical research skill. In this graduate course, students will learn the German grammar necessary to begin to confidently read and translate German texts, with the goal of preparing them to undertake advanced translation and/or pass their competency exams. Students will also learn to appreciate reading and translation as a personally transformative practice supported through, though irreplaceable by, artificial intelligence.

One particularly unique feature of this course is its ongoing engagement with the
biography of artist Narendra Kumar Jain. Class exercises will focus on translating
German newspaper articles, interviews, and other media discussing Jain’s journey from India to Germany where he painted a mural on the Berlin Wall’s East Side Gallery.
Through their translations, students will appreciate how his mural, titled The Seven
Stages to Enlightenment (Die sieben Stufen der Erleuchtung), emerges out of a rich
historical context where Jain and yogic values intersect with international politics
manifesting in post-World War II Berlin.
 
Course objective:
The objective of this course is that students will be able to demonstrate proficiency in
reading and translating German in academic and journalistic works, for the study of
religion.

Learning Area

Jain Philosophy, History & Anthropology

Instructor

Christopher Miller, PhD
Christopher Jain Miller, the co-founder and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Arihanta Institute, completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at the University of California, Davis. He is Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute, Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut, and Adjunct Professor at Claremont School of Theology. Christopher's primary fields of research interest are Yoga Studies and Engaged Jain Studies, and he currently serves as the co-chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit at the American Academy of Religion as well as on the steering committees for the Dharma Academy of North America (DANAM) and the Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana conference. Christopher is the author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation (Routledge 2024) and the co-editor of Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement (SUNY 2025) as well as Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age (Lexington 2020).

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