BREL 368 - Religion & the Body: Body Images & Practices across Religious Traditions (4)

Virtually all religions have something to say about the body; its holiness, its repulsiveness, its divinity, its profanity, its promise as a vehicle for salvation, or its peril as a vehicle of degradation. This seminar examines the distinctive, familiar, and unfamiliar ways in which religious traditions understand the body. Utilizing specific case-studies across religious traditions, this course explores the bodily phenomena of ritual, sacrifice, asceticism, dress (and nakedness), sexuality (and asexuality), and dietary practices, among others. Throughout, theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding the body across religious traditions will be illuminated. Offered: Spring, on rotation. (Formerly RELG 375)