RELGST 1402 - HEALTH AND RELIGION

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
What is health, an absence of illness or something more? What is healing, a physical process or something that is not limited to the physical? In order to answer these seemingly basic questions, a host of assumptions about the body, its ideal state, and the kinds of changes to which it can or should be subjected are often implicit. Religious attitudes toward the body and the natural world have a tremendous impact on these assumptions. In this course, you will gain a better understanding of this impact by exploring the relationships between religion and health and seeing these relationships as part of a much larger web of human concerns such as nationalism, resistance to colonization, and gender politics. In order to facilitate cross-cultural comparison and understanding, this course is not organized around geography or history, but rather around the structure human body. After two introductory weeks, each three-week unit will consider a particular aspect of human health through cases drawn from a wide variety of religious contexts. This process is aimed at decentering Western narratives about health, healing, and the body while fostering a more global perspective.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SU3 Elective Basis
Course Attributes: DSAS Cross-Cult. Awareness General Ed. Requirement, SCI Polymathic Contexts: Global&Cross Cul GE. Req.

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