Religion Aesthetics

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores the relationship between religious and aesthetic experience. "Aesthetics" can be defined as the experience of the beautiful or the sublime, and its mystical dimensions create a connection to religion. The course will take a comparative approach by looking at the evolution of these ideas in Western philosophy and religion, on the one hand, and at examples of Buddhist inspired fiction, poetry and film in China, Korea, and Japan, on the other. The comparison is designed to enhance our perspectives on both the Western and East Asian contexts, relative to each other.