Embodiment/Theological Ethics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Claims of post-humanists notwithstanding, humans—and human actions—are irreducibly embodied. Bodies are likewise central to religious traditions, via ritual, taboos, formation, and communal imaginaries. Yet within Western philosophical and theological ethics, the human body occupies a binary position—either invisible or normatively foundational via idealized reflections on ‘nature.’ This course offers a starting point for examining the multi-faceted relationships between embodiment, ethics, and religious traditions. Sociological, phenomenological, and critical accounts of embodiment from theorists such as Elaine Scarry, Kay Toombs, Achille Mbembe, and others--who explore embodiment via the lenses of pain, war, disability, colonialism, poverty, and more--will be brought into conversation with bioethics, social ethics, and theological ethics. The readings for the second half of the semester will be determined by students’ areas of interest, but the methodological orientation will remain the same (namely, theories of embodiment, religion, and ethics).