Religion, the Body, and Sexuality

3.00 credits · Undergraduate

This course investigates the role the human body plays in the world's Western religious traditions (predominantly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), namely, how the body affects or facilitates worship of the divine and what the related rites, practices, and texts have to say to us as physical beings. It considers such issues as bodily functions, gender roles, and sexual orientation. The course pays considerable attention to the intersections of religion and culture as they inform what it means to be an embodied believer. It also considers why the human imagination seems to need to conceive the divine in bodily form. (Format: Lecture 3 Hours) (Exclusion: Any version of RELG 1641 previously offered with a different title)