ENROLL

Sonja Anderson

What is a perfect body, and how do you get one? What makes a body, or a mind, imperfect, and what can be done about it? How are human bodies different from animal, angelic, demonic, and divine bodies, and what happens when these bodies come into contact with each other? This course considers the breakdown (illness) and manipulation (magic and medicine) of the mind and body, particularly within premodern Christianity, Judaism, and Greco-Roman traditions. Through a series of close readings and discussions, this course interrogates the categories of illness, magic, and medicine in antiquity and in select instances today. Topics include demons, gender, relics, ancient magical techniques, eating, bodily resurrection, medicine and modernity, mental illness, and the certification of miracles.

Held for new first year students

Sonja Anderson

Besides humans, animals, and gods, what other beings populate the cosmos? Where do evil, sin, and suffering come from? What can be done about them, and can their existence be justified philosophically? This course explores the problem of evil through an exploration of angels and demons in Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman traditions from antiquity to the present, with a focus on late antiquity. Special attention will be given to the bodies of angels and demons: Are they gendered? Where do they dwell? What do they know, and what can they do to humans? This course will also consider modern articulations of systemic, historical injustice.