ENROLL

Mara G Block

Madness is one of the most socially and intellectually fraught notions today. At the same time, it has long been a vital lens for exploring the human mind. But what exactly is madness, and why do some people give it religious significance? This course traces the relationship between biomedical and spiritual understandings of madness. We will discuss debates about whether madness is a matter of biochemistry, religious experience, or disrupted social norms, as well as different forms of care (including psychopharmacology, psychoanalysis, spiritual care, and moral reform). Finally, we will consider what a cross-cultural perspective might add to these debates.

Sonja Anderson

This course introduces students to the structure, history, and theology of the Catholic Church through the lens of gender and power. Through a combination of readings and conversations with living figures, students will develop the ability to critically and empathetically interpret Catholicism in its various manifestations. Topics include: God, rituals, salvation, the body, women, materiality, sex; the authority of persons, texts, and tradition; conflicts and anxieties involving masculinity, feminist theologies, the ordination of women as priests, the censuring of heretical theologians, and the clerical sex abuse crisis. Conditions permitting, this course will include trips to local Catholic sites.

Lori Pearson

How do we define traditions if they change over time and are marked by internal conflict? Is there anything stable about a religious tradition—an essence, or a set of practices or beliefs that abide amidst diversity and mark it off from a surrounding culture or religion? How do people live out or re-invent their traditions in the modern world? In this seminar we explore questions about pluralism, identity, authority, and truth, and we examine the creative ways beliefs and practices change in relation to culture. We consider how traditions grapple with difference, especially regarding theology, ethics, law, and gender.