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Cursus: RT3V13003
RT3V13003
Religion: Body -Senses - Emotions
Cursus informatie
CursuscodeRT3V13003
Studiepunten (EC)7,5
Cursusdoelen
Insight into the relation between religion and the body on the empirical level, knowledge of the relevant literature, ability to conduct small observation assignments, ability to apply theoretical concepts to empirical phenomena.
Inhoud
Religions are not mere systems of beliefs, but also imply sets of practices that have a forming influence on believers’ bodies. It is because of this forming influence that religion gets anchored in the bodies of its practitioners. This is the starting point of this class, which focuses on the nexus of the body, the senses and emotions, as well as the specific gestalt which this nexus takes. The following issues will be discussed: a) religious conceptions of the bodies of humans and gods; b) the specific body techniques (for instance techniques for mediation, contemplation and prayer, dance and trance, inducement of pain, circumcision, body mutilations, genderspecific gestures, body adornments and dress, dance and trance, etc.) that are characteristic for a religious tradition or group; c) the sensorial dimension of religious experience (a.o. the role of hearing, seeing, smelling, touching) and the concomittant religious perception of the world, and d) the invocation of religious emotions. Next to discussing a broad array of articles on the attitudes of religious traditions (in past and present) with regard to the body, attention will also be paid to broader theoretical issues in relation to religious embodiment– from a phenomenological, religio-aesthetic and neuroscience perspective.
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