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Course Info for RELG - 324 - 01, Fall 2024
Class number: 3073 Title: Suffering Religion Department: Religious Studies
Career: Undergraduate Component: Seminar Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 15 Current enrollment: 13 Available seats: 2
Start date: Tuesday, September 3, 2024 End date: Wednesday, December 18, 2024 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: MW: 10:00AM-11:15AM, MC - 201 Instructor(s): Jones, Tamsin
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement
Course Description:
What does religion have to say about suffering and its function in the spiritual life – is it a “natural” part of human existence, divine gift or punishment, or a preventable tragedy? What does it mean when religion is experienced as suffering or as trauma? This course explores these questions within the Greco-Roman, Jewish and Christian traditions. After introducing some of the classic texts on suffering, the course examines suffering as both a logical and a moral problem for religious thought. It then considers some of the resources that religious traditions have brought to bear on different kinds of suffering – physical pain, trauma, grief or loss, and mental suffering or depression.