Course Bodies and religion

This seminar arises from a conviction and a challenge. The conviction is that no human body is reducible to its mere materiality. On the contrary, the bodies are made up of a series of ideas that condition them. This implies the subversion of the traditional assertion that the body is “the prison of the soul”, for it is rather the ideas about the soul that ultimately determine what the body means. The challenge that arises from this affirmation is the need to generate religious thinking that can take on, in a comprehensive, systematic, and interdisciplinary way, all the ideological and practical implications of various understandings of the body. The aim of this seminar is to take up this challenge, encouraging a reflection that opens theological horizons and embraces the complexity of the subject, drawing on the diverse interests and skills of PhD students. Therefore, we will not only study bodies as constructed primarily through ideas, but also study how cultural constructions shape bodies through repetitive actions as well as include new materialism, phenomenology, and embodied cognition.

Therefore, our seminar seeks to raise awareness of the issue’s complexity, inviting participants to reflect on the speculative and/or theological elements and their practical consequences from various perspectives, according to students’ own interests and, particularly, their specialisation field.

Program

Day 1: 3 June 2024 - Bodies

10-11 Lars Emmerik Damgaard Knudsen: ”Phenomenology of embodiment, place and learning.”

11-12: TBA

12-13  Lunch

13-14 Malene Søgaard: ”Minority stress in queer bodies: meeting norms in the flesh”

14-15 Anne Sophie Refskou: ” ‘I Feel Your Pain’: Early Modern Compassion as Bodily Experience and Practice”

15-16 PhD papers, 2 x 30 min

Day 2: 4 June 2024 - Bodies in religion

10-11 Reflection

11-12 Marianne Schleicher: ”Similarities and differences between constructionist and new materialist approaches to the body”

12-13 Lunch

13-14 Johanne Stubbe Kristensen: ”Body positivity and religion. Theological considerations”

14-15 Rosanne Liebermann: ”Narratives of Pain in the Hebrew Bible”

15-16 PhD papers, 2 x 30 min

Day 3: 6 June 2024 - Bodies of Christ

10-11 Fernando Soler: Body/bodies & Jesus/Christ. Some preliminary issues and our focus: the material body of Christ from an eating and drinking perspective. Familiarity with Early Christianity as a problem.

11-12 Fernando Soler: The Christ that eats in the Gospels (What can we say about Christ’s body from the texts in which he eats or drinks?).

12-13 Lunch

13-14 Fernando Soler: Examples of Pre-Nicene receptions of Jesus eating and drinking (Tertullian, Clement and Origen).

14-15 Anders-Christian Jacobsen: The resurrected body of Jesus.

15-16  PhD papers, 2 x 30 min (ideally: 20 min presentation + 10 discussion).

Please send in abstracts for papers no later than the 3rd of May 2024.

Participation with paper presentation will give a total of 4 ECTS.

Aim:

The aim of the course is for the PhD students to get a broad historical and theoretical understanding of the body and the role it plays in religion and the broader society. 

Literature:

TBA

Target group:

PhD students at any stage of their project working within the area of theology or religion and interested in reflecting on approaches to the body.

Form:

Lectures, papers (optional), and group work.

Lecturers:

Lars Emmerik Damgaard Knudsen (lada@edu.au.dk)

Malene Søgaard (malene@lgbthuset.dk)

Anne Sophie Refskou (annesophie.refskou@gmail.com)

Marianne Schleicher (ms@cas.au.dk)

Johanne Stubbe Kristensen (jst@teol.ku.dk)

Rosanne Liebermann (rosanne.liebermann@cas.au.dk)

Fernando Soler (fasoler@uc.cl) 

Anders-Christian Jacobsen (alj@cas.au.dk)

Time: 

Please be aware that 5 June 2024 will not be a course day due to Constitution Day.

Venue:

Campus Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C., room 1451-416 

Course dates:

• 03 June 2024 10:00 - 16:00
• 04 June 2024 10:00 - 16:00
• 06 June 2024 10:00 - 16:00