(DOC) Sensing Religion

THEO 6140/6110: SENSING RELIGION Mary Dunn and Jeff Wickes Room TBD Fall, 2020 Office Hours: by appointment T, 9-11:30 Email:

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COURSE DESCRIPTION Religion, we have known for some time now, is more than a matter of belief. It is also a matter of what people do and how people live both alone and in relationship with each other, the gods, the saints, the dead, angels, demons, animals, places, and things. Scholarship, however, remains oddly tethered to meaning as the interpretive key that unlocks the mystery of religion. Whether imagined as wish-fulfillment, ultimate concern, or a system of symbols, modern conceptions of religion continue to privilege belief, as if religious adherents had only brains and not bodies. In response to this scholarly dissonance, this course, in lockstep with recent moves in the humanities that engage the full range of embodied senses as media of knowing, invites students to ask not just what religion means, but what religion sounds like, smells like, tastes like, feels like, and looks like. Conceived in conjunction with “Ways of Hearing, Ways of Knowing: Listening for the Sounds of Religion,” a two-day workshop funded by the John Foley family slated for October 2020, this course bridges disciplinary, confessional, and historical boundaries to encourage students to think deeply and critically about the rich sensorium of religion. COURSE OBJECTIVES 1. To identify and understand key moments in the turn to the body in the study of religion and theology; 2. To develop students’ abilities to think, read, and speak critically about theology and the study of religion; 3. To build conversations across the disciplines of the history of Christianity, constructive theology, and the study of religion; 4. To practice applying the tools of contemporary religious studies to students’ own subdisciplines; 5. To refine students’ skills in academic writing. COURSE REQUIREMENTS See Appendix A for detailed description of course requirements 1. Attendance, preparation, and active engagement in class (20%); 2. Weekly response papers (15%); 3. Responsibility for leading one seminar period during the semester (15%); 4. Participation in in the “Ways of Hearing, Ways of Knowing” workshop, 10/16-10/17 (15%); 5. Digital Humanities project, 11/24 (15%); 6. Final paper: first draft due 11/17, final draft due 12/8 (20%). COURSE READINGS All readings listed are required. Please come to class prepared to discuss and fully engage! The following books are on reserve at Pius. They can also be ordered through MOBIUS or purchased online. Remaining readings are available on Blackboard. Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast Ashon Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India Georgia Frank, The Memory of the Eyes Susan Harvey, Scenting Salvation James McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture Leigh Schmidt, Hearing Things Mark Smith, Sensing the Past COURSE POLICIES Late assignments will be penalized ½ grade per day, unless arrangements have been made with the instructor prior to the due date. NO COMPUTERS ARE PERMITTED IN THIS CLASS. CELL PHONES MUST BE ON SILENT. NO EXCEPTIONS. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY SYLLABUS STATEMENT Academic integrity is honest, truthful and responsible conduct in all academic endeavors. The mission of Saint Louis University is "the pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity."  Accordingly, all acts of falsehood demean and compromise the corporate endeavors of teaching, research, health care, and community service via which SLU embodies its mission. The University strives to prepare students for lives of personal and professional integrity, and therefore regards all breaches of academic integrity as matters of serious concern.    Additionally, each SLU College, School, and Center has adopted its own academic integrity policies, available on their respective websites.  All SLU students are expected to know and abide by these policies, which detail definitions of violations, processes for reporting violations, sanctions, and appeals.  Please direct questions about any facet of academic integrity to your faculty, the chair of the department of your academic program, or the Dean/Director of the College, School or Center in which your program is housed. TITLE IX SYLLABUS STATEMENT Saint Louis University and its faculty are committed to supporting our students and seeking an environment that is free of bias, discrimination, and harassment. If you have encountered any form of sexual misconduct (e.g. sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, domestic or dating violence), we encourage you to report this to the University. If you speak with a faculty member about an incident of misconduct, that faculty member must notify SLU’s Title IX coordinator, Anna R. Kratky (DuBourg Hall, room 36; 

; 314-977-3886) and share the basic facts of your experience with her. The Title IX coordinator will then be available to assist you in understanding all of your options and in connecting you with all possible resources on and off campus.   If you wish to speak with a confidential source, you may contact the counselors at the University Counseling Center at 314-977-TALK. To view SLU’s sexual misconduct policy and for resources, please visit the following web address: http://www.slu.edu/general-counsel-home/office-of- institutional-equity-and-diversity/sexual-misconduct-policy www.slu.edu/her e4you .   STUDENT SUCCESS CENTER SYLLABUS STATEMENT In recognition that people learn in a variety of ways and that learning is influenced by multiple factors (e.g., prior experience, study skills, learning disability), resources to support student success are available on campus. The Student Success Center, a one-stop shop, which assists students with academic and career related services, is located in the Busch Student Center (Suite, 331) and the School of Nursing (Suite, 114). DISABILITY SERVICES ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS SYLLABUS STATEMENT Students with a documented disability who wish to request academic accommodations are encouraged to contact Disability Services to discuss accommodation requests and eligibility requirements. Please contact Disability Services, located within the Student Success Center, at 

 or 314.977.3484to schedule an appointment. Confidentiality will be observed in all inquiries. Once approved, information about academic accommodations will be shared with course instructors via email from Disability Services and viewed within Banner via the instructor’s course roster.   COURSE SCHEDULE Week 1: The Sensory Revolution (9/1) Constance Classen, “Foundations for an Anthropology of the Senses,” International Social Sciences 29, no. 153 (1997): 401-412. David Howes, “Can These Dry Bones Live? An Anthropological Approach to the History of the Senses,” Journal of American History 95, no. 2 (2008): 442-451. Tim Ingold, “Worlds of Sense and Sensing the World…,” Social Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 313-317. Josh Brahinsky, “Pentecostal Body Logics: Cultivating a Modern Sensorium,” Cultural Anthropology 27, no. 2 (May 2012): 215-238. Week 2: A History of the Senses (9/8) Mark Smith, Sensing the Past Constance Classen, “Introduction: the Transformation of Perception,” in Cultural History of the Senses, 1-24. Beatrice Caseau, “Christian Bodies: the Senses and Early Byzantine Christianity,” in Desire and Denial in Byzantium, 101-110. Week 3: Smell (9/15) Susan Harvey, Scenting Salvation Week 4: Smell (9/22) James McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture Jacob Baum, “From Incense to Idolatry: the Reformation of Olfaction in Late Medieval German Ritual,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 44, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 323-344. Weeks 5: Touch (9/29) Constance Classen, The Deepest Sense Bissera Pentcheva, “The Performative Icon,” Art Bulletin 88, no. 4 (December 2006): 631-655. Candy Brown, “Touch and American Religions,” Religion Compass 3, no. 4 (2009): 770-783. Week 6: Sound (10/6) Leigh Schmidt, Hearing Things Finnian Gerety, “The Amplified Sacrifice: Sound, Technology, and Participation in Modern Vedic Ritual,” Journal of South Asian History and Culture 8, no. 4 (2017): 560-578. Week 7: Sound (10/13) Ashon Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath Deborah Kapchan, “Learning to Listen: the Sound of Sufism in France,” The World of Music 51, no. 2 (2009): 65-89. “Ways of Hearing, Ways of Knowing” Workshop (10/16-10/17) Your attendance at this workshop is required. To prepare, please read and be ready to discuss the  presubmitted papers, which we will distribute to you ahead of time.  Week 8: No Class (10/20) Week 9: Taste (10/27) Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast Thomas Arentzen, “Struggling with Romanos’s Dagger of Taste,” in Knowing Bodies, Passionate Souls: Sense Perceptions in Byzantium, 169- 182. Week 10: Taste (11/3) Rachel Fulton, “Taste and See that the Lord is Sweet (Ps 33:9): the Flavor of God in the Monastic West,” Journal of Religion 86, no. 2 (April 2006): 169-204. Béatrice Caseau, “Tastes of Danger and Pleasure in Early and Late Antique Christianity,” in Taste and the Ancient Sense Finbarr Barry Flood, “Bodies and Becoming: Mimesis, Meditation, and the Ingestion of the Sacred in Christianity and Islam,” in Sensational Religion, 459-494. Week 11: Sight (11/10) Georgia Frank, The Memory of the Eyes Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India Week 12: Sight (11/17) Jeffrey Hamburger, The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany [selections] Mia Mochizuki, “Shock Value: the Jesuit Martyrs of Japan and the Ethics of Sight,” in Sensational Religion, 375-398. Ruth Webb, ““Phantasia: Memory, Imagination, and the Gallery of the Mind,” in Ekphrasis, Imagination, and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice, 107-131. Note: Draft of final paper due to peers and instructors by 5:00 P.M. Weeks 13 & 14: Paper Workshop (11/24 & 12/1) Read and be prepared to workshop your peers’ papers Note: Digital humanities project due in class FURTHER READING Jacob Baum, Reformation of the Senses: the Paradox of Religious Belief in Practice in Germany (2019) The Book of Touch, eds. Constance Classen and David Howe (2005) David Chidester, “Haptics of the Heart: the Sense of Touch in American Religion and Culture,” Culture and Religion 1, no. 1 (2000): 61-84. A Cultural History of the Senses, 6 volumes, ed. Constance Classen (2014) Patrick Eisenlohr, Sounding Islam (2018) Empire of the Senses, ed. David Howes (2005) Jeffers Engelhardt, Singing the Right Way (2015) Paul Gavrilyuk and Sarah Coakley, The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity (2012) Tala Jarjour, Sense and Sadness (2018) Richard Jütte, A History of the Senses (2005) Knowing Bodies, Passionate Souls: Sense Perceptions in Byzantium, eds. Susan Ashbrook Harvey and Margaret Mullett (2017) Patricia Cox Miller, The Corporeal Imagination: Signifying the Holy in Late Ancient Christianity (2009) Rachel Neis, The Sense of Sight in Rabbinic Culture (2013) Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice, ed. Sonja Luerhmann (2018) Sensational Religion, ed. Sally Promey (2014) Kerry Martin Skora, “The Pulsating Heart and its Divine Sense Energies…” Numen 54, no. 4 (2007): 420-458. Religion and the Senses in Early Modern Europe, eds. Wietse de Boer and Christine Göttler (2012) Manuel Vasquez, More than Belief (2012) APPENDIX A: COURSE REQUIREMENTS Weekly Response Papers (15%) Students must write weekly response papers, no more than 1 ½ pages in length. These papers are opportunities for students to engage closely with the week’s reading in preparation for class—not to summarize, but to raise questions, to critique, to make connections, to draw out implications. The collected response papers will serve as the basis that structures the seminar discussion for the week and, accordingly, are due by NOON on the MONDAY before class. Papers must be submitted as Word attachments by email to the seminar leader (instructor cc’d). Students leading seminar discussion for the week need not submit response papers. Leading Seminar (15%) Students are responsible for leading two seminar discussions over the course of the semester. Seminar discussions must begin with 10-15 minutes of introductory remarks that highlight crucial aspects of the reading. These introductory remarks should not aim to cover exhaustively the arguments made in the reading(s), but should seek, instead, to isolate important, provocative, and game-changing points and issues raised, particularly in connection with other readings in the course. In addition to providing introductory remarks, student leaders are also responsible (with me) for guiding the discussion that day. Seminar leaders should structure the discussion around the questions, critiques, connections, and implications raised by the weekly response papers, but should also feel free to supplement the discussion as they see fit. Participation in in the “Ways of Hearing, Ways of Knowing” workshop (15%) Thanks to generous funding provided by the John Foley family, the Department of Theological Studies is hosting a workshop on sound and religion on 10/16 and 10/17. We have invited fourteen distinguished scholars to participate in the workshop, asking them to submit their papers in advance so that our time together can be spent in productive discussion. In addition to attending the keynote address, students are required to attend paper sessions on both days ready to participate actively in the conversation. Digital Humanities project (15%) As students engage the course’s weekly reading assignments, they will also work to uncover the implicit sensorium of a single, primary text. (See below for the list of texts from which students can choose.) This will involve, at the most basic level, indexing the sensory lexicon woven throughout the primary text. More specifically, students will map the text’s sensorium in two ways: through a digital humanities project, and through a traditional research paper (on the latter, see below). The digital humanities project should be built in conjunction with the Ong Center. Final paper (20%) Students must write a 10-12 page (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 font, 1” margins, Chicago-style footnotes) traditional research paper in which they engage with the one of the suggested primary sources below and its implicit sensorium. Students may choose to focus their analytical attention on one or more than one embodied sense as it is refracted through and beyond their selected primary source, and should model their papers on the kinds of scholarship treated in this course. Paper drafts are due to students’ peers and instructors by 5:00 P.M. on 11/17. We will workshop students’ papers together in class on 11/24 and 12/1. Final papers are due to instructors on 12/8. Suggested primary sources Athanasius, The Life of Antony, Tim Vivian, trans., 2003. Augustine, Confessions. Claude Chauchetière, The Life of the Good Katharine Tegakoüita, 1685. Jonathan Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, 1737. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Macrina, trans. Kevin Corrigan, 1989. Raïssa Maritain, Journal, trans., 1974. John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 2002. The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros, trans. Wendy Belcher, 2015. The Life of Saint Pelagia the Harlot and the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt. (These two are shorter, but can be grouped together.) The Syriac Life of Saint Simeon the Stylite, in Robert Doran, trans., The Lives of Simeon Stylites, 1992.