REL1240 Death and the Afterlife

This course explores how selected religious traditions conceptualize the experience of death and the possibility of an afterlife. It considers culturally located ideas about “good” and “bad” deaths and beliefs about the care and treatment of the dead, such as burial and cremation. Together we will examine how diverse funerary and remembrance rituals may position the soul for distinct post-mortem paths, including reincarnation, liberation, salvation, and immortality. We will also ask what role ritual, grief, and mourning practices play in ongoing relationships between the living and the dead in these traditions.

Credits

4 sh

Course Types

Civilization

Offered

• Fall
• Winter
• Spring

Learning Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate their ability to think critically about the socially constructed nature of that which can be categorized as “religious.”
2. Students will recognize and describe the breadth and diversity of religious traditions and/or other constructions of “religion.”
3. Students will recognize and explain ways in which “religion” has cultural, political, and/or economic significance, and/or ways in which cultural, political, and/or economic phenomena have religious significance.
4. Students will articulate the relevance of Religious Studies to understanding and/or addressing questions and problems that face our world.