Monday and Wednesday 11:30-1, Spring 2023
Hall 7
Ken Koltun-Fromm
Haverford College
Gest 201
610-896-1026 (office)
Coffee hours: Wednesday 1-2
kkoltunf@haverford.edu
Summary
This course explores the multi-sensuous nature of religious experience and expression. Religion is not just a practice or a set of texts; it is also an embodied, felt experience that activates sights, sounds, tastes, touch, and particular smells. These embodied senses are also gendered and raced, and we want to pay close attention to how religious traditions map particular bodies onto specific senses. The course is divided into six sections. It begins with readings in religion, the body, and the senses in rather eclectic, broad strokes to move us into this vast sensorum of religious experience. It then turns to texts, food, images, sacred sound, and ritual to thematically engage religious sensuality. Rarely do religious experiences and expressions focus on just one sense, so we want to think about sensual religion as diverse and overdetermined. The goal of the course is to better appreciate the various modes by which religion is embodied as a sensual practice and experience.
Requirements
Attendance, Engagement, and Participation (25% of final grade):
The success of this course depends on all of us actively participating in class discussion. You are expected to attend class and to participate in discussions that reflect close readings of assigned material and careful listening and response to others. Other modes of engagement in the course include stopping by my coffee hours after class to talk about the course, or attending lectures or other events in religious studies. I will offer an initial assessment of your participatory grade during spring break.
Two Close Textual Analysis Papers (40%):
Each close textual analysis paper (4 pages, double spaced, 12-pt font, 1” margins on all sides) will bring two texts together for a productive conversation and argument that I did not pair in the syllabus. This is a chance for students to reimagine the syllabus, to open up different kinds of conversations about religion, the body, and the senses. Each paper is worth 20% of your grade. The papers are due Wednesday February 15 and Wednesday March 22 in class. There will be no reading assignments on the Wednesdays in which your essay is due, but you will be asked to discuss the content and argument of your essay in class. You must be present in class to discuss and turn in your paper. The following Mondays we will take time to discuss your writing in class.
Final Paper (35%):
The final project can take many (sensual) forms and will be determined in discussion with and by consent of the instructor. Whatever form this takes, it must include analysis of texts read for the “sacred sounds” and “ritual” sections of the course.
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I am committed to working with you on your academic and intellectual journey, and welcome the opportunity to discuss with you any academic stresses or concerns. If you are experiencing challenges or questions related to emotional health, finances, physical health, relationships, learning strategies or differences, or other potential stressors, I hope you will consider reaching out to the many resources available on campus. These resources include CAPS (free and unlimited counseling is available), the Office of Academic Resources, Health Services, Professional Health Advocate, Religious and Spiritual Life, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the GRASE Center, and the Dean’s Office. Additional information can be found at https://www.haverford.edu/deans-office-student-life/offices-resources.
If you have (or think you have) a learning difference or disability–including mental health, medical, or physical impairment–please contact the Office of Access and Disability Services (ADS) at hc-ads@haverford.edu. The Director will confidentially discuss the process to establish reasonable accommodations, and it is never too late to request accommodations.
Students who have already been approved to receive academic accommodations and want to use their accommodations in this course should share their accommodation letter and make arrangements to meet with me as soon as possible to discuss how their accommodations will be implemented in this course. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive and require advance notice in order to successfully implement.
If, at any point in the semester, a disability or personal circumstances affect your learning in this course, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
It is a state law in Pennsylvania that individuals must be given advance notice that they may be recorded. Therefore, any student who has a disability-related need to audio record this class must first be approved for this accommodation from the Director of Access and Disability Services and then must speak to me. Other class members need to be aware that this class may be recorded.
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Syllabus (All readings available for download from the course Moodle page)
Religion, the Body, and the Senses
Wednesday, Jan 18
–Introduction
Monday, Jan 23
–St. John of the Cross, 113-127
–Laurel C. Schneider, “When the World Is Alive, Spirit Is Not Dismembered: Philosophical Reflections on the Good Mind,” 441-46
Wednesday, Jan 25
–Vasileios Marinis, “Piety, Barbarism, and the Senses in Byzantium,” 321-340
–Judith Weisenfeld, “Spiritual Complexions: On Race and the Body in the Moorish Science Temple of America,” 413-28
Texts
Monday, Jan 30
–Reiach Nikhoach: Genesis 8:15-22 (this means the Book of Genesis, chapter 8, verses 15-22) and Exodus 29:38-46 (Book of Exodus, chapter 29, verses 38-46) (see https://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/)
–Jonathan Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple, Chapter Two
Wednesday, Feb 1
–Qur’an 37:99-113 (Surah 37, verses 99-113), and Tafsir (see https://quran.com/en)
–Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands, 105-128
Monday, Feb 6
–Finbarr Barry Flood, “Bodies and Becoming: Mimesis, Mediation, and the Ingestion of the Sacred in Christianity and Islam,” 459-93
–Craig Thompson, Habibi, 469-75
Wednesday, Feb 8
–Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-24; Matthew 26:17-30 (see https://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/)
–Cobb, “Preparing and Sharing the Table,” 555-59
Monday, Feb 13
–Bhagavata Purana: 10.33.11-16 (pp. 516-521)
–Pika Ghosh, “Swayed by Love,” 150-68
Wednesday, Feb 15
—First Essay Due
—Talk about your essay
Food
Monday, Feb 20
–Review Writing
–Wendell Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating”
Wednesday, Feb 22
–Elizabeth Pérez, “Crystallizing Subjectivities in the African Diaspora: Sugar, Honey, and the Gods of Afro-Cuban Lucumí,” 175-94
–Elizabeth Pérez, Religion in the Kitchen, Introduction
Monday, Feb 27
–Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, 1-20, 36-78
Wednesday, March 1 (Zoom class)
–Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Near a Thousand Tables, 21-54
–Mike Allred, Golden Plates, image of cannibalism (page 52)
Spring Break
Images
Monday, March 13
–Minoo Moallem, “Aestheticizing Religion: Sensorial Visuality and the Coffeehouse Painting,” 297-320
Wednesday, March 15
–Paul Christopher Johnson, “Objects of Possession: Photography, Spirits, and the Entangled Arts of Appearance,” 25-46
Monday, March 20
–Cash, Living Shrines, 43-90
–Turner, Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women’s Altars, 27-59
Wednesday, March 22
–Second Essay Due
–Talk about your essay
Sacred Sounds
Monday, March 27
–Review Writing
–Isaac Weiner, “Sonic Differences: Listening to the Adhan in a Pluralistic America,” 225-29
Wednesday, March 29
–Pi-yen Chen, “Sound and Emptiness: Music, Philosophy, and the Monastic Practice of Buddhist Doctrine,” 24–48
–Selections from Pure Land Buddhist Sutras, pp. 24-30, 91-95
Monday, April 3
–Guangtian Ha, The Sound of Salvation, 1-36
Wednesday, April 5
–Guangtian Ha, The Sound of Salvation, 196-235
–Guangtian Ha visit to class (first 30 minutes)
Ritual
Each student must meet with me this week to talk about their presentations and final projects. Sign up sheets for 15 minute meetings will be made available
Monday, April 10
–David Chidester, “The American Touch: Tactile Imagery in American Religion and Politics,” 49-65
–Michelle Morgan, “‘Soft Warm Hands’: Nineteenth-Century Spiritualist Practices and the Materialization of Touch,” 47-65
Wednesday, April 12
–Jonathon Kahn, “When the Westboro Baptist Church Came to Vassar College,” 1-34
Student Presentations
Monday, April 17
Kendall
Rosa
Jack
Dani
Carmen
Kathryn
Lilah
Joseph
Wednesday, April 19
Noelle
Maggie
Kripa
Lauren
Carson
Xavier
Rosario
Camille
Monday, April 24
Shiza
Sonia
Sally
Lisette
Marc
Aicha
Ela
Wednesday, April 26
Sameenah
Aidan
Amor
Elsa
Isabel
Bilikisu
Sophie
