RELIGION 16 / ANTHRO 1475 / HDS 3160 – Religious Dimensions in Human Experience: Apocalypse, Home, Medicine, Music, Sacrifice, Sports

RELIGION 16 / ANTHRO 1475 / HDS 3160 – Religious Dimensions in Human Experience: Apocalypse, Home, Medicine, Music, Sacrifice, Sports

Semester: Fall
Offered: 2025
Instructor: David L. Carrasco
Meeting Time: M, W 10:30am – 11:45am

What is Religion? Why does it show up everywhere? Using archaeology, religious studies and social thought, this course will study the major themes in the history of religions including ‘encountering the holy’, sports and ritual’, ‘crossing borders’, ‘sacrifice as creation’, ‘pilgrimage and sacred place’, ‘suffering and quest for wisdom’, ‘music and social change’, ‘violence and cosmic law’. Readings from Native American, African American, Latinx/+, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu traditions. Focus on the tension between individual encounters with the holy and the social construction of religion. Readings from Gloria Anzaldua, Toni Morrison, Judith Sherman, Arthur Kleinman, Popul Vuj, Mircea Eliade, Michael D. Jackson. Jointly offered in Harvard Divinity School as HDS3160.

Jointly offered with: Faculty of Arts & Sciences as ANTHRO 1475, Harvard Divinity School as HDS 3160

For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.