This course is an introduction to the academic study of religion. We will read and discuss a number of “classic” texts in the history of the field, as well as a few more recent commentaries. In addition to the weekly readings, there will be 1-2 films screened and discussed each week. The course is organized around themes rather than around particular religions, and for this reason, the films function as “primary materials”—not only as commentaries on religion and religious themes; films enact rituals, myths and memories, and compel us to think about film-watching experiences as “religious.” What does it mean to call an experience “religious”?
Throughout the course, we will discuss and question the very category of religion: How can we define religion? Why do we want to? What purpose(s) does any one definition of religion serve? How are the topics we discuss here "unique" and particular to religion and how do they emerge in other spheres of human life: art, cinema, music, literature, online-communication, everyday face-to-face communication, sex, family and friends?