Religion & Interdisciplinary Studies
Course topics will rotate to incorporate the study of religion in a variety of other disciplines. Focus will be on the influence or application of religious teachings and traditions in the fields of healthcare, politics, education, etc.
Outcomes: Describe the ethical implications of the religious beliefs and traditions of at least one religion for the primary field of study.
Relg, Tech & The Human Person
Course topics will rotate to incorporate the study of religion in a variety of other disciplines. Focus will be on the influence or application of religious teachings and traditions in the fields of healthcare, politics, education, etc.
Outcomes: Describe the ethical implications of the religious beliefs and traditions of at least one religion for the primary field of study.
Tier 2 Theological Knowledge
This is a writing intensive class. A grade of C- or better in UCWR 110 is required to enroll.
This writing intensive seminar will analyze the ways religion and technology intersect in our modern life. It will also argue that the study of religion provides distinctive tools to illuminate the ways human beings produce, interact with, and are shaped by technology, even in contexts where the future of traditional religious movements is uncertain. Drawing on foundational and cutting-edge religious studies scholarship, this course will examine the following topics: community in the digital age; AI, sentience, and the divine; tech use and ritual; founders and scriptures; technology, consumption, and celebrity; asceticism, digital fasting, and ¿monk mode.¿ The course will conclude by considering the future(s) of technology and religion, and what these intersecting themes have to say about our shared humanity.
Units
1. Technology, religion, and community (Greg Epstein, Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation)
2. Technology, sentience, and the divine (Tanya Luhrmann, How God Becomes Real)
3. Technology and ritual (Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice)
4. Technology and scripturalization (Vincent Wimbush, Scripturalectics: The Management of Meaning)
5. Technology, consumption, and celebrity (Kathryn Lofton, Consuming Religion)
6. Technology and asceticism (Elizabeth A. Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity)
7. Technology, religion, and the future
Class Details
Relg, Tech & The Human Person
Class Availability