Month: January 2020

This week we began developing working definitions of key terms for our critical toolbox this semester: ritual, text, belief, and ethnographies. We teased out meanings for them in singular and in plural; we rehearsed ways to understand the correspondences between them. We also inquired about their relation to flesh, bodies, Relation, myth, fiction, magic, divinity, humanity, diaspora, the prefix trans-, pilgrimage, identity, and migration, among others. We wondered how they contribute to the composition and interpretation of religiosity.

By Sunday at 5, please share your reflection on the larger scope of our discussion this week, or a question you had pending about a term or discussion, or a response to a question we posed and you remained pondering.

This week we focused on seeking to establish a foundation on comparative theologies.  In the company of Francis Clooney and David Chidester, we teased out semantic, historical, theoretical, and ideological maps that join and separate comparative theologies from reading religious texts comparatively.  We began threading the myriad lines positioning comparativisms with empire, religion, and colonialities.

By Saturday at 5pm, please post your reflection on this matter. Consult with your notes, with your pillow, with your classmates, and with me if you need to, in order to find a thread that you can grasp to share with us your ideas, questions, or concerns regarding comparative theologies. No pressure to write massively, share your thoughts; if you post a lengthy blurb, that works, too, but do not feel pressured to spend loads of time with this. Flow along, we have many more weeks coming up. Happy blogging!