REL 53 Religion, Healing, and Medicine
This class explores a range of religious approaches and traditional therapeutic responses to bodily suffering, with an eye towards examining the way medical cultures reflect and construct religious identity. Most examples of healing practices to be discussed are drawn from religious communities and ethnic groups active in the contemporary United States. While addressing such topical issues as reproduction, sexuality, substance abuse, and dieting, the course also analyzes the taboos, values, and rituals of Western biomedicine. Open to all classes.