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WiSe 19/20: Word, actions, signs: forms of religious communication

Information for students

Intensive course: detailed information about the schedule and program of the seminar and also about the presentations will be provided on the learning platform Blackboard. All reading materials will be available on Blackboard in time before the course starts. close

Additional information / Pre-requisites

Preliminary session: Friday, 1 November, 2 pm to 3 pm. Timetable for the seminar: Thursday, 23 January, 2 pm to 8 pm, Friday, 24 January, 9 am to 6 pm (visit to the museum in the afternoon), Saturday, 25 January, 10 am to 6:30 pm close

Comments

The notion that communication between humankind and supernatural powers is possible is a fundamental feature of religion. But how is this communication imagined to work? God, after all, has no entry in the local phone book. The seminar critically explores different strategies that religions have developed to establish communication with the divine. In addition to verbal communication in the form of prayers and hymns, we will analyse and discuss ritual activity as a form of communication and investigate the role of signs in religions. We will discuss in what sense ritual can be understood as communication, and we will look at the way in which communication with the divine sphere is depicted in literature and art. The material for the seminar discussion includes modern theoretical studies on ritual as well as texts and works of art from ancient Greece and from other historical periods and religions. The seminar also includes a visit to the Altes Museum, Berlin. Students are invited to give short presentations on individual objects in the museum’s collection. close

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WiSe 19/20: Word, actions, signs: forms of religious communication

Information for students

Additional information / Pre-requisites

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Freie Universität Berlin

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