This course analyzes how bodies (human, divine, and demonic) functioned in the development of Christian traditions. Bodies were important locations for meaning-making, interpretation, and communal formation in early Christian discourse. Beginning with medical and philosophical understandings of the body inherited from Graeco-Roman and Jewish communities, students will explore how understandings of the body deeply informed Christian views of daily life and liturgical practices, Christology, resurrection, the poor and ill, ethnicity and gender, and the universal Church.

Requirements: HST 101 or permission from instructor.