RELG 232 - Health and Healing in Asian Religions

Explores several Asian medical systems and practices, including yoga, Ayurveda, Indian shamanism, Japanese new religions, and Chinese medicine, all of which are grounded in the belief that the body is a microcosm of universal, macrocosmic processes. Students begin their investigations of these “exotic” healing traditions by reflecting on how illness functions as a metaphor in 20th-century North American culture. How does one’s own conceptualization of disease affect one’s experience of it? Does the way one imagines disease reflect larger social processes, such as those based on gender or class? These questions inform students’ investigations of health and healing in Asian religions. The course is organized around a systematic examination of the models of the body that people in China, Japan, and India have used for centuries to heal from illness, maintain good health, and, in some instances, aspire to a state of super-health that transcends the limitations of bodily existence altogether.

Credits: 1.00
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No Senior
Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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