Religion and Suspicion

Catalog description

Religion has arguably been the classical locus of suspicious models of interpretation. Social and critical theorists from Marx to Foucault have argued that we only understand what religion really does if we interpret it with suspicion—if we refuse to take its claims at face value. Others have sought to redirect suspicion back against suspicion itself, and religious thinkers have sought to incorporate critiques of religion into their own theological projects. This seminar studies key figures in this complex interplay of religion and suspicion. Likely readings from Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, Barth, Horkheimer, Adorno, Gadamer, Foucault, Said, Gutiérrez, Schüssler-Fiorenza, and Butler. Enrollment limited to 20.