Sexuality in Sacred Art

Catalog description

Taught by GTU. Many of the earliest known works of art created by humans were both sacred and sexual and this connection between the two themes has continued through the ages. Some cultures have used art to show how sex and the sacred are inseparable while others have used it to distinguish between the body and spirit. We'll use visual communications and art as lenses to consider how different cultures, religions and time periods have understood, regulated, and celebrated human sexuality and our bodies. Art has also had an enormous influence on theological understandings of the body; for example, images of Eve and Mary Magdalene have formed popular ideas of who they were and how sexuality is related to sinfulness and redemption. This class will examine a number of themes related to sexuality in sacred art, in both historical and contemporary works, and explore our understandings of sexuality through creative expression. This course will be taught in hybrid format with the majority of course meetings face-to-face on campus and some sessions if online scheduled as synchronous meetings as needed.