Department of Religious Studies

REL 237.001

Self, Society, & Religion: Religious Existentialism

T, R | 2:00-3:15

MA 308

This course surveys the history of a very influential school of modern, Western religious thought called religious existentialism. We will review the major texts, authors, and themes of this eclectic movement, such as texts by Kierkegaard, Buber, Levinas, Heidegger, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Fanon, Spivak, Derrida, Cixous and Zizek.

In this course, we will:

• Create a safe space for learning and sharing ideas.
• Familiarize ourselves with the existentialist approach to philosophy.
• Closely read the texts in the existentialist genre of philosophy.
• Formulate the key questions that may be used for existentialist inquiries.
• Closely read contemporary texts from an existentialist perspective.
• Apply existentialist questions to current issues in the study of religion.

Nathan R. B. Loewen

• Office hours: 

  Please contact me by email or telephone to arrange an appointment.

• (205) 348-5271
• nrloewen@ua.edu