REL 1010: Religion and Imaginary Worlds

Human beings have a powerful capacity to imagine things that they cannot see, including things that would be better than what we see. We can imagine a better world, a better life, a better “me.” Religious communities in particular are known for their teachings about these invisible things, and also for their teachings about the practices or the disciplines that might help a person get from here to there. Drawing on Buddhist, Christian, Stoic, and Chinese examples, this class uses spiritual literature and films to examine different paths that religious communities have created to an imagined better life.