RELS 307 The Life and Death of the Self
Who am I, really? In this course we will read stories about life and death, about the pain of being human, about our love for each other and - for some us - a love for God. The stories we will read have to do, in one way or another, with how our sense of self - our identity - is formed, and how under certain extreme circumstances it can be un-formed or entirely lost, in such a way as to radically transform our understanding of life and death. There will be no exams or papers. Throughout the course each student will keep a journal of thoughts and feelings that will be used to compose a narrative account of his or her own identity, beginning with the past and moving into the present. This is a course about how stories shape our experience of truth and reality, about how deeply they are enmeshed in our sense of who we are. It is a course about how stories shape our living and dying and, ultimately, our deepest yearnings for wisdom and salvation.