RLG234H1

Language and Religion

What is language to religion? And how is it used by humans and divine agents? This course moves across traditions, examining types of communications from speech to rhetoric to book to revelation; and types of communicators from hermit to evangelist to deity. We will see language used to clarify and to obscure; to exclude and to liberate. And we will think about miscommunication too: the message lost in transmission. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of other languages is required.