RELG 291 - Animals and Religion

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
How do humans relate to non-human animal life? In this course, we will first consider religious approaches that consider non-human animal life as fundamentally distinct in kind from human life. We will then consider religious approaches that consider human and non-human animal life on a spectrum and proceed to ask the question: “Do animals have religion?” To answer this question, we will work through animal perception, concepts, and proto-language (the evolution of language). Along the way, we will bring in a range of sources, including Christian theological/philosophical views, Buddho-Daoist views, and some perspectives from theoretical biology.

This course is appropriate for new students.