Bodily Presence and Media
A Christian Spiritual Approach
- Arrival day: 15 July 2010
- Welcome day: 16 July 2010
- Course period: 19 July - 23 July 2010
- Studyload: 2 ECTS
Course information
Christian faith has a special relation with the human body or bodiliness. Catholics confess the incarnation of God (Christmas), the bodily suffering and death (Good Friday), the bodily resurrection (Easter), the Church as a Mystical Body and the real presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist. The main message seems to be that God is as near to the human as his or her own body. Strangely enough, the Western Culture that has been built on this faith in the bodiliness of the divine presence has transformed this fascination into practices like plastic surgery and virtual life. What happened? And what are the spiritual roots of today's life? And how can this spiritual tradition help us to live it?
Course specifics
- Monday
The students will be introduced in Christian spirituality. The story of our formation from Genesis 2 will be analyzed and elaborated into a theory of bodily presence (Miranda, Woytila). The story of the revelation of the Name in Exodus 3 and 4 will be analyzed and elaborated into a theory of spiritual transformation. Finally, the Prologue of the Gospel of John will be analyzed and elaborated into a theory of immanence (Henry). Thus the spiritual theme of bodily presence is set as the human destination. We will practice choral singing as an exercise in bodily presence. - Tuesday
As a counterpoint to the theme of bodily presence, the students will be introduced to a theory of language (Saussure, Benjamin) and media (Ong, Havelock). Stemming from oral traditions that have been written down in scripture, Christian spirituality approaches the problem of tradition in terms of excarnation (Taylor) and incarnation. We will practice the lectio divina as a method to reestablish the bodiliness of the word. - Wednesday
The bodiliness of its faith gives Christian spirituality a special relation to the other media as well. Besides the word, also saints, icons and sacraments are media to relate bodily to the Divine presence. Bodily presence is the key to understand these "mediatizations" of Christian spirituality. We will practice the contemplation of an icon. - Thursday and Friday
In a fourth step, the present culture is analyzed as a "mediatized" culture, i.e. a culture which communicates not only with the help of electronic media, but, more important, in the manner of electronic media: as "networking networks" (Martín-Barbero). The question comes up how to be bodily present in a mediatized culture. This question will be elaborated by analyzing movies of a video artist (Bill Viola) and body art performers (Orlan, Stelarc) and second life documentaries. The analyses are performed by the students, and serve as a closing exam (please, bring your own laptop).
Course aims
knowlegde about and insight in the Christian spirituality as an incarnating faith; knowledge about and insight in the modern media (and its influence on our religion and culture) as a virtualizing and excarnating reality; a sense for the importance of Christian spirituality as well as modern media in our secularized culture; the skill to analyse modern forms of expression spiritually, and to evaluate their capacity to elicit bodily presence.
Costs: 250,- Euro
Registration
All participants need to register by filling out the Registration form 2010.
More information
For more detailed course information please contact dr.drs. W.M. (Willem Marie) Speelman W.M. Speelman.
