REL 136 African Trad Religion (AFR)

An introduction to African traditional religions and spirituality within their cultural contexts and their interactions with Christianity, Islam, and other worldviews in Africa. The course examines the nature and structure of African traditional cultures, spiritualities, and religions, including studies of the various dimensions of those religions: experiences, rituals, myths or narratives, social organization and institutions, material objects (art, etc.), doctrines or philosophies, as well as moral and legal codes and practices. The course includes both theoretical and experiential approaches to understanding the religious and cultural traditions of the African continent, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. The course also examines the influence of African traditional spirituality and religions on Islam and Christianity in Africa, on the one hand, and forms that African traditional spirituality and religions have taken in modern and contemporary Africa, as well as in communities of the African diaspora, on the other hand. Religion Perspective and International (Non-Western) Perspective.