Course curriculum

  • 01

    Welcome to Gods and Monsters: Understanding our Hopes and Fears

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    • How to use this course
    • Instructor's welcome
    • Please introduce yourself
    • Before we begin...
  • 02

    How to Make a God

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    • Lecture 1. How to Make a God: Religion and Anthropomorphism
    • Check for Understanding: How to Make a God
    • Optional Reading: Ludwig Feuerbach, "Third Lecture," Lectures on the Essence of Religion
    • Optional Reading: Sigmund Freud, "Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought," from Totem and Taboo
    • Optional Reading: Emile Durkheim. "Conclusion," The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
    • Discussion One
  • 03

    How to Make a Monster

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    • How to Make a Monster
    • Check for Understanding: How to Make a Monster
    • Optional Reading: Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Monster Culture: Seven Theses
    • Optional Reading: Freud on the Id, Ego, and Superego
    • Optional Reading: Why We Still Need Monsters
    • Discussion Two
  • 04

    Giving Birth to Gods and Monsters

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    • Giving Birth to Gods and Monsters: Chaos and Creation
    • Check for Understanding: Giving Birth to Gods and Monsters
    • Optional Reading: Hesiod, Theogony
    • Optional Reading: Enuma Elish
    • Discussion Three
  • 05

    The Divine and Monstrous Feminine

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    • The Divine and Monstrous Feminine: From Goddess to Monster
    • Check for Understanding: The Divine and Monstrous Feminine
    • Optional Reading: Ovid on Medusa
    • Optional Reading: The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth
    • Optional Reading: Sophia, Mother of Wisdom
    • Optional Reading: Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth
    • Optional Reading: Ishtar in the Epic of Gilgamesh
    • Discussion Four
  • 06

    Leviathans in the Sea and State

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    • Leviathans: Gods and Monsters in the Sea and State
    • Check for Understanding: Leviathans
    • Optional Reading: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
    • Optional Reading: Thinking the Political with Thomas Hobbes
    • The School of Life: Thomas Hobbes
    • Discussion Five
  • 07

    Gods and Monsters Today

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    • Gods and Monsters Today
    • Zombies
    • Optional Reading: Mathias Clasen, The Anatomy of the Zombie: A Bio-Psychological Look at the Undead Other
    • Check for Understanding: Gods and Monsters Today
    • Discussion Six
    • End of Course Survey
  • 08

    Test the Community Feature

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    • A community discussion instead of the built-in forums