This seminar will explore in ever-widening ways the differences between space as a medieval and modern conception and place as something at once ancient and postmodern. Both space and place will be examined in relation to the now almost complete secularization of the life-world, most conspicuously present in the globalization of the technology of communication and information transmission. In the face of this intricate and massive networking-most of it happening in a "virtual space" that is the technological equivalent of infinite space-it is nothing short of remarkable that place not merely survives as a concept but is increasingly valorized in such diverse forms as architecture and geography, feminist thought and the theory of the sacred. Beyond its locatory and orientational virtues, a place is a vehicle of memory and is ultimately numinous-which is why we live in particular places for so long and return to them so nostalgically. Yet we rarely reflect on why they possess this extraordinary power and, in particular, what it is about places that allow them to constitute the local landscape of the sacred. Among several ways of considering the place/space dyad, special attention will be given to the difference between the oral and the visual as this plays itself out in various cultural settings, ranging from the high luminosity of Greek and medieval thought to the illuminated screen of the present moment. Consideration will be given to architectural and pictorial realizations of place and space, as well as to their ingredience in ethical and political life. Readings in ancient and contemporary texts, to be selected from the Old Testament, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Derrida, Irigaray, Walter Benjamin, and Mark Taylor. Seminar format. Requirements: two short papers and a term paper on a topic of your own choosing. This course counts as a junior religion seminar. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 20.

Hour: CASEY