Religion is concerned with transcendent things, that is, things that escape direct experience. As a result, religious language has developed several means to represent these transcendent things through verbal and non-verbal communication. Employing metaphors – e.g., to speak of God as a ‘father’ – is one of the most important methods.
Since antiquity, scholars have paid attention to and reflected on metaphorical language, culminating in the conceptual metaphor theory, developed in the 1980s. This course will touch upon different approaches to metaphors and discuss their implications for studying religious phenomena. It will address questions such as what a metaphor is, how to identify it systematically, and what role it plays in the language of religion. Moreover, it examines concrete methods for identifying and describing metaphors in texts, but also in other media, such as images.
The course will consist of three blocks:
- **Block I: Metaphor Theories** (6 sessions)
- **Block II: Methods** (3 sessions)
- **Block III: Applications of Metaphor Theories in the Study of Religion** (4 sessions)
The course is open to doctoral and advanced graduate students. To earn the corresponding credit points, students must read the texts carefully, write summaries or discussion questions, and actively participate in classroom discussions.
- Kursleiter/in: Frederik Elwert
- Kursleiter/in: Kianoosh Rezania