BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//ceres.rub.de//events//
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-TIMEZONE:UTC
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Conference | Body Trouble: The Ambivalence of Sex\, Gender\, and D
 esire in Religious Discourse
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20140310
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20140315
DTSTAMP:20260526T052800Z
UID:de-20140310-conference-body-trouble-754@ceres.rub.de
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Faltblatt\nThis conference will address the inherent ambiguity
  of religious  approaches concerning the body in its multiform expressions
  that render  them as 'myriad bodies\,' which constitute the domain of rel
 igious  subjects\, instruments or mediums for doctrinal exegesis\, interpr
 etive  and regulatory practices\, disciplinary measures\, and construction
 s in  terms of sexuality and gender\, while equally serving as markers of 
  differentiation between different religious traditions\, within the same 
  tradition and between the religious and non-religious spheres.\nThe  body
  as a site of religious colonization has been constructed and  deconstruct
 ed from within a binary frame that invents and reinforces  divisions and h
 ierarchies between the 'male and female\,' 'natural and  unnatural\,' 'ete
 rnal' and 'temporal\,' 'physical and spiritual\,' 'outer  and inner\,' 'pu
 re and impure\,' etc.\; while as Foucault has pointed out\,  systems of po
 wer\, like religions\, define and reproduce the subjects they  subsequentl
 y came to represent.\nThe stability and instability  between these binary 
 terms give rise to a number of challenges that may  take the form of explo
 ration\, question and problematic: when and how  does the body becomes a t
 opic of doctrinal discourse\, scriptural  exegesis and institutional regim
 entation (i.e. monasticism\, clerical  hierarchies\, public rituals\, tabo
 os\, dressing codes\, food abstention\,  and consumption\, etc)? Can there
  be salvation\, or even religion\, with  and without the body? How does re
 ligious language construct the  categories of the body and its conflation 
 in terms of sexual appetites\,  its gender (dis)continuities and the alleg
 ed relations between these?  How does the differentiation between body and
  soul operate in the  formation of religious discourse and institutional p
 ractice? Is there a  recurring tension between Eastern and Western concept
 ions of body and  religion even during a recent acceptance of Eastern pray
 er and  concentration techniques?  What is the agency of sexuality and gen
 der in  spiritual transformation? On the other hand\, how is religion embo
 died  and why do we feel the need to situate intellectual and gender  exce
 llence in the body?\nIf a stable notion of 'body' no longer  proves to be 
 a foundational premise of religious discourse\, perhaps a  new sort of rel
 igious exegesis is desirable to contest the very  reification of gender an
 d desire\, one that would take the variable  construction of corporeal ide
 ntity as a normative prerequisite and an  embodied soteriological goal.
URL:https://khk.ceres.rub.de/de/veranstaltungen/de-20140310-conference-bod
 y-trouble/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR