 |
UC Santa Barbara (Audio)University of California Television Author: UCTV
Programs from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Language: en-us Genres: Education Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Religion in Motion: The Identity and World-Creating Powers of Religious Action
Tuesday, 2 June, 2026
What does it mean to rethink religion from the ground up? University of Colorado's religious studies professor Sam Gill draws on biology, philosophy, and decades of research and dance practice to argue that we are moving, whole organisms before we are divided into mind and body. Gill proposes that humans possess a biologically enabled capacity to hold together what we know to be different as if it were the same—a dynamic that underlies the powers of metaphor, masking, dancing, ritual action, symbol, and language. Through vivid examples from Hopi initiation, Javanese shadow puppetry and dance, and Navajo prayer ceremonials, Gill shows how religious actions create worlds, identities, and enduring cultural coherence. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 41541]
