Course Description

Professor Courtenay Raia lectures on science and religion as historical phenomena that have evolved over time. She examines the earlier mind-set before 1700 when into science fitted elements that came eventually to be seen as magical. The course also question how Western cosmologies became "disenchanted." Magical tradition transformed into modern mysticisms is also examined as well as the political implications of these movements. Includes discussion concerning science in totalitarian settings as well as "big science" during the Cold War.

Lectures

1. Course Introduction: Science, Magic, and Religion
2. Greek Mysticism and Rationality
3. The Patristic Period
4. The Witch Craze
5. Reformation and Revolution
6. 17th Century Thought
7. Newton and the Enlightenment
8. Mechanical Philosophy
9. Religion, Regicide, and Revolution
10. Nature and Romanticism
11. Darwin and Science
12. Romanticism and Spiritualism
13. Psychical Research
14. Human Sciences and Freud
15. Gnostic Revival
16. 20th Century Physics
17. Quantum Mechanics
18. Spiritualism in the New Age
19. Final Lecture: Science, Magic, and Religion