THEO7060 · Theology

Symbols and Narratives of Redemption

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Rethinking the sacramentality lived by the people of God in the context of the 21st century implies reviewing the theoretical framework of signs and symbols of human language, particularly Christian, in the midst of the debris of modern instrumental rationality.Following Wittgenstein and Austin with the linguistic turn, the theory of performativity makes more complex the analysis of the oral, visual and conceptual narratives by which the human condition is celebrated in diverse cultures as the site of divine redemption.This graduate course will explore, from fundamental Christian theology, the symbolism of the good (la symbolique du bien, proposed by Paul Ricoeur), incorporating the lens of critical and decolonial thought to think redemption as performativity of resistance and re-existence experienced by the survivors of systemic violence as a life of the Spirit that emerges from existential and systemic peripheries, with diverse forms of narratives and rituals of combative performativity.