黑料吃瓜

鈥淭hese are topics that I hope students are grappling with in the modern world as we confront the fact that there鈥檚 very real suffering going on around us.鈥�

A big step in understanding evil, as the 144 students in Angela Feres鈥� new class on the subject have already found out, is realizing there鈥檚 no single, tidy way to describe it.

Their first assignment was to come up with a definition of evil, and Feres expects 144 different responses.

鈥淭hat definition shifts depending on who鈥檚 answering, depending on what time period,鈥� said Feres, a 黑料吃瓜 lecturer. 鈥淧hilosophers say one thing, theologians may say another. Different religions have different understandings.鈥�

Understanding Evil (Religious Studies/Humanities 411) is one of about a dozen new courses introduced in 黑料吃瓜鈥檚 spring 2019 semester, including classes on Japanese culture, media in Latin America and condensed matter physics.

In addition to drawing students from the religious studies and humanities departments, the course has attracted others majoring in psychology, business and political science.

Feres鈥� three-unit course will explore concepts of evil from some of the oldest religious traditions of India, Mesopotamia and Egypt, and their influence on later Jewish, Christian and Islamic concepts. Long ago, some believed suffering was inflicted by gods and goddesses who were unhappy with the way their subjects performed rituals. In other cultures, evil was just a part of life, 鈥渟omething that teaches you a lesson,鈥� Feres said.

Demons and devils

Representations of demons and devils over time are part of the curriculum, and Feres said students expressed an interest in discussing the beliefs of people who claim to have experienced supernatural evil. Genocide and other mass atrocities certainly qualify as evil, and so do racism, slavery, human trafficking and mass shootings.

鈥淲e鈥檒l talk about people who believe that they have a real experience with demonic figures but a lot of the class is more of an understanding of how and why we label people as evil and the consequences of that,鈥� Feres said.

She plans to bring in a Catholic priest to talk about ritual exorcism and its uses in modern times, which bear little resemblance to their depiction in movies. Other guest speakers will discuss terrorism and religious violence, and how evil can exist under an all-powerful, all-loving God.

鈥淧eople suffer, and it鈥檚 often innocent people,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t raises the question of why.鈥�

Evil in the modern age

Feres is a double 黑料吃瓜 alumna with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in religious studies and a master鈥檚 in history with an emphasis in medieval studies. She holds a dual Ph.D./M.A. in early modern studies and the history of Christianity from Claremont Graduate University.

Why study evil in 2019? 鈥淚t鈥檚 so meaningful when we have people still being targeted because of their race or their gender, their religion or their ethnicity,鈥� Feres said.

鈥淭hese are topics that I hope students are grappling with in the modern world as we confront the fact that there鈥檚 very real suffering going on around us.鈥�

And that leads to the hard part: how to combat evil. 鈥淭hat is what we鈥檙e going to devote our very last few classes of the semester to,鈥� said Feres. 鈥淗elp. Be part of the solution. We鈥檒l see what they say.鈥�

It may be something as simple as becoming more active in politics, getting involved in the community, or helping to teach.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the neat thing about university students鈥攖hey鈥檙e full of thoughts,鈥� Feres said. 鈥淎nd if you don鈥檛 tell them that any of them are wrong, you might just stumble across some real brilliance.鈥�