Thinking with Natural Disasters

Disasters tax efforts to make sense of human experience to the limits. Whether the death and devastation are wrought by war, plague, storm, or earthquake, disasters bring an abrupt end to life as we once knew it. Such moments shift the human urge to explain and understand into overdrive. This seminar explores the efforts to make sense of disasters, from late Antiquity to the present, in philosophy, science, literature, and theology. Readings will center on specific examples of disasters, drawing upon primary sources wherever possible.