Dr. Maarten Ultee

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Religion in Culture Lecture Series at The University of Alabama will present “Dismembering the Image of God: Surgery and the Christian Church,” a lecture by Dr. Maarten Ultee, UA professor of European history, at the Ferguson Center Feb. 15.

The Religion in Culture Lecture Series, presented by UA’s department of religious studies, will host a reception from 5-6 p.m. in the Anderson Room followed by the lecture in the Mortar Board Room from 6-7 p.m. in the Ferguson Center at UA.

Ultee’s research uses medical, philosophical, and religious sources to explore changes in surgical practice and literary discourse. He traces parallel developments in religion and philosophy, politics and surgery, with special attention to metaphors of the human body, the body of Jesus, the ancient and medieval church, and the body politic.

The Religion in Culture series provides a venue for scholars to address the role played by religious beliefs and practices in creating and contesting culture. As opposed to seeing religion as set apart and periodically interacting with items of culture - as typically implied by the more common "religion and culture" - this lecture series highlights the manner in which those behaviors and institutions named as religion are elements of ordinary cultural practices.

This is the fourth year for the lecture series which has been greatly assisted by funds available through the College of Arts and Sciences' Anonymous Lecture Fund for the Humanities. For more information, visit www.as.ua.edu/rel or call the department of religious studies at 205/348-5271.

The department of religious studies is located within the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state with 6,600 students and 360 faculty. Students from the college have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships, and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Team.