COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course explores the principal theories and methods that have come to shape academic study of religion. The course is designed to acquaint students with the major questions, approaches, and perspectives that guide the critical exploration of religion as a human reality. By the end of the course, students should have a basic knowledge of the principle theories and methods that undergird the study of religion, how these theories have shaped and continue shape the questions that scholars of religion ask, and how these theories and methods can be employed to yield deeper understanding of the phenomena that we judge to be religious.
REQUIRED TEXTS
The following materials are required reading for the course. Texts are available in the bookstore.
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Bradley Herling, A Beginners’ Guide to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. (Bloomsbury, 2016)
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Craig Martin, A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2017)
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Daniel L. Pals, Introducing Religion: Readings from the Classic Theorists (Oxford, 2009)
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Other journal articles and reserve materials
EXPECTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
Participation and attendance: My basic assumption is that we are mutually dedicated to the common cause of education conceived as the advancement of critical thinking. Because of this basic assumption, I assume that you will come to class prepared and ready to participate in class discussion. This means, first, that you will have completed assigned readings prior to the class meeting. (Many of the readings are difficult and I do not expect you to understand them completely; I do, however, expect you to engage the material seriously and to ask about anything you do not understand.) Second, I expect that you will be ready and willing to discuss the material, i.e., to raise questions, criticisms, thoughts, etc. Class participation is worth 10 points toward your final grade. I also assume that you will be in attendance and on time to all class sessions, barring unforeseen circumstances. Each unexcused absence will result in subtraction of 1 point from your final general participation grade.
Exams: Three exams will be given over the course of the term, each worth 30 points.
GRADING
A total of 100 points is possible for the class. The point breakdown is as follows: class participation = 10 points; exams = 90 points (30 points each). The grading scale is as follows:
92-100 points: A
90-92 points: A-
87-89 points: B+
83-86 points: B
80-82 points: B-
77-79 points: C+
73-76 points: C
70-72 points: C-
60-69 points: D
Below 60 points: U
ACADEMIC HONESTY
With regard to academic honesty, the Centre College Student Handbook states:
A high standard of academic honesty is expected of students in all phases of academic work and college life. Academic dishonesty in any form is a fundamental offense against the integrity of the entire academic community and is always a threat to the standards of the College and to the standing of every student. In taking tests and examinations, doing homework or laboratory work, and writing papers, students are expected to perform with honor. In written and oral work for college courses, students will be held responsible for knowing the difference between proper and improper use of source materials. The improper use of source materials is plagiarism and, along with other breaches of academic integrity, is subject to disciplinary action. . . . If the instructor has a concern about a student’s academic honesty, the Associate Dean of the College must be notified (Academic Honesty/Dishonesty).
The Academic Honesty policy will be strictly upheld.
SEPTEMBER 1-OCTOBER 4: APPROACHING RELIGION
9/1: Definition, Theory, Method
READ: Herling, pp. 29-45
READ: Pals, pp. xiii-xxvi
Defining Religion
9/3: Is there an adequate definition of religion?
READ: Martin, pp. 1-18
9/6: Clifford Geertz: religion as a cultural system
READ: Pals, pp. 341-43, 347-62
9/8: Talal Asad, contra Geertz
READ: Talal Asad, “Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz”
9/10: Functionalism vs. essentialism
READ: Kevin Schilbrack, “What Isn’t Religion?”
9/13: Stretching the boundaries: civil religion
9/15: Scholars and definitions
Questioning Religion
9/20: Insiders and outsiders
READ: Herling, pp. 45-55
READ: Mark Q. Gardiner and Steven Engler, “Semantic holism and the insider-outsider problem”
9/22: Insiders and outsiders (continued)
READ: Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “Comparative Religion: Wither — and why?”
READ: Bruce Lincoln, “Theses on Method”
9/24: Understanding other people’s texts
READ: Wendy Doniger, “The Uses and Misuses of Other People’s Myths”
9/27: Religion in the public square
READ: Russell T. McCutcheon, “A Default of Critical Intelligence? The Scholar of Religion as Public Intellectual”
9/29: Kinds of approaches
READ: Martin, pp. 19-32
10/1: Case study: Laïcité
10/4: Exam
OCTOBER 6-NOVEMBER 5: THEORIZING RELIGION
10/6: Kinds of theories
READ: Herling, pp. 57-123
10/7-10/10: Fall break
Phenomenological Theories
10/11: William James
READ: Pals, pp. 171-203
10/13: Rudolf Otto
READ: Pals, pp. 205-35
10/15: Mircea Eliade
READ: Pals, pp. 271-308
10/18: Case Study — The eucharist
Reductive Theories
10/20: Emile Durkheim
READ: Pals, pp. 99-138
10/22: Karl Marx
READ: Pals, pp. 143-70
10/25: Case Study: The eucharist
Functionalist Theories
10/27: Max Weber
READ: Pals, pp. 237-66
10/29: Victor Turner
READ: Victor Turner, Selections from The Ritual Process
11/1: Craig Martin
READ: Martin, pp. 103-41
11/3: Case study: The eucharist
11/5: Exam
NOVEMBER 8-DECEMBER 3: UNDERSTANDING RELIGION
11/8: Methods in the study of religion
READ: Herling, pp. 125-61
11/10: Classification
READ: Martin, pp. 33-50
READ: Ellen T. Armour, “Blinding me with (queer) science: religion, science, and (post?)modernity”
11/12: Essentialism
READ: Martin, pp. 51-63
READ: Craig R. Prentiss, “Coloring Jesus: Racial Calculus and the Search for Identity in 20th Century America”
11/15: Structure
READ: Martin, pp. 65-83
READ: Mark Juergensmeyer, “The New Religious State”
11/17: Habitus
READ: Martin, pp. 85-102
11/19: Habitus (continued)
READ: Pierre Bourdieu, “Physical Space, Social Space and Habitus”
11/22-11/26: Thanksgiving break
11/29: The quotidian turn
READ: Thomas A. Tweed, “After the Quotidian Turn: Interpretive Categories and Scholarly Trajectories in the Study of Religion Since the 1960s”
12/1: Ethnicity and gender in the study of religion
READ:Janet Liebman Jacobs, “Hidden Truths and Cultures of Secrecy: Reflections on Gender and Ethnicity in the Study of Religion”
12/3: Conclusion
READ: Herling, pp. 163-69
READ: Martin, pp. 143-57