The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Pluralism in America: Seminar
Religion 1006ar / Divinity 3824Spring Term, 1993 : Wednesdays 3-5, Sever 206
Diana L. Eck (The Comparative Study of Religion)
Richard H. Seager (American Religious History)
This seminar addresses the question of "pluralism" in the United States, exploring what this term has meant and how its meanings have been and continue to be negotiated in the public sphere with specific attention to religious pluralism. Especially in the light of the changing religious demography of the U.S., with its growing Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, and Zoroastrian communities, what new questions are posed as the United States continues to redefine and re-appropriate a commitment to religious freedom and religious pluralism? What does pluralism really mean? How is this term being defined and used? We will read some of the historical articulations of the meaning of American cultural pluralism as well as some of the growing literature of the 1990's addressed to multiculturalism and the question of "redefining America." We will consider the interreligious encounter in contemporary America, looking at the arenas of this encounter -- religious bodies and interreligious councils, public schools public institutions, and the growing body of cases in the legal system.
- 1993: Invisible and Visible Minorities (Diana L. Eck)
- 1893: Protestant America and the "White City" (Richard H. Seager)
- The "Melting Pot" and "Cultural Pluralism" (DLE)
- The 1950's: The Air Force Academy Chapel and the Triple Melting Pot (RS)
- The 1970s: Beyond the Triple Melting Pot and the New Immigration (DLE)
- Toward an Understanding of Pluralism. Civil Religion and Culture Wars
- Mediating Institutions: The Courts, Religious Pluralism, and the Law
- Mediating Institutions: Interfaith Councils
- Toward an Understanding of Pluralism: Meanings of 'Multiculturalism'
- Mediating Institutions: The Public Schools
- Mediating Institutions: The Public Schools
- The World's Parliament of Religions, 1893 to the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, 1993
Opening reflections on religious pluralism.
Sidney Mead, The Lively Experiment: The Shaping of Christianity in America (1976), Ch.III, IV, and VIII.
Robert Handy, A Christian America (1971), Ch.IV " 'The Religion of Civilization' 1860-1900."
F.W. Gunsaulus, "The Idea of Culture," Chautauquan 16 (October 1892).
Philip Gleason, "The Melting Pot: Symbol of Fusion or Confusion?" American Quarterly (Spring 1964).
Horace M. Kallen, "Democracy Versus the Melting Pot," The Nation, February 18 and 25, 1915.
Will Herberg, Protestant, Catholic, Jew (1955, 1983).
John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths (1960), Introduction, "The Civilization of the Pluralist Society" and Ch. 2, "Civil Unity and Religious Integrity."
E. Allen Richardson, Strangers in this Land: Pluralism and the Response to Diversity in the United States (1988).
Oscar Handlin, "Historical Perspectives on the American Ethnic Group" Daedalus (Spring 1961).
Milton Gordon, "Assimilation in America: Theory and Reality" Daedalus (Spring 1961).
Robert N. Bellah, The Broken Covenant, American Civil Religion in Time of Trial (1975).
James Davison Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (1991).
Case studies on zoning disputes, traffic disputes, the Smith decision on the ceremonial use of peyote, the Hialeah, Florida Santeria case, etc. Meeting with Professor John Mansfield, Harvard Law School on Wisconsin v. Yoder.
Case studies on the formation of interfaith councils, procedures for admission, activities, and problems. Maria Hibbets on Washington, D.C. Interfaith Council.
Charles Taylor, Multiculturalism and 'The Politics of Recognition' (1992). Michael Walzer What it Means to be an American (1992).
The New York and California school systems. The new Houghton-Mifflin Social Studies curriculum. Meeting with Patricia Taylor to discuss the New York State Social Studies Review and Development Committee, One Nation, Many Peoples: A Declaration of Cultural Interdependence (1991) and Arthur Schlesinger, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society.
Session with Charles Haynes, First Liberty Institute and National Council on Religious in Public Education. Discussion of curriculum: Living With Our Deepest Differences (1990).
Marcus Braybrooke, Pilgrimage of Hope (1991), "The World's Parliament of Religions."
Richard H. Seager, "Pluralism and the American Mainstream: The View from the Parliament," Harvard Theological Review 82:3, (1989).
Concluding Discussion
Course Requirements:
* Reading and preparation for the weekly discussions
* Term paper about 20 pp. in length on a topic relevant to the course. [For those of you who were researchers for the Pluralism Project last summer, this will be the final formal presentation of your research work in the form of a term paper. ]
Readings:
Packet of Speeches from the 1893 Parliament.
Gleason, Philip. "The Melting Pot: Symbol of Fusion or Confusion." (American Quarterly, Spring 1964).
Gordon, Milton. "Assimilation in America: Theory and Reality." (Daedalus, Spring 1961).
Handlin, Oscar. "Historical Perspectives on the American Ethnic Group." (Daedalus, Spring 1961).
Herberg, Will. Protestant, Catholic, Jew. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955; with new introduction by Martin Marty, 1983).
Hunter, James Davidson. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. (New York: Basic Books, 1991).
Kallen, Horace M. "Democracy Versus the Melting Pot." (The Nation, February 18 and 25, 1915).
Murray, John Courtney, S.J. "The Civilization of the Pluralist Society" and "Civil Unity and Religious Integrity" from We Hold These Truths. (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1960).
Richardson, E. Allen. Strangers in this Land. (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1988).
Schlesinger, Arthur. The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992).
Taylor, Charles. Multiculturalism and "The Politics of Recognition" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
Walzer, Michael. What it Means to be an American: Essays on the American Experience. (New York: Marsilio, 1992).