COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a course on the role of religion in shaping contemporary and historical U.S. cultures. It will treat major world religions--Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism--feminist spirituality and nature religion, African-American and Native American religions, and religions such as Hinduism which were originally national religions, as they are manifest today in American people's lives, in American history, in contemporary spirituality, in both public institutions and religious organizations and in today's multicultural, multireligious American society. The class will study historical world and national religious life as background for the present day. For research into present-day religious life, field study and interviewing will be a part of class where Twin Cities synagogues, churches or mosques may be visited and their leaders interviewed. Art experiences with museums and architecture featuring spirituality and religion will be a part of the class, as well. Current local, U.S. and international events will be analyzed in their religious context and for their religious significance.
COURSE MATERIALS AND REQUIREMENTS
Books:
Catherine L. Albanese, America: Religions and Religion
Ignatia Broker, Night Flying Woman
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, ed., The Muslims of America
Robert N. Bellah et. al., Habits of the Heart
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Reading:
Read "Faith and Values" section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune every
Saturday
Semester-Long Research Project:
1. Each student is asked to choose a major or well-known U.S. national
religious organization, group or movement
• in which the student has been a practicing member herself or himself
• or has close family members (parents or grandparents or older generation family members) who have been practicing members
• or has been taught for a long period by practicing members (such as in Catholic school)
• in other words, in which the student has a close connection,
AND, ALSO,
2. Each student is asked to choose one group about which she or he knows
nearly nothing at the present time, for example
• Roman Catholicism (or one of its branches such as the Jesuits or the Polish-American Catholic Church)
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity (or one of its branches such as Greek Orthodoxy in the U.S.)
• Protestant Christianity (or one of its branches such as the American Baptist Church denomination)
• Buddhism (or one of its branches such as Tibetan Buddhism)
• Hinduism
• Islam
• New Age religion
• Native American religion
• African-American religion
• Feminist religion
• or another major, well-known U.S. national religious organization or group,
AND
3. Study by research, conversations, reading and other methods, the following of both those "religions" in the United States:
A. The historical founding and origin of the group, its country and time
B. The organizational structure of the religion and changes over time
C. The people who brought that religion to the United States
D. The manifestation today of the religion as a group in the U.S.
E. The beliefs and practices of the group
F. The group's holidays and celebrations
G. The ethical system of the group, its affirmations about human behavior and its prohibitions
H. Some art work of the group and how it uses art forms religiously
4. Keep a notebook of one's finding about the group and turn in a written
report about one of the religions every third Friday (the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th weeks of class), 8-10 pages typewritten, double-spaced.
5. Do two class presentations--a panel discussion, a talk or a slide or music
presentation on each of the religions you are doing research about during the
semester
6. Write a 20-page finished paper, typewritten, double-spaced, comparing and contrasting some aspect of your two religions, elaborating analytically one piece of one of them that interests you or expounding on one or the other in the way you have learned about it through your research. Due the last day of class.
SCHEDULE OF CLASS TOPICS
(Reading assignments, due dates for papers and projects, and dates for videos, museum and other visits and guest lecturers will be worked out later.)
First Week -- Sept. 8, 10
• Organization and orientation
• What is religion?
Read Albanese, Introduction, pp. 1-21
Second Week -- Sept. 13, 15, 17
• What is American/United States? What is American about religion? -- What is the difference between spirituality and religion?
• What is religious art? Religious literature? Sacred literature and art?
• What are spiritual and religious norms, values, ethics?
• Judaism in America
Read Albanese, Ch. 2, pp. 49-72 on Judaism
Third Week -- Sept. 20, 22, 24
• The Abrahamic World Religions
• Eastern Religions
• Orthodox Christianity
• Islam
Read Albanese, Ch. 9, "East Is West: Eastern Peoples and Eastern Religions," pp. 281-323
Read Haddad, Chs.1,2,11, and 14, pp.3-36,157-174, and 205-216
Fourth Week -- Sept. 27, 29, Oct. 1
• More on Islam
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
September 27: First report due
September 27: Guest lecture on Islam by Nahid S. Khan
September 29 and October 1: Huston Smith videos on 1) Confucianism and 2) Hinduism and Buddhism
Fifth Week -- Oct. 4, 6, 8
• Buddhism and Hinduism continued
• Catholicism
• Protestantism
• Conservative, Moderate, Liberal, Radical across Religious Lines
Review Albanese, pp. 301-322, on Buddhism and Hinduism
Read Albanese, Ch. 3, on Catholicism, pp. 73-100; Chs. 4 & 5 on Protestantism, pp.102-189
Oct. 8: Oral student presentations
Sixth Week -- Oct. ll, 13,15
• Native American Religion
Read Albanese, Ch. 1, on Native American religions, pp. 24-47
Read Ignatia Broker, Night Flying Woman
October 13: guest lecture on Ojibwe spirituality and Night Flying Woman by Pauline Brunette Danforth
October 15: Second report due
Seventh Week -- Oct. 18, 20, 22
• African-American Religions
Read Albanese, Ch. 6, pp. 191-215, on African American religions
Read in Haddad, Ch. 4, pp. 53-61 on the Nation of Islam
October 22: Oral student presentations
Eighth Week -- Oct. 25, 27, 29
• New Age Religion and Its American Predecessors
• 1990s Spirituality
• New Evangelism
Read Albanese, Ch. 8 on l9th century spiritual movements, pp. 250-280; Ch. 11, pp. 350-394 on New Age and twentieth century evangelism
Oct. 29: guest lecture by Dr. Jeanne Halgren Kilde on "New Evangelism"
Ninth Week -- Nov. 1, 3, 5
• American Civil Religion
Begin reading Robert Bellah et. al, Habits of the Heart
Read Albanese, Chs. 12 & 13 on public Protestantism and civil religion, pp. 395-
461
Nov.5: Oral student reports
Nov. 5: Third written report due
Tenth Week -- Nov. 8, 10, 12
• American Civil Religion
Finish reading and discuss in class Habits of the Heart
Nov. 10: Oral student reports
Eleventh Week -- Nov. 15, 17, 19
• The U.S. and Religion in Foreign Policy and International Affairs
Begin reading Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizanons and the Remaking of World Order
Read in Haddad, Ch.15, 217-235
Possible museum visit
Twelfth Week -- Nov. 22, 24
• Continue U.S. and Religion in Foreign Policy and Int'l Affairs
Finish reading Huntington
Nov. 24: Fourth written report due
Nov. 24: Oral student reports
Thirteenth Week -- Nov. 30, Dec. 1, 3
• Religious Diversity in Present-day America
• Feminist Religiousness
• Nature Religions
Read Albanese, Chs. 14 & 15 on cultural religion and oneness vs. manyness, pp. 463-532
Read Haddad, Chs.12,13, pp.177-204
Dec. 3: Oral student presentations
Fourteenth Week -- Dec. 6, 8, 10
• More on Religious Diversity in Present-day America
Dec. 8 & 10: Oral student presentations
Fifteenth Week -- Dec. 13, 15
Dec. 13: Oral student presentations
Dec. 15: Last day of class
Dec. 15: Turn in final paper
No exams, no midquarter, no final exam.
GRADES AND GRADING
Grades in the class will be based on class attendance and participation, evidence in discussion of having done all of the reading, and, most heavily, on the writing. The class will be conducted like a seminar, and there will be no exams. The breakdown of percentages for final grades is the following:
Class participation--10%
Writer's notebook assignments--5% each, 20% total
Small papers--10% each, 30% total
Oral presentation in class--10%
Final paper--30%
Attendance is expected at every class. Papers are due at the beginning of the class hour of their due date, and late papers will not be accepted unless a prior arrangement has been made with the instructor or an emergency like a serious illness with a medical validation is the cause. All papers must be finished to receive a grade in the class. No papers will be rewritten or revised for better grades--there are several of them, so they are likely to get better through the quarter.
The following are the standards for assigning final course grades:
A Represents achievement that is outstanding relative to the level necessary
to meet course requirements
B Represents achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to
meet course requirements
C Represents achievement that meets the basic course requirements in every
respect
D Represents achievement that is worthy of credit even though it does not
fully meet the basic course requirements
F Failure to complete the work in the manner expected by the instructor.
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The Pluralism Project at Harvard University