Junior History Tutorial: Religion, Secularism, and Modernity
CSS 340
Spring 2011
| Section:
01
02
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| Certificates: International Relations |
In recent decades, religion has regained prominence both as a force in world politics and as a much-debated category of analysis in the social sciences. This new development would have profoundly surprised generations of thinkers--from Marx to the proponents of the secularization thesis--who prophesied that religion would "die out" as a force of public, and perhaps even private, life. The return of religion has brought into question many of the foundational assumptions of modernity--namely, that modernization and secularization are twin processes that rationalize and disenchant the world and create the modern (secular) subject.
This junior history tutorial will examine understandings about religion, secularism, and the relationship of both to the concept of modernity. The course will examine the assumptions that guided the secularization narrative, and analyze how the relationship between the religious and the secular has shaped the emergence of modernity in Europe and beyond. The tutorial will then investigate recent revisions of the secularization narrative, as well as reconsiderations of religion and secularism in recent debates about the desecularization of the world; religion and secularism in public life; secularism and Islam; and the concepts of multiple secularisms and postsecular society. Finally, the tutorial will address methodology with the goal of preparing students to write long research papers. |
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Essential Capabilities:
None |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 - 3rd Quarter |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Talal Asad, FORMATIONS OF THE SECULAR: CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, MODERNITY (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003). Ebook: [http://site.ebrary.com/lib/wesleyan/docDetail.action?docID=10042838]
Peter Berger, Jonathan Sacks, David Martin, Tu Weiming, eds., THE DESECULARIZATION OF THE WORLD: RESURGENT RELIGION AND WORLD POLITICS (Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999).
John Bowen, WHY THE FRENCH DON'T LIKE HEADSCARVES: ISLAM, THE STATE, AND PUBLIC SPACE (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
Michael Burleigh, SACRED CAUSES: THE CLASH OF RELIGION AND POLITICS, FROM THE GREAT WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR (New York: Harper Perennial, 2008).
José Casanova, PUBLIC RELIGIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
Esra Özyürek, NOSTALGIA FOR THE MODERN: STATE SECULARISM AND EVERYDAY POLITICS IN TURKEY (Duke University Press, 2006).
David Martin, ON SECULARIZATION: TOWARDS A REVISED GENERAL THEORY (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005)
Paul Froese, THE PLOT TO KILL GOD: FINDINGS FROM THE SOVIET EXPERIMENT IN SECULARIZATION (University of California Press, 2008).
Bertrand Russell, WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN AND OTHER ESSAYS ON RELIGION AND RELATED SUBJECTS (Barlow Press, 2008).
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Examinations and Assignments:
TBA |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Open to CSS Juniors Only |
| Instructor(s): Smolkin-Rothrock,Victoria Times: .....F. 02:00PM-04:00PM; Location: PAC402; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 10 | Permission of instructor will be granted during the drop/add period. Students must submit either a ranked or unranked drop/add request for this course. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
| SECTION 02 - 4th Quarter |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Same as Section 01 Above |
| Examinations and Assignments: Same as Section 01 Above |
| Additional Requirements and/or Comments: Same as Section 01 Above |
| Instructor(s): Smolkin-Rothrock,Victoria Times: .....F. 02:00PM-04:00PM; Location: PAC402; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 10 | Permission of instructor will be granted during the drop/add period. Students must submit either a ranked or unranked drop/add request for this course. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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