Junior History Tutorial: Religion, Secularism, and Modernity
CSS 340
Spring 2013
| Section:
01
02
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| Certificates: International Relations, Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
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 re-considerations 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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| 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
1. Steve Bruce, GOD IS DEAD: SECULARIZATION IN THE WEST (Oxford, 2002).
2. José Casanova, PUBLIC RELIGIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
3. Ruth Harris, LOURDES: BODY AND SPIRIT IN THE SECULAR AGE (Penguin Global, 2008).
4. Jonathan P. Herzog, THE SPIRITUAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: AMERICA'S RELIGIOUS BATTLE AGAINST COMMUNISM IN THE EARLY COLD WAR (Oxford University Press, 2011).
5. Hugh McLeod, THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS OF THE 1960s (Oxford, 2007, 2010).
6. Yuri Slezkine, THE JEWISH CENTURY (Princeton University Press, 2012).
7. Catherine Wanner, COMMUNITIES OF THE CONVERTED: UKRAINIANS AND GLOBAL EVANGELISM (Cornell, 2007).
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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: PAC421; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 10 | Permission of instructor approval will be granted by the instructor during pre-registration through the Electronic Portfolio. Click "Add to My Courses" and "To request a POI electronically, click here" to submit your request. |
| 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: PAC421; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 10 | Permission of instructor approval will be granted by the instructor during pre-registration through the Electronic Portfolio. Click "Add to My Courses" and "To request a POI electronically, click here" to submit your request. |
| 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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