Religion and History
HIST 323
Fall 2012
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
RELI 298 |
| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
Religion and history share a great deal. Both seek to make human actions and events over time comprehensible. Both attempt to construct total cosmologies that connect past, present, and future; the profane and the sacred; the immanent and the transcendent. And both use narrative strategies to build arguments about the meaning of historical change. One of the most dominant narratives of modernity has been the narrative of secularization--the conviction that as the world became modern, religion would die out as a force of public, and perhaps even private, life. The contemporary return of religion as a global force 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 course will examine scholarship in the social sciences in general, and history in particular, with the goal of deepening students' appreciation of the difficulties of studying religion in a scholarly way. We will analyze the assumptions that guided the secularization narrative and examine how the relationship between the religious and the secular has shaped the history of modernity. Readings will range in topics and approaches but will all engage the question of what history can bring to our understanding of religion. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (HIST)(RELI) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Carlo Ginzburg, THE CHEESE AND THE WORMS: THE COSMOS OF A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MILLER (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
ISBN-10: 0801843871
Marshall Sahlins, HOW "NATIVES" THINK: ABOUT CAPTAIN COOK, FOR EXAMPLE (University Of Chicago Press, 1996).
ISBN-10: 0226733696
Jonathan Sheehan, THE ENLIGHTENMENT BIBLE: TRANSLATION, SCHOLARSHIP, CULTURE (Princeton University Press, 2012).
ISBN-10: 0691130698
Ruth Harris, LOURDES: BODY AND SPIRIT IN THE SECULAR AGE (Penguin Global, 2008).
ISBN-10: 0141038489
Yuri Slezkine, THE JEWISH CENTURY (Princeton University Press, 2012).
ISBN-10: 0691127603
John Connelly, FROM ENEMY TO BROTHER: THE REVOLUTION IN CATHOLIC TEACHING ON THE JEWS, 1933-1965 (Harvard University Press, 2012).
ISBN-10: 0674057821
Brian Porter-Szucs, FAITH AND FATHERLAND: CATHOLICISM, MODERNITY, AND POLAND (Oxford University Press, 2011).
ISBN-10: 0195399056
James Gilbert, REDEEMING CULTURE: AMERICAN RELIGION IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE (University Of Chicago Press, 1998).
ISBN-10: 0226293211
Jonathan P. Herzog, THE SPIRITUAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: AMERICA'S RELIGIOUS BATTLE AGAINST COMMUNISM IN THE EARLY COLD WAR (Oxford University Press, 2011).
ISBN-10: 0195393465
John Bowen, CAN ISLAM BE FRENCH?: PLURALISM AND PRAGMATISM IN A SECULARIST STATE (Princeton University Press, 2012).
ISBN-10: 0691132836
Brian Porter-Szucs, FAITH AND FATHERLAND: CATHOLICISM, MODERNITY, AND POLAND (Oxford University Press, 2011). ISBN-10: 0195399056
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly small response papers and one large final paper. Classroom presentation. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
No late papers; no incompletes. Only COL and CSS students can take this course pass/fail. All other students must take this course for letter grade. This course fulfills a "Method and Theory" requirement for Religion majors. |
| Instructor(s): Smolkin-Rothrock,Victoria Times: ....R.. 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: ALLB113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 4 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 0 | FR: 0 |
| 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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