Religion and Social Change

Transcription

1 Religion and Social Change Spring 2010 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University Instructor: Marcela F. González Wednesday 6 pm 8:45 pm; Room: 310 Office Hours: Wednesday 4:00 pm 5:30 pm; Room 415A mgonzalez1@gc.cuny.edu COURSE DESCRIPTION The course explores questions about religion and social change in domestic and international contexts. In the first part of the class, until the mid-term exam, we will explore the extent to which religion has facilitated the emergence of capitalism, the formation of the nation-state, and the development of democracy as social state and as form of government. We will center our attention also in the meaning of belief in the Middle Ages, what it meant at that time to believe in God and what it meant not to believe in God, and the changes in the meaning of belief/unbelief from Middle ages to Modern times. In the second part of the class, we will focus on one of the most important contemporary debates in the field of religion, the revision of the secularization theory. The theory of secularization concludes that in modernity religious beliefs and practices are decreasing, religion is privatized and ushered out of the public realm, and there is a separation of spheres between the Church and the state. These main assumptions are being put into question today. We will focus here on some cases that will help us to illuminate the limitations of the secularization theory, if this is the case, to explain the presence of religion in modern societies. We will analyze some controversial cases, such as, gender rights and the Catholic Church in Latin America, the case of the Islamic cemetery in Denmark, the effort to educate imams in Great Britain, the story of how kosher slaughter was allowed under a religious exemption from germane animal protection law but halal slaughter disallowed, and Muslims and the headscarf affair in France and Germany.

2 EXPECTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS 1. Evaluation and Grading: Class Participation: 10 % Group Presentations and Reaction Essays: 30 % 1 st Exam: 30 % 2 nd Exam: 30 % 2. Participation and Attendance: Class attendance is mandatory. Participation in class is crucial for the development of the class and for me to be able to evaluate your performance in the class. Each class, the students organized in groups will be in charge of an oral presentation, in which they will have to identify the most relevant themes of the readings and propose some questions to open the discussion in the class. The oral presentation is the result of the collaboration and participation of all the members of the group. In addition, each member of the group has to turn in a reaction essay of the reading (2 pages, double-spaced, with 1 margins, Times New Roman 12). The reaction essay is an individual work and should include: 1. The first paragraph has to include a general statement about the topic of the text. If the text situates the topic in a particular historical period, you have to mention this as well. 2. Two or three paragraphs in which you present analytically the main ideas of the text. For example, if the author proposes a specific concept in his analysis, you should mention which concept the author introduces in the reading and its definition. 3. The last paragraph or two have to include your opinion about the reading. For example, does the author support the argument with enough evidence? Does the author develop in the reading what he proposes to do? Is the author coherent in the presentation and explanation of his argument? The 1 st and the 2 nd exam will be an in-class exam. You will be able to choose two essay questions among four questions. You can bring your personal notes to the exam but you can t use the texts. 3. Blogs: The class will work with two on line sources. The Immanent Frame, a blog on Religion, Secularism, and the Public Sphere, a publication of the Social Science Research Council The blog has different sections: a topic of discussion, here & there, and essays written by regular contributors to the blog. When it is appropriate for the discussion in our class, I will assign some exercises to work in small groups in the class with materials taken from the different sections of the blog.

3 The other on line source we will use is the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life We will work in particular with the US religious landscape survey, and when it is appropriate for our discussion, I will assign some exercises to work in small groups in the class using the results from the different sections of the survey. 4. Communication: The best way to reach me is by mgonzalez1@gc.cuny.edu. Please write Religion and social change class in the subject. Feel free to me to ask questions about the readings. Also, I am available in my office hours or by appointment to talk about the class, the readings, the essays, the exams, college life, or any subject you need to talk about. 5. University Policy on Academic Integrity: I fully support Fordham University s policy on Academic Honesty. Academic sanctions in this class will range from an F on the assignment to an F in this course. A report of suspected academic dishonesty will be sent to the Office of the Dean of Students. LIST OF READINGS Alba, Richard; Raboteau, Albert J.; De Wind, Josh (eds), Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perpsectives (New York: New York University Press, 2009). Selected pages. Calhoun, Craig, Secularism, Citizenship, and the Public Sphere. Forthcoming in The Hedgehog Review. Casanova, Jose, Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective, in The Hedgehog Review, Spring & Summer 2006, Vol. 8, Numbers 1 & 2. Dostoevsky, F. The Brothers Karamazov; The Grand Inquisitor. Gorski, Philip, The Disciplinary Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Selected pages. Guinzburg, Carlo, The Cheese and The Worms: The Cosmos of Sixteenth-Century Miller. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992). Selected pages. Klausen Jytte, The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Introduction, chapters 4 and 6. Smith, Wilfred Cantwell, The English Word Believe, in Faith and Belief (Princeton University Press, 1987).

4 Taylor, Charles, Modes of Secularism, in Secularism and Its Critics, ed. Rajeev Bhargava (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [ ] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002). Selected pages. Vaggione, Juan Marco, Reactive Politicization and Religious Dissidence: The Political Mutations of the Religious. Social Theory and Practice, Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904] (New York: Penguin Books, 2002). Selected pages. Weltecke, Dorothea, On the Lack of Belief During the Central and Late Middle Ages, in Heike Bock, Jorg Feuchter, Michi Kneght (eds). Religion and Its Other. Secular and Sacral Concepts and Practices in Interaction. Campus COURSE OUTLINE Week 1: Class introduction and organization. January 20: Dostoevsky, F. The Brothers Karamazov; The Grand Inquisitor. Week 2: Religion and political economy; origins of capitalism; religion and rationalization and disenchantment of the world. January 27: Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904] (New York: Penguin Books, 2002). Week 3: Religion and democracy; religion and freedom; religion and civil society. February 3: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [ ] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002). Selected pages.

5 Week 4: Religion in the Middles Ages February 10: Weltecke, Dorothea, On the Lack of Belief During the Central and Late Middle Ages, in Heike Bock, Jorg Feuchter, Michi Kneght (eds). Religion and Its Other. Secular and Sacral Concepts and Practices in Interaction. Campus 2008 Smith, Wilfred Cantwell, The English Word Believe, in Faith and Belief (Princeton University Press, 1987). Guinzburg, Carlo, The Cheese and The Worms: The Cosmos of Sixteenth-Century Miller (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992). Week 5: Reformation and the formation of the nation-state February 17: Gorski, Philip, The Disciplinary Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Week 6: February 24 Exam review Week 7: March 3 Mid-Term exam Week 8: High secularism March 10: Charles Taylor, Modes of Secularism, in Secularism and Its Critics, ed. Rajeev Bhargava (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). Week 9: March 17 No classes, Spring recess Week 10: More on secularism March 24: Casanova, Jose, Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective, in The Hedgehog Review, Spring & Summer 2006, Vol. 8, Numbers 1 & 2. Week 11: Secularism, religion, and the public sphere. March 31: Calhoun, Craig, Secularism, Citizenship, and the Public Sphere. Forthcoming in The Hedgehog Review.

6 Week 12: Catholic Church and gender rights in Latin America. April 7: Vaggione, Juan Marco, Reactive Politicization and Religious Dissidence: The Political Mutations of the Religious. Social Theory and Practice, Week 13: The cases of the Islamic cemetery in Denmark and the effort to educate imams in Britain. April 14: Klausen Jytte, The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Week 14: The story of how kosher slaughter was allowed under a religious exemption from germane animal protection law but halal slaughter disallowed and Muslims headscarf affair in France and Germany. April 21: Klausen Jytte, The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Week 15: Religion and immigration April 28: Alba, Richard; Raboteau, Albert J.; De Wind, Josh (eds), Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perpsectives (New York: New York University Press, 2009). Week 16: May 5 Exam review Week 17: May 12 Final exam