History 522 Graduate, Southern Religious History, Spring 2012

Transcription

1 History 522 Graduate, Southern Religious History, Spring 2012 Dr. Andy Doyle Time and Site: 6:30-7:45 MW, Kinard 206 Office: 376 Bancroft; phone: ; Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00-4:00, Thursdays 2:00-3:00 Please don t hesitate to call, , or drop by my office if you have any concerns. Course description: While this course will necessarily examine theological and denominational history, this is primarily a course in social and cultural history. The primary focus of this course is lived religion and the effect that it has had on southern society, culture, and politics from the colonial era until the present day. Virtually everyone knows that the South is now seen as the Bible Belt, but from its earliest settlement until well into the 19 th century, it was commonly regarded as the Sinful South. We will explore how the rise and ascendancy of evangelical Protestantism effected this transition and placed religion at the core of southern regional identity. Southern religion is a bi-racial phenomenon; while their practices tend to differ more than their beliefs, the collective identities and religious experiences of white and black southerners are inextricably bound to one another. We will thus devote significant attention to the religious experiences of African Americans, including the African antecedents, the beliefs and practices of the slaves, to Emancipation and the postbellum black church. The postbellum era offers many avenues for exploring diverse aspects of the history of that era, including the Lost Cause, the consolidation of evangelical hegemony, and the rise of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements. The rise of religious fundamentalism and its many variants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is another significant theme. We will conclude the course with two topics that resonate deeply in contemporary southern and American society, namely the significance of religion to the civil rights movement and the fundamentalist revival of the past forty years. Goals of the course: The goals of this course focus on expanding a student s ability to think both critically and historically. All students in the History M. A. program are expected to: 1) communicate effectively core themes, ideas, and subject matter, in both written and oral form; 2) demonstrate an advanced ability to comprehend and explain major issues in historiography; 3) demonstrate an advanced ability to conduct independent research, applying basic research methods in history such as using search tools, finding primary and secondary sources, and assessing critically those sources; 4) be able to identify and master the historical literature of a specified field. Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs): This course is structured to help students realize the following learning outcomes, which are detailed on the History Department website: 1) Students will synthesize information from multiple sources and make critically reasoned written arguments on the basis of that information in essay exams, a book review essay, a critical essay based on primary sources, and a research paper (SLOs 1, 3, and 5). 2) Students will explain in written form the historiographical context of the subject of their research paper (SLOs 1 and 3). Measurement of student learning outcomes: Examinations: A midterm and a comprehensive final exam consisting of some combination of fulllength essay, brief essay, and short answer questions will be one of the primary means by which SLO one will be measured. An effective essay answer must be a critically reasoned, well-organized argument that effectively demonstrates knowledge through the use of evidence derived from the texts

2 and classroom discussions. Each will consist of a combination of short answer/brief essay and full essay questions. Study guides will be distributed one week in advance of each exam. Please bring a large blue book to class for each of the exams. Research paper: A major research paper will provide means by which to measure SLOs one, four, and six. This paper must be at least 6000 words in length and must be based to a significant extent on primary sources. You must turn in a rough draft at a date specified in the guidelines, which will be distributed separately. Book review essay: A five-page ( word) critical review essay of Methodism and the Southern Mind will be a means of measuring SLOs one, three and six. Complete guidelines will be distributed separately. I ll be happy to go over a rough draft of your essay with you in advance of the due date; please make an appointment for this. Religion and slavery essay: An eight-page ( word) critical essay comparing and contrasting the southern religious proslavery and the northern religious antislavery arguments and their respective Biblical sources will be a means of measuring SLOs one and four. Guidelines will be distributed separately. Evaluation: Midterm exam 15% Final exam 17% Research paper 27% Book review essay 8% Religious proslavery essay 10% Average of quiz scores, excluding the lowest 8% Class participation 15% Classroom participation: I strongly encourage you to attend each class; if you miss three classes, that s over ten percent of the classroom time. Two arguments against doing so come to mind: first, you re paying for it, and secondly, how would an employer react if you missed over ten percent of your scheduled workdays? Thus, absences will negatively affect this portion of the grade. If you come late to class, you must inform me of this after class to avoid being marked absent. Simply showing up is not enough, however; classroom participation is essential to making this course a good learning experience for everyone. I encourage you to contribute by raising relevant issues, making comments, and asking questions, and I ll ask specific questions of each student at various times. If you do the reading and remain engaged in the classroom, you should be fine. However, engaging your classmates in conversation or otherwise disrupting class will not be tolerated and will adversely affect this portion of your grade. This is also true of the unauthorized use of cell phones and other devices; see that subheading. Required texts: David Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow Thomas Roderick Dew, Richard Furman, William Lloyd Garrison, Thornton Stringfellow, John Wightman, et. al., excerpts from the antebellum religious debate over slavery; to be distributed via the listserv Andrew Doyle, Foolish and Useless Sport: The Southern Evangelical Crusade against Intercollegiate Football, ; originally published in The Journal of Sport History; abridged version to be distributed in manuscript form via the listserv

3 Martin Luther King, Letter from the Birmingham City Jail ; (available at Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, Methodism and the Southern Mind, Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion Randall Stephens, The Emergence of Southern Pentecostalism, in The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South; available on the Dacus course reserves website Charles Woodmason, excerpts from The Journal of Charles Woodmason; to be distributed via the listserv The texts by Chappell, Lyerly, and Raboteau are available at the Bookworm and on line. Cell phones and laptops: There are many times and places in which wireless technology is invaluable, but this classroom is not one of them. You need to remain involved in the discussion, and continual texting and web surfing distracts you, me, and your classmates. In accordance with the policy of the College of Arts and Sciences, I must approve the the classroom use of any digital device. Late papers: Late papers will be penalized ten points if not handed in on the due date and five additional points for the second and succeeding class sessions thereafter, up to a total of 25 points. Turnitin.com: You must submit each out-of-class essay to Turnitin.com by midnight on the date on which the paper is due, or I will deduct five points from the grade of your paper. If you fail to submit an assignment to Turnitin by the time I calculate final grades for your class, you will receive a zero for that assignment. Instructions for this will be distributed separately. Class listserv: You are responsible for any information distributed via the listserv. If you have an active winthrop.edu account, you should be automatically included in the listserv. If you registered late or for any other reason are not included on the listserv, you must self-subscribe at Cheating: Any student caught cheating will automatically receive a zero on that assignment, plus an additional five-point deduction from your final average. Plagiarism, or the unattributed use of the words or ideas of another author, constitutes cheating. Turnitin is pretty good at catching this, and I m even better. Drop date: Wednesday, March 7 is the last day to withdraw from the course or rescind the S/U grading option. If you are, or are considering, taking this course on an S/U basis, it s in your interest to discuss this with me. Incompletes: These will be given only in extraordinary circumstances and must be approved in advance by me. Excused absences and makeup exams: These will be granted only for a documented illness, the illness or death of a member of your family, or in other extraordinary circumstances. Syllabus change policy: I will do my best to adhere closely to the syllabus, but circumstances may require a deviation from the schedule outlined in it. I will inform students in class and/or via regarding any changes. The syllabus posted on the History Department website will always take primacy over any past versions. If you have any questions, please don t hesitate to ask.

4 Course Schedule January 9: Course introduction; European antecedents: Luther, Calvin, and the Protestant Reformation; Henry VIII and the English Reformation; the tripartite conflict between the COE, the Puritans, and the Anglo-Catholics January 11: The Sinful South : the shortcomings of and obstacles faced by the COE in the colonial South Readings: Woodmason s Journal January 18: The ethos of honor, Christianity, and slavery; the Enlightenment and the South January 23: The origins of the evangelical movement and the First Great Awakening Readings: Lyerly, Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 (for discussion purposes; you will presumably read the entire book prior to writing the essay) January 23: Review essay of Methodism and the Southern Mind due January 25: Eighteenth-century evangelicals and slavery Readings: Lyerly, Chapters 3 and 6 January 30: Evangelicals, community and gender Readings: Lyerly, Chapters 4, 5, 7, and Epilogue February 1: The Second Great Awakening: revivalism, denominational pluralism, and the origins of evangelical hegemony February 6: The evangelical proslavery argument: faith vs. reductionism Readings: Selected writings of proslavery evangelicals February 6: Essay on biblical proslavery due February 8: Religion, secession, and war February 13: Indigenous African religious beliefs; religious/cultural syncretism and the debate over African cultural survival in the Western Hemisphere Readings: Raboteau, Chapters 1 and 2 February 15: The evolution of African American Christianity Readings: Raboteau, Chapters 3 and 4 February 20: African American religion as an ideology of liberation Readings: Raboteau, Chapters 5, 6, and Conclusion February 22: African American religion and Emancipation: self-separation and institution-building February 27: Midterm exam February 29: Religion and the Lost Cause

5 March 5: Evangelicalism confronts the New South: modernization, religious liberalism, wealth, and worldly amusements Readings: Doyle, Foolish and Useless Sport March 7: The origins of modern fundamentalism (Spring break, March 12-16) March 19: Society and culture during the 1920s and the fundamentalist response; the Scopes Trial March 21: The social and theological origins of the Holiness movement March 21: Rough draft of research paper due; minimum ten pages March 26: Southern Pentecostalism Readings: Stephens, The Emergence of Southern Pentecostalism March 28: Pentecostalism, cont d. April 2: The African American church and the origins of the civil rights movement Readings: Chappell, Intro, Chapters 1 and 2 April 4: The theological and spiritual basis of the civil rights movement Readings: Chappell, Chapters 3-5; King, Letter from the Birmingham City Jail. April 9: The movement, cont d. April 11: The white response to the movement Readings: Chappell, Chapters 6-8, Conclusion April 13: Research papers due in History Department office by 5:00 pm April 16: Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and postwar prosperity April 18: Jerry Falwell, the Christian Coalition, and the fundamentalist revival of the 1970s and 1980s April 23: Megachurches and contemporary southern religion Final Exam, 6:30 pm, Monday April 30