Working Schedule for sociology of religion 480

FALL 2015

Subject to Revision as Class Proceeds

CSK = Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments
PB = The Sacred Canopy

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DATE / TOPIC / IN-CLASS MATERIALS / ON-LINE MATERIALS
Sep 29
Day 1
CSK 1 / Intro, syllabus, schedule, assignments, resources, what the course is/isn’t, difficulty of study (Schutz), how religion is different, why we study it / In-class “spirituality” index from The God Gene; “scale of doubt” index from Doubt; 30 min video excerpt from “Masks of Eternity” (Joseph Campbell) / Syllabus; Joseph Campbell; "The Masks of Eternity"
Toth: “Insights of the Life”; Gibran: "Satan"; (See Definitions end of schedule)
Oct 1
Day 2 / Background – sociological conceptual tools. The fundamental question: “What’s going on here, anyway?” / 15 min video excerpt from “Who Built Stonehenge”; 30 min video excerpt from “Message of the Myth”(Joseph Campbell) / Toth:"What Sociology Has to Offer", “We Grow Older Together,” Stonehenge & Avebury
Oct 6
Day 3
PB 1 / Why sociology is difficult. The nature of human nature, and why we start there – précis of You Shall Know Them. Guiding lights: Ernest Becker and Peter Berger. / 30 min video excerpt from“The First Storytellers” (Joseph Campbell) / Toth: "Why Sociology is Difficult”; “The Decline of Necessity...”; "Discovering the Obvious," Ernest Becker Summary;A Sacred Canopy Lexicography
Oct 8
Day 4
CSK 2
PB 2 / Ways to understand religion: functional, phenomenological, ontological, structural / 15 min video excerpt from "Cathedral" (David Macaulay)
Functionalism, Phenomenology, Ontological, Structural, Structural Strain / Cathedrals; St John's
Manifest & Latent Functions
Oct 13
Day 5 / Ways to understand religion, continued: functional, phenomenological, ontological, structural / 10 minute videoexcerpt from "Baraka" / Summary of The Sacred Canopy
Oct 15
Day 6 / How religion is similar to/different from all other institutions (Schutz & multiple realities); O'Dea's dilemmas / Thomas F. O’Dea: “Five Dilemmas” / Hubble Views the Universe
(How Colors Were Added)
Stanley Fish, “Postmodern Warfare”
Oct 20
Day 7
CSK 4
PB 3 / Central Concepts: the Sacred, theodicy, anthropodicy / 30 minute video excerpt from “Faith & Doubt at Ground Zero" (Where was God on 9/11?) / Interviews:Monsignor Albacete; Rabbi Hershfield
Oct 22
Day 8 / Central Concepts continued: church, sect, denominationalism (handouts) / Robert Bellah: Religious Evolution: Typology of Religious Organizations / Songlines and Dreaming; Characteristics of the Sacred
Oct 27
Day 9
CSK 5
PB 4 / Classical approaches to religion: Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud / Marx; Durkheim; Weber; Freud; (Simmel) / Voodoo
Marx on Religion
Oct 29
Day 10
PB 5 / Religion in the West:
A Conceptual History / 50 minute video excerpt fromMartin Luther: The Reluctant Revolutionary / Berger, “Epistemological Modesty;” “Reflections Today”
Nov 3
Day 11
CSK 3 / Secularization: Pro and Contra; How Wrong Did We Get it and What We Have Learned? / Special Prompt & Class Discussion Assignment
15 min videoexcerpt from The News Hour (PBS) / Brooks, “Kicking the Secularist Habit”; Scarves and Symbols
MID-TERM EXAM GIVEN OUT
Diagrams for the exam
Nov 5
Day 12
CSK 6 / Secularism-Pluralism-Commercialism
American Particulars: Race the BlackChurch / Video excerpts:Religious Marketing; Black Pentecostalism
Nov 10
Day 13
CSK 5
/ American Particulars:
Ethnicity, Class, Status, and Power (assimilation, the Jewish dilemma) / 20 min video excerpt from Bill Moyers with Richard Rodriguez; 25 min excerpt fromThe Ghost Dance religion / Richard Rodriguez, "The Invention of Hispanics and the Reinvention of America"
MID-TERM EXAM DUE IN
Nov 12
Day 14
CSK 9 / American Particulars: Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism; / Video excerpts"Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"; American Evangelicalism
/ “Christian Evangelicals - Israel's Best Friend”
Welcome to the Next Church
Nov 17
Day 15
CSK 7 / American Particulars: Sexuality and Gender; American Particulars: the Mass Media and Popular Culture / 40 min video excerpt from "In the Name of God"
/ Hip New Churches; Faith in 2004
Nov 19
Day 16
CSK 10 / The Situation Now: America First? American Exceptionalism; The Two Civil Religions; The Politics of Red and Blue / PowerPoint: “American Exceptionalism”; video excerpts from GWB; The End of Days / American Civil Religion
Bellah: on Civil Religion
Nov 24
Day 17
CSK 11 / Europe and the West; Worldwide: Trends and Tendencies (Islam, New Christianity) / 50 min video excerpt from “The Barbarian West”
America - Beyond Super Power / Jenkins, “The Next Christianity”; “Christian Evangelicals - Israel's Best Friend”
Nov 26 / NO CLASS- THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Dec 1
Day 18
PB 6
/ The Crooked Tree of Humanity;
Clash of Civilizations? Time for Reflection… / Resources for "Clash of Civilizations?"
A Final Gift... / The Crooked Tree of Humanity,Isaiah Berlin
“The Grand Inquisitor"- Summary: Complete Chapter
Dec 3
Day 19
/ Currently not scheduled; instead, left open to allow for slippage, which may, in fact, have occurred prior to the mid-term exam. STAY TUNED!
FINAL EXAM HANDED OUT
Additional Notes re Journal
DEC 8 / FINAL EXAM DUE at the SOC OFFICE CH 217 BY 4:00 PM

~ Additional Web Source Materials ~

  • Various Definitions of Religion-1
  • Various Definitions of Religion-2
  • Glossary of Religion and Philosophy (a source for definitions of terms)
  • Encyclopedia of Religion and Society
  • Introductory Explanations