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)
Cave Paintings from So. France

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 & their symbolism; St John's Cathedral:
Manifest & Latent Functions

Oct 13

Day 5

Ways to understand religion, continued: functional, phenomenological, ontological, structural

10 minute video excerpt 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

THIS DAY USED FOR CATCHING UP WITH THE ABOVE MATERIALS

25 min excerpt from
The Ghost Dance religion

Oct 22

Day 8

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 27
Day 9
CSK 5
PB 4

Central Concepts continued: church, sect, denominationalism (handouts)

 Typology of Religious Organizations

Songlines and Dreaming; Characteristics of the Sacred

Oct 29
Day 10

PB 5

Classical approaches to religion: Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud

Marx; Durkheim; Weber; Freud

Voodoo
Marx on Religion

 Nov 3
Day 11
 CSK 3

Classical approaches to religion, continued: Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud

Marx; Durkheim; Weber; Freud

Religion in the West:
A Conceptual History

(Berger & Bellah)

Robert Bellah:
 Religious Evolution
Peter Berger:
Historical Summary
 

Berger,
“Epistemological Modesty;”
“Reflections Today”

MID-TERM EXAM GIVEN
Diagrams for the exam

NO LECTURE TODAY, CLASS WILL MEET 2:00-3:00 ONLY

50 minute video excerpt from  Martin Luther: The Reluctant Revolutionary

Notes on Luther
and the 95 Theses

Nov 12

Day 14
CSK 6

Video excerpts: Religious Marketing

Brooks, “Kicking the Secularist Habit”;
Scarves and Symbols

MID-TERM EXAM DUE IN

Nov 17

Day 15
CSK 10

American Particulars:
Race & the Black Church
American Particulars:

Ethnicity, Class, Status, and Power (assimilation, the Jewish dilemma)

Video excerpts: Black Pentecostalism
 Bill Moyers with Richard Rodriguez;
Issues of Exogamy

Richard Rodriguez, "The Invention of Hispanics and the Reinvention of America"

Nov 19
Day 16
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 24

Day 17
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

Dec 1

Day 18
PB 6
 

The Situation Now: America 1st? American Exceptionalism; The Two Civil Religions; The Politics of Red and Blue

“American Exceptionalism”;

America - Beyond Super Power

American Civil Religion I
American Civil Religion II
Bellah: on Civil Religion
Two Civil Religions
Ex: Obama's Inaugural

Dec 3

Day 19
 

“The Barbarian West”
Religion in the World Scene
Clash of Civilizations? 
Time for Reflection…

“The Grand Inquisitor":
Summary I
Summary II
 Complete Chapter
                       and a A Final Gift...

Jenkins,
“The Next Christianity”;  The Crooked Tree of Humanity,
Isaiah Berlin

FINAL EXAM HANDED OUT
Resources for
"Clash of Civilizations?"

FINAL EXAM & JOURNAL MATERIALS DUE  at the SOC OFFICE  CH 217 BY 4:30 PM