revised
Working Schedule
for
sociology of religion 480/580 - winter 2006
second revision (2/28/2006)
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| DATE | TOPIC | IN-CLASS MATERIALS | ON-LINE MATERIALS |
|
Jan 10 |
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 quiz; Video: 30 min from “Masks of Eternity” |
Syllabus; Joseph Campbell; "The Masks of Eternity" Toth: “Insights of the Life”; Gibran: "Satan"; (See Definitions end of schedule) |
|
Jan 12 |
Background – sociological conceptual tools. The fundamental question: “What’s going on here, anyway?” | Videos: 15 min from “Who Built Stonehenge”; 30 min from “Message of the Myth” |
Toth:
"What
Sociology Has to Offer", “We
Grow Older Together,” Stonehenge & Avebury |
|
Jan 17 |
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. |
Video: 30 min from “The First Storytellers” |
Toth: "Why Sociology is Difficult”; “The Decline of Necessity...”; "Discovering the Obvious," Ernest Becker Summary; A Sacred Canopy Lexicography |
|
Jan 19 CSK 2 PB 2 |
Ways to understand religion: functional, phenomenological, ontological, structural |
Functionalism, Phenomenology, Ontological, Structural, Structural Strain |
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Jan 24 |
Ways to understand religion, continued: functional, phenomenological, ontological, structural |
Video: excerpt from "Baraka" |
|
|
Jan 26 |
How religion is similar to/different from all other institutions (Schutz & multiple realities); O'Dea's dilemmas |
Thomas F. O’Dea: “Five Dilemmas” (handout) |
Hubble
Views the Universe |
|
Jan 31 PB 3 |
Central Concepts: the Sacred, theodicy, anthropodicy | Video: “Faith & Doubt at Ground Zero" (Where was God on 9/11?) |
Interviews: Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete; Rabbi Brad Hershfield |
|
Feb 2 |
|
Bellah: Religious Evolution
|
Songlines and
Dreaming; |
|
Feb 7 |
Definitions of Religion; Centrality of The Sacred |
Characteristics of the
Sacred Voodoo |
|
|
Feb 9 PB 5 |
Religious Institutionalization
|
Video: 15 min from "Cathedral" | Cathedrals; St John's |
|
Feb 14 CSK 3 |
OPEN DISCUSSION |
Special Prompt & Class
Discussion Assignment for today |
|
|
MID-TERM EXAM GIVEN OUT |
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Feb 16 |
Religion in the West: A Conceptual History |
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Feb 21 CSK 6 |
Classical approaches to religion: Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud |
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Feb 23 |
Classical approaches to religion: Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud, continued
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MID-TERM EXAM DUE IN |
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Feb 28 PB 5 |
Secularization: Pro and Contra; How Wrong Did We Get it and What We Have Learned? |
Videos: Examples of Charismatic Leaders – Hitler, King, Graham |
Brooks, “Kicking the Secularist Habit”; Berger, “Epistemological Modesty;” “Reflections Today” |
|
Mar 2 |
Secularism-Pluralism-Commercialism; American Particulars: Race, Ethnicity, Class, Status, and Power |
Video: Religious Marketing; Video: Black Pentecostalism; Video: Bill Moyers with Richard Rodriguez; Video: Exogamy; Video: The Ghost Dance religion |
Richard Rodriguez, "The Invention of Hispanics and the Reinvention of America"; Unpacking a Media Experience |
|
Mar 7 |
American Particulars: Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism; the Mass Media and Popular Culture |
Video: "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"; Video: American Evangelicalism & Israel; Video: "In the Name of God" |
Welcome to the Next Church |
| Mar 9 | The Situation Now: America First? American Exceptionalism; The Two Civil Religions; The Politics of Red and Blue | PowerPoint: “American Exceptionalism”; Video: GWB; Video: The End of Days |
Bellah: on Civil
Religion America's Two Civil Religions American Civil Religion |
|
Mar 14 CSK 11 |
Europe and the West; Worldwide: Trends and Tendencies (Islam, New Christianity) |
Video: “The Barbarian West” America - Beyond Super Power American World Order |
Jenkins, “The Next Christianity”; “Christian Evangelicals - Israel's Best Friend” |
|
Mar 16 PB 6 |
The Crooked Tree of Humanity; |
The Crooked Tree of Humanity, Isaiah Berlin “The Grand Inquisitor": Summary: Full Chapter |
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FINAL EXAM HANDED OUT Additional Notes re Journal |
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| MAR 23 |
FINAL EXAM DUE at the SOC OFFICE CH 217 BY 5:00 PM |
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~ Additional Web Source Materials ~
Definition(s) of Religion (a different definition every time you log on)
Various Definitions of Religion (a fixed list)
Glossary of Religion and Philosophy (a source for definitions)