RELIGION IN THE MODERN WORLD

Catalog description

(Slashed with REL 52091 ) (Repeatable for credit) An inquiry into the influences of modernity in the conception, valuation and-or interpretation of religious convictions, beliefs, symbolizations, institutions and artifacts (including texts). The study of Religion in the Modern World is a complex undertaking offering multiple foci with multiple attending disciplines and approaches to the inquiry. Given the plurality of foci and approaches, instructors may choose to address any number of the common topics associated with the evolution of religions in the modern world. Examples include: religion and science -- from cosmology (Gallio, Newton, to black holes) to the origins and evolution of the human species (Darwin), or religion and society, or religion and the modern state, or religion and industrial society, or religion in a modern world of pluralism and multicultural societies as well as the religious reactions against science, modern multicultural societies, the modern state and the changing legal status of women, minorities, and children, and the rise of fundamentalism.