Religion and Freedom

Catalog description

For a variety of reasons, "religion" is one of the most controversial subject matters in contemporary cultures. Beyond sensationalism and outrage, though, modern societies have taken shape in part through complex debates about the role (or lack thereof) of religion in public life. At the core of these considerations are clashing understandings of the relation between religion and freedom, two broad categories with a range of different meanings. This course will explore these differing understandings by considering: legal arguments proposing freedom of religion, and the challenges of religious pluralism; arguments urging freedom from religion, in defense of secular public life; and invocations of freedom through religion, via human creative expression, social activism, ritual, or cosmology. We will examine not just scholarly writings about religion but literature, films, and other media that have shaped the ongoing conversation.