Religion

Catalog description

How do the many religious institutions in our society differ, and what common qualities do they share? Why do some religious institutions adapt to modernity while others do not? In particular, why are the politics of sex and gender so fundamental to the current organization of the American religious landscape? These questions will be the central motivating questions for the semester. The course will begin with an introduction to current theories in the sociology of religion. We will then apply and critique those theories as we learn more about the histories, members, practices and beliefs of all the major religious groups in the US today, including Mainline, Fundamentalist and Evangelical Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, and other groups such as the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Students will pick two religious groups (one liberal and one conservative) to observe over the course of the semester and will write papers comparing and contrasting the two groups.