The final exam will consist of ten short answer
questions (4-5 sentences each, 50% of test grade) and one long essay
(50%).
Be prepared to answer questions on any of the material covered in
class:
the readings from your texts and from handouts, online
selections,
as well as lecture content and film clips.
ESSAY QUESTION
You will receive one of three questions below on the essay
section.
You will not know which one of the three will be on the exam, so study
for all of them. Some pointers: answer the question as directly
and
clearly as possible. Be sure to address all the components of the
question. Remember to integrate the relevant reading and lecture
material to support your argument. Always avoid vague
generalizations.
Refer to specific events, policies, groups, ideas and individuals in
your
answers. Blue paper will be provided for your longer essay.
Do not make any markings, outlines, or notes on scratch paper prior to
the exam.
1. Write a critical essay
describing how religion and politics have intersected in recent
American history. How has this phenomenon reshaped the American
religious landscape?
2. What is most important about America’s many religious groups: the
similarities that unite them or the differences that divide them?
3. Stephen Prothero argues that religious literacy is vital to a
democracy like the United States. Why is it also critical that
citizens know about the history of religion in America? How might
a deeper understanding of American religious history possibly change
the nation?
TERMS, NAMES, IDEAS
Be prepared to provide a four to five sentence synopsis of any of the
below items. If you are familiar with the terms and names below,
it should help you considerably on the exam. Remember, it is best to
know
the “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” and “why” of these. The “why”
or the significance of any term or name is most
important.
Thomas Jefferson’s view of
Jesus
The Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in American Protestantism
St. Jude
Women’s Aglow Fellowship
National Council of Churches
Apocalypticism in the late twentieth century
Jonestown
David Chidester on the “Church of Baseball”
Thomas Merton
Billy Graham
Integrationism and nationalism in African-American religion
Lillian Smith
Grant Wacker on the primitivsim and pragmatism of pentecostalism
The 1960 presidential election
Will Herberg’s Protestant Catholic Jew
Religious upheaval in the 1960s
Public perceptions of Mormonism since the 1970s
Stephen Prothero’s critique of Religious Studies
Vatican II
Robert N. Bellah on America’s “common” culture
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