Over the course of the semester you must
complete
all of the response papers. Each reading response requires a 1.5
to 2 pages,
double-spaced,
typed paper. You may go over that length if you so choose.
These will be graded on a 1-10 point scale.
SCHEDULE
OF READINGS & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
(All readings are to be completed on the day they are listed.)
WEEK 1:
COURSE INTRO
THUR Sept
6: Introduction, review syllabus, course guidelines
WEEK 2:
RELIGION IN EARLY AMERICA, 1500-1750
TUES Sept
11: Religion in American Life, ix-75; David D. Hall, “A World of
Wonders: The Mentality of the Supernatural in Seventeenth-Century New
England” in Religion and American Culture, 27-47.
Set 1: Select 3
questions from section A and two from section B.
Section
A
1. In the
introduction to Religion and American Life, what do the
authors mean by the claim "the story
of religion in America, then, is not an aberrant story"� (xi)
2. What
role did dreams play in the
religion of Algonquian Indians?
3. The
authors use Henry Fielding's
fictional character, Reverend Thwackum,
to make a point regarding religion in early America. What do they
make of Thwackum's statement: "When I mention religion, I mean the
Christian
religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant
religion;
and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England"�
4. How did
the religious worldviews
of Africans and Indians differ from
those of European settlers?
5. How did
Indians receive
missionaries in both New Spain and New France?
How did native Americans in what is now California and Canada resist
the
incursions of missionaries? For those native Americans who were
receptive
to the newcomers, what would their adopted Christianity look
like?
6. How did
Jesuits in French Canada
conduct their missions? Were
they a successful?
7. Why do
the authors contend that
the "importance of religion in New
England was not unique among England's American colonies"? (53)
What
roles would religion play in the southern colonies? How would
religion
differ in the North and South?
8. What are
some of the myths
concerning Puritanism? How should
we understand the Puritans? What was the basis of their beliefs?
9. In what
ways was New England "spiritually diverse" during the late
1600s?
10. What
advice did the Puritan John
Winthrop offer to those intrepid
souls heading to Massachusetts? (74-75) What does this say about
the Puritan vision of America?
Section B
11. How
does historian David D. Hall
counter the idea that Puritan religion
in the 17th century was a rational and coherent, Christian intellectual
system?
12. What
does Hall mean when he
states that the people of New England
lived in an enchanted universe, or a "world of
wonders"?
13. How did
Puritans read the signs
of nature as spiritual events?
14. Did
Puritans' peculiar beliefs
mean that they were in some ways
not Christian?
THUR Sept
13: Religion in American Life, 76-117; Daniel K. Richter, “War and
Culture: The Iroquois Experience,” 53-67, and Albert J. Raboteau,
“African Americans, Exodus and the American Israel,” 73-86, in Religion
and American Culture.
Set 2:
Select
1 question each from sections A, B, C, and D for a total of 4
questions.
Section A
RELIGION IN AMERICAN LIFE,
CHAPTER FOUR
1. Butler,
Wacker, and Balmer write
that "New York prefigured the religious
future of 18th-century America"� (77). What do they mean by that
statement?
2. What
kinds of religious
communities migrated to America? Why
did these groups settle in the regions they did?
3. Describe
the first Jewish
community in colonial America.
4. How did
the American religious
landscape change after the 1690s?
5. After
reading the letter on pages
96-97, describe why Abigail Franks
was disturbed by her daughter's decision.
Section B
RELIGION IN AMERICAN LIFE,
CHAPTER FIVE
6. What do
the graves of African
Americans and Indians tell us about
their religious beliefs?
7. The
authors assert that the "outright disappearance of many distinctive
Indian societies . . . constitutes one of the most distressing facts of
early American religious history"� (101). Those natives who did
survive
would find a number of ways to resist and adapt to Christianity.
Explain how they did this.
8. Why did
English efforts to
convert slaves meet "with little success
before the American Revolution"� (109)
9. What did
Reverend David Brainerd
discover about Indian religion?
(116-117) How did Indian beliefs differ from those of whites?
Section C
RELIGION
AND AMERICAN CULTURE: DANIEL K. RICHTER, "WAR AND CULTURE:
THE IROQUOIS EXPERIENCE," 53-67
10. What
does Daniel Richter say
about Iroquois motives for going to
War? How did whites tend to perceive Indian warfare?
11.
What affect would
widespread European settlement have on the
Iroquois's "mourning war"�?
Section D
RELIGION
AND AMERICAN CULTURE: ALBERT J. RABOTEAU, "AFRICAN AMERICANS,
EXODUS AND THE AMERICAN ISRAEL," 73-86
12.
According to Albert J. Raboteau,
how did African Americans use European
Christianity to make sense of their enslavement?
13. How
would black Christians
interpret the Exodus story?
WEEK 3:
EARLY AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL HISTORY
TUES Sept
18: Religion in American Life, 118-162; Selection from George Marsden,
Jonathan Edwards: A Life (2003) course pack (CP); Allen C. Guelzo, “America's
Theologian,” in The Christian Century, October 4, 2003, pp. 30-31 and
34-35; selection
from Mark Noll, America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham
Lincoln, course pack (CP).
Set 3:
Select two questions to answer from section A and one question each
from
sections B, C, and D.
Section
A
Religion in American Life, 118-162;
1. What were the basic differences
between those Americans who supported
revivalism in the 18th century and those who opposed it?
2. During the 1700s, how did
American religious groups start to diverge
from religious groups in Europe?
3. What were revivalists' core
Christian beliefs? How did Jonathan
Edwards (pgs. 138-39) and Sarah Osborn Leads (pgs 140-41) embody this
revivalistic
evangelicalism?
4. The American Revolution, the
authors note, was a truly secular event.
Yet it would also profoundly impact society. What affect did the
American Revolution have upon denominations in the former colonies?
5. In what ways did the First
Amendment to the Constitution represent
the American religious situation?
Section B
Selection from Mark Noll, America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to
Abraham
Lincoln (2002)
6. Mark Noll states that he is
interested in a social history of American
theology. How does Noll try to connect social movements with religious
beliefs? From Noll's perspective, how would events in American
history
influence Christian theology?
7. Why does Noll compare American
religious beliefs with those in Europe?
What conclusions can he draw from such comparisons? Was American
religion unique, exceptional?
8. What is the meaning of Noll's
concept of an "American Synthesis"�?
Section C
Selection from George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (2003)
9. In George Marsden's opinion
Jonathan Edwards proved to be an extraordinary
American. Why? Why does Edwards deserve to be studied so
thoroughly?
10. Marsden asserts that to "make
sense of Edwards' life, one must take
seriously his religious outlook on his own terms"� (4). What does
Marsden mean by that?
11. How does Marsden admit that his
own personal views shape how he
interprets his subject? Can a believer, such as Marsden, be a
truly
dispassionate, objective historian and critic?
12. What influence did George
Whitefield have on Edwards? Describe
the relationship between them.
Section D
Allen
C. Guelzo, "America's Theologian,"� in The Christian Century, October
4,
2003, pp. 30-31 and 34-35
13. Allen C. Guelzo argues that few
of the complexities and contradictions
of Jonathan Edwards' life "ruffle the surface of Marsden's chunky new
biography."�
What is Guelzo implying here?
14. Why does Guelzo state that
Marsden's own evangelical prejudices
taint his biography? From what you have read of Marsden, do you
think
that is a fair criticism?
THUR Sept 20: Francis J. Bremer, “Faith and
Society: The Making of a
Christian America,” in Reviews in American History 32:1 (March 2004):
8- 13; David L.
Holmes, “A Layperson’s Guide to Distinguishing a Deist from an Orthodox
Christian,” in The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (2006) (CP); David D.
Kirkpatrick, "Putting God Back Into American History," New York Times,
February 2, 2005, pg 4 (CP).
Set 4:
Answer one quest from sections A and C and 2 questions from section B.
1. What
does Francis J. Bremer say
is the central thesis of Noll's work?
What basic criticism does Bremer offer concerning Noll's basic
contentions?
2. What
aspects of American
religion does Bremer think Noll overlooks?
Are these valid criticisms?
Section B
David L.
Holmes, “A Layperson’s Guide to Distinguishing a Deist from an Orthodox
Christian,” in The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (2006) (CP)
3. Explain the argument that has developed over the faith of the
founding fathers.
4. According to David Holmes, in what sense were the founders religious?
5. How can scholars determine the extent of the founders' devotion or
lack thereof?
6. Describe the reservations a Deist might have had concerning
Christianity.
Section C
David D. Kirkpatrick, "Putting God Back Into American History," New
York Times, February 2, 2005, pg 4 (CP)
7. Who is David Barton?
8. How has the controversy over the founders' religious views shaped
America's conservative culture?
9. What does David Kirkpatrick mean when he writes: "But academic
historians, including some conservative and evangelical
scholars, give the Christian conservative veneration of this history
about a B-minus"?
WEEK 4:
19TH CENTURY AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY
TUES Sept
25: Religion in American Life, 165-226; and selection from Nathan O.
Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (CP).
Set 5:
Answer one question from sections A, B, and D and two questions from
section C.
Section
A
Religion
in American Life, "Prophets for a New Nation," 165-181
1. Describe the state of organized
religion in the years immediately
after the American Revolution.
2. Summarize the arguments against
"established" religions.
What
was Thomas Jefferson's opinion concerning the matter? In the
founders'
view, should religion play any public role in American society?
3. According to the authors, what is
"civil religion" Does
it
still exist in contemporary America? How so?
4. How did some early Americans
resist traditional Christian religion?
Is this set of religious circumstances similar to religion in America
today?
Section B
Religion and American Life, "Awakeners of the Heart," 182-196
5. Explain the difference between
the First Great Awakening (1730s-40s)
and the Second Great Awakening (1800-1860s). How would these
differences
affect the outcomes of each of these revivals?
6. Why is Francis Asbury often
called the "founding father"� of American
Methodism? Describe his activities, strategies, and religious
views.
7. What was innovative about Charles
Grandison Finney's "new measures"�
How would his views change American Christianity? Do his views
still
influence American Christians?
8. What do the authors suggest is
the legacy of evangelicalism?
Section C
Religion and American Life, "Reformers and Visionaries" 197-212; and
"Restorers of Ancient Ways," 213-226.
9. Explain this statement: "In the ealry nineteenth century a new
approach to poverty and human suffering began to emerge" (198).
10. Describe some of the "visionaries" that captured the
attention of Americans in these years. What did these individuals
hope to accomplish?
11. Why did the reform impusle take root among English
Protestants?
12. What accounts for the "restorationist" element in early 19th
century America?
13. What led Joseph Smith to start a new religious movement?
Section D
Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (1990)
14.
Historian Nathan Hatch
asserts that American Christianity underwent
a dramatic change between the American Revolution and 1845. What
were the most significant features of this transformation?
15.
What does Hatch mean by
the term the "democratization of American
Christianity"� What is "religious populism"? Do most
Christians
still hold to a form of democratized Christianity?
16. Hatch
claims that the leaders of
new religious movements in the
early 1800s held "convictions that were essentially modern and
individualistic"�
(14). What does he mean by that?
THUR Sept 27: Ann Braude, “Women’s History IS American Religious
History,” 159-175; and Charles Joyner, “‘Believer I know’: The
Emergence of African-American Christianity,” 179-195, in Religion and
American Culture.
Set 6:
Answer two questions from each section.
Set A
Ann Braude, “Women’s History IS American Religious
History,” 159-175
1. Anne
Braude writes "this essay
explores how we would tell the story
of American religion if we took as our point of departure that fact
that
women constitute the majority of participants in religious activities
and
institutions"� (161). That being the case, how does her piece
challenge
the work of earlier historians?
2.
What is Braude's answer to
the question "what made each group's
teachings and practices meaningful to its female members"� (163)
3. What
does Braude mean by "declension"� How does she
argue
against this motif?
Section
B
Charles Joyner, “‘Believer I know’: The
Emergence of African-American Christianity,” 179-195
4. Charles Joyner writes that to "underestimate the Africanity of
African
American Christianity is to rob the slaves of their heritage. But
to overestimate the Africanity of African American Christianity is to
rob
the slaves of their creativity" (181). Explain what these
statements
mean.
5. How did
slaveholders introduce a "selective" version of
Christianity
to slaves?
6. What
were the essential beliefs
and worship practices of African
American slaves in the years before the Civil War? Do these
traditions
survive today in black churches?
WEEK 5:
NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY & THE CIVIL WAR
TUES Oct
2: Black Elk and John Gneisenau Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks and William
K. Powers, “When Black Elk Speaks, Everybody Listens” (CP).
Set 7: Answer
two questions from section A and two from section B
Section
A
Black Elk, John Gneisenau Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (first ed. 1932)
1. Why does Black Elk seem to think
it important that his story be told?
Why does John Neihardt think it is important? Do they both have the
same
reasons? Analyze "Heyoka Ceremony" as Black Elk's attempt at making a
connection
with an audience, and comment on how the chapter offers a working
definition
of the very process of "raising consciousness."
2. Black Elk's story is much like
others in the genre of traditional
quest literature. Central characters are usually heroes---from the
Odyssey to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou---who need to
fulfill
his/her goals or unique destiny. To what extent was this largely
the tale of Black Elk's quest? What were his goals? What
did
he try to achieve?
3. At various points in the
narrative, Black Elk describes his relationship
to Wasichu (whites). What did Black Elk think about these
newcomers?
What did the presence of whites mean, in a religious sense, to Black
Elk?
4. How would religion influence the
Oglala Sioux' understanding of nature
and animals? Why do you suppose this was such a contrast to the
views
of American settlers?
5. What role did visions play in
Black Elk's religious life? What
did these religious experiences tell him about his world, his peoples'
past and future? Would American Christians share any of these
beliefs
with Black Elk and his fellow Indians?
6. Arnold Krupat (in The Indian
Autobiography: Origins, Type, and
Function, American Literature, 1981) writes that "to see the Indian
autobiography as a ground on which two cultures meet is to see it as
the
textual equivalent of the 'frontier.'" How does this statement apply to
Black Elk Speaks?
7. Describe Black Elk's role as a
traditional healer. How did
he take on this responsibility? What public religious duties did
he take on and why?
8. In many ways Black Elk lived a
traditional life of a Native American
medicine man. Yet in many other ways Black Elk lived a very
atypical
and non-traditional life. How did his travels abroad and
throughout
the US alter his religious world view and his understanding of
different
cultures?
9. In the second (1961) edition of
Black Elk Speaks, John Neihardt changed
the title page of the text from "as told to John Neihardt" to "as told
through John Neihardt." Explain the significance of this change, and
interpret
the relationship it suggests between Neihardt and Black Elk, and
between
Neihardt and Black Elk Speaks.
Section B
William K. Powers, "When Black Elk Speaks, Everybody Listens."
10. Why does William K. Powers argue
that Neihardt presented a skewed
version on Black Elk's religion? What does Neihardt miss,
according
to Powers? Why do you think Neihardt would be selective in his
account?
11. How does Powers attempt to
correct Neihardt's narrative? How
does Powers version differ fundamentally from Neihardt's?
12. What were the contents of Black
Elk's 1934 letter? Why would
he write what he did?
13. Why does "everyone listen"� How
can we account for the popularity
of Native American spiritual biographies?
Some of the questions adapted from
Paul P Reuben, "Chapter 7: Early
Twentieth Century - Black Elk." PAL: Perspectives in American
Literature-
A Research and Reference Guide. http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/blackelk.html
THUR Oct 4: Religion in American Life, 247-262; Selection from Timothy
L. Smith’s, Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the
Eve of the Civil War (1957) (CP); Charles Reagan Wilson, “The Religion
of the Lost Cause: Ritual and Organization of the Southern Civil
Religion, 1865-1920,” in Religion and American Culture, 205-218.
Set 8: Answer
one question from each section, A-C.
Section
A
Religion and American Life, 247-262
1. What do
the authors find "ironic"
about the American Civil War?
What do they mean by stating that "Religious beliefs fed the ideologies
that fed the war"� (248) How did religion and politics merge in
the
Civil War?
2. Was
abolitionism a moral,
Christian crusade? If so, how?
As the authors indicate, Southern slaveholders did not take the
criticisms
of abolitionists "lying down." The South's slavocracy offered a
defense
of slavery from the bible. How did they use scripture to bolster
their arguments?
3. How did
American churches
foreshadow the division of the union, North
and South?
4. What did
Frederick Douglass mean
by "slaveholding Christianity"?
(261)
Section B
Timothy L. Smith, Preface and "The Evangelical Origins of Social
Christianity,"
in Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve
of
the Civil War (1957).
5.
According to Timothy Smith,
Thomas Paine would have been astounded
had he lived long enough to see New York in 1865. What would he
find
shocking?
6. Why does
Timothy Smith contend
that "popular Protestantism" acted
as a "mighty social force long before the slavery conflict erupted into
war"� (149) What made northern religious leaders such committed
social
reformers?
7. What was
the social impact of
"perfectionism" on America?
For a
summary of Timothy Smith's
work and career at ENC, see this
page I created for the history department website.
Section C
Charles Reagan Wilson, "The Religion of the Lost Cause: Ritual and
Organization of the Southern Civil Religion, 1865-1920," in Religion
and
American Culture
8. How does
University of
Mississippi professor Charles Reagan Wilson
assert that southerners turned the Civil War into a "holy cause" after
the Confederate surrender at Appomattox? In what way was this a
secular
faith, or a civil religion? Who were the deities, saints, and
martyrs
of this "faith"�
9.
Does the Civil War still
animate committed southerners?
WEEK 6:
TRADITION AND INNOVATION
TUES Oct
9: TUES Oct 9: Religion in American Life, 279-345; and Duncan Aikman,
“The Holy Rollers,” The American Mercury (October 1928): 180-191 (CP).
Turn in bibliography for
research paper with at least 8 published works.
Set 9:
Answer one question from two of the sections and two from the remaining
one.
Section A
Duncan Aikman, “The Holy Rollers,” The American Mercury (October 1928)
1. Describe Duncan Aikman’s experiences at a “Holy Roller”
meeting.
2. On page 182 of the article, Aikman sarcastically notes some
differences between Baptists and “Holy Rollers.” What are these?
3. What are the “three points” Aikman notes that seem to unite holiness
and Pentecostal followers? What does this say about his
perception of them?
4. According to Aikman, how do adherents worship, and what makes that
so different from the way other Protestants worship?
5. Aikman, like his mentor H. L. Mencken, thinks that most holiness
leaders are deviants and mountebanks. Why?
6. What does Aikman make of tongues speaking?
Section B
Religion in American Life, 279-310
7. Who are the “innovators” the authors describe in chapter 15?
8. What were some of the questions theological liberals raised in the
19th century concerning the Bible?
9. How did the World’s Parliament of Religions (1893) challenge
Americans’ views concerning religion?
10. “Religious conservatives came in a bewildering variety of species”
(292). Explain what the authors mean by that statement.
11. Why did the theology of premillennialism take hold in certain
quarters during the late 19th century?
Section C
Religion in American Life, 311-345
12. The authors of your text state that in the 1880s and 1890s health,
poverty, alcohol, and missions dominated the attention of religious
groups. How was this so?
13. How did healing capture the attention of religious groups in this
era? Why did Mary Baker Eddy find an eager audience in Boston?
14. Describe the goals of the Salvation Army and Social Gospelers.
15. What did American missionaries hope to accomplish in the 19th
century?
16. What were some of the key beliefs of early pentecostals?
17. Did the religions of new immigrants pose challenges to traditional
American Protestants? How so?
THUR Oct 11: Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware: Or
Illumination (1896).
We will be using the questions from Robin
Taylor Rogers' excellent site on The
Damnation of Theron Ware. If you choose to write your book
review on the book, provide a general summary and use the questions for
general guidance.
WEEK 7:
MIDTERM
THUR Oct
18: No class
WEEK 8:
THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY
TUES Oct
23: Jon Butler, “Jack-in-the-Box Faith: The Religion Problem in Modern
American History,” Journal of American History, Vol. 90, No. 4 (March
2004): 1357-1378 (CP); and “Beyond
the Niebuhrs: A Conversation with
Robert Orsi on Recent Trends in American Religious History,”
conducted
by Randall Stephens, Historically Speaking (July/August
2006).
Set 10:
Answer two from each section.
Section A
1. What has drawn Robert Orsi to the study of devotionalism?
2. Why does Orsi remark that “American religious history, as it is
practiced in the universities today, is insistently committed,
consciously or not, to Niebuhrian neo-orthodoxy as its moral vision,
and this profoundly influences the historiography”? As a result
what subjects merit the attention of historians?
3. How does Orsi criticize the arguments of historians like George
Marsden, Mark Noll, and Nathan Hatch? Is that a fair critique?
4. How does Orsi treat what he calls figures of “special power”?
How might these figures be treated among non-Catholic groups?
5. What are some of the problems historians like Orsi face when writing
about children and religion?
Section B
6. Jon Butler suggests that religion “has not fared well in the
historiography of modern America” (pg 1 0f 19). Why is it that
religion plays such a pronounced role in early American history and
such a diminished role in the post-Civil War era?
7. How does Butler answer the question: “What do we mean by religion
and secularity?” (pg 3 of 19)
8. What does Butler mean when he states that religion in the post-1870
period often appears as a “jack-in-the-box” in textbooks?
9. Is religion any less significant to Americans now than it was 150
years ago? Provide evidence to support your case.
10. How does Butler answer the question: “Did religion’s powerful
influence in the lives of modern children, adolescents, and adults
significantly affect public life, especially politics, between 1870 and
2000?” (pg 8 of 19)
THUR Oct 25: Religion in American Life, 346-363.
Set 11: Answer two from each
section.
Section A
1. How did American religious groups in the early 20th century begin to
split over political and theological issues? Why did this occur
when it did?
2. What distinguished fundamentalists from modernists? Why did a
minister like Harry Emerson Fosdick fear the power of fundamentalism?
3. In what ways did the Scopes Trial showcase the liberal-conservative
divide? What issues were at stake for both parties?
4. Describe some of the modern movements toward Christian unity that
stirred believers in these years.
Section B
5. In what sense was the new KKK a kind of religious revival?
6. How did the Great Migration of blacks to northern cities reshape
African-American religion?
7. What aspects of American Protestantism did the theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr challenge?
8. The author of the selection from Christian
Century (pg 363) calls for a new, social Christianity.
What does that mean?
WEEK 9:
RELIGION AND GENDER IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICA
TUES Oct
30: Robert A. Orsi’s “‘He Keeps Me Going’: Women’s Devotion to Saint
Jude Thaddeus and the Dialectics of Gender in American Catholicism,”
333-354; and R. Marie Griffith, “Submissive Wives, Wounded Daughters,
and Female Soldiers: Prayer and Christian Womanhood in Women's Aglow
Fellowship,” 435-460, in Religion and American Culture.
Set 12: Answer one from each section.
Section A
1. Describe St. Jude's role in the lives of devotees. Who
benefited from or followed St. Jude? Why?
2. How would women “imagine” St. Jude? What was he like?
3. What did American Catholic women experience as "hopeless"?
4. What did women devotees of Jude believe they could accomplish with
the saint's help?
Section B
5. Why did the Catholic church fear “rebellious” women in the 1920s and
1930s? How did church leaders meet that challenge?
6. Orsi claims that St. Jude was not simply imposed on or inherited by
women. Women seemed to have “invented” him too (346). How
was that so?
7. How might one answer Orsi’s question: “Why did the daughters of
immigrants turn to Saint Jude in the difficult days of 1929?” (350)
8. What kind of criticism did commentators level against the cult of
St. Jude? Were these critiques justified?
Section C
R. Marie Griffith, “Submissive Wives, Wounded Daughters, and Female
Soldiers: Prayer and Christian Womanhood in Women’s Aglow Fellowship,”
435-460, in Religion and American Culture.
9. In this selection Marie Griffith focuses on the conservative,
charismatic Women’s Aglow Fellowship. How does Griffith argue
that these women, though conservative about the roles of women,
actually championed the power of women?
10. What does Griffith mean by “the power of submission”? What
criticisms would these women have of feminist groups?
11. How did the members of Aglow believe women were called by God?
THUR Nov
1: No class
WEEK 10:
CONSUMER RELIGION & PERSONALIZED FAITH
TUES Nov
6: Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a
National Icon (2004).
Set 13: For the question set answer
one from each section. For the book review choose question one,
two, or three.
Section A
1.* Why have various groups and individuals perceived Jesus in so many
different ways throughout American history?
2.* How was the Puritans’ Jesus of early America different from the
Victorian Jesus, say, as exemplified in the works of Henry Ward
Beecher, and later 20th century views?
3.* Explain some of the ways individuals have focused on the humanity
and/or divinity of Jesus? How have these two perspectives been at
odds?
4. Contrast the “Manly Redeemer” of chapter three and the “Sweet
Savior” of chapter two. What accounts for the differences?
Section B
5. How did the counterculture remake the image of Jesus? What
does Prothero mean by “dechristianization?”
6. In what sense was America a sacred nation for Mormons and other 19th
century religious groups?
7. In what ways did Mormonism diverge from traditional American
Christianity?
8. How did Mormons’ views of Jesus evolve over space and time?
9. What is black liberation and womanist theology? How have such
interpreters imagined Jesus?
10. How have various black artists added to the picture of Jesus?
Section C
11. Describe Rabbi Stephen S. Wise’s “A Jew’s View of Jesus.”
What was the public response to Wise’s lecture? How does that
compare to other representations of Jesus?
12. How did “the locus of Jewish interest in Jesus shift from the
synagogue to the university”? (261)
13. What is “Yogi Jesus”? How would this understanding of Jesus
differ from that of mainline Christians?
14. Are Americans unique in their devotion to and reworking of Jesus?
THUR Nov 8: Religion in American Life, 423-437; David Chidester, “The
Church of Baseball, the Fetish of Coca-Cola, and the Potlatch if
Rock'n'roll: Theoretical Models for the Study of Religion in American
Popular Culture,” 465-479, Religion and American Culture; and Melani
McAlister, "An Empire of Their Own," The Nation, September 22, 2003,
pgs. 31-36 (CP).
Set 14: Answer one from two of the
sections and two from the remaining section.
Section A
Religion in American Life
1. What did the Jonestown incident reveal about American
religion? How did it affect the American public?
2. Describe the appeal of televangelists in the 1980s. What did
they offer their audiences? Did the help or hinder the cause of
Christianity in the US?
3. How and why did Pat Robertson enter politics?
4. According to Paul Weyrich, why did conservative Christians enter
politics? Does this counter popular views about evangelicals’
politicization?
Section B
David Chidester, "The Church of Baseball, the Fetish of Coca-Cola, and
the Potlatch of Rock "n' Roll," Religion and American Culture
5. How does David Chidester find religion in various forms of pop
culture?
6. Is Chidester right? Are these manifestations of popular
culture "religious"?
7. How do various definitions of “religion” serve us when we examine
religion and popular culture?
Section C
Religion and American Culture; and Melani McAlister, "An Empire of
Their Own," The Nation, September 22, 2003, pgs. 31-36 (CP).
8. Why does Melani McAlister argue that the Left Behind book series “is
also a cultural phenomenon that goes well beyond books”? (31)
9. In McAlister’s estimation what are some of the connections between
evangelical theology and domestic and global politics?
10. Do you agree with McAlister’s assessment? Why or why not?
WEEK 11:
RACE AND TWENTIETH CENTURY RELIGION
TUES Nov
13: Religion in American Life, 364-384, 404-406; James H. Cone, “Martin
and Malcolm,” in Religion and American Culture, 397-410.
Set 15: Answer one from two of the
sections and two from the remaining section.
Section A
Religion in American Life, 364-384, 404-406
1. Describe the "common ground among Jews, Catholics, and Protestants"
in the post World War II era (366).
2. What was the course of Roman Catholicism after 1945? How would
Catholics become "Americanized"?
3. How did Billy Graham represent the new evangelicalism of the
post-war years?
Section B
4. Describe the religious roots of the Afro-American freedom struggle.
5. Why was Thomas Merton drawn to the Trappists? (381-383)
6. Discuss Malcolm X's racialized view of history. According to
Malcolm, what role did Christianity play in the history of the West?
(404-406)
Section C
James Cone, "Martin and Malcolm," in Religion and American Culture,
397-410
7. Black theologian James Cone contends that Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and Malcolm X represent two broad streams of thought within the black
community. What cultural/religious sources did King and Malcolm
draw on to form their ideas and agendas?
8. Describe "integrationism" before MLK. Where did this
philosophy come from?
9. Describe "black nationalism" before Malcolm X. What were its
roots and sources?
THUR Nov 15: Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream (reprint, 1994).
Set 13: For the question set answer
one from each section. For the book review choose question four,
eight, or thirteen.
Section A
1. In Lillian Smith's "Foreword" why does she say she is writing this
book? What purpose will it serve?
2. In the "Foreword" Smith claims "we live by our symbols." What
is she referring to?
3. At the beginning of chapter one Smith claims that "Even its children
knew that the South was in trouble." What is the meaning of that
statement? Why does she refer to children in this context?
*4. Describe the incident in young Lillian's life (chapter one) that
opened her eyes to the inequalities and inconsistencies of southern
culture. Why did it have such a powerful impact on her? How
would it shape later experiences?
Section B
5. In chapter two, "Custom and Conscience," Smith describes a
conversation she had with one of the older campers at Laurel Falls
Camp. Why did this young woman lash out at Smith? What
complaints did she have of the camp and of Smith's tactics?
6. Smith argues in chapter three that during the period of
Reconstruction the "whole white South suffered a moral
breakdown." What does she mean by that statement? Is it
justified?
7. In chapter one of part two Lillian Smith states that southern white
children were taught two lessons: "to love God, to love our white skin,
and to believe in the sanctity of both." How did children learn
these life lessons? How were these tied to other values
concerning sexuality?
*8. How does Smith describe the strength of the church in the
lives of southerners?
9. How did southern white women, as Smith contends, shut out evil?
Section C
10. Why would Smith hold that "Distance and darkness have set the rural
South apart from the rest of our nation"? (part three, chapter one)
11. What is the point of Smith's parable of Mr. Poor White? (part
three, chapter two)
12. Why does Smith fault the writers, poets, and critics of the
"fugitive" movement? (part four, chapter one)
*13. In the final chapter Smith asserts that the problems of the modern
South exist because "we have ceased trying to relate ourselves to God.
. ." How does that theme appear elsewhere in the book? What does
Smith mean by it? Was it true of the South in this era?
For more on Lillian Smith, see her New
Georgia On-Line Encyclopedia bio and the entry on Killers of the Dream.
WEEK 12:
OLD TIME FAITH IN A MODERN WORLD
TUES Nov
20: Grant Wacker, “Searching for Eden with a Satellite Dish:
Primitivism, Pragmatism, and the Pentecostal Character,” in Religion
and American Culture, 415-434; and “Interview - In Focus:
Mormonism in Modern
America”
Wednesday, May 16, 2007.
Set 14: Answer one from each section.
Section A
1. How does Grant Wacker answer this question?: “Exactly who were the
Christians who called themselves pentecostals?”
2. What explanations have scholars offered for pentecostalim’s growth
and reach?
3. “Simply stated,” writes Wacker, “pentecostalism flourished because
two impulses perennially warred for mastery of its soul.” What
were those?
Section B
4. Why did early Pentecostals have so little interest in politics?
5. Why did followers discard “inherited orthodoxies whenever it suited
their purposes”?
6. What ha accounted for the anti-intellectual tendency of believers?
7. Describe some of the lingering tensions between primitivism and
pragmatism.
Section C
8. Why has Mormonism received so much negative attention in recent
years?
9. Describe what Russell M. Nelson might mean when he comments, “I
believe that experience has shown that human nature cannot be changed
by reforming public policy.”
10. Nelson and Lance B. Wickman consider the links between Mormonism
and politics. What are some of their observations?
11. What do these two leaders have to say about the tensions between
evangelicals and the LDS?
12. According to Wickman and Nelson, why do so many Americans when
polled characterize Mormonism in ways that are
“inaccurate”?
THUR Nov
22: Thanksgiving break, no class
WEEK 13:
PLURALISM & AMERICAN RELIGION SINCE THE 1960s
TUES Nov
27: Religion in American Life, 385-422. Richard
John Neuhaus’s
review of Diana Eck’s A New Religious America, First Things (October
2001).
Set 15: Answer one from each section.
Section A
Religion in American Life, 385-422
1. How did John F. Kennedy’s run for the presidency in 1960 reveal a
lingering anti-Catholicism?
2. The authors of the text write: “For some Americans the dawn of this
new era demanded a new theology, one that broke with the quaint
suspicions and prejudices of bygone days” (388). Explain what
they mean here.
3. How did Vatican II change the Catholicism? How did Pope Paul
VI later react to some of the innovations of Vatican II and how would
his pronouncements affect American Catholicism?
4. Describe the ways the charismatic renewal movement reshaped
traditional churches.
Section B
5. The authors of Religion in American Life note that “while science
offered glimpses of a brave new world of technological advances, other
Americans began to harbor second thoughts, and they used the language
of religion and theology to express their discontent” (407).
Unpack that statement.
6. How did Chuck Smith respond to some of the challenges of the West
Coast counterculture?
7. In what ways did the sexual revolution reshape the American
religious scene?
8. “The media were entranced by what they believed was the novelty of
an evangelical Christian running for President,” comment the authors of
the text. (416) How and why was that so?
9. “Carter was, in a way, then responsible for the rise of the
Religious Right” (418). How do the authors make that case?
Section D
Richard
John Neuhaus’s
review of Diana Eck’s A New Religious America, First Things (October
2001).
10. Richard John Neuhaus remarks that Diana Eck’s A New Religious
America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most
Religiously Diverse Nation “intends to be, and is, a major
statement.” What does he mean by this?
11. Neuhaus observes that “Eck’s purpose, as she says many times over,
is to explain ‘who we are’ as a people-or at least who we would be if
we overcame the ‘hatred and bigotry’ that prevents us from being who we
are.” What does he think Eck’s answer to the question of “who we
are” is?
12. Why does Neuhaus compare Eck’s work to the 1893 Parliament of World
Religions in Chicago?
13. What does Neuhaus mean by “The Muslim Difference”?
THUR Nov
29: Religion in American Life, 438-453; Stephen Prothero, “Belief
Unbracketed: A Case for the Religion Scholar to Reveal More of Where He
or She Is Coming From” Harvard Divinity Bulletin 33:2
(Winter/Spring
2004); and Robert
Orsi’s and R.
Marie Griffith’s responses to Prothero.
Set 16: Answer one from all three
sections.
Section A
1. Why is Stephen Prothero not satisfied with Robert Orsi’s treatment
of southern serpent handlers?
2. Prothero criticizes the field of Religious Studies for “bracketing
out” certain issues in the interest of “empathetic
understanding.” What is wrong with that in his view?
3. How did Prothero’s experience of writing American Jesus make him
rethink serving “up our expertise with a bit of judgment”?
4. Describe how Prothero uses the counter-example of David
Chappell. How did Chappell’s work seem to contrast with the
writings of religious studies scholars?
Section B
5. Why does Prothero remark: “we Religious Studies scholars have been
largely irrelevant to the public debates”? Is that true?
6. In his response to Prothero, Robert Orsi writes, “Prothero has
sketched out a vision of the future of religious studies that is in
fact the past.” How does Orsi make that case?
7. Orsi contends: “I have never said that scholars of religion should
endorse every religious idiom they approach, but I have argued that we
need to learn precisely how to pay disciplined attention to the very
practices that disturb or repel us, and that we need to do so in a way
that holds our own worlds in suspension.” What do you make of his
counter to Prothero?
Section C
8. Marie Griffith notes that Prothero’s gendered prose seems oddly like
that which he critiqued in his book, American
Jesus. Is that a fair assessment?
9. Griffith is not convinced by Prothero’s argument about reaching the
public: “[A]iring a pithy opinion on the topic du jour—The terrorists
did not represent true Islam! Those American Christian prison guards in
Iraq were hypocrites!—is not the same as contributing thoughtful
insights to public knowledge, and a scholar must draw careful
distinctions here.” What do you make of her response on this
point?
10. Griffith concludes her response by praising empathy. What can
be gained and lost by being empathetic to the subjects we study?
WEEK 14:
MAJOR THEMES SUMMARY AND PAPER PRESENTATIONS
TUES Dec
4: Robert Wuthnow, “Old Fissures and New Fractures in American
Religious Life,” Religion and American Culture, 357-371; Robert N.
Bellah, “Is There a Common American culture?” Religion and American
Culture, 535-545.
Set 17: Answer two questions from
each section.
Robert Wuthnow, "Old Fissures and New Fractures in American Religious
Life," Religion and American Culture, 357-37
Section A
1. Robert Wuthnow notes that Americans were once divided into
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Yet by the 1960s, tensions
between these three had subsided. After that period, religious
groups in America, states Wuthnow, split along liberal and conservative
lines. Why did this take place? What factors led to the new
alignment?
2. Wuthnow contends that American religion has had a strong “this
worldly” orientation. How has that been the case?
3. How did religious conservatives respond to the social upheavals of
the 1960s? Did that response differ significantly from how
religious liberals responded?
4. American Protestants once viewed both Catholics and Jews
disdainfully. How was it, then, that these views were so altered
by the 1980s?
5. Wuthnow wrote this piece in 1989. Do his observations still
hold true in the early 21st century?
Section B
Robert N. Bellah, "Is there a common American Culture?" Religion and
American Culture, 535-545
6. How does a country like the United States compare to France on
issues like multiculturalism?
7. Judging from Robert Bellah's work, is there still a common American
culture? How are American's divided? What factors, beliefs,
and institutions unite them?
8. Why does Bellah contend that Baptists and other sectarians in the
colonial period were critical to the development of American ideas and
institutions?
9. On page 524, Bellah discusses the role of "individual conscience" in
the shaping of American beliefs and political views. How has
individual conscience informed American religious culture?
10. How does Bellah argue that "individualism" acts as the common
thread in the American religious tapestry? What is
individualistic about American religion?
THUR Dec 6: Paper presentations
WEEK 15:
Final Exam: Friday, December 14, 10:30am - 12:30pm
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