One Nation, One God?

Drew University

Theological School CHIST 250

Wednesday 8:40 to 11:10

Seminary Hall 213

 

Prof. Morris Davis

mdavis@drew.edu

Sem Hall 28

Ext. 3078

Office Hours: by appointment

  

 

Course Description

 

Weaving historical insights and perspectives into current concerns and conflicts about religion in the United States, this course focuses on major religious movements, personalities, and topics. Although the course gives quite a bit of prominence to events in the past, it progresses thematically, not chronologically. It foregrounds the study of American Christian traditions, due to their historical influence, yet also gives attention to non-Christian religions.

 

 

Course Goals/Objectives

 

  • To highlight some of the creativity, energy, and vitality of American religious movements and people, both in our contemporary world and in the past.
  • To explore the boundaries of religion as well as the many forms that religion takes. What are we speaking of when we say “religion?”  What counts as religion, and what doesn’t? For instance, is there a difference between religion and spirituality? 
  • To explore the reciprocal relationship between religion and other aspects of American society, including politics.  Religious ideas and behavior are integral to shaping both private and public lives in America, and one of our objectives is to analyze both the processes by which this happens and also its effects.
  • To question the narratives of religious diversity, conflict and pluralism, and to study how religious traditions, ideas and practices have been both sources of national unity and national conflict. 

 

 

Course Requirements

 

 

  • Wakeful attendance at weekly course meetings, careful reading, and participation in discussions are key ingredients for the successful completion of the course.  If you’re not here, and if you don’t join class discussions, you won’t pass the course.  If you have 2 or more unexcused absences, we’ll ask you to withdraw from the course until you have more time to devote to it. 

 

  • Submission of weekly reading responses on one text taken from the reading list, to be assigned in class.  The response should be brief, no more than 2 pages (double-spaced).  For readings by historical figures, provide a brief note on the author’s biography and historical context, as well as content summary.  You must also include a well-formed question that arises out of your reading.

 

  • A 20-25 page research paper on a subject related in some way to the course’s themes. 
    • Step 1:  first week of October: topic is to be chosen during a scheduled consultation with the professor. 
    • Step 2: October 21:  2-page written proposal due via email to the professor.  
    • Step 3: submission of hard copy of paper in class  December 2.  

 

  

Texts

 

  • R. Marie Griffith, American Religions: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press, 2007).  On the reading list below, this book is designated by AR.

 

  • Articles and websites. The symbol ** indicates .pdf file only, also available on Moodle.

 

 

Unit 1:          Narratives of Religious Diversity, Conflict, and Pluralism

 

 

 

September 2               Course Introduction

                                   

 

September 9             What’s American about religion in America?

 

 

Required Readings

 

  • Religion and Conflict After 9/11 (Selections from Graham, Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Rodriguez), AR, pp. 602-609
  • Eck, “The Multi-Religious Public Square” in One Nation Under God? Religion and American Culture, eds. Walkowitz and Garber, 3-20.*
  • Tocqueville, AR, 245-262 
  • Albanese, “Exchanging Selves, Exchanging Souls:  Contact, Combination, and American Religious History,” Re-Telling U.S. Religious History, in Tweed, ed, pp. 200-226*
  • Orsi, “Snakes Alive: Religious Studies Between Heaven and Earth” in Between Heaven and Earth, 177-204.*

 

 

September 16             No Establishment, Free Exercise:

The Boundaries of Religion in the U.S.       

 

 

Required

 

  • Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, AR, pp. 150-162.
  • Albanese, "Public Protestantism:  Historical Dominance and the One Religion of the United States" (Chapter 12 in America: Religion and Religions), 396-429*
  • U.S. Department of Education, “Religious Expression in the Public Schools,” AR, 624-627. 
  • Hutchison, “Diversity and the Pluralist Ideal” in Perspectives on American Religion and Culture, ed. Peter W. Williams, 34-47.*

 

 

September 23             Immigration, migration and religion:

Insiders, outsiders, and their (uneasy) encounters

 

 

Required

 

  • Rowlandson and Penn, AR, pp. 63-75
  • Mather, AR, 81-90
  • Brainerd, AR, 138-148
  • Antin, AR, pp. 352-365
  • Strong, Toth, and Daggett, AR, pp. 365-389
  • Herberg, AR, 517-533.
  • Chapters to be assigned for master’s and doctoral students in Religion and Immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Experiences in the United States, edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (Georgetown University), Jane I. Smith (Hartford Seminary), and John L. Esposito (Georgetown University). 
  • Religion, Immigration and Civic Life: take a brief look at plans for this major scholarly project on religion and immigration.   

 

 

September  30      Richard Pointer, Encounters of the Spirit: Native Americans and European Colonial Religion

 

·         Mary Rowlandson, AR, 63

·         David Brainerd, AR, 138

 

 

October 7      Maffly-Kipp, Laurie F, Leigh Eric Schmidt, and Mark Valeri, eds. Practicing Protestants: Histories of Christian Life in America, 1630-1965.

 

 

October 14     Evans, Curtis. Burden of Black Religion    (this is free on our Library Oxford subscription)             

 

            Suggested additional readings:

  •  Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Black Man**
  • Berg, “Mythmaking in the African American Muslim Context: The Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam, and the American Society of Muslims, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73 (September 2005):  685-703.**
  • Anything in People’s Temple and Black Religion in America, eds. Moore, Pinn, and Sawyer.

 

 

October 21      Fessenden, Tracy. Culture and Redemption: Religion, the Secular, and American Literature

                                                    

 

Octobeer 28    Sutton, Matthew A. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America

                                                            

 

November 4         Wenger, Tisa. We Have a Religion: The 1920s Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom 

 

 

November 11 Bivins, Jason C. Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism 

 

  • LaHaye, Left Behind (excerpts)**

 

 

November 18 Kripal, Jeffrey J. Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion

 

 

November 25  Schmidt or Albanese?

 

December 2    Last Class