Religion in America 3301-KA1519
Introductory meetings will provide students with basic knowledge in religious studies, the US religious history, and the US religious reality today. The focus of the class will be on the sites where religious difference is negotiated, looking especially at the public expressions ("the public square") of America's new multireligious reality. In the past thirty or even forty years, in the wake of the 1965 Immigration Act and the new waves of immigrants that have come to the United States from all over the world, the "we" has become much more complicated, and so has the "under God". Specifically this course aims at taking religion as a category of analysis of the American diversity.
The course is organized around two major ideas:
I. The cultural consensus of "one nation under God" is being called into question and the changing religious landscape of America reveals that diversity is not just an idea, or ideology, but the appropriate descriptive term for the increasingly complex reality of American life.
II. Religion is not a set of ideas, institutions, and practices that can be placed here or there, or ignored in the discussion of culture. Religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam are dynamic and constantly negotiate the terms and directions of change.
Topics for discussion:
1. Origins, functions and expressions of religion.
2. Major religions of the world.
3. The "American majority": WASP-NN.
4. Religion and the founding of the American Republic.
5. Uses of the Puritan Past.
6. Current religious preferences: major faiths and denominations.
7. The sectarian public square.
8. Islamic America.
9. Sects.
10. Sacred space.
This class may include optional topics, like:
- Religion of American Indians,
- Religion and politics,
- New trends in American religious music,
- Gender issues in American religion: response to the feminization of religion,
- Religious exports and imports: missionary work of the "American-made" religious groups, such as the Mormons, Jehova's Witnesses, Scientology.
Terms and conditions:
- participation in class discussions,
- attendance, as required by the Institute of English Studies Rules and Regulations,
- presenting a selected topic in the class,
- semestral test.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE students:
- know trends in religious studies
- know basics of major religions of the world
- know major religions and denominations in the U.S.
SKILLS
- can explain origins and functions of religion
- can explain influences and power of religion over lives of individuals
- can analyse religious preferences of Americans
- can analyse religion as a category in American diversity
ATTITUDES
- understand the importance of religion in one's life
- understand the principle of religious freedom
- acknowledge the principle of religious tolerance
In class discussions students acquire skills of expressing their thoughts in a clear, coherent, logical and precise manner, with the use of language which is correct grammatically, lexically and phonetically.
Language training level: minimum B2+.
Assessment criteria
1. Presentation, participation in classroom discussions, test in the end of semester; retake: test; three absences allowed
2. On-line edition using Moodle IA, GoogleMeet, @uw.edu.pl
Assessment: as above
Practical placement
No
Bibliography
Knott, Kim. The Location of Religion. A Spatial Analysis. Routledge, London and New York, 2014
Kottak, Conrad Philip. Cultural Anthropology. Appreciating Cultural Diversity. McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.
Merriman, Scott A. Religion and the Law in America: An Encyclopedia of Personal Belief and Public Policy. ABC-CLIO Inc., 2007
Samovar, Larry A., Porter, Richard E. Communication Between Cultures. Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009.
Tweed, Thomas A. (ed.). Retelling US Religious History. University of California, 1997
primary sources and documents available online, e.g.
American Religious Identification Survey, Pew Research Center, official sites of religious organizations
periodic handouts, press articles and fragments of books collected for the purposes of the class
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: