Please bring all readings with you to class to facilitate discussion. Readings marked with an asterisk (*) can be found on the Blackboard site under the “additional readings” tab; you can access them directly by clicking on the red links below (you will need to be logged in to Blackboard).

Pals = Daniel Pals, Introducing Religion

1. Questions/Answers

Tue., Sep. 3: Course introduction
No reading

Thu., Sep. 5: What is “religion”?
Reading: Pals, "Introduction"; *J.Z. Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious”

Tue., Sep. 10: What are “religions”?
Reading: *T. Masuzawa, Invention of World Religions (excerpt)

Thu., Sep. 12: Is there “religion”?
Reading: *R. McCutcheon, “Religion, Ire, and Dangerous Things”; *R. Segal, “The Function of ‘Religion’ and ‘Myth’: A Response to Russell McCutcheon”; *R. McCutcheon, “Theorizing ‘Religion’: Rejoinder to Robert A. Segal”
 

2. Origins/Theories

Tue., Sep. 17: Enlighenment
Reading: *David Hume, The Natural History of Religion (read at least sections I-III, VI-VII, and XV)

Thu., Sep. 19: Primitivism
Reading: Pals, ch. 1 or 10

Tue., Sep. 24: Magic
Reading: Pals, ch. 2

Tue., Sep. 26: Psychology
Reading: Pals, chs. 3

Tue., Oct. 1: The Sacred
Reading: Pals, ch. 4

Thu., Oct. 3: No class (Rosh Hashana)

3. Approaches/Methods

Tue., Oct. 8: Economy
Reading: Pals, ch. 5

Thu., Oct. 10: Comparison
Reading: Pals, ch. 9

Tue., Oct. 15: No class (Monday schedule)

Thu., Oct. 17: Sociology
Reading: Pals, ch. 8

Tue., Oct. 22: Cognition
Reading: Justin Barrett, “Cognitive Science of Religion: What is it and Why is it?”

Thu., Oct. 24: Culture
Reading: Pals, ch. 11

Tue., Oct. 29: Culture?
Reading: *Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as a Cultural Category”

Thu., Oct. 31: Lived Religion (I)
Reading: Salvation on Sand Mountain prologue & chs. 1-6

Tue., Nov. 5: Lived Religion (II)
Reading: Salvation on Sand Mountain, ch. 7-11 and afterword; *Robert Orsi, “Snakes Alive: Resituating the Moral in the Study of Religion”

4. Identities/Critiques

Thu., Nov. 7: Where am “I”?
Reading: *Thomas Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling, ch. 1

Tue., Nov. 12: Feminism
Reading: *Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (excerpt); *Judith Plaksow, "The Coming of Lilith"

Thu., Nov. 14: Race
Reading: *Elizabeth McAlister, “The Madonna of 115th Street Revisited: Vodou and Haitian Catholicism in the Age of Transnationalism”

Tue., Nov. 19: Postcolonial
Reading: *David Chidester, Empire of Religion, ch. 1

Thu., Nov. 21: No class (conference)

Tue., Nov. 26: No class (conference/Thanksgiving)

Thu., Nov. 28: No class (Thanksgiving)

Tue., Dec. 3: Feminism and Postcolonial
Reading: *Saba Mahmood, Politics and Piety, ch. 1

Thu., Dec. 5: Queer/Trans
Reading: *Joseph Marchal and Melissa Wilcox, "Queering and Transing Origins: Context, Compass, Access"

Tue., Dec. 10: Wrap-up
Reading: Jolyon Baraka Thomas, "Why Religions Studies?"
No reading