[Consider reorganizing the course into methodological blocks starting with History (beginning with the rise of biblical criticism), then Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, and Discourse Analysis. Probably include the Comparative approach with History.]

The Most Important Link

Abbreviations:

IR  Introducing Religion: Readings from the Classic Theorists

NTR  Nine Theories of Religion

RTC  Religion, Theory, Critique

TARR  Thinking about Religion Reader

UTR  Understanding Theories of Religion

Reading: Pals, IR xiii-xxvi; Strenski, UTR 1-6

Supplemental readings are not required readings.  They provide the opportunity to read more primary or secondary sources on subjects that are particularly interesting to you.

Supplemental Resources: 

Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 269-84 (In Course Documents); TARR 1-8

An Interview of Jonathan Z. Smith

Jonathan Z. Smith on "Religion"

UTR 241-53

Ivan Strenski

Strenski, "Why Our Politics Cannot Be Freed from Religion: The State as Transformed Church" (video)

Turning Students into Citizens, Religious Studies Edition

Martin E. Marty, "1988 Presidential Address: Committing the Study of Religion in Public," JAAR, Vol. 57, No. 1 (1989): 1-22;

McCutcheon, "Preface," "Acknowledgments," and "More than a Shapeless Beast: Lumbering through the Academy with the Study of Religion," in Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion, ix-20 (On Blackboard);

Tyler Roberts, "Rhetorics of Ideology and Criticism in the Study of Religion," Journal of Religion, (2005): 367-89;

Schuesler Fiorenza, Francis. "Religion: A Contested Site in Theology and the Study of Religion", The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 7-34;

Smith, Jonathan Z. "Religion and Bible," Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 128, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 5-27;

Ivan Strenski, "Religion, Power, and the Final Foucault," JAAR 66, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 345-68;

Wiebe, Donald. "An Eternal Return All Over Again: The Religious Conversation Endures," JAAR, Vol. 74, No. 3, (September 2006), pp. 674-96

Reading: Stausberg and Engler, "Introduction: Research methods in the study of religion/s" (In The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 3-20)

This is an eBook accessed through the MSU library.

Supplemental Resources: TARR 1-8

Michael A. Cantrell, "Must a Scholar of Religion Be Methodologically Atheistic or Agnostic?" JAAR (2016) 84 (2): 373-400 first published online September 4, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv066

Francisca Cho and Richard K. Squier, "He Blinded Me With Science: Science Chauvinism in the Study of Religion," JAAR (2008) 76 (2): 420-448 first published online March 27, 2008 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfn001

Bruce Lincoln, Theses on Method

Elizabeth A. Pritchard, "Seriously, What Does 'Taking Religion Seriously' Mean?" JAAR (2010) 78 (4): 1087-1111 first published online October 13, 2010 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfq066

Tyler Roberts, "Exposure and Explanation: On the New Protectionism in the Study of Religion," JAAR (2004) 72 (1): 143-172 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfh007

Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 269-84 (In Course Documents); TARR 1-8

Tweed, Thomas, "Valuing the Study of Religion: Improving Difficult Dialogues Within and Beyond the AAR's 'Big Tent'," JAAR 84, no. 2 (June 2016): 287-308

Wiebe, Donald. "An Eternal Return All Over Again: The Religious Conversation Endures," JAAR, Vol. 74, No. 3, (September 2006), 674-96.

A Religious Studies roundtable discussion of whether the field of Religious Studies should be humanistic, scientific, theological, secular, or all of the above:

Luther H. Martin and Donald Wiebe, "Religious Studies as a Scientific Discipline: The Persistence of a Delusion," JAAR (2012) 80 (3): 587-597, first published online July 18, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs030

Nancy Frankenberry, "A Response to Martin and Wiebe," JAAR (2012) 80 (3): 598-600 first published online July 9, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs033

Ann Taves, "A Response to Martin and Wiebe," JAAR (2012) 80 (3): 601-604 first published online July 6, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs032

Robert N. McCauley, "A Cognitive Science of Religion Will Be Difficult, Expensive, Complicated, Radically Counter-Intuitive, and Possible: A Response to Martin and Wiebe," JAAR (2012) 80 (3): 605-610 first published online July 9, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs031

Edward Slingerland, "Back to the Future: A Response to Martin and Wiebe," JAAR (2012) 80 (3): 611-617 first published online July 9, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs034

Luther H. Martin and Donald Wiebe, "When Pessimism Is Realism: A Rejoinder to Our Colleagues," JAAR (2012) 80 (3): 618-622 first published online July 9, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs029

Part One

The Prehistory of the Study of Religion: Responses to an Expanding World

Reading: Thrower, "Religion as Human Construct: Some Greek and Roman Theories of Religion," 93-98 (In Course Documents); Wisdom of Solomon 13-15 in the HarperCollins Study Bible 1366-71; also read the notes at the bottom of these pages and the intro to the book on pp. 1348-50 (In Course Documents)

Supplemental Resources: Introduction to Wisdom in the NABRE; Wisdom 13 (NABRE); Cicero, "On the Nature of the Gods"; Esther Eidinow, Excerpt from Envy, Poison, and Death: Women on Trial in Classical Athens (Oxford: OUP, 2015); Bron Taylor, "Surfing into Spirituality and a New, Aquatic Nature Religion," JAAR (2007) 75 (4): 923-951 first published online October 19, 2007 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm067

Reading: Strenski, UTR 8-18

Supplemental Resources:

Shapiro, "A God beyond logic: The history of natural theology shows that Intelligent Design and New Atheism both got it wrong, in strangely similar ways," Aeon (June 2022)

Jean Bodin, Colloquium of the Seven about Secrets of the Sublime

John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding vol. 1 and 2

Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 269-84 (In Course Documents)

TARR 1-22;

Matthew Tindal, Christianity as Old as the Creation

John Toland, Christianity not Mysterious

A Brief Summary of John Toland's Christianity not Mysterious

Peter Annet, Critical Examination of the Life of St. Paul; The Miraculous Conception

Bradlaugh, et al., Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers

Reading: R. Scott Appleby, "Religious Violence: The Strong, the Weak, and the Pathological," in The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding ()

Supplemental Resources:

Whitney Bauman, "Religion, Ecology, and the Planetary Other: Opening Spaces for Difference," JAAR (2015) 83 (4): 1005-1023 first published online July 14, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv043;

Mark Juergensmeyer, "2009 Presidential Address: Beyond Words and War: The Global Future of Religion," JAAR, Vol. 78, No. 4 (2010): 882-895;

Leithart, John Milbank: A Guide for the Perplexed;

K. Roberts Skerrett, "Desire and Anathema: Mimetic Rivalry in Defense of Plenitude," JAAR (2003) 71 (4): 793-809 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfg099;

Brian K. Smith, "Monotheism and Its Discontents: Religious Violence and the Bible" JAAR (1998) 66 (2): 403-412 doi:10.1093/jaarel/66.2.403;

Mona Siddiqui, "When Reconciliation Fails: Global Politics and the Study of Religion," JAAR (December 2005) 73 (4): 1141-1153 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfi118

Reading: Strenski, UTR 19-30; Given, The Interpretive Spectrum in Biblical Scholarship (Course Documents)

Supplemental Resources: TARR 23-48; Strenski, "The Critique of Religion Also Begins with the Critique of the Bible" (1st ed. longer chap. in Course Documents); Biblical Studies and the Modern Invention of �Religion�: AAR Roundtable

Reading: Strenski, UTR 34-44

Supplemental Resources:

Historical Vedic Religion; Vedic Religion

Bosch, Lourens Van Den, "Friedrich Max Meuller and the Science of Religion," in RTC

Indo-European Languages; Indo-European Languages

F. Max Mueller, Various Works in the Internet Archive

F. Max Mueller, The Sacred Books of the East

F. Max Mueller, Various Works in Project Gutenberg (1 and 2)

Nicholson, Hugh, "Classic Comparative Theology and the Study of Religion," in RTC

Romanticism

Reading: Ninian Smart, "Introduction" and "Exploring Religion and Analyzing Worldviews." In Ninian Smart, Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs, 1-36. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995. (In Course Documents)

Supplemental Resources:

Ninian Smart

Ninian Smart videos

Ninian Smart, "Towards a Theory of the Configurations of Religion." In Ninian Smart, Beyond Ideology: Religion and the Future of Western Civilization, 46-68. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981.

Jonathan Z. Smith on Comparative Religion

TARR 49-64

Tanya Luhrmann videos

Reading (REL 580/685): Pals, IR 15-48 [Next time either have two sessions with Tylor primary reading for first and Frazer UTR chapter for the second, or one session using Pals's Tylor and Frazer chapter (MA students could be assigned additional primary source material). Actually, there is so much to discuss, two sessions are best in any case.]

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

Strenski, UTR 45-54, 65-74

Patton E. Burchett, "The 'Magical' Language of Mantra," JAAR (2008) 76 (4): 807-843 first published online November 4, 2008 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfn089

Cynthia Eller, "Matriarchy and the Volk," JAAR (2013) 81 (1): 188-221 first published online January 25, 2013 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs105

Andrew Lang, Magic and Religion

Pals, NTR 15-48

Stocking, "Edward Burnett Tylor and the Mission of Primitive Man" (TARR 74-82)

TARR 65-82, 97-114

E. B. Tylor, Anahuac: or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern

World-renowned Jose Casanova Offers "Last Word" on Secularization

Reading: Nathaniel Barrett Video: The Cognitive Science of Religion; Henig, Darwin's God (New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2007 [also in Course Documents])

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

Nathaniel F. Barrett, "Toward an Alternative Evolutionary Theory of Religion: Looking Past Computational Evolutionary Psychology to a Wider Field of Possibilities," JAAR (2010) 78 (3): 583-621 first published online May 26, 2010 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfq019

Christopher Lovins, "Shangdi Is Watching You: Tasan and Big Moralizing Gods," JAAR (2015) 83 (2): 464-489 first published online February 16, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv002

TARR 65-82

Reading: Strenski, UTR 55-64

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

William Robertson Smith (Wikipedia)

William Robertson Smith (Encyclopedia.com)

William Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites

Maier, William Robertson Smith: His Life, his Work and his Times

Brooke Sherrard, "American Biblical Archaeologists and Zionism: How Differing Worldviews on the Interaction of Cultures Affected Scholarly Constructions of the Ancient Past," JAAR (2016) 84 (1): 234-259 first published online August 19, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv063

TARR 83-96

Theorizing Religion and Ritual Today

Reading (REL580/685): Catherine Bell, "The Power of Ritualization." In Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, 197-223. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 (Course Documents) [To my surprise, a lot of students appeared to understand and enjoy this reading.]

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Catherine Bell

Catherine Bell Videos

Catherine Bell. "The Ritual Body." In Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, 94-117. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 (Course Documents).

Summary of Catherine Bell's Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice;

Steven Lukes

Steven Lukes, "Power, Truth, and Politics"

Celia E. Schultz, "The Romans and Ritual Murder," J Am Acad Relig (2010) 78 (2): 516-541 first published online April 14, 2010 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfq002

Victor Turner, "Liminality and Communitas," in The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Aldine Transaction, 1969/2007), 94-130. (In Course Documents)

Reading: Pals, IR 143-70

Facilitator: Dakota

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 113-42

An American Christmas Carol (especially, 38:00-44:20)

Jakob De Roover, "An Unhappy Lover of Theology: Feuerbach and Contemporary Religious Studies," JAAR (2003) 71 (3): 615-635 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfg080

Marx's theory of alienation

Reading: Bartel, Rebecca, "Giving Is Believing: Credit and Christmas in Colombia," JAAR lfw035 first published online May 10, 2016 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfw035

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental  Reading:

Bretherton, Luke. "Soteriology, Debt, and Faithful Witness: Four Theses for a Political Theology of Economic Democracy." Anglican Theological Review, 98 no 1 Wint 2016, p 71-89.

Richard J. Callahan,, Jr., Kathryn Lofton, and Chad E. Seales, "Allegories of Progress: Industrial Religion in the United States," JAAR (2010) 78 (1): 1-39 first published online January 12, 2010 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfp076

Gift Economy

Sean McCloud, "Putting Some Class into Religious Studies: Resurrecting an Important Concept," JAAR (2007) 75 (4): 840-862 first published online October 19, 2007 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm068

Michael J. Walsh, "The Economics of Salvation: Toward a Theory of Exchange in Chinese Buddhism," JAAR (2007) 75 (2): 353-382 first published online May 23, 2007 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm002

Reading: UTR 77-92

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, IR 205-236

Edmund Husserl (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Otto, The Idea of the Holy (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), 109-135.

"Phenomenology of Religion" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

TARR 115-34

Reading: Pals, IR 237-55

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 143-84

Strenski, UTR 93-105

Peter L. Berger, "Religion and World-Construction: (chap. 1) and "Religion and World-Maintenance" (chap. 2), from The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York: Doubleday, 1967/1990), 3-51.

Constance M. Furey, "Body, Society, and Subjectivity in Religious Studies," JAAR (2012) 80 (1): 7-33 first published online November 17, 2011 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfr088

TARR 135-54

Max Weber, "The Sociology of Charismatic Authority and The Nature of Charismatic Authority and its Routinization," in Weber, On Charisma and Institution Building (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 18-27, 48-65.

Reading: Pals, IR 255-70

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 143-84

Strenski, UTR 93-105

Peter L. Berger, "Religion and World-Construction: (chap. 1) and "Religion and World-Maintenance" (chap. 2), from The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York: Doubleday, 1967/1990), 3-51;

Constance M. Furey, "Body, Society, and Subjectivity in Religious Studies," JAAR (2012) 80 (1): 7-33 first published online November 17, 2011 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfr088

TARR 135-54

Max Weber, "The Sociology of Charismatic Authority and The Nature of Charismatic Authority and its Routinization," in Weber, On Charisma and Institution Building (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 18-27, 48-65.

Reading: Pals, IR 171-204 [Next time use Pal's NTR chap.; I love reading James, but Pal's excerpts are poorly done.  Too chopped up.]

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 185-226

Stephen S. Bush, "Religion against Domination: The Politics of William James's Individualism," JAAR (2015) 83 (3): 750-779 first published online July 13, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv044

James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

Theorizing Religion and Experience Today

Reading: Kathleen Foody, "Interiorizing Islam: Religious Experience and State Oversight in the Islamic Republic of Iran," JAAR (2015) 83 (3): 599-623 first published online May 7, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv029

Facilitator: Paulo

Supplemental Resources:

Abdolkarim Soroush (Wikipedia)

Islam and Modern Politics with Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush

Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari (Wikipedia)

Shabestari, "Why Islam and Democracy Go Well Together"

Robert Orsi, "Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion" (Course Documents);

Samuel Snyder, "New Streams of Religion: Fly Fishing as a Lived, Religion of Nature," JAAR (2007) 75 (4): 896-922 first published online October 17, 2007 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm063

Freud: Religion as Neurosis

Reading: Pals, IR 71-98 [Actual Freud sounds pretty absurd; Use UTR chapter, especially if also assigning Strenski's concluding chapter.]

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 49-79

Strenski, UTR 106-117

TARR 155-76

Feldman, "Does the Unconscious Really Exist?" (Psychology Today)

Freud, Moses and Monotheism

Wolpe, "Isaac and Oedipus" (HuffPost)

Strenski, "Bronislaw Malinowski and the 'Sublime Folly' of Religion" (UTR 118-28)

TARR 177-94

Humphreys, "Is Religion Better than Atheism as a Coping Mechanism?"

Evelyn Fox Keller (Wikipedia)

Barbara McClintock (Wikipedia)

Reading: Wade Clark Roof, "Research Design" (In The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 68-80)

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources: Turabian Quick Guide;

Reading: David M. Wulff, "Psychology of religion: an overview," in Diane Jonte-Pace and William B. Parsons, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain. Routledge, 2001. APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Assoc.)

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Brenneman, "The Applause of Heaven: Max Lucado and the Cutesy in American Evangelicalism," JAAR (2016) 84 (3): 617-640 first published online February 17, 2016 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfw002

Ira P. Helderman, "Drawing the Boundaries between 'Religion' and 'Secular' in Psychotherapists' Approaches to Buddhist Traditions in the United States," JAAR lfw003 first published online February 17, 2016 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfw003

Thomas B. Ellis, "Evoked Pūjā: The Behavioral Ecology of an Equatorial Ritual," JAAR (2015) 83 (4): 1108-1156 first published online July 9, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv035

Marla Segol, "Kabbalistic self-help: the microcosm in practice," JAAR (2016) 84 (3): 665-689 first published online September 11, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv069

Reading: Pals, IR 99-142 [should divide at p. 125 or consider NTR or UTR chapter}

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 81-111

Strenski, UTR 129-41

Bellah, "A Secular Age: After Durkheim"

Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Jacques Berlinerblau, "Free Will and Determinism in First Isaiah: Secular Hermeneutics, the Poetics of Contingency, and Emile Durkheim's Homo Duplex," JAAR (2003) 71 (4): 767-791 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfg098

Emile Durkheim, "Concerning the Definition of Religious Phenomena," Durkheim on Religion, ed. W.S.F. Pickering (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 74-99

Talking Theory with Steven Lukes

TARR 195-222;

Reading: Pals, IR 271-308 [If retained, consider skipping the moon section (pp. 287-97), or tell students to skim it; also consider going back to either NTR or UTR and/or having two sessions]

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 227-261

UTR 142-54

Mircea Eliade, "Approximations: The Structure and Morphology of the Sacred," in Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion (Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1968), 1-33

Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane

How to Pronounce Mircea Eliade

TARR 223-47;

Theorizing Religion with Sociology Today

Reading: Emily Sigalow, "Towards a Sociological Framework of Religious Syncretism in the United States," JAAR (2016) 0 (2016): lfw033v1-lfw033

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Christian Smith, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Nancy Tatom Ammerman, Jos Casanova, Hilary Davidson, Elaine Howard Ecklund, John H. Evans, Philip S. Gorski, Mary Ellen Konieczny, Jason A. Springs, Jenny Trinitapoli, and Meredith Whitnah, "Roundtable on the Sociology of Religion: Twenty-Three Theses on the Status of Religion in American Sociology, A Mellon Working-Group Reflection," JAAR (2013) 81 (4): 903-938 first published online August 10, 2013 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lft052

Reading: Pals, IR 309-40 [Definitely retain!]

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 263-92

E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People

E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande

Strange Beliefs: Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard

Reading: Pals, IR 341-72

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pals, NTR 293-323

Mary Douglas, "The System Shattered and Renewed," in Purity and Danger (Course Documents)

Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System" (Course Documents)

Clifford Gerrtz, The Interpretation of Cultures

Clifford Geertz, "Ethos, World View, and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols," in Bell, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 126-141

Interview with Clifford Geertz (Part 1, 2)

Jason A. Springs, "What Cultural Theorists of Religion Have to Learn from Wittgenstein; Or, How to Read Geertz as a Practice Theorist," JAAR (2008) 76 (4): 934-969 first published online October 27, 2008 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfn087

TOP 20 Clifford Geertz Quotes

Reading: UTR 157-70

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

Judith A. Berling, 1991 Presidential Address: Is Conversation about Religion Possible? (And What Can Religionists Do to Promote It?) JAAR, Vol. 61, No. 1 (1993): 1-22.

Foucault, "The Subject and Power" (Course Documents)

Foucault on Power (1981)

Bruce Lincoln, "Theses on Method," "How to Read a Religious Text," "Sanctified Violence," and "Theses on Comparison" in Lincoln, Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 1-15, 53-62, 83-94, 121-130.

Postmodernism and Its Critics

Postmodernism in a Nutshell

Andrew Wilson, "Introducing Derrida and Deconstruction," in Transfigured: A Derridean Rereading of the Markan Transfiguration (Course Documents)

Given, "Paul and Writing," in As it is Written: Studying Paul's Use of Scripture. Symposium 50. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2008 (Course Documents)

Reading: Titus Helm, "Discourse Analysis," (In The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 134-50)

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

Critical Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis

Adolphus, "How to Use Discourse Analysis"

Discourse Analysis in Qualitative Research

Reading: Kathryn Lofton, "Religion and the Authority in American Parenting," JAAR (2016) 84 (3): 806-841 first published online February 9, 2016 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv124

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Kathryn Lofton

Religion in the Post-colonial Humanities: An Interview with Kathryn Lofton, Part One

Kathryn Lofton Videos

Reading: Terry Rey, "Theory of Practice: Field, Habitus, Capital," in Rey, Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy, 39-56 (Course Documents)

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu: A [Fun] Introduction

Reading: Terry Rey, "Outline of a Theory of Practice: Eternalizing the Arbitrary in Colonial New England," in Rey, Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy, 39-56 (Course Documents)

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu: A [Fun] Introduction

Reading: UTR 171-87

Facilitator: Gabriele

Supplemental Resources:

Cornell West

Religion, Race, and Racism: A (Very) Brief Introduction (University of Pittsburgh Department of Religious Studies)

Reading: UTR 189-204

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

The Genderbread Person

Four Waves of Feminism

An Analysis of Haitian Vodou's Impact on Haitian and Western Society

Drumming in Praise of Karen McCarthy Brown

Karen McCarthy Brown Obituary

Reading: UTR 204-215

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Behind the Screen Interview with Carol P. Christ

Given, Homosexuality and the Bible

God is Not a Man, God Is Not a White Man by Carol P. Christ

Elizabeth Schuessler Fiorenza Videos

Reading: Julia Watts Belser, "Brides and Blemishes: Queering Women's Disability in Rabbinic Marriage Law," JAAR (2016) 84 (2): 401-429 first published online September 7, 2015 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv070

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Julia Watts Belser Videos

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel, "The Myth of the Messianic Mother in Jewish and Christian Traditions: Psychoanalytic and Gender Perspectives," JAAR (2015) 83 (1): 72-119 first published online October 19, 2014 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfu078

Nadeem Mahomed and Farid Esack, "The Normal and Abnormal: On the Politics of Being Muslim and Relating to Same-Sex Sexuality," JAAR lfw057 first published online July 24, 2016 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfw057

Reading: UTR 216-39

Facilitator: Student

Supplemental Resources:

Said links: Edward Said; Orientalism; Edward Said On Orientalism (video)

Gayatri Spivak links: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; Subaltern (postcolonialism); Gayatri Spivak: The Trajectory of the Subaltern in My Work

Talal Asad links: Talal Asad

Bruce Lincoln links: Bruce Lincoln

Homi K. Bhaba links: Homi K. Bhaba; Homi Bhabha: "On Global Memory: Thoughts on the Barbaric Transmission of Culture"

James C. Scott links: James C. Scott

Richard A. Horsley, "Religion and Other Products of Empire," JAAR (2003) 71 (1): 13-44 doi:10.1093/jaar/71.1.13

Otto Madura, "2012 Presidential Address: Migrants Religions under Imperial Duress: Reflections on Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics in the Study of the Religious Stranger," JAAR, Vol. 82, No. 1 (2014): 35-46

Kwok Pui-lan, "2011 Presidential Address: Empire and the Study of Religion," JAAR (2012) 80 (2): 285-303 first published online April 10, 2012 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs003

Reading: UTR 241-53

Facilitator: Dr. Given

Supplemental Resources:

Ivan Strenski

Strenski, "Why Our Politics Cannot Be Freed from Religion: The State as Transformed Church" (video)

Turning Students into Citizens, Religious Studies Edition

Martin E. Marty, 1988 Presidential Address: Committing the Study of Religion in Public, JAAR, Vol. 57, No. 1 (1989): 1-22;

McCutcheon, "Preface," "Acknowledgments," and "More than a Shapeless Beast: Lumbering through the Academy with the Study of Religion," in Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion, ix-20 (On Blackboard);

Tyler Roberts, "Rhetorics of Ideology and Criticism in the Study of Religion," Journal of Religion, (2005): 367-89;

Schuesler Fiorenza, Francis. "Religion: A Contested Site in Theology and the Study of Religion", The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 7-34;

Smith, Jonathan Z. "Religion and Bible," Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 128, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 5-27;

Ivan Strenski, "Religion, Power, and the Final Foucault," JAAR 66, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 345-68;

Wiebe, Donald. "An Eternal Return All Over Again: The Religious Conversation Endures," JAAR, Vol. 74, No. 3, (September 2006), pp. 674-96