Religions in America

Links for today:

American Yawp 10: Religion and Reform

Joseph Smith Papers

Sunday School Books in 19th Century America

The Liberator (1803-1865)

Burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown MA, 1834

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): Colonial Religion

DPLA: Spanish Missions in California

DPLA: Women of the Antebellum Reform Movement

Links for today:

Religion in Early America (Smithsonian 2018 exhibit)

Religion and the New Republic (Library of Congress online exhibition)

Links from today:

Robert Bellah, “Civil Religion in America” (1967), appropos of 9/11

Kateri Tekakwitha, first Native American to be recognized as a Catholic saint

Reminder:
Document Based Question assignment is due Monday, printed in class. Download all Assignment Guidelines here.

Timothy Beal’s Very Short Introduction to American Religion begins with a driving tour, circa 2008, of his Shaker Heights / Case Western Reserve University neighborhood and its religious diversity.

Google Map of his route

Welcome, class members for Fall 2019. I look forward to meeting everyone at our first class, Wednesday Sept 4 at 2:00 pm, in Sullivan 314.

I have posted the syllabus in Blackboard and on our course website.

Please bring the small Beal book, Religion in America: A Very Short Introduction to class with you on Day 1. You will want to read the Introduction ahead of time.

This website is also the archive for previous versions of the course; you can ignore any post tagged Fall 2012.

For our last week of discussion sessions, please bring the Diana Eck book to class all three days – we will be reading and discussing Chapters 5, 6 and 7 and considering, first, the place of Muslims in America and then, the challenges posed to both civic and political life by religious pluralism, and finally, how to get closer as a society to the stance of “active acceptance” not just “passive toleration” that such diversity demands. Continue reading →

Back into the swing of the last 2 weeks, we’ll be reading Chapters 2-4 of Diana Eck’s book this week and talking about Hinduism and Buddhism in America – past and present – Hinduism on Monday (Ch 3) and Buddhism (Ch 4) on Wednesday.

Other reminders: don’t forget to peruse the links under the Unit 5 tab above, for examples of contemporary world religious communities online in the US. There’s a Friday forum up for this Friday 11/30 also – it’s posted on Blackboard. And your research paper is due Friday!

Once we re-enter our flooded campus, we will be starting a unit about religious pluralism in the United States today. How did it happen? What does it mean? How widespread is it, and how important to American society and politics? Our book will be Diana Eck’s A New Religious America, which is now a decade old, so we can assess how well its argument holds up ten years on.

We will keep to the syllabus schedule except for altering the plans for this Friday, when we meet next:

Fri 11/16 – a BRIEF Friday Forum, but mostly a discussion of Eck Ch 2 (bring your book to class) and an overview of what we mean by “religious pluralism” today

Thanks, stay dry!
Prof. Hangen

At Friday’s exam, you will have all class period to write on the question posted below. You may bring one 3×5 index card with anything on it you please.

Describe an example of religion in the Civil Rights Movement (be specific – a song, a speech quote, a piece of writing) and identify the theology (themes, creed, values, ideas) in it.

Using this example, craft an argument about the role or significance of religion in the movement (with any other evidence you choose to include).

Please refer to/discuss Chappell’s book in some way in your answer!

Some links that may be helpful as you prepare:

People Get Ready: Music and the Civil Rights Movement (Brian Ward/Gilder Lehrman Center)

Classic Gospel Music Collection (NPR review/links including the Hamer “Go Tell It” we heard in class)

Fannie Lou Hamer speaking to the DNC in 1964

The first several chapters of David Chappell’s book introduce a broader cast of characters for the civil rights movement, including liberals who supported the movement but did not provide its motivating faith nor ensure its cohesiveness and intellectuals and thinkers who fit into the American “prophetic religion” tradition (which is long and fascinating – think about who might fall into that category today). Continue reading →