SAMPLE SYLLABUS Theories & Methods in the Study of Religion RELST-UA 1 Professor: Patton Burchett [email protected] / 212-998-7651 726 Broadway, Suite 554, Room 565 Office Hours: Wednesdays 2:30-4:30pm, or by appointment No Prerequisites Course Description This course will expose students to fundamental theoretical and methodological issues in the academic study of religion. We will read a number of classic works and authors (Durkheim, Weber, Freud, Marx, James, etc.) while also examining their legacy and continuing influence upon the field of religious studies. In addition to familiarizing students with a variety of approaches to understanding religion (as a social phenomenon, an “experience,” and a body of lived practices), the course gives attention to the construction of the category of “religion,” ethical issues involved in the study of religion, and issues and topics (gender, secularism, pluralism, postcolonialism, etc.) profoundly affecting our changing understanding of religion today. Required Texts – Available for purchase at NYU Bookstore (726 Broadway) Pals, Daniel L. Introducing Religion: Readings from the Classic Theorists. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Trans. Carol Cosman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 [2001]. Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. Trans. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961. Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Anchor Books, 1990 [1969]. Course Requirements & Grading Class Preparation & Attendance (10%) Preparation for and attendance in this class matters. Unexcused absences will count against one’s participation grade. A doctor’s note must be provided in order for absences due to illness to be excused. Discussion Participation / Response Paper (20%) Student-driven discussions and activities will constitute a key component of this

class and active participation in these discussions is essential. Each student will be assigned a particular week of class and will have to submit a 3-page response paper on that week’s readings for that Thursday’s class. Students assigned as “respondents” for that week will also submit three suggested discussion questions and should be prepared to play a leading role in class discussion. Essay (35%) 6-8 pages; double-spaced, 11- or 12-font essay topic/instructions will be distributed at least one week prior to due date Final Exam (35%) Cumulative exam consisting of short and long essay questions. List of possible essay questions will be distributed ahead of time as a study guide. Tue, Sep 3 Introduction Lecture Themes: Course Outline & Expectations; The Enlightenment & “Natural Religion” Thu, Sep 5 The Construction of “Religion” Willfred Cantwell Smith, “ ‘Religion’ in the West,” in The Meaning and End of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1963), pp. 19-50. Jonathan Z. Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 269-284. Recommended Additional Reading: Thomas A. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,), pp. 1-53. Tue, Sep 10 Karl Marx on Religion (I) Pals, Introducing Religion, Chptr 5: “Religion as Agent of Economic Oppression: Karl Marx,” pp. 143-170. Thu, Sep 12 Karl Marx on Religion (II) John Raines, ed., Marx on Religion (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002), pp. 1-13, 182-186. Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” in Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1968), pp. 253-264. Recommended Additional Reading: Alistair Kee, Marx and the Failure of Liberation Theology (London: SCM Press, 1990), pp. 3-127. Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1977), pp. 55-71, 108120. Tue, Sep 17 Society & the Sacred – Emile Durkheim (I) Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (trans. Carol Cosman), Introduction, I:1.III-IV, II:1-3; pp. 3-21, 35-46, 87-120.

Thu, Sep 19 Society & the Sacred – Emile Durkheim (II) Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (trans. Carol Cosman), II:6-7, Conclusion; pp. 140-182, 310-343. Recommended Additional Reading: Ann Taves, “Special Things as Building Blocks of Religion,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies, ed. Robert Orsi (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 58-83. Tue, Sep 24 The Psychology of Religion – Sigmund Freud (I) Freud, The Future of an Illusion (trans. James Strachey), entire, pp. 5-71. Thu, Sep 26 The Psychology of Religion – Sigmund Freud (II) David Wulff, “Psychology of Religion: An Overview,” in Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, ed. D. Jonte-Pace & W. Parsons (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 15-29. Sigmund Freud, “Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices (1907)” in The Standard Edition of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IX, pp. 117127. Sigmund Freud, “A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis” in Collected Papers, Volume 4 (New York: Basic Books, 1959), pp. 347-356. Tue, Oct 1 Understanding Religion & Society – Max Weber (I) Pals, Introducing Religion, Chptr 8: “Religion and Culture Interwoven: Max Weber,” pp. 237-270. Thu, Oct 3 Understanding Religion & Society – Max Weber (II) Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), Foreword & Chptr 7, pp. ix-xvii, 95-117. Charles Keyes, “Weber and Anthropology,” Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002): 233- 255. Tue, Oct 8 Religion & Social Construction – Peter Berger (I) Berger, The Sacred Canopy, Chptrs 1-2, pp. 3-51 Thu, Oct 10 Religion & Social Construction – Peter Berger (II) Berger, The Sacred Canopy, Chptrs 3-4, pp. 53-101 Tue, Oct 15 Fall Break – No Class Thu, Oct 17 Phenomenology of Religion – Rudolf Otto & Mircea Eliade Pals, Introducing Religion, Chptr 7: “Religion and the Sense of the ‘Numinous’: Rudolf Otto,” pp. 205-236. Pals, Introducing Religion, Chptr 9: “Religion as Response to the Sacred: Mircea Eliade,” pp. 271-308.

Tue, Oct 22 Religious Experience – William James & Aldous Huxley Pals, Introducing Religion, Chptr 6: “The Testimony of Religious Experience: William James,” pp. 171-204. Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), pp. 9-30. Thu, Oct 24 Critiquing “Mysticism” & “Experience” Robert Sharf, “Experience,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 94-116. Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India, and ‘The Mystic East’ (London: Routledge, 1999), Chptr 1, pp. 7-34. Recommended Additional Reading: Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1985), pp. xixix, 1-40. Leigh Eric Schmidt, “The Making of Modern Mysticism,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71 (2003): 273-302. Tue, Oct 29 Culture and Religion (I): Geertz, Ethnography, & Semiotics Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), Chptr 4: “Religion as a Cultural System,” pp. 87-125. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), Chptr 1: “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” pp. 3-30. Recommended Additional Reading: Tomoku Masuzawa, “Culture” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 70-93. James Clifford, “On Ethnographic Allegory,” in Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, eds. James Clifford and George Marcus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), pp. 98-121. Thu, Oct 31 Culture and Religion (II): Clifford Geertz & His Critics Talal Asad, “Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz,” Man 18.2 (1983): 237-259. Manuel Vasquez, More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 212-221. Recommended Additional Reading: Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking About Religion After September 11 (Chicago: Univ of Chicago Press, 2003), Chptr 1: “The Study of Religion in the Current Political Moment,” pp. 1-18. Tue, Nov 5 Power, Sex, & the Body – Michel Foucault Michel Foucault, excerpts from The History of Sexuality, Vols. I & II, in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 258-272, 292-339. Michel Foucault, “The Subject and Power,” Critical Inquiry 8.4 (1982): 777-795. Recommended Additional Reading: Bryan Turner, The Body & Society, 2nd Edition (London: Sage, 1996), Chptr 7: “The Disciplines,”

pp. 159-174. Constance Furey, “Body, Society, and Subjectivity in Religious Studies,” Journal of the AmericanAcademy of Religion 80.1 (2012): 7-33. Thu, Nov 7 Gender, Sexuality, & Religion R. Marie Griffith, “Sexing Religion,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies, ed. Robert Orsi (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 338-359. Daniel Boyarin, “Gender,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 117-135. Bryan Turner, The Body & Society, 2nd Edition (London: Sage, 1996), Chptr 5: “Patriarchy: Eve’s Body,” pp. 126-142.

Tue, Nov 12 Ritual & Ritualization Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), Chptrs 4-5, pp. 91-169. Thu, Nov 14 “Everyday” Practice & “Lived” Religion Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), excerpt, pp. 52-79. Courtney Bender, “Practicing Religions,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies, ed. Robert Orsi (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 273-295. Robert Orsi, “Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion,” in Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice, ed. David Hall (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), pp. 3-21. Tue, Nov 19 Colonialism, Eurocentrism, & Comparative Religious Studies Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), Preface & Introduction, & Chptr 9, pp. ix-xv, 1-29, 309-328. David Chidester, Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1996), Preface & Chptr 1; pp. xixviii,1-29. Thu, Nov 21 How Should We Conduct the Study of Religion? Robert Orsi, “Snakes Alive: Resituating the Moral in the Study of Religion” in Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader, ed. Elizabeth Castelli (New York: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 98118. Wendy Doniger, “Post-Modern and –Colonial and –Structural Comparisons,” in A Magic Still Dwells (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 63-74. Bruce Lincoln, “Theses on Method,” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 8.3 (1996): 225-227. Jonathon Z. Smith, “The Devil in Mr. Jones,” Chptr 7 in Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 102-120.

Tue, Nov 26 ESSAY DUE / Class Cancelled (AAR Conference) Hard-copy of essay must be dropped off at my office (726 Broadway, Suite 554, Room 565) by 2:00pm Tue, Dec 3 Mediation, Imagination, & Community Michael Warner, “Publics and Counterpublics,” Public Culture 14.1 (2002): 49-89. Birgit Meyer, “From Imagined Communities to Aesthetic Formations: Religious Mediations, Sensational Forms, and Styles of Binding,” in Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion, and the Senses, ed. Birgit Meyer (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 1-23. Thu, Dec 5 Mediation, Piety, & Materiality Charles Hirschkind, “Cassette Ethics: Public Piety and Popular Media in Egypt” in Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere, eds. Birgit Meyer & Annelies Moors (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), pp. 29-51. David Morgan, Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), Chptr 1 & Conclusion, pp. 21-58, 203208. David Morgan, “Introduction: The Matter of Belief,” in Religion and Material Culture, ed. David Morgan (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 1-12. Recommended Additional Reading: David Morgan, The Sacred Gaze” Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice (Berkeley: University of California Press, 205), Chptrs 1-3, pp. 25-112. Tue, Dec 10 Secularism & Pluralism Pamela Klassen and Courtney Bender, “Introduction: Habits of Pluralism,” in After Pluralism: Reimagining Religious Engagement, eds. Courtney Bender & Pamela Klassen (New York: Columbia UP, 2010), pp. 1-18. Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, “We Are All Religious Now. Again.” Social Research 76:4 (2009): 1181-1198. Gauri Viswanathan, “Secularism in the Framework of Heterodoxy,” PMLA (2008): 466-476. Thu, Dec 12 Religion & Popular Culture David Chidester, Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), Chptr 2: “Popular Religion,” pp. 30-51. Kathryn Lofton, Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), Introduction & Chptr 1, pp. 1-50.