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Prepared for the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture by:
Yvonne Chireau
Department of Religion
Swarthmore College
The Center is pleased to share with you the syllabi for introductory courses in American religion that were developed in seminars led by Dr. Harry S. Stout of Yale University. In all of the seminar discussions, it was apparent that context, or the particular teaching setting, was an altogether critical factor in envisioning how students should be introduced to a field of study. The justification of approach, included with each syllabus, is thus germane to how you use the syllabus.
For the personal use of teachers. Not for sale or redistribution.
© Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, 1998
Religion 26 is a course that was developed for students in the Religious Studies major and for those with preparations in specialized concentrations (e.g., black studies, women s studies, ethnic studies) as well as others who wouldwant to pursue a religion course that speaks to the themes of diversity and cultural pluralism in American society. The course reflects the personal and scholarly interests of the professor: as an Americanist with a specialty in African-American religion, I believe that I am responsible for teaching subjects that reflect the needs and interests of individuals living in a pluralistic society, and enabling students to think critically about some of the issues they will face within that society. I also seek to expand the boundaries of the discourse on American religious history, while fostering an authentic interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and methodology. I have long believed that sociologists, anthropologists, literary critics and artists, theologians and historians all have something to say and much to offer to each other on the subject of religion.
Swarthmore is a selective liberal arts college with about 1200 undergraduates, and a low student-to-faculty ratio. Classes are often very small. Religion 26 typically enrolls no more than 15 students per semester. These intense, often dialogical sessions can make for an simultaneously engaging and challenging teaching environment.
The course is designed for students with some minimal background in either American history or religion, although I have found that Religion 26 also draws students from outside of the humanities, including science majors who may want an extra elective, or students from other fields who find the themes to be useful for their own courses of study. The Department of Religion offers many specialized, mid-level courses for those who may wish to pursue intermediate or advanced study in a particular field. Accordingly, the Department s sense of itself as a disciplinary unit reflects a bias toward the Comparative/History of Religions perspective. There are two American religious historians on the faculty.
I have found that many students who take religion courses at Swarthmore view
themselves as seekers who want to question and resolve their own faith commitments.
Many desire resolution to burning spiritual issues in their lives by rigorous
intellectual engagement. Keeping in mind the diversity of backgrounds, interests
and levels of preparation, I remind students that this course does not substitute
for a comprehensive survey in American history or a methods course in religious
studies (both which are offered at the College), only that it pursues select
topics, exploring current ideas on the issues of race, gender, sexuality, class,
and authority in American religion that have historical
precedents.
I have purposefully chosen to omit certain mainstream religions and religious institutions from my syllabus, aiming for a non-exhaustive overview. The course subverts expectations of what constitutes the meta-narrative of American religious history, and is constituted as a religious history of others. The operative model is the interaction between margin and center. Questions of power and identity in religion and society are at the fore in our conversations and in our investigation as a class.
Finally, I have since last year sought to integrate recent technological innovations
with curricular development, with promising results. As in my other courses
on religion, I often find myself moving away from the text as a primary pedagogical
tool, and more to alternative media - including film, material artifacts, audio,
and visual narrative. Being in close proximity to Philadelphia, a vital center
of American history and religious life, our class has availed itself of the
rich resources of local museums, churches, and historical collections. I now
find that we are able to bring together these resources with other textual,
aural and visual resources by use of interactive computer technologies that
are presently available for classroom and instructional use. I encourage and
require students to avail themselves of these technologies in order to produce
their own interactive projects and to conduct research; for example, students
can now create their own CD- ROM disks using available documentary, audio and
visual materials. All of the students in Religion 26 are required to format
their own web pages on the internet as a final project, in lieu of a paper,
on any topic in American
religion, chosen in consultation with myself.
Rel. 26: RELIGION IN AMERICA: A MULTICULTURAL APPROACH
This course is intended to acquaint you with some of the major themes in American
religion from the perspective of actors/subjects who are traditionally underrepresented
in the study of religious history. Our goal is to explore the relationships
between religion and society by considering the interaction of
its various participants - including women, ethnic and racial minorities, and
religious "outsiders" - in shaping American culture.
Sessions will be divided equally between lectures and discussion. On occasion, guest lecturers will also be invited to class.
It is necessary that you prepare before each session so that you will be able to participate in the discussions. Attendance is mandatory. If you cannot attend class for any reason, you are responsible for advising me prior to the class session.
All texts for the course are on reserve at McCabe Library. Where available, texts may also be obtained at the College bookstore. Readings marked with an asterisk are xeroxed and on General Reserve in a course binder.
You are also expected to have access to a computer and to acquire some familiarity with a web browser such as Mosaic, Netscape, MacWeb, etc. For assignments, acquaint yourself with an online search index such as Yahoo! (Society and Culture: Religion Link), Lycos, GNN, or the Internet Public Library/Humanities Ready Reference (http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/ref/RR/HUM).
1/17 - Introduction to course, assignment of projects and class presentations
THE ROOTS OF RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES: COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS: NATIVE AMERICANS, AFRICANS AND EUROPEANS1/19 - Annemarie Shimony, Iroquois Religion and Women in Historical Perspective,
in Yvonne Haddad, WOMEN, RELIGION AND
SOCIAL CHANGE Jacqueline Peterson, American Indian Women
and Religion, in Rosemary Ruether, WOMEN AND RELIGION IN
AMERICA, pp. 1-41
1/24 -Albert Raboteau, SLAVE RELIGION, pp. 96-128
Mechal Sobel, THE WORLD THEY MADE TOGETHER, pp. 3-20,
71-99
1/26 - *James Ronda, " We Are Well as We Are : An Indian Critique of Seventeenth
Century Missions," WILLIAM AND MARY
QUARTERLY, 3rd series, 34, 1977
Henry Bowden, AMERICAN INDIANS AND CHRISTIAN
MISSIONS, pp. 96-133
Film: Black Robe
Internet assignment: Explore web sites for topics related to Native
American religions and report your findings. Two starting places:
Fourth World Documentation Project
(http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html), and the Aboriginal
Resources Web (http://www.io.org/~jgcom/abor1.htm)
1/31 - *Mary Maples Dunn, Saints and Sisters: Congregational and Quaker Women
in the Early Colonial Period, AMERICAN QUARTERLY 30, 1978, pp. 233-259.
Ben Barker-Benfield, Anne Hutchinson and the Puritan Attitude
Toward Women, FEMINIST STUDIES 1, FALL 1972
Lyle Koehler, The Case of the American Jezebels: Anne Hutchinson
and Female Agitation During the Years of Antinomian Turmoil, 1636-1640, WILLIAM
AND MARY QUARTERLY 3rd series, 31, 1974
2/2 - *Jon Butler, "Magic, Astrology and the Early American Religious
Heritage, 1600-1760" AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 84, April 1979
David Hall, WORLDS OF WONDER, DAYS OF JUDGMENT,
Introduction and Chapter Two
2/7 - *Jon Butler, "Enthusiasm Decried and Described: The Great Awakening
as Interpretive Fiction," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 69, September 1982
*Joan Gunderson, The Non-Institutional Church: The Role of Women in Eighteenth
century Virginia, HISTORICAL MAGAZINE OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 51,
1982, pp. 347-357
Albert Raboteau, SLAVE RELIGION, pp. 128-150
2/9 - *Mary Ryan, "A Woman's Awakening: Evangelical Religion and the Families
of Utica, New York, 1800-1840," in James, WOMEN IN
AMERICAN RELIGION
Nancy Cott, Young Women in the Second Great Awakening,
FEMINIST STUDIES 3, 1975
Internet assignment - Interrogating primary figures: find at least two 17th
or 18th century classic documents related to American/Christian religious history.
You may choose, for example John Wesley's Sermons, or George Fox s Autobiography,
in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://ccel.wheaton.edu) or Jonathan
Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, or any others that you deem appropriate
to this period. The Institute for Christian Learning is a good online site for
these kinds of materials, (http://iclnet93.iclnet.org/), as is Yale's American
Studies
Web (http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~davidp/amstud.html)
2/14 - Nathan Hatch, THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF AMERICAN
RELIGION, chapters One and Two
Internet assignment - Review and research the Restoration Movement (Stone-Campbellites)
and its present day manifestations at http://www.ag.uiuc.edu~mcmillan/Restlit/rlindx.html
2/16 - Hatch, THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF AMERICAN RELIGION,
chapters Three and Four
*Gordon Wood, "Evangelical America and Early Mormonism," NEW
YORK HISTORY 61, 1980, pp. 359-386
Internet assignment - browse Joseph Smith s Book of Mormon and
report on the current situation of Mormon studies, at
(http://www.npl.com/ldsirc.html).
2/21 - Midterm review
2/23 - Midterm examination
3/2 NO CLASS - enjoy the break!!!!!!
3/14, 3/16 STUDENT REPORTS
OCCULTISM, HETERODOXY AND RELIGIOUS OUTSIDERS3/21 -Margaret Washington, ed., NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH (selections)
*Mary Farrell Bednarowski, "Outside the Mainstream: Women's
Religion and Women Religious Leaders in Nineteenth Century
America," JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
RELIGION 67, 1980
3/23 - Steven Walker, "Vivekananda and American Occultism," in Howard
Kerr, THE OCCULT IN AMERICA, pp. 162-176
Richard Turner, The Ahmadiyya Mission to Blacks in the United
States, JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 44, Winter, 1988
3/28 - Jean Humez, ed., GIFTS OF POWER (selections)
Ann Braude, Spirits Defend the Rights of Women, in Yvonne Haddad, WOMEN, RELIGION
AND SOCIAL CHANGE
3/30 - Films: Holy Ghost People/ "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"
*James Tinney, "William J. Seymour, Father of Modern Day
Pentecostalism," in David Wills and Richard Newman, BLACK
APOSTLES AFRO-AMERICAN CLERGY CONFRONT THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
*William McLoughlin, "Aimee Semple McPherson: Your Sister in the
King's Glad Service,'" JOURNAL OF POPULAR CULTURE 1,
1967, pp. 193-217
4/4 - Richard Rodriguez, HUNGER OF MEMORY, Chapter Three, Credo
Rosemary Curb, LESBIAN NUNS: BREAKING SILENCE
(selections)
4/6 - Ellen Umansky, Feminism and the Re-evaluation of Women s Roles within
American Jewish Life, in Haddad, WOMEN, RELIGION AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Evelyn Beck, NICE JEWISH GIRLS, Introduction, and pp. 34-50,
51-72, 192-207, 298-302
4/11 - Robert Orsi, THE MADONNA OF 117TH STREET (selections)
RELIGION AND HEALTH4/13 - Albert Raboteau, The Afro-American Traditions, in Ronald Numbers, CARING
AND CURING, pp. 539-562
Ruth Dodson, The Life of Don Pedro Jaramillo, PERSPECTIVES IN
MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES, 1988, pp. 61-74
4/18 - Robert Fuller, ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AND AMERICAN
RELIGION(selections)
Internet assignment - What is Christian Science?
http://www.vicnet.net.au.vicnet/religion/cop/CSMenu.html
4/20 - Rita Nakashima Brock, On Mirrors, Mists and Murmurs: Toward an Asian-American
Thealogy, in Judith Plaskow, WEAVING THE VISIONS
Film: Meeting the Buddha in Los Angeles
4/25 - Cynthia Eller, Twentieth Century Women s Religion as Seen in theFeminist
Spirituality Movement, in CatherineWessinger, WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP IN MARGINAL
RELIGIONS
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, EN LA LUCHA, Introduction, Chapters Two,
Four and Six
4/27- Yvonne Haddad, MISSION TO AMERICA, Chapters Two and ThreeJoseph Murphy,
SANTERIA: AN AFRICAN RELIGION IN
AMERICA, pp. 39-100
Film: Legacy of the Spirits
Internet assignment: Browse and report on any site or group related to Neo-African
religions, including vodun, santeria or candomble. Some examples: The Vodun
pages
(http://www.vmedia.com/shanon/voodoo/voodoo.html)
and the Caribbean Resource Center
(http://www.nando.net/prof/caribe/caribe.com.html).
FINAL PROJECTS DUE BEFORE END OF READING PERIOD
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Copyright: [ ©1995-2001
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Original: May 2002 - David M. Plater