Tony Fels Course Syllabus
Prepared for the Center for the Study of Religion and American
Culture by:
Tony Fels
History Department
University of San Francisco
The Center is pleased to share with you the syllabi for
introductory courses in American religion that were developed
in seminars led by Dr. Katherine Albanese of the University
of California, Santa Barbara. 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
I. Syllabus Justification
I taught this course in a fifteen-week semester to a class
of about twenty undergraduates at a Jesuit university located
in a socially liberal, urban setting. Nearly all students
were white and most came from comfortable to affluent households.
As an upper-division course aimed at history majors, History
480 assumed that students would have already taken the two
introductory courses in United States history. In addition,
the university's requirement of two religion courses as
part of its general education curriculum meant that most
students had some acquaintance with the academic study of
religion. Class sessions were held twice a week for 1-1/4
hours, allowing for a mix of lecture and discussion either
within each session or within each week.
Looking back on my teaching of this course (and a similar
two-quarter version of the course given the year before
at UC-Santa Cruz), I see that I was probably most intent
on providing students with a coherent overview of the evolution
of American religion, in as much complexity as seemed manageable.
I am enclosing (with a little embarrassment) two examples
of charts that I handed out to the class to accompany particular
lectures. My use of these charts reveals the "evolutionary"
emphasis in my presentations. In retrospect, I realize that
this aspect of the course grew out of my own need at the
time to think about the great complexity of American religious
experience in terms of historical lineages. (I am still
interested in the theoretical question of whether it is
possible to portray the entirety of American religious development
along just a few axes of faith-e.g., transcendent vs. immanent
conceptions of the divine.)
Aside from this emphasis in the course, I think of its
other strengths as including: a theoretical stress in my
lectures on how different forms of piety meet the common
functions of religion in different ways; a close look at
the inner life of a selection of different faiths, primarily
through the assigned articles and books; and a sociological
focus in both lectures and written materials on the intersection
of religion with other factors in American society and culture--region,
gender, class, education, politics, etc. I chose not to
require a textbook for the course, and I think this decision
worked out well, allowing me to supply through my lectures
the organization and background that a text would normally
offer, while freeing the readings to provide specific historical
examples of religious experience or commentary.
I think the course had a number of weaknesses: the neglect
of certain important elements, such as civil religion and
non-institutionalized, popular religious expressions; a
lack of attention to the interactions among the varieties
of faith (Harold Frederic's novel offered one exception
to this omission, juxtaposing Methodist and Catholic experiences);
and a certain impersonality to the course content through
a focus on groups rather than individuals. I might try to
include more biographical material when I teach the course
again.
Overall, the course was a success. Students liked it, remained
engaged, and freely offered their own (unsolicited) impressions
and experiences of faith at different times. One of the
funnier moments occurred when we were discussing Catholicism.
I was, naturally, treating the subject with great respect,
given the setting and my own awareness of not being Catholic.
But the students were quick to interrupt me and tell mini-"horror"
stories of strictness at the hands of nuns and brothers
in their parochial school training. This ushered in a valuable
discussion about religion and childhood, a subject I was
unprepared for but that turned out to spark a great deal
of interest in my students.
Perhaps surprisingly, I did not find that the students
had trouble considering each religion on its own terms.
Though most were practicing Catholics, they seemed to adopt
an attitude of cultural relativism quite naturally. It is
possible, however, that this relativistic stance was fairly
superficial, an outgrowth of their general politeness and
the prevailing libertarian social ethic of northern California.
Issues that might have engendered deeper convictions, like
abortion, rarely came up. And in a couple of instances--when
Puritanism was being discussed and later when we turned
to New Age faiths--some students did give vent to their
prejudices. On the whole, I'd say that the students found
it refreshing to look at religion from a sympathetic and
analytical perspective.
II. Course Syllabus
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO
History Department
History
480: Religion
in American History
Prof. Tony
Fels
Spring, 1990, TR, 9:45-11:00, Harney 235
This course is an introduction to the central themes and
issues in the history of American religion, as this subject
matter had been discussed and interpreted by historians.
It will acquaint students with the internal life of the
nation's diverse religious institutions, and it will attempt
to draw connections between these religious experiences
and the history of the wider society and culture of the
United States.
Office Hours
Wed., 9:15-10:15 AM UC 551
Thur., 1:00-2:30 PM UC 551
Procedure
- About two-thirds of class sessions will be devoted
to lecture, about one-third to discussion.
- The discussion portions of class time will center on
the assigned readings, but there will also be room for
questions about the material in the lectures. It is assumed
that you will have read the assigned pages of the readings
before the class scheduled to discuss them. Feel free
to ask questions during the lecture for clarification
or if you miss something, but keep in mind that there
will be time after the lecture for you to offer extended
opinions, arguments, and responses to the ideas raised
by the lectures.
- Assigned readings do not include a textbook, but I
will mention in class the names of several standard textbooks
on American religious history that can be found in the
library for those students who wish to consult them.
- There will be three graded written assignments: a take
home midterm exam; an 8-10-page paper (either a research
paper on a subject of your choice or a critical book review
of one of the assigned books); and a final exam, consisting
of several essay questions. A detailed description of
the paper assignment will be handed out later in the course.
Grading
Grades will be based on the following components:
Midterm exam 30%
Paper assignment 30%
Final exam 30%
Discussion participation 10%.
Assigned Reading
- Paul E. Johnson, A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society
and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 (New York:
Hill and Wang, 1978)
- Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible
Institution" in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1978)
- Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware (New York:
Penguin Books, 1986; first pub. 1898)
- Robert A. Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and
Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950 (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1985)
- Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America: Second Generation
New York Jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981)
- Packet of articles -- two copies on reserve in the library
(see addendum to syllabus for titles to articles and full
citations).
The five books listed above are all paperbacks and are
available at the campus bookstore.
Optional Texts to Consult
- Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American
People, 2 vols. (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1975)
- Martin E. Marty, Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years
of Religion in America (New York: Penguin Books, 1984)
Class Schedule
DATE LECTURE/DISCUSSION READING
Tue 1/23 Introduction; ----
Approaches to the Study of Religion
Thur 1/25 The Puritan Legacy
Miller, "Augustinian Strain of Piety"
Tue 1/30 The "Other" Tradition: the Protestant
Enlightenment
Franklin, excerpts from Autobiography
Jefferson, "Bill..."
Madison, "Memorial..."
Backus, "A Declaration of the..."
Thur 2/1 The "First" Liberal Protestantism
Emerson, "Divinity School Address"
Tue 2/6 The Evangelical Explosion
Stone, excerpt from autobiography
Johnson, Intro,chs. 1-2
Thur 2/8 Evangelicalism & Society
Johnson, chs. 3-6, Afterword
Cott, "Young Women..."
Tue 2/13 The Problem of White Southern Evangelicalism
Thur 2/15 The Religion of the Slaves (1)
Raboteau, Preface, chs. 1-3
Tue 2/20 Abolitionism & the Civil War from a Religious
Perspective
Thur 2/22 The Religion of the Slaves (2)
Raboteau, chs. 4-6, Conclusion
Tue 2/27 The Evangelical Mainstream Divides: the "Second"Liberal
Protestantism
Thur 3/1The Evangelical Mainstream Divides: Conservatives
& Fundamentalists
MIDTERM EXAM DUE
Tue 3/6 Judaism in 19th-century America
Thur 3/8 The Damnation of Theron Ware
Frederic, Intro., Pts. I-II
Tue 3/13 The Damnation of Theron Ware
Frederic, Pts. III, IV
Thur 3/15 The Catholic Religious Experience
Tue 3/20 Catholicism in 19th-century America
Spaulding, "Pastoral Letter..."
Ireland, "The Church and the Age"
Ryan, "The Church..."
Thur 3/22 Italian Catholicism (1)
Orsi, Introduction, chs. 1-3
Tue 3/27 The Vatican II Revolution
Thur 3/29 Italian Catholicsm (2)
Orsi, chs. 4-8
Tue 4/3 The New Jewish Immigration
Thur 4/5 Second-Generation Jews (1)
Moore, chs. 1-4
4/9 - 4/13 SPRING BREAK - NO CLASSES
Tue 4/17 Recent Trends in American Judaism
Thur 4/19 Second-Generation Jews (2)
Moore, chs. 5-9
Tue 4/24 Protestant Neo-Orthodoxy & the Return to
Liberalism
Thur 4/26 African-American Religion in the 20th Century
King, "Letter..."
PAPER ASSIGNMENT DUE
Tue 5/1 The Harmonial Tradition & New Age Faith
Flinn, "Scientology..."
Shinn, "The Many..."
Thur 5/3 Evangelical Resurgence
Hadden, "The Electronic Churches"
Gaustad, "Did the..."
Tue 5/8 Review
FINAL EXAM: Saturday, May 12, 3:00 PM
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