Religion in the USA
Fall 2006
Th 7 Talking
about religion in the USA
Tu 12 Introducing
Albanese (Prefaces and Introduction)
From
the prefaces and introduction and a brief google of Albanese, what can we say
about her and her approach to religion in the USA?
Discuss
the four Cs (p. 7): can we
generalize about which components take priority over the others?
Th 14 In
the Light of Reverence (video 4336) (Albanese, Chapter 1)
Tu 19 Discussion: compare Albanese's approach to that of
the film.
(TeCube,
Chapters 1-12)
Th 21 Leroy
TeCube's spiritual world (TeCube, Chapters 13-Epilogue)
Tu 26 Jewish
Religion and Peoplehood (Albanese, Chapter 2)
Th 28 School
Prayer: A Community at War (video 4232) Essay 1 due at 4 p.m.
Tu 3 The
Presence of Roman Catholicism in America (Albanese, Chapter 3)
(Gordon,
preface through Part I)
Tu 10 Resolutions
(Gordon, Parts IV-V)
Th 12 American
Protestants (Albanese, Chapters 4-5).
Come to class with one
question
and two opinions (in response to the reading).
Th 19 African
American Religion and Nationhood (Albanese, Chapter 6)
Tu 24 Blacks
and Jews (video 3507) (Baldwin,
Part I)
Th 26 finish
and discuss Blacks and Jews
(Baldwin Part II)
Tu 31 Baldwin,
Go Tell It on the Mountain(Baldwin,
Part III)
Th 2 Nineteenth-Century New Religions (Albanese, p.
153; Chapter 7)
Tu 7 Homesteads
of the Mind (Albanese, Chapter 8)
Th 9 Soul
of a Woman (video 2978) Essay
2 due at 4 p.m.
Tu 14 Eastern
Peoples and Eastern Religions (Albanese, p. 199; Chapter 9)
Th 16 Present-Time
Pluralism and Postpluralism (Albanese, Chapter 10)
Tu 28 The
Smith Family (video 5151)
Th 30 The
Public, The Civil, and the Culture of the Center (Albanese, p. 255; Chapter
11)
Th 7 Conclusions
REQUIRED
TEXTS [available in Colby Bookstore]:
Albanese,
America: Religion and
Religions. 4th.
Edition [2006]
Baldwin,
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Gordon,
The Shadow Man
TeCube,
Year in Nam
FACTORS
DETERMINING THE FINAL GRADE:
All
assignments must be submitted in hard copy, not as e-mail attachments or faxes.
All
assignments must be submitted in order to pass the course. Extensions must be negotiated in
advance. Late papers and more than
2 unexcused absences will affect the final grade.
About
the assignments:
Essays
should be double-spaced and must be submitted in hard copy. You may try an imaginative format as
long as you address the question and find ways to provide documentation and
concrete examples/evidence from the appropriate texts. Whatever format you choose, narrow the
topic as much as possible so that you can examine portions of the text closely
and analytically. Draw genuine
conclusions; do not be content with summarizing.
Essay
1 (due September 28 at 4 p.m.)
Write
an essay in which you employ 2 voices, that of Leroy TeCube and the voice of
one American Indian speaker in the video In the Light of Reverence, to comment upon the first chapter in Albanese,
devoted to Native American religion.
Your speakers may agree (or take issue) with specific statements by
Albanese. Is Albanese's treatment
satisfactory to your two speakers?
What changes would they suggest?
If you like, feel free to speculate upon Albanese's response, based upon
what we know about her.
Essay
2 (due November 9 at 4 p.m.)
Write
an essay that tests the usefulness of Albanese's four Cs (p.7) as a means of
understanding religious difference in America. In Gordon's memoir The Shadow Man and Baldwin's autobiographical novel Go Tell
It on the Mountain, both authors
explore aspects of their religious backgrounds that are easily misconstrued by
outsiders (and even other members of the same denomination). Discuss whether, and to what extent,
Albanese's four Cs give us a language or framework which helps us to examine
frequently misunderstood aspects of specific religious groups or traditions.
[You need not discuss all four Cs.]