Subject: Once considered an archaic force, destined to wither away as nations underwent rapid economic development, religion has instead gained renewed interest as a factor in contemporary political life. Political Science, a discipline once largely dismissive of religion as a factor in contemporary political life, has lately atoned for this sin by investing heavily in the study of religion as a political factor. This seminar introduces the major social scientific theories of religion and applies them to understanding the interaction between religion and political life. Given the breadth of research conducted under this heading, the seminar can only scratch the surface. The major goal is to acquaint you with the theories, concepts, and measures used to make sense of religion in politics so that you can employ these tools in your own research and teaching. The course is distinctive in three ways: (1) It is intended primarily as a review of relevant literature. (2) It does not focus on normative questions. (3) It is conceived as a comparative enterprise with the goal of speaking across the traditional divisions within the discipline and borrowing heavily from other scholarly disciplines where appropriate.

Course Format: The course will include a mixture of lectures and student-led discussion. Your grade will have four components:

(1) The first of these, accounting for 10%, will be based on your leadership of discussion about an assigned block of readings (typically 6 articles/chapters). You may sign up for any of the weekly sessions beginning September 15th. (In weeks with longer reading lists, the material will be split among discussion leaders.) In leading class discussion, you will be asked to identify major themes, focus on conceptual weaknesses and problems, discuss methodological approaches, suggest alternative formulations, tie individual studies to larger theoretical traditions, and otherwise provide context and assessment of the material. You will be graded on your preparation, the thoughtfulness of your questions, and the quality of the discussion you provoke. Students who are leading discussion sessions should plan on meeting with me well before class to review plans.

(2) For another 50% of the grade, you will be asked to prepare a paper that is due in draft form on November 24th and in final (hard copy) form on Wednesday, December 10th. There are two options: (a) a topical review essay organized around some theme or subject relevant to the seminar or (b) an empirical paper relevant to religion and politics. Some possible themes for the literature review could include African-American religion and politics, religion and politics in a particular country, region or tradition, the role of religion in violent conflict, the concept of fundamentalism, religion and abortion, the political role of clergy, etc. The review, which may be conceptual, empirical or theoretical, should cover at least three scholarly books or fifteen journal articles or some combination of those.  For some good advice about what a literature review should include, consult the Toronto site here or the UNC site here.  In considering an empirical paper, there are a large number of data sets available for secondary analysis through either ICPSR or ARDA as well as in an archive of machine-readable studies I've obtained from the Roper Center. Depending on your interests, you may wish to replicate an existing study with new data or address a question or issue that has occurred to you independently. Whatever your choice of options, the subject of your paper must be approved by me in advance. I have reserved the final two class periods of the semester for oral presentations of your preliminary findings.

(3) The third component, worth 30%, is a take-home examination to be administered at mid-semester. It will include a number of essay questions about the readings and course material for the seminar.
The exam will be distributed on October 20th and handed in on October 27th.


(4) That leaves 10% of your grade to be determined by the quality of your participation. I pay more attention to quality than quantity but students who miss class will not do well on this component.

If you have any disabilities that might affect your capacity to fulfill these requirements without accommodation, please let me know early in the semester. For questions about UF policy, contact the Disabilities Resource Center.

Daniel Pals, Eight Theories of Religion. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Christian Smith, ed. Disruptive Religion: the Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism. Routledge, 1996.

David Laitin, Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba. University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Americanists might also want to skim my Religion and Politics in the United States (5th edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).

Schedule:

Week 1 (August 25) - Orientation and Overview

**NO CLASS ON SEPTEMBER 1 BECAUSE OF LABOR DAY**
 
Week 2 (September 4) - Social Science Approaches to Religion  (note that you have two weeks to read this material)

Week 7 (October 13) - Individual-Level Psychological and Sociological Factors [Disc. Vargas]

Week 9 (October 27) -   Religion and Globalization [Disc. Bainer & Kaufman]

Gunes Tezcur, Taghi Azadarmaki, and Mehri Baharm, "Religious Participation Among Muslims: Iranian Exceptionalism." Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 15 (2006): 217-232.

Week 12 (November 17) Religious Fundamentalism and Anti-Democratic Orientations [Disc. Ramsey]

Charles S. Liebman, "Extremism as a Religious Norm," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 22 (1983): 75-86
Aho, Popular Christianity and Extremism (chapter 9 in Smith)
Brad J. Bushman et al., "When God Sanctions Killing: Effect of Scriptural Violence on Aggression," Psychological Science 18 (2007), 204-207
Joel S. Fetzer, "Religious Minorities and Support for Immigrant Rights in the United States, France, and Germany," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (1998), 41-49.
Stathis N. Kalyvas, "Democracy and Religious Politics: Evidence from Belgium," Comparative Political Studies 31 (1998) 292-320.
Newton J. Gaskill, "Rethinking Protestantism and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America," Sociology of Religion 58 (1997), 69-91.