"When I was a grad student, I
was not at all interested in religion because it was so obvious -- all
the major intellectuals knew -- it was dropping off the map. Why waste
your time on something that maybe 20, 30 years from now won't even be
there; so why bother? That was colossally wrong, as we all now know."
"Mother
went to church the way some ladies go to basketball games, to be
sociable, not because they care who wins, and that’s how Mother felt
about the gospel of the Lord—it was for other people to agonize over.
What she cared about was being with Gladys and Margaret and Florence
and feeding the hungry and covering the chilly with warm quilts."
—Garrison Keillor, Pontoon (2007)
Subject: As Ronald Inglehart observes,
religion was once considered an archaic force destined to wither away
as nations underwent rapid economic development. Like Mark Twain,
reports of religion's death proved greatly exaggerated and religion has
gained renewed interest as a factor in contemporary political life.
Political Science, a discipline once largely dismissive of religion as
a factor in contemporary public life, has lately atoned for this sin by
investing heavily in the study of religion as a political force. 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. You'll note that the syllabus is
arranged thematically rather than by geography, time period, or some
other scheme. 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
5-6 articles/chapters). You may sign up for any of the weekly sessions
beginning with September 11th.
(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 prepare a
paper that is due in draft form on November
27th and in final (hard copy) form on Monday, 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. As
always, think about this as a way to consider the literature for
potential thesis topics. 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 ICPSR, ARDA or 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. The best
way to do that is to meet me during office hours or at another time
that works for both of us. 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 2nd and handed in on October 9th.
(4) The remaining 10% of your grade will 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.
As will be explained in more detail below, this course
utilizes the electronic course reserve service offered by the George A.
Smathers Libraries. Under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with
Disabilities Act, students with disabilities have the right to equal
access, use and benefit of the course materials that have been placed
on reserve in the Libraries. Students
who have registered with the University of Florida Disability Resource
Center should initiate their request for assistance and accommodation
in accessing these materials.
The Center will work with
the Libraries Course Reserve Unit to provide accessible course
materials.
All information submitted
by the student to the Libraries in fulfilling the request for
accommodation will be kept confidential.
For more information on
services for students with disabilities, contact the University of
Florida Disability Resource Center at 352-392-8565 or at accessuf@dso.ufl.edu.
For general information on
course reserves, please contact the Course Reserves Unit at
352-273-2520, or email at eres@uflib.ufl.edu.
Readings: I
have ordered copies of the following paperback books:
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.
Americanists might
also want to skim my Religion and Politics in the United
States (6th edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2011) and consult
the Oxford Handbook of
Religion and American Politics (Oxford University Press, 2009)
or the Routledge Handbook of
Religion and Politics (Routledge 2009). There are three very
useful websites that I monitor frequently and I can recommend to
you. The first, maintained by the Pew
Forum on Religion in American Life, is probably the single best
site to keep up to date with new developments in the world of religion
and (mostly) American politics. I also recommend The Immanent Frame, a blog
maintained by the Social Science Research Council that attracts
stimulating observations, discussions, insights and other contributions
from a diverse group of academic commentators. The Association of Religious Data Archives
(ARDA) is much more than its name suggests and is fast becoming the
first place researchers consult. Its "Religion Research Hub" is
especially valuable.
Most of the readings are available on-line through the
link that is indicated. If you find an article with a broken link,
please inform me by email as soon as possible. For access to most
online articles, you will be required either to be on the
UF network or to be logged in remotely to the UF Library through VPN or a
proxy server. Book
chapters will be available through the ARES. In the
past, you could log into ARES either with the proxy server or VPN but
instructors have been told that the proxy server may no longer work for
reserve materials so you will need an active VPN connection to get to
the automated reserves from outside the UF network. Once you have that
VPN connection set up, click on the chapter link and you will be able
to connect to the class page and download the PDF file. Again, let me
know of any problems you encounter so I can fix them.
Schedule:
Week
1 (August 28) - Orientation and Overview
Week 2
(September 4) - Social Science Approaches to
Religion
Key Theories & Concepts
Pals, Eight Theories, chaps. 2 (Freud),
3 (Durkheim),4 (Marx),
5 (Weber), 8 (Geertz) Larry
Iannaccone, "Vodoo Economics: Reviewing the Rational Choice
Approach to Religion," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
34 (March, 1995), 76-88
Conceptualizing and Defining
Religion Don Yoder, "Toward a
Definition of Folk Religion," Western
Folklore 33 (1974), 2-15 Adam B. Cohen et al.,
"Social Versus Individual Motivation: Implications for Normative
Definitions of Religious Orientation," Personality and Social Psychology Review 9
(2005), 48-61 Kenneth D. Wald and Corwin E.
Smidt, "Measurement Strategies in .. . Religion & Politics," in
Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics (Armonk,
NY: ME Sharpe, 1993), 26-49.
Political Science Perspectives Kenneth D.
Wald and Clyde Wilcox, "Has Political Science Rediscovered the
Faith Factor?" APSR 100
(2006), 523-529
Kenneth
D.
Wald, Adam Silverman and Kevin Fridy, "Making Sense of Religion in
Public Life," Annual Review of
Political Science 8 (2005), 121-143 Aaron
Wildavsky, "Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions: A
Cultural Theory of Preference Formation," APSR 81 (1987): 3-21. Josh
Adams and Vincent Roscigno, "White Supremacists,Oppositional
Culture and the World Wide Web," Social
Forces 84 (2005), 759-778 Ann
Swidler, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies," American
Sociological Review 51 (1986), 273-286. Kenneth
D.
Wald and David C. Leege, "Culture, Religion and American Political
Life," Oxford Handbook of Religion
and American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press,
2009),129-63
Week 4 (September 18) - Cultural Models II: Case Studies of
Religion and Political Conflict [Disc.
Perdue]
Nash,
Rituals of Resistance in Bolivia (chapter 4 in Smith)
Nepstad,
Popular Religion in Nicaragua and Salvador (chapter 5 in Smith) Galia
Sabar
Friedman, "The Power of the Familiar: Everyday Practices in the
Anglican Church of Kenya (CPK)," Journal of Church and State 38
(1996), 377-395
Brian
K.
Clardy, "Deconstructing a Theology of Defiance: Black Preaching and
the Politics of Racial Identity." Journal
of Church and State 53 (2011): 203-221.
Morris,
Black Church in the Civil Rights Movement (chapter 1 in Smith)
Salehi,
Islamic Insurgency in Iran (chapter 2 in Smith) James
Findlay, "Religion and Politics in the Sixties: The Churches and
the Civil Rights Act of 1964," Journal of American History 77
(1990): 66-93. Gregory
A.
Smith, "The Influence of Priests on the Political Attitudes of
Roman Catholics," Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion 44 (2005), 291-306 Sidney
Verba
et al., "Race, Ethnicity and Political Resources: Participation in
the United States," British Journal of Political Science 23
(1993): 453-497.
Borer, Church Leadership in South African anti-apartheid movement
(chapter 6 in Smith) Timothy Byrnes,Catholic
Bishops in American Politics, chaps. 3-4 (pp. 35-67) Christian
Smith
and Liesl Haas, "Revolutionary Evangelicals in Nicaragua," JSSR 36 (1997), 440-454. Ronald Kaye, "The Politics of
Religious Slaughter of Animals: Strategies for Ethno-Religious
Political Action," New Community
19 (1993), 235-250. Anthony Gill and
Erik Lundsgaarde, "State Welfare Spending and Religiosity," Rationality
& Society 16 (2004): 399-436. Esther
Kaplan, "Follow the Money," Nation,
November 1, 2004, 20-3
---Midterm will be distributed on October 2nd and is due
back in class on October 9th ---
Gordon
Allport
and James Ross, "Personal Religious Orientation and Prejudice,"
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 5 (1967): 432-443. James
M.
Glaser, "Toward an Explanation of the Racial Liberalism of
American Jews," Political Research Quarterly 50 (1997),
437-458. Laura
A.
Reese,
Ronald
E.
Brown
&
James
David
Ivers, "Some Children See Him...: Political Participation and the
Black Christ," Political Behavior
20 (2007),
Williams and Blackburn, Operation Rescue (chapter 8 in Smith) Kristi Andersen,
"Sources of Pro-Family Belief," Political Psychology 9 (1988):
229-243 Brian
Robert
Calfano and Paul A. Djupe, "God Talk : Religious Cues and Electoral
Support," Political Research
Quarterly 62 (2009) 329-339. Ann
Page
and Donald Clelland, "The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy: A
Study in Alienation and Lifestyle Concern," Social Forces 57
(1978): 265-281
Week 8 (October 16) - Contextual and Group Influence (social
networks, interpersonal influence) [Disc.
Stringer]
Kenneth
D.
Wald, Dennis Owen and Samuel S. Hill, "Churches as Political
Communities," American Political Science Review 82 (1988):
531-548 Jerome Himmelstein,
"The Social Bases of Antifeminism: Religious Networks and Culture," Journal
for the Scientific Study of Religion 25, no. 1 (1986): 1-15.
Michael
Welch and David Leege, "Dual Reference Groups and Political
Orientations: An Examination of Evangelically Oriented Catholics,"
American Journal of Political Science 35 (1991): 28-56. Robert
Wuthnow
& Valerie Lewis, "Religion & Altruistic U.S. Foreign Policy
Goals: Evidence From a National Survey" Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion 47 (2008): 191-209. David
Campbell, "Acts of Faith: Churches and Political Engagement," Political Behavior 26 (2004),
155-80:
Week 9 (October 23) - Religion and
Globalization [Disc. Alkazemi]
Daniel
Philpott, "Has the Study of Global Politics Found Religion?" Annual Review of Political Science
12 (2009), 183–202 Jeff
Haynes, "Transnational Religious Actors and International
Politics," Third World Quarterly 22 (2001), 143-158 Kevin
Warr, "The Normative Promise of Religious Organizations in Global
Civil Society," Journal of Church and State 41: (1999), 499-524 Kenneth
Wald
and Michael Martinez, "Jewish
Religiosity
and Political Attitudes in the United States and Israel,"
Political Behavior 23 (2001), 377-397.
Larissa
Baia, "Rethinking Transnationalism: Reconstructing National
Identities among Peruvian Catholics in New Jersey," Journal of Interamerican Studies and World
Affairs 41 (1999), 93-110
Week 10 (October 30) - Religion, State and Nation [Disc. Link, Valentin]
Jonathan
Fox, "World Separation of Religion and State into the 21st
Century," Comparative Political
Studies 39 (2006), 537-69 Charles M. North and Carl R.
Gwin, "Religious Freedom and the
Unintended Consequences of State Religion," Southern
Economic Journal 71
(2004), 103-17 Michael
Angrosino, "Civil Religion Redux," Anthropological Quarterly 75
(2002), 239-67 Merlin Gustafson,
"The Religious Role of the President," Midwest Journal of Political Science 14
(1970), 708-722 Ivan
Iveković, "Nationalism and the Use and Abuse of Religion: The
Politicization of Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam in Yugoslav
Successor States," Social Compass 49
(2002), 523-36
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 Science18
(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.
Week 12 (November 13) - Secularism [Disc. Barker]
Jeffrey Hadden,
"Toward Desacralizing Secularization Theory," Social Forces 65 (1987), 587-611 Ahmet
Kuru, "Passive and Aggressive Secularism," World Politics 59 (2007), 568-594 Eva Garroutte, "The
Positivist Attack on Baconian Science . . .in The Secular Revolution (Berkeley,:
Univ. of California Press, 2003), 197-215 Stephen
Mockabee, Kenneth D. Wald & David C. Leege, Is
There a Religious Left?(2009) Ruth
Braunstein, "Storytelling in Liberal Religious Advocacy." Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion 51 (2012): 110-127.
Week 13 (November 20) - Paper conferences