RLST 2400 SPRING, 2001
Religion and
Contemporary Society

EXAM # 1

Imagine that a roommate, a friend, or a parent, who has never heard of Peter Berger or Clifford Geertz, finds the following paragraph in your notebook:

The nomos of any society emerges through a three-fold process of externalization, objectivation, and internalization. To continue providing a shield against anomy, the nomos must be legitimated by symbols of the society’s worldview and ethos, as well as by cultural performances. Anomy is least likely to be a problem if the nomos is legitimated by symbols of numinous power. But the more firmly the nomos is legitimated by symbols of numinous power, the more people are alienated and act in bad faith.

Naturally your roommate, friend, or parent will respond: "What the hell does that mean?" Write an explanation of the paragraph. You do not have to say whether you agree or disagree. You simply have to explain the meaning of the terms and the ideas in the paragraph, so that anyone can understand it. In other words, you have to tell what it means in plain English.

Essays should be about 2 typed pages, or the equivalent in neat handwriting: no more than 700 words. All papers double-spaced, please. No papers above the length limit will be accepted.

This first exam is somewhat different from the others. It requires you only to explain the course material. The others will ask you to draw conclusions, express opinions, and argue for those opinions based on the course material. But for this first essay, we simply want to make sure that you are understanding the basic ideas. If this seems too easy, you can rest content with an easy A and be sure that the other exams will be more challenging.

This exam is intentionally very short (the others will be longer). You will have to write very concisely, almost as if you were writing a summary or an outline of an essay. This is to encourage you to choose your words carefully, to make sure you get right to the heart of the ideas and explain them in the simplest, most direct terms.

This exam covers material studied in class through January 29. Please feel free to discuss your paper with your recitation instructor while you are preparing it.

RLST 2400 SPRING, 2001
Religion and Contemporary Society

PLEASE ANSWER ONE (1) OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

A. According to Peter Berger, the nomos of any society should provide a sense of unified orderly structure for the people of that society. This means that all the aspects of the society’s worldview, ethos, and values should, ideally, fit together without contradiction. In other words, the elements of the nomos should be logically consistent with each other. This is particularly important in a modern secular society such as the U.S., because the modern secular nomos puts such high value on rationality. It judges reason, not revelation or any religious source, to be the test of truth. If reason is the highest value in the nomos, but the nomos itself is not internally consistent and logical, then the nomos is in great danger. This will create greater fears of anomy.

Consider the traditional U.S. nomos, as we have studied it in this course (including nationalism and liberalism), in light of Berger's ideal. Would you say that, on balance and overall, the traditional U.S. nomos is logically harmonious and internally consistent with itself; i.e., that it is more unified than contradictory? Or would you say that, on balance and overall, the traditional nomos is more contradictory than it is consistent and unified? Support your answer by discussing at least three ways in which the traditional U.S. nomos constitutes a logically consistent and unified nomos, and at least three ways in which the nomos contains contradictions that make a unified nomos impossible.

(Note that the question is not about how well the nomos unifies the people of the U.S. It is about how well the elements of the nomos fit together. The traditional nomos could be very internally consistent and unified even if only a few people lived by it, and it could be internally contradictory even if everyone agreed to live by it.)

B. American public discourse has traditionally proclaimed individual freedom and the hope of increasing freedom as one of its highest ideals. In Peter Berger's terms, this means that freedom has been central to the U.S. nomos. However, Berger argues that every nomos usually tends to reduce individual freedom, because of the alienating qualities of the nomos. Discuss how his theory fits, and how it doesn’t fit, the traditional nomos of U.S. society (based on nationalism and liberalism.) Have the traditions and myths of U.S. nationalism and liberalism that we have studied in this course actually increased or reduced individual freedom? In other words, has the reality of life matched or contradicted the ideal of freedom?

This essay covers material studied through February 23.

It is DUE in class on MONDAY FEBRUARY 26.

Essays should be about FOUR (4) typed pages, or the equivalent in neat handwriting;

all papers double-spaced please. Please identify clearly which question you are answering.

(OVER)

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING ESSAY EXAMS

As in any other academic course, you are being tested on your ability to understand, organize, synthesize, and think logically about the ideas presented in the course. Therefore, in answering the question, you should show that you have read the assigned readings, attended class, and grasped the main ideas presented in readings and class. On some occasions you may be asked to write about your own personal experiences or feelings. But please remember that your grade is always based on your demonstrated understanding of the course material. Your primary responsibility in every essay is to show what you have learned in this course. The more course material you include in your essay, presented accurately and logically, the better your grade will be.

A good essay is written clearly, concisely, and precisely. It offers a series of general ideas, with each one supported by more specific ideas or evidence, and all the general ideas are arranged in a logical order. Make sure your essay has a clear logical flow of ideas within each paragraph and from one paragraph to the next. If your paragraphs could be rearranged in a different order and make just as much sense, your essay is not yet well organized! A good way to avoid this problem is to make an outline before you write your final draft, so that you can see the organization of your essay clearly. Make every word count, from the very first word; avoid needless introductions and repetitive conclusions. Make every sentence add a new thought or a new way of supporting a main idea.

You should always show that you can express the main ideas of the course in your own words. A good way to do this is to assume that you are writing for someone who knows nothing about the subject; imagine you are writing to a parent, a friend, etc. Do not use lengthy quotations (though you may want to refer to specific pages in the readings in parentheses or footnotes).

Your essay exams will be graded by your recitation instructor. It will be to your advantage to discuss the course material as fully as possible with your instructor, both in class and outside of class. It makes a lot of sense to discuss the ideas BEFORE you write the essays, though you are also encouraged to discuss the essays after they are returned to you with comments. We will be happy to discuss your exam with you, or go over a preliminary draft, during office hours or at other times by appointment. See the syllabus for office hours and phone numbers.

THE SAME GUIDELINES WILL APPLY FOR EVERY EXAM.

PLEASE SAVE THIS SHEET FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

EXAM # 3

RLST 2400 SPRING, 2001

Religion and Contemporary Society

PLEASE ANSWER ONE OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Cultural changes do not happen overnight. When a new nomos takes over from an old nomos, the process takes a long time. Even if postmodernism is becoming the new nomos, we are still strongly affected by elements of the traditional (= modern) nomos. So our present nomos is actually a blending of the modern and the postmodern. Pick THREE examples of different facets of life in the U.S. today, and show how elements of the modern and the postmodern are blended in them. Explain the SPECIFIC features or qualities of modernity and postmodernity shown by your examples. Explain what makes those features or qualities modern or postmodern. In other words, explain briefly how those specific features or qualities fit into the larger patterns of modern and postmodern nomoi we have studied.
2. We have been studying the hypothesis that postmodernism is becoming the new nomos, the new public religion. Suppose that hypothesis is true and that in the near future postmodernism will be the dominant style in every aspect of U.S. life. How would life change if postmodernism clearly dominated every aspect of the nomos? Would you want your life, and your children’s and grandchildren’s lives, to be changed in this way. Why and/or why not?

This essay covers material studied through March 23.

It is DUE in class on WEDNESDAY APRIL 4.

Essays should be about FOUR (4) typed pages, or the equivalent in neat handwriting;

all papers double-spaced please. Please identify clearly which question you are answering.

Please refer to the guidelines distributed with Exam # 2. Those guidelines apply to all exams in this course.

Remember again that your recitation instructor will be glad to discuss your paper with you as you are preparing it.

FINAL EXAM

RLST 2400 Spring, 2001
Religion and Contemporary Society

We have studied Christian liberation theology and Charlene Spretnak's holistic spirituality as two alternatives to the dominant trends in our society (modernity and postmodernism). Both liberation theology and Spretnak's holistic spirituality focus on specific problems in our society. The question is: Do you think that liberation theology and holistic spirituality can work together in an alliance? Or do they contradict each other too much to be effective partners in dealing with the social problems they address?

Support your answer by discussing the approaches that liberation theology and Spretnak take, or would take, to alleviating poverty around the world and to ONE other specific issue of your choice. The issue you choose might be (these are just examples): treatment of women and/or minority groups, structures of political power, the global capitalist system, the natural environment, education. In your discussion, explain why liberation theologians and Spretnak would analyze and respond to the issues in their particular ways. Be sure to show that you understand the religious / spiritual foundations of their approaches; i.e., how they relate concrete social issues to more abstract questions of religious / spiritual reality. And be sure that you offer a clear, definite answer to the question stated above, with specific reasons for your answer.

Guidelines from previous exams apply to this exam too. Be particularly careful to avoid unnecessarily long introduction and quotations. (You may be best off with no quotes at all. You can cite specific page numbers in the books for specific ideas to which you refer.)

Essays should be about five (5) typed pages, or the equivalent in neat handwriting. All papers double-spaced, please.

This IS your final exam. There is no other final exam.

The exam is due by 4:30 PM on Wednesday, May 9, in the Religious Studies Department office, Humanities 240. Look for the box with your recitation instructor’s name.

If you would like your instructor’s comments on your paper, please attach a stamped self-addressed envelope, or call Prof. Chernus (492-6169) after May 15 to make arrangements.

Your recitation instructor will be happy to discuss the exam with you as you are preparing it.

THANK YOU FOR A VERY ENJOYABLE COURSE. HAVE A FINE SUMMER.