RLST 2500: Religions in the United States
This course will introduce students to the historical and contemporary study of religions in the United States through a framework of religious literacy and the investigation of primary source texts, which, set in context, will give us snapshots of religion as lived, practiced and experienced by Americans of all backgrounds during the past 400 years. Along the way we will encounter many of the key religious traditions, movements and figures that have shaped American religious belief and practice. In addition the course will consider such questions as:
- What major cultural forces shape and have shaped religions in America?
- How have Americans of different faiths, ethnicities and nationalities encountered, interacted, argued, clashed and cooperated with one another?
- Have they seen America as a promised land or place of refuge—or as a place of conflict and suffering?
- What are some ways that religious Americans think about faith, spirituality, religious diversity and church and state?
- Ultimately, how does the academic study of religion shed light on what it means to be an “American” or a religious American?
Learning Objectives
- Learn basic demographic information about U.S. religions today;
- Map various themes and trends in American religious history across different time periods;
- Compare and contrast different understandings of “religion” that have been used by U.S. individuals, communities and traditions to relate to one another and to find their place in U.S. society;
- Understand and explain how religion has shaped U.S. history past and present;
- Apply concepts from the course to analyze and critically evaluate primary and secondary source texts;
- Develop critical thinking, reading and writing skills;
- Develop religious literacy: defined by Stephen Prothero as “the ability to participate in our ongoing conversation about the private and public powers of religion.”
In this course, you will
Map religious diversity in your local community;
Explore religious practice in your community through site visits and participant observation;
Connect your own/your family’s religious history to larger themes in U.S. religious history.
Deborah Whitehead
deborah.whitehead@colorado.edu
Deborah Whitehead is associate professor and chair of religious studies and associate director of the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on intersections between religion and philosophy, gender, popular culture and media in post-Civil War U.S. history. Her first book focused on gender and the rhetoric of mediation in classical and contemporary American pragmatism, and her current book project analyzes narratives of mediation in contemporary U.S. evangelicalism. Her work on religion, gender and media in contemporary U.S. evangelicalism, Mormonism and spiritualism has appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and other journals, edited volumes and public scholarship venues.