REL 691 Approaches to the Study of Religion

Transcription

1 REL 691 Approaches to the Study of Religion Thursdays 9:00-11:45 in HL 504 Instructors: the Faculty of the Department Coordinator: Joanne Punzo, Director of Graduate Studies The academic study of religion draws from a wide variety of sources for its theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Much of that diversity of outlook and training is represented on the faculty of the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. This seminar introduces graduate students to some of the classical texts, methods and approaches in use in the field and in this department. Course Requirements Readings & Discussion: Seminar must be prepared to discuss all the required readings during each seminar. To facilitate these discussions, every member must write a short (1-2 pages) response paper to the assigned readings for that day. Instructors may provide more specific instructions for given seminars. Response papers are due each week at noon on Wednesday, the day before the class, and should be submitted by to the Discussion Board on Blackboard. Before the seminar, take time to read your colleague's responses. Research Papers: The major requirement for seminar members will be a substantive and original research paper that brings one or more of the approaches discussed in the course to a specific aspect of religious experience or thought. This process of the engagement of theory with specific materials and issues is a key skill for future work in the field. The faculty member who taught the seminar on that approach, will grade the paper. The finished research papers are due on or before ember 19th and must be submitted to the seminar coordinator, Joanne. Late papers and reports will not be eligible for "A" grades and incompletes are strongly discouraged. Note that each member must submit a topic and brief abstract to Prof. on or before 30th. Unfortunately this date is before the end of all of the presentations but members need to plan and receive early feedback on their proposed projects. Those considering work with faculty whose presentation falls after that date need to consult with that faculty person. Seminar members are strongly encouraged to begin to consider their projects as early as possible. Academic Integrity: Complete academic integrity is expected of all students. Any incidence of academic dishonesty, as defined by the SU Academic Integrity Policy (see the Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures) will result in both course sanctions and formal notification of the College of Arts & Sciences. Written assignments must represent the work of the individual student and scrupulously note the source of both wording and ideas that cannot reasonably be considered common knowledge in the field of the academic study of religion. Disability Policy: Any students that need accommodation because of disability should discuss it with the professor or T.A. during office hours or by appointment and be prepared to provide documentation to the Office of Disability Services (ext or 1371) Textbooks (Required): Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Carol Cosman. Oxford Univ Press. Eliade, Mircea. Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. Willard Trask. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [1957]. Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Norton & Co., ISBN-10:

2 Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling. Trans. Alastair Hannay. Penguin Books, Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage, ISBN-10: X Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. Talcott Parsons. Routledge, 1985 Other readings are available on electronic reserve through Blackboard. For full bibliographic references for all assigned readings, consult the Bibliography below. Date Professor Subject Text(s) 3 Gail Hamner Historiography and Political Theory Required 1843 essay. "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right": Introduction", in Robert Tucker, ed., The Marx- Engels Reader, pp Recommended selection also from 1843, "On the Jewish Question", in Tucker, ibid., Also required: Weber, Protestant Ethic, esp. chs. 2, Iconic Books Symposium 2 at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY Organized by James Watts 10 Ernest Wallwork Sociology of Religion Primary: Durkheim, Elementary Forms, "Introduction," pp vii-xxxv; Book I, Chapter 1, pp. 3-46; Book II, Chapter 7, pp ; and the Conclusion, pp Secondary: Wallwork, "Durkheim's Early Sociology of Religion," Sociological Analysis 46:3;Wallwork, Durkheim: Morality and Milieu, ch.1 17 Gareth Fisher Anthropology of Religion In Lambek Reader: Turner, "Liminality and Communitas," ch. 25; Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System," ch. 4; Asad on "Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category," ch Ann Gold SEMINAR BEGINS AT 8:30 am Ethnography, Interpretation, Experience James, Ceremonial Animal, In Lambek Reader pp , selections by Fortes, Obeyesekere, Boddy, and Tedlock In McCutcheon, Insider/Outsider: pp , selections by Hufford, Jackson, O'Flaherty, Brown, and Wolf

3 1 Tazim Kassam Orientalism and Feminism Edward Said, Orientalism (Vintage: 1979) Introduction, pp. 1-28; Ch. 2, III, "Oriental Residence and Scholarship," pp Saba Mahmud, Politics of Piety (Princeton: 2005), Ch. 1, "The Subject of Freedom," pp. 1-39; Ch. 4, "Positive Ethics and Ritual Conventions," pp Mellon Conference in HL Killian Room Organized by Ann Gold, Gareth Fisher and Joanne Place/No Place: Spatial Aspects of Urban Asian Religiosity SEE 8 Phil Arnold Discovery, Conquest & Cultural Contact Charles H. Long, Significations; David Chidester, Frontiers of Comparison, in Savage Systems, pp. 1-29; Vine Deloria, Jr. An Open Letter to the Heads of Christian Churches in America, in For This Land, pp Joanne History of Religions and the In-betweens Joachim Wach, "Master and Disciple" in Essays; Eliade, Sacred and Profane; McCutcheon, Discipline of Religion, Chapter 9 (on Eliade); Kripal, The Serpent's Gift, Introduction Zak Braiterman Jack Caputo Psychology of Religion Religion and onstruction Freud, Civilization and its Discontents Caputo & Derrida, "A Conversation," in onstruction in a Nutshell, (BB) Caputo, "The Messianic" in onstruction in a Nutshell, Pat Miller Image, History and Postmodernism American Academy of Religion, Montreal, Quebec White, Figural Realism, 1-26 Mitchell, Picture Theory, Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want?, Ed Mooney Theory and Method of Reading Texts Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling Mooney, "Love: this lenient interpreter" "Julia Kristeva: Tales of Horror and Love" "Preservative Care: Saving Intimate Voice in the Humanities" Plus Instructions on Blackboard 19 Marcia Women/Race/Politics/Religion Primary: Baker, "Domestication of Politics,"

4 Robinson ; Carby, Reconstructing Womanhood, 62-94; Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 67-90; Higginbothom, Righteous Discontent, , ; Welter, "Cult of True Womanhood," ;Plus Chapter/Prologue from Prof. Robinson's manuscript on Harper Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA No Classes DUE Gustav Niebuhr Thanksgiving Break Proposals for Seminar project with abstract and basic bibliography due to Thinking about Religion in Emerson, "Divinity School Address"; Thoreau, America Walden, Ken Frieden Literary Intertextuality Hutcheon, Theory of Parody, chs. 1-2; Nahman, "The King and the Wise Man"; Kafka, "Two Parables" 19 Term papers due! Course Bibliography: Baker, Paula. The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, The American Historical Review 89/3 (1984), Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969 (orig. 1950). Caputo, John D. (ed.), onstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida. New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood: the Mergence of the Afro-American Woman elist (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1987), Chidester, David. Savage Systems; Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (NewYork: Routledge, 1990), Davis, Creston, John Milbank, and Slavoj Zizek, eds. Theology and the Political: The New Debate. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Deloria, Jr., Vine. For This Land: Writings on Religion in America. New York: Routledge, Derrida, Jacque. Specters of Marx. New York: Routledge, Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of the Religiou Life, trans. Carol Cosman. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press. ISBN Eagleton, Terry. Marx. New York: Routledge, Evans-Pritchard, E.E. Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events, from Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande Ewing, Katherine P. Dreams from a Saint: Anthropological Atheism and the Temptation to Believe. American Anthropologist 96/3 (1994), Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Norton & Co., 1961.

5 James, Wendy. The Ceremonial Animal: A New Portrait of Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Jameson, Fredric. "The Vanishing Mediator; or, Max Weber as Storyteller." New German Critique (Winter, 1973), 1: Reprinted in The Ideologies of Theory, New York: Verson, Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins. Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted. New York: Oxford University Press. Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins. A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader. New York: Feminist Press. Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. Righteous Discontent: The Women s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), and Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985, Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling Kripal, Jeffrey J. The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion. Chicago; University of Chicago Press, Lambek, Michael, ed., A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell Long, Charles H. Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion. Aurora, CO: The Davies Group, Publishers, 1999 (first published 1986). Mahmud, Saba, Politics of Piety. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005 Marx, Karl. The German Ideology. (German orig. 1845). In Robert C. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader. Norton, McCutcheon, Russell T., The Discipline of Religion: Structure, Meaning, Rhetoric. London and New York: Routledge, ed. The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader. London: Cassell. 1999," Mitchell, W. J. T. What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: U. of Chicago, 2005., Picture Theory. Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1994 Mooney, Edward F. "Love: this lenient interpreter" in The Wisdom in Love, ed. Benson and Wirzba. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008 [also in my On Soren Kierkegaard: Dialogue, Polemics, Lost Intimacy and Time, Ashgate, 2007, Ch. 5].. "Julia Kristeva: Tales of Horror and Love," in Kierkegard and the Social Sciences, ed. Jon Stewart, Ashgate, "Preservative Care: Saving Intimate Voice in the Humanities" in Soundings, An Interdisciplinary Journal, Fall/Winter, 2008 [also in my Lost Intimacy in American Thought: Recovering Personal Philosophy from Thoreau to Cavell, Continuum Books, 2009, Ch. 10]. Ong, Aihwa. The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist 15/1 (1998), Negri, Antonio. The Porcelain Workshop: For a New Grammar of Politics. New York: Semiotext(e), Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage, Stallybrass, Peter. "Marx's Coat", in Patricia Spyer, editor, Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces, New York: Routledge, Tucker, Robert C., ed. The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd edition. New York: Norton & Co., Wallwork, Ernest. Durkheim: Morality and Milieu. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, "Durkheim's Early Sociology of Religion," Sociological Analysis 46:3 Wach. Joachim. Essays in the History of Religions edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Gregory D. Alles. New York: MacMillan, Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. Talcott Parsons. Routledge, Welter, Barbara. The Cult of True Womanhood: American Quarterly 18/2, Part 1 (1966), White, Hayden. Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1999.