Why study religion?
The study of religion prepares students to flourish in a wide range of careers. Classes that require careful reading and effective communication allow students to develop skills that employers value. More importantly, studying religion equips students to better understand themselves and the world.
I developed an information sheet for my department that explains why majoring in religion is a great idea: you can find it here.
The courses I have taught reflect my interest in secularization and contemporary theory, with a particular focus on the way religious and political concepts influence each other.
Critics of Religion
The critics of religion have shaped our world. They have driven the idea that Western societies are secular, and they are at the center of debates about whether religious communities should have a role in democratic politics. At the same time, criticisms of religion highlight the ways in which religion matters. For that reason, they can help us to think about what religion is – and what it should be.
This class will trace the evolution of atheism from the early modern period into the present, examining the richness of nonreligious experience as a matter of ethics, imagination, emotion, and more. In conversation with the critics of religion, we will clarify what religion is, why it matters, and whether it can incorporate self-critique.
Religion & Democracy
Religious traditions helped shape modern democracy, but some people have come to seem them as a threat. According to one influential view, religion claims sacred authority, which precludes the compromise required for politics in a pluralist society. This class will consider whether this is correct: Does religion represent a challenge for democracy, or it is a resource that can help us live well together?
To address this question, we will review a range of influential theorists – focusing on modern authors, with occasional reference to earlier material. Although we will touch on historical questions, our primary concern will be theory. We will trace the debate over whether religion is a private matter – a question of individual conscience separate from the public sphere – and we will examine the difficulty of describing the sacred in legal definitions. In the process, we will seek to clarify whether religion and democracy are allies or enemies.
Religion and Culture
For thousands of years, the Bible has been a source of inspiration for Jews, Christians, atheists, and others. People of faith have drawn on the Bible in order to reflect on how to think, how to pray, and how to live, but the book has also influenced artists, philosophers, and musicians who don't identify as religious at all. The dizzying variety of biblical interpretation offers a kaleidoscopic lens on the ways that religion and culture influence each other. More broadly, because the Bible has been interpreted in such diverse times and places, its unpredictable history raises fundamental questions about the nature and importance of interpretation.
The Christian Tradition
Christianity is like a kaleidoscope. Christian communities are connected by devoted to a holy person (Jesus of Nazareth) and a set of holy writings (“the books,” ta biblia in Greek). However, Christians have held a range of views regarding who Jesus was, which books belong in the Bible, and what both of them mean. Across seven continents and two thousand years, Christian practice has been enormously, vividly diverse.
In this course, students learn to analyze and synthesize a wide range of material – poetry, philosophy, music, and art – from first-century Palestine to medieval Germany and modern Ethiopia. By exploring the complexity of Christian tradition, they will gain new insight into the world Christianity has shaped, and they will find tools that anyone can use to live a more thoughtful and creative life.