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This course will explore how religious movements have shaped
and been shaped by political and cultural institutions in
the US. The course does not attempt to make a complete or
exhaustive survey of all or most of the religious movements
in America. Rather, the approach will be to look at different
religious responses to social, cultural, and political problems
in American life. Thus, the course will be organized thematically
around topics such as: colonialism and missionary activity,
disestablishment, secularism, revivalism, sectarianism, immigration
and nativism, civil rights, scientific inquiry, sexual liberation
and regulation, mass media, economy, utopia, and apocalypticism.
One goal of the course will be to consider how diverse communities
have participated in constructing an "American" religious
discourse. In this context, we will look at pluralism and
national identity as conceptual problems that have played
a role in defining how religious communities have seen themselves
and others.
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