SYLLABUS
Up INFORMATION SYLLABUS ASSIGNMENTS FORUM GUIDES REFERENCES

 Assignments  | Exam

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 THEMES

SESSIONS

TOPICS

MATERIALS

Introduction
 

Aug. 31

 The Peculiarities of American Religion:History, Religion, and American Life 

Marty [M], Preface, chap. 1
Porterfield [P],
Intro, 1-23,
Web [W]
Civil Religion
Video:
Sacred Land

 

 

 

PART I:
Colonial Foundations

Check Caucus Item for Part I for discussion of materials and  issues

 

 

 

 

 

Sept. 7

1. Religious Divisions, European Expansion, & the Emergence of America

 

M: chaps. 2-4
W: [any three]
   Luther
   Schleitheim
   Trent: Confession
    Trent  on  Justification
    Las Casas
    Jesuit Relations

 
Sept. 14

2. Protestant Roots of American Culture

M: chaps. 5, 6
P: 1, 10, 11, 12
W: Calvin
  
Shepherd
  
Cotton
   Williams
Sept. 21
(& Sept. 28)

3. Challenges to Traditional Protestantism: Revivalism and Enlightenment

M: chap. 8; P: 2, 14
W:
   Whitfield
   Cutler
   Edwards
  
Paine
   Jefferson/Adams

Amazing Grace (Videotape)
     

 

 

 

PART II:
 
In God We Trust, 1770-1870

Check Caucus Item for Part II for discussion of materials and  issues

Oct. 19

4. Revolution, Republican Religion & American Identity

M: pp. 154-166; P: 15; LM: 1
W: Choose 2 primary and 1 secondary sources from the following:
   Madison
   Jefferson to Baptists
  
Allen
  Wheately
  Backus,

  Matthews, Lecture  
  Sassi, essay

 
Oct. 26

5. Burgeoning Diversity, & the Evangelical Tide

M: 10, 11
P: 3, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
W:
  Joseph  Smith
   Charles G Noyes

 

Nov. 2

6. The Protestant Quest for a Christian America, Reform Movements, the Crisis of Civil War

M: 12; LM: 5
W:
   Lincoln, Letter to J. Speed
   Lincoln, Meditation
   Lincoln, Fast-Day
   Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural

 

 

 

 

PART III. Challenges to Protestant America, 1870-1920

 

Check Caucus Item for Part III for discussion of materials and  issues

Nov. 9

7. Religious Diversity, Dilemmas of Identity, & Claiming the American Dream

M: 12, 13; P: 6, 7, 21, 22; LM: 6
W:

   Trusteeism
   Ethnic Identity

   Catholics & Liberty
  
Ireland
  McQuaid
   Reform & Conservative Judaism
  
Morgan, Destiny of the Indian
 

Nov. 16

8Fragmentation: Modernism, Fundamentalism, & Other Alternatives in American Religion

M: 14, 15; P: 5, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28
LM: 7

W:
  Pius X
  Sullivan
  Machen
  Mathews
  Washington Gladden
  Williams Jennings Bryan

 
Nov. 23

VIRTUAL CLASS

9. Social Challenges: Religious Responses to Industrial and Urban America

M: 16; P:  25
W:
  
Rauschenbusch
   Lawrence
     

 

 

PART IV.
Towards a Post-Christian Nation, 1920-2005

Check Caucus Item for Part IV for discussion of materials and  issues

 Nov. 30

10 . Twilight of Protestant America

M: 17, 18
P:  35
LM: 2, 3

 
Dec. 7

11. Reconstruction of American Religion

M: 19; Eck, 1-5
P: 9, 32, 33, 34, 38, 39; LM: 4.
 
WEB:
Shared Prayers (from NY Times series on Race in America)
Pentecostal Church, historical overview (from Race in America)

Dec. 14

12. One and Many: Religion and the Culture Wars

 

M: 20; P: 9, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43
LM: 9.

Eck, chaps. 6-7
W:
  World Religions in Boston
 
Moore, Postscript: Civil and Uncivil Religions
 

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