Original Web Document: http://newton.uor.edu/FacultyFolder/Spickard/rel-syl.htm


SOAN 332: Sociology of Religion

Fall 1996

Instructor:

 

 

Instructor:

Jim Spickard
Assoc. Prof. of Sociology
University of Redlands
Redlands, CA
USA 92373
e-mail: mail@McGuire-Spickard.com

Institutional Information:

The University of Redlands is a small (1500 students), private liberal arts college located 70 miles east of Los Angeles.

Course Information:

I offer this course at the sophomore level in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, with a cross-listing in the Department of Religious Studies. Like all Redlands courses outside the sciences, it is taught as a seminar. My usual enrollment runs between 15 and 25 students. The 1996 version (this syllabus) met for 80 minutes twice a week, plus evening film sessions and field trips.

Reflections:

I will probably not offer a course in this form again, as it suffers from the religious illiteracy of current California undergraduates. More than half of the students enrolled in the 1996 course had never set foot inside a church; the key question on the first day of class was "Dr. Spickard, what is a 'Protestant'?". (As Rodney Stark points out, maps of North American church membership show a great "unchurched belt" extending from Alaska to Baja California, and this trend increases with time.) I spent far too much time bringing them up to speed on church life, structure, etc., and precious little time on sociology. I knew that I would have to do some of this, which is why there is so much "introduction to religion"-type material in it. But I was quite surprised by the degree to which students needed remedial work in the field. Instead, I will probably use the materials here as the core of two courses: a freshman/sophomore level "Religion in Society" course that introduces students to the breadth of church life and to the role of religion in public life (primarily in the U.S.); and a junior/senior "Sociology of Religion" course that explores religion and modernity and other such deep themes. (The latter will require religious literacy as a prerequisite.) Redlands is a great place to do the former, as there are 55+ religious congregations in a town of 75,000 people and students love the field trips. I suspect that it will run yearly or every other year, and that the more advanced course will seldom appear.


Religion is a key part of every society on earth. From the Stone Age to the Space Age, religion has given people a sense of themselves and their cosmos. It has held societies together--and has also at times torn them apart. It is at once a source of meaning and a source of confusion, both to individuals and to groups. The founders of sociology tried to diagnose the ills of modern society by looking at its religions. In this course, we shall do the same. Through lectures, films, field trips and independent projects, we will come to understand the structure of modern religious life, its recent changes, and the significance of those changes for society at large. In the process, you will be invited to:

Pick: