HREL 41100: Readings in the History of Religions: the “Chicago School”

Winter Quarter 2013 Christian K. Wedemeyer Monday 1:30–4:20PM Swift 310B Marty Center Library Office Hours W 1:30–2:30 and Th 1:00–2:00PM [email protected] Course description: This course will be devoted primarily to the close, critical reading and historical assessment of representative works of the most famous names associated with the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. The course will begin by considering some prior historiography of the “Chicago School” and the work of A. Eustace Haydon, before looking closely at the work of Joachim Wach, Mircea Eliade, Joseph M. Kitagawa, Charles H. Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Wendy Doniger, and Bruce Lincoln. Students will develop and present a research paper over the course of the term, and are encouraged to consult the archived papers of Wach and Eliade, or other relevant documents in the university library system. PQ: Classical Theories of Religion or equivalent background.

The following books are available for purchase at the Seminary Cooperative Bookstore: Eliade, Myth of the Eternal Return Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion Wedemeyer and Doniger, Hermeneutics, Politics, and the History of Religions (optional) The remaining readings will be available through electronic reserve (where possible) or regular reserve. Copies of out of print books, such as Wach’s Introduction, may be obtained via Bookfinder.com.

Schedule of Class Meetings:

Week One (7 January 2013): Introductory Session Readings: none

Week Two (14 January 2013): The Mythos of the “Chicago School” and its Prehistory Readings: Kitagawa, “History of Religions at Chicago” Long, “A Look at the Chicago Tradition in the History of Religions” Kitagawa, “History of Religions in America” Haydon, “From Comparative Religion to History of Religions” Haydon, “History of Religions” Haydon, “Twenty-five Years of History of Religions” Haydon, “What Constitutes a Scientific Interpretation of Religion?”

Week Three (21 January 2013): Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (No class)

Week Four (28 January 2013): Wach I (Discipline) Readings: Wach, Introduction to the History of Religions, pp. 1–142 Wach, “The Concept of the ‘Classical’ in the Study of Religion” Wach, “Universals in Religion” Reference: “Bibliography of Joachim Wach”

Week Five (4 February 2013): Wach II (Applications) Readings: Wach, Sociology of Religion, pp. 1–53, 331–383 Wach, “Sociology of Religion” Wach, “The Place of the History of Religions in the Study of Theology” Wach, “On Teaching History of Religions” Wach, Comparative Religion, pp. 2–58 The “Chicago School” Spring 2013

Week Six (11 February 2013): Eliade I (Discipline) Readings: Eliade, “The History of Religions and a New Humanism” Eliade, “The History of Religions in Retrospect: 1912 and After” Eliade, “Crisis and Renewal in the History of Religions” Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return (entire) Eliade, “The ‘History of Religion’ as a Branch of Knowledge” Reference: “Bibliography of Mircea Eliade”

Week Seven (18 February 2013): Eliade II (Applications) Readings: Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, pp. 1–33, 367–465 Eliade, No Souvenirs, pp. 67–103 Eliade, “Homo Faber and Homo Religiosus”

Week Eight (25 February 2013): Joseph M. Kitagawa and Charles H. Long Readings: Kitagawa, “Religious Studies and the History of Religions” Kitagawa, “Convergence and Prejudice in the United States Kitagawa, “The Making of a Historian of Religions” Kitagawa, “History of Religions: Then and Now” Alles and Kitagawa, “Afterword: Dialectic of Parts and Whole” Long, “The Study of Religion: Its Nature and Discourse” Long, “Prolegomenon to a Religious Hermeneutic” Long, “Archaism and Hermeneutics” Long, “Human Centers: An Essay on Method in History of Religions” Long, “Interpretations of Black Religion in America”

Week Nine (4 March 2013): Jonathan Zittell Smith Readings: Smith, “A Twice-Told Tale: The History of the History of Religions’ History” Smith, “Acknowledgements” Parts I and II Smith, To Take Place, pp. 1–23 Smith, “Adde Parvum Parvo Magnus Acervus Erit” Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious” Smith, “Tillich[’s] Remains”

Week Ten (11 March 2013): Wendy Doniger and Bruce Lincoln O’Flaherty, Śiva, pp. 1–39 Doniger, The Implied Spider, pp. 1–25 and 137–158 Doniger, The Hindus, 1–49 Lincoln, “Two Notes on Modern Rituals” Lincoln, “The Metaphors of Mr. Smart” Smart, “History of Religions and its Conversation Partners” Lincoln, “Theses on Method” Lincoln (with Grottanelli), “Theses on Comparison” Lincoln, Holy Terrors, pp. 1–18, 51–61 Lincoln, “The (Un)Discipline of Religious Studies”

Exam Week (TBA, 18 March 2013?): Presentation of Student Projects Readings: none

**Final Papers due Wednesday 20 March 2013 in Swift 204 by 3:00PM**

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Course Reading Bibliography

Kitagawa, Joseph. “The History of Religions at Chicago,” in Kitagawa, History of Religions: Understanding Human Experience (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1987), pp. 133–144.

Long, Charles. “A Look at the Chicago Tradition in the History of Religions and Its Future Task,” in Kitagawa, ed., History of Religions: Retrospect and Prospect (New York: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 87–104.

Kitagawa, Joseph. “The History of Religions in America,” in J. Kitagawa, History of Religions: Understanding Human Experience (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1987), pp. 3–26.

Haydon, A. Eustace. “From Comparative Religion to the History of Religions,” Journal of Religion, vol,. 2, no. 6 (Nov 1922), 577–587.

Haydon, A. Eustace. “History of Religions,” in G. B. Smith, ed., Religious Thought in the last Quarter Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927), pp. 140–166.

Haydon, A. Eustace. “Twenty-five Years of History of Religions,” Journal of Religion, vol,. 6, no. 1 (Jan 1926), 17– 40.

Haydon, A. Eustace. “What Constitutes a Scientific Interpretation of Religion?,” Journal of Religion, vol,. 6, no. 3 (May 1926), 243–249.

Wach, Joachim. Introducion to the History of Religions (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 3–142.

Wach, Joachim. “The Concept of the ‘Classical’ in the Study of Religions,” in Wach, Types of Religious Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), pp. 48–57.

Wach, Joachim. “Universals in Religion,” in Wach, Types of Religious Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), pp. 30–47.

[Kitagawa, Joseph M.] “Bibliography of Joachim Wach (1922–55),” in J. Kitagawa, ed., Understanding and Believing (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), pp. 188–196.

Wach, Joachim. Sociology of Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), pp. 1–53, 331–383.

Wach, Joachim. “Sociology of Religion,” in Essays in the History of Religions (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 81–113.

Wach, Joachim. “The Place of the History of Religions in the Study of Theology,” in Wach, Types of Religious Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), pp. 3–29.

Wach, Joachim. “On Teaching History of Religions,” in Wach, Essays in the History of Religions (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 161–170.

Wach, Joachim. The Comparative Study of Religions. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), pp. 2–58.

Eliade, Mircea. “The History of Religions and a New Humanism,” in M. Eliade, The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 1–11.

Eliade, Mircea. “The History of Religions in Retrospect, 1912 and After,” in M. Eliade, The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 12–36.

Eliade, Mircea. “Crisis and Renewal,” in M. Eliade, The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 54–71.

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Eliade, Mircea. The Myth of the Eternal Return, or, Cosmos and History. Second Printing with Corrections, 1965. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974.

Eliade, Mircea. “The ‘History of Religion’ as a Branch of Knowledge,” in The Sacred and the Profane (San Diego: HB&J, 1959), pp. 216–232.

[Kitagawa, J., and C. Long.] “Bibliography of Mircea Eliade,” in Myths and Symbols: Studies in Honor of Mircea Eliade (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 417–433.

Eliade, Mircea. Patterns in Comparative Religion. 1958. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

Eliade, Mircea. No Souvenirs: Journal 1957–1969 (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977), pp. 67–103.

Eliade, Mircea. “Homo Faber and Homo Religiosus,” in J. Kitagawa, ed., The History of Religions: Retrospect and Prospect (New York: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 1–12.

Kitagawa, Joseph. “Religious Studies and the History of Religions,” in J. Kitagawa, The History of Religions: Understanding Human Experience (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1987), pp. 145–157.

Kitagawa, Joseph. “Convergence and Prejudice in the United States,” in J. Kitagawa, The History of Religions: Understanding Human Experience (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1987), pp. 217–230.

Kitagawa, Joseph. “The Making of a Historian of Religions,” in J. Kitagawa, The History of Religions: Understanding Human Experience (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1987), pp. 101–112.

Kitagawa, Joseph. “The History of Religions: Then and Now,” in J. Kitagawa, The History of Religions: Retrospect and Prospect (New York: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 121–143.

Alles, Gregory D., and Joseph M. Kitagawa. “Afterword: The Dialectic of the Parts and the Whole: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the History of Religions,” in J. Kitagawa, The History of Religions: Retrospect and Prospect (New York: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 145–181.

Long, Charles. “The Study of Religion: Its Nature and Its Discourse,” in C. Long, Significations (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), pp. 13–26.

Long, Charles. “Prolegomenon to a Religious Hermeneutic,” in C. Long, Significations (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), pp. 27–37.

Long, Charles. “Archaism and Hermeneutics,” in C. Long, Significations (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), pp. 38–53.

Long, Charles. “Human Centers: An Essay on Method in the History of Religions,” in C. Long, Significations (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), pp. 65–78.

Long, Charles. “Interpretations of Black Religion in America,” in C. Long, Significations (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), pp. 133–157.

Smith, Jonathan Z. “A Twice-Told Tale: The History of the History of Religions’ History,” in J.Z. Smith, Relating Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. 362–374.

Smith, J. Z. “Acknowledgements: Morphology and History in Mircea Eliade’s Patterns in Comparative Religion (1949–1999), Part I: The Work and its Contexts,” and “Acknowledgements: Morphology and History in Mircea Eliade’s Patterns in Comparative Religion (1949–1999), Part II: The Texture of the Work,” in J. Z. Smith, Relating Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. 61–100.

Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 1–23.

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Smith, Jonathan Z. “Adde Parvum Parvo Magnus Acervus Erit,” in J. Z. Smith, Map is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 240–264.

Smith, J. Z. “Religion, Religions, Religious,” in J. Z. Smith, Relating Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. 179–196.

Smith, Jonathan Z. “Tillich[’s] Remains…,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 78, no. 4 (2010), pp. 1139–1170.

O’ Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. Śiva: The Erotic Ascetic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 1–39.

Doniger, Wendy. The Implied Spider (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 1–25 and 137–158.

Doniger, Wendy. The Hindus: An Alternative History (New York: Penguin, 2009), pp. 1–49.

Lincoln, Bruce. “Two Notes on Modern Rituals,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 45, no. 2 (1977), pp. 147–160.

Lincoln, Bruce. “The Metaphors of Mr. Smart: A Response,” unpublished manuscript.

Smart, Ninian. “The History of Religions and its Conversation Partners,” in J. Kitagawa, The History of Religions: Retrospect and Prospect (New York: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 73–85.

Lincoln, Bruce. “Theses on Method,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religions, vol. 8 (1996), pp. 225–227.

Lincoln, Bruce (with Cristiano Grottanelli). “Theses on Comparison,” in B. Lincoln, Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), pp. 121–130.

Lincoln, Bruce. Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. Second Edition. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), pp. 1–18 and 51–61.

Lincoln, Bruce. “The (Un)Discipline of Religious Studies, “in B. Lincoln, Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), pp. 131–136.

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