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Cults and Religions Syllabus-Fall 2015

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Cults and Religions Syllabus-Fall 2015 CULTS AND RELIGIONS RELS H295-033 TR 2:00-3:15 p.m. Bobet 216 Instructor: Dr. Catherine Wessinger Office hours: Office phone: 504-865-3182 TR 9:30-10:45, Cell: 504-228-3164 and in the window (12:30-1:45) and Office location: 406 Bobet after 5:00 p.m. by appointment [email protected] http://www.loyno.edu/~wessing Course Description: This research seminar will utilize the cultural debate about whether “cults” are religions to explore methodologies and issues in the academic study of religions. The seminar will acquaint students with the primary scholarly categories of religious phenomena, which are relevant to analyzing mainstream religious traditions as well as new and unconventional religions. Students will critically evaluate information on cults or new religious movements through reading about and discussion of case studies and doing their own research. Objective: The student will learn how to employ history of religions and sociology of religions methodologies in the study of religions. The student will gain enhanced ability to evaluate sources of information. Students will learn how to evaluate truth claims on the part of religious believers, their opponents, the media, and scholars. They will gain experience in articulating their own analyses in writing and orally. Students will benefit from mentoring through the process of researching and writing a Term Paper. Learning Outcomes: Students will master history of religions and sociological terminology and theories relevant to the study of religions. They will gain a sense of how religions are popularly judged as being either mainstream or marginal, and discern the outcomes of these popular evaluations. They will learn about: whether the “brainwashing” theory is scientifically valid; the significance of millennial beliefs in many new religious movements; the role of charisma and types of leadership in new religions; how charismatic religious leadership becomes routinized in institutionalized structures; gender roles and roles of women in alternative religions; factors involved in cases of violence involving religious believers; conceptions of the Divine in new movements that differ from mainstream beliefs about God and their social implications; the processes involved in the maturation of new religious movements; and the ways members of alternative religions may address tensions between their group and mainstream society. Students gain an appreciation of the humanity of persons who belong to and practice the variety of religions in society, and how some religious beliefs and practices are benign and some religious beliefs and practices contribute to harm. 1 Required Texts: Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley, Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, 2nd ed. (Wiley Blackwell, 2015). ISBN: 978-1-118-72210-7. $32.75. COWAN & BROMLEY. Laura Vance, Women in New Religions (New York University Press, 2015). ISBN: 978- 1-4798-1602-6. $17.00. VANCE. Selected PDF articles available on Blackboard. PDF. IMPORTANT NOTE: DR. WESSINGER WILL BE OUT OF THE COUNTRY DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF THE COURSE. SHE WILL BE IN TOUCH WITH THE CLASS VIA BLACKBOARD. STUDENTS NEED TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE ENROLLED IN THE BLACKBOARD. IF YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTIES LOGGING INTO BLACKBOARD FOR “CULTS & RELIGIONS” CONTACT PEYTON BURGESS, 106 MONROE LIBRARY, [email protected], IN THE MONROE LIBRARY TO RECEIVE HELP. OTHER LIBRARY STAFF CAN ALSO HELP YOU WITH BLACKBOARD PROBLEMS. DURING THE FIRST WEEK WHEN DR. WESSINGER IS AWAY, STUDENTS SHOULD DO THE ASSIGNED READINGS, WRITE THE ASSIGNED REFLECTION PAPER, AND MAKE THE ASSIGNED POSTS TO THE DISCUSSION BOARDS. DR. WESSINGER WILL MEET WITH THE CLASS BEGINNING ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. T Aug 25 Introduction: What is a cult? What is a religion? Assignment 1: Write a reflection paper (no more than 1 page)—without doing any research—describing your views on the following questions: What is a cult? What is a religion? What characteristics, if any, distinguish the two? What are your reasons for your answers to these questions? This essay is worth 5 points. It will not be graded. To get the 5 points you must upload the typed essay (saved as Word .doc or .docx) to the SafeAssign link under Course Material on Blackboard on August 25-26. The SafeAssign link will close on August 26 at 11:59 p.m. If an essay is not uploaded, it receives a 0. You will write another essay at the end of the course answering these questions again. Assignment 2: On the Introductions Blackboard, introduce yourself to the class. Give your name, year, major, minor (if any), state where you are from; what religion (if any) you were raised in; what religion (if any) you are now; and what unconventional religions you have direct experience with (as opposed to exposure through the media). Assignment 3: Start looking for a popular book—an autobiography (memoir) or a work written for proselytizing purposes by a member or former member of an unconventional religion or an exposé written by a journalist—and also a scholarly book about the same unconventional religion (stay away from anticult literature) 2 for the Mini-Review Essay. During the following week I will schedule a meeting with each student to discuss the selection of 2 books for the Mini-Review Essay, which is due before Mid-Term. Also give thought to the religious group and topic you want to explore in your Term Paper. It will be helpful if you are able to research the same group for the Term Paper that you read about to write the Mini-Review Essay, but this is not required. R Aug 27 Cults and Religions: Introduction Assignment: Read the following assignments and make thoughtful posts to the Further Discussions Board (on Blackboard) about your reactions to the readings and what you learned from them. COWAN & BROMLEY: “Cults and New Religions: A Primer,” 1-17. PDF: Catherine Wessinger, “New Religious Movements: An Overview,” 6513-20. Assignment: Meet with Brian Sullivan in Monroe Library for a class on library resources for research on new religious movements. Location in the Library to be announced. [F Aug 28 Last day to add.] T Sept 1 Who Joins New Religions and the Brainwashing Debate PDF: Lorne L. Dawson, “Who Joins New Religious Movements and Why: Twenty Years of Research and What Have We Learned? 116-30. PDF: James T. Richardson, “A Critique of ‘Brainwashing’ Claims about New Religious Movements,” 160-66. R Sept 3 The Social Construction of Cults PDF: Douglas E. Cowan, “Constructing the New Religious Threat: Anticult and Countercult Movements,” 317-30. PDF: Anson Shupe, “Deprogramming Violence: The Logic, Perpetration, and Outcomes of Coercive Intervention,” 397-412. [F Sept 4 Last day to drop.] T Sept 8 Unification Church This is the first class for which students will post 3 discussion questions to the Discussion Question Board on Blackboard. The 3 discussion questions must be posted the night before each class with assigned readings or viewings. Read: COWAN & BROMLEY: “The Unification Church/The Family Federation: The Brainwashing/Deprogramming Controversy,” 78-98. Instructor meets with students this week to discuss selection of 2 books for Mini-Review Essay and selection of a research topic for the Term Paper. 3 R Sept 10 Charismatic Religious Leadership PDF: Catherine Wessinger, “Charismatic Leaders in New Religions,” 80-96. PDF: Ji Zhe, “Expectation, Affection and Responsibility: The Charismatic Journey of a New Buddhist Group in Taiwan,” 48-68. T Sept 15 Millennialism PDF: Catherine Wessinger, “Millennialism in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” 3-23. PDF: David G. Bromley and Catherine Wessinger, “Millennial Visions and Conflict with Society,” 191-212. Instructor’s meetings with students on their Mini-Review Essay books and their research topic and sources for the Term Paper continue this week. R Sept 17 Catholic New Religious Movements & Charisma PDF: Deborah Halter, “Charisma in Conyers: A Journey from Visionary to Apparition Site to Church,” 108-14. PDF: Anna-Karina Hermkens, “Marian Movements and Secessionist Warfare in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea,” 35-54. T Sept 22 Social Construction of the Charisma of the Founder of Mormonism PDF: Christopher James Blythe, “‘Would to God, Brethren, I Could Tell You Who I Am!’ Nineteenth-century Mormonism and the Apotheosis of Joseph Smith,” 5-27. R Sept 24 Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or Mormon Church VANCE: “Mormonism: Gendering the Heavens,” 19-48. PDF: Interview with Kate Kelly: “Seeking Equality in the LDS Church: Activism for Women’s Ordination” T Sept 29 Theosophy, New Thought, and New Age Movements PDF: Catherine Wessinger, Dell deChant, and William Michael Ashcraft, (Women in) “Theosophy, New Thought, and New Age Movements,” 753-68. COWAN & BROMLEY: “Ramtha and the New Age: The Question of ‘Dangerous Cult,’” 59-77. R Oct 1 Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam: A UFO Religion (or ET-inspired Religion) Edward Curtis, “Science and Technology in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam: Astrophysical Disaster, Genetic Engineering, UFOs, White Apocalypse, and Black Resurrection,” 35 double-spaced pages in manuscript format. 4 T Oct 6 The Church of Scientology (Another ET-inspired Religion): The Question of Religion COWAN & BROMLEY: “The Church of Scientology: The Question of Religion,” 18-37. R Oct 8 Mini-Review Essay is due. The Church of Scientology PDF: Benjamin E. Zeller, “The “Going Clear” Documentary: A Matter of Framing,” 17 double-spaced pages in manuscript format. MOVIE IN CLASS: We will watch in class the first half of the HBO movie, Going Clear: The Prison of Belief (2 hours) T Oct 13 Off – Fall Break R Oct 15 Peoples Temple and Jonestown PDF: Catherine Wessinger, “1978-Jonestown,” 72 double-spaced pages in manuscript format. EXPLORE THE WEBSITE: Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/ WEB: Catherine Wessinger, “The Problem Is Totalism, Not ‘Cults’: Reflections on the Thirtieth Anniversary of Jonestown” (2008), http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31459 Follow-up Meetings with students about the topics for their Term Papers this week.
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