RELS 405 Seminar on Revisiting Religion after 9/11: Religion, Violence and Conflict (MW 4-5:15 ECTR 103)

Dr. Zeff Bjerken Office: 4 B Glebe, room 202 (Phone: 953-7156) Dept. of Religious Studies Office hours: Tues10-12; Wed 11-12; Thurs 2- 3 College of Charleston E-mail: [email protected]

Course Description

Religious violence is a slippery topic, one that is sensitive, complex, potentially offensive, but of major importance. Defining “religion” is notoriously difficult. Defining “violence” turns out to be just as tricky. Due to the nature of the topic, then, this seminar will be exploratory in nature. This course will provide students with critical tools from a variety of disciplines within the field of Religious Studies to make sense of current events in which religion is intertwined with nationalism and the preservation of ethnic and racial identities, for these toxic combinations often result in tragic violence. We will rely on a variety of methods to examine instances of violence and reconciliation, including ethnography, social psychology, the symbolic and rhetorical analysis of religious speech, gender and ritual studies, and the history of religions. As case studies, we will examine Hindu-Muslim conflicts in modern , conflicts between Christian evangelicalism and African animism, terrorism and the “war on terror” after 9/11, and the escalating role of religious rhetoric in American politics today. We will nurture a dialogue concerning the role of religious violence in contemporary society, encouraging both sympathetic and critical understandings of religion. As we inquire together into the history, causes, and characteristics of religious violence, none of us should expect to leave the class with a definitive explanation or solution for it. There are no clear “right answers” that cannot be questioned. What we can do, however, is learn to ask the right questions and explore different means to answer those questions. What might some of those questions be? There are many possible starting points, and you will undoubtedly bring your own questions and ideas with you. We will initially organize our inquiry around the following: Why do individuals involved in terrorism rely so heavily on religious texts and traditions to give license to vengeful ideologies? What is the logic that provides moral justifications for religious violence? Does religious violence represent an aberration born of human weakness or a logical result of religious teachings? What does it mean to “understand” something that we find morally reprehensible or simply bizarre? What is the proper balance between empathy and critical judgment for the scholar of religion? Should scholars of religion be neutral detached observers or serve as religious and cultural critics in the public arena?

Seminar Goals

• To develop the skills of analyzing and critiquing acts of religious violence and statements about those acts (this should make you a much more informed consumer of the news media) • To re-examine what “religion” is in light of the violence committed in its name • To foster a critical and reflexive awareness of how scholars’ methods and theoretical presuppositions (including your own) have informed the way in which religion is understood • To improve the clarity and profundity of your spoken and written expression about a complex and controversial topic

1 COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This is a seminar, not a lecture course, and participants are expected to do all the required readings for each class. You’re allowed 3 unexcused absences; 4 or more will affect your grade. * Active participation in seminar, including one in-class presentation (15%) Asking questions, raising concerns, and offering your own ideas during seminar discussions is a crucial part of this course. You are expected to be an active and informed participant in class discussions. Grades for class participation will be assigned on the basis of the quality and consistency of your involvement in class discussions, including those provoked by other students’ comments. Each student will be required to do at least one class presentation. You will be asked to find a controversial current article on religion and politics found in the media or the Web, and comment on it. The presenter will give a ten minute overview and critique of how religion is depicted in the media. The presenter should raise important theoretical questions based on this article for seminar discussion. * Maintain a reading journal (15%) in which you will cite important passages for each reading assignment, and then record your reading responses or reactions. This may be handwritten or typed, and it may take any form, such as insight. agreement, shock, anger, or criticism. The journal entries should also include at least one critical question that you think the seminar should address. This question should be directed to your classmates, not to me. Preparing in this manner will enable us to move our discussions in a lively and interesting way. * 4 short papers (35%): There will be four brief (2 or 4 page) critical essays on assigned topics that review the basic ideas and analyze the themes from the assigned reading. Grades will be based on its accuracy, analytic insight, and clarity of organization and expression. * Term Research Paper of 10-12 pages (35%): For this research paper you will be required to apply one theoretical perspective and a method learned from those studied over the course of the semester to some current controversy that features religion, politics, identity and violence. A two page description and outline, with a thesis statement and a bibliography, is due October 22; a rough draft of the paper is due on November 12; the final draft is due December 7.

There are Six Required Texts available at the C of C Bookstore: 1) Jonah Blank, Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God; 2) Sudhir Kakar, The Colors of Violence; 3) Shashi Tharoor, Riot: A Love Story; 4) Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible; 5) Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11; 6) Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God (2003) $18.95 There is also a Required Coursepack available on E-Reserve at the College Library and online: ereserve.cofc.edu/eres/courseindex.aspx?page=instr under Bjerken and RELS 405. You will need the “secret password” to access the material:

Grading Scale: A 92-96 (4.0) B- 79-81 (2.7) D+ 66-68 (1.3) A- 89-91 (3.7) C+ 76-78 (2.3) D 62-65 (1.0) B+ 86-88 (3.3) C 72-75 (2.0) D- 59-61 (.70) A+ 97-100 (4.0) B 82-85 (3.0) C- 69-71 (1.7) F below 59

Academic Integrity and the Honor Code: There is a zero-tolerance policy toward plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty in this course. This means that anyone caught taking credit for work that is not his or her own, or cheating in any other way, will receive a failing grade for the entire course. A student found responsible for academic dishonesty will receive a XF in the course, indicating failure of the course due to academic dishonesty. I will provide a handout that discusses the ethics of learning, intellectual honesty, plagiarism, and the College’s Honor Code to remove any ambiguity about what this zero-tolerance policy entails. 2 Readings and Topics for Seminar Discussions

8/22 Introduction: How to Discuss Religion and Politics with Civility; or Why We Were Warned Not to Talk about Religion and Politics, and Why We Will Ignore This

Week 1 Studying Religion in the Secular Academy: Scholars as Caretakers or Critics

8/27 Tracking Down the “Shapeless Beast”: What is Religion, and How do We Study It? (ER #1-2: “Is Nothing Sacred?” and “More Than a Shapeless Beast”) Seminar Topics: What are McCutcheon’s main criticisms (in ER #2) of scholars who see religion as a “private affair?” Why does he champion an approach to the study of religion that is social, public, and “ordinary”? What might Allen argue (in ER #1) is missing from McCutcheon’s approach to religions?”

8/29 Introducing the Epic and Ayodhya, Sacred Site for both & Muslims (The Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, “Beginnings,” pp. ix-24; “Kings,” pp. 53-80)

Week 2 Retelling the Ramayana Epic in Modern India

9/3 The Formation of Hindu Identities: the Politics of Caste and Race (The Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, “Caste” pp. 111-139; “Race” 201-229) Essay topic #1a: On pp. 207-8, Jonah Blank celebrates India’s great ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as India’s ability to assimilate foreign languages, cultures, and peoples. Blank has more difficulty identifying what exactly binds India together into a “nebulous sense of Indian-ness.” How has the Hindu caste system (and varna, with its racial connotations) served both to promote and undermine this sense of unity? In your opinion, does the Indian government’s contemporary affirmative action program for “scheduled castes” promote or undermine India’s integrity and unity-in-diversity?

9/5 Debating Reality & Illusion and Good & Evil in India (The Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, “Illusion” and “Evil” pp. 141-200) In class video: Beyond Good and Evil: Children, Media & Violent Times Essay topic #1b: Respond to the following statement from Blank (p. 173): “How could , the very personification of good, commit an act of evil? How could Ravana, the Lord of the Demons, behave like a true gentleman? These are questions that Indians debate every day, at the dinner table, at the temple, at the tea hut near the village well. Truck-driver philosophers and seamstress theologians come up with many explanations, but never with an answer. There is no answer. Good and evil are not the separate entities we would like to believe.” Is such a view compatible with Hindu notions of Dharma?

Week 3 Re-enacting the Ramayana in Indian Society and Politics

9/10 Duty vs. Desire: as the Ideal Hindu Wife Slides of images from of the Ramayana epic (The Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God ”War,” pp. 263-272; “Love,” pp. 301-334)

9/12 When Women Retell the Ramayana How do They Identify with Sita and Rama? (ER #3:“Yes to Sita, no to Ram”) 3 9/12 Seminar topics: Blank writes (p. 321): “A recent poll asked women to name their role models, and more than half chose Sita as their ideal. To follow the path of Sita is to live vicariously through one’s mate. The highest piety of a woman (such a view holds) is to serve her husband…. A man gains virtue by action, a woman by helping her man to act.” How are Blank’s comments undermined by the testimony of both Indian women and men in ER #3 and by the conclusion of the Ramayana? How might Sita’s story serve as a source of inspira- tion for women seeking their own independent agency rather than servile faith to her husband?

Week 4 Barriers to Empathy: Mobs and Machismo

9/17 Conflicting Memories of Hindu-Muslim Riots (Colors of Violence: 1-4, 12-37) Seminar topics: Kakar distinguishes between the Indian secularist and Hindu nationalist representations of the history of Hindu-Muslim relations. What are the key ideological points found in each form of historiography? What is problematic about each viewpoint? Which historical perspective comes closer to the “truth” in your estimation?

9/19 Profile of a Riot in South India; Morals, Muscles and Machismo (Colors of Violence: 40-64, 72-86) Seminar topics: In what way has the memory of Ayodhya and the Partition of India and become a “chosen trauma” for both Hindus and Muslims? How have Indian wrestlers and bodybuilders (pehlwan) come to embody religious ideals in a modern cult of masculinity?

Week 5 Understanding Religious Antagonism: Stereotypes of the “Other”

9/24 Hindu Victims and their Images of the Muslim Other (Colors of Violence: 87-92, 98-118) Video Father, Son, and Holy War or Hero Pharmacy Seminar topics: How does gender affect the different experiences of Hindus and their memories of the Muslim as “other”? Why do Hindus need Muslims for their nationalist agenda, while Muslims do not need Hindus for theirs, according to Kakar?

9/26 Muslim Victims and their Images of the Hindu Other; Why Guys Throw Bombs (Colors of Violence: 119-128, 139-142; Terror in the Mind of God: 198-218) Seminar topics: Juergensmeyer offers this generalization about many contemporary men who engage in religious violence: “What they have in common, these movements of cowboy monks, is that they consist of anti-institutional, religio-nationalist, racist, sexist, male-bonding, bomb- throwing young guys. Their marginality in the modern world is experienced as a kind of sexual despair that leads to violent acts of symbolic empowerment. It could almost be seen as poignant, if it were not so terribly dangerous.” Do Juergensmeyer’s insights into the causes of religious violence illuminate the documentary on Hindu-Muslim riots we watched on 9/24? How is the assertion of macho masculinity and the recovery of public virility related to the ideology of ?

Week 6 The Psychological Construction of Nationalist and Religious Identities

10/1 The Religious & Nationalist Rhetoric of Hindutva, the Essence of “Hindu-ness” (Colors of Violence: 143-169) Seminar topics: For traditional Hindus, what are the negative effects of modernization and globalization? How is an enduring Hindu identity constructed and by whom? Is this Hindu identity new or old, both or neither? Is it a manifestation of group narcissism?

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10/3 Setting the Scene for Riot: Coca-Colonialism, Love & the Death of an American Woman (Riot: 1-63) Seminar topic: “We have given passports to a dream, a dream of an extraordinary, polyglot, polychrome, polyconfessional society.... But who allowed for militant to arise, challenging the very basis of the Indianness I’ve just described to you?” asks Laxman. How are the secular and pluralistic ideals of Indian democracy evoked by Laxman challenged by the Hindu militant Ram Charan Gupta? When Gupta sets forth his own perspective, what echoes can be heard of Kakar’s Hindu subjects?

Week 7 Reading Riot: Intertwining Love and Lust, Hate and History

10/8 Cross-Cultural Clashes, Post-modern Plots, and Polemical Politics (Continue reading Riot, in whatever order of events you wish) Seminar topic: What collisions of cultures, religions, race and class occur in this novel?

10/10 Wrapping up Riot: Is the riot and murder really unknowable? (Finish reading all of Riot) Essay #2 on Riot: On pp. 136-7 Laxman describes to Priscilla his dream of writing a book about religion without an omniscient narrator, a book of interconnected events that can be read in whatever order the reader wishes to reveal that Truth is “elusive, subtle and many-sided.” How successful is Tharoor in writing a mystery with a plot that cannot be completely unraveled about a murder (and a riot) that can never be completely known? Is truth really unknowable and subjective in this novel? Do all of the antagonists believe themselves to be in sole possession of “the truth,” including Laxman himself?

Week 8 From Bethlahem Georgia to the African Congo

10/15 Fall Break (Begin Poisonwood Bible)

10/17 Introducing Poisonwood Bible: In the Beginning are Words about the Word (Poisonwood Bible: Genesis) Seminar topics: What are the implications of the “poisonwood bible” in the novel’s title? How does the novel make use of themes from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in the structure and telling of the story?

Week 9 Christian Missionaries and Fundamentalists Encounter the “Other”

10/22 Missionaries, Colonialism, and the Study of Religion (Poisonwood Bible: The Revelation; ER #4: “Frontiers of Comparison”) **Term Paper Topic, Outline, and Bibliography due** Seminar topics: How does Kingsolver differentiate among the Price sisters in terms of their voices and their attitudes towards their religious mission in Africa? What differences and similarities are there among Nathan Price’s relationship with his family, Chief Tata Ndu’s relationship with his people, and the relationship of the Belgian and American authorities with the Congo?

10/24 Conversion into “the Other”: the Rhetoric of Fundamentalist Preachers (Poisonwood Bible: The Judges; ER #5: “Speaking is Believing”)

5 Seminar topics: What are the rhetorical strategies used by Baptist ministers to foster conversion to the Word? Does Kingsolver seem “under the spell” of the King James Bible, with its powerful language and narratives? What is the significance of the Kikongo word nommo and its attendant concepts of being and naming? Are there Christian parallels to the constellation of meanings and beliefs attached to nommo?

Week 10 America’s Civil Religion: Is Nationalism a Religion?

10/29 Revelations from the Poisonwood Bible: Understanding the “Word” and World in Africa (Poisonwood Bible: Bel and the Serpents) Essay #3 due: What do you consider the most important lessons learned by Orleanna and the Price girls about the language and religion of the Congo? What “revelations” do they learn about themselves, their earlier assumptions about Africa, and their religious mission there once they begin to listen to the voices and learn the language of the Congolese? Finally, what lessons can we learn from the novel about the study of other religions?

10/31 “In God We Trust”: Civil Religion in America and America’s Mission in the World (ER #6: “Civil Religion in America”; optional--ER #7: “The Bush Agenda”) Seminar topics: Does ER #6 merely analyze and describe civil religion or does it endorse it? Does civil religion provide the State with religious legitimation (e.g. the President’s authority is derived from God)? Does America have a special historic mission to liberate the whole of humanity from bondage?

Week 11 Christian Terrorists? Religion, Rebellion, and Revolution

11/5 Onward Christian Soldiers: the Quest for Christian Empire in America (Terror in the Mind of God, pp. 3-43) Video: Jesus Camp Seminar topics: What’s problematic about the label “terrorist?” Does religion cause violence? What are we to make of the young “soldiers for Christ” that are fostered in Jesus Camp?

11/7 Redefining Religion; Religion, Rebellion and Revolution (Holy Terrors: 1-18; 77-98) Seminar topics: Should we abandon the “F” word “(Fundamentalism) in favor of “religious maximalism?” Are religions inherently revolutionary? Is religion most vital when it is in conflict with mainstream or surrounding cultures? Does a “war on terrorism” create more religions of resistance or rebellion?

Week 12 Revisiting Religion after 9/11

11/12 Symmetric Dualisms: Bush and Bin Laden (Holy Terrors: 19-32, 99-103) Video: The Jesus Factor: Bush’s Evangelical Faith **rough draft of term paper due** Seminar topics: What are some of the dualisms shared by Bush and Bin Laden? How does the basis for their authority (whether religious or secular) produce different rhetorical styles in their public speeches? Can we clearly distinguish between “religious” vs. “political” motivations when we examine President Bush’s policies?

11/14 The Jeremiads of Jerry & James (Falwell & Dobson) (Holy Terrors: 33-61, 104-107; ER #8 “SpongeBob SquarePants and the Emasculating Arm of Flesh”) 6 Seminar topic: Are Christian evangelical leaders like Falwell and Dobson who protest against “deviant” sexuality and gender roles in today’s society fomenting a patriarchal protest movement?

Week 13 The Logic of Religious Violence, the Theater of Terror

11/19 Cosmic Wars: When Symbols Become Deadly (Terror in Mind of God: 121-166) Video: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero Seminar topic: Do the events of 9/11 support Juergensmeyer’s generalizations about ritualized violence performed in a “theater of terror?” Are the acts of terror by the hijackers more important for their symbolic value than for achieving any strategic goal?

11/21 Skip School: Give Thanks, Eat Turkey Week 14 Religion and Reconciliation: The Healing Powers of Religion

11/26 Healing Politics with Religion (Terror in Mind of God: 219-249) Video: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (continued) Seminar topics: What role might theology and ritual play in healing radical religious violence? Is ritualized violence (such as sacrifices or the Crucifixion) cathartic?

11/28 One Nation Under God: What are the Ties that Bind E Pluribus Unum? (ER #9:“The Multi-religious Public Square”) Seminar topics: What might Eck mean when she states: “Diversity, after all, is a mere fact of our society, but pluralism is a creation.” Does Eck’s call for religious pluralism exclude the presence of any serious claim to religious absolutes?

Week 15 Getting Closure: The Public Role of the Scholar of Religion

12/3 What’s at Stake in the Study of Religion? The Scholar of Religion as Public Intellectual (ER #10-11: “The Religious Critic in American Culture” and “Default of Critical Intelligence?”) Essay #4 due: According to Dean, what is the role of the “religious critic” in American society? How does that role differ from McCutcheon’s view of the scholar as a “cultural critic?” From among the theorists that we’ve read in this seminar, whose scholarship doyou admire most and how does it meet the criteria identified by Dean or McCutcheon?

12/7 Final Draft of Term paper due

7 RELS 405 Electronic Reserve Sources

1. Charlotte Allen. “Is Nothing Sacred? Casting Out the Gods from Religious Studies,” Lingua Franca 6/7, 1996, pp. 30-40. 2. Russell T. McCutcheon, “More Than a Shapeless Beast: Lumbering through the Academy with the Study of Religion,” from his Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001, pp. 3-20. 3. Madhu Kishwar, “Yes to Sita, No to Ram: The Continuing Hold of Sita on Popular Imagination in India,” from Questioning : A South Asian Tradition, ed. by Paula Richman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 285-308. 4. David Chidester, “Frontiers of Comparison,” from Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa. Charlottesville: UVA Press, 1996, pp. 1-29. 5. Susan Friend Harding, “Speaking is Believing” from The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics. Princeton University Press, 2000, pp. ix-xii; 33-60. 6. Robert N. Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,” Daedulus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 96.1 (Winter 1967), pp. 1-21. Downloaded from: www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm 7. Jason Purvis, “The Bush Agenda: America’s Religion and the Spread of Democracy.” Essay written for RELS 450 Senior Seminar 2005, College of Charleston. Used with permission of the author. 8. Chelsea Diffendal, “SpongeBob Squarepants and the Emasculating Arm of Flesh” from Chrestomathy: Annual Review of Undergraduate Research, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Charleston Vol. 4 (2005), pp. 46-64. Available online at: http://www.cofc.edu/chrestomathy/vol4/diffendal.pdf 9. Diana L. Eck, “The Multi-religious Public Square” in One Nation Under God? Religion and American Culture, ed. by Marjorie Gorber and Rebecca L. Walkowitz. New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 3-21. 10. William Dean, The Religious Critic in American Culture. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994, pp. xiii-xxiii; 173-180. 11. Russell McCutcheon, “A Default of Critical Intelligence? The Scholar of Religion as Public Intellectual,” from his Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion. Albany: SUNY Press, 2001, pp. 125-143.

Resources for Class Presentations on Religion and Politics in Current Events

1. The Revealer: A Daily Review of Religion and the Press: www.therevealer.org 2. Alt.Muslim: Interactive News for the Muslim Community: www.altmuslim.com 3. Indic Mandala: www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/society_essays_frameset.htm 4. Christianity Today: www.christianitytoday.com 5. Soujourners: Faith, Politics, Culture: www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.home

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