Prof. Bryan S. Turner [email protected] Soc. 83300 – Sociology of Comparative Religion {23374} Tuesdays, 11:45 – 1:45 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits
The course attempts to do three things. The first is to provide you with a critical overview of the development of the sociology of religion and to explore key authors and works. This aspect of the course considers how ‘religion’ and the ‘sacred’ raise intellectual issues that are generic to sociology (explanation, understanding, interpretation, rational action, body, practice and so forth). The second is to consider the current debate about secularization and post-secularism, and its antecedents in such notions as civil religion, religious nationalism, popular religion and public religions. Finally the course looks at a range of problems concerning state-religion relations in multicultural, multi-faith, culturally hybrid societies. These issues will require us to consider such developments as fundamentalism, Pentecostalism, revivalism, religious radicalism, piety, conversion and so forth. Where possible, these considerations are pursued within a comparative and historical framework. However special attention is given to Islam and the issues in the West surrounding veiling, diet, and shari’a.
General Resources Bender, Courtney et al (eds) (2013) Religion on the Edge, Oxford: OUP
Clarke, Peter (ed) The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, Oxford:OUP.
Steven Sharot (2001) A Comparative Sociology of World Religions. Virtuosos, priest and popular religion, New York and London: New York University Press.
Turner,Bryan (ed) (2010) The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, Oxford :Wiley-Blackwell.
Seminar Program
1 Foundations of the sociology of religion: Emile Durkheim and Max Weber Durkheim, Emile (2001) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richman, Michele H. (2002) Sacred Revolutions. Durkheim and the College de Sociologie, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Turner, Bryan S. (1998) Weber and Islam, a critical study. London : Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Weber, Max (2009) ‘Religious Rejections of the World and their Directions’ in Gerth, Hans H, and Mills, C. Wright (eds) (2009) From Max Weber. Essays in Sociology, London: Routledge, pp. 323- 359.
2. The Idea of World Religions: The Axial Age Debate (Christianity and Islam)
Bellah, Robert N. (2011) Religion in Human Evolution. From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age, Cambridge,Mass.: the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,ch.2
Bellah, Robert N. and Joas, Hans (eds) (2012) The Axial Age and its Consequences, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press ch.1
3. The Problem of ‘Asian Religions’
Bellah, Robert N. (2011) Religion in Human Evolution. From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age, Cambridge,Mass.: the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,chs.8,9.
Josephson, Jason Ananda (2012) The Invention of Religion in Japan, Chicago:University of Chicago Press, chs 1,2,3
Weber, Max (1951) The Religion of China, New York:Free Press,Part 3.
4. The Idea of Secular Society: east and west
Asad, Talal (2003) Formations of the Secular, Christianity, Islam , Modernity Stanford:Stanford University Press.
Smith, Graeme (2008) A Short History of Secularism London: I.B.Tauris.
Turner, Bryan S. (2011) Religion and Modern Society, Cambridge: CUP, ch 7.
5. American Exceptionalism: Tocqueville on democracy Tocqueville, Alexis de (2003) Democracy in America London : Penguin Books. Torpey, John (2012)’ Religion and Secularization in the United States and Europe’ in Gorski, Phil et al (eds) The Post-secular Question, NY:NYU,pp.279ff.
Wilson, Bryan (1970) Religious Sects. A Sociological Study, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
6. Civil religion : Rousseau and Bellah Bellah, Robert N. (1964) ‘Religious evolution’ American Sociological Review 29:358-374.
Bellah, Robert N. (1967) ‘Civil Religion in America’ Daedalus 96 (Winter): 1-27.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1956) The Creed of a Priest of Savoy, New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.
7. Fundamentalism and Public Religions Casanova.Jose (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World , Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Casanova, Jose (2008) ‘Public Religion Revisted’ in Hent de Vries (ed) Religion: Beyond the Concept, New York : Fordham University Press,pp.101-119.
Kepel, Gilles (2004a) The Revenge of God. The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modern World, Cambridge; Polity Press.
8. Neo-liberalism and Religion
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J.L (1999) ‘Occult economies and the violence of abstraction: notes from the South African postcolony’ American Ethnologist 26(3): 279-301.
Comaroff, J.and Comaroff, J.L. (2000) ‘Millenial capitalism: first thoughts on a second coming’ Public Culture 12(2): 291-343. Weber, M. (2002) The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings New York : Penguin.
9. Pentecostalism and charismatics Martin, David (2002) Pentecostalism: the world their parish, Oxford: Blackwell.
10. Pietization : Women and Religion Joppke, Christian (2009) Veil. Mirror of Identity, Cambridge: Polity.
Lazreg, Marnia (2009) Questioning the Veil. Open Letters to Muslim Women, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mahmood, Saba (2005) Politics of Piety. The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
11. Spirituality and Popular Religion
Bilici, Muhacit (2013) Finding Mecca in America, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Turner, Bryan S. (2013) The Religious and the Political, Cambridge: CUP, ch.12
12. Liberalism and Plural Societies Courtney, Bender (2013) ‘Pluralism and Secularism’ in Bender, Courtney et al (eds) (2013) Religion on the Edge, Oxford:OUP
Gill, Anthony (2008) The Political Origins of Religious Liberty Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Joppke, Christian and Torpey, John (2013) Legal Integration of Islam, Harvard University Press, ch. 5
Spinner-Halevy,Jeff (2005)’ Hinduism, Christianity and Liberal Religious Tolerance’ Political Theory33 (1): 28-57.
Turner, Bryan S. (2013) The Religious and the Political, Cambridge:CUP, ch.13
13. Postsecularism Gorski, Phil et al (eds) The Post-secular Question, NY:NYU,chs10,12 Habermas, Jurgen (2006) ‘Religion in the public sphere’European Journal of Philosophy,14 (1) 1-25
Taylor, Charles. (2002) Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Zabala S. (ed) (2005) The Future of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press.
14. Globalization and Religion Roy, Olivier (2004) Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press.
Roy, Olivier (2010) Holy Ignorance, New York:Columbia
Turner, Bryan S. (2011) Religion and Modern Society, Cambridge: CUP, ch 14.