MTS Colloquium

Course Description

The purpose of this course is three-fold: One , to give students a solid grounding in the basic issues involved in the academic study of religion, by addressing the question, “What is religion and how should we study it?” Two , to examine the various consequences of our response to this question, in order to more sharply define our own theoretical and practical positions as active scholars and teachers in the field. Three , to help students formulate a viable MTS Thesis project.

Week One, Introductions: 9-15 January

Week Two, Definitions: 16-22 January

Readings: 1. J.Z. Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious,” pp. 269-84, in Mark C. Taylor, Critical Terms for Religious Studies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) ; 2. Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam , (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), pp. 1-54 ; 3. Daniel Dubuisson, The Western Construction of Religion: Myths, Knowledge, and Ideology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), pp. 53-95 .

Week Three, Thinking About Religion With Three Scholars Of Popular Religion: 23-29 January

Readings: 1. Stephen Prothero, God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World - and Why their Differences Matter (New York: Harper One, 2010), pp. 1-24 ; 2. David Chidester, Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture (California: University of California Press, 2005), pp. vii-51 ; Wendy Doniger, “Other Scholar’s Myths: The Hunter and the Sage,” in Other Peoples’ Myths (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 7-24 .

Week Four, The View from Personal Experience: 30 January-5 February

Readings: 1. Robert Orsi, "The Center out There, in Here, and Everywhere Else: The Nature of Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Saint Jude, 1929-1965," Journal of Social History 25.2 (1991): 213-32 , and Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006): 177-204 ; Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987): xi-xix , 119-54 .

Week Five, Paper Topics, First Try: 6-12 February

Readings: No readings this week.

Week Six, "Mere" Ritual: 13-19 February

Readings: J.Z. Smith, "The Bare Facts of Ritual," Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981): 53-65 ; Fritz Staal, "The Meaninglessness of Ritual," Numen 26.1: 2-22 .

Week Seven, Authority: 20-26 February

Readings: Allen, "Authority and Rationality - Max Weber" , 143-84; J.Z. Smith, "The Devil in Mr. Jones," 103-21 ; M. Riesebrodt, " Charisma in Max Weber's Sociology of Religion."

Week Eight and Nine, Community, Place, and Contestation: 27 February-12 March

Readings: Sudhir Kakar, "The Riot, " 25-54; M. Kapstein, "A Pilgrimage Reborn," 95-119 ; Friedland and Hecht, "The Politics of Sacred Place," 21-61 ; J. Kinnard, Places in Motion , ix-55, 187-92 ; Brubaker, "Ethnicity without Groups," 163-88 .

Week Ten, Now It's Really Time For a Topic: 13-19 March

Course Overview

Course Objectives

Degree Learning Goals: Please take some time to look over the Professional Degree Learning Goals (MDiv, MASC, MAPSC) and the Academic Degree Learning Goals (MTS, MA).

Incompletes:  If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

Pass/Fail:  Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.

Academic Integrity and Community Covenant:  All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate.  All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.

Accommodations:  Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.   Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146. 

Writing Lab:  Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments.  Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. 

Inclusive Language:  It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.