REL 100 4 - Introduction to Religion

1.00

This course surveys conceptions of religion and examines how they have shaped modern theories of knowledge, interpretation, society, and culture. Our goal in this course is not to examine the category of religion from the perspective of any particular religious tradition (other course in the department do that), but to rather introduce the ideas of seminal thinkers—Durkheim, Freud, Marx, Weber, and many others, including scholars working today—who have made important contributions to questions such as: what is religion? What are the implications of the boundaries of the “religious” and the “non-religious” on how we interpret our place in the world? What role does religion serve in society? And, as society changes, how shall we interpret religion and its role in people’s lives? As we survey influential texts and thinkers who have shaped the contours of religious studies, we will also critically investigate ways the field has formulated and perpetuated power structures, notions of race and gender, persistent inequality, and visions for equitable society.