Pluralisme religieux et société...

... civile

séminaire de Wade Clark Roof, professeur à l'université de Californie, Santa Barbara, et chaire Tocqueville-Fulbright.

Mardi 14h à 16h (salle 12, 105 bd Raspail), du 6 février au 5 juin 2007

The purpose of the course is to approach the study of American society, historically and currently, from the standpoint of its religious diversity. The course looks at the history of migrations of people, cultures, and religions into the country and simultaneously, the evolution of pluralist ideals as a means of unifying the country – “a contentious history,” as historian William R. Hutchison points out. At stake in this discussion is the relationship between pluralism and democracy, how notions of national integration in relation to religious and ethnic cultures have changed over time, ideologies of pluralism and unity, and contemporary issues relating to multiculturalism. Central to the discussion are the challenges the country has faced, and still faces in developing a more “meaningful diversity,” or a normative pluralism. Major ideologies of tolerance, inclusion, and pluralism are examined in some depth. The general approach of the course might be described as “historical sociology.”

Students taking the course for academic credit are expected to prepare a proposal for a research project formulating a topic and review of pertinent literature with annotated bibliography.

syllabus

• February 13: Introduction; Paradigms for the Study of American Religion: In Search of a Theme; Overview of the Course
• Further Study:
• “Introduction,” in Harry S. Stout and D.G. Hart, New Directions in American Religious History
• “Introduction,” in Richard Madsen et. al., Meaning and Modernity: Religion, Polity, and Self

• February 20: Historical Features of American Religion:“Religious Freedom”, “Voluntaryism”, Denominationalism, Associationalism, Religion as “Received Opinion” (Tocqueville), Activism and Moralism

• Reading:
• Catherine Albanese, Chapter 11, “The Public, the Civil, and the Culture of the Center,” American Religions and Religion (Fourth Edition)

• Further Study:
• Mark A. Noll, Chapter 6, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
• Sydney E. Ahlstrom, “The Revolutionary Era,” Chapter 23, A Religious History of the American People
• Alexis de Tocqueville, “On the Omnipotence of the Majority in the United States and its Effects,” Part II, Chapter 7, Democracy in America

• February 27: Pluralism and American Democracy The Demographics; Diversity versus Pluralism; The Three Realms: Church, State, and Civil Society

• Reading:
• W.C. Roof and Nathalie Caron, “Shifting Boundaries: Religion in the United States, 1960s to the Present,” in C. Bigsby, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Modern American Culture, Cambridge University Press

• Further Study
• Nathan O. Hatch, “The Democratization of Christianity and the Character of American Politics,” in Mark A. Noll, Religion and American Politics
• Robert Wuthnow, “In America, All Religions are True,” ch. 8., American Mythos

• March 6: Religious Pluralism as “Toleration”; “Just Behave Yourself”; The Protestant Cultural Establishment; Native Americans, Roman Catholics, Jews; Newly-Made Religions: Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Communal Groups

• Reading:
• William Hutchison, Religious Pluralism in the United States, Chapters 1-4

• Further Study:
• Catherine Albanese, America: Religion and Religions, Parts I and II

• March 13: Religious Pluralism as “Inclusion”; The Melting-Pot; From Religion to Americanization: Shifting Basis of National Integration; World Parliament of Religions; Counter-veiling Arguments: Cultural Pluralism; The 1950s: “Judeo-Christian” and “Triple Melting Pot” as Descriptors

• Reading:
• Hutchison, Religious Pluralism in the United States, Chapters 5-8

• Further Study:
• Will Herberg, Protestant-Catholic-Jew
• Milton M.Gordon, Assimilation in American Life

• March 20: Religious Pluralism as “Participation”; The Civil Rights Revolution; The “New Immigrants”; Ethnicity Reconsidered: Identity Politics and Participatory Democracy

• Readings:
• William Hutchison, Religious Pluralism in the United States, Chapter 9
• Robert Wuthnow, “Ethnic Ties that Bind (Loosely),” Ch. 8, American Mythos

• Further Study:
• Diana Eck, A New Religious America, Chapters 4-6
• Jane Smith, Islam in America

• March 27: Cultures in Contention; The God-Is-Dead Movement; The 1960s and Generational Patterns; 1970s and 1980s: Resurgence of Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christian Movements; Culture Wars and De-Privatization of Religion

• Reading:
• W.C. Roof, Chapter 2, Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion

• Further Study:
• Christian Smith, American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving
• James Davison Hunter, Culture Wars
• Alan Wolfe, One Nation, After All
• Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World

• April 3: California: Laboratory for Religious Pluralism; California as “Exaggerated America”; Latinos, Asians, Muslims, “New Religious Movements”; A Reconstituted Catholicism; Mainline Protestant Decline, Evangelical Protestant Growth; Religious America/Secular America

• Reading:
• W.C Roof., “Pluralism as a Culture: The Case of Southern California,” The Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 2007.

• Further Study:
• W.C. Roof and Mark Silk, eds., Religion and Public Life: The Pacific Region: Faith in a Fluid Environment

• April 10: No class
• April 17: No class

• April 24: Sociological Models of Pluralism; Pluralism as Loss of Subjective Certainty: Peter Berger; Rational-Choice Theory and Competing Religious Markets: Rodney Stark; Outsiders and Redefinitions of America: R. Laurence Moore; Critiques/Applications

• Readings:
• John A. Coleman, S.J., “Selling God in America,” in Richard Madsen et. al., Meaning and Modernity: Religion, Polity, and Self

• Further Study:
• Peter L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy
• Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America
• R. Laurence Moore, Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans

• May 1: No class
• May 8: No class

• May 15: Civil Religion; Bellah’s Thesis; Wuthnow’s “Two Civil Religions Thesis”; Religious Nationalism?; Elaborations and Critiques

• Reading:
• W.C. Roof, “Myths Undergirding War: American Presidential Rhetoric from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush”

• Further Study:
• Robert N. Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,” Daedalus 96: 1-21.
• Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion
• N.J. Demerath and Rhys Williams, “Civil Religion in a Uncivil Society,” Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, 480 (1985)

• May 22: Trends in Christian Evangelicalism; Cultural Transformations; Generational Changes; A Global Vision

• Reading:
• Alan Wolfe, The Transformation of American Religion (Read as Much as You Can)

• Further Study:
• Jim Wallis, God’s Politics
• Donald E. Miller, Progressive Pentecostalism
• Books by Christian Smith

• May 29: Whose America?; Christian America; “Abrahamic Faiths” America; Multireligious America; Secular America; Multiculturalism: Defenders and Critics

• Reading:
• Robert Wuthnow, “Venues for Reflective Democracy,” Ch. 8, American Mythos

• Further Study:
• David Hollinger, Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism
• Stephen Prothero, American Jesus

general bibliography

• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

• Historical:
• Nathan Glazer, We Are All Multiculturalists Now
• John Hingham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925
• Susan Jacoby, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
• Martin E. Marty, Modern American History, Vol. 3
• George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth
• Century Evangelicalism
• Mark Silk, Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II
• Ernest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation: The Idea of American’s Millennial Role

• Sociological:
• Thomas Banchoff, Ed., Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism
• Robert N. Bellah et.al., Habits of the Heart
• Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World
• Helen Rose Ebaugh and Janet Saltzman Chafetz, Religion and the New Immigrants
• Will Herberg, Protestant-Catholic-Jew
• Charles Lippy, Pluralism Comes of Age: American Religious Culture in the Twentieth Century
• Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney, Mainline American Religion: Its Changing Shape and Future
• Wade Clark Roof, Ed., “Religious Pluralism and Civil Society,” Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 2007.
• Robert Wuthnow, Facing Diversity: America and the Challenges of Diversity