Course Outline (PDF) - Department of Religious Studies

RS 701 Issues in the Study of Religion Office: UH 114. Tel: ext. 233 88.
Fall 2012
E-mail: runess@mcmaster.ca.
Dr. Anders Runesson Office Hours: Friday 14.00-15.00
Course Description
This departmental seminar is required of all incoming students. It offers a forum for the discussion of issues
central to the field of Religious Studies and for the exploration of a variety of approaches to investigating
religious traditions, texts, institutions, ideas, experiences and practices. Since Religious Studies might best be
considered a field rather than a discipline, its theories, methods and issues can be extremely diverse. In the
seminar we will consider the following questions from a variety of perspectives: What do we think we are
studying when we study religions? Why do we think this is a worthwhile endeavour? How do we study
religions? As in all seminars, we analyse not only the topics discussed in the assigned readings, but also the
readings themselves, how they were written and why certain perspectives and materials may have been chosen.
Requirements and Evaluation
Seminar participation, weekly responses, intellectual biography (20%)
You should complete all the assigned readings for each meeting of the seminar and be prepared to discuss them
intelligently. Each week, you should write a brief response to the readings (not more than one page, times 12,
single-spaced) and send it by email in pdf format to the other seminar participants, including me. Please send it
by 5pm of the Monday before class. You will not receive an individual grade or comments on these responses,
but they are part of participation in the seminar. They will help you to organise your thoughts before we meet.
Before the first (non-organisational) meeting of the seminar, please compose a short intellectual biography (not
more than one page, times 12, single-spaced). Describe what led you to begin your studies at McMaster. What
is your area of interest? How do you see yourself fitting in to the larger field of Religious Studies? What is the
significance to that field of what you study and how you study it? How might you explain your interests to
someone outside the field?
Participation in 701 mini-conferences (25%)
An important part of the seminar consists of a series of mini-conferences/workshops/roundtables on issues in
the study of religions. You will be asked to give short papers or presentations, respond to other presentations or
be involved in a roundtable. Details of these mini-conferences and of your role in them will be distributed
separately. You’ll be graded on your level of preparation, your ability to respond to the ideas of other
participants, and the depth and breadth of your knowledge.
Oral Presentation (25%)
Students will each be assigned a recent issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion on which to
present. You will have about 10-15 minutes during which you should briefly characterise the contents of the
issue (not just articles, but also letters to the editor, book reviews etc.). Then go on to talk about what this
particular issue of the JAAR can tell us about the state of our field, its dominant theories, methods, issues and
problems. We’ll have one or two of these presentations each week, except during mini-conference weeks.
Final project (30%)
There is no research paper for this course. Instead you will submit a project composed of the following three
elements: [1] a syllabus for an introductory undergraduate course on Issues in the Study of Religion, [2] a
proposal for a one-day workshop on a particular issue or theme in Religious Studies. You should explain why
the topic you have chosen deserves such a workshop, and include a list of scholars you want to invite (living or
dead) and what they will talk about. [3] a minor paper (max. 5 pp.) where you apply insights gained during the
term to your own field: where lie, according to your understanding, the major problems, opportunities, or
methodological challenges in your field? In which way have assigned readings and discussions influenced your
thinking regarding your present and future contributions to the field? Deadline: Monday December 10 at 5pm.
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Schedule
SEMINAR DATE THEME READINGS
1 Sept 11 Organisational meeting
2 Sept 18 What is “Religion”? Can we Study
it? Should we?
3 Sept 25 Mini-conference 1
The study of Religion in the
Current Historical Moment
4 Oct 2 Religious Studies as an Academic
Discipline
5 Oct 9 Thinking Through and Around
“Religion”
6 Oct 16 Mini-conference 2
Religious Conflict and the View of
the ‘Other’: The case of Anti-
Judaism and Anti-Semitism
7 Oct 23 Rationality, Modernity, and Other
Problems
8 Oct 30 Mini-conference 3
Sociology and Social-Scientific
analysis of Religion: On Theories
and Models
9 Nov 6 Religion: The Material and the
Physical
10 Nov 13 Mini-conference 4
Feminism and Religious Studies:
Theory, Method, Application
Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious”;
Lopez, “Belief”; Bell, “Performance”;
McCutcheon, “The Category ‘Religion’ in
Recent Publications”; Ward, “The Future of
Religion”; Engler, “’Religion,’ ‘the Secular’
and the Critical Study of Religion.”
Lincoln, Holy Terrors.
Gill, “The Academic Study of Religion”;
Smith, “Religion and Religious Studies”;
Gerhart, “Dialogical Fields in Religious
Studies”; Wiebe, “Why the Academic Study
of Religion?”
Lincoln, “Conflict”; Masuzawa, “Culture”;
Sharf, “Experience”; Schopen, “Relic”;
Schopen, “Archaeology and Protestant
Presuppositions.”
Fonrobert; “Christian Anti-Judaism”;
Cohen, Medieval Anti-Judaism, 19-50;
Laqueur, Changing Face of Anti-Semitism, 71-
89; Heschel, “Supersessionism”; Bristow
(ed.) No Religion is an Island, 153-179.
Stoller, “Rationality”; Benavides,
“Modernity”; Winquist, “Person”;
Hultkrantz, Ecology of Religion, 221–236.
Hamilton, Sociology of Religion, 229-271;
McGuire, Social Context, 155-187; Duling,
“Recruitment to the Jesus Movement.”
LaFleur, “Body”; Miles, “Image”; Wilson,
“The Female Body as a Source of Horror
and Insight”; Camporesi, Food and Fantasy in
Early Modern Europe, 40-55.
Juschka, “General Introduction”; Warne,
“(En)gendering Religious Studies”;
Shukrallah, “Islamic Movement”; Christ,
“Feminist Paradigm Shift”; Schüssler
Fiorenza, “Remembering the Past”; Shepard
Kraemer, “Jewish Women”
11 Nov 20 What is “Comparative Religion”? Slingerland, “Conceptual Metaphor
Theory”; “Symposium on Donald S. Lopez
Jr.’s Prisoners of Shangri-La” 163-214
(Germano, Shakya, Thurman, Lopez Jr.)
12 Nov 27 Mini-conference 5
Postcolonialism and the Study of
Religion: Theoretical Foundations
and Application
Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 1-20;
Runesson, Exegesis in the Making, 1-16, 51-
88; Sugirtharaja, Imagining Hinduism, 1-37,
74-89.
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Bibliography (Required Readings)
Bell, Catherine. “Performance.” Pages 205–24 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C.
Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Benavides Gustavo. “Modernity.” Pages 186-204 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark
C. Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Bristow, Edward, ed. No Religion is an Island: The Nostra Aetate Dialogues. New York: Fordham
University Press, 1998.
Camporesi, Piero. Bread of Dreams: Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1989.
Christ, Carol P. “Mircea Eliade and the Feminist Paradigm Shift.” Pages 571-590 in Feminism in the
Study of Religion: A Reader. Edited by Darlene M. Juschka. London: Continuum, 2001.
Cohen, Jeremy. The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1982.
Duling, Dennis C. “Recruitment to the Jesus Movement in Social Scientific Perspective.” Pages 132-
75 in Social Scientific Models for Interpreting the Bible. Edited by John J. Pilch. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
Engler, Steven. “’Religion,’ ‘the Secular’ and the Critical Study of Religion.” Studies in Religion 40
(2011) 419-442.
Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva. “Jewish Christians, Judaisers, and Christian Anti-Judaism.” Pages
234-254 in A People’s History of Christianity, vol. 2: Late Ancient Christianity. Edited by Virginia
Burrus. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005.
Gerhart, Mary. “Dialogical Fields in Religious Studies.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62
(1994): 997–1001.
Gill, Sam. “The Academic Study of Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (1994): 965–
75.
Gyatso, Janet, ed. “Symposium on Donald S. Lopez Jr.’s Prisoners of Shangri-La.” Journal of the
American Academy of Religion 69 (2001): 163-214.
Hamilton, Malcolm. The Sociology of Religion. 2d ed. London: Routledge, 2001.
Heschel, Susannah. “From Jesus to Shylock: Christian Supersessionism and ‘The Merchant of
Venice’.” Harvard Theological Review 99, no. 4 (2006): 407-31.
Hultkrantz, Åke. “Ecology of Religion: Its Scope and Methodology.” Pages 221-36 in Science of Religion.
The Hague: Mouton, 1979.
Juschka, Darlene M. “General Introduction.” Pages 1-22 in Feminism in the Study of Religion: A Reader.
Edited by Darlene M. Juschka. London: Continuum, 2001.
LaFleur, William. “Body.” Pages 36–54 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C. Taylor.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Laqueur, Walter. The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006.
Lincoln, Bruce. “Conflict.” Pages 55–69 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C. Taylor.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Lincoln, Bruce. Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion After September 11. 2d ed. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2003.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 1998.
Lopez, Donald. “Belief.” Pages 21–35 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C. Taylor.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Masuzawa, Tomoko. “Culture.” Pages 70–93 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C.
Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
McCutcheon, Russell T. “The Category ‘Religion’ in Recent Publications: A Critical Survey.” Numen
42 (1995): 284-309.
McGuire, Meredith B. Religion: The Social Context. 2d ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1987.
Miles, Margaret R. “Image.” Pages 160–172 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C.
Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
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Runesson, Anna, Exegesis in the Making: Postcolonialism and New Testament Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
Schopen, Gregory. “Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism.”
History of Religions 31, no. 1 (August 1991): 1–23.
__________. “Relic.” Pages 256–268 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C. Taylor.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. “Remembering the Past in Creating the Future: Historical-Critical
Scholarship and Feminist Biblical Interpretation.” Pages 43-63 in Feminist Perspectives on Biblical
Scholarship. Edited by Adela Yarbro Collins. Chico: Scholars Press, 1985.
Seneviratne, Thalatha and Jan Currie. “Religion and Feminism: A Consideration of Cultural
Constraints on Sri Lankan Women.” Pages 198-220 in Feminism in the Study of Religion: A Reader.
Edited by Darlene M. Juschka. London: Continuum, 2001.
Sharf, Robert H. “Experience.” Pages 94–116 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C.
Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Shepard Kraemer, Ross. “Non-Literary Evidence for Jewish Women in Rome and Egypt.” Pages 221-
38 in Feminism in the Study of Religion: A Reader. Edited by Darlene M. Juschka. London:
Continuum, 2001.
Shukrallah, Hala. “The Impact of the Islamic Movement in Egypt.” Pages 180-97 in Feminism in the
Study of Religion: A Reader. Edited by Darlene M. Juschka. London: Continuum, 2001.
Slingerland, Edward. “Conceptual Metaphor Theory as Methodology for Comparative Religion.”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72 (2004): 1-31.
Smith, Jonathan Z. “Religion and Religious Studies: No Difference at All.” Soundings 71 (Summer/Fall
1988): 231–244 [to be distributed].
__________. “Religion, Religions, Religious.” Pages 269-84 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited
by Mark C. Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Stoller, Paul. “Rationality.” Pages 239–255 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C.
Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Sugirtharaja, Sharada. Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective. London: Routledge, 2003.
Taylor, Mark C., ed. Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Ward, Graham. “The Future of Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2006): 179-86.
Warne, Randi R. “(En)gendering Religious Studies.” Pages 147-56 in Feminism in the Study of Religion: A
Reader. Edited by Darlene M. Juschka. London: Continuum, 2001.
Wiebe, Donald. “Why the Academic Study of Religion? Motive and Method in the Study of Religion.”
Religious Studies 24 (1988): 403–413 [to be distributed].
Wilson, Liz. “The Female Body as a Source of Horror and Insight in Post- Ashokan Indian Buddhism."
Pages 76-99 in Religious Reflections on the Human Body. Edited by Jane Marie Law. Bloomington
and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995 [to be distributed].
Winquist, Charles E. “Person.” Pages 225–238 in Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Edited by Mark C.
Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Not included in the readings but recommended for the mini-conference on sociology and religion:
Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City: Doubleday,
1967 [especially pp. 1-52].
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