RLST105 HM - Religions in American Culture

Credit(s): 3

Instructor(s): Dyson

Description: An exploration of American religious history from pre-colonial indigenous civilizations through the present, focusing on three related issues: diversity, toleration, and pluralism. The course asks how religions have shaped or been shaped by encounters between immigrants, citizens, indigenous peoples, tourists, and, occasionally, government agents. In relation to these encounters, the course considers how groups and individuals have claimed territory, negotiated meaning, understood each other and created institutions as they met one another in the American landscape. Attention is also given to questions of power, translation, and the changing definitions of religion itself.

HSA Course Area(s): History; Religious Studies
HSA Writing Intensive: No