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Spring 2002

RELG 747

Dead But Not Forgotten:
Seminal Theorists of Religion and Their Continuing Impact

M 7:00 - 9:30 pm
Pavilion 8, Room 108

This seminar explores the work and continuing influence of four thinkers critical to the development of the history of religions as an academic discipline:  Marx, James, Durkheim, and Weber.  Through careful examination of their seminal works, as well as contemporary responses to and adaptations of their principal theories, we will consider the many ways in which the study of religion remains thoroughly indebted to their models of religious thought and practice.

Requirements/Grading:

Regular and thoughtful engagement in weekly discussion of the readings is obviously a must.  In addition, one student will be responsible for leading the discussion each week.  A research paper (minimum of 25 pages) will be due no later than 5:00 pm on Monday, May 6th.  Please note that all students will be asked to make a rough draft of their research paper available to their colleagues by April 24th, and to present their research-in-progress to the class during our final meeting on April 29th.

Your overall grade for the course will be calculated as follows: 

Class participation (including discussion leading)	50%
Research paper	50%

Readings:

The following required books are available for purchase at the UVa bookstore:

1. Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader, 2^nd ed. (New York:  W. W. Norton, 1978), ISBN:  039309040-X
2. Maurice Bloch, From Blessing to Violence:  History and Ideology in the Circumcision Ritual of the Merina of Madagascar (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1986), ISBN:  0521314046
3. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience:  A Study in Human Nature (New York:  Scribner, 1997), ISBN:  0684842971
4. Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold:  Conversion, Modernity, and Belief (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 1998), ISBN:  0-691-05899-7
5. Michael Jackson, Paths Toward a Clearing:  Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Inquiry (Bloomington, IN:  Indiana Univesity Press, 1989), ISBN:  0253205344
6. Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York:  Free Press, 1995), ISBN:  0-02-907937-3
7. Karen Fields, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa (Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1985), ISBN:  0435074180
8. Tomoko Masuzawa, In Search of Dreamtime:  The Quest for the Origin of Religion (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1993), ISBN:  0-226-50985-0
9. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston:  Beacon Press, 1993), ISBN:  0807042056
10. H. L. Seneviratne, The Work of Kings:  The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1999), ISBN:  0-226-74866-9

All other assigned readings are currently out of print or extremely expensive.  All readings, other than those listed above, are available in xerox form in the Religious Studies Graduate Student Lounge.

Schedule of Classes:

Week I (Jan. 21):  Introduction:  Why Study the Big White Dead Men?

The Nexus of Religion, Politics, and Economy

Week II (Jan. 28):   
Religion as Opiate?Reading: Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader

Week III (Feb. 4): 
Marx and the Interpretation of African Ritual
Reading: Maurice Bloch, From Blessing to Violence:  History and Ideology in the Circumcision Ritual of the Merina of Madagascar

Week IV (Feb. 11):   
Marx and the Study of Premodern Religious Texts
Reading: Ronald Inden, et al, Querying the Medieval:  Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia (xerox)

Religion as Experience

Week V (Feb. 18):  
"The real backbone of the world’s religious life . . . "
Reading: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience:  A  Study in Human Nature

Week VI (Feb. 25): 
The Mediation of Culture
Reading: Gauri Visvanathan, Outside the Fold:  Conversion, Modernity, and Belief

Week VII (March 4): 
Subjects, Objects, and Lived Experience in the Field
Reading: Michael Jackson, Paths Toward a Clearing:  Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Inquiry

Week VIII (March 11):           
SPRING BREAK

Religion as a Social Phenomenon

Week IX (March 18) 
"There is no Church of magic."
 Reading:  Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious  Life

Week X (March 25):               
Religion as Polity in Colonial Zambia
Reading: Karen Fields, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa

Week XI (April 1):                   
The Vexing Problem of Origins
Reading:  Tomoko Masuzawa, In Search of Dreamtime:  The Quest  for the Origin of Religion

Charisma, Routination, Institution

Week XII (April 8):  
Economics and Society
Reading:  Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion
Jacques Berlinerblau, "Max Weber’s Useful Ambiguities and the Problem of Defining ‘Popular Religion’" (xerox)

Week XIII (April 15):
Weber and South Asia
Reading: David N. Gellner, The Anthropology of Hinduism and Buddhism:  Weberian Themes (xerox)

Week XIV (April 22):  
 "Oh Ye Buddhist Monks in Sri Lanka:  A Plague Upon Thy House!"
Reading:  H. L. Seneviratne, The Work of Kings

NB: Research Paper Drafts Due in Graduate Student Lounge by 5:00 pm on April 24th

Week XV (April 29):  
Student Presentations of Research-in-Progress

Final Paper Due:               Monday, May 6, 2002

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