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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Axel Schäfer
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
05.866.512
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Registration group: GS I AS
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
When it comes to the study of American politics and society, there is no getting away from religion. About 96 percent of Americans believe in God; 87 percent consider themselves Christians; and upwards of 40 percent regard biblical prophesies as predictions of real events. Moreover, political leaders in the United States tend to openly declare their religious faith and frequently invoke the powerful imagery of the "nation under God".
To many observers, this high level of religiosity is one of the strangest and most disturbing phenomena of American culture, defying all assumptions about the rise of secularism in modern industrial societies. This course examines religiousness in the U.S. and its role in society and politics on the basis of a closer look at one of the most contentious religious issues in the modern United States: The resurgence of white evangelicalism and the rise of the New Christian Right. From the “Scopes Monkey Trial” in the 1920s to the New Christian Right in the 1980s and 90s, conservative Christianity has left a distinct mark on modern American culture. Although evangelicalism is commonly associated with moral intolerance, right-wing politics, and provincial backwardness, it is a complex and dynamic movement that ultimately defies clear political categorization.
In providing a historical analysis of the evangelical resurgence, the course challenges established interpretations which attribute the rise of the New Christian Right mainly to the "backlash" against the upheaval of the 1960s. Instead, it explores interpretations that locate the origins of the political mobilization of conservative Protestants in the institutional and ideological linkages between religious organizations and state on the one hand, and between orthodox religion and modernity on the other.
Contents:
INDICATIVE STUDY PROGRAM
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: No class (May 1)
Week 3: The "Religion Problem" in Modern American History
Week 4: Modern Evangelicalism -- Issues and Definitions
Week 5: The Southern Errand
Week 6: Forging New Coalitions
Week 7: Evangelicals and the Cold War State
Week 8: Socioeconomic and Cultural Change
Week 9: High on Jesus: Evangelicalism and the 1960s
Week 10: The "Backlash" and the Rise of the New Christian Right
Week 11: Interpreting the Resurgence of Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism
Week 12: Race and Religion
Week 13: Gender and Religion
Week 14: Review and Conclusion
Recommended reading list:
REQUIRED READINGS:
Darren Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism (New York: W.W. Norton, 2012 [paperback]).
Additional required readings for this course will be digitised and placed on reader.uni-mainz.de.
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