Introduction to Religion

Undergraduate credit

The class aims to show that religions are sets of ideas, discourses and practices that take on a defined, systematic shape in specific historic contexts of comparison and challenge. It focuses on marginal and often misunderstood traditions of the Americas, giving particular attention to religious phenomena in the African diasporic and indigenous worlds at specific critical junctures in which the comparative term, "religion," acquired a defined profile and played an important role. In relation to the United States, the course gives special attention to First Amendment issues of "freedom of religion," and various legal challenges arising since the 19th century.