Religion and Politics in America

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

“On my arrival in the United States,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America (1835), “the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention.” This course is an introduction to the history of religion in the United States from the pre-colonial period to the present, with special attention to its interplay with politics, law, and governance. Taking stock of the broad range of religious traditions that Americans have practiced, we will move chronologically through US history and explore rich primary sources like films, diaries, novels, art, sermons, and court records to help us make sense of religion’s evolving role in American politics and society. Along the way, we will delve into questions of religious pluralism and its challenges; conversion and religious experience; the legal history of the First Amendment’s religion clauses; civil religion; immigration; anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism; religion, slavery, and the civil rights movement; the shifting identities of religious “insiders” and “outsiders” in American life; the “culture wars”; and secularization, among other topics.