Deities, Denominations, and Diversity

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Sociology 10672 / 20672 is a course designed to introduce undergraduate students to the nature and functions of religious beliefs and institutions in modern societies, with a particular emphasis on conditions in the contemporary United States. Throughout the course, a distinctively sociological perspective is employed to evaluate claims about the viability of religion in what has been called a "post-traditional" world. If in this age God is not dead, how does one account for the notable absence of religious values as animating forces outside the private lives of individuals? If God is long gone, on the other hand, what explains rapid growth in the memberships of conservative religious bodies, or the high levels of interest in non-Western spiritual practices — not to mention a global resurgence of religious particularism? These and other questions from the sociology of religion will be addressed in a survey of the field and a consideration of different American religious traditions. Lectures will cover, among other subjects, individual religious experience; social mechanisms of conversion and commitment; civil religions; religious inspirations for, or impediments to, social change; and the varied processes of secularization.