Faith, Politics and Spirituality

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Can one use the principle, “What would Jesus do?” to think about political systems, decisions and policies? In the coming election, many things are uncertain, but what is not uncertain is that religious faith, and Christian faith in particular, will be a touchstone, or perhaps better, a lightning rod, in the political debates that are already underway. This course will not focus on this or that political issue (abortion, immigration, taxation, entitlement programs, same-sex marriage), but rather will take a step back to examine the ways that Christians have thought more generally about how the obligations of their faith relate to their obligations as a citizen. We will look at some classic positions, especially of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, but then focus on case studies, including the polarizing debates over slavery (very conducted with reference to the Bible) in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. The goal of the course is to enable students to identify the different starting points and ways of thinking that Christians have taken, and are still taking today, to interrelate faith and politics, so that students can better understand the variety of positions, including their own ways of thinking and the positions with which they disagree.