RACE AND RELIGION

Credit Hours: 3 · Undergraduate Lower-Level

There is no shortage of critical engagement with the idea of race and its role in shaping modern history and politics. Rarely, however, do we think about religion as an important part of that story. Economics, public policy, history, literature, and science have all developed various perspectives on this question, but religion is often left aside in these conversations. This course looks closely at the intersection of race and religion and the ways these two ideas have been deeply entangled in the modern and even ancient worlds. We will ask whether it makes sense to talk about race in antiquity and the Middle Ages, prior to its scientific invention; we will explore the links between race and Christianity; and we will interrogate how various groups, including Jews, Muslims, and Black people understood themselves within the discourses of race and religion. By examining these two ideas in relation to one another, this course offers a richer understanding of the history and evolution of racial ideas and their continued resonance in the present. Cross-list: RELI 224 .