Religion and Social Change

3 credit hours · Undergraduate

Students explore the religious dimensions of important social movements throughout the world, including Engaged Buddhism and the Abolitionist, Anti-colonialism, Peace, Social Gospel, Temperance, and Civil Rights movements. Students examine the stories of such important activists as Louise McKinney, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., The Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The emphasis is on social justice movements. The causes of the rise of reactionary, so-called “fundamentalist” movements are considered.