The American Jeremiad: Religious Critiques of the American Nation

Undergraduate / Graduate

The Jeremiad has its roots in Puritan critiques of perceived social disorder and the community falling away from its covenant with God. This course examines prominent examples of this sermonic and rhetorical form from the 19th century to the present. While much of the course will look at the commonalities of this religious critique of the US (the call to repentance, the reiteration of a litany of sins, and its pronouncement of a conditional divine judgment), we will also examine the various visions of the good society contained in such critiques.