Politics and Religion in Contemporary Society

3 units

Religions are on the move. Globalization has meant that larger numbers of people are finding new places to live, and in the process, setting up churches, mosques, temples, or other ways to worship in new cities and town. Muslims move to Europe and North America; new Protestant and Catholic churches appear throughout Africa and South America; Chinese communities blossom everywhere. As they do, so they raise new questions: How do global migrations lead to adaptations of religious traditions? How do states manage new degrees of religious diversity, and in some cases, new levels of religious demands? How do transnational religious structures fit with national politics? We will explore these issues by looking outward from our base in Paris. France has the highest percentage of Muslims of any country in Western Europe or North America. It has fast-growing arrays of evangelical churches and Buddhist temples; and it is a nation of both Catholic heritage and secularist politics. How do all these ideas and people mix? We will visit some of Paris' religious institutions and learn from both religious figures and French scholars. We will also study religion and politics in a comparative way, focusing on the issues mentioned above, and looking at case studies from Africa, Asia, and the Americas.