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RELIG ST 214

RELIGION AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

3 credits.

Learn and analyze the conversations religious groups had around the creation of the First Amendment in the 1780s and how these conversations developed as the First Amendment was interpreted and reinterpreted throughout American history, with a focus on American Jewish communities' engagement with the Supreme Court as a primary case study. While keeping majority Christian concerns in mind, attend closely to how minority religions and communities have attempted to translate their religious practices into the overwhelmingly white Protestant Christian idiom of the Supreme Court.

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: None Course Designation: Breadth - Humanities Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Articulate the implicit definitions that Supreme Court decisions rely on. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Identify how those definitions serve particular forms of religion over others. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Analyze how practitioners of different traditions, the clergy, and non-religious Americans are defined in these arguments. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Articulate the interactions between Jews and non-Jews within the context of minority-majority relationships in the United States. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Develop speaking and writing skills about the sensitive topics of religion, politics, and race. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Articulate the implicit definitions that Supreme Court decisions rely on. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Identify how those definitions serve particular forms of religion over others. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Analyze how practitioners of different traditions, the clergy, and non-religious Americans are defined in these arguments. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Articulate the interactions between Jews and non-Jews within the context of minority-majority relationships in the United States. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Develop speaking and writing skills about the sensitive topics of religion, politics, and race. Audience: Undergraduate

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