Carolyn Jones
Medine
Associate
Professor of Religion and African American Studies
E-mail: medine@uga.edu
Office: 19 Peabody Hall Telephone: 542-5356 (messages)
Office Hours: 11-12 Tuesday and Thursday and by
appointment
This course is
designed to introduce entering MA students to the approaches to the study of
religion that scholars have developed since the discipline was conceived. It is
a time for assembling of your ÒtoolkitÓ for the study of religion. We will do a (much too fast) survey of
major theorists, from the traditional voices like Otto, Eliade and Wach, to the
postmodern voices, like Said, Lyotard, and Derrida. All these have brought a method (an application for
analysis) or a theory (an analytical idea) to the study of religion.
Carl Olson, Theory
and Method in the Study of Religion: Theoretical and Critical
Additional
readings: I will send attachments or leave copies in the mailroom.
Requirements:
1. 6 Question
Cards or Concept Maps 40%
Due dates are
indicated on the syllabus. You should analyze the designated reading for the
day. Use the format attached. We
want to know what the readings SAY
so that we can understand and discuss them. The question card is a way to get
at what the major points of a work are.
2. Two Short
(5-7 page) papers 40%=15% and 25%
The paper should
be an analysis of one or more readings or one aspect of the body of
readings. It may include one or
two of the following:
a. An identification of one or two themes
that have emerged as significant to you
b. An ÒechoÓ (something that ties readings to
each other)
c. An exploration of a significant quotation
or idea or the interpretation of a confusing passage in a single reading or
two.
d. An application of the theories/methods
to a myth, ritual, or creed.
Finally, the
paper should explore the consequences and implications of an important point suggested by the
reading.
3. Attendance
and Engagement/Final Exam 20%
All academic
work must meet the standards contained in the University of Georgia student
handbook, ÒA Culture of Honesty.Ó Each student is responsible to inform himself
or herself about those standards before performing any academic work.
Brief Outline
of the Course: Details and changes will be announced in class. The course syllabus is a general plan for
the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be
necessary.
August 17:
Introduction to the Course: Reading as a Professional
August 19: The
Enlightenment and the Invention of the Study of Religion
August 21: Olson
15-48
**Question
card/Concept map for the article of your choice**
August 24:
Library
Please go to: Lab A in the Main Library (1st floor just
before the Reference Desk on the right).
August 26:
Library
August 28: Olson
54-99
August
31-September 11: Phenomenology of Religion: Olson 100-156, 161-171. Eliade and Otto
**Question Card/Concept Map: Eliade**
September
7: Labor Day Holiday
September 14:
Eliade
September 16:
Jonathan Z. Smith, continued (Olson 177-191)
The Wobbling Pivot
Jonathan
Z. Smith
The Journal of
Religion,
Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 1972), pp. 134-149
Published
by: The University of Chicago Press
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1201635
September 18:
Smith, continued
September 21:
Where are we now?
September 23: Sociology
of Religion: Olson
212-224, 229-235.
Wach (pdf will be sent)
Master and Disciple:
Two Religio-Sociological Studies
Joachim Wach
The Journal of Religion, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jan.,
1962), pp. 1-21
Published by:
The University of Chicago Press
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1199706
**Question
Card/Concept Map on Wach**
September 25: Sociology of Religion, continued
September 28: Anthropology
of Religion
Skim:
Douglas (307-316)
September 30:
Turner, Rite of Passage
October 5:
Campbell, Hero Journey
October 7:
Campbell, Hero Journey
October 9: Rite
of Passage, final comments
October 12: Psychology
of Religion: Freud,
Jung, James
October 14:
Psychology of Religion, continued
October 16: NO
Class
October 19:
Levi-Strauss, Structuralism, Olson 325-332.
****
Question Card/Concept Map on Levi-Strauss****
October 21:
Structuralism, Post-structuralism and the Postmodern
October 23:
Postmodern: Postmodernism, A Short Introduction; Derrida
October
22: Midpoint Withdrawal Deadline
October 26:
Derrida and Foucault (Olson 573-595)
***
Question Card or Concept Map****
October 28:
Foucault
November 2:
Derrida and Foucault
November 4: What
the heck have we been talking about?!!
November 6:
No Class--AAR
November 9:
No Class--AAR
November 11:
No Class--AAR
November 13:
Postcolonial: Edward Said, Orientalism
Criticism, Culture, and
Performance: An Interview with Edward Said
Edward Said,
Bonnie Marranca
Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan.,
1991), pp. 21-42
Published by:
The MIT Press on behalf of the Performing Arts Journal, Inc.
Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3245501
November 16:
Said, continued
November 18:
Gayatri Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak? (handout)
****
Question Card or Concept Map***
November 20:
Spivak, continued
November 30:
Issues from the two Short Introductions
December 2:
Issues from the two Short Introductions
December 4: Defining
Religion
December 7:
Defining Religion
December 8: Last
things!
FINAL
PAPER DUE