American Studies 12 Spring 2008
The United States has inscribed the separation of church and state into its constitutional order, and yet Americans have for two centuries been more deeply committed to religious faith and practice than any other people in the Western world. This course endeavors to explore that paradox. Topics addressed include the changing meanings of “the city on a hill”; the varieties of millennial belief and utopian community; the relationship between religion and ethnicity; religious political activism from abolition to prohibition to antiabortion; and the limits of religious tolerance from movements against Catholics and
Mormons to recent warnings of a “clash of civilizations” with Muslim cultures.
BOOKS
Robert Wuthnow, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (Princeton
University Press, 2005)
Garry Willis, Head and Heart: American Christianities (Penguin, 2007)
Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing
Debate over Science and Religion (Basic Books, 2006)
James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (Dial Press, 2000)
Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem (Yale
University Press, 2002)
Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and
Salvation in 19 th
-Century America (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Harcourt, 2007)
These books are available at the Jeffrey Amherst Bookstore and are starred (*) in the syllabus, all other readings are included in the Course Reader which is available at
Collective Copies, both on South Pleasant Street in downtown Amherst.
On days marked “Lecture” both sections will meet together in the Converse Red Room
Prof Frank Couvares
17 Chapin Hall
Phone 2417
E-mail fgcouvares@amherst.edu
Section classroom Chapin 210
Prof. Karen Sánchez-Eppler
112 Morgan Hall
Phone 2186
E-mail kjsanchezepp@amherst.edu
Section classroom Chapin 202/203

I CITY ON A HILL
1/28 Introduction in sections
1/30 Lecture: Joint meeting with Profs. Couvares and Sánchez-Eppler
Stephen Prothero “Introduction” and James Davidson Hunter and David Franz,
“Religious Pluralism and Civil Society” both in Prothero
A Nation of Religions:
The Politics of Pluralism in Mutireligious America , 1-19 and 256-273
Contemporary News Clippings
2/1 John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”; Abraham Lincoln, “Second
Inaugural Address”; Julia Ward Howe, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”; William
McKinley “Address at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha Nebraska,
October 12, 1898”
Speeches and Addresses of William McKinley 100-106; Mark
Twain “The War Prayer”; George W. Bush, “Second Inaugural Address”
II
2/4 *Robert Wuthnow “A Special People in a Diverse World,” in America and the
Challenges of Religious Diversity , 8-36; Ramón Gutiérrez, “The Spanish
Conquest of New Mexico,” in When Jesus Came the Corn Mother’s Went Away
(Stanford, 1991), 39-94
2/6 Lecture Prof. Carol Clark: Spiritual Landscapes in Fayerweather 117
2/8 Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” first Published in the Atlantic Monthly June
1862; Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Over-soul” in Essays: First Series
*Gary Wills, “Emersonians” in Head and Heart
III RELIGIOUS LIBERTY & PLURALISM
, 271-284
2/11 *Gary Wills, “Mary Dyer must Die,” and “The Puritan Psyche” in Head and
Heart , 15-53; Thomas Morton, “Of the Revels of New Canaan,” The New English
Canaan, 276-287; William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation , 126-27,
146-49, 236-42; Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” 67-82
2/13
Thomas Jefferson, “A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom”; First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America; *Gary Wills,
“The First Amendment” and “Madisonian Separation” in
Head and Heart , 222-
249; Kevin Schultz, “‘Favoritism Cannot be Tolerated’: Challenging
Protestantism in America’s Public Schools and Promoting the Neutral State,”
American Quarterly (2007) 59:565-592; News clippings on Ben Gamla and Kahil
Gibran Charter Schools

2/15 Lecture Prof. Frank Couvares: Mormons and the Limits of Religious Liberty
US v Reynolds; Josiah Strong, Our Country , 107-116; Mary Zeiss Stang “The
White Man’s Wounded Knee, or, Whose Holy War is this Anyway? A Cautionary
Tale” in David Odell Scott
Democracy and Religion: Free Exercise and Diverse
Visions” 156-174.
IV
2/18 *Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s
Continuing debate over Science and Religion pp. 3-86.
View film “Inherit the Wind”
2/20 Lecture Prof. Laura Lovett: The Scopes Trial
*Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods pp. 87-196.
2/22 finish * Summer for the Gods
View film “Intelligent Design on Trial”
V RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
2/25 *Gary Wills, “The Second Great Awakening” and “Evangelicals” in Head and
Heart , 287-302 and 341-350; Jonathan Edwards, from Some Thoughts
Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England; Charles Chauncy, from Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England; Charles
Grandison Finney from Memoirs all in American Religions a Documentary
History 90-109 and 189-196; Jarena Lee, The Life and Religious Experiences of
Jarena Lee, 25-48
2/27 Lecture Prof. Sánchez-Eppler: on Go Tell It on the Mountain
*James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain,
View film “Say Amen”
Parts I and 2
First Paper on Religion and Civic Life Due
2/29 *James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Part 3
VI
3/3 Ryan K. Smith, “The Cross: Church Symbol and Contest in Nineteenth Century
America”
Church History (2001); 705-734; William James, “Conclusion” and
“Postscript” from Varieties of Religious Experience, 382-414
Visit 2d Congregational Church
Introduce Ethnography Project
3/5 *Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian
Harlem
3/7 *Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115 th
Street finish

VII
3/10 *Robert Wuthnow, “Introduction” and the chapters “The New Diversity” and
“The Significance of Religious Diversity” in
America and the Challenges of
Religious Diversity , 1-8 and 37-105
3/12 Lecture by film-maker Prashant Bhargava
Kurien Prema “‘We are Better Hindus Here’: Religion and Ethnicity Among
Indian Americans” in
Religions in Asian America 99-120
View film “Sangam”
3/14
M. A. Muqtedar Khan, “Living on Borderlines: Islam beyond the Clash and
Dialogue of Civilizations” in Muslims’ Place in the American Public Square , 84-
113; Sherien Sultan “Subway Negotiations” in Voices of Resistance: Muslim women on War, Faith and Sexuality, 48-50 ;
Humera Afridi, “Circumference” in
S hattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out, 222-224; Aisha Abdul
Kareem, Hamid Dana, Yuseph Sleem, and Amira Al-Sarrah in Voices of
American Muslims 57-67, 83-91, 145-50, and 235-45
SPRING BREAK
IIIV RELIGION AND ASSIMILATION
3/24 *Robert Wuthnow “Embracing Diversity: Shopping in the Spiritual Marketplace” and “Many Mansions: Accepting Diversity,”
America and the Challenges of
Religious Diversity, 106-158 ; Alejandro Portes and Rubén Rumbaut, “Religion:
The Enduring Presence,”
A Portrait of Immigrant America , 299-342; Mansha
Parven Mirza, “Infinite and Everywhere! My Kaleidoscopic Identity” in Voices of
Resistence: Muslim Women on War faith and Sexuality, 206-213
Religious Family History / Biography Due
3/26 Philip Roth, “The Conversion of the Jews”; Bernard Malamud, “The German
Refugee”; Amani Elkassabani, “Hanaan’s House”; Zev Chafets, “The SY
Empire,” New York Times Magazine , Oct. 14, 2007, 83-88
3/28
Sharon A. Suh, “’To Be Buddhist is to be Korean’: The Rhetorical Use of
Authenticity and the Homeland in the Construction of Post Immigrant Identities” in Jane Iwamura and Paul Spickard, Revealing the Sacred in Asian Pacific
America , 177-191; Selections from Sumi Loudon, Blue Jean Buddha: Voices of
Young Buddhists , 89-98, 133-143, 191-219
IX RELIGION, GENDER, SEX
3/31
Lecture Prof. Karen Sánchez-Eppler: Faith and Gender in the Early Republic
Elizabeth Hanson,
God’s Mercy Surmounting Man’s Cruelty
4/2 Rebecca Reed, Six Months in a Convent

4/4 * The Kingdom of Matthias , start
X
4/7 * The Kingdom of Matthias, finish
4/9 Lecture Prof. Frank Couvares: Blasphemy, Obscenity, & Christian Campaigns for
Censorship in the Early 20 th
Century
Amanda Frisken, “The Politics of Exposure,” from Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual
Revolution , 85-116
4/11
John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman,
Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in
America , 326-360
View film “Jesus Camp”
Religious Ethnography Project Due
XI RELIGION AND POLITICS
4/14 German Town Friends Protest against Slavery, 1688; Journal of John Woolman,
1757-58, 208-220; Sarah M. Grimkés, “An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern
States,” 90-115; David Walker, Preamble and Article III of Appeal to the Colored
Citizens of the World , 1-8 and 37-45
4/16 Lecture Prof. Frank Couvares: From Prohibition to Civil Rights: Religion &
Politics in the 20 th
Century.
Gaines Foster, Moral Reconstruction , 1-7, 219-234
4/18 Taylor Branch, “First Trombone,” in Parting the Waters, 105-142; Martin Luther
King Jr., “Our God is Marching On!” and Letter from Birmingham City Jail
XII
4/21 Paul Harvey, “Religion, Race, and Rights” in Freedom’s Coming 169-217;
Malcom X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 162-176, and “America’s Greatest
Crises Since the Civil War” in
Malcolm X: The Last Speeches , 59-79
4/23 Lecture on the Christian right
*Gary Wills, “Evangelicals Counter Attack” and “The Karl Rove Era,” in
Head and Heart , 480-546
4/25 *Robert Wuthnow, “One Way: Resisting Diversity” in America and the
Challenges of Religious Diversity 159-187; Rudy Busto, “Gospel According to the Model Minority: Hazarding an Interpretation of Asian American Evangelical
College Students,” Amerasia Journal (1996) 133-147
XIII

4/28 Leon Feuer, “The Birth of the Jewish Lobby: A Reminiscence” American Jewish
Archives (1976) 28: 107-118; Stuart E. Eizenstat, “Loving Israel Warts and All,”
Foreign Policy (1990-1991): 87-105 ; Cornell West, “Forging New Jewish and
Islamic Democratic Identities” in Democracy Matters 107-143; John Judis, “The
New Anti-Anti-Semites,” The New Republic On-line (Feb, 8 2007)
4/30 *Robert Wuthnow, “The Public’s Beliefs and Practices” and “How Pluralistic
Should We Be?” in
America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity 188-229
286-314 ; *Gary Wills, “Epilogue: Separation not Suppression” ” in Head and
Heart , 547-552; Charles Harper and Bryan LeBeau, “Social Change and Religion in America: Thinking Beyond Secularism”
5/2 *Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
XIV
5/5 *Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
5/7 News Clippings on religious tensions in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East
5/9 Wrap up
Final Paper Due Monday May 12 th at 5pm