Religion 64: The Nature of Religion: Theories and Methods in Religious Studies
Spring 2008, Amherst College
Monday, 3:30-5:30, Chapin 203
John P. Reeder, Jr., jreeder@hds.harvard.edu
Office: 108 Chapin Hall
I.
Religion as an Autonomous Sphere of Experience
1. Feb. 4: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (purchase)
2. Feb. 11: Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy, I-VIII; X-XIV; XVII; XXI;
appendices I, II, V, VI (purchase)
II.
Objections
3. Feb. 18: George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine (course packet)
4. Feb. 25: Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience (purchase)
III.
Morality as an Autonomous Sphere of Experience
5. Mar. 3: Kai Nielsen, Ethics Without God (purchase);
Alan Donagan, The Theory of Morality, l-l7; 26-3l; 57-66; 245-50 (course
packet)
IV.
Objections
6. Mar. 12: Annette C. Baier, “What Women Want in a Moral Theory,” 1-17;
“ The Need for More than Justice,” 18-32; and “Hume: The Women’s Moral
Theorist”, 33-50; notes 327-8, 330-33l, from Moral Prejudices (packet)
Seyla Benhabib, “The Generalized Other and the Concrete Other: The
Kohlberg-Gilligan Controversy and Moral Theory,” ch. 5, 148-177; “The
Debate Over Women and Moral Theory Revisited,” ch. 6, l78-202, from
Situating the Self: Gender, Community, and Postmodernism In
Contemporary Ethics (course packet)
7. Mar. 24: Jeffrey Stout, Ethics After Babel, “ Religion and Morality,” ch.
5, 109-123; “ Reason and Tradition,” ch. 6, 124-144 (course packet)
V.
Humpty-Dumpty
8. Mar. 31: Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy (purchase);
Reeder, “Religion and Morality” (course packet)
9. Apr. 7: Clifford Geertz, “ Religion as A Cultural System,” “Worldview,
Ethos, and Sacred Symbols,” from The Interpretation of Cultures ( course
packet); “ The Pinch of Destiny,” Raritan (course packet);
Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological
Category,” 27-44 from Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons
of Power in Christianity and Islam
10. Apr. 14: Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the
Politics of Black America (purchase)
11. Apr. 21: Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the
Feminist Subject (purchase)
12. Apr. 28: Mahmood, Politics of Piety
13. May 5: Summary
Recommended: Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking About Religion
After September ll, 2nd edition.
Purchase (Jeffrey Amherst College Bookstore) and also on Reserve:
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience
Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy
Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience
Kai Nielsen, Ethics Without God
Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy
Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America
Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
Recommended: Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking About Religion After September
ll.
Course Packet on sale in the Religion Department, Amherst College
Reserve: purchase, packet, recommended
Requirements:
1.) Mid-term Mar 31: one page on an idea or issue you may write on for the term paper
2.) Term-paper May 16: interpretative analysis, examination of objections, or
constructive statement (any one or some combination)