Description
The course will survey the history of religion in America, be?ginning with the colonial period. Major themes will include the evolving public role of religion, Protestant religious dominance (and especially the rise of denominationalism and evangelicalism), cycles of immigration and growing religious diversity, and the challenges of modernity, including the recent emergence of a sizable percentage of the population that says it has no religion. Students will read a wide variety of primary source texts, the interpretations of major scholars, and a considerable amount of contemporary material, including judicial decisions, survey research, and cultural products. This course fulfills the World Religions/ Ecumenism requirement.