SOC-STD 98RI – Religion in Politics: Origins, Dissent, and Disruptions

SOC-STD 98RI – Religion in Politics: Origins, Dissent, and Disruptions

Semester: Fall
Offered: 2024
Instructor: Sarah Greenberg
Meeting Time: M 3:00pm – 5:00pm

This course problematizes the place, space, and role of religion in political and social life. We will question how, when, and why religion shapes, generates, and complicates politics, and if religion as such ontologically belongs to any political party or location on a right-left spectrum, or a public-private distinction. Topics and texts of the course include The Eumenides by Aeschylus; “A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop, the Protestant Reformation and social contract theory; Jewish activist history, including works by Abraham Joshua Heschel; Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement; Liberation Theology; Mohandas K. Gandhi, satyagraha, and nonviolence; French laïcité; state interactions with religious garb (e.g., France, US, Iran); and contemporary US Supreme Court cases relating to religion and its intersection with other areas of law. Assignments in this course are focused on completing an independent research paper by the end of the term. This is a junior tutorial. 

Class Notes: This course will be lotteried and is open to non-concentrators if space permits.

For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.