REL 121, 122 - Modernity & the Death of God?

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirements HU and DE (and W when offered as 122).
Does modernity mark the end of religion? Does religion become irrelevant in the modern world? What is the place of religion in modernity? What form does it take? Does modernity shape religion or does religion shape modernity? In this course, we will consider the complex relationship between religion and modernity through an examination of the interactions between religion and core historical processes constitutive of modernity including colonialism, the rise of the modern nation-state, secularization, capitalism and consumerism. We will begin by examining the categories of religion and modernity, and critically examine the supposed dichotomy between them as well as between tradition and modernity, religion and the secular, and religion and the nation as we proceed through the semester. The course will focus primarily on case studies that examine specific interactions between modernity and some of the world’s largest religious traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam in different geographical contexts across the world including India, Egypt, Great Britain, the United States and Thailand.