RS 150: AMERICAN
SPIRITUALITIES
Professor Catherine L. Albanese TR,
Spring 2005 North Hall 1105
Course Description
"When
you look closely into American history and in the minds of those great,
courageous and intelligent men who were the founding fathers, you would
recognize that they were not religious, but spiritual," wrote Robert Haake
in a late-nineties issue of Information Press. "Remember: religions are only man-made systems . . .
. But the spiritual is not man made and
is universal. It is true and the same
everywhere and at all times. It has
neither a doctrine nor a leader and need not be supported by any organization
nor by anyone's devotion." Haake's
perception about a distinction between religion and spirituality is pervasive
in present-day American culture. This
course explores the judgment, looks at how it came to be, and in part disputes
it.
In so
doing, the course introduces different forms of spirituality in American culture
past and present. It seeks to trace
major lines of development and to compare past to present in ways that
highlight the meaning of spirituality for our time. The course understands spirituality as the
personal element in religion in both organized and unorganized forms—a personal
element that may lead along paths of private practice or public action in
society. As an introductory map of many
forms of American spirituality, the course examines four major types: ritual or bodily based, evangelical or
emotional (heart), prophetic or ethically inspired (will), and metaphysical or
mind-oriented.
Course
Texts
Catherine
L. Albanese, ed., American Spiritualities:
A Reader (
Course Packet/Reader (Grafikart,
Undergraduate
Course Requirements
Class participation (20 percent of your grade), as demonstrated by one-page
reports submitted before each class lecture session. Please come to class with two computer
copies of your one-page report, one for yourself and one to be placed on the
desk of the instructor before the start of the class session. This report will summarize reading for that
class and make a first attempt to come to terms with the reading and its
ideas. Below are some questions you can
use to help to focus you in your written response (you can answer one or more
of these questions, or pose and answer a different question if you like). N.B. Late
submissions will receive one-half credit only.
(1) What does
spirituality mean for this reading?
(2) What evidence
does the author offer to support his or her position?
(3) Do you agree or
disagree with the author’s position, and why?
(4) What are the
assets and liabilities of the form of spirituality presented?
(5) What relationship does the reading see
between spirituality and religion?
(6) How does its understanding compare with the
course’s categories and concerns?
(7) How does its approach to spirituality reflect
American culture?
A midterm examination (20 percent of your
grade) will test your grasp of basic information and ask questions regarding
reading and class sessions for the first half of the course.
A final examination (20 percent of your
grade) will test your grasp of basic information and ask questions regarding
reading and class sessions for the second half of the course. The final is scheduled for Monday, June 6, 12
noon-3:00 pm.
A course journal (40 percent of your grade)
will also be a major course requirement.
This journal will be a revised version of your individual class
responses to the readings. As you
reflect on the material you bring to each class in light of our group discussion,
you will be rethinking the material, making notations, and revising. Your journal will be the corrected version of
all of this, submitted as one continuous document, but with each class’s
reading clearly noted as the document progresses. Your journal should be at least 1,800
words in length (that is, about 8 pages long, assuming that you type or
print doublespaced, with 26 lines to a page in average-size font (11 or 12)
with one-inch margins all around). The
journal will be due on Thursday, June 2, at the time of class. Late journals, if still acceptable, will be
penalized.
Regular class attendance/participation (10 percent
of grade). Graduate students are
expected to take a leadership role in class participation, raising questions,
offering comparative insights, and giving critical commentary and
perspective. You will be asked to be
discussion leader and focalizer on at least one occasion.
In addition to regular class
attendance and participation, the graduate requirement will be a major essay on
some aspect of spirituality in the past-
or present-day
Course Schedule
Mar. 29 Orientation: Spiritualities, Temperaments, and Traditions
Mar. 31 The
Sociology of American Spirituality: The
Quest Culture
Apr. 5 The
History of American Spirituality: A
Long-Range View
Text, 1-15 (Introduction).
Knowing
through the Body: The Path of Ritual
Apr. 7 Knowing through the Body
Apr. 12 Rituals
Past: Tradition among the Puritans
Apr. 14 Rituals
Present: Contemporary Catholic and
Jewish Traditions
Apr. 19 Rituals
Present: Native American and Wiccan
Traditions
Knowing
through the Heart: The Path of Feeling
and Emotion
Apr. 21 Knowing
through the Heart
Apr. 26 The
Proto-Holiness and Post-Holiness Women's Report
Apr. 28 Born
Again in the Late Twentieth Century
May 3 Bhakti
Evangelicals; or, What Does Hare Krishna Have in Common with “Amazing Grace”?
May 5 Midterm
Examination
May 10 Knowing
through the Will: Theory and Practice.
May 12 Women
and the Prophetic Impulse
May 17 Civil
Disobedience/Uncivil Jail
Knowing through the Mind:
The Path of Metaphysics
May 19 The
Subtleties of Metaphysics
May 24 Health,
Wealth, and Metaphysics
May 26 The
Quest for Consciousness
May 31 The
Expanded New Age
June 2 Metaphysics
as Mind-Body Discipline
Course
Evaluation.
JOURNALS DUE.
June 6 Final
Exam.
·
Students should bring
small-size Scantron sheets and no. 2 pencils for midterm and final
examinations.
·
Office is located in
3075 Humanities and Social Sciences Building.
Telephone is 893-3530 (instructor’s office). Office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from
·
E-mail address is albanese@religion.ucsb.edu. Please be aware that this e-mail address will
not receive attachments. Please embed
all material in a regular e-mail text file. N.B. No reports or journals may be submitted by
e-mail.
·
Students with disabilities who would like
to discuss special academic accommodations should contact the instructor.