RELIGION IN THE AMERICAN WEST
This course explores the idea of “west” in the context of
North America. Initially the idea of the
American West seems obvious (see above!), but if we consider the history of the
republic, then “west” is defined not in any sense of what we now regard as “the
west” or “west coast”, but in relationship to an “eastern” point of origin and
reference: west of what? Taking this moving target as our object of
inquiry, we begin by complicating the concept of “west” first as an historical
trajectory that accompanies “civilization” (whose?) and related ideologies of
“progress,” “technology,” and “frontier.”
What is distinctive about religion in the American West? We will read and discuss texts that question,
problematize, challenge, wrestle and reorder the academic understanding of
religion in the United States by placing the American West at the center of
inquiry.
We will then attend to both the historical and sociological
contexts for understanding what is at stake in assuming a regional position in
American religion. We will then examine
a number of case studies transdisciplinarily on how religion is transformed by
the West, or is identifiably “western” in character. Finally, we will look at how the metaphors of
“west” and “frontier” are continued in contemporary expressions of U.S.
religion and spirituality.
Organizationally,
the class will be run as a seminar. That
is, while there will be plenty of lecturing, students will play an active role
in the teaching and learning by working in small groups to present one of the
topics each week for discussion.
Students will be graded on their active participation in the
course: one is not awarded simply for
showing up. Note: There will be one cancelled class
(1/18). This session will be made up
later in the quarter.
Requirements
Attendance/Participation 10%
Group Presentation 20%
4 Weekly Response
Papers (4 x 5pts) 20%
Term Paper/Project 50%
Texts
Gary Witherspoon, Language
and Art in the Navajo Universe (Univ. Michigan, 1977)
Donald Miller, Reinventing
American Protestantism (Univ. California, 1997)
Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia
(Bantam, 1990 [1975])
Octavia Butler, Parable
of the Sower (Warner Books, 2001 edition [1993])
Tony Kushner, Angels
in America. Parts I and II (Theater
Communications Group, 1993)
A Course Reader available at Grafikart (6550 Pardall Road,
Isla Vista)
Schedule of Topics and Reading
I.
CONCEPTS & CONTEXTS
Week 1
1.9 Introduction / Syllabus / Initial discussion
1.11 The American
“West”: Place/Map
Milner, “America
Only More So” [Introduction to The Oxford
History of the American West]
(handed out in class 1/9)
Fei, “A World Without Ghosts” (handed out in
class 1/9)
Week 2
1.16 West as Frontier /
Frontier as America
Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”
(1893) Online
at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/TURNER/ (The essay is Chapter I)
1.18 Scholars consider
“West” and “Frontier” I
Class Cancelled/TBA later in quarter
Hyde, “Cultural Filters: The Significance of Perception”
Nugent, “Comparing Wests and Frontiers
Week 3
1. 23 Scholars
consider “West” and “Frontier” II
Limerick, “What on Earth is the New Western
History?”
Limerick, “The
Adventures of the Frontier in the Twentieth Century”
Horseman “Aryans Follow the Sun”
II.
TRADITIONS
1.25 The [Old] [Protestant] West and Christian
Hegemony
Baird, Religion in the United States [excerpts]
Cross, The
Burned-Over District [excerpt:]
Chapter 1: The Great Revivals; Chapter 2: Premonitions
Beecher A Plea for the West [excerpt]
Goodykoontz, “Significance of the Home
Missionary Movement”
Week 4
1.30 “Burned-Over”
Christianity: Mormonism
“Joseph Smith, 2” (Pearl of Great Price)
Church of Jesus Christ of LDS, “The Church
Organized”, ”The Church in Ohio”, “Exodus”
Arrington and Bitton, “The Appeals of
Mormonism”, “Early Persecutions”
Toscano and Toscano, “ Holiness to the
Lord”, “Zion: Vision or Mirage”
2.1 Mormon innovations: Christianity?
Givens, “’Out of the Dust”: The Book of
Mormon Comes Forth”
Book
of Mormon, Book of Abraham [excerpts – handed out 1/30]
Toscano and Toscano, “The God of Flesh and
Glory”, “Monogamy, Polygamy, and Humility”
Wilcox, “The Mormon Concept of a Mother in
Heaven”
Hansen, “Mormonism and American Culture”
Week 5
2.6 Navajo Worldview
-- Relationships
Witherspoon, Language and Art in the Navajo Universe, pp. 1-81
2.8 Navajo Worldview –
Beauty and Movement
Witherspoon, Language and Art in the Navajo Universe, pp. 81-94, 140-203
III. CALIFORNIA: America Only More So?
Week 6
2.13 The Return of
Protestantism? – California Style
”Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism,
pp. 1-79
2.15 The Return of
Protestantism? – California Style
Miller,
Reinventing American Protestantism, pp. 80-176
Week 7
2.20 The
No–Religion Utopia?
Taylor, “Resacralizing Earth: Pagan
Environmentalism and the Restoration of Turtle Island”
Callenbach, Ecotopia, pp. 1 – 71
2.22 Callenbach, Ecotopia, pp. 71 – end
Week 8
2.27 Gender, Race, Science Fiction…and God?
Butler, Parable
of the Sower
3.1 Gender, Race, Science Fiction…and God?
Butler, Parable
of the Sower
Week 9
3.6 The West as Threshold of Revelation
Kushner, Angels
in America, Part One: Millennium
Approaches
A.C.T. Stagebill notes on the play (handed
out in class 3.1)
Video excerpt: “Angels in America” (HBO)
3.8 The West as the Absence of God?
Kushner, Angels
in America, Part Two: Perestroika
A.C.T. Stagebill notes on the play (handed
out in class 3.6)
Week 10
3.13 TBA/Catch Up/Video
3.15 Final Discussion / Assessment
Final Papers/Projects due:
5:OO Wednesday, March 21st
Requirements, Grading, and
Related Matters
1) This is an upper-division Religious Studies
course, and there will be a good deal of reading during the quarter. You will
be expected to keep up with all the readings, and you will be asked to
demonstrate, in both your oral and written contributions to the class,
proficiency in the kinds of critical and analytical skills expected of
undergraduates at a research university. These minimally would entail some
experience in reading texts critically, and an ability to keep an open mind.
2) Five typewritten papers: 4 reading responses
(2-3 pages) and one 8 –10 page term paper, all double-spaced, with one-inch
margins, a reasonable 12-point or smaller font, and a consistent humanities
(MLA or Chicago) bibliographic format. A successful paper will fulfill all of
these technical formal requirements, and demonstrate three things: your grasp
of the concrete particulars of the reading material; your understanding and
familiarity with our class discussions; and your ability to describe the
relationship between these works and the various historical and cultural issues
discussed and raised in class lectures and discussions.
3) Readings should be completed before the class
meeting when they are scheduled to be discussed. The length and difficulty of
each reading varies, and to keep on pace you must be reading continuously
throughout the quarter: in short, this means as the quarter progresses you will
be reading well ahead of our discussions. Bring
your texts to class!
4) Classroom respect.
Religion always seems to stir up emotions and theological strife
among scholars; this is part of the learning process and
sometimes intellectual discomfort is necessary for honest scholarship. While you are not expected to “like”
everything you read or hear, you are expected to show respect for these
positions and your peers who may hold them.
Heated discussions are okay, so long as the focus is on ideas and not on
personal attack, stereotyping, or unreflective commentary. Depending on your
activities in class, occasional short quizzes or other brief in-class writing
assignments may occur from time to time as well.
5) As everything above should suggest,
attendance and participation in class discussion are an indispensable part of
the work we are going to do here. To this end, you will sign a class attendance
roster circulated at the beginning of each meeting. You will be allowed two
unexcused absences. If you miss an excessive number of classes, you will have
failed to complete one of the requirements of the course and will be graded
accordingly.
6) Missed classes. If
you miss a class, you are responsible for obtaining notes (do not ask the
professor for notes!), handouts and finding out about any other information/
assignments. If you must miss a class,
you will need to make up that session by writing a 3-5 page critical assessment
of the reading for that session. This
paper is due within a week of the missed session. The paper is not merely a summary of the
reading, but a thoughtful critique of the main problem(s) and connections
between the last set of readings (i.e., what is the central issue in these
readings? How and why do the authors
interpret the issue/solution? How do you
assess their positions?).
7) Grades will be based on the conscientious
completion of all of the above requirements, with 70 percent of the grade
resting in the five papers.
8) Communication is crucial to everything we are
going to do in the next 11 weeks. Thus, if you are unsure about any of the
course requirements, or run into any kind of difficulty, academic or otherwise,
as the quarter progresses, please come and speak with me as soon as you can. I
will try to be as accommodating as possible, but I cannot help you if you do
not let me know what is going on. Also if you have any general questions, or
just feel like continuing the discussion begun in class, I encourage you to
drop by during office hours, or to make an appointment to see me.
A Brief Note on Academic
Honesty
Plagiarism in any form, including but not
limited to directly quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing from external sources
without proper citations, as well as presenting as your own work papers written
by someone else (for example a paper written by a friend; a purchased or
retyped paper; or one taken from a file, electronic or otherwise), is a direct
violation of the UCSB policy on academic integrity. It is in your best interest to review the
university’s official policies, procedures and penalties online at:
http://judicialaffairs.sa.ucsb.edu/pdf/academicintegflyer.pdf. Plagiarism or
any other form of academic dishonesty will result in an automatic failure of
the course; in other words, zero tolerance.
If you have any questions, or even the slightest doubt, about what
constitutes plagiarism or academic dishonesty, come and speak with me before
you turn in the paper.
