2/4/2014 Version

RELG 3215:  American Religious Innovation (Spring, 2014)

Prof. Kathleen Flake             kathleen.flake@virginia.edu

Tu&Th 12:30PM - 1:45PM  (Gibson 141)

Office Hours: Tu & Th 11:30a-12:15p or by appointment (Gibson S452)

This is an upper-level course designed to add substantive depth to your understanding of American religious diversity and, more generally, insight into the socio-historical context of American religion.  In addition, the course will introduce critical tools that allow us to better understand how religions, as symbol systems, not only inculcate or perform meaning didactically, but also create and innovate on those meanings strategically. 

The course will focus on three groups:  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormonism); the Nation of Islam; and the Church of Scientology.  Comparing these ostensibly dissimilar movements will illuminate the way text and ritual function to constitute and reconstitute an originating vision, permitting a sense of continuity notwithstanding inevitable change over time. Readings for the course are organized by these three themes – originating vision, narrative canon and embodiment of belief – in order to facilitate comparison.    

The goals of the course are that, by the end, you will of the semester:

·      Understand basic beliefs and practices, as well as the historical context of the origins of these movements;

·      Be able to apply the certain analytic techniques of narrative and ritual theory to better understand the invention and renewal of religious movements;

·      Understand the interests furthered by and the anxieties associated with the pejorative use of “sect” and “cult;” and

·      Possess an increased self-consciousness about the bases for your own philosophical or religious commitments sufficient to enable appreciation for the commitments of others. 

 

Course Requirements

Successful completion of the course will require active participation in class and submission of writing assignments, as described below. Aids for class discussion and other related materials that may be of use to you are on UVaCollab

I.      Class participation (40%):

A.     Discussion -- A separate chat room will be set up for each class session and will be open from the end of the previous session until the beginning of the class under discussion. The purpose of the chat is for you to talk about the readings (primary material and the text) for the up-coming session, share insights, and help each other clear up puzzles. You are encouraged to post questions and respond to each other regularly. I will check entries periodically in order to record student participation. Although I will not routinely enter the conversation, I may occasionally add a comment in order to clear up an unresolved misunderstanding of a reading. I may also incorporate into the class session interesting questions or issues that arise in the conversation.

B.      Class Discussion – Because some of you may be unwilling to speak up routinely in class, frequent and substantive participation in the chat room will carry the same weight as contributions to discussion in the classroom.

C.      Grading –

·       A -- class attendance, attentiveness, preparation, and frequent contributions to discussion (in class and/or in the chat room). 

·      B -- regular attendance, attentiveness, and occasional contributions in either venue. 

·      C -- regular attendance and attentiveness with minimal or no contribution in either class or the chat room will earn a “C.”

·      F -- Irregular attendance and/or lack of attentiveness in class, especially if coupled with minimal contributions to discussion.
 

I.      Writing Assignments (60%)

A.     Three, 5-page, double-spaced analytic papers (20% each) – Each paper is to focus on one of the three religious movements we are studying. Graduate students should see me to discuss both the topic and length of the paper.

·      Due Date:

o   Feb. 21 – Mormonism

o   Mar. 28 – Nation of Islam

o   Apr. 25 – Scientology

·      Question: Two Choices --

o   Analyze a canonical text from each of the three movements and show how it illuminates a definitive characteristic of the tradition.

o   Analyze a turning point or challenge to the movement and show how the tradition responded in a fashion that maintained a sense of continuity with its originating vision.

·      Length: Approximately 1,000 words or four pages, exclusive of bibliography. 

o   Notes should be at the foot of each page, not the end of the paper.

o   You should use at least three published sources outside of class readings. Do not use newspaper or Internet sources, except for primary texts, e.g., autobiographies, scriptures, letters, etc.

·      Format: All papers should be written in accordance with a standard style guide, such as A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian or the Chicago Manual of Style. All margins must be one inch and the typeface must be 12 pt. Times New Roman.

·      Grading standards and other writing aids are available on Collab. Please note that late papers will be penalized a third of a letter grade per day (an A becoming an A- after the assigned due date or a B+ the following day, etc). 

 

B.      Three-page, double-spaced reflexive paper  (P/F)   

·       Due Date: By email to me no later than noon on April 28^th

·      Description: Please write a 3-page, double-spaced reflection applying Krister Stendahl’s principle of “holy envy” to one of the groups we are studying. More specifically, I am asking you to identify and accurately describe feature of Mormonism, the Nation of Islam or Scientology and show why you find it worthy of Stendhal’s “holy envy.” The point of the exercise is to maintain one’s sense of religious or philosophical difference while knowledgably appreciating why others, too, have a rational and, in some respects, even laudable basis for their moral beliefs and ethical practices.
 

General Requirements:

·      Persons with diagnosed disabilities or handicapping conditions that inhibit the full performance of these requirements should notify me immediately and accommodations will be made gladly. Delaying such notification until immediately prior to or after the due date of an assignment will result in no accommodation until subsequent assignments.

·      The University of Virginia honor code applies to all work done in this course. See especially http://www.virginia.edu/honor/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/PlagiarismSupplement2011.pdf.

 

 

Required Texts

·      Richard L. Bushman, Short Introduction to Mormonism, (Oxford, 2008).\

·      Edward E. Curtis IV, Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975, (UNC Press, 2006)

·      James R. Lewis, ed., Scientology (Oxford, 2009)

·       Online resources:

o   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -  http://www.lds.org/

o   Nation of Islam - http://www.noi.org/

o   Church of Scientology - http://www.scientology.org/
 

Reading and Assignment Schedule
All readings not on the list of Required Texts are available on Collab or the Web.

Jan. 14  Introduction and Syllabus Overview

·      David Feltmate, “The Humorous Reproduction of Religious Prejudice: “Cults” and Religious Humour in The Simpsons, South Park, and King of the Hill,” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 24, 2, (Summer, 2012), 201-216.
 

Jan. 16 How to think about religion

·      Bruce Lincoln, “The Study of Religion in the Current Political Moment,” in Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Chicago, 2006), 1-8.

·      Joseph Laycock, “Where Do They Get These Ideas? Changing Ideas of Cults in the Mirror of Popular Culture,” JAAR 81, 1 (Mar. 2013), 80-106.
 

Jan. 21  How to think about marginal religious movements

·      Rodney Stark, “Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail: A Revised General Model,” Journal of Contemporary Religion, 11, 2 (May 1996) 133-46.

·      Eileen Barker, “Perspective: What are we Studying?,” Novo Religio 8, 1 (Julyu 2004), 88-102.
 

Jan. 23 Why these three movements?

·      Shipps, “Is Mormonism Christian?: Reflections on a Complicated Question,” in  Sojourner in the Promised Land, 335-356.

·      Curtis IV, Black Muslim Religion, 1-14

·      Assignment: Read within the following websites, asking of each what qualities of their members are privileged and what anxieties about misunderstanding are reflected in these official webpages. At the beginning of class, please give me summary of your findings. A simple list of characteristics and worries will do. (This is in addition to the three discussion questions due the evening before class.)

o   The Church of Scientology

§   http://www.scientology.org/

§  http://www.scientologynews.org/faq/frequently-asked-questions-introduction.html

o   The Nation of Islam

§  http://www.noi.org/ and http://www.muichicago.org/

§  http://www.noi.org/category/news-release/

o   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

§  http://mormon.org/ and http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng (By the way, why do you think there are two portals?) 

§  http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/ and http://mormon.org/faq/topic/about-mormons

 

Module A: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“The Restoration of All Things

Jan 28             Origins: 19^th-century Revivalism, Restorationism and Revelation 

·      Bushman, Mormonism, 1-34

·      Gordon Wood, “Evangelical America and Early Mormonism,” New York History 61 (October 1980): 349-386.

·      Joseph Smith Autobiographical Account  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h  or at http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2?dm=image-and-text&zm=zoom-inner&tm=expanded&p=1&s=undefined&sm=none

           

Jan 30             A Second Book

·      Excerpt Gutjahr, “The Book of Mormon: a Biography (Princeton, 2012), 11-58

·      The Book of Mormon,

o   I Nephi 1-6 (First Words) at http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng

o   Moroni10 (Last Words) at http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng

·      From your reading of the Book of Mormon, be prepared to have something to say about the following questions:

o   What is the point of these chapters (according to the voice that narrates the story)?

o   How does this story relate to the Old Testament story? – New Testament message?

o   What makes the good guys good and the bad ones bad?

o   Again, from the point of view of the narrative voice, why are records important? -- why is this record important?

 

Feb. 4                         Mormonism’s Jesus

·       Bushman, Mormonism, 64-80

·      Stephen H. Webb, “Mormonism Obsessed with Christ,” First Things (Feb. 2012), http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/01/mormonism-obsessed-with-christ

Bsp. Krister Stendahl, “The Sermon on the Mount and Third Nephi,” in Madsen, ed. Reflections on Mormonism: Judaeo-Christian Parallels (BYU, 1978), 139-171 at rsc.byu.edu/archived/reflections-mormonism-judaeo-christian-parallels/8-sermon-mount-and-third-nephi  

·      The Book of Mormon. III Nephi at http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/11?span=11-26&lang=eng --

o   Chapters 11-12

o   Chapters 15-18

·      Be prepared to discuss one example from your reading of the Book of Mormon that shows both how the text is like and not like the New Testament account of Jesus’ teachings or actions.

 

Feb. 6                         “The Mormon Problem”

·      Bushman, Mormonism, 81-102.

·      J. Spencer Fluman, Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in 19^th Century America, 103-125 (“A Peculiar People”)

·      Flake, “The Emotional and Priestly Logic of Plural Marriage,” Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series, No. 15 (Utah State University, 2009).
 

Feb. 11           Community & the Ties that Bind

·      Bushman, Mormonism, 35-64

·      Stephen H. Webb Webb, Mormon Christianity, 143-158 

·      Flake, “‘Not to be Riten:’ the Mormon Temple Rite as Oral Canon,” Journal of Ritual Stides, 9, 2 (1995), 1-21.
 

Feb. 13           Believing, Being and Doing

·      Jan Shipps, Mormonism: A New Religious Tradition, 41-65 (“History as Text” )

·      James Faulconer, "Why a Mormon Won't Drink Coffee but Might Have a Coke: The Atheological Character of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" http://jamesfaulconer.byu.edu/papers/coke_not_coffee.pdf     

·      Reading Question:  Why is it so hard to know what Mormons believe?

 

Feb. 18           Modern Mormonism

·      Bushman, Mormonism, 103-16

·      Matthew Bowman, The Mormon People, 216-248 (“Toward a Global Church”)

·      Analyze the data at:

o   Pew Forum: Mormons in America http://www.pewforum.org/2012/01/12/mormons-in-america-executive-summary/ and

·      View at least three “I am a Mormon” videoshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PF0h7oqUEQ&noredirect=1  or at http://mormon.org/people

o   Recommended: Slate Magazine Culture Blog on the subject http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/10/17/brandon_flowers_of_the_killers_i_m_a_mormon.html

·       at

Feb. 20           LDS Panel

 

Module B: The Nation of Islam

“The Lost Found People”

Feb. 25           Origins -- Renaissance

·      Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad, 32-46 (Ch. 2 “The Crescent of the Occident: Islam in Black America prior to 1930”)

·      Sylvester A. Johnson, “The Rise of Black Ethnics: The Ethnic Turn in African American Religions, 1916–1945,” Religion and American Culture, 20, 2 (Summer 2010),  125-163

·      Recommended: The Holy Koran of The Moorish Science Temple of America, Ch. 1 and 19 (XIX) http://hermetic.com/bey/7koran.html
 

Feb. 27           Rebirth

·      Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad, 47-98 (Ch. 3 “The Genesis of the Nation of Islam” & Ch. 4 “Forces of Evil”)

·      Elijah Muhammed, Message to the Black Man (Newport News, VA: United Brothers Communications Systems, 1965) at https://archive.org/stream/MessageToTheBlackmanInAmerica/MBIA#page/n1/mode/2up -- Chapter 18  “Know Thyself” and Chapter 19 “First Love Yourself” (These are one-page chapters)

 

Mar. 4            Cosmology

·      Herbert Berg, “Mythmaking in the African American Muslim Context: The Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam, and the American Society of Muslims,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73, no. 3 (September 2005): 685–703.

·      Excerpts from Chapter 10 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with Alex Haley). 1965.

·      Watch five minutes of “Farrakhan Explains the Story of Israel” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1pBP_StTmI
 

March 6         No Class

·      Watch Malcolm X (1992) available at http://putlocker.bz/watch-malcolm-x-online-free-putlocker.html or http://viooz.co/movies/4482-malcolm-x-1992.html

·      Write a two-page response to the movie by answering the following questions:

o   Why does Malcolm X join the Nation of Islam?

o   How does it change him in small and great ways?

 

Mar. 11 & 14            Spring Break

 

Mar 18           Embodiment of Belief

·      Edward Curtis IV, “Islamizing the Black Body: Ritual and Power in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, 12, no. 2, (2002): 167-196.

·      Catherine Bell, "The Ritual Body and the Dynamics of Ritual Power." Journal of Ritual Studies, 4, no. 2 (1990): 299-313.
 

Mar. 20     Gender in the NOI                                                                                            

·      Vibert L. White, Jr., Nation of Islam, 42-60 (Ch. 4 “Personal Testimony”)

·      Zain Abdullah, “Narrating Muslim Masculinities: The Fruit of Islam and the Quest for Black Redemption,” Spectrum: A Jrnl on Black Men, 1,1 (Autumn 2012), 131-77.

·      Elijah Muhammad,  “The Position of Men and Women” (1977) http://muhammadspeaks.com/home/?page_id=460

 

Mar. 25   Resurrection and Schism

·      Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad, 99-143  (Ch.5 “The Fall of the Nation” and Ch. 6 “The Resurrection of the Nation of Islam”)

·      Video: “Imam Siraj Wahhaj: My Story” http://sirajwahhaj.com/my-story/
Begin at 23:27   (For background see Wahhaj imam of Masjid Al- Taqwa and Amir of The Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA http://www.mana-net.org/)

·      Browse http://www.noi.org/

 

 Mar. 27           American jihad Islam after Malcolm X by Steven Barboza

                         -- Introduction, Chapter 2 (pp. 73-155) and a chapter of your choice

 

Module C: Church of Scientology

“The Road to Total Freedom”

 Apr. 1                       Origins

·      Lewis, ed., Scientology,” 1-48 (Ch. 1 Birth of a Religion & Ch. 2 Cultural Context)

·      “L. Ron Hubbard: Founder of Dianetics and Scientology” http://www.lronhubbard.org/ron-series/profile/introduction.html

 

Apr. 3             What kind of Church?

·      Lewis, ed., Scientology,” 209-221 and 245-259  (Ch. 10 Flinn, “Scientology as Technological Buddhism,” and Ch. 12 Willms, “Scientology: ‘Modern Religion’ or ‘Religion of Modernity?’”)

·      See also John Travolta’s explanation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6CBRC6eDIE

Apr. 8                         Cosmology

·      Lewis, ed., Scientology 103-115 and 365-384 (Ch. 5,  Christensen, “Scientology and Self-Narrativity: Theology and Soteriology as Resource and Strategy”  and Ch. 20, Rothstein, “‘His name was Xenu.  He used renegades . . . ,’: Aspects of Scientology’s Founding Myth”)

·      “Introduction to Super Power,” in Hubbard, “The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology: The O.T. Levels.”

·      Tom Cruise explains his faith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0

Apr. 10          No Class

Apr. 15          The Bridge

·      Lewis, ed., Scientology, 165-203 (Ch. 8, Dericquebourg, “How Should We Regard the Religious Ceremonies of the church of Scientology?” and Ch. 9, Harley and Kieffer, “The Development and Reality of Auditing”)

·      Short excerpt from Excerpt from Dianetics Chapters 3 & 4: “The Auditor’s Role” & “Diagnosis”

·      Videos: Lisa McPherson Trust, Scientology Training Routines (25 minutes, but you need watch only until you think you understand the process) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7xiY54d96M

Aug. 17 Relations with the Culture

• Lewis, ed., Scientology, 283-92 and 389-410 (Ch. 14,  Richardson, “Scientology in Court: A Look at Some Major Cases from Various Nations” and Ch. 20, Cusak, “Celebrity, the Popular Media, and Scientology: Making Familiar the Unfamiliar”) 
• Scientology in Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_in_Germany
• Kent, Stephen A. "The French and German versus American debate over ‘New Religions’, Scientology, and human rights." Marburg Journal of Religion 6, no. 1 (2001): 3, 37-47.

Apr. 22   Community, Controversy and Canon Construction

• Lewis, ed., Scientology, 143-161 (Ch. 7,  Andersen & Wellendorf, “Community in Scientology and among Scientologists”)
• Lawrence Wright, “The Apostate: Paul Haggis vs. The Church of Scientology,” The New Yorker (Feb. 14,2011)
• SEA ORG Member Reveals the Horrors of Scientology's RPF, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BCr0GHiIHM&list=PL0D317DB6E23CCA6A
•  Recommended: Tampa Bay Times  http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/

Apr. 24          Scientology Panel

·      Take the virtual tour at Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. http://www.scientology-washingtondc.org/inside-our-church.html

 

Apr. 29          Last Thoughts

·      J. Gordon Melton, “New New Religions: Revisiting a Concept,” Novo Religio 10, 4 (May 2007), 103-112