RELS 240 Religion and Revolution

In this course we will explore the relationship between religion and revolution through a series of case studies from across the Americas. In 1907, a wealthy Mexican landowner named Francisco Madero regularly channeled the spirits of the dead. They instructed him to write a book advocating for democratic reform, which helped ignite the Mexican Revolution of 1910 that led to Madero's being elected president. In 1930s Jamaica, the Rastafari  movement emerged as a potent political force that raised black consciousness and challenged colonial British rule. And in the mid-century United States, a spiritually awake counterculture challenged the status quo and redefined the cultural trajectory of postwar America. Using these case studies, we will ask how religions - through prophesy, apocalypticism, and messianism - can unsettle even seemingly secure polities, as well as how religion can function to maintain the status quo.