SOC 390 Sociology of Religion

This course offers a survey of sociological approaches to the study of religious beliefs practices and organizations in the United States in public and private life. Exceptionally devout among developed nations the U.S. is a nation of remarkable religious diversity. We will examine the relationship between religion politics and civic life; recent trends in American religion (the "new atheism" problems of pluralism secularization and declines in religious participation the rise of evangelicalism and fundamentalisms religious conflicts); as well as theoretical arguments both classical and contemporary about the role of religion in scientifically advanced modern societies. Whereas much public debate frames religion as either a unambiguously beneficial public good or else as a font of irrationality and sectarian division we will move beyond this dichotomy toward a more empirically informed consideration of just what religion is and does in the contemporary United States.