TEACHSOC: Re: Religion, Pluralism, and Modernity

Roberts, Keith Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:02:02 -0800

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Keith A. Roberts, Ph.D.

Dept of Sociology & Anthropology

Hanover College

Hanover, IN 47243

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Office: 812/ 866-7353

Hi all,

I'll be teaching an upper level course on the topic of

RELIGION AND MODERNITY in Fall 2006 and I wanted to

see if any of you may have suggestions on topics,

readings, out-of-class exercises... It's quite

abstract, but Macalester students handle these type of

courses well. Plus, the fact that most of my students

are secular and anti-religion makes me think that a

critical reading of secularism will be good for them

:-)

Khaldoun:

These are some of the key pieces if you want students to get into the neo-secularization debate. Rodney Stark is among a rather large number of sociologists in the U.S. who have been de-bunking the notion that secularization has been occurring. Some of the sociology of religion texts would also have summaries of these debates. I can send you a summary from my own book if you are interested.

Secularism theory is dead:

Stark, Rodney

2000 "Secularization, R.P.I." Pp. 41-66 in The Secularization Debate. Edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. and Daniel V. A. Olson. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Stark, Rodney and Laurence R. Iannaccone

1994 "A Supply–Side Reinterpretation of the 'Secularization' of Europe." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (September): 230-252.

Secularism must be reinterpreted:

Dobbelaere, Karel

1981 Secularization: A Multidimensional Concept. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

2000 "Toward an Integrated Perspective of the Processes Related to the Descriptive Concept of Secularization." Pp. 21-39 in The Secularization Debate. Edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. and Daniel V. A. Olson. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Making sense of the neo-secularism debate

Chaves, Mark

1993 “Denominations as Dual Structures: An Organizational Analysis.” Sociology of Religion (Summer): 147-169.

1994 “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority.” Social Forces (March): 749-774.

Chaves, Mark and Phillip S. Gorski

2001 "Religious Pluralism and Religious Participation." Annual Review of Sociology (27): 261-281.

Yamane, David

1997 “Secularization on Trial: In Defense of a Neosecularization Paradigm.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (March): 109-122.

Keith