Course Syllabus

Comparative Philosophy of Religion: Religious Violence

IST2131-1-SU15 

Jacob N. Kinnard                                           Phone: 765-3164

1-4:30                                                              Email: jkinnard@iliff.edu

Office: Iliff 303                                               Office Hours: By Appointment

Course Description

 

In the last decade or so, a plethora of articles and books have been written on the topic of “violence and religion” and “religious violence” (they may or may not be the same thing). Although not all of these works have been explicitly comparative, they all, by virtue of their employment of the very terminology, partake of the discourse of comparative religion, whether they do so explicitly or not. Is there, then, a common theoretical move that links these seemingly naturally conjoined terms, religion and violence? In talking about “religion and violence” or “religious violence,” what do we gain? what do we lose? Given that the academy has, across the board, grown increasingly suspicious of talk of such universal categories as mysticism, myth, theology and, especially, religion, have we perhaps let “religious violence” fly under our theoretical radars? This course attempts to address these issues, and attempts to come to some common understanding of what religion violence is and what causes it.

Course Requirements

Students are expected to have carefully read and digested the assigned material for each class before the class for which it is assigned. Because of the seminar-nature of this course, active engagement with the materials is essential.

Students will be required to write two short papers (4 pages maximum), each worth 33% of the final grade.

Class participation will constitute 34% of the final grade.

All work must be turned in by the last day of class in order to receive a passing grade for the course. If you wish to take this course Pass/Fail, you must state this in writing by the end of the first week of class.

Required Texts

  • Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
  • Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
  • Talal Asad, On Suicide Bombing (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007)
  • Michael Sells, A Bridge Betrayed (California: University of California Press, 1998) 

Course Schedule

Monday 6/15          Introduction to the Course

Tuesday 6/16          What Are We Really Talking About?

-Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God, pp. xi-15.

-W. Cavanaugh, “”Does Religion Cause Violence?,” Harvard Divinity School Bulletin 35.1-2 (2007): 1-9.

-Huntington, Samuel. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72, Issue 3 (1993): 22-49.

-Robert Hamerton-Kelly, “A Theory of Religion and Violence,” unpublished lecture presented to Presented in the UCLA Dept of History.

-Rene Girard, “Generative Scapegoating,” in Robert Hamerton-Kelly, ed., Violent Origins
Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987).

Wednesday 6/17    Case Studies

-Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God, pp. 19-118.

 Thursday 6/18        The “Logic” of Religious Violence

-Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God, pp. 121-249.

-Sudhir Kakar, The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 25-51.

Friday 6/19              On Comparison: Waco and Jonestown

-Jonathan Z. Smith, "The Devil in Mr. Jones," in Imagining Religion from Babylon to Jonestown" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 102-120.

-Ivan Strenski, "Lessons for Religious Studies,"Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 567- 574

Monday 6/22         Religious Violence, Religious Identity

-Finbarr Barry Flood, "Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum," The Art Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Dec., 2002), pp. 641-659.

- Richard King, "The Association of Religion and Violence,"in John R. Hinnells and Richard King, Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 226-257.

-"White Terrorism Is as Old as America," The New York Times, June 19, 2015.

-"The Story or a Hate Crime," The New Yorker, June 22, 2015.

First Paper Due

Tuesday 6/23         On Terrorism as Religious Violence

-Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors

Wednesday 6/24   A Different Perspect

 -Talal Asad, On Suicide Bombing

Thursday 6/25        Fractured Identities

-Sells, A Bridge Betrayed

Friday 6/25              Redux: And Now What Are We Really Talking About?

-Bernard Lewis, "The Roots of Muslim Rage," The Atlantic, September 1990.

-Graham Wood, "What Does Isis Want?" The Atlantic.

Monday 6/29           Final Papers Due in My Office by 12:00 Noon

 

 

 

Course Summary:

Date Details Due