How does private faith relate to public life?  Under what circumstances does religion generate political conflict or, for good or ill, threaten regimes?  How may religion contribute to political integration and promote reform?  How may governments and their policies threaten religious communities, or how may they promote religious values?  Taking into account  Norris and Inglehart’s major cross-national test of the secularization hypothesis, this seminar will consider sectarian political conflict and the role of religious authorities, groups, and institutions in policy conflicts, in particular as they relate to promoting religious values against secular ones.  Other issues—such as the circumstances under which clerical figures assume political roles, and the consequences; the transnational activities of religious institutions; and  political processes for resolving conflicts within religious organizations--may be addressed depending on student interests.

Texts

• G.A. Almond et al., Strong religion: The rise of fundamentalisms around the world.  (University of Chicago Press, 2002).
• N.J. Demerath III, Crossing the gods: World religions and worldly politics (Rutgers University Press, 2003).
• Manuel, P.C., et al., eds. The Catholic Church and that nation-state (Georgetown University Press, 2006).
• P. Norris & R. Inglehart, Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide 2nd (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Rules

Schedule

"the rest is commentary" (Hillel)

• the good and not-so-good news: newstories on religion & politics

Goals & objectives: The Higher Learning Commission, which is the accrediting body for ASU, requires all syllabi to identify learning objectives; so, after completing POSC 6223, where the goal is to provide a gradualte-level comparative analysis of major topics in the study of religion and politics, students will demonstrate the ability to (1) critically read and evaluate contemporary research on the chosen topics and (2) carry out a project, appropriate for graduate study on a topic of his or her choice subject to approval of the instructor.