Political Science 351
Seminar: Religion and Politics
Fall 2008: Alan Wolfe

This course is meant to introduce students to some of the major ways in which religion and politics influence each other in contemporary American life.  We will be especially concerned with these developments: (1) the increasing influence of conservative Protestantism on issues of major national importance, which will include an examination of who conservative Protestants are and what they actually believe; (2) the role that religion plays in America’s two party system and whether contemporary issues such as faith-based iniatives or school choice can be understood as a product of partisan differences shaped by different religious outlooks; (3) the transformation of American Catholicism since the 1950s and its implications for American politics; and (4) the importance of Islam in the United States in the aftermath of September 11.

 The course will meet once a week and will function as a seminar.  This means that in the first part of the course we will read texts in common and discuss them.  As we do so, students should be thinking about the project in which they will be engaging themselves for the semester.  As we move toward the latter part of the course, students will be expected to make presentations about the research in which they have engaged themselves.

Course Resources:

Syllabus