POS 386: Religion and Politics in the United States

Many of you are probably familiar with the old saying that it is impolite to discuss religion or politics with strangers and dangerous to do so with friends. We are going to purposely ignore this advice, and spend the entire semester talking about these two subjects, devoting particular attention to how religion and politics intersect in the United States. Not long ago it was widely assumed that modernization would eventually eliminate religion as a significant force in American society. As recently as the 1970s, conventional wisdom held that religion no longer mattered in American politics. These claims have proven to be completely and utterly wrong. The United States is and always has been a religious society. Along the same lines, religion has historically played a substantial role in American politics, and continues to do so today. This interaction between religion and politics will be the focus of this course. Over the course of this semester students will be expected to engage in a thoughtful and critical examination of the many different ways that religion affects American politics, and also ways in which politics affects matters of religion. 0

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