Global Christianities

What exactly is the Christian tradition? Can we even say that one exists? This class aims to challenge how students view Christianity by taking a tour of the varieties of world Christianity
that exist in the twentieth and twenty-first century, and by sampling a wide variety of methods in how one studies the field of Christianity. These will include historical, sociographical,
ethnohistorical, anthropological, theoretical, and gender studies methods, all of which challenge traditional (meaning mainly those steeped in the field of church history) scholars of religion to expand their understandings of Christianity in the modern period. This class is not a historical overview of Christianity and its variety of theologies, but rather it focuses on how Christianity in the modern period has become entangled with politics, race, sexuality, healing, issues of gender, revolution and religious strife (among other things.) This course focuses on content, methodology, and also seeks to situate each case study within current world events. In each section of this class we will consider case studies from all over the world including the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East in order to both understand some of the main themes that trouble the study of modern Christianity along with the methods by which it is understood and studied.

 

This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.

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