# 5

From John Winthrop to Obama:
How Religion Shaped US Development

Monday 1:00 P.M.                                               Winter 2012 (14 Weeks)
Coordinator:  Alice Lewis                                  Co-Coordinator:  Paul Markowitz

Course Description

From the time Europeans first landed in America, for good or ill, religion has played a crucial role in the development of the United States.  The Spanish imposed Catholicism on Native Americans, destroying a culture in the process, while each English colony had its own religious flavor and state sanctioned religion.  The rights enumerated  in the First Amendment, including the concept of religious freedom supported by the separation of church and state, represent, perhaps, the single most revolutionary outcome of the American Revolution.  But, as much as religious freedom stemmed from the American religious experience beginning with the arrival of the Puritans, it also stemmed from the secularism of the Enlightenment, thus setting  the stage for an ongoing debate of the role of religion in a free democratic republic.  

In this SDG, we will follow that debate on the role of religion in the US and we will discover how religion has shaped our national development. We will ask why the United States, unlike the European nations, has remained a nation in which a large majority see themselves as “religious” and where religious views play a “loud” role in the public sphere. We will discuss the large number of arguments that stem from religious differences, known as the “culture wars,” as religion and American politics interact.

In the SD/G, we will look at the role religion has played throughout our history.  This SD/G is intended to be a rigorous historical study covering roughly 400 years.  By the end, we should have a clear idea how religion in our country evolved, how we got to where we are, and how to evaluate the arguments swirling around us today.

Topics:

• The Arrival of the Europeans: From the Spaniards to the English colonies 

• Religion, the American Revolution and the founding fathers: The origins of religious freedom to the 1st Amendment; Washington, Jefferson and Madison on freedom of religion

• Religion in the new country (1812 – 1860): Westward expansion, the Second Great Awakening, and Irish Catholic immigration

• Religion  before and during the Civil War: Abolitionism as a religious movement, white and black religion in the south, the war as a “Holy Crusade,” and Lincoln

• Religion after the Civil War: Black churches after slavery and into Jim Crow, Transcendentalism, The Third Great Awakening and the Social Gospel

•  Turn of the 20th century: Higher Criticism, science and Fundamentalism; immigration’s impact on American religious life and diversity

• Religion in the first half of 20th century: The Scopes Trial and the first culture wars; religion and WWII; Christianity and the Cold War
•   American religion and mid-century liberalism (Part I): The Supreme Court rulings on religion; religion, politics and JFK; religion and the Civil Rights Movement; secularism

• Religion and the rise of mid-century conservatism: intersection of social conservationism, religious conservatives, economic conservatism and anti-Communism

• American religion and mid-century liberalism (Part II): Vatican II, ecumenicalism, liberal theology, liberation theology

• Religion since mid-century: The 4th Great Awakening; increased diversity

• Religion and Politics 1970s – 1990s: New culture wars; evangelicals enter politics; the chasm between the “religious left” and the “religious right”

• Religion since the 1990s: Fears, threats and promises (1990-2000) as the next chapter in the culture wars; American religion and 9/11

• Where we are today: culture wars continue over science, life, death and religion in the public square; diversity; what is left of liberal religion

Core Books
Edwin S. Gaustad, The Religious History of America: The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today, 2004.
Patrick Allitt, , 2005.