Programma

Religion and Society in Global Perspective

Fabrizio Conti, PhD

faconti@johncabot.edu
fabrizio.conti@uniroma3.it

Readings

 All readings will be made available by the professor on Moodle. The Prof.’s lectures as well as class discussion will be based on those readings.

Assignments:

1. Paper (2000 words) (30%)
2. Research outline presentation (10-15 mins) with a ppt (25%)
3. Oral Final Exam (30%)
4. Class participation (15%)




Syllabus:

Two classes per week:

Thursday 15-17 and Friday 11-13


The course begins on Thursday, March 2, at 3pm



Part I: The Western World: Cultural-Historical Dynamics and Religion

Week 1

• Course Intro: Culture, Society, and Religion

- M. C. Lemon, Philosophy of History: A Guide for Students, pp. 290-303 (“The What is History Debate”)
- Alessandro Arcangeli, Cultural History: A Concise Introduction, pp. 1-17 (“In search of a definition”); pp. 30-48 (“Interwoven paths”)



• Popular Culture, Superstition, Religion

- Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, pp. 3-22 (The Discovery of the People)
- Aron Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception, pp. 78-103
(Popular Culture in the Mirror of the Penitentials)



Week 2

• Humanism and Christian Tradition

- Kenneth Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. XIX-XX; 1-8 (Introduction; Quintilian); pp. 25-34 (Petrarch: Introduction; Letter to Posterity; The Ascent of Mount Ventoux; Letter to the Shade of Cicero)


• The “Universal Man” of The Renaissance and Religious Traditions

- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 97-104 (Florentine Neoplatonism and Mysticism: Intro; Marsilio Ficino); pp. 104-108 (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola)
- Leonardo da Vinci, Selections from the Notebooks, in The Italian Renaissance Reader, ed. by Bondanella and Musa, pp. 185-195


Week 3

• Religion and Critical Thinking: Lorenzo Valla’s Reading of The Donation of Constantine

- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 206-210 (Lorenzo Valla:
The Principal Arguments from the Forged Donation of Constantine)
- The Donation of Constantine: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/donatconst.asp



• Geographical Explorations and Religion

- Cristopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage, paragraphs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 50-54:
http://eada.lib.umd.edu/text-entries/journal/
- F. Rickey, “How Columbus Encountered America”



Week 4

• Witchcraft: Beliefs and Practices

- Brian Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Ch. 2 (The Intellectual Foundations)
- Charles Zika, Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, in Levack, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
- Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700, pp. 176-228 (“The Hammer of Witches”)
- Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, “Strix”, in Witchcraft in Europe, ed. by Alan Charles Kors
and Edward Peters, selected pp.



• Protestant and Catholic Reforms

- Lisa Jardine, Erasmus: Man of Letters, selected pp.
- Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility: https://history.hanover.edu/texts/luthad.html
- Paolo Giustiniani and Pietro Querini, Booklet to Pope Leo X on the Reform of the Church, selected pp.




Week 5

• Science, Theology, and Authority

- The Index of Forbidden Books: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/indexlibrorum.asp
- Giordano Bruno, On the Infinite, the Universe, and the Worlds, selected pp.
- Galileo Galilei's Indictment and Abjuration (1633): https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1630galileo.asp




• Humanism, Religion, and Western Current Cultural Trends

- James Hankins, How Not to Defend the Humanities:
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/not-defend-humanities/
- Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, selected pp.





Part II: Religions in Global Perspective

Week 6

• Indigenous & Ancient Religions

- Nancy C Ring, Introduction to the Study of Religion, Ch. 2

- Duncan S. Ferguson, Exploring the Spirituality of the World Religions, Part II, selected pp.




• The Axial Age: A Cultural/Religious Revolution?

- Jan Assmann, The Price of Monotheism, Ch. 2 ("Monotheism: A Counterreligion to What?")



Week 7

• Indic and Chinese Religions

- Ring, Introduction to the Study of Religion, Ch. 3 and Ch. 5




• Judaism, Christianity, Islam

- Ring, Introduction to the Study of Religion, Ch. 6 and Ch. 7




Week 8

• Christianity and Christianization

- Van Engen, John, “The Christian Middle Ages as a Historiographical Problem”, The American Historical Review Vol. 91, No. 3 (Jun., 1986): 519-552




• Religious Change and Interreligious Dialogue

- Ring, Introduction to the Study of Religion, Ch. 9 and Ch. 11



Week 9

• Mysticism and Monasticism

- Thomas Merton, A Course in Christian Mysticism, selected pp.


• Conclusion and Final Exam preparation

Testi Adottati

All readings will be made available by the professor on Moodle. The Prof.’s lectures as well as class discussion will be based on those readings.

Modalità Erogazione

In person/tradizionale

Modalità Valutazione

1. Saggio/Paper (1500-2000 parole/words) (30%) 2. Presentazione di una outline di ricerca (10-15 minuti) con powerpoint / research outline presentation (10-15 mins) with a ppt (25%) 3. Esame finale / final exam (30%) 4. Partecipazione in classe o da remoto (Teams) / class participation (also through Teams) (15%)