SOCSCI1103: An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion

In this course we'll survey the sociology of religion is several ways.  First, we'll explore the history of the founders of the discipline, as well as their theories, including Durkheim and Malinowski.  Then we'll go on to read one of the recent sociological theories for the human phenomenon of religion, Berger's The Sacred Canolpy.  Next, we'll discuss sociology of religion as a branch of anthropology of religion, to understand the interconnections between the two subjects and their various methods of analysis.  In the last section of the course, we'll jump from introductory materials and discussion of methods to direct analysis (as a prof of mine used to put it, "we'll stop sharpening our tools and finally cut some meat!").  In this section we'll explore contemporary sociological analysis for (1) the waning of contemporary mainstream Protestantism (relying on Hoge's Vanishing Boundries) and (2) the waxing, increasing, of cult groups in the U.S. today (relying on the work of a sociologist currently at Oxford University).