Religion and Violence: A Sociological Look at the Dark Side of Faith Sociology 300B/580T (Winter 2004)

course description | assignments | reserve readings | syllabus | attendance policy | academic honesty | graduate students

course description

From the creation of the universe out of the sundered remains of defeated gods and goddesses to the placation through sacrifice and ritual of those deities who triumphed, from the fires of the Inquisition to nerve gas on the Tokyo subway, and from the Crusades to the attacks on the World Trade Center, religion and violence have been intimately related throughout most if not all of human history. However, because our cultural conception of "religion" makes a rough equation between "being religious" and "being good, moral, and decent," the violent aspects of religion tend to be seen as either aberrant and isolated incidents in our own tradition, or the sine qua non of someone else's belief. We avoid the dark side of faith because it challenges our very notions of what religion is "supposed" to be. In many ways, however, violence lies at the very heart of religion.

In this course, we will use a number of case studies to parse the various intersections of religion and violence, and to understand more fully how these intersections have been framed in religious discourse, how they have been used to sustain, legitimate, or reject the validity of religious traditions, and how cultural institutions perpetuate the difference between the perception of religion and violence, and its reality. Since an entire course could be (and, in many cases, has been) taught on each of the topics we will consider, the problem in designing this course was not which intersections of religion and violence to include, but which to leave out.

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assignments and evaluation

1) Two in-class quizzes on the days noted in the syllabus. Students late to class on those days will not be permitted to take the quiz. (30% total)
2) Two 1,000-word current events analyses on religion and violence. (30% total)
3) 2,500-word research paper (due in Haag Hall by 4:00 pm, April 30; 40% total)

During the course, Prof. Cowan will give detailed instructions on how to perform a current event analysis. Click here for a chart detailing how Prof. Cowan assesses written work.

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electronic reserve readings (Eres)

The Electronic Reserve system (Eres) is designed to allow students to access reserve reading materials from their home computer or computer workstations here on campus. Once you have accessed the readings for the week, they can be downloaded in Portable Document Format (.pdf). This requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If this is not already installed on your computer, you can download it free of charge at (http://www.adobe.com). Click on the "Get Acrobat reader button" at the bottom of the home page, and follow the directions to the "Free Reader."

Do not wait until the last minute. I recommend that you print out a number of readings at one sitting.
Excuses regarding computer malfunction or failure will not be accepted.
YHBW.

To download and print Eres material:

Go to the Miller Nichols Library website (http://www.umkc.edu/lib/).
Click on "Miller Nichols Library."
Click on "Reserve Materials."
Click on "Eres" service.
Click on "Electronic Reserves and Course Materials." If you are reading this online, you can go right from here.
Under "Select an Instructor," choose "Cowan, Douglas." Click "Go."
Click hyperlink for "Religion and Violence."
Click "Accept."
Click hyperlink for appropriate reading (see Master List of Readings below); .pdf readings will open in a new window. Print readings using the "Print" function on the .pdf window.
Read carefully, and participate boldly in class!

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course syllabus

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attendance policy

Students are expected to attend and participate in all class sessions. Only excused absences which have been arranged in advance with Prof. Cowan, or which are substantiated by medical documentation, will be accepted. As well, class will begin promptly at 12:30 and students are expected to be on time. Any more than two unexcused absences will result in a grade penalty of .5 % per missed class. If you come in late and are not present when attendance is taken, you will be counted as absent. This policy is based on long experience and empirical evidence which demonstrates clearly that students who attend class achieve far better command of the material than those who do not. What a surprise!

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academic honesty

Prof. Cowan has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, and is very good at finding it. Academic dishonesty will result in a "0" for the assignment in question, and the consequences of this can range from course failure (for undergraduate students) to a request for official dismissal from the program in which a student is enrolled (for graduate students). If you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism, click here.

If you would like to know under what circumstances Prof. Cowan will exhibit leniency towards plagiarism, click here.

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graduate students

If students are taking this course for graduate credit (i.e., you are registered in Sociology 580T), there will be an increased workload. The essay portion of in-class tests will be graded at a graduate level; you will be expected to write four current event analyses; and graduate research papers are to be no less than 5,000 words long.

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Douglas E. Cowan