REL482
The Politics of Religious Authenticity

"We have a hunger for something like authenticity, but are easily satisfied by an ersatz facsimile."

- George Orwell, c. 1949

Professor
Dr. Russell McCutcheon
russell.mccutcheon@ua.edu

Office: Manly 211
Class: Monday 2:00-4:40 Location: Manly 210
Office Hour: Th 10-11 a.m.

About Online Readings

Some of the course's online readings are placed in a "secure" folder; you can only access these PDF files (Portable Document Format, that can be opened with the free Adobe Reader) by clicking each link and then entering your Bama User Name and Password. If you have difficulty accessing these readings, contact the instructor by email.

If you have forgotten your Bama ID, but know your Campus Wide ID (CWID), then go here.

Final Assignment

Now that you are all scholars of the discourse on authenticity, what do you make of Reza Aslan's book, No God but God? Your review essay--due on Dec. 8 and which must be 1,500 words in length (and worth 40% of your final grade)--is your opportunity to apply the tools acquired in the class. Note: I am not looking for agreement or disagreement with the book's thesis; instead, I am looking for a well written, well argued diagnostic of its argument and the rhetorical techniques employed by the author.

Be careful to cite all sources properly and consistently (whether quoted or not), using a citation style with which you are familiar.

Resources

A print interview with Reza Aslan; others here, here, here, and here

An NPR interview with Reza Aslan (requires RealAudio)

Two articles from The Nation by Reza Aslan

A Slate article on the 2005 Danish cartoon controversy by Reza Aslan

... and his appearance on "The Colbert Report"

Who are our authors?

Karen Armstrong

John Esposito

Clifford Geertz

Eric Hobsbawm

Dwijendra Narayan Jha

Bernard Lewis

Description

This upper-level seminar course examines the ways in which recent popular and scholarly representations of that aspect of culture known as "religion" and its interactions with both local and global politics are often based on the assumption that some forms of religious belief, practice, and organization are more pious, authentic, and thus legitimate and authoritative, than others. The course will consider authenticity as being a judgment that operates on a sliding scale--a scale that has much to do with the social interests of those making the judgments. The course focuses, then, on competing discourses on authenticity as found at specific sites--and the various social worlds made possible by means of these discourses--rather than on any supposed authenticity itself.

Syllabus

Fall 2006 (PDF)

Note: Final review essay is due by the end of the day on Friday, Dec. 8. Submit it in Prof. McCutcheon's mail box in Manly 212.

Books

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

Reza Aslan, No God but God

Jean-François Bayart, The Illusion of Cultural Identity

Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition

Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam

Irshad Manji, The Trouble with Islam

Online Resources

Karen Armstrong, Preface from Islam: A Short History

Karen Armstrong, "The True, Peaceful Face of Islam"

Talal Asad, "The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category"

Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System"

Clifford Geertz, "Which Way to Mecca?" (parts 1 and 2)

Dwijendra Narayan Jha, "Looking for a Hindu Identity"

Russell McCutcheon, "The Jargon of Authenticity and the Study of Religion"

Gary Lease, "Ideology"

Tim Murphy, "Discourse"

Edward Said, "The Clash of Ignorance"

Edward Said, Introduction from Orientalism

Brian Spooner, "Weavers and Dealers: The Authenticity of an Oriental Carpet"

Films

Karen Armstrong on Religious Fundamentalism

John Esposito on the Struggles of Islam