REL490
Capstone Senior Seminar

"And these signs shall follow
them that believe..."

Prof. Russell McCutcheon
e-mail: russell.mccutcheon@ua.edu

Office: Manly 211
Office Hour: TBA
Class Time: W 3:00-5:40
Office Hour: T 2:00-3:00 p.m.
Classroom: Manly 210

Click each course book to visit its publisher's site

About Online Readings

Some readings in the course are posted as PDFs on the Department's "secure" server. Enter your Bama ID/Password to access these readings, using the free software Adobe Reader.

If you have forgotten your Bama ID, but know your Campus Wide ID (CWID), go here. If you have troubles accessing the readings, email the instructor.

Interested in more information about serpent-handling Christian churches?

1999 NPR "American Talkers Series" story on John W. "Punkin'" Brown (5 min; requires RealPlayer; scroll down to the "Weekend Edition: logo to find the audio file link), who died of a snake bite he received during a service at Sand Mountain, AL, in Oct. 1998.

Who is the Author and Where is the Subject? Or, of Representation and Appropriation: The Case of painter Joy Garnett, photojournalist Susan Meiselas, and "Molotov Man"

Description

As the required "Capstone" course for all B.A. majors and minors in the Department of Religious Studies, REL 490 offers students an opportunity to draw on the skills acquired throughout their degree and apply them to specific examples of scholarship and human behavior. This semester, the course focuses on examining in detail the skills and conceptual tools used in scholarship on religion, employing a recent work of scholarship as the site to examine how these tools are used.

Beginning with the work of the onetime Birmingham journalist Dennis Covington, who wrote a best-selling book on serpent-handling Pentecostal churches in the Appalachian region of the U.S., the course moves to consider the tools commonly used in studying "the Other." After considering one example of how Covington's work was received by scholars (e.g., Robert Orsi)--along with the spirited debate that surrounded this assessment of the journalist's work (involving Stephen Prothero, David Chidester, Pamela Klassen, and Marie Griffith)--the course then detours to consider, in detail, the many conceptual tools necessary for scholarship to proceed in a manner that distinguishes it from mere repetition or paraphrase of already existing indigenous self-reports. The course ends with a research paper that considers how these scholarly tools are or are not used in a recent example of scholarship on religion in the U.S.

Registration

Registering in REL 490 requires majors and minors to visit the Department's main office (Manly 212) and obtain a "Permit" from Ms. Dickey.

Syllabus

Spring 2007 (PDF)

MTSR

Link to Gorgas Library catalog entry for Method & Theory in the Study of Religion (MTSR). Note: students are advised to use the hard copy, rather than the electronic copy, to be able to access all back issues.

Online Readings

James Birkhead, "Reading 'Snake Handling': Critical Reflections," Part 1 and Part 2 (PDF)

Richard Callahan, Review of Robert Orsi's Between Heaven and Earth

David Chidester, "Moralizing Noise: A Reply to Stephen Prothero"

William Clements, Review of Two Ethnographic Films on Serpent Handling Christians (PDF)

Paul Courtright, "Studying Religion in an Age of Terror" (PDF)

Marie Griffith, "Maintaining Empathy: A Reply to Stephen Prothero"

Phil Hine, Review of Ganesha: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings

Pamela Klassen, "Deadly Eros: A Reply to Stephen Prothero"

Rajiv Malhotra, "Wendy's Child Syndrome"

Deborah V. McCauley, "Snake Handling" from the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Ameircan Religion

Russell McCutcheon, "'It's a Lie. There's No Truth in It. It's a Sin!' On the Limits of the Humanistic Study of Religion and the Cost of Savings Others from Themselves" (PDF)

Robert Orsi, "A Bit of Judgement: A Reply to Stephen Prothero"

Robert Orsi, "Fair Game," a review of Russell McCutcheon's The Discipline of Religion (along with reply from McCutcheon; PDF)

Robert Orsi, "Snakes Alive: Religious Studies Between Heaven and Earth"

Stephen Prothero, "Belief Unbraketed: A Case for the Religion Scholar to Reveal More of Where He or She is Coming From" (for the complete replies in PDF form, click here, or see each author's name above)

Jonathan Z. Smith, "A Matter of Class: Taxonomies of Religion" (PDF)

Zwi Werblowsky, "Marburg Declaration"