REL490
Capstone Senior Seminar

"For the self-conscious student of religion, no datum possesses intrinsic interest..."

Prof. Russell McCutcheon
russell.mccutcheon@ua.edu

Office: 211 Manly
Office Hour: TBA
Class Time: Th 3:30-5:50
Classroom: Manly 210

Resources

Do you "Like" JZS?

The Story of Pei Mei (From "Kill Bill Vol. 2")

"A man's got to know his limitations" (conclusion to "Magnum Force," 1973)

Description

This seminar, required of all majors and minors in the Department, uses the work of the University of Chicago's Jonathan Z. Smith--perhaps the most important scholar of religion of his generation--as the way into examining the current state of the academic study of religion. Apart from reading on the history of the study of religion in the US (to establish the context into which Smith makes his contributions), we will also be reading Smith's Imagining Religion and Drudgery Divine as well as chapters from a collection of essays in his honor, Introducing Religion.

Syllabus

Spring 2012 (PDF)

Presentations Schedule (PDF)

Books

Willi Braun and Russell McCutcheon (eds), Introducing Religion: Essays in Honor of Jonathan Z. Smith (Equinox)

Mircea Eliade, The Quest (Univ. of Chicago Press)

Jonathan Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine (Univ. of Chicago Press)

Jonathan Z. Smith, Imagining Religion (Univ. of Chicago Press)

Jonathan Z. Smith, Relating Religion (Univ. of Chicago Press)--this book is provided for all students through the Dept's Amy Lynn Pedersen Endowed Support Fund.

Online Readings

Karen Armstrong, "The True, Peaceful Face of Islam" (Time, Sept. 23, 2001)

Review of Trying Leviathan (published in The New York Observer [2007])

Mircea Eliade, "Preface" to The Encyclopedia of Religion (1986; PDF)

Mircea Eliade, "Author's Foreword" to Patterns in Comparative Religion (1958; PDF)

Russell McCutcheon, "Introducing Smith" (PDF)

Russell McCutcheon, "Reinventing the Study of Religion in Alabama" (PDF) posted here.

Jonathan Z. Smith, Imagining Religion (Google Books)