It might be interesting to read a very accessible book by Pope Benedict, writiten while he was still a cardinal, call Salt of the Earth. It is basically an interview with him by a very sceptical interviewer, who raisies every question he can think of about what's wrong with traditional religion, especially Catholicism. Ratzinger's answers are very thoughtful and graceful. The language is colloquial, though requires some social historical awareness. Upper level students could do it.
Steve Sharkey
-----Original Message-----
From: Khaldoun Samman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: teachsoc@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:32:00 -0800 (PST)
Subject: TEACHSOC: Religion, Pluralism, and Modernity
Hi all,
I'll be teaching an upper level course on the topic of
RELIGION AND MODERNITY in Fall 2006 and I wanted to
see if any of you may have suggestions on topics,
readings, out-of-class exercises... It's quite
abstract, but Macalester students handle these type of
courses well. Plus, the fact that most of my students
are secular and anti-religion makes me think that a
critical reading of secularism will be good for them
:-)
DESCRIPTION:
Strolling through any bookstore, it becomes evident
that many intellectuals today are claiming religion as
the main culprit of our contemporary world disorder,
with a large number of publications boasting such
titles as Hector Avalos' "Fighting Words: The Origins
of Religious Violence," Steve Bruce's "God is Dead:
Secularization in the West" and Sam Harris's "The End
of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason."
This linear, narrative model of history that advocates
of modernity use puts the modern and secular identity
in place of an obsolete and dangerous religious
systems belonging to an imagined "pre-modern" society.
In other words, the traditional account of the modern
is one of increasing rationality and progress,
heralding an age of secularism while simultaneously
replacing the old and decrepit politics of religion.
Religious politics is thus understood as preceding
modern secular politics in so far that the former is a
part of the "traditional society" from which the
transition to modernity began and modern nations later
emerged. A religious worldview is what societies have
before they are touched by modernity. The logical
conclusion of this view, in which religion is made
inherently antithetical to modernity, calls for
secular intellectuals, masters of rational and
scientific thinking, to resolve conflicts that are
based upon irrational scriptures. As Hector Avalos
forcefully proclaims, "Our final mission, as scholars
of these scriptures, must be to help humanity close
the book on a long chapter of human misery"
This time-immemorial perspective makes an assumption
that requires a significant leap of faith. Oblivious
to the great political and economic transformations
that the world has experienced over the past two
centuries, this a-historical argument fails to
interrogate current methods and motivations for
devouring and slicing up our world?s landscapes,
seeming to give a free pass to such mediums as
nationalism, nation-states, and more recent
exclusivist forms of identities.
In this sense, a time-immemorial perspective can offer
little, if anything at all, to any serious inquiry
that seeks to identify real political motives for
violent resolutions to current conflicts, unless those
who employ it are willing to accept secularism,
modernity, nationalism, and ultimately humanity as the
new ritualistic symbols of communal deification and
worship, part of a time-immemorial continuum and not a
paradigmatic break from it, for the notions of
disconfirming otherness that seem to be peppered
throughout the arguments against religion are just as
easily identified at the heart of the nationalist
agenda.
In short, this course aims to critically interrogate
the way many of us understand religion and secularism,
tradition and modernity, ..., of which one side of the
dichotomy (religion and tradition) belongs to obsolete
societies while the other side (secularism and
modernity) belong to contemporary, democratic
societies. Indeed, if there is one objective in this
course it would have to be the realization that our
contemporary conflicts are largely the creation of
what many have perceived to be their antidote: the
modern forms of social organizations we call
nation-states, religions, democracies...
thanks,
Khaldoun Samman
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