As an advanced introduction to theory of religion, this class assumes that students may have only a passing familiarity with the major social and ideological developments of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This class and the next will consider representations of personhood and social belonging that are mobilized in Christian (predominently Protestant) theo-political discourse.

1) Required. [ereserves]. Martin Luther, "The Freedom of a Christian" [1520]. This brief text outlines Luther's ideal for the Christian life. In so doing, Luther also articulates a political anthropology organized around an interior faith that affects us to this day. Namely, the "inner" man is free while the "outer" man remains subjugated to the evils of worldly politics. (In Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings ed. John Dillenberger (New York: Anchor, 1962), pp. 42-85.)

2) Required. [ereserves]. Erasmus, "On Free Will" [1524]. This is a selection from Erasmus' contribution to one of the seminal theological debates of that era: Do the choices that human beings make influence god's choice of whom to save and whom to damn? Erasmus upholds the efficacy of human free will. (In The Portable Renaissance Reader ed. James Ross and Mary McLaughlin (New York: Viking, 1963), pp. 677-693.)

3) Required. [ereserves]. Martin Luther, "The Bondage of the Will" [1525]. Written as a direct response to Erasmus, Luther's diatribe argues for the totality of divine power. Luther considered this his greatest work of theology. Particularly interesting is the way in which the Spirit/Word acts as mediator between the "Hidden God" and humanity. As is the case with the Erasmus reading, we have a mere snippet of a major work. (In The Portable Renaissance Reader, pp. 694-703).

4) Required. John C. Olin  (trans.), A Reformation Debate: Sadoleto's Letter to the Genevans and Calvin's Reply [1539]. The selections from Luther provide a good grounding in some of the major ideological issues at the heart of the Reformation. The debate contained in this present book is useful for two reasons. First, it amplifies the theological and institutional differentiation between the Catholic Church and the Reformers. Second, it gives us insight into the politics of theological discourse. The two letters contained in this book are both directed towards the citizens of Geneva. Sadoleto argues that the Genevans should remain faithful to the universal Church; Calvin, that the Genevans should reject that corrupt, public ecclesiastical order in favor of a local religious order guided by individuals inspired by an interior religiosity.

5) Suggested [book reserves]. Robert W. Scribner, The German Reformation. This is a short but incisive discussion of its eponymous topic. I recommend it highly to those of you who did not study the Reformation as undergrads, or in another graduate class. There are several shortcomings to Scribner's text, the two most important of which are 1) it does not closely examine the major theological debates, and 2) it lacks a discussion of the Catholic Counter Reformation. Were this a  course on  sixteenth and seventheeth-century social  history, these would be an inexcusible oversights. Because the bulk of our focus will be on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they are not a fatal flaws.

6) Optional [book reserves]. Peter Byrne, Natural Religion and the Nature of Religion: The Legacy of Deism (London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 1-21. 1. I will make the central chapters of Byrne’s book optional for the next class. This first chapter provides a valuable bridge between Reformation and Enlightenment.

7) Optional [book reserves]. Peter Byrne, Natural Religion, pp. 260-265. These are the works-cited pages for Byrne’s book. You cannot follow his references without them.  

1) Required. [ereserves]. Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, "Common Notions Concerning Religion" [1624]. This work provides the earliest schematization of religion as a universal human phenomenon. Living during a time of religious warfare, Edward Herbert is concerned to identify those universal principles of truth that should be self-evident to natural reason, and thus that should give no cause for human animosities. (In De Veritate translated by Meyrick H. Carré (Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith, 1937), pp. 289-307.)

2) Required. [ereserves]. John Locke, "Of Faith and Reason, and Their Distinct Provinces" and "Of Enthusiasm" [1689]. The titles of these two chapters from the final section of Locke's masterwork are ready entrees to their subject-matters. In the first, Locke distinguishes faith from reason, indicating that all valid points of faith will accord with reason. In the second, Locke defines "enthusiasm" as faith lacking in reason, and thus lacking in proof.
(In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book IV, Chapters 18 & 19. The volume used here is The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes 12th edition (London, Rivington, 1824), vol 2, pp. 262-282).

3) Required. [ereserves]. John Locke, "A Discourse of Miracles" [1701]. Though an independent work, this discourse picks up where Locke's discussion of enthusiasm leaves off. How does one distinguish legitimate revelation from the fantasies of enthusiasm? Miracles! The more the better. How reasonable! (In The Reasonableness of Christianity with A Discourse of Miracles and Part of A Third Letter Concerning Toleration edited by I. T. Ramsey (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 78-87.)

4) Required. [ereserves]. Matthew Tindal, Christianity as Old as the Creation [1730]. The introduction to this selection describes Tindal's work as "the deist's Bible." The book itself is about 400 pages long. The reading we have here takes material from all of the chapters, and thus gives a representative overview of Tindal's entire thought. Unfortunately, the editor does not mark ellisions and ellipses. If you ever want to cite Tindal's work in a publication, I would advise you to get a copy of the original.  (In Deism and Natural Religion: A Source Book edited by E. Graham Waring (New York: Prederick Ungar Publishing, 1967), pp. 107-170.

5) Required. [ereserves]. David Hume, "Of Miracles" [1748]. A classic essay taught in all introductions to theory of religion (or at least it should be). Hume argues that god himself cannot perform miracles, and that no reasonable person could ever accept the reality of miracles. (In Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 109-131

6) Required. [ereserves]. David Hume, "The Natural History of Religion" [1757]. Where Edward Herbert and Matthew Tindal see religion as the purest expression of natural rationality, tainted and ruined over time, Hume presents religion as an outgrowth of human fears and passions. The natural history of religion is the natural history of human animality. (In  The Philosophical Works of David Hume volume 4 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), pp. 420-493, 211-215.

7) Suggested [book reserves]. Roy Porter, The Enlightenment (ISBN: 0333945050). This is a short but incisive discussion of its eponymous topic. I recommend it highly to those of you who did not study the Enlightenment as undergrads, or in another graduate class. 

8) Optional [book reserves]. Peter Byrne, Natural Religion and the Nature of Religion: The Legacy of Deism,  pp. 22-140. In these chapters, Byrne  traces the major trends in the theorization of natural religion, from Edward Herbert to Immanuel Kant.

9) Optional [book reserves]. Peter Harrison, 'Religion' and the Religions in the English Enlightenment. An excellent introduction to, and analysis of, the naturalization of "religion" as an object of scientific discourse in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. Those of you who read the suggested chapter from W.C. Smith  will recognize Harrison's debt to that work.

1) Required [ereserves]. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason [1781/1787]. Into every life, a little Kant must fall. Here there is a deluge. In order to understand Kant's answer to his three-fold question -- What can I know? What ought I do? What may I hope? -- the class begins with the introduction to Kant's first Critique, in which he lays out the general problem of pure reason. We then turn to a section at the end of the book, in which Kant critiques specific "rational" arguments for the existence of god leading to a general critique of all theology based on speculative principles of reason. (Critique of Pure Reason translated by Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1996), pp. 43-68, 303-322, 572-586) (note these pages are different than those originally assigned. Pages 302-333 have been added; and will be distributed in class; pages 609-616 have been cut, though they are in the erserves pdf.)

2) Required [ereserves]. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason [1788]. "What may I know" gives way to "what ought I do." But in a practical sense, for Kant, moral action is inextricable from religion, the sphere of hope.  The first half of this second Critique equates moral action with action guided by universally generalizable principles of reason. We will focus on the second half, where he then explains how a morality borne of "pure practical reason" entails the practical (though not purely practical) concepts of free will, immortality, and god. (Critique of Practical Reason translated by Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002), pp. 3-25, 141-186, 203-205.)

3) Optional [ereserves]. Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and, Meditations on First Philosophy translated by Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993), pp. 59-81.  Kant's critical stance towards a priori knowledge takes direct aim at Descartes' 1637 attempt to employ rational method to "prove" metaphysical claims. If you have not read Descartes previously, now is a good time to do so.

4) Optional [book reserves]. Immanuel Kant, Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone [1793]. When developing the syllabus, I had thought to assign this entire work alone, without the material from the first two Critiques. But while this certainly is Kant's major statement on rational theology, the first two works are more important for understanding Kant's influence on later generations' thought about religion. This selection comes from the end of this work, where Kant employs his religious principles in the analysis of Christianity, both as a species both  of historical religion and natural religion. (Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone translated by Theodore Greene and Hoyt Hudson (New York: Harper Torchbooks 1960), pp. 139-190.)

5) Optional [ereserves]. Immanuel Kant, "What is Orientation in Thinking" [1786] in Kant: Political Writings edited by Hans Reiss, translated by H.B. Nisbet (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 237-249, 284-285. This traverses some of the same ground as the two Critiques assigned. The present essay is much shorter, however, which makes it useful for undergraduate teaching. If you envision yourself ever teaching Kant-on-god, check this out!

6) Optional [ereserves]. Donald Wiebe, "Religion and the Scientific Impulse in the Nineteenth Century: Friedrich Max Muller and the Birth of the Science of Religion" in The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy (NY: St Martins 1999), pp. 9-30. This comes from  a collection of articles in which Donald Wiebe argues that the academic study of religion is historically marked by a "failure of nerve" in the face of theology. Nineteenth-century scholars like Max Muller and C. P. Tiele proposed to set the study of religion on a properly scientific footing, but their successors failed to adhere to the founders' scientific priniciples. The present article thus represents Wiebe's attempt to reappropriate Muller as forefather of Wiebe's own intellectual project.

1) Required. Friedrich Schleiermacher, On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers [1799]. Read Speeches 1, 2, and 5. Scheliermacher was probably the most influential nineteenth-century Protestant theologian. His rejection of  the rational theology of the Kantian Enlightenment in favor of a god known through intuition and feeling finds its first articulation in this work.

2) Required [distributed in class]. Max Müller, “Preface,” (Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 1: Essays on the Science of Religion [1869]. Müller considered himself a disciple of Kant, and also a successor. But he was also highly influenced by Schleiermach. Where Kant's philosophy of religion could never fully admit the sense of the divine, Müller seeks to combine categorical reason with a "faculty for faith" as the twin bases for his Science of Religion. Müller is no longer a direct force in the academic study of religion. But this academic field still works largely within the penumbra of his science's assumptions and approach. (Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 1: Essays on the Science of Religion (New York: Charles Scribner, 1869), pp. vii-xxxiii.)

3) Required. Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Read the Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2. The Chronological Survey is optional, though it might be of interest. Eliade was doubtless the most influential twentieth-century scholar in the academic Study of Religion. In this work,  Eliade theorizes the existence and experience of Homo religiosus.

1) Required [ereserves]. Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity [1841]. 
(The Essence of Christianity translated by George Eliot (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1989), pp. 1-32.)

2) Required [link to pdf file]. Karl Marx, These on Feuerbach [1845].

3) Required [ereserves]. Karl Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law” [1844]. 
(In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works volume 3 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), pp. 175-87.)

4) Required [ereserves]. Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question" [1843].
(In Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works volume 3 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), pp. 146-74.)
 
5) Required [link to pdf file]. Bruce Lincoln, These on Method.

6) Required [distributed in class]. Robert A. Segal, "In Defense of Reductionism" 
( Journal of the American Academy of Religion 51 (March 1983), 97-124).

7) Recommended [ereserves]. Russell T. McCutcheon “A Default of Critical Intelligence? The Scholar of Religion as Public Intellectual”
(Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65 (Summer 1997): 443-68.)

1) Required. Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion [1927].

2) Required. Émile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life [1912]. Pages TBA

1) Required [link to pdf file]. Richard S. Cohen, Beyond Enlightenment