This exam asks you to think comparatively and synthetically about the wide range of materials we have covered this semester – theoretical, historical, etc. – in order to address over-arching issues in American political religions. The topics we have addressed so far include: law, gender and the body, sexuality, civic education, deliberation, and dissent, among others. A good answer will address most, if not all of these issues at some point.
The question is very open-ended; you must be creative, and demonstrate your fluency with course materials. You must address the question’s broad themes by referring to specific activists, movements, and ideas. Each theoretical concept can be explained using any number of examples, so I urge you to range across American religio-political history in your answers.
The format I’d like you to use is roughly similar to that of your first essay. Since this is a take-home exam, I expect you to write your answer in a way that involves more depth than an in-class exam. In other words, go back to your class notes and texts – use all of these materials as you craft your responses (any exam that doesn’t cite a number of texts we have read will indicate to me that a rush-job has been done). You don’t have to use full footnotes, but you must use citations and course concepts.
All exams must be 8-10 double-spaced pages long (13-15 for graduate students).
Question:
At the heart of this course is the idea that social change in American history is in many ways the product of tension between religious norms or practices and political ones. Historically, Americans have tended to think about these issues through the lens of party affiliation, denomination, or interest groups. As we saw in the first month of class particularly, the last half century has undermined the durability of this older habit of perception. In this essay, you are to describe and document these transformations.
a) In your understanding, what are some of the most significant periods of tension between religions and politics since the Revolutionary period. Keep in mind, as always, that religion means many different things, and no religious tradition is univocal.
b) What major political and religious transformations would you single out in the last 50 years or so? What developments in the 1960s and 70s specifically helped increase religious discontent with political order in America?
c) Describe how recent debates about rights, law, identity, community, and legitimate governance have transformed long-standing assumptions about both American politics and about religious obligations to transform the world.
d) Obviously, the major theme running throughout the course has been the aforementioned discontent in the contemporary United States. More and more religionists find themselves to be “citizens of two worlds”; growing numbers of the devout highlight what they perceive as a gap between their understanding of justice and the state’s. Choose one of the following three authors to interpret what you have documented in sections (a-c): Aho, Bellah, or Rawls.
