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Course Level: Undergraduate

This course offers students an opportunity to compare the ways world societies define the relationship between religion and politics. It also examines the role of religious ideas, institutions, and movements in shaping political discourse and electoral processes in countries with adherents to major world religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism. This includes a close look at how individuals, groups, and denominations interact with governments and other actors in the political arena, and a discussion of the political participation of religious minorities. The course takes a cross-cultural approach to account for a variety of views within the different regions, countries, and religious traditions on the core issues of concern. A key hypothesis examined through case studies suggests that the structure of the religious market in a given setting explains the nature of its religious politics. Usually offered every term.