Themes & Approaches in the Historical Study of Religious Cultures (HI993)

Convenor: Dr Jonathan DaviesLink opens in a new window

Office: FAB 3.64 (third floor) NB In Term 1, I will be in Venice.

Email: j.d.davies@warwick.ac.uk

Office hours: Terms 2 and 3: Mondays 12.00-13.00 and Wednesdays 10.00-11.00. Please email me for an appointment.

Context of Module

Module Aims

Intended Learning Outcomes

Syllabus

Past Student Feedback

Assessment

Reading ListLink opens in a new window

Context of Module

This team-taught 1-term option complements other modules by focusing on the meanings and significance of 'religion' in a variety of historical settings. Rather than following a chronological structure or dealing with individual denominations, it examines religious issues through (a) the perspectives of different academic disciplines and (b) coverage of key themes. Students will be able to engage with the multiplicity of approaches pursued in the field more generally and by members of the History department in particular.

Module Aims

This postgraduate option aims to:

• Widen and deepen students’ understanding of themes in the study of religious cultures across space and time.
• Help students develop a conceptual and practical understanding of the skills required by historians and scholars from neighbouring disciplines.
• Foster students' ability to undertake critical analysis and formulate hypotheses.
• Enable students to produce a piece of critical and reflective historiographical writing.

Intended Learning Outcomes

After completion of this option, students should be in a position to:

• Understand the pervasive significance of religion in past societies.
• Place European developments into a wider global perspective.
• Recognize key approaches and interpretations which different disciplines can bring to the study of religion.
• Demonstrate a conceptual and practical understanding of the skills required by Humanities scholars.
• Formulate and test hypotheses in a piece of critical and reflective writing.

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction to the Study of Global Religions (Jonathan Davies) 

Week 2: Sources and Concepts (Beat Kümin)

Week 3: Embodied Faith, Emotions and the Senses (Sophie Mann)

Week 4: Religion and Magic (Sarah Johanesen)

Week 5: Gender and Religion (Jonathan Davies)

[Reading Week]

Week 7: Religion and Violence (Jonathan Davies)

Week 8: Religion and Imperialism (Liz Egan) 

Week 9: Religion, Slavery and Resistance (Liz Egan)

Week 10: Conclusions: The Future of Religion (Jonathan Davies)

Assessment

One 6000-word assessed essay. This essay can explore any aspect of the module.

You will be encouraged to formulate your own question under the guidance of one of the tutors. This essay is normally based on one of the module's weekly themes. Students interested in writing on different topics should consult with the module convenor well before the essay deadline. Please go here for further details and guidance.

Please visit the PG Taught Handbook for information about the deadline and submission process.

Student Feedback

What had the most impact on your learning?

"I think in particular it was the range of texts offered each week in the module. There was a range of religious backgrounds involved in the readings which allowed for a wider understanding of religious history. It provided further knowledge and backgrounds to my reading and understanding of religion." (2022-23 cohort)

"I have very much enjoyed that this module is team taught. The range of research specialties is very beneficial, interesting, and provides range of opinions. PG specific office hours [from the module convenor] very useful and appreciated." (2022-23 cohort)

"New methodological approaches - such as the history of the emotions. Has improved the way I understand the practice of history and history writing." (2022-23 cohort)

"It was all good. Every week there was something new. Great lectures and great tutors". (2022-23 cohort)

Illustrative Bibliography

Week 1: Introduction to the Study of Global Religions

P. Collinson, ‘Religion, Society and the Historian’, Journal of Religious HistoryLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window 23 (1999), 149-67

Alkhateeb, Firas, Lost Islamic History (London, 2014).

Armstrong, Karen, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (London, 2004).

MacCulloch, Diarmaid, A History of Christianity (London, 2009).

Nirenberg, David, Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today (Chicago, 2014).

Miri Rubin, 'How Do We Write the History of Religion?', in Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb (eds.), What is History Now? How the Past and Present Speak to Each Other (London, 2021), pp. 197-212.

Week 2: Sources & Concepts for Pre-Modern Religion

T. Johnson, ‘Religion’, in: G. Walker (ed.), Writing Early Modern History (London, 2005), 139-58

P. Marshall, ‘Religious Cultures’, in: B. Kümin (ed.), The European World 1500-1800 (2nd edn, London, 2014), 134-45; (3rd edn, London 2018), 135-46

L. Sangha & J. Willis (eds), Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources (London, 2016)

H. Schilling, ‘Confessionalization’, in his: Religion, Political Culture and the Emergence of Early Modern Society (1992)

Week 3: Emotions and religion

K. Barclay et al., Sources for the History of the Emotions: A Guide (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 41-53.

Susan Broomhall, 'Beliefs' in Early Modern Emotions: An Introduction pp. 277-303.

John Corrigan, 'Religion and Emotions,’ in Susan J. Matt and Peter N. Stearns (eds.), Doing Emotions History (2014), pp.143–62.

Ole Riis and Linda Woodhead, 'Religious Emotion', in A Sociology of Religious Emotion (2010), pp. 54-94.

Week 4: Religion and Magic

Michael Bailey, ‘The Meanings of Magic’, Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, 1 (2006), 1-23.

Owen Davies, Magic: a Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Ronald Hutton, The Witch: A History of Fear, From Ancient Times to the Present (2017), chap. 1, ‘The Global Context’, pp. 3-43.

Week 5: Gender and Religion

S. Apetrei, Women, Feminism and Religion in Early Enlightenment England (2010)

S. Morgan, Women, Religion and Feminism in Britain 1750-1900 (2002)

Laura Schwartz, Infidel Feminism: Secularism, Religion and Women’s Emancipation, England 1830-1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), Introduction, Chapter 6 and Conclusion.

Joan Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007)

Week 7: Religion and Violence

Carlson, John D., 'Religion and Violence: Coming to Terms with Terms', in The Blackwell Companion to Religion and ViolenceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, ed. Andrew R. Murphy (Oxford, 2011), pp. 7-22

Cavanaugh, William T., 'The Myth of Religious Violence', in The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence, ed. Andrew R. MurphyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2011), pp. 23-33.

Dwyer, Philip, 'Violence and its Histories: Meanings, Methods, Problems', History and Theory, Special Issue: Theorizing Histories of Violence, 56/4 (2017), 7–22.

Zemon Davis, Natalie,‘The Rites of Violence’ in Society and Culture in Early Modern FranceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Stanford, 1975), pp. 152-187.

Week 8: Religion and Imperialism

C.A. Bayly, ‘Religion, Liberalism and Empires: British Historians and Their Indian Critics in the Nineteenth Century’, in: Peter Fibiger Bang and C.A. Bayly (eds.), Tributary Empires in Global History (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 21-47.

Alberto Flores Galindo. In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.) 'Chapter 2'

Linda Gregerson and Susan Juster (eds.), Empires of God: Religious Encounters in the Early Modern Atlantic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), ‘Introduction’, and pp. 1-15 and 'Chapter 1'. pp 19-36

Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), Ch. 6: ‘The Transmission of Religion and Culture’, pp. 182-221

Week 9: Religion, Slavery and Resistance

• Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Joseph M. Murphy, and Margarite Fernandez Olmos, Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santeria to Obeah and Espiritismo (New York: New York University Press, 2011), pp.1-20.

• Katharine Gerbner, ‘“They Call Me Obea”: German Moravian Missionaries and Afro-Caribbean Religion in Jamaica, 1754–1760’, Atlantic Studies, 12.2 (2015), 160–78.

• Bethan Fisk, ‘Transimperial Mobilities, Slavery, and Becoming Catholic in Eighteenth-Century Cartagena de Indias’, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 28.3 (2022), 345–70.

Information
Tutors	Jonathan Davies (convenor); Sarah Johanesen; Sophie Mann; Beat Kümin, Liz Egan.
Term	Spring
Tutorial Day	Monday
Time	2-4 pm (note change in Week 5)
Room	FAB 1.11 (Faculty of Arts Building) (note exception in Week 5)