REL1860 Spirituality and the Secular

This course introduces students to the concepts of spirituality and religion as they’ve been practiced, narrated, and adapted in the context of American secularism. This course approaches “secularism” as referring to the social and political conditions that not only allow for religious free choice but indeed encourage it. As this worldview evolved it gave rise to new forms of religiosity and, for many people, the idea that “religion” might be a negative concept. While for some people today “not religion” might mean particular forms of atheism, for others “spirituality” offers a sense of self-curated meaning found in forms as diverse as yoga, wicca, psychedelics, or tourism.

Credits

4 sh

Offered

• Spring

Course Outcomes

1. Students will identify how the conditions of secularism have shaped and cultivated new forms of religion.
2. Students will understand and explain how “spirituality” can reproduce religious effects, affects, and patterns.
3. Students will recognize and describe breadth and diversity within secular spirituality.
4. Students will recognize and analyze the social construction of secular spirituality over time and within specific contexts.
5. Students will recognize and explain ways in which secular spirituality has cultural, political, and/or economic significance and ways in which culture, politics, and/or economics have significance for secular spirituality.