RELI 359 - Religion and Revolution: Case Studies

An examination of five revolutions and their religious engagements: The Diggers and the English Civil War, The Taiping Rebellion in China, Buddhism and the Cambodian Revolution, Cultural Rebirth and Resistance in Native America, and the Algerian Islamist Revolution. All participants will read one work about each example, and then will focus more deeply on the examples in group and individual work. The course intends to develop critical skills in comparing the radical social changes implied by the word revolution with the differing revolutionary impulses that are sometimes drawn from religion, and sometimes opposed to it. (4 Credits)