Аnthropology of Religion

2023/2024

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered by:

Department of History

Type:

Compulsory course

When:

1 year, 1 module

Instructor

Oparin, Dmitriy

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Questions of religion have been central to anthropology from its beginnings and remain so today when religion (re)emerges as a global force. While the early scholarship perceived religious phenomena through the skeptical lens of secular science, recent critiques brought up anthropology’s own orthodoxies and the need for theoretical and methodological renewal. Every new paradigm took up the challenge to explain religion and its pervasiveness in human culture and society. The anthropology of religion emerged out of such creative tensions as a vibrant field of theoretical inquiry and impressive scholarship. The course is structured around major themes that shaped the study of religion, exploring topics such as discipline, agency, gender, mediation, secular and secularism, and ethnography of religion, aiming for a deep and critical understanding of religion in various cultures and societies.

Learning Objectives

• The aim of the course is to introduce students into current theoretical debates in the filed of anthropology of religion.
• The aim of the course is to discuss anthropological approach to the study of religion

Course Contents

• Problems of definition
• Varieties of Secularism
• Morality, Ethics and Self-cultivation
• Religious Temporalities and Regimes of Historicities
• Religion, Mediation and Aesthetics s of Presence
• Secular sensibilities in a postsecular age
• Trading with God(s)

Assessment Elements

• presentation of a text at the seminar, organization of discussion in class
• home exam - two short essays
• homework

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 1st module
  0.5 * home exam - two short essays + 0.25 * homework + 0.25 * presentation of a text at the seminar, organization of discussion in class