This course asks how diverse American groups have used Biblical scripture to cast themselves as God’s elect, chosen to create the New Israel in the U.S. Beginning with Native American religions, Puritans and the colonial project, we move to slave religion, the Great Awakening, Mormons and Millerites, AfroChristianity, Fundamentalism, and selected U.S. Catholicisms and Judaisms, as well as new immigrant religions (Haitian Vodou, Rastafari). We will be interested in asking how each religious group fashions both its own identity and that of the U.S. as a whole.
This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.
Elizabeth McAlisterAuthor
Wesleyan UniversityInstitution
Private College or University Institution Type
Syllabus Resource Type
Undergraduate Course Class Type
1999 Date Published
Religious Studies, History Discipline
Catholic, General Comparative Traditions, Indigenous, Judaism, Other Christianities, Other Traditions, Protestant Religous Tradition
Family/Children/Reproduction, Immigration/Refugees, Pluralism/Secularism/Culture Wars, Race/Ethnicity Topics