This is a course on Religion in America that takes material culture as its primary focus. It is a course about the interrelationships between America as a system of beliefs and/or a place committed to nurturing various religious practices and specific locations in the United States that are for many sacred sites. By looking at religious objects, material practices, art, monuments and memorials, this course ask students to use their unique aesthetic skills to ask critical questions about Religion in America. As part of the course students will be asked to assess museum catalogues, collections, clothing, shrines, places of worship, sites of mourning and memorial as important texts in the study of Religion in America. The course will address the ongoing effects of religious rites, rituals and practices on American life in both the past and the present.
This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.
Laura LevittAuthor
Temple UniversityInstitution
Private College or University Institution Type
Syllabus Resource Type
Undergraduate Course Class Type
1999 Date Published
Religious Studies, Anthropology, The Arts Discipline
Catholic, General Comparative Traditions, Indigenous, Judaism, Protestant Religous Tradition
Business/Capitalism/Labor, Health/Death, Popular Culture/Media/Music/Sports, Race/Ethnicity Topics