With different religious groups as the main characters, this class tells a winding story of the diverse ways in which people have religiously imagined life in the American South. How did they understand the relation between the sacred and society? What did they picture as the ideal way of life? What rituals did they practice to codify this ideal, and who was included in these rituals? Was their religious vision a sacred alternative to the dominant culture, or did they seek to craft a sacralized society? In pursuing these questions in a narrative format, we will learn that religion in the South has been neither homogenous nor unchanging. Different groups have waxed and waned in cultural power, and different visions of the sacred have been imagined in changing contexts. The story of these groups and these changing visions is the story of religion in the American South.
This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.
John HayesAuthor
Augusta State UniversityInstitution
Private College or University Institution Type
Syllabus Resource Type
Undergraduate Course Class Type
2012 Date Published
Religious Studies, Area Studies, History Discipline
General Comparative Traditions, Protestant Religous Tradition
Race/Ethnicity, Region/Urban/Rural Topics