Religion and Civil Society Network

Meeting Times: Mon, 4-5pm Seminar, Samuel Alexander Building WG20b

Instructor: Dr. Timothy Stanley, timothy.stanley@manchester.ac.uk, Samuel Alexander WG20b

Readings: All of the readings for the course have been compiled in a course reader which will be provided in the first seminar. The assigned readings should be read in advance and you should be prepared to discuss the readings in each seminar. As well, we recommend that you purchase two recent books, Religion and Political Thought and The New Visibility of Religion. Both of these texts are edited by the Centre for Religion and Political Culture staff members Michael Hoelzl and Graham Ward and have been published by Continuum Press. They provide a host of key sources for this course and further bibliographical suggestions to aid your research.

Course Requirements: 1 x 6000 word essay (100%)

Course Content: At one time there was a radical division between religion and public life, but today there is enormous interest in the role of religion in the public sphere. The relationship between religion and politics is receiving much attention in the social sciences.

Syllabus All in One PDF

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The course is broken into two stages. Weeks 2-7 covers religion and political life in Europe, weeks 8-9 covers religion and political life in the United States, and weeks 10-12 covers contemporary debates in religion and political life. Pre-reading for the first week will be: Hoelzl, Michael and Ward, Graham. Religion and Political Thought. London: Continuum, 2006, pp. 1-20.

Hoelzl, Michael and Ward, Graham. Religion and Political Thought. London: Continuum, 2006, pp. 102-118.

Weber, M. “Politics as Vocation.” In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. London: Routledge, 1991, pp. 77-128

Bobbio, N. Liberalism and Democracy. London: Verso, 2005, pp. 1-39, 67-73

Hoelzl, Michael and Ward, Graham. The New Visibility of Religion. London: Continuum, 2008, pp. 15-29, 45-58

Langton, Daniel R. Children of Zion: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land. Special edition for the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Cambridge: The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths, 2008.

Hoelzl, Michael, and Ward, Graham. Religion and Political Thought. London: Continuum, 2006, pp. 149-160.

Bellah, R. “Civil Religion in America.” Available at http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm

This week's seminar will be replaced by a guest Lecture by Professor Graham Ward, Director of the Centre for Religion and Political Culture. There will be a time for questions and discussion after the lecture.

Habermas, J. “A Conversation about God and the World.” In Religion and Rationality. Essays on Reason, God, and Modernity, edited by E. Mendieta. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002. pp. 147-167.

Bell, D. “State and Civil Society.” In The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, edited by P. Scott and W. Cavanaugh. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004, pp. 423-438.