Resources

A 2011 course by Tricia Bruce at Maryville College studies "religion as a social institution that can be an agent of social change, control, cohesion, and division. . . . (and) the ways in which religion intersects with other social institutions."

A 2012 course by Roger Finke at Pennsylvania State University reviews "the social foundations of religion, explore(s) the diverse religious movements, and examine the relationship between religion and the larger culture."

A 2004 course by Stephen Glazier at the University of Nebraska "examines religion as a social phenomenon and attempts to relate religious organizations to other aspects of social life."

A 2010 course by Charles Brown at Albright College "is designed to provide an opportunity for the student to develop a general sociological understanding and perspective with which to evaluate, interpret, and understand religion and religious institutions."

A 2001 course by Courtney Bender at Columbia University analyzes "religion as it is embedded in and related to other aspects of social and cultural systems" with a primary focus "on contemporary North American religions."

A 2013 course by Christopher Ellison at the University of Texas-San Antonio examines "the dominant theories of religion and look at the ways in which sociologists use multiple types of empirical data . . . to study religion as a social institution."

A 2008 course by Christian Smith at the University of Notre Dame "provides an introduction to the long-standing and wide-ranging debates in sociology about secularization" and "what happens to religion under the conditions of modernity."

A course by Stephen D. Glazier at University of Nebraska-Lincoln offers a "cross-cultural examination of the structure, form, and functions of religious belief."

A 2006 course by Jim Watts at Syracuse University uses ritual theories to interpret practices with special attention to "cultural practices involving purification and pollution."