Resources
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."
A course by Chad Bauman at Butler University provides "an intensive, roughly chronological overview of various approaches to the study of religion, as well as an introduction to some of the field's most prominent scholars."
A2007 course by Mark Hulsether at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville "provides an orientation to some of the major analytical frameworks for the academic study of religion."