Resources
A 2007 course by Howard Culbertson at Southern Nazarene University offers an overview of religious beliefs and practices such as sorcery, totemism, shamans, voodoo, cargo cults.
A 2013 course by Kevin Dougherty at Baylor University "explores organizational aspects of religion, including organizational forms, prominent theories, and common methodologies."
A 2002 course by Ivan Strenski at the University of California, Riverside, explores concepts of the sacred and the tabu.
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 1999 course by Lutz Kaelber at Lyndon State College serves as "an introduction to the study of religion and its relations to other social institutions and spheres."
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."