Syllabi Archive

A 2011 course by Ira Chernus at the University of Colorado at Boulder focuses on "the values and cultural patterns that people in the U.S. tend to share in common" rather than "on organized religion."

A 1999 course by Winnifred Sullivan at Washington and Lee University asks "What is American about American religion and what is religious about American religion?"

A 1998 course by Debra Washington and Brett Smith at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary "offers a general introduction to the emergence of Christianity in the United States from Puritanism to Vatican II."

A 2014 course by John Imbler at Phillips Theological Seminary "designed to introduce various events, movements, and peoples of Christianity in the United States from the pre-colonial period to the present."

A 2005 course by Susan Ridgely at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh "explores the colorful, contested history of religion in American culture. While surveying the main contours of religion in the United States from the colonial era to the present, the course concentrates on a series of historical court cases that reveal tensions between a quest for a (Protestant) American consensus and an abiding religious and cultural pluralism."

A course by Ira Chernus at the University of Colorado at Boulder explores "the notion of 'American Civil Religion' as an academic category."

A 2001 course by James Dalton at Siena College deals with the religious traditions of both modern and archaic native peoples . . . (including) the relationship of their religious experience to other forms of experience (social, economic, political, cultural, and so forth)."

A 1997 course by James Treat at the University of New Mexico seeks to understand "the relationship between native people and Christianity" as it explores "the experience of native peoples."

A 1996 course by James Treat at the University of New Mexico is "a close examination of the role of worldview in academic scholarship . . . (with) focus on the ways in which contemporary native scholars are bringing indigenous intellectual and cultural traditions to bear on a wide range of dominant academic disciplines and theories."

A 2013 course by Andrea Mantell Seidel at Florida International University "provides an introduction to Native American religion and spirituality . . . of a number of diverse tribes within North, Central, and South America."