010170 VU Religion in the USA (2025W)

Aims
The course focuses on a basic analysis of the religious situation in the United States. The aim will be to show the links and influences between religion and the formation of American society in a historical, religious and sociological perspective, and to analyze their transformation and impact on the political, economic and cultural life of the United States more closely. Deeper attention will be paid to some specific phenomena such as religious awakening, the emergence of evangelical Christianity, the so-called New Right etc., as well as some specific religious groups (eg. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah‘s Witnesses, Adventists).

Contents
1. Main Interpretation models of the history of American religion
2. Basic characteristics of the American religion
3. From the Pilgrims fathers to the emergence of the USA. Religious life in the colonial era
4. Phenomenon of religious awakening
5. Religious situation in the first half of the 19th century; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; adventist movement and religious life in the second half of the 19th century
6. Religious pluralism in the 2nd half of the 20th century
7. Religious fundamentalism and "desecularitization" of American society at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries
8. Phenomenon of the so-called cultural war

Methods
Lectures, class discussion, reading