Module THEO2911: Religion in the Modern World

Department: Theology and Religion

THEO2911: Religion in the Modern World

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• This module invites students to explore how religious phenomena are shaped by, and shape, the modern world. Focusing on the interplay between religion, politics, identity, the economy, and power, students will examine the lived experiences of members of different religious traditions across diverse geographical and cultural contexts.
• The module aims to:
• Support students in applying social-scientific theories to the analysis of specific religious landscapes and themes.
• Investigate how religions intersect with historical and contemporary processes such as colonialism, nationalism, secularisation, globalisation, and capitalism.
• Encourage critical reflection on how concepts like “religion” and “modernity” are constructed and contested.
• Foster awareness of students' own positionality and the politics of knowledge in the study of religions.

Content

• Module content will vary according to the expertise of the staff member teaching the module. However, all versions of the module will centre the study of religion as a distinctively modern, late-modern or postmodern phenomenon. Through regionally grounded or thematically focused case studies, students will explore how religious practices, institutions, and imaginaries interact with, and respond to, the social, political, and epistemic formations of modernity.
• Themes will include at least three of the following: The Spiritual Turn, Religion and coloniality, Religion and the nation-state, Orientalism, Secularism, New religious movements and alternative spiritualities, Religion and neoliberalism, Religion and popular culture, Migration, diaspora, and transnational religious movements, Religion and political populism, Religion and globalisation.
• Regional foci may include any of, but are not limited to:Latin America, South Asia, Africa, Europe, the USA and the UK.
• By the end of this module, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate critical understanding of how religions interact with key dimensions of modernity, such as colonialism, the state, and capitalism.
• Apply theoretical approaches from the social-scientific study of religion to regionally or thematically grounded case studies.
• Analyse the ways religious practices and discourses respond to, resist, or reshape modern social formations.
• Reflect critically on the categories of “religion” and “modernity,” recognising their contested, historically situated nature.
• Engage ethically and reflexively with the material, considering their own assumptions and positionality in relation to the study of religion.
• Communicate clearly and coherently in written and/or oral formats, drawing on a range of scholarly sources and contextual evidence.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module, students will have developed:
• A critical understanding of the category of “religion” and how it manifests itself within modern social, political, and historical contexts.
• Knowledge of the diverse ways in which religious traditions intersect with themes such as colonialism, nationalism, capitalism, migration, and gender in specific cultural and regional settings.
• Familiarity with key theories and debates in the social-scientific study of religion as applied to real-world case studies.
• An understanding of how concepts like “modernity,” “secularism,” and “tradition” are constructed, contested, and lived in relation to religious life.
• Awareness of the colonial and epistemological dynamics that shape how religion has been studied, represented, and politicised in different parts of the world.

• By the end of the module, students will be able to:
• Apply theoretical approaches to the analysis of religious practices and discourses in diverse contemporary contexts.
• Understand diverse religious expressions across regions and themes, attending to difference, complexity, and historical specificity.
• Engage critically with academic sources from anthropology, sociology, and religious studies, assessing their assumptions, arguments, and implications.
• Reflect on their own interpretive positions, demonstrating sensitivity to questions of positionality, power, and representation.
• Construct well-supported, coherent arguments that integrate conceptual insight with empirical or contextual detail.

• Skills in the acquisition of information through reading and research, and in the structured presentation of information in written form.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures convey information and exemplify an approach to the subject-matter, enabling students to develop a clear understanding of the subject and to improve their skills in listening and in evaluating information.
• Seminars allow the students to engage with the instructor and each other as they discuss specific issues, especially the close reading of texts, enhancing student knowledge and writing skills and preparing for summative assignments. Seminars will also be the primary context in which group projects will be planned, developed and discussed, with guidance provided by the module convenor on both content, form and oral presentation techniques.
• The group project will help students to (a) enhance their understanding of the module’s content through collaborative work, (b) develop their collaborative skills, (c) formulate informed responses to problems via collaborative reflection and discussion, and (d) present complex issues in a clear, concise and engaging manner.
• The group project report will test the extent to which (a), (b), (c) and (d) have been achieved.
• In addition, each student will compose a reflective essay on their contribution to the report and experience of working on the group project. The reflective essay will also allow students to highlight any challenges that arose in the course of the project, and be assessed on the skills they have demonstrated in navigating those challenges.
• The group presentation, while formative, and in addition to offering an opportunity for in-progress group projects to receive critical feedback from student peers and the module convenor, will provide an opportunity for oral presentation skills to be developed.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

15-minute group presentation in seminar.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.