Two Americas: Polarization in Religion and Politics GOVT 391/ RELG 308 (S20)
Welcome to the launch page for
Two
Americas:
Polarization
in
Religion
and
Politics. All course readings, assignments and announcements will be posted through the Blackboard page.
This course is part of the Reveley
Interdisciplinary Fellows
program. You can read more
The conflation of conservative Christianity and conservative politics in the 1980s led the younger generation to identify as “not religious” in order to avoid association with a conservative political paradigm that many young people see as homophobic and overly strict. Swift growth of the “nones” (as some religious studies scholars call them) constitutes the most significant shift in the American religious landscape since the turn-of-the-century. This course investigates how this shifting landscape has changed the way Americans use cultural and social signals to recognize religious and political identities. The core question for this course is: “How do contemporary Americans use cultural codes and social signals to infer the religious and political affiliations of their fellow Americans?” Americans often signal their political identities in ways that are not explicitly political, and political scientists have explored how these differences manifest in contemporary culture. For example, scholars have found that liberals and conservatives have different consumer habits, lifestyle preferences, and even tastes in art. Many of these cultural associations are highly correlated with religious practice and religious expression. We will address such questions as:
