History of Consciousness

HISC 85 Politics and Religion

Examines the historical and political origins of the concepts “politics” and “religion” and the institutions associated with them. Focusing particularly on the Christian tradition, students see how the minor virtue of religio, which originally meant “rightly directed worship,” transformed in the early modern period into the modern concept of “religion” as a distinct sphere of life, composed of a plurality of different religions distinguished by their propositional content. These transformations also involved the creation and differentiation of the modern institutions of “Church” and “State” as we know them.

Credits

5

General Education Code

TA

Instructor

Robert Meister