This course surveys major topics and perspectives
in the study of religion as a social institution.
It starts with the classical writings of Troeltsch,
Durkheim, Weber, and Geertz, and seeks to answer
the following questions using empirical cases drawn from
Europe, the United States, Turkey, and
India: Why do different societies experience different
degrees of secularization? How do
church-state relations and secular ideologies vary
from one setting to another? Can secularism
itself be considered a religion-like formation? What
is civil religion? What role does religion
play in social movements, and civil societies?
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