Sociology of Religion

By Dr.C.Justin Selvaraj | Assistant Professor & Head Department of Fine Arts and Aesthetics School of Performing Arts | Madurai Kamaraj University

Learners enrolled: 525

This course on Sociology of Religion is as old as human societies have been in some form or the other; and human beings have reflected on the nature of religion for thousands of years. Human's quest for understanding nature and its forces with effects on his pursuits both in the positive and negative dimensions which have been a part of his ways of feeling, thinking and acting for centuries. These have been worked upon elaborately and processes of religious practices developed in various forms. The understanding of religion that it has to do with the esoteric, the other worldly and with that which is not primarily material in nature, indicates that symbolism, representations and abstract thinking, all of which are necessary for anything like religion to exist were present in humans from the very beginning. It also provides an account of the major criticisms on religion. Religion as it has the potential to play a key role in social institution, this course may help the readers to develop skills in interacting with different kinds of people from various society, cultural background. Thus this course will enable the students to learn as well as create the new platform in scientific approach in the study of religion.

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Duration :	15 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit Points :	5
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	10 Jul 2024
End Date :	31 Oct 2024
Enrollment Ends :	31 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	07 Dec 2024 IST
Exam Shift: :	Shift-1

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week - 1

1. Sociological Understanding of Religion

2. Intellectual Theories of Religion

3. Religion in Pre-Modern Societies

Week - 2

4. Religion and Magic - I

5. Religion and Science

6. Religion, Economy and Power

Week - 3

7. The Protestant Ethics

8. Spirit of Separatism and Idea of Secularism

9. Religion and Magic - II

Week - 4

10. Debate - Science and Religion

11. The Domain of the Profane

12. Sacred Religion

Week - 5

13. Sacred Magic

14. Myth and Story

15. The Role of Myth in Life

Week - 6

16. Community and Political Emancipation

17. Emancipation and Equality

18. Judaism

19. On the Jewish Question

Week - 7

20. Emancipation and Counter Emancipation

21. Bhakthi Tradition

22. Sufism

23. Bkakthi and Sufism Comparison

Week - 8

24. Notion of the Sacred

25. Myth

26. Origin of Ritual

27. Myth and Ritual as Coexistence

Week - 9

28. Significance of Religion in Society

29. Remembrance in Religious Activities

30. The Concept of Sacred Groves

31. Sacred Groves in History

Week - 10

32. Time - Practice and Structure

33. Space - Practice and Structure

34. Symbolism and Phenomenology

35. Relation and Constants

Week - 11

36. Religion and Culture

37. Totemism

38. Religion and the World

39. Notion of Magic in Society

Week - 12

40. Magic as Meaningful Performance

41. Religion in Modern Science

42. Multiple Orderings of Reality

43. Oral Tradition

Week - 13

44. Folk Religion and Rituals

45. Prayer

46. Shamanism

Week - 14

47. Witchcraft and Religious Activities

48. Characteristics of Right and Left

49. Body as Sacred

Week - 15

50. Kinship and Religion

51. Regional Influences and Religious Practices

52. Gender and Religion

Books and references

E. E. Evans-Pritchard. 1963 (1940). "Time and Space." In The Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Emile Durkheim. 1995. The elementary forms of religious life. Translated by Karen E. Fields. New York: The Free Press. Book one and Conclusion.

Emile Durkheim. 1995. The elementary forms of religious life. Translated by Karen E. Fields. New York: The Free Press, Book one.

Ginzburg, Carlo.1991. Ecstasies. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. New York: Pantheon Press

Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1948. Magic, science and religion and other essays. Selected, and with an introduction by Robert Redfield. Boston: The Free Press.

Marx, Karl. 2008/9 [1843] . “On the Jewish Question” in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. Proofed and Corrected: by Andy Blunden, Matthew Grant and Matthew Carmody. www. marxists. Org

Mauss, Marcel.2008 (2003). On prayer. USA: Berghahn Books

Max Weber. 2001. The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Translated by Stephen Kalberg. England: Roxbury Publishing Press.

Max Weber.1978. Economy and society. Edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. California: University of California Press. Volume Two.

Robert, Hertz. 1973 (1909). "The Pre-eminence of the Right Hand." In Right and Left: Essays on Dual Symbolic Classification, edited by R. Needham. Chicago

Srinivas, M. N. 1952. Religion and society among the Coorgs of south India. Clarendon : Oxford.

Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. 1990. Magic, science, religion and the scope of rationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Instructor bio

Dr.C.Justin Selvaraj

Assistant Professor & Head Department of Fine Arts and Aesthetics School of Performing Arts | Madurai Kamaraj University

Dr. C. Justin Selvaraj is working as an Assistant Professor and heading the Department of Fine Arts and Aesthetics at the Madurai Kamaraj University in Madurai. He received his doctoral degree from University of Hyderabad (2020). His research interests are Social and Cultural Anthropology, Sociology of Religion, Folk Culture Studies, Kinship Studies, Visual Ethnography, Community Development Studies, and Folk Arts and Aesthetics. He is being invited for lectures at state/national/international conferences/workshops and seminars. Also he has published more than twenty research articles in peer reviewed and UGC Care journals at national and international level. As his dynamic participation in academic events at state and national level, he plays a key role in most of the academic and professional bodies namely Folklore Society of South Indian Languages (FOSSILS), Indian Folklore Researchers’ Organization (IFRO), Indian History Congress (IHC), Dravidian Linguistics Association (DLA), Ethnographic and Folk Culture Society, Indian Sociological Society, ‘Research Committee-2: Studies on Family, Marriage and Kinship’ in Indian Sociological Society, Member in The London Folklore Society, International Society for Folk Narrative Research. As an academician, he conducted various research programs with state and national level agencies as an additional dimension of research. He is currently holding research projects estimated to cost more than thirty lakhs. Apart from that he extends his service through academic responsibilities such as subject experts in Board of Studies, Academic Council of various Universities and Institutions, consultancy service provided for qualitative analysis for assessment and academic writing etc.