2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
    Apr 29, 2024  
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

RS 250 - Religion, Race and Racism in America


Religion has had a long and complex relationship with the legacy of racism. The continued oppression and marginalization of African Americans has often been supported by theological arguments about the human status of Black and Indigenous people. White supremacy was used to justify enslavement by many of the most powerful Christian leaders in America, including Cotton Mather, Jonathan   Edwards, George Whitfield, and John Carroll. At the same time, religion and spirituality have   been sources of hope and resistance for victims of racial injustice. Abolitionists, Civil Rights activists, and defenders of Black liberation under threat of racism, such as Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, James Cone, and Desmond Tutu have seen in religion powerful teachings on human dignity, equality, and anti-racism.  Through readings and discussion, this course will study some of these important figures in the complicate history of religion, race and racism.

 

1 semester 3 credits.