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Program of Political Science and International Relations (English)

POLI350

MODERNITY, RELIGION AND POLITICS

Course Code
POLI350
Semester
-
Theory+Practice
3 + 0
ECTS
5
Course TypeElective Course
Course LevelBachelor's Degree
Year of Study-
Semester-
ECTS5
Name of Lecturer(s)
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

  1. Understand key theoretical perspectives on religion, politics, and modernity;
  2. Distinguish the meaning and role of religion in politics in pre-modern and modern settings;
  3. Analyse the complex interrelationship between religion and secularism/secularisation;
  4. Critically engage with the role of religion in contemporary political movements.
Mode of DeliveryFace to face
PrerequisitesNo
Recommended Optional Programme ComponentsNo recommended optional programme components.
Course DescriptionThis course aims to study the formation and evolution of the relationship between modernity and religion mainly through theoretical lenses. On that basis, the course begins with an introductory session covering (i) the meanings of modernity, religion, and secularism; and (ii) the roles of religion and secular imaginaries in modern public and political life. Following that session, we shall focus how the meaning and political role of religion have been transformed in the modern times of the post-17th century. As such, three key historical periods will be covered from a wide range of theoretical perspectives. These key periods are (i) The Protestant Reformation and the birth of the modern state; (ii) the Enlightenment and the secularisation of politics; and (iii) the emergence of secularisation theories paving the way to the formation of the civilizational identity of `Europe?. The third part of the course thematically covers the relationship between secularism, religion and power through focusing on (i) nationalism and state-building; (ii) post-colonialism; and (iii) violence. The course will be concluded with critical engagements regarding the present and future of religion and politics in (global) modernity
Course Contents
WEEK TOPICS
1st Week Introducing the Course Syllabus and Contents
2nd Week Understanding Modernity, Modernisation, and Modern
3rd Week Secularisation and Religion
4th Week The Concepts of Moral Order and Social Imaginary
5th Week The Reformation and the Birth of the Modern State Logic of Modernity
6th Week The Enlightenment and the Secularisation of Life Experience of Religion and Politics in Modern Political Era
7th Week Mid-Term Exam
8th Week Secularisation, (Religious) Toleration and the Birth of European Identity
9th Week Secularism, Religion, and (Modern Exercise of) Power
10th Week Secularism, Religion, and the Making of (Modern) Nations
11th Week Modernity, and Religion in Post-Colonial Contexts
12th Week Secularism, Religion, and Violence
13th Week Theses on De-Secularisation of the World, and Multiple Secularisms
14th Week The Future of Modernity, Religion and (Secular) Politics
15th Week
Recommended or Required ReadingBerman, Marshall. All that Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Penguin Books, 1988 (Introduction).
Çınar, Alev. Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2005 (Introduction).
Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1994 (Pre-text and Ch.1).
Taylor, Charles. Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2004 (Introduction, Chapters 1&2).
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London and New York: Routledge, 2001 (originally published in 1904) (Introduction, Chapter 1).
Luther, Martin. On Secular Authority. In Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority, ed. Harro Höpfl, 22-34. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993 (originally published in 1521).
Kant, Immanuel. What is Enlightenment? (originally published in 1784)
Weber, Max. Science as a Vocation. In The Vocation Lectures, eds. David Owen, and Tracy B. Strong, 1-31. Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2004 (originally published in 1919).
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet). Treatise on Toleration. New York: Penguin Books, 2016 (originally published in 1763) (Chapters. 1, 5-7, 11-13, 22, and 24).
Brown, Wendy. Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006 (Chapter 6).
Schmitt, Carl. Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005 (originally published in 1922) (Chapter 3).
Connolly, William E. Why I am Not a Secularist, Minneapolis and London: The University of Minnesota Press, 1999 (Introduction).
Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: CA: Stanford University Press, 2003 (Introduction).
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London and Ney York: Verso, 2006 (originally published in 1983) (Introduction, and Chapter 7).
Damar, Erdem. Impediments of Civilisationism to Türkiye?s Democracy. In Democracy, Opposition, and Europeanisation and its Reversal in Turkey, eds. Armağan Öztürk and H. Kutay Aytuğ, 70-85. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024.
Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: CA: Stanford University Press, 2003 (Chapter 7).
Bhargava, Rajeev. Rehabilitating Secularism. In Rethinking Secularism, eds. Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, 92-113. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Butler, Judith. The Sensibility of Critique: Response to Asad and Mahmood. In Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech, eds. Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood, 95-130. New York, Fordham University Press, 2013.
Sen, Amartya. Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006 (Chapters 4-5).
Hirschkind, Charles, and Saba Mahmood. Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency. Anthropological Quarterly 72, 2 (2002): 339-354.
Berger, Peter L. The Desecularization of the World: A Global Overview. In The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, ed. Patrick L. Berger, 1-18. Washington D. C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1999.
Göle, Nilüfer. Manifestations of the Religious-Secular Divide: Self, State, and the Public Sphere. In Comparative Secularisms in a Global Age, eds. Linell E. Cady, and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, 41-53. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010.
Taylor, Charles. Why We Need a Radical Redefinition of Secularism. In The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere, eds. Eduardo Mendiata, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, 34-59. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods
  • Lecture
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Quantity Percentage (%)
Mid-term 1 30
Other 1 30
Total(%) 60
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%) 60
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%) 40
Total(%) 100
ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload
Activities Quantity Duration (Hour) Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam 1 1.5 1.5
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work 14 4 56
Preparation for Final exam 1 28 28
Course hours 14 3 42
Preparation for Midterm exam 1 22 22
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam 1 1.5 1.5
Homework
Project
Total Work Load151
Total Work Load / 30 (h)5.03
ECTS Credit of the Course5
Language of InstructionEnglish
Work Placement(s)No

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

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