PHIL-328

Religious Diversity in Southeastern Pennsylvania

Fall 2009 Instructor: Nathan Rein
TuTh 1:30-245pm (Olin 008) Office hours MW 10-12 and always by appointment
Olin 211, x. 2571, nrein at ursinus dot edu

Course description
Students will participate in an ongoing, hands-on effort to explore,
document, and build connections with the religious diversity of our
region. The course will involve frequent field trips and site visits to
religious institutions and organizations near Ursinus, including
Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic sites, with the possibility of including
other traditions as well. Transportation and scheduling of site visits will
be arranged after the semester begins.

Attendance and preparation

Please attend all class meetings. This is a seminar and informed
participation (i.e., thoroughly preparing, showing up, and taking part in
our collaborative work) is the point of the whole thing. There will also
be a number of course activities that take us outside the classroom. To
begin with, there several organized visits to various field sites. (Later
on in the course, you will be visiting some sites independently, in
groups or alone.) You are expected to attend these as well. I realize
that there may be scheduling conflicts that make it impossible for
everyone to attend every event. We will do our best to work around
everyone's time constraints. But please plan on working these events
into your schedule as much as possible.

Assignments and grading

Your final grade will be based on three things, each weighted more or
less equally: your ongoing participation on course activities,
documented in the form of online journal that you will be required to
keep updated; weekly, short writing assignments that will be graded
and returned to you with a quickness you won't believe; and a final
project and presentation, which you will begin working on about
halfway through the semester. If desired, I will make available a rubric
sheet with more precise information about how grades are determined.

Reading list
Most of the readings will be in the form of handouts or a course reader.
However, we will be reading the full text of three monographs, so you
should plan on buying them. They are:
Soul Searching: The Religious Lives of American Teenagers by Christian
Smith and Melinda Denton (ISBN: 019518095X)
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A New Religious America: How A "Christian Country" Has Become the

World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation, by Diana L. Eck (ISBN:
0060621591)
Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the
Scholars Who Study Them, by Robert Orsi (ISBN: 0691049033)

The fine print

HOW TO CONTACT ME: You should feel free to contact me by email or phone
at any time. Unless things are really crazy, I should respond within 24
hours. You can also phone me at home if it’s before, say, 10:00 p.m.
(610-973-7186). If that’s not good enough, try IMing me; my AIM
screen name is nathanrein. And finally, I am usually in my office,
though it’s always a good idea to call or email in advance and make an
appointment.
WRITTEN WORK: Rule 1. All written work must be submitted in order to
receive a passing grade for the class. This means that if the end of the
semester comes and I don’t have one of your papers, you will receive
an F for the course. If you don’t hand something in, I’ll assume that’s
your decision and I won’t bother you about it. If you want to email me
a paper, that's fine. But remember: if something goes wrong and I
never get the email, I’ll never know, so you should follow up and make
sure I receive your work, and always keep a copy. Rule 2. Late papers
will be penalized by one grade-step (from B+ to B, etc.) for each day
they are late, unless you have arranged with me for an extension well
in advance of the due date. If you need an extension, talk to me about
it — life is complicated — and we can probably work something out.
Rule 3. Informal writing will never be accepted late. Rule 4. Follow the
formatting guidelines that I give you. All written work must include
both page numbers and a word count in the upper right corner of the
first page. Staple it or I’ll throw it out. This sounds crazy, I know, but
I’m not kidding.
ATTENDANCE: Attendance at every class meeting is expected. Missing
class shows disrespect for your classmates and professor and for the
collective enterprise of the class. Missing two class meetings may
result in the issuance of an academic warning slip. Missing more than
four meetings may result in a failing grade for the course. In general,
absenteeism will harm your participation grade.
ACADEMIC HONESTY: Plagiarism is a serious offence. In written work, all
quotations must be properly attributed and appear in quotation marks.
But at least as importantly, any time you are drawing on someone
else’s work you MUST cite it! This includes paraphrases, summaries, or
any time you make use of an idea that’s not your own. Anything else is
plagiarism and can result in one or both of the following: (1) a failing
grade for the course or (2) College-level disciplinary action, including
expulsion. If you have questions about the proper use of sources,
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please don’t hesitate to contact me. Either parenthetical citations or

footnotes are appropriate.
INCLEMENT WEATHER: In the event that class must be cancelled due to
inclement weather, an announcement to that effect will be recorded on
my office answering machine (call x2571).
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Planned schedule of readings (this will change, I guarantee it)

Tu 9/1 Intro to the course
Th 9/3 Lahiri, Lee, Eck
Tu 9/8 Yearley, Paden
Th 9/10 Proudfoot, Boyer
Tu 9/15 Lame Deer, add'l. selections t.b.a.
Th 9/17 Thanksgiving, Miner, Pike (et al.)
Tu 9/22 Bellah, "Civil Religion" and Kiely, "Monticello and
Graceland"
Th 9/24 Gleason, "The Melting Pot"

Tu 9/29 through Eck, A New Religious America

10/8

Tu 10/13 Denton and Smith, Soul Searching

through 10/22

Tu 10/27 Orsi, Between Heaven and Earth

through 11/5

Tu 11/10 t/b/a
through 11/24

M 12/1 through Presentations

12/10