CEUS-U 320 & NELC-N 303

Religion and Revolutions

Spring, 2009

Instructor: H. Erdem Çipa

This course raises the central questions concerning the struggle between the received dogma of religion, and freedom of thought and conscience by focusing on issues such as:

· Views of the 18^th century on Man, religion, and reason

· Efforts of the 19^th-century thinkers like Marx, Comte, Durkheim, and Weber to change society in a more “rational” direction

· The role of the French Revolution in bringing down the traditional underpinnings of European society

· The Russian Revolution and the development of the Marxist position on religion

· The Turkish Secularist Revolution and the destruction of the Ottoman Empire

· India and Sri Lanka: Hinduism and Buddhism

· Iranian Civilization and the Iranian Revolution

· Huntington’s concept of the “Clash of Civilizations”

Among the questions we will be dealing with are: Is it possible to have a “secular” world? Is it still possible to have a unified “religious” vision? What is the relationship of “religion” to a “secular” state or to a “secular” public? How can religious traditions relate to each other, in a constructive and creative fashion, without descending into violence, at a time when they are obliged to come into closer and more intimate relations with each other than ever before? What is the relationship between religion and revolution? Is religion on the way out, or is it on the way in? What contributes to the phenomenal rise in fundamentalist commitment in so many places? Are there exceptions? Are we condemned to have a Star Wars-like “clash of civilizations” between Islam and “the West?”