Christianity and Politics ES661 Spring 2018 Thursdays, 2:30pm 5:30pm

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1 1 Christianity and Politics ES661 Spring 2018 Thursdays, 2:30pm 5:30pm Robert Michael Franklin, PhD Emory University Candler School of Theology (preferred mode of contact) Office Location: Cannon Chapel #304, Classroom: RARB 322, Candler School of Theology (1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, Teaching Associate: Shari Madkins, 2nd Year Doctoral Student in Ethics and Society, (preferred mode of contact) Appointments: Contact - Angela Yarbrough, angela.yarbrough@bellsouth.net (arrange appointment by ) COURSE DESCRIPTION History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou Words have consequences, and there is a distinction an essential one between being a Christian nation and being one whose public religion allows religious values, Christian or otherwise, to shape its manners and morals. - Jon Meacham For two millennia, Christians have grappled with how they should apply the love ethic of Jesus to the gritty work of ordering and transforming our collective life. Certainly not limited to Christianity, all morally serious people should think about the relationship between their faith and values and their political ideas, dispositions, behavior and rhetoric. In view of the formative role of Christianity in American history, this course will provide an opportunity to examine how this belief system has shaped and continues to influence the political, economic, social and cultural DNA of the most powerful and religiously pluralistic nation in the world. The relationship between religion and politics, as a theoretical issue, has generated innumerable interpretations that compete and clash for preeminence. Some interpreters have framed the challenge as managing the interaction between love, power and justice (Tillich, MLK). Others have focused on the robust application of their understandings of Christian ethics to concrete problems and crises in secular society (social gospel, liberation theology). Still others have framed the relationship in terms of understanding how congregations function as alternative communities that radically challenge secular forms of human association either seeking to infect the larger society or withdrawing from it altogether. (Feminist and womanist ethics, evangelical and holiness movements, communitarians). This course is a lecture-seminar exploration of Christian faith and the American political order. Guest presenters will offer perspectives on Christianity, religious pluralism and political behavior and belief.

2 2 REQUIRED READING: In addition to the required books, we will read several articles to help us understand the ways in which American history itself is construed by many to be a religious narrative of God s relationship to America. We will examine how various disciplines, from history to social sciences to theology and philosophy, help us make sense of the contemporary political landscape. We will place these sources in dialogue with our guest lecturers. Michael Gerson and Peter Lehman, City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era Robert P. Jones, The End of White Christian America Jon Meacham, American Gospel: God, the Founder Fathers, and the Making of a Nation H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture Howard Zinn, A People s History of the United States Winthrop D. Jordan, White over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro (1968) Harold D. Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How (1958) Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People Thomas Sowell, Ethnic America Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1966) Additional chapters and articles will be posted on Canvass. ASSIGNMENTS 1. Reading and class participation (10%). 2. Reading report. Using Niebuhr s typology of Christians in the public square, analyze a political party, movement, leader or policy. How does Niebuhr illumine or obscure the dynamics in our contemporary political and religious cultures. Some students may wish to adapt Niebuhr s categories to a non-christian tradition to understand and explain that community s political involvement. 5-7 pages double-spaced, hard copy paper. DUE March 1 st doublespaced, hard copy. (25%) 3. Volunteer participation in a working group composed of class members (4-6 per group). The group s assignment is to develop resources that can help communities of faith approach the political process in general, and the elections of 2018 in particular, with hope, reason and responsibility. I propose four working groups:

3 3 a. Healing the racial divide. b. Eradicating poverty and creating opportunities for people in poverty. c. Gender justice. d. Open for discussion (foreign policy, media and technology, environment, etc.). The project could take any form (develop a website, produce a petition or statement for seminarians and/or students in the U.S., create a viral campaign on ethical perspectives on your topic, etc.). The projects will be presented in class by each group. PRESENTATIONS April 19 & 26. (25%). See website for the nonprofit organization, Better Angels Final reflection paper (approximately pages) on the state of American political culture, your assessment of religious communities and the political arena, or a public policy that has attracted the interest of religious and political entities. You may draw on what you learned in your working group or one of the guest lectures. Utilize at least two readings from class (40%) FINAL PAPERS DUE: MAY 4 TH by 5pm. - Two absences are allowed without penalty. CLASS SCHEDULE Typically, class will meet from 2:35-4pm, break from 4-4:15pm, and resume from 4:16-5:30pm. The course will proceed chronologically highlighting milestones in American history where values and political action and leadership were decisive for the nation, and thematically as we highlight topics that cut across different historical periods. Guest presentations are subject to change. I. Forming the American Republic: The People, Their Faith and Their Politics #1 January 18 Introduction/Christian Faith and American Political Culture - Review Course Requirements and Expectations - Defining Religion and Review of Religion in Western Civilization 1. Zinn, chapters Meacham, chapters 1 & 2

4 4 #2 January 25 Colonial America and the Promise of Religious Pluralism 1. Zinn, chapter 8 2. Thomas Sowell, chapter 1 #3 February 1 Expansion and Exodus: Faith and Power in a Continental Nation 1. Harold D. Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How (Ch.1 3) 2. Nell Irwin Painter, The History of White People (Ch. 6, 8, 13) #4 February 8 Repairing the Broken Covenant: Civil War and Civil Religion 1. Zinn, Howard, A People s History of the US (Ch. 9 & 10) 2. Jordan, Winthrop, White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro (Ch. 7: Self-Scrutiny in the Revolutionary Era) II. Theoretical Considerations of Politics and Religion #5 February 15 Guest lecture by Audra Savage, Esq., SJD Candidate, Emory Law School; The Law and Religion of Slavery in the Revolutionary Era" (Catch up on readings) #6 February 22 Politics and Religion 1. Niebuhr, Christ and Culture. 2. Victor Turner, chapter 3. Liminality and Communitas, #7 March 1 Guest lecture by Prof. Elizabeth Bounds, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics; Christianity and Politics 1. Gerson and Lehman 2. Lasswell, chapters 8, 9, 10 *PAPER #1 DUE #8 March 8 Public Theologians and Political Statesmen and Women *** March 15 NO CLASS SPRING BREAK

5 5 III. Practical Reason, Revelation and Resolutions to Moral Action #9 March 22 Guest lecture by Andra Gillespie, Associate Professor (Political Science) and Graduate Faculty of Emory in Sociology, and Director of The James Weldon Johnson Institute; The Courage of Political and Religious Nonconformists 1. Rieff, chapters 4, 5, 6. Born of Conviction: Call and Response. #10 March 29 Guest lecture by Joseph Crespino, Jimmy Carter Professor of 20th Century American Political History and Southern History Since Reconstruction; Courage and Convictions Read for next week: 1. Chapter 8: The rise of the diversity expert: how American evangelicals simultaneously accentuate and ignore race, by Gerardo Marti and Michael O. Emerson, (pp ). in Brian Steensland and Philip Goff (eds), The New Evangelical Social Engagement (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014) 2. Introduction Chapter (pp. 8-23) of George Yancy (ed), White Self- Criticality beyond Anti-Racism: How Does It Feel to Be a White Problem? Philosophy of Race (Lanham; Boulder; New York; London: Lexington Books, 2015). (full text is available online through Emory) #11 April 5 Guest lecture by Shari Madkins, 2nd Year Doctoral Student in Ethics and Society; Race, Religion and Moral Leadership - Faith as a Force for a Better Future Read for next week: 1. Sowell, chapter Robert P. Jones, chapters 1, 2, 5, 6. *** April 12 NO CLASS SESSION #12 April 19 Working Group Presentations #13 April 26 Working Group Presentations - FINAL CLASS FINAL PAPER DUE: MAY 4, 2018 Online submissions via CANVASS.