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Soc 257: New Religious Movements:
Course Syllabus
Fall Term, 2000
Also available in this site section:
Unit I:
Introduction to the Scope and Content of the Course
Aug 31
Introduction and Overview
Sept 5
A Guided Tour of Cults and Sects on the World Wide Web
Assignment Before Class: Spend at least two hours
familiarizing yourself with the class home page. This class
meeting will be a hands-on presentation. When you get to class,
open your machine to the class home page. Four discrete tasks
will be presented: (1) how to use
the class home page as a resource for navigating the Web;
(2) how to use search engines to locate materials not
accessible from the home page; (3) introduction of the term
project [building a web page]; and (4) a brief demonstration
on how to use the class home page resources to create your
own page.
At the conclusion of the class period, a list of groups available
for individual projects will be distributed. See
Course Requirements for information on how to
claim a group. You may claim a group at any time. Students who have
not claimed a group before class on Sept 14 will have a group assigned
by the instructor.
Sept 7
Locating Cults and Sects on the American Religious Landscape
Unit II:
Conceptual Tools for Analyzing Religious Movements
Sept 12
How Are We To Understand Religion in the Modern World?: Paradigms in Conflict
READ: Hadden, "Religion and the Quest for Meaning and Order"
Sept 14
The Concepts of Our Inquiry
READ: Stark and Bainbridge, "Of Churches, Sects, and Cults"
Sept 19
How Do New Religions Get Started?
READ: Bainbridge and Stark, "Cult Formation:..."
Web Site Selection Due: Those who have not claimed a group by class time today will
have a group assigned by Mr. Hadden.
Sept 21
Why People Join NRMs: Social Science Models
READ: Stark, "On Conversion"; Machalek and Snow, "Conversion to NRMs"
Sept 26
Leaving Movements: Rational Perspectives
READ: Wright and Ebaugh, "Leaving New..."
Sept 28
Group Survival: Succession and Institutionalization
READ: Roberts, "Emergence and Viability of Religious Movements"
Interlude
Web Page Developoment
Oct 3
Workshop on Web Page Development
Assignment Before Class:
We will create student web pages today. For everyone to succeed, it is critical that two tasks be completed before class: (1) assemble as much information as you can on your group so that you can insert it into your page, and (2) read the materials in the section entitled
Soc 257 HTML Project Resources, and carefully examine the materials under the section entitled
NRM HTML Project Templates
Unit III:
Popular Culture and the Construction of Evil
Oct 5
Why
People Joint NRMs: The Brainwashing Model
READ: Barker, Ch 2; Anthony and Robbins, "Brainwashing...."
Oct 10
Leaving Movements: Deprogramming
READ: Barker, "Forcible Deprogramming"; Kelley, "Deprogramming and Religious
Liberty"; Bromley, "Deprogramming as a Mode of Exit from NRMs"
Oct 12
Organizing to Fight Religious and Cultural Evil: the Counter-Cult and Anti-Cult Movements
READ: Bromley and Shupe,"Organized Opposition to NRMs"
Web Assignment: Use the class web page as a jumping off
spot to explore anti-cult and counter-cult organizations on the
Internet. Begin by clicking on "Cult Group Controversies"
Oct 17
A Social Psychology Perspective: A Case for the Normalization of Influence
Recommended Reading: Cialdina, Robert. Influence: Science and Practice
Oct 19
Mid-Term Examination
The examination is objective and comprehensive of all readings,
web assignments and class presentations to date.
Important: There is no make-up exam. See Hour Exam under Course Requirements
.
Oct 24
Reading Day: No class
Unit IV:
Religious Movements in American History
19th and Early 20th Century Movements
Oct 26
Religious Outsiders and the Making of America
Assignment Due: Prospectus and Draft Page
Oct 31
19th Century Religious Movements:
Mormons and Catholics
READ: Class Profile on Mormons;
Bromley and Shupe, Ch 2, "Nineteenth Century Cult Scares: Mormons
and Catholics as Subversives" [NB: this is two separate readings in the electronic text file.]; and browse the contends of the official web page of the LDS and at least one anti-cult page. You'll find the URLs in the Profile page.
Nov 2
Early 20th Century Religious Movements:
Fundamentalists and
Pentecostalism .
READ: Hadden, "Religious Fundamentalism" and the Class Profile pages on
fundamentalismand
Pentecostalism.
Also browse the content of two Class Profiles related to Pentacostalism, Toronto Blessing
and Brownsville Revival.
Nov 7
Televangelism and the Shape of American Religion
in the Late 20th Century
READ: Hadden, "The Rise and Fall of Religious Broadcasting"
Contemporary Religious Movements
Nov 9
Unification Church
READ: Class Profile Page on Unification Church; and Bromley and Shupe, "Unification Church " [read introduction and the segment on the Moonies]. Also, browse Steve Hassan's home page is a good illustration of an apostate activist.
Nov 14
Scientology
READ: Class Profile page on Scientology, and Bromley and Shupe on Scientology in class readings file. Also, explore the Scientology Home Page and one anti-cult web page.
Nov 16
The Family
READ: Class Profile page on The Family; also Bromley and Shupe, on "The Family"; and also examine the official homepage of The Family.
Nov 21
The Millennium and Failed Prophecies
READ: Class Profile page on The Millennium .
Also read the Class Profile page of a group called
Chen Tao, a
group that predicted God would appear in Garland, Texas in March, 1998 as prelude to a serious of apolyptic events. Also take a look a the page of a group called Concerned Christians, a group predicted they would play a significant role in the return of Christ. They mysteriously disappeared from Denver in the Fall of 1998. In January, some of them were deported from Israel becauses authorities believed them to be dangerous.
Nov23
Thanksgiving - No class
Nov 28
Branch Davidians: Some Resources for Understanding Waco
READ: Class Profile page on Branch Davidians and explore some of the links to this page. Also read, Ammerman, "Report to the Justice and Treasury..."; and Shupe and Hadden, "Cops, News Copy and Public Opinion."
Nov 30
Heaven's Gate
READ: The Class Profile page on Heaven's Gateincluding the contents under Extended Coverage. You'll find a mirror copy of the Heaven's Gate web page and I especially recommend an excellent sociological analysis of the whole phenomenon by Patricial Goreman.
Dec 5
New Age Religions
READ: A article by J. Gordon Melton will be posted after the term
begins. Several Profile pages have been developed by students in this
course which help to understand the origins of New Age in the East and the
syncretism that has happened in the West. I especially recommend
Synchronicity Meditation Foundation, a group that is located in Nelson County,
only a short drive from Charlottesville.
Dec 7
Showcasing Student Web Pages; Concluding Remarks; and Evaluation
Dec 15
Final Examination
14:00-17:00 in Wilson 308
The examination will be comprehensive of the entire course and will
include both objective and essay questions. Essay questions may be
written on computer, or bring Blue Book. If you choose to write on
the computer, bring a disk for back up in case printer should
malfunction
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