Religion & Interdisciplinary Studies
Course topics will rotate to incorporate the study of religion in a variety of other disciplines. Focus will be on the influence or application of religious teachings and traditions in the fields of healthcare, politics, education, etc.
Outcomes: Describe the ethical implications of the religious beliefs and traditions of at least one religion for the primary field of study.
Christianity, Race, Prisons & Policing
Course topics will rotate to incorporate the study of religion in a variety of other disciplines. Focus will be on the influence or application of religious teachings and traditions in the fields of healthcare, politics, education, etc.
Outcomes: Describe the ethical implications of the religious beliefs and traditions of at least one religion for the primary field of study.
Tier 2 Theological Knowledge
This course will explore how Christianity has been used both as a tool of colonizing power and as a source of liberating resistance, with specific reference to the construction of race and white supremacy in the United States context. We will ask how Christianity has been entangled with both slavery and abolitionism, with policing and calls for the reform or the abolition of policing, with mass incarceration and with movements to disrupt the carceral state. We will examine how some White Christians developed theologies to justify slavery and white supremacy, and some Black Christians developed theologies that empowered them to resist and seek liberation.
We will read classical and contemporary Christian thinkers and their reflections on the use of state power, including policing, to maintain social order, and when and whether Christians should participate in the use of force. We will read the work of a prominent Christian ethicist who once served as a law enforcement officer, as well as arguments for the abolition or radical transformation of policing. Finally, we will ask about connections between the legacy of slavery and mass incarceration and current escalations of immigration enforcement and policing by federal agencies.
Readings will likely include selections from the following:
Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity
Kelly Brown Douglas: Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
Selections from Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, on state use of force
Tobias Winright, Serve and Protect: Selected Essays on Just Policing
Mariame Kaba, We Do This Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
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