Global Religion- Period 5

The aim of the course Global Religion is to gain knowledge and insight into the forms of religion as a global practice. Our starting point is the idea that any investigation of religious practice should begin with the concrete forms in which religion presents itself to us in a research setting. The anthropological approach of religion is a social-scientific angle which looks for the way in which religious practice and social processes are related. This basically boils down to two questions: how social structure influences religious practice, and how religious practice influences social processes. This question applies to both small-scale societies and groups, and to large-scale societies, as well as to more network-like forms of social organization, for example, in digital media.

In the perspective of the global, these questions will direct us to the cultural logic of expansion, religious movements, in- and exclusion in religion, the urge for 'purification', and subsequently religion and violence, as well as relativism and formations of the secular

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.