TYPE OF COURSE UNIT	Elective Course
LEVEL OF COURSE UNIT	Bachelor's Degree
YEAR OF STUDY	-
SEMESTER	-
NUMBER OF ECTS CREDITS ALLOCATED	5
NAME OF LECTURER(S)	Professor Menderes Çınar
LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THE COURSE UNIT	At the end of this course, the students; 1) develop an understanding based on the social and political theories, and moderate a debate, on the role and functions of religion in modern societies. 2) develop a capacity to explain the reasons for the rise of religious movements and their impact on modernity and secularism. 3) reach the level of knowledge and analytical skills that will avoid the essentialist approaches when discussing the role of religion in modern societies by gaining a comparative perspective on the practices of secularism and the varieties of religion-state, religion-politics relations.
MODE OF DELIVERY	Face to face
PRE-REQUISITES OF THE COURSE	No
RECOMMENDED OPTIONAL PROGRAMME COMPONENT	No recommended optional programme components.
COURSE DEFINITION	This course aims to study the modernity-religion relationship. To this end, beginning with the Enlightenment thinkers such as August Comte, the approach of such "institutionalized" thinkers as Durkheim, Marx, and Weber to religion will be studied from a political science perspective, and the modernization-secularization relationship that has been constructed by the classical approaches will be reviewed in the light of recent world-wide revival of religious movements.
COURSE CONTENTS	WEEK TOPICS 1st Week Introduction: The Problematique, what, why and when? 2nd Week Significance of Religion as Human Construction. 3rd Week Sociological Perspectives on Religion: Founding Fathers and Contemporary Sociology. 4th Week Sociological Perspectives on Religion: Founding Fathers and Contemporary Sociology. 5th Week Sociological Perspectives on Religion: Founding Fathers and Contemporary Sociology. 6th Week Perspectives on Religion and Politics: History of Political Thought. 7th Week Midterm Week 8th Week Secularization? The Thesis and its Revision(s). 9th Week Secularization? The Thesis and its Revision(s). 10th Week Political Religions 11th Week Explaining Political Religions via a) globalization, b) postmodernism, c) failures of modernization. 12th Week Explaining Political Religions via a) globalization, b) postmodernism, c) failures of modernization. 13th Week Islamism 14th Week Islamism. Conclusion: Modernity, Religion and Politics.
RECOMENDED OR REQUIRED READING	Books Bryan S. Turner, Religion and Social Theory: A materialist Perspective (Heinman Educational Books: London, 1983). Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Chistianity and Islam (The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, 1993). James Beckford, Religion and Advanced Industrial Society, (Unwin Hyman, 1989). Ali Yaşar Sarıbay, Türkiye'de Modernleşme ve Din Politikası: MSP Örnek Olayı (Alan Yayıncılık: İstanbul, 1985). Edward W. Said, Şarkiyatçılık: Batı'nın Şark Anlayışları (Metis: İstanbul, 1995). Maurice Barbier, Modern Bati Dusuncesinde Din ve Siyaset, (Kaknus, 1999). Nur Vergin, Din, Toplum ve Siyasal Sistem (Bağlam Yayınları: İstanbul, 2000). Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (The Chicago University press, 1994). Papers Swatos &Christiano, "Sekülerleşme Teorisi: Bir Kavramın Serüveni," in Sekülerizm Sorgulanıyor, ed., Ali Köse, (Ufuk Kitapları, 2002): 95-123 Nikki R. Keddie, Secularism and the State: Towards Clarity and Global Comparison,' New Left Review, 226(Nov/Dec, 1997): 21-40. Nuray Mert, 'Laiklik Tartismasi ve Siyasal Islam', Cogito, 1 (Yaz, 1994): 89-102. Nikki R. Keddie, "The New Religious Politics: Where, When and Why do 'Fundamentalisms' Appear?" Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40, 4 (October, 1998): 696-723. Peter Beyer, Religion and Globalization, (Sage, 1994), pp. 70-95. Bryan Turner, Oryantalism, Postmodernizm, ve Din', in Postmodernizm ve Islam, Kuresellesme ve Oryantalizm, A. Topcuoglu and Y. Aktay, eds. (Vadi, 1999), pp. 36-57. Ali Yaşar Sarıbay, Postmodernite, Sivil Toplum ve İslam, (İletisim veya Alfa): Giriş, 1 ve 4. bölümler Ali Yasar Sarıbay, 'Turkiye'de Siyasal Modernlesme ve Islam,' Toplum ve Bilim, 29/30, (Yaz, 1985): 45-64. Daniel Pipes,"Islam and Islamism: Faith and Ideology," The National Interest, (Spring, 2000): 87-93. Martin Kramer, "Ballots or Bullets," Harvard International Review, 19, 2 (Spring 1997): 16-22. Khursid Ahmad, "Islam and Democracy: Some Conceptual and Contemporary Dimensions," The Muslim World, 90, 1&2, (Spring, 2000): 1-21. Menderes Çınar, "From Shadow-Boxing to Critical Understanding: Some Theoretical Notes on Islamism as a 'Political' Question," Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 3, 1(Summer 2002): 35-57 Alfred Stephan, "Religion, Democracy and the 'Twin Tolerations'" Journal of Democracy, 11, 4 (October, 2000): 37-57. Horst Mewes, "Religion and Politics in American Democracy," in The Secular and the Sacred, William Safran ed., (Frank Cass: London, 2003), pp. 13-31. Corwin Smidt et al, "Religion and Politics in the United States," in The Secular and the Sacred, William Safran ed., (Frank Cass: London, 2003), pp. 31-53. William Safran, "Religion and Laicite in a Jacobin Republic: The Case of France," in The Secular and the Sacred, ed. Idem, (Frank Cass: London, 2003), pp. 54-81. Adamantia Pollis, "Greece: A Problematic Secular State," in The Secular and the Sacred, William Safran ed., (Frank Cass: London, 2003), pp. 155-168. Jean Bauberot, "Fransa: 'Laik Cumhuriyet'," in Avrupa Birliği Ülkelerinde Dinler ve Laiklik, Idem, ed., (Ufuk Kitapları: 2003), pp. 93-106. Vasilos N. Makrides, "Yunanistan'da Gelenek ile Modernite Arasında Gerilim," in Avrupa Birliği Ülkelerinde Dinler ve Laiklik, Jean Bauberot, ed., (Ufuk Kitapları: 2003), pp. 113-122. Hakan Yılmaz, "Islam, Sovereignty, and Democracy: A Turkish Democracy," Middle East Journal, 61, 3 (2007), pp. 477-493.
PLANNED LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING METHODS	Lecture
ASSESSMENT METHODS AND CRITERIA	Quantity Percentage(%) Mid-term 1 20 Assignment 1 20 Project 1 20 Total(%) 60 Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%) 60 Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%) 40 Total(%) 100
ECTS WORKLOAD	Activities Number Hours Workload Midterm exam 1 1 1 Preparation for Quiz Individual or group work 14 4 56 Preparation for Final exam 1 20 20 Course hours 14 3 42 Preparation for Midterm exam 1 17 17 Laboratory (including preparation) Final exam 1 1 1 Homework 1 10 10 Project 1 7 7 Total Workload 154 Total Workload / 30 5,13 ECTS Credits of the Course 5
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION	English
WORK PLACEMENT(S)	No