Final Thoughts?

We spent an entire semester thinking about "religion in the South" as well as talking about the ins and outs of writing an analytical research paper.  That work culminated in a 20-25 page paper!  Feeling proud, right?  You should.  After all that writing, your final post is a freebie: give any final reflections--on your ideas about religion and the South, on the writing/research process, a post or reading about which you have more to say, etc., etc.  Thanks for contributing to a successful and productive semester! 

Women and Religion

Last week, we read an essay called "Women and Southern Religion," in which the author (a little too quickly) divides camps of scholarly focus into 1) what religion does to women and 2) what religion does for women.  Too facile a dichotomy, many of us agreed in class.  But that said, here were the clips I mentioned (a couple of which you watched) where, even in the name of progressive gender politics, people discuss "women" in limiting ways.


First, journalist (and great-great grandson of Charles Darwin) Matthew Chapman:





Then, popular author/journalist Christopher Hitches:




Lastly, non-fiction writer on science and religion, Sam Harris:

Memory and Memorials

As you probably already know, UA is in the process of renovating Foster Auditorium.  In the process, the question of how exactly to go about remembering and commemorating 1963's "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door"--when then governor George Wallace attempted to keep two black students, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood, from entering the still segregated University of Alabama.

Last year, in UA's Documenting Justice series, a team of UA students made a ten-minute short documentary about the significance of Foster and the politics of memory.

There are a lot of issues imbedded in how collectively to mark a past event, especially in a place that attaches so much meaning to something called "the past" or "tradition"...and especially when the event is charged with social change, racism, and state/federal policy.

The new design is supposed to make practical use of the space while marking the events of June 11, 1963.  Do you think it does both effectively?  What does it even mean to remember something "effectively" and what kinds of assumptions/appeals are made in the process?  And do you think answers to such questions do/should change when the context is different...something like KA's controversial "Old South Parade"...?

Here's a picture of the new Foster design:

Click here to read about the renovation in the Crimson White
And here's the CW article after the board approved the design

David Bains!

This Monday, we're going to enjoy a visit from Samford Professor David Bains.  After our class lets out, Prof. Bains will be giving a talk for the Religious Studies Department's Religion in Culture Lecture Series at 7:30 in Gorgas 205.  That talk's title will be: "National Cathedral to National Gurdwara: Erecting American Religions in Washington, D.C.", and there will be a response given by Mark McCormick, professor of religion at Stillman.  Here's the link to the facebook event page:


http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=153915967979461&ref=ts


Description of the talk he'll give that night?  Well, sure, I've got that too: 


Many Americans have long regarded religion as essential to the character and welfare of the nation. Accordingly, they have desired landmark houses of worship to be part of their capital city's symbolic landscape. Yet because of the religious diversity among Americans, many "national" houses of worship have been required. The erection and success of such buildings has been complicated by the separation of church and state, the congregational character of most American religions, and the bold plan and slow development of Washington. With its hegemonic claims to be a "spiritual home of the nation," Washington National Cathedral has been the most successful. Yet its claims have been continually contested by other groups. In this lecture, David Bains, an Associate Professor at Samford University, examines how these "national" houses of worship seek to shape the religious life of the United States and its capital city.


As this talk will be different from the conversation topic he'll deal with in our class, I want you to attend his evening talk and make your next post be a response to that.  I'll remind you in class, send an email, etc.  But with this post, maybe write a comment involving which of the 3 readings he gave us you're enjoying most/least and why...  And/or, go ahead and throw out some questions you think you want to ask him or topics you want to make sure he deals with....

Peer Reviews

This week, you've been spending some quality time with the work of one of your classmates.  How's it going?

Crisis and Commemoration

We had a great conversation this week about the essay by Kurt O. Berends called "Confederate Sacrifice and the 'Redemption' of the South.  His claim centered around the give-and-take, push-and-pull between religious interpretation and war rhetoric.  Most scholars (he identifies three different camps) discuss the effects of Christianity on the war (did it undermine the Confederacy, support it, etc.).  Berends suggests, though, that there was a lot happening the other way around, too--that the rhetoric surrounding the Confederacy: patriotism, notions of a "holy war," sacrifice, etc., influenced the way that people understood their faith.

Then we meandered over to the front of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas library and looked at the commemorative rock erected outside on the quad to memorialize those soldiers from UA who fought for the Confederate forces.  Here are two pictures, one I filched from google images and one I took while we stood there reading it Monday:

Hope you can read it...  Let me know if not, and I'll type it out and post.  The choices made with the language used is fascinating.  I'll give you the meaty bit: "The University of Alabama gave to the Confederacy-- [this many colonels, majors, officers, etc.].  Recognizing obedience to state, they loyally and uncomplainingly met the call of duty, in numberless instances sealing their devotion by their life blood.  And on April 3, 1865, the cadet corps, composed wholly of boys, went bravely forth to repel a veteran federal invading foe, of many times their number, in a vain effort to save their alma mater, from destruction by fire, which it met at the hands of the enemy on the day following"...

We talked about Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, who thought that religion should be subservient to the state...  The memorial notes the "obedience to state" which was what ostensibly led the veterans to fight (loyally and uncomplainingly, no less!)--the distinction that began to be drawn between social/political/state matters and internal religious convictions is part of what allowed "the government to lay claim to citizens' ultimate allegiance and to demand the paramount sacrifice: their lives" (Berends 103).  What do do with words/phrases like: "boys," "life blood," "veteran federal invading foe," "enemy," devotion," "call of duty"...?  

Commemoration/Memorializing is obviously an involved process...

David Ramsay Steele; The American South as a "Third World Country"...?

As promised, here's David Ramsay Steele suggesting that the South is "a third world country."  Respond!  Think especially (if it helps) in light of what you read from Beth Barton Schweiger, who discusses 18th and 19th-century revivals as highly "modern" and inventive events.  The clip's about 8 minutes long, so pull out a bag of popcorn: