Religion 225CQ - Topics in Religion: 'Worlds of Difference: Religion and Conquest'

The "encounters" of 1492 set the foundations for worlds of difference between and among individuals, cultures, and nation states. This course examines the historical and ongoing consequences of territorial conquests, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, political ideologies sustained by religious narratives of forging God's kingdom on earth, and anthropological theories of savage/civilized. In particular, students will explore the colonial legacies (coloniality) of "imperial religion" throughout the Americas and how they shape and impact, for example, conceptions of gender, race, sexuality, religious practices and belonging, politics of inclusion and exclusion, sovereignty and citizenship, identity, and relations to the natural world and others.