History 271 - Colloquium: Religion and US Capitalism

Offered as HST 271 and REL 271. Was Jesus a revolutionary socialist? Or did he preach an ethic of self-help? Is it holy to be poor? Or is prosperity our moral duty? This course will focus particularly on the relationship between religion and capitalism in the realms of economic and moral ideas, labor and working class politics, business history, and grassroots social movements. It will cover such topics as: utopian communes; debates over slavery and free labor; the ‘lived religion’ of the working class; Christian and Jewish socialism; ‘New Age’ spirituality and the counterculture; liberation theology and racial capitalism; big business and the Prosperity Gospel; and conservative Christianity in the age of Chick-Fil-A. Enrollment limited to 18. (E)