This seminar is required of all incoming students and offers a forum for the discussion of issues central to the field of Religious Studies. This year's seminar will focus on the question "What is Religion?" Towards mapping the range of ways that "Religion" has been defined, defended, and delineated as a meaningful and/or heuristic topic for academic inquiry, we will survey a broad variety of methodological approaches to investigating religious traditions, institutions, texts, ideas, experiences, and practices. We will focus on thinkers and theorists who have had a formative and enduring influence on the field of Religious Studies, exploring the place of this field within the study of human history, society, and culture more broadly.

There will be several informal writing assignments aimed at facilitating discussion. Before the first meeting of the seminar, students should type up a brief (at least 2 pages) intellectual biography, describing their background and interests, what they study and why, whether/where/how they see themselves fitting within the broader field of Religious Studies, and how – on the onset of graduate study at McMaster – they conceive of “Religion” and its academic study within a university setting. Like the field of Religious Studies at large, our department encompasses faculty and students with a broad variety of backgrounds, both personal and academic, and a correspondingly broad variety of approaches to (and assumptions about) “Religion” and its study. This diversity, in my view, provides us with a wonderful opportunity in this seminar to investigate and explore (as well as to challenge, press, and problematize) the history and practice of scholarly reflection on “Religion” in terms of its relevance for research and teaching in a wide range of different subfields therein – as well as to identify and negotiate the conflicts and connections between them in fruitful ways.

In addition (and in the same spirit) each student should type up a brief (at least 2 paragraphs) response to each week’s readings – thoughts, ideas, points of interest, critiques, questions – to be circulated via email before each class (= by Wednesday night) to the instructor and other seminar participants. This is meant to be an informal forum and an opportunity freely to explore and express ideas, concerns, and questions raised by the readings. Students will not be graded on the content of these responses, but the prompt submission of these responses is considered to be an important part of participation in the seminar and will be figure accordingly in the participation grade.

Presentations should be 20-25 minutes in length and should summarize the book, guided by the aim of communicating to one’s fellow students its significance for the Study of Religion, past and present, and its connections with the overarching themes discussed in the seminar and with the other readings. After summarizing the book and its main and most relevant points, students should feel free also to voice critiques and to raise questions; it is critical, however, that each book be understood and explained on its own terms before any judgements or valuations are made.

The final session of our seminar will be dedicated to reviewing and critiquing these syllabi. This will serve as a starting point for a broader discussion of how the history of scholarly reflection on “Religion” and the methodological issues, questions, and problems surrounding its definition and study affect the practice of teaching within the various subfields gathered under the rubric “Religious Studies.”