Religious History as Intellectual History

In this presentation I will explain how I approach the teaching of religion by treating it as a subset of ideas contained within a broader intellectual history of a given period. The inquiry then, necessarily considers the interplay between religious beliefs, values, and sentiments and other prevailing ideas and belief systems and places both in a cultural context. Teaching largely from a modernist rather than a postmodernist perspective, I assume a sincerity of belief among the historical actors we study unless there is reason to doubt that sincerity and generally accept actions, behaviors, and opinions as derivative from sincerely held beliefs. I hope to dissuade students of the following commonly-held assumptions: (1) that by being open to different beliefs on historical actors’ own terms you compromise your own; (2) that Christian doctrine and many of the institutions created for its dissemination have been static for at least hundreds, if not thousands, of years; (3)that the practice of religion was once void of political and social conflict; (4)that different forms of religious experience or practice can be evaluated on a spectrum – eg.: Puritans were MORE RELIGIOUS than their contemporary Anglicans.