Course Description
The study of religions role in international affairs, pertaining to the recognition that religions are like a basic power of the social universe and recognize that religions are before the state, influencing policy, and going beyond that.
Course Summary
Under the instruction of Diego Antonio Alonso-Lasheras de Zavala, the course began with establishing that the world is in a post-secularization society. We reviewed academics and theologists such as Peter Berger to understand why religion has not faded away after modernization. After the Treaty of Westphalia, religion was considered to be archaic and was pushed into the private sphere during the Enlightenment. Unfortunately this has caused religion to go unacknowledged in its political influences. The class established theories and concepts that best explained how religion interacts with government structures. Once understanding how to recognize these political influences, the class was divided into groups and research religious influences in countries through out the world. Regions included, Europe, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, The U.S, Latin America, South Asia and East Asia. My group and I was responsible for Latin America where we researched the growth of Pentecostalism and how Catholicism has lost traction in recent years. We used two case studies focusing on Brazil and Guatemala to compare two different trends and ultimately compare them to better demonstrate that Pentecostalism is spreading rapidly through Latin America. We used debate questions to engage conversation about our topic and try to predict if political factions would be influenced by the change in religious affiliation. It was concluded that Protestants and Evangelicals were gaining support by lower class citizens and influencing elections geared towards promoting their political agenda since the Catholic church is held under more restrictive involvement in government.
Work Sample
presentación8.pdf | |
File Size: | 1458 kb |
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