AFRS 330 - Religion, Critical Theory and Politics

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Advanced study in selected aspects of religion and contemporary philosophical and political theory. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.

Topic for 2026/27b: Religion and the Black Political Imagination. (Same as AMST 330 and RELI 330) This course examines how African Americans have turned to religious language, communities, and practices to imagine freedom and orient themselves in a world that has too often denied their humanity. Far from being confined to private belief, religion functions here as a set of lived practices — moral, aesthetic, and everyday modes of being — through which communities cultivate hope, endure the tragic, and imagine forms of collective life. Together we ask: What does it mean to imagine freedom when the world refuses recognition? How has Black religion inspired both prophetic critique and moral compromise? And what possibilities — and limitations — emerge when democratic life is articulated in religious terms? Jonathon Kahn.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS