America has been in love with autobiography for a long time, and this sizzling romance ignited in the 1980s, producing autobiographies from writers of diverse interests, including many who have had transforming religious experiences. This course will explore the ways in which the malleability of identity in this nation of immigrants affects religious identity, including conversion, de-conversion, and that peculiarly American phenomenon of "passing" as a race, ethnicity or religion different from one's own. After exploring some of the early underpinnings of American religious autobiographies in the colonial writings of Cotton Mather and Mary Rowlandson as well as the 18th-century "Great Awakening" writings of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, the class will explore the contemporary relationship between American identity and religion. A reader, which will include the "from crook-to Christian" conversion experience of Charles Colson as well as Julia Sweeney's essay "Letting Go of God" will be available at the Reckhammerweg copy shop, and students should purchase the following:
The Other Side of the Altar by Paul Dinter (2003) - out of print, but available at amazon.de (Please get in touch with me if you cannot buy a copy at amazon.)
Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander (2007)
The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson (2010)
In the Land of Believers by Gina Welch (2010)
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