RLB540 Constructing Religious Community: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2019
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s) (plus 1 for the colloquium). Recommended Type of Completion: z (credit). Other types of completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Andrea Rota, Ph.D. (lecturer), Mgr. Michaela Ondrašinová, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Jana Valtrová, Ph.D.
Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Kateřina Sedlářová
Supplier department: Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Mon 4. 3. 16:00–17:40 B2.33, Tue 5. 3. 16:00–17:40 B2.33, Wed 6. 3. 16:00–17:40 B2.43, Thu 7. 3. 16:00–17:40 B2.23
Prerequisites (in Czech)
( RLA01 Introduction to Religion || RLKA01 Introduction to Religion ) || PROGRAM(N-PH)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 80 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/80, only registered: 0/80, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/80
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course focuses on the analysis of the dynamic processes that underpin the constitution and perpetuation of a religious community. The concept of “religious community” is undertheorized in the scientific study of religion. To fill this theoretical gap, some insights from the emerging fields of social ontology and collective intentionality will be presented and discussed. This will allow us to discuss what it means for a group of religious actors to have collective beliefs, collective emotions, collective experiences, and to engage in collective actions. To illustrate the theoretical reflection, we will draw on the example of Jehovah’s Witnesses with special emphasis on the role of various media (magazines, radio, the Internet…) in structuring the Witnesses’ activities. How do Jehovah’s Witnesses organize their missionary work? How do they experience their assemblies and conventions? How do they remain committed to the rules they have to follow? To discuss these and other questions, empirical data from a three-year qualitative and quantitative research project among Swiss and German Jehovah’s Witnesses will be presented. The course does not presuppose any previous knowledge of the theoretical framework presented or of the empirical case study.
The course consists of 4 lectures and home readings. Lectures will be held in the week from 4 March to 7 March 2019.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students will be able to:
- identify and describe the main practices of Jehovahs' Witnesses;
- identify different conceptions of "religious community" and summarize their theoretical underpinning;
- compare different approaches to the study of religious community and evaluate their fruitfulness for the analysis of empirical case studies.
Syllabus
  • Note: Home readings will be summarized and discussed during the lectures. Students are not expected to have read everything by the begining of the lecture week, however, all home readings should be done before the final assessment (final essay or final test).
  • 1) Classical concepts of “community” (Home reading)
  • Weber, M (1978 [1921]). Economy and Society, (pp. 40-43, “Communal and Associative Relationships”). Berkeley, University of California Press.
  • 2) The history of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Home reading)
  • Chryssides, G. D. (2008). “Introduction.” In The A to Z of Jehovah's Witnesses (pp. 31-71). Lanham: The Scarecrow Press.
  • 3) The concept of collective intentionality (Home reading)
  • Gilbert, M. (1996). “Walking Together: A Paradigmatic Social Phenomenon.” In Living Together. Rationality, Sociality, and Obligation (pp. 177-194). Lanham: Rowman & Littelfield Publishers.
  • 4) LECTURE: The Problem of “Religious Community”
  • Drawing on the literature indicated for home reading, the first lecture presents the issue of studying “religious community” as a theoretical challenge for the scientific study of religion and introduces a new theoretical framework using examples from everyday life and thought experiments. Some preliminary information on the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses will also be provided.
  • Further readings:
  • Searle, J. R. (2002 [1990]). “Collective intentions and actions.” In Consciousness and Language (pp. 90-105). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • 5) The “rational choice” approach to religious community (Home reading)
  • Stark, R., & Iannaccone, L. (1997). “Why the Jehovah's Witnesses Grow so Rapidly.” Journal of Contemporary Religion, 12(2), 133-157.
  • 6) LECTURE: The Missionary Work of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a Collective Action
  • The second lecture continues the exploration of the history and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses focusing on their famous house-to-house ministry. The lecture will discuss the articulation between the individual participation in the ministry and its collective organization arguing that the missionary work is predicated on a collective, rather than on an individual form of commitment.
  • Further readings:
  • Searle, J. R. (2008). “Fact and value, ‘is’ and ‘ought,’ and reasons for action.” In Philosophy in a New Century. Selected Essays (pp. 161-180). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Tuomela, R. (2007). The philosophy of sociality: the shared point of view. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 83-92.
  • 7) The Use of Media in Religious Contexts (Home reading)
  • Meyer, B. (2009). “Introduction: From Imagined Communities to Aesthetic Formations: Religious Mediations, Sensational Forms, and Styles of Binding.” In B. Meyer (ed.), Aesthetic Formations: Media, Religion, and the Senses (pp. 1-29), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • 8) LECTURE: Media, Beliefs and Rules
  • The third lecture focuses on the use of media among Jehovah’s Witnesses and on the rules surrounding such use. The example of television will illustrate the distinction between collective attitudes and individual action. The example of software applications for reading the Bible will prompt a discussion on the problem of collective aesthetics.
  • Further readings:
  • Gilbert, M. (1987). “Modeling Collective Beliefs.” Synthese, 73(1), 185-204.
  • Rota, A. (forthcoming 2018), “Religion, Media, and Joint Commitment: Jehovah’s Witnesses as a ‘Plural Subject’.” ONLINE – Heidelberg Journal of Religion on the Internet.
  • 9) Classical and Contemporary Theories of Religious Emotion (Home reading)
  • Durkheim E. (1995 [1912]). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (pp. 207-225).
  • Walthert, R. (2013). “Emotion, Ritual, and the Individual: The Production of Community in Evangelicalism.” Journal of Religion in Europe 6, 90-119.
  • 10) LECTURE: Collective Emotions and Religious Community
  • The last lecture deals with a classical topic in the sociology of religion, namely the relationship between collective emotions and the constitution of religious communities. The lecture will challenge the classical framing of this relationship based on Durkheim’s Elementary Forms and suggest an alternative perspective to analyze the role of collective emotions among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
  • Further readings:
  • Gilbert, M. (2014). “How we feel: understanding everyday collective emotion ascription.” In C. Von Scheve & M. Salmela (Eds.), Collective Emotions (pp. 15-31). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Teaching methods
Lectures, class discussions, home reading
Assessment methods
For MA students (5 ETCS for completing the course): an essay in English (about 2000 words) (100 %); the essay will be submitted during the examination period (the deadline will be specified during the lecture week). The home readings should be used and cited in the essay.

For BA students (4 ETCS for completing the course): passing a written test (3 open questions) (100 %); the test will take place during the examination period.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
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