Università Roma Tre

In our society religion and religious issues have an important space, which can be recognized in different forms of belief.
This class offers an introduction to the principle themes and theories which emerge in the history of the studies about religion/religions. We will try to tackle the difficult question "What is religion? What are religions?". In particular, we will discuss different theories about religion, its essence, its function in the society, up to the last approaches which underline the imbrication of religion with cultures, politics and societies.
Key words and topics (body, gender, violence, space) will be discussed in a comparative and historical approach.
The history of religious studies is taught through a multidisciplinary perspective, which allows students to focus on different approaches such as history, anthropology, sociology, cognitive sciences. The historical study of tools and approaches in religious studies are as follows:
The beginning of history of religions: the modern period
What is religion? History of religion studies from the 18th century onwards.
Anthropological and sociological methods in 19th century
New paradigms: towards the 20th century
Psychology and cognitive sciences
Italian school during the 20th century
A glance from, a glance on the East

Attending studies
1. Appunti del corso e letture indicate nel percorso (vedi materiali didattici on line e l’ulteriore materiale che verrà distribuito dal docente durante le lezioni)

2. 5 chapters from G. Filoramo, Manuale di storia delle religioni, Laterza, Roma Bari, 2005 or from G. Filoramo, N. Spineto, M. Giorda, Manuale di scienze della religione, Morcelliana, Brescia 2019

3. J. Jensen, Religione, Bulzoni, Roma 2017 or
M. Bombardieri, M. Giorda, S, Hejazi, Capire l’Islam, Mito o realtà? Morcelliana, Brescia 2019

Non attending students will study the whole:
G. Filoramo, Manuale di storia delle religioni, Laterza, Roma Bari, 2005.