Course Code and Title: SOS 222-Sociology of Religion

Course Type: Elective
Course Level: Undergraduate
Year and Semester: Second year, Spring
Course Length: One semester, 3 hours lectures per week
Prerequisite(s): None
Language of Instruction: Turkish
Course Credits: 3 0 3
ECTS Credits: 6
Lecturer: Dr. Abdulkerim Sönmez
Course Contents: The course is organized in three parts. The first part is devoted to delineating the concept of religion as as a phenomenon in sociological research. This is followed in the second part by an examination of theoretical and substantive issues concerning the interaction between religion, culture and social life. Here, particular attention is paid to theoretical formulations and emprical findings concerning religion and the organization of social and and economic life, social solidarity and conflict. The third part concentrates on examining and discussing the issues concerning how and why religious beliefs and practices are associated with the formation of ethnic groups, social and political movements and what consequences such an association bring about for social and political change/stability in the contemporary world.
Course Objectives: On successful completion of this course, the students comprehend and express the basic features of religion as a social phenomenon, the ways in which religion affects and gets affected by culture, social and political processses, collective and individual actions and representations, and illustrate and discuss how a given religous fact or social movement can sociologicaly be understood and analysed.
Teaching Method: Lectures and classroom discussions.  
Assessment Method: Written exam (two midterm (50 %) and one final (50 %).
Reading List:
Kehrer, Günter, Robertson, Roland ve Durkheim, Emile (1996) Din Sosyolojisi, (trans.by        M. Emin Köktaş and Abdullah Topçuoğlu), Ankara: Vadi Yayınları.
Hamilton, Malcolm B. (1995) The Sociology of Religion, London and New York:          Routledge.
Malcolm, Hamilton (1998) Sociology and the World’s Religions, Macmillan Press.
Mardin, Şerif. (1999) Din ve İdeoloji, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
Özdalga, Elisabeth. (2006) İslamcılığın Türkiye Seyri. Sosyolojik Bir Perspektif. İsanbul:        İletişim Yayınları.
Shankland, David. (2003) The Alevis in Turkey. The emergence of a secular Islamic tradition, Routledge Curzon.
Solmaz, Bünyamin ve İhsan Çapçıoğlu (eds.). (2006) Din Sosyolojisi, Klasik ve Çağdaş         Yaklaşımlar, Konya: Çizgi Kitabevi
Turner, Bryan S. (1991) Religion and Social Theory, Sage Publications.
Zukkerman, Phil. (2006). Din Sosyolojisine Giriş, (trans.by İhsan Çapçıoğlu ve Halil     Aydınalp), Ankara: Birleşik Kitabevi.