Sociology 446

Fall 1999

Mr. Warner

TAKE-HOME MIDTERM EXAMINATION

This exam is open-book and open-note. It is not a test of what you do not know but of how you can use what you do know. The point of it is for your to show how you can put together meaningfully what you've learned so far in the course, drawing on Marty's Pilgrims in Their Own Land, Roof's collection of articles, Americans and Religions in the Twenty-First Century, the lectures, the (few) field trips, and any other reading and observation you have done to enhance your appreciation of the course topic. In no case should you base your answers on just one chapter or article; as a general rule, drawing on or comparing two or more sources is called for. Remember that this is a sociology course, not a course in comparative religion, so you should talk about the people who adhere to the religions you write about.

Directions: Answer two questions, one from each part, numbering your essay with the number of the corresponding question. Your answers should each be about 1000 words (4 pp. typewritten, double-spaced) in length, and they will be weighted equally in the grading. DUE IN CLASS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13.

Part I: Synthesize a thread running through the whole course:

1. How have the trajectories of Protestantism and Catholicism in the U.S. differed and/or converged? DO NOT ANSWER BOTH THIS QUESTION AND QUESTION 8.

2. Explain the historical and continuing significance of the formal "disestablishment" of religion in the United States.

3. How has religion in the U.S. been affected, both in the past and in the present, by international immigration and internal migration?

4. Why and how does it matter how a religious group organizes itself, both on a local and on a national/global level?

Part II: Explore a particular topic:

5. Compare and contrast the religious experience and expression of at least two U.S. minority groups.

6. Explain the significance of the country of origin (e.g., England, Spain, Mexico, India) of at least three U.S. religious groups.

7. Explore some of the ways that women have been a presence in U.S. religion.

8. Trace the century-long trajectory of the two-party system in white American Protestantism.