Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for HST 247 archive revision 202104

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Effective Term:
Fall 2021 through Winter 2025

Course Number:
HST 247
Course Title:
Religion in the United States since 1840
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Covers basic features of Native American religions, European backgrounds of Christianity, development of different religious groups in the United States and their impact on American life from 1840 until the recent past. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Articulate and interpret an understanding of key historical facts and events in the history of religion in the U.S. since 1840.
  • Identify the influence of culturally based practices, values, and beliefs to analyze how historically defined meanings of difference affect human behavior.
  • Identify and investigate historical theses, evaluate information and its sources, and use appropriate reasoning to construct evidence-based arguments on historical issues.
  • Construct a well-organized historical argument using effective, appropriate, and accurate language.

Social Inquiry and Analysis

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to apply methods of inquiry and analysis to examine social contexts and the diversity of human thought and experience.

General education philosophy statement

This course requires students to focus on the history of religion in the United States since 1840 from a variety of different perspectives, considering the ways in which the experiences of people in the past have been shaped by factors like social class, gender, race, religious belief, and ideology. Students must also evaluate relationships between different cultures, whether defined in terms of political identity (such as interactions between the people of two or more nations) or in terms of cultural groups within a larger society. One of the key goals of this course is to provide a perspective on the contemporary world that is grounded in a robust and accurate understanding of the past, ultimately in the name of encouraging a greater sense of social responsibility.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assess by using any combination of the following:

  • Exams
  • Essays
  • Oral presentations
  • Research projects
  • Book critiques
  • Service Learning
  • Class participation and discussion
  • Other creative assignments

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Competencies and Skills:

Analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources:

  • Connect evidence to its relevant historical context
  • Analyze and evaluate written, artistic, or other evidence
  • Assess the motivation and purpose of evidence

Evaluate different interpretations of past events and construct your own interpretation:

  • Identify a historian’s thesis and supporting evidence
  • Evaluate the arguments used to support different interpretations of historical issues
  • Develop your own thesis and historical interpretation and use evidence to support it

Think critically about the relationship between past and present events and issues:

  • Recognize and identify historical roots and parallels to current issues

Compare and contrast the experience of diverse groups in society:

  • Listen to and appreciate the experience of students from a variety of  backgrounds
  • Assess the contributions and experiences of various groups in society

Demonstrate college-level communications skills with an emphasis on writing (and may include listening and speaking):

  • Communicate effectively in writing about a historical topic
  • Communicate in writing an understanding of historical process and an evaluation of how concepts or values change over time

Clearly articulate thoughts and ideas to a particular audience which may include:

  • Working collaboratively with other students to evaluate and understand historical events
  • Working collaboratively with others in discussions, debate, or role plays
  • Presenting information in oral presentations

Themes Concepts, Issues:

  • Changes and persistence in religious beliefs or practices

  • Religion and politics

  • Religious movements, revivalism

  • Theological commonalities among religious beliefs

  • Intolerance

  • Religious freedom

  • Civic religion

  • Religious pluralism

  • Self-understanding (world view)

  • Utopian communities

  • Millennialism

  • Freedom of religion

  • “Immigrant” churches

  • Ethnicity, gender and social class

  • Inter- and intra-religious controversies

  • Religious “crusades” and "revivals"

  • Acculturation

  • Anti-Communism

  • Post-modernism