This course will deal with the relationships between religion and society, focusing the influence of religion in Spanish society, so powerful over the centuries that it can be stated, without fear of being wrong, that current Spanish society cannot be understood without studying the religion that has shaped very diverse aspects of human life in this country. Many of the topics will cover the influences of religion on art and culture, as well as female participation in various social spheres.
The program will be divided into five large blocks that will offer a general overview of the religious phenomenon in 21st century Spain.
I. Religion in current Spanish society: general aspects.
1. Religious landscapes of Spain ¿ places of special interest to learn about the relationship between religion and society in today's world
2. Religious times ¿ the reflection of religion in the Spanish social calendar (religious and secular holidays and celebrations). The influence of Christianity in shaping social, festive, cultural and other aspects.
3. Today's topics: news to understand the current religious world in Spain. The meaning of religion in a pluralistic, globalized, emotional and moralizing sociocultural context.
4. The problem of religion in today's world: effects of globalization on religion; the secularization of Spanish society together with the need to ask about the meaning of life.
II. The roots of the Hispanic religious phenomenon and its impact on today's society
5. Religion as an essential aspect in the historical evolution of the people of the Iberian Peninsula. The ways of seeing and understanding that evolution today. The current panorama: the Christian majority, and the minority representation of other religions.
6. Christianity: the arrival in Roman Hispania at the hands of the apostle Santiago? The first Christians of Hispania.
7. Judaism: the arrival in Roman Hispania. Who came first, Christianity or Judaism? How is Judaism understood in today's Spain?
8. Christianity in the configuration of the first properly Hispanic kingdom: the Visigoths. The councils of Toledo.
9. The arrival of the Arabs. The causes of the rapid conquest and organization of the occupied territory.
10. The changes in the religious panorama of the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th century onwards.
11. The permanence of Christianity in the kingdoms of the northern peninsula. Religious ideology as part of the construction of kingdoms.
12. The construction of a Christian identity as an affirmation of a society
III. Religion as a factor in the construction of a social identity
13. Religious time and its meaning from a religious and social point of view (All Saints' Day, Christmas, Easter)
14. Popular customs in relation to religious celebrations
15. Art and scholarly culture in relation to religious celebrations
16. Festivals and the cultural and identity construction of a society
IV. The influence of religion as a social model of coexistence between religions and cultures. The Hispanic example
17. The study of religion in today's society. A panoramic review
18. The serious problems of today's world. Wars and religious background. Religious coexistence in the Hispanic past
19. From tolerance to intolerance. A brief review of religious and social relations in the towns of Spain
20. Institutions that reflect the breakdown of tolerance between religious and social groups
V. Religion as the basis of widespread social phenomena in today's Spain
21. The pilgrimages. The religious sense extended throughout the Spanish geography
22. The Camino de Santiago, a religious, economic and cultural route
23. Religious buildings. The cathedrals
24. The transformation of buildings from one religion to another
CONCLUSION. The objective reflection necessary to assess the role of religion in the lives of human beings.
