Checking date: 24/01/2023


Course: 2023/2024

Religion and Society in Spain
(749)
Hispanic Studies (Plan: 285 - Estudio: 84)


Coordinating teacher: FUENTE PEREZ, MARIA JESUS AURORA

Department assigned to the subject:

Type: Compulsory
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:




Objectives
At the end of the course the students will have: - a precise knowledge of the three fundamental religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) followed with more or less force by people living in the iberian peninsula. - an understanding of the role of religion in shaping the specific processes that affected the history of Spain from the Middle Ages to the present. - a good overview of the dialectic related to cultural heritage as a narrative construction tool of the past, and the role it plays in the identities of the present.
Description of contents: programme
This course will deal with the influence of religion in Spanish society, so powerful over the centuries that it can be affirmed, without danger of error, that current Spanish society cannot be understood without studying religion, which has configured very diverse aspects. of human life. The program will be divided into six large blocks that will offer an overview of the religious phenomenon in Spain in the 21st century. I. Religion in today´s Spanish society: general aspects. 1. 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. 2. The current panorama of religion in Spain: the Christian majority, and the minority representation of other religions. The influence of Christianity in the configuration of social, festive, cultural and other aspects. 3. Religion as an essential aspect for the knowledge of aspects such as the occupation of the territory (bishoprics, parishes, monasteries). 4. The problem of religion in today's world: the secularization of Spanish society together with the need to wonder 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 peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. The ways of seeing and understanding that evolution today. 6. Christianity: the arrival in Roman Hispania at the hands of James the Apostle. The first Christians of Hispania. 7. Judaism: the arrival in Roman Hispania. Who came first? Christianity or Judaism? 8. Christianity in the configuration of the first truly Hispanic kingdom: the Visigoths. The councils of Toledo. 9. The arrival of the Arabs - causes of the rapid conquest and organization of the occupied territory. 10. The permanence of Christianity in the kingdoms of the north ¿ religious ideology as part of the construction of the kingdoms. III. Religion as a factor of social construction 11. The three religious communities of the Iberian Peninsula ¿ forms of representation of each of the religious groups 12. The three religious communities of the Iberian Peninsula ¿ economy of each of the groups 13. The three religious communities of the Iberian Peninsula ¿ the family as a fundamental social nucleus 14. ¿Coexistence of three cultures? IV - the cultural influence of religion. 15 - Christianity and its artistic and literary manifestations. 16 - Judaism and its role in Hispano-medieval culture. 17 - Islam and its influence on art, poetry and science. V - the gender perspective in the view of Hispanic religions. 18 - Women in Christianity: feminine values and religious manifestations (female religious congregations). 19 - Women in Judaism: the safeguard of the religion through the maintenance of the customs of the community. 20 - Women in Islam: their role in the family and in culture. VI - the three religious communities from today's perspective 21 - The evolution in the ways of understanding the religious phenomenon: from the 16th to the 20th century. 22 - The change in the way of looking at relations between religious groups after September 11. 23 - Current debates on the use of the religious past. 24 - CONCLUSION - An objective reflection to assess the role of religion in the lives of human beings.
Learning activities and methodology
This course involves lectures involving theory regarding the characteristics and history of the three religions included, and their inter-relation in Spain from the Middle Ages to the present. The practical part will include visits to significant places for the minority religions in today¿s Madrid, so that they may better understand the nature of current religious coexistence.
Assessment System
Basic Bibliography
  • Andrés Melquíades. Cristianismo y cultura en España: dos milenios de vida. Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. 2016
  • Blázquez, José María. El nacimiento del cristianismo. Síntesis. 1996
  • Carlos Díaz. Manual de historia de las religiones. Desclée de Brouwer. 1998
  • Fierro Bello, Isabel. ¿QUÉ PASÓ CON EL ISLAM EN LA PENÍNSULA IBÉRICA? UNA APROXIMACIÓN.. Intus Legere. 2021
  • Fuente Pérez, María Jesús. Velos y desvelos. Cristianas, musulmanas y judías en la España medieval. La esfera de los libros. 2006
  • Fuente Pérez, María Jesús. Identidad y convivencia. Musulmanas y judías en la España cristiana medieval. Polifemo. 2010
  • Isabel Montes Romero-Camacho. Los judíos en la Edad Media española. Arco-Libros. 2001
  • Juan Vernet-Ginés. Al-Andalus: el Islam en España. Lunwerg. 1999
  • Muñoz Fernández, Ángela. Las mujeres en el cristianismo medieval. Almudaina. 1989
  • Márquez Villanueva, Francisco. Santiago, trayectoria de un mito. Bellaterra. 2004
  • Orlandis, José. Breve Historia del Cristianismo . Rialp. 1985
  • Rodríguez Barral, Paulino . La imagen del judio en la España medieval : el conflicto entre cristianismo y judaísmo en las artes visuals góticas. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. 2008
Additional Bibliography
  • Adrián Tolentino. La influencia de la época medieval sobre el judaísmo actual. Cuadernos Judáicos 32. 2015
  • Antonio Montañés. Interacciones entre cultura(s) y religión en minorías socio-religiosas. El caso de los musulmanes y evangélicos-pentecostales en España. Papeles del CEIC. International Journal on Collective Identity Research 2015.3. 2015
  • Eduardo Manzano Moreno. Qurtuba: algunas reflexiones críticas sobre el Califato de Córdoba y el mito de la convivencia. Awraq: Estudios sobre el mundo árabe e islámico contemporáneo 7. 2013
  • Gunther Dietz. La educación religiosa en España: ¿Contribución al diálogo intercultural o factor de conflicto entre religiones?. Estudios sobre las culturas contemporáneas 28. 2008
  • José Sánchez Herrero. ¿Nació el Islam en España?. Hispania sacra 65, Extra 1. 2013
  • Martine Berthelot. El judaísmo en la España actual. RES. Revista Española de Sociología 12. 2009

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.