Course content

Could medieval or early modern people be atheists? While various forms of religious criticism, doubt, and impiety were always widespread, most historical worldviews rested on notions, experiences, and perceptions of God’s presence. Today, belief in God seems to be just one option among others. A growing number of Europeans identify as "secular": as atheists, humanists, agnostics, or simply as "not religious." If faith was once a kind of default, the question arises when, why, and how this changed: how did it become possible to live, think, and act without reference to divine powers?

This course asks how God became unreal. Examining shifting views of the world, we investigate the historical and cultural processes through which unbelief, nonreligion, and the secular emerged as meaningful options in human life. Focusing on Europe from the early modern period to the present, we explore how intellectual, social, and political changes redefined religion and its place in society. Through case studies and key texts, we trace how people began to question divine authority, how new understandings of nature, reason, and the self developed, and how the very distinction between religious and secular took shape.

Learning outcome

According to the course curriculum, a candidate who passes this course is expected to have the following learning outcome (defined as knowledge, skills and general competence):

Knowledge

The candidate has:

• knowledge of the historical and conceptual development of unbelief, nonreligion, and the secular;
• insight into how modern distinctions between religion and the secular have emerged, developed, and been contested over time;
• knowledge of selected historical cases that illuminate the social and political dimensions of secularization;
• familiarity with central concepts such as secularization, secularity, secularism, the secular.

Skills

The candidate can:

• apply principles of source criticism and historical interpretation to primary material related to religious criticism, unbelief, or secularity;
• critically assess and synthesize secondary literature relevant to the course themes;
• present and discuss historical and conceptual perspectives on religion and the secular in a structured academic form;
• co-develop a guiding question in dialogue with the course instructor and fellow students;
• demonstrate development from oral to written work through the integration of feedback, additional sources, and conceptual refinement.

General competence

The candidate has:

• an understanding of how ideas of religion and the secular have shaped modern societies;
• experience in planning, developing, and communicating an academic argument through oral presentation and written assignment;
• the ability to reflect critically on methods and concepts in religious studies and to relate them to broader historical and cultural contexts.

Learning methods and activities

Apart from some lectures, teaching mainly consists of student-active seminars in which students give oral presentations, discuss course material, and develop their exam task.

To qualify for the exam, students must:

• give an oral presentation, either individually or in groups;
• submit a draft outline of their written assignment including a bibliography.

The written assignment builds on the oral presentation and is developed into a longer and more elaborate academic text with its own guiding question and source material for analysis.

Students may propose their own topic, but this must be approved by the course instructor.

A list of possible topics for the oral presentation (and the written assignment) will be provided on Canvas; details will be given at the first course meeting.

The obligatory activity can only be approved in the semester when the course is taught, but it remains valid for the following semester. Obligatory activities that are more than two semesters old must be reassessed for alignment with current requirements.

Compulsory assignments

• Oral presentation
• Draft outline of exam assignment, including bibliography

Recommended previous knowledge

Skills equivalent to one year of university studies, including basic courses in religious studies.

Required previous knowledge

None.

Course materials

The required reading list will be made available at the beginning of the semester.