This seminar course provides an overview of the scientific study of religion from a sociological perspective. The focus in the course will be on theories, research, and trends concerning religion in the contemporary United States. Some of the topics to be addressed include (but are not limited to) understanding the rich variety of religious traditions and affiliations, religious practices and beliefs, as well as the role that religion plays in facilitating and limiting social change as well as conflict in society. We will also examine differences across various religious traditions such as "mainline" and "fundamentalist" believers, secularization, and the often-controversial ways that religion intersects with other spheres of society such as morality, politics, race and ethnic relations, sex and gender.