James S. Dalton, Ph.D.

Dr. Jim Dalton and Evzone guard 

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SYLLABI

 Academic Career

    I actually began as an English major with a love of literature but found that I loved reading it more than taking it apart (in the New Criticism manner which was then in fashion). Alas, if cultural studies had been around, perhaps . . . Philosophy, especially the history of Philosophy, ended up enthralling this wandering student. Existentialism and Phenomenology were my favorites, especially Heidegger.

    A generous offer from Fr. Bernard Cooke, S.J., drew me into the "new" theology of Vatican II and into the history of Christian thought. I found myself back in philosophy with a religious twist. Sacraments and ritual fascinated me and their history kept me in the library.

    After a teaching stint of three years at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (sponsored by Benedictine Nuns and no longer extant), I found my way to the University of Chicago where I intended to focus on the history of American Christianity. I then wanted to know what religion had to do with American culture and my interests in history, philosophy, literature all were centering on this topic.

    Although my interest in American culture and religion continued, I discovered a new love of my life, the History of Religions, at Chicago. Much of this had to do with professors like Gerald C. Brauer, Mircea Eliade, Martin E. Marty and Frank Reynolds. I ended up doing half of my work in the History of Christianity (focusing on Evangelical Christianity) and half in the History of Religions (focusing on Theravada Buddhism). I tried to combine the two interests in my doctoral dissertation entitled "The Kentucky Camp Meeting Revivals, 1797-1805 as Rites of Initiation." The only missing element was literature. Happy as a clam was I!

    In September of 1972 I migrated to Siena College where I am still pursuing my interests and enlightening (hopefully) my students. Some Eliadian influence followed me here where I found another interest, the religions of native peoples. I have also become interested in the role of the human imagination in shaping cultures, especially in shaping them in the midst of cross-cultural contact. More of this below. Finally, in my ever widening horizons, I am combining all of the above in an interest in religion and globalization. I have revised my "World Religions" and am proposing a course entitled "Religion and Globalization" currently.

 Teaching Career

    In the Department of Religious Studies at Siena College, I am responsible for teaching courses in the History of Religions (world religions, Buddhism, the religions of native peoples, globalization and religion) and the History of Western Religions (religion in Western culture, history of religion in the United States, Evangelical religious history). Here are some of the courses which I teach

Research Interests

            I am interested in the religious imagination and the role it plays in the creation, maintenance and changing of cultures. I believe that the creation of culture is an imaginative act on the part of a human community. When cultures come into contact a moment of cultural creativity, change, and even destruction takes place. Thus a fundamental dynamic of human history becomes apparent.

My current research is currently focused on the "religious imagination" and on contact studies involving the mutual image creation of Native Americans and European Americans:

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Religious Studies Web Page

Siena College Web Page

This Web page is maintained by Jim Dalton