Hedstrom is a little pretentious, but he is still one of my favorite professors at UVa. His lectures are exactly how I envisioned "college" would be. You learn a lot about things that seem "obvious" but hold deeper truths. The reading is not super necessary as long as you skim or read a little of it. The papers are doable (there were 3, but no more than 5 pages each total). Although the readings aren't completely necessary, they are mostly worth doing as they are pretty interesting. This is the class that I have thought the most about after having taken it of anything I have taken at UVa. Highly recommend it. The grading is fair--Jesse is an excellent TA.

Professor Hedstrom brought some really interesting material into the lectures and structured his arguments very well. I learned the most from just listening to his lectures and taking notes. Some of the stuff seems a little "out there" and tangental, but still interesting in my opinion. Some of the readings were better than others; definitely read the books and then just do what you can with the shorter pieces. Charlie was my TA and I agree with the commenter who said it seemed hard to pass the B+ mark with him--I got an 89 on my test with no explanation whatsoever as to what I missed (not complaining, just a fact).

tl;dr Interesting content. If you're looking for something good to knock out your humanities requirement or if SBNR is your thing, totally go for it.

I had high expectations for this class and it turned out to be the worst class I took this semester. The second half of the class sucks. The material isn't that great and the readings get long, boring, and seemingly irrelevant to my life (which the class is painted as relating to). The papers are irritating and not SHORT by any means... 5 pages three times gets old, particularly when the topics suck, which they did. The midterm wasn't too terrible, and the paper grading isn't attrocious, but it's all dependent on your TA. All of my paper criticism is "This is a great argument, strong evidence. Could've included this one other thing: B+." So overall it seems that with Charlie as TA at least it's difficult to pass the B+ grading barrier. OVERALL I would not recommend this class, it's turned into something I hate and now will avoid the department.

tl;dr: papers aren't short, grading is wonky, material gets boring fast, lots of reading, class sucks

This class is so interesting and so engaging! Hedstrom is an awesome lecturer and makes class so interesting. The first half of the semester is definitely more enjoyable than the second, but it's a fairly easy class, although there is a lot of reading that you need to read in order to complete the 3 papers throughout the class. Mae Speight is an amazing TA. Highly recommend!

Pretty boring; I was expecting more interesting class. Your grade is heavily depended upon your T.A.

Reviewer below is obviously very antagonistic about this class. The papers are short, 2-3 pages, and directly from the material. Not hard at all. For the tests, he gives you an ID bank to study and the terms are all from that, so it's not like they're obscure at all...Overall, fairly easy class. Hedstrom is an amazing professor, this is a great "real world" applicable class that challenges you to think about your own faith and American spirituality in general. Highly recommended.

Not an easy of a class. Attending lectures is important. Class seems disorganized and IDs on tests are a little unfair. Readings are not very interesting and the "short" papers are very time consuming and long.

I absolutely LOVE this class. Professor Hedstrom is one of the best professors I've had at UVA; he's engaging and enthusiastic about the material. The course is very interesting and opens your eyes to new perspectives. Lectures are definitely worth attending; Prof. Hedstrom pulls in lots of relevant examples and his slideshows are super helpful. I would recommend this class to anyone; I wish I could take it again! Grading is fair and the readings for the most part are interesting/helpful for doing well in the course.

Professor Hedstrom clearly demonstrates the reality of the American culture's perception of religion. He makes his lectures resonate with us, because it focuses on how today's generation treats religion, and how we Americans got there in the first place.

Professor Hedstrom's lectures were always interesting and engaging. There was a lot of reading, but the TAs were all great about making discussions interesting (we watched YouTube and ate Oreos every class in addition to actual discussion of the texts). There are only 3 short papers throughout the semester.