Historians often portray Eleanor Roosevelt as indifferent to religion or as someone who overcame her “narrow religious upbringing” to become a great humanitarian. This course will challenge those interpretations by looking at how religion shaped Eleanor Roosevelt’s conscience, informing her work as a settlement house volunteer, labor activist, advocate of racial equality, and ultimately as an architect of the international human rights framework. Additionally, it will show how religion can influence public affairs in non-coercive, nonsupremacist ways.