Religious Studies is an academic discipline encouraging students to think critically about the major religious traditions of our world, as well as their scriptures, stories, rituals, practices, beliefs and aesthetic expressions.
We do not seek to advocate a specific religious practice or belief. Instead, we ask students to engage religious beliefs and practices in an empathetic fashion in order to understand not just other belief systems, but also their own.
A religious studies major allows you to engage in primary historical texts and modern scholarly writings; ancient and modern religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and the impact of these traditions on the arts and popular culture.
Classes offered include:
- Comparative Religions
- Introductory and advanced courses on the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Upper-level courses on Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam
The major culminates in a comprehensive examination and thesis.
“The study of religion is fundamentally about making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. It's about encountering religious ideas, practices, traditions, and institutions that initially appear to us as "other," disturbingly foreign, and coming to a point where we understand how they can make sense given a certain set of circumstances. Such work requires not only critical rigor and tenacity in order to elaborate those circumstances; it also requires imagination in order to put oneself in another's situation.” (Timothy K. Beal, Roadside Religion, 12)