About the Department
The concentration in religion is intended to provide an understanding of major religious traditions, an exposure to a variety of approaches employed within the study of religion, and an opportunity for exploration of diverse problems that religions seek to address. Many of today's pressing political and social problems are illuminated by an understanding of the religious beliefs and practices that lie beneath the news headlines. By exploring the public and private concerns that religions engage -- for example, the nature of community and solitude, suffering and death, good and evil -- students will discover new ways of interpreting the complex world in which they live. As students venture into the religions of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, they will learn about beliefs, behaviors, values, rituals, texts, and forms of community. Students will also discover something about conflict and accord within and between religions, as well as between religious and secular perspectives.
The Department's goals for majors, correlates, and non-majors enrolled in Religion courses include: (1) developing tools for understanding and interpreting religions in varied historical, cultural, and social contexts and for identifying and interpreting patterns across religious histories and cultures (2) engaging critically the various ways in which scholars of religion have attempted to understand and evaluate the nature and functions of religion as a vital force in human society, behavior, and global politics, both in the past and in the present.
The Department of Religion offers students a broad range of course options in recognition of the variety of academic approaches to the study of religion, including courses that engage the category of religion through textual analysis, sociology, historical studies, ethnography, material and popular culture studies, and philosophy, among others. In addition, department faculty participate in many of the College's multidisciplinary programs, including Africana Studies, American Culture, Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, Jewish Studies, and Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and students are encouraged to take advantage of the resources available in these and other programs. Students may also take advantage of a variety of opportunities for study away that can enrich their work in the discipline. Majors are expected to develop breadth and depth in their studies, both in terms of methodology and traditions, culminating in the writing of the senior thesis under the direction of a faculty member.