The academic study of religion enables students to explore many different religious perspectives on the world, human life, and ultimate human concerns that appear across all historical periods, within diverse cultures, and through multiple traditions. Through the major in Religion, students pursue several interrelated educational goals:
Requirements for the Major
A student will complete a major in Religion by fulfilling the following requirements, in addition to the other required courses (electives and courses in General Education) for a degree:
Required Core Course
| REL 100 | The Study of Religions | 1 Course Credit |
Required Capstone Course
| REL 480 | Seminar in Religion | 1 Course Credit |
Required Distribution Courses
Students must complete at least one (1) course from each of the following three areas of study:
Area I: Historical Studies of Religion
Area II: Cultural Studies of Religion
Area III: Normative Studies of Religion
While all three areas examine various historical, cultural, and normative dimensions of religion, each of the three areas emphasizes one primary area or method of inquiry.
Area I: Historical Studies of Religion
In this first area of religious studies, courses explore the historical development and contexts of specific religious communities, traditions, or movements, with careful attention to their social organization, institutions, practices, rituals, sacred narratives, scriptures, and beliefs. This field in the academic study of religion roughly corresponds to the history of religions, with studies of sacred texts in various religious traditions as one of its sub-fields, here focusing on scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and other East-Asian religious traditions.
| REL 105 | Intro to Old Testament | 1 Course Credit |
| REL 107 | Intro to the New Testament | 1 Course Credit |
| AST 132 | Religions of China | 1 Course Credit |
| AST 135 | Religions of Japan | 1 Course Credit |
Area II: Cultural Studies of Religion
This second area of religious studies contains courses that examine religious, moral, social, economic, and political questions, problems, or issues that either emerge from the cultural contexts of religious communities, experience, thought, and practice, or occur as religious questions or issues within more expansive cultural frames of reference. This field in the academic study of religion poses comparative questions about diverse religious and cultural traditions and experiences from literary-critical, social-scientific, anthropological, and phenomenological perspectives.
Area III: Normative Studies of Religion
The third area of religious studies includes courses in which students will consider normative questions, problems, and issues, as well as constructive solutions and proposals about the existence and character of sacred or ultimate reality, the world and universe, and the nature and conduct of human life that emerge within religious experience, communities, and traditions. This field in the academic study of religion includes investigations in philosophy of religions, ethics, and theology.
| REL 109 | Intro to Christian Thought | 1 Course Credit |
| REL 126 | Poverty and Justice | 1 Course Credit |
| REL 212 | Rel, Rhetoric, & Rationality | 1 Course Credit |
| REL 235 | Christian Social Ethics | 1 Course Credit |
Required Elective Courses
- For the major in religion, students must complete three (3) elective courses that they will choose from all other Religion courses, including courses that the three distributive areas of study do not include, with the option of choosing interdisciplinary collateral courses in religious studies from other academic departments of the college that the Religion Department may approve upon request.
- Of the three elective courses for the major in Religion, a student must complete at least one (1) regular 300-level course from the curriculum of the Religion DEepartment. NOTE: Independent studies, internships, team-initiated studies, and directed studies will not fulfill this basic requirement.
Required 200-Level Courses
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Of the six combined required distributive and elective courses, a student must complete at least two (2) 200-level courses in the study of Religion.
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The faculty of the Religion Department recommends that students who choose the major in Religion take at least one (1) 200-level course from the courses listed in the three required areas of distribution.
Recommended Elective Courses
- The major in Religion does not require the study of a foreign language. For students who plan to pursue graduate studies in religion or ministry, however, the faculty of the Religion Department strongly recommends that students who choose the major in Religion also study a foreign language through the third level (103). To this end, the faculty strongly advises students who choose the major in Religion to fulfill the International (Language or World Culture) Perspective of General Studies with the study of a foreign language.
- Graduate programs in religious studies require foreign languages for research. In graduate studies, however, the required foreign languages vary according to the areas of specialization that graduate students choose to pursue. As one example, students who intend to study Japanese religions at the graduate level typically would need proficiency in Japanese. As another example, students who enter graduate programs in the study of Christian ministry may also need to develop some level of proficiency in biblical Hebrew and/or Greek.