Return to: Academic Divisions and Departments

Professors Boynton (Chair), Asmi, Holland, Krone, Mirza, Olson

No area of human thought or action falls outside the consideration of religious thinkers. Religious traditions teach about ultimate values and their relationship to our worldly lives. The study of religious rituals, practices, and systems of thought, both our own and others’, helps us to understand the continually evolving relationship of the individual within those traditions as well as the role of religion in the complex global context. Some of the traditions studied in this major are the oldest extant bodies of thought and remain to this day some of the most vibrant and significant. The study of religion intersects with many fields, utilizing various methodologies and approaches while providing additional meaning to symbols, practices, and rhetoric that in turn enrich the work of other cognate disciplines.

Courses in Religious Studies are divided into three approaches to religion and are further differentiated by five main religious traditions. Religious Studies investigates the sources and texts, history and context, and the nature and relevance of religion embodied in these separate traditions.

Programs

• Religious Studies Major

• Religious Studies Minor

Return to: Academic Divisions and Departments