Religious Studies Major
As a religious studies major, you will develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complex ways in which religious traditions inform human thought and behavior. By studying different religious doctrines, rituals, stories and scriptures, you will come to understand how different communities of believers—past and present, East and West—have used their religious traditions to shape, sustain, and transform themselves.
sample courses:
This course explores religious life in the United States. We will focus our study on groups and movements that highlight distinctive ways of being both "religious" and "American," including the Americanization of global religions in the US context. Major themes will include religious encounter and conflict; secularization, resurgent traditionalism, and new religious establishments; experimentalism, eclecticism, and so-called "spiritual" countercultures; the relationship between religious change and broader social and political currents (including clashes over race, class, gender, and sexuality); and the challenges of religious multiplicity in the US.
Historical survey of Islamic civilization in global perspective. Chronological coverage of social, political, economic and cultural history will be balanced with focused attention to special topics, which will include: aspects of Islam as religion; science, medicine and technology in Islamic societies; art and architecture; philosophy and theology; interaction between Islamdom and Christendom; Islamic history in the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia as well as Africa; European colonialism; globalization of Islam and contemporary Islam.
our students have gone on to become:
Diplomats
International Business Consultants
Journalists
Lawyers
Physicians
Social Workers
Teachers
Various Religious Professions
