The Department of Religious Studies offers students the opportunity to explore the religious dimensions of life and culture. The department envisions the following Learning Outcomes for our students as the basis for understanding religion as a field of study:
- Identify, analyze, and critically compare some significant elements of religion - such as myth, narrative, symbol, ritual, sacred texts, law, doctrine, ethics, experience, and systems of cosmic, social and individual order - as they are manifested in religious traditions across culture, time, ethnicity race, or gender.
- Apply to religious phenomena various theories, methodological perspectives, and experiential approaches.
- Evaluate the relationship between religion and other elements of culture and society regarding such issues as the relation between religion and moral values, religion and power, as well as the role of religious movements as forces of personal and social transformation, social justice, and social integration.
- Identify and apply scholarly resources and/or field methodologies from religious studies in writing.