Religion Degrees Online

Major in Philosophy and Religion:
The program enables students to get a breadth of understanding of how the human search for meaning is interwoven into human cultures and societies. It offers students an exciting exposure to the central themes of Christianity, the diversity of the world’s religions, and the ways in which philosophers answer the great questions of life.

Students will normally include 3 credits of cross-cultural immersion experiences (as offered in various study-abroad courses.

Distinctive Elements
faculty are dedicated to excellence in teaching
small classes allow for individual attention; professors become acquainted with their students
well structured lectures mixed with classroom discussion, debates, student presentations, films, and guest speakers
learning within a cooperative and open atmosphere of appreciation for difference and diversity of worldviews and cultural values
emphasis is given to intellectual, personal, and spiritual development as well as responsible action in human society and the natural world

The work of the Religion Studies Department of Muhlenberg College is the academic investigation of religious traditions in their thought and practice. Faculty and students study cultural and intellectual responses to basic questions of life and meaning that engage imagination, hope, and faith. Our discipline, exploring essential aspects of human experience, is inherently cross-cultural, multidisciplinary, and interpretive. Its geography is global; its chronology extends from antiquity to the present. We analyze texts, beliefs, rituals, arts, communities, cultures, and their integration into coherent worldviews. Our methodologies as well as our content interact with disciplines spanning the liberal arts curriculum from the humanities to the social sciences to the sciences.

The academic study of religion is a scholarly discipline involving historical, critical, analytic, and constructive methodologies to understand religious phenomena — for example, texts, beliefs, doctrines, practices, and world views. It provides excellent background and thinking skills for various academic pursuits, career goals, and community leadership.

The study of religion is intellectually exciting because it focuses on the deepest questions human beings can ask. It explores the boundary questions of life and death, of love and hate that characterize the human condition. Religion assumes a central place in the lives of virtually all cultures and civilizations and is a necessity in understanding our own world and many of the tensions within it.

At Manchester a student may study religion to probe more deeply personal matters of faith in order to lay a solid foundation for crucial decisions in life. Other students study religion in the context of investigation into the culture and history of ideas which have formed and shaped our civilization. Religion at Manchester is taught within the tradition of the Church of the Brethren which maintains a respect for freedom of conscience. This provides an open forum for reflecting on a variety of theological and philosophical traditions, while at the same time taking faith commitments seriously.

The aims of this program of study are to help students: (a) acquire a sympathetic understanding of the Bible, the Christian faith, and other world religions; (b) articulate and reflect upon the core claims that distinguish the Christian tradition; (c) become acquainted with the major methodologies and issues in the study of religion; (d) prepare for graduate study; and (e) understand a world in which compassion reveals the divine.

Religious studies provides an ideal focus for a liberal arts education, which should be about opening one’s mind to life’s most profound questions. Long before most current subjects found their way into college and university programs, the academic study of religion served as a primary means of inquiry in literary, historical, philosophical and cultural studies, among others. It continues to be an exceptionally broad field of study, drawing together the widest possible range of concerns. Today, the study of religion is inseparably bound up with the study of aesthetics, literature, anthropology, sociology, politics, ethics and ecology. The study of religion holds a unique place in the academic world, both as an integrative, inherently interdisciplinary field in its own right and as a supportive mode of inquiry for a multitude of scholarly and professional studies.

The emphasis in the religious studies program at Eckerd College is on the study of religion from an academic perspective, rather than from a particular traditional religious perspective. Students in religious studies need not be affiliated with any particular religious tradition. Diversity of background and experience is respected and valued.

Religious studies provides an excellent background for a career as well as an appropriate way of becoming a well-informed person. Teachers, social workers, counselors, writers, youth workers, chaplains, Christian educators, directors of camps and conferences, ministers, and church musicians often begin their preparation with a major in religious study. A number of majors go on to graduate work in religious studies or other humanities disciplines. A few religious studies majors have gone on to law school. Many find the study of religion, whether as a major or not, to be an excellent means of thinking through some of the most important questions of life.