Religion Degrees Online

Programs of study leading to the degrees of master of arts (MA) in religious studies and doctor of philosophy (PhD) in religious studies are offered.

Objectives and Methods
The orientation of the Department of Classics and Religious Studies (sector: religious studies) is that of the “Science of Religions” or Religionswissenschaft. Thus, the study of the religious phenomenon is pursued through teaching and research in the same manner and on the same level as any other category of facts accessible to human experience and observation.

The disciplines that play a role in the study of religions are primarily of a historical, sociological, psychological and anthropological nature. Moreover, in the modern context, such a study must take into account the plurality of religious traditions and expressions in society and examine the relationships among them.

In light of the above, the Department of Classics and Religious Studies (sector: religious studies) takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of religious phenomena using the perspectives of historical, sociological, psychological, anthropological and literary studies to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of people as religious beings. Research on the meaning of religious phenomena is accomplished through analysis and comparison of the various means of religious expression, both in the past and present. No tradition is considered normative.

Areas of research
The doctoral program in religious studies focuses on religions in Canada, including Amerindian and Inuit traditions, and on religions in a comparative cultural context. The comparative cultural approach provides an opportunity to explore religious phenomena across different religious traditions expressly within their specific cultural contexts. The program favours the methods of anthropology, history, psychology and sociology.The comparative cultural approach focuses on religions in the Roman Empire and in the contemporary period.

This Area embraces both cross-cultural and historical themes, building upon scholarly methodologies that advance critical understandings of interreligious, multicultural, and contextual religious experience. Traditions available for study include: Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese religions, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, diasporic African religions, and other religious traditions for which the GTU has appropriate faculty. Faculty specialties include: feminism, ethnic studies, mysticism and spirituality, interreligious learning, interfaith encounters and dialogue, ritual studies, queer theory, translation theory, postcolonial theory, HIV/AIDS, bodies, gender theory, videotics, folklore, and interdisciplinary studies of religious phenomena (myth, symbol, ritual).

Most students in Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions are preparing for academic careers of research and teaching. A few graduates are preparing to participate in interreligious dialogue or education, or to work on interreligious issues in a church or other agency in a specific cultural context.

Objectives:
Students will learn to recognize the contours of scholarship in the field of religious studies and find their own place within it.
Students will demonstrate both a broad grounding and a developed specialization in a particular religious tradition or culture and its history.
Students will learn to employ a religious studies methodology suited to their particular research specialization.
Students will work through the issues of constructing a syllabus for an introductory course and will formulate a pedagogical philosophy and approach.
Students will design and execute an original research project that makes a significant contribution to their field of specialization.

Religion courses at Smith are critical and comparative, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural. They examine the nature and function of religious phenomena in the past and present of many cultures. They provide opportunities to analyze systems of belief and patterns of religious behavior, the history of religious traditions, the functions of religion in society, and various forms of religious expression such as myth, ritual, sacred story, sacred texts, liturgy, and theological and philosophical reflection.

In the department’s view, a student’s personal religious perspective is not a consideration for entering or for successfully completing a course in the department. It is not unusual, however, for a student’s interest in religion studies to be motivated by personal, existential questions–the perennial questions of human existence. There is no better way for a person to work out her own answers than by studying the distillations of insight found in the world’s religious traditions.

The Department of Religious Studies at IUPUI offers students opportunities to explore the patterns and dimensions of the many different religious traditions of the world from the perspectives of the academic study of religion. The courses are designed to help students develop basic understandings of the many ways in which religions shape personal views of the world, create and sustain the communities in which we live, and interact with politics, economics, literature and the arts, and other structures of society. Through this curriculum, students are provided the skills that will allow them to understand religions as a part of the study of human history and traditional and nontraditional values. The department offers both a major and a minor, allowing students to investigate religious phenomena in depth and encouraging connections with other areas of the humanities and social sciences.

As the department’s newest faculty member Jason Slone says, “Webster’s Religious Studies department doesn’t teach religion, it teaches about religion.”

Yet in the process, students don’t just learn about religious traditions in human societies past and present-they inevitably learn about themselves, too.

The curriculum puts these traditions in their socio-historical contexts. Courses examine religious phenomena in their cultural setting as they relate to social functions, international affairs and personal meaning.

No matter what your background, you’re sure to be blown away by what you discover about your fellow humans past and present. You’ll study how religious belief has been a major component of every known human society and how it has had a major, controlling influence on all human life on this planet, from song, art and social norms to politics, war and humanitarianism.

Your classmates will include those from your major as well as insightful, explorative students from other majors ranging from art and the humanities to teacher education and finance.

All societies are familiar with the concept of religion. In some societies, religion was and is simply an expression of a shared culture. In other cultures, religion mainly manifests itself at certain critical times. It is only the believer, however, who is allowed the privilege of meeting the gods, which means that the study of religion can seem somewhat vague. It is nevertheless a fact that there are people who are believers and for whom religion influences who they marry and vote for, what they buy, who they wage war against and much more – and they can be studied.

At the Department of the Study of Religion, you learn about religions and religious phenomena, both past and present. You study the main religions in the world, past and new religions, as well as religious trends.

History, society and culture
As a student at the Department of the Study of Religion, you gain insight into the importance of individual religions and religious phenomena to mankind and society in general. You examine the way different religions have changed throughout history, and analyse their current form and role in society. Through the study of basic religious phenomena such as cults, sacrifices, rituals, myths and perceptions of God, you acquire in-depth knowledge of the characteristics common to all religions.

A wide range of methodologies
The study of religion is a comprehensive, humanistic degree programme. The aim is to provide you with insight into individual religions and religious phenomena, general knowledge of the humanistic, societal and philosophical aspects of religion, and general competence in academic and independent work with humanistic topics. The theoretical and methodological basis is historical, philosophical, sociological, anthropological, psychological and philological. As a result, you become able to work in interdisciplinary contexts and are qualified to describe and analyse issues such as the meeting between different religions and cultures.

The study of religion is primarily based on the reading of texts, but many students also carry out projects in the form of sociological surveys and fieldwork or undertake periods of practical training.

Religions around the world

At the Department of the Study of Religion, you learn about religions and religious phenomena. You study the main religions in the world, past and new religions, as well as religious trends. Through the study of rituals, myths and perceptions of God, you acquire in-depth knowledge of the characteristics common to all religions.

History, society and culture
As a student at the Department of the Study of Religion, you gain insight into the importance of individual religions and religious phenomena to mankind and society in general. You examine the way different religions have changed throughout history, and analyse their current form and role in society.
A wide range of methodologies

The study of religion is a comprehensive degree programme. You work with sociological, philosophical, psychological and historical aspects. In addition, you choose a language (e.g. Greek, Latin, Hebrew or Arabic) that you use to study religious texts in their original language.

Objectives of the course

Students should achieve qualifications in the form of knowledge, understanding and competence in the following areas:

Fundamental religious phenomena and themes in early Christianity and the later history of Christianity, including cosmology, historiography, anthropology and soteriology, with special reference to European and Danish contexts.
Mainstreams in the history of Christianity from its formative period up to the present time
Primary literary forms of the New Testament, their genres and historical backgrounds
Sources of and literary forms from the history of Christianity, their genres and historical backgrounds
Theological and ideological themes of New Testament writings
Conceptual, political and social mainstreams and tensions in the history of Christianity
The interpretation of historical writings.

Through their work with the academic material, students should acquire academic knowledge and skills enabling them to:

Paraphrase and reproduce the primary content of source texts from the New Testament and the history of Christianity in translation
Account for central themes and issues in early Christianity and the history of Christianity
Relate themes in early Christianity and the history of Christianity to central themes in the history of religions and phenomenology of religion.

Course contents
This course provides an introduction to the conditions, formation and earliest history of Christianity on the basis of source texts, primarily from the New Testament, the early church fathers and literature from the religious and cultural world of early Christianity.

Objectives of the course
Students should achieve qualifications in the form of knowledge, understanding and competence in the following areas:

Fundamental religious phenomena and themes in early Christianity and the later history of Christianity, including cosmology, historiography, anthropology and soteriology, with special reference to European and Danish contexts.
Mainstreams in the history of Christianity from its formative period up to the present time
Primary literary forms of the New Testament, their genres and historical backgrounds
Sources of and literary forms from the history of Christianity, their genres and historical backgrounds
Theological and ideological themes of New Testament writings
Conceptual, political and social mainstreams and tensions in the history of Christianity
The interpretation of historical writings.

Through their work with the academic material, students should acquire academic knowledge and skills enabling them to:

Paraphrase and reproduce the primary content of source texts from the New Testament and the history of Christianity in translation
Account for central themes and issues in early Christianity and the history of Christianity
Relate themes in early Christianity and the history of Christianity to central themes in the history of religions and phenomenology of religion.

Course contents
Introduction to the history of Christianity from the fourth century AD to the beginning of the twentieth century. Special emphasis is placed on western Christianity and Denmark after the Reformation.

This master’s program in Religious Studies focuses on the study of religious phenomenon, in the broadest sense of the term, beliefs and values in all their forms: major religious and spiritual traditions of humanity, and changes in travel experience of the sacred, ethical dimensions of contemporary culture and issues of education in the field of religion and morality.
This program is designed by a multidisciplinary approach to increasing knowledge of the religious phenomenon of yesterday and today, particularly in Quebec.
It aims to introduce students to research an appropriate methodology and tends to develop in students a spirit critical of religious phenomena.

The concentration of studies on death is to introduce students to scientific research studies on death, promote the development of theoretical studies on death in the research projects of 2nd cycle, offering training in multidisciplinary studies on death, coordinate and increase resources available for supervision of students in 2nd cycle studies on death, promote the consolidation and exchange between persons included in the merger under the proposed teaching activities or through various mechanisms of reception and consultation, strengthen the pool of studies on death.

Produced in conjunction with the activities of control, the concentration of second degree in Women’s Studies promotes the development of theoretical reflection and the use of feminist approaches in the research project of the student