Goals for Religion Study

The Department of Religion has set forth four major goals that shape its teaching and scholarly work. First, it seeks to enable students to develop expertise in interpreting the plurality of religions in their historical settings, and critically to appreciate the influence religions exert in shaping experience and society. Second, it seeks to assist students who desire to prepare for graduate and professional study in religion and related fields. Third, it helps students to learn and write about the religious, social, historical, artistic, and intellectual accomplishments of cultures. Fourth, it engages students to understand themselves better as moral agents in the world, and to help them appreciate the moral and spiritual dimensions of the interpretive activity they pursue in the study of religion.

In order to accomplish these objectives, the Department of Religion offers general students, majors, and minors a curriculum of studies at introductory and advanced levels in the history of religious traditions and the relations between religions, societies, ideas, values, aptitudes and artistic expressions. As faculty and students work together, the Department engages in the practice of collegial learning within the Department and with other programs. The Department sponsors programs and occasions that bring distinguished scholars and leaders to campus as participants in our process of collegial learning. And, finally, the Department supports and sponsors faculty research projects and leadership in national and international professional organizations through publications, research, colloquia, and contributions toward understanding questions of meaning and action in the world.

The curriculum of the Department of Religion offers a broad, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary program with courses inquiring into Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim religious traditions. In addition, thematic courses take up common human issues and explore them from the perspectives of diverse religious traditions. Such courses address issues of death and dying, gender, religious performance, ethics, religion and violence, legal and political analysis, historical and social scientific analysis, theological and philosophical interpretation, religion and literature, art and film, the comparative study of sacred texts, and the psychological dimensions of religion.

The Department of Religion works closely with other departments in the college and professional schools which have interests in the study of religion. Departments such as History, Sociology, Classical Civilization, Philosophy, and Anthropology have joined together with the Department of Religion in offering joint majors. The Department works closely with College programs such as African-American Studies, Women's Studies, and Asian Studies. Languages such as Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Sanskrit are available for students who wish to study particular religions in depth.

In addition to what is offered for undergraduates in the Department of Religion, the study of religion generally is enhanced significantly by the work of the Candler School of Theology, the Graduate Division of Religion, the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts, and the Office of the University Chaplain.

The Office of the University Chaplain coordinates religious worship, campus religious organizations and programs, and co-curricular opportunities for students interested in religion. The Department of Religion frequently works closely with the Office of the University Chaplain in sponsoring speakers and programs for students with interests in religion.