Religious Studies

The Department of Religious Studies uses a variety of methods (historical, textual, ethnographic, philosophical and social scientific) to study of the religious dimensions of world cultures and traditions. Its program offers concentrations in a variety of religious traditions: (Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American and indigenous) and areas, with particular strengths in South and East Asia, the Middle East, the ancient Mediterranean world, and North America. Faculty teach, research and publish in the study of sacred textual traditions, religion in public life, sacred space and pilgrimage, healing systems, race/ethnicity and pluralism, religious experience, religious movements, religious violence, and the implications that nationalism, globalization, science and the new media hold for the development of religion in the modern era. Cross-cultural research and interdisciplinary approaches -- involving disciplines such as history, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, gender studies, art history, comparative literature, and political science -- are especially encouraged by the Department and supported by faculty affiliates across the university.