Theology and Religious Studies

The department of Theology and Religious Studies has the same responsibility toward its discipline and students as has any other academic department: scholarly understanding of appropriate data. The department makes no effort at religious indoctrination; rather, it concerns itself with presenting in a manner that is suitable to an institution of higher education an intellectual understanding of Christianity and of other religions, as well as religious phenomena. Whether students approach the data with or without a specific religious commitment is a matter of their personal decision.

Program Goals

• Distinguish between and illustrate knowledge of the interpretive methods that characterize Theology and Religious Studies.

• Describe and interpret ways that theological systems, religious, practices and institutions reflect the cultures from which they emerge and adapt to cultural change.

• Compare theological claims and ritual practices from two or more religious systems.

• Analyze diverse and competing conceptions of truth from within a shared religious discursive community.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to utilize the methods of Theology and Religious Studies to identify the impact of culture and social change on religious expression and practice, as well as the impact of religion upon the culture.

• Students will appreciate and analyze the diversity of religious thought and practice between and within religious communities and place these differences in careful comparison.

• Students will evaluate the role of religious discourse in the promotion and hinderance of social justice.

Core Curriculum

All students must take one lower level TH course as a prerequisite to any upper level TH course. To satisfy the core requirement students must take one lower and one upper level course, and one course must be in the field of Christianity. Please note that TH 2000 , TH 3100 , TH 3400 , TH 3450 , TH 3613  , TH 3622 , TH 3700  , TH 4001 , TH 4190 , TH 4280 , TH 4450 , and TH 4480  do not fulfill the Christianity requirement.

Students have the option of taking an additional “swing course” to meet the core requirement. The department prefers that the hours contained in the liberal core be fulfilled in different semesters: the required core courses should not be taken simultaneously.

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