Links to Colleges with Academic Majors in
Religious Studies
Arizona State University, Tempe - The Department of Religious studies brings together
perspectives and approaches from history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and
literature to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the individuals and traditions that
constitute religions and cultures. When students major or minor in religious studies they can
tailor their program to suit their individual interests, such as focusing on a particular region
of the world, or a particular religious tradition.
Brown University - The Department of Religious Studies offers a graduate program leading
to the degrees of M.A. and Ph.D., with specializations in History of Religions: Early
Christianity and Western Religious Thought
California State University, Chico - Department of Religious Studies. The academic study of
religion at CSU, Chico, focuses on a) historical studies of Eastern and Western religious
traditions; b)textual studies of the sacred writings in religious traditions; c) methodological
studies which seek to understand and interpret religious traditions and cultural symbols; and
d)cognate studies which relate religion to aspects of culture such as literature and the arts,
ethics and law, psychology, sociology, and philosophy.
California State University, Northridge - The Religious Studies Department at California
State University, Northridge offers a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies. The Department
encourages students to draw upon a variety of fields and disciplines for African-American
Studies, Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. A major will be able to interpret
religious texts, think both empathetically and critically about conflicting religious claims,
acquire knowledge of the history of more than one major religious tradition, apply
intercultural methods to religious inquiry and analysis, and articulate a perception of one's
role in society, in both career and public service options.
CUNY Hunter College
The Program in Religion at Hunter College is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive
program of religious studies in the City University. It offers over eighty courses, including
several courses in aspects of each of the major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism, and Buddhism) as well as in the traditional religions of Africa, Oceania, and the
Americas; courses in various methodological approaches to the study of religions. Taught by
specialists in religion and in other disciplines, its courses are drawn from the Religion
Program itself, from Anthropology, Black and Puerto Rican Studies, Chinese, Classics,
English, Geography, Hebrew, History, Philosophy, and Sociology. In all courses, religion is
presented in a scholarly manner: no doctrinal bias is reflected
Dartmouth College - The Religion Department offers instruction, from the introductory to the
advanced level, in most of the world's major religious traditions: Hinduism, Judaism,
Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, the religions of the ancient Near East, the religions of Africa,
and religious life in Native North America.
Duke University - The Department of Religion is one of the largest Humanities departments
at Duke and one of the most prestigious departments of religion in the entire country. The
Department offers instruction in all the major religions, notably Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism, and Hinduism.
Emory University - Undergraduate Division of Religion
Florida International University - Religious Studies Department. The Religious Studies major
serves as a basis for students who wish to pursue the study of religion or theology as a career,
for students preparing for a career in counseling, education, business, law or medicine, or for
students who wish to undertake a dual major in a related field of study. Both a B.A. and M.A.
are being offered.
» Georgia State University - Program in Religious Studies.
» Harvard University - The Committee on the Study of Religion is a standing committee of
the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, comprised of instructors from both F.A.S. members and
the Divinity School. Degrees offered include the Ph.D., Th.D., and B.A.
» Hollins University - Women's liberal arts college in Virginia. Undergraduate religious
studies program.
Indiana University Religious Studies Department - Undergraduate and graduate programs.
Iona College-Department of Religious Studies - Religious Studies holds a significant place in
the Liberal Arts curriculum. The undergraduate core courses, electives and major and minor
programs seek to introduce students to the field of religion as an area open to disciplined
scholarly inquiry; to assist students in developing an understanding of the nature and
complexity of religious phenomena and experience; and to acquire an appreciation of the
critical problems and issues involved in the study of religion
Princeton University - Department of Religion
The Department. Princeton University has long been committed to the idea that religion, like
politics or art, is an important sphere of life and merits systematic attention within the
curriculum. The primary responsibility for instruction in this area has, for more than half a
century, been entrusted to the Department of Religion, which belongs to the Division of the
Humanities. Our charge is to do our best to examine religious life, the diverse forms it has
taken in different cultures and historical periods, and the questions it poses for theoretical,
ethical, and political reflection. As a humanities department, we appeal to the same standards
of historical and philosophical scholarship found in neighboring disciplines.
Rutgers University
The undergraduate department of Religion at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
offers courses in major religious traditions, texts, and related phenomena. The field of
religion spans numerous areas: anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, theology,
history & literature. As an academic discipline, religious studies coordinates these fields for a
comprehensive understanding of phenomena that represent some of the most intricate
constructs of the human spirit. The Religion department program at New Brunswick fosters
an environment for the impartial analysis & comparison of a wide variety of religious
systems.
» Syracuse University - The study of Religion at Syracuse is distinctive. From the
introductory level through the Ph.D., the range of courses, developed within the College of
Arts and Sciences, in contradistinction to a theological seminary, opens conversations with
historians, literary critics, novelists, poets, philosophers, linguists, sociologists, psychologists,
and anthropologists
SUNY Albany
The Religious Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program reflecting a wide variety of
academic interests and disciplines. Its purpose as a program is to produce a formal structure
for the study of the religions of humankind. Religion, one of the most basic of human
concerns, has occupied a leading place in the thought and activities of all peoples from the
earliest civilizations (as shown by archaeology), through early literate societies, (as seen in
their religious texts), to the present, where religious beliefs and their consequences continue to
shape the daily news.
» Stanford University - The purpose of Religious Studies is to understand and interpret the
history, literature, thought, and social structures of various religious traditions and cultures.
The department offers courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in the fields Asian
Religions, Christianity, Judaism, Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, and Religion, Cultures,
and Comparative Studies. The department offers programs in bachelor's, master's, and
Ph.D. degrees.
University of Bridgeport - The Program in World Religions at the University of Bridgeport
grants the B.A. in World Religions. The study is non-sectarian and publicly inclined. All the
major religions of the world are given attention
University of California, Riverside - The Department of Religious Studies provides an
opportunity to study diverse religious traditions of the world. Students are able to examine
texts, symbols, myths, rituals, ideas, values, institutions, and intellectual (theological,
philosophical, and ethical) systems of many traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism, African and Native American religions. Religion is studied
empathetically, descriptively, and critically with the aid of historical, exegetical, literary,
philosophical, theological, and social-scientific (e.g. anthropological, socio-logical, and
psychological) methods of inquiry
» University of California, Santa Barbara - Programs for the Study of Religion Worldwide,
Religious Studies Department. Over 750 programs in Religious Studies/Theology listed,
from colleges and universities across the world. Listed alphabetically and geographically.
» University of Colorado - The Department of Religious Studies offers comprehensive
programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts and the Master of Arts degrees in religious
studies. The program aims to provide students with a broad knowledge of religion as a
dimension of human culture, familiarity with a variety of approaches to the academic
student of religion, training in advanced research skills.
University of Miami Religious Studies is the academic study of religion and spirituality.
We explore texts, histories, and ways in which humans from various cultures have
understood their world. We study the beliefs, ethics, rituals, artifacts, and organizations of
religions, and we consider the changing relationship between religion and elements of the
wider culture--including politics, art, economics, literature, and society. We use the methods
of the humanities and behavioral sciences. Some of us use literary tools to study sacred texts.
Others draw on philosophical and theological insights. Some of us are primarily historians,
studying the changes in religious groups over time. Some apply the theories and techniques
of sociology, psychology, and anthropology.