Standing Buddha image, Gal Vihara, Sri Lanka
That each year, thousands of undergraduates take a course in religion. In the 1999-2000 academic year, for example, about 685,000 students took a religion course at around 900 American colleges and universities. Take a course in religion.
Many students are surprised to find that UVM has a long tradition of the study of religion free from any connections with religious institutions. People assume that the study of religion is part of a religious training and is thus more like what takes place in catechism classes or Hebrew school or at a mosque or temple.
But the study of religion is a crucial part of the wider study of human cultures, global affairs, and personal identities; it is not tied to previous religious training or present religious affiliation. Rather, it is the investigation of the vast array of myths, rituals, ethical systems, and social formations that human beings have created in response to what they perceive to be powers beyond the human.
How large is the department? Today the department's faculty offer over forty courses, teach approximately 1600 students a year, and advise about 40 majors and 65 minors.
Human efforts to grapple with the meaning of life and how best to live it. An informed, critical, and global point of view on religion completes a liberal arts education and adds to the life-long process of self-knowledge.
The idea that religion is a common form of human culture that can be studied, and not just a theological truth to be practiced, has evolved over the centuries. People study religion with the purpose of gaining an accurate historical understanding of religions and of analyzing and theorizing about this vast, global spectrum of expressions.
Studies include:
These courses reflect faculty expertise:
Join us! ... in the ongoing investigation of this fascinating and vital subject.
Last modified October 12 2009 08:00 AM
