Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Religious Studies Requirements

Prerequisite: For Religious Studies majors only.

A seminar on methodology in theological research, with practical instruction in creative theological writing, through the preparation of a major research paper in the area of the student’s choice.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Students can receive high pass, low pass, or failure.

Offered fall/spring semester. (0 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course is a study of Catholicism through an examination of several key questions: What is the journey of faith? Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? What is the meaning of the human person, salvation, the Church, the moral life, and Christian spirituality?

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

A survey of the major world religions, primarily Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course will cover the origins, development, major religious beliefs and practices, and the contemporary status of each of these religions. Students will also reflect about the encounters between these religions, especially the prospect for inter-religious dialogue.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

A study of selected Old and New Testament writings. The aim of the course is to inform the student of the context in which Biblical literature emerged as well as the theological and social ideas contained in the various books of the Bible. The purpose of the course is to promote an understanding and appreciation of the holy writings of the Jewish and Christian traditions.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course is a study of Christian reflection on the person of Jesus Christ, including his teaching, ministry, death and resurrection. Students will examine biblical texts, historical reflection, and contemporary questions.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course will introduce students to the study of religion through an examination of various religious phenomena that come from the ongoing search of humanity for meaning. The course will explore major religious ideas and practices, from tribal religion through the major religious traditions of the world today.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course examines the origins of the American national character, the religious and secular roots that have nourished it, and the myths—especially those of being a chosen people, of Progress, and of unlimited freedom. The dominant Protestant tradition in its Calvinist, Evangelical, and Fundamentalist forms will be examined, as well as the religious “outsiders” who came to be Americans: Catholics, Jews, Native Americans, Blacks, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and East Asians. The secular tradition will be explored as a religion of possessive individualism and consumerism as a new way of being religious. Finally, the apocalyptic strain in American thought will be considered as feeding the desire for an American world empire.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

With a general understanding of the Holocaust of the Jewish people during the Second World War, specific questions of a religious/theological nature emerge. The focus of this course will be the exploration, from both a Jewish and a Christian perspective, of some of those questions, e.g. Is it possible to think of God in the same way after the Holocaust? How are we to understand the process of redemption in light of the Holocaust destruction?

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course is a study of Christian ethics—its nature and character, historical background, and contemporary questions—with a focus on issues of social justice. We will examine ways in which the dignity of individuals and communities is honored and empowered. Areas to receive particular attention include the environment, racism, and gender.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

An exploration of the ways in which various religious traditions (primarily the major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) have approached universal ethical issues. Students will reflect on these traditions’ internal histories, ethical reasoning, and casuistry, as well as on inter-religious interaction. Topics include; violence and pacifism, authority, power and organization, the problem of evil, family and gender roles, sexuality, and dress codes.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: One course in Religious Studies is recommended.

A reflective study of the ways in which people have come to experience God and to engage with the ultimate questions of life. This course will explore a number of the significant figures, themes and practices that have characterized the history of Christian spirituality, with a focus on the engagement of faith and culture on the global stage.

Offered spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

An exploration of the role of women in religion considered from historical, cultural, biblical, and theological perspectives. Some of the issues to be considered include women’s roles in institutional religion, including monotheistic religious traditions as well as non-monotheistic traditions.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course examines the Catholic Theology of Creation in light of the 2015 Church encyclical from Pope Francis, Laudato Si. This course considers the Roman Catholic perspective that all creation is connected. Through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, this course addresses issues regarding the care for the Earth as our common home, including the effects of a changing climate, particularly in relation to communities experiencing poverty.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course is an introduction to the important, and yet ambivalent role that Western religions have played in historical and contemporary social movements throughout the world. Students will explore the spiritual and practical manifestations of religion within progressive social justice movements, as well as those movements that foster hatred, violence, and/or terrorism in the name of one religion or another. This course looks at the progressive international role of religion in such causes as the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and the social revolutions in Central America during the 1980’s. On the contrary, students will also review the religious motivations and theological underpinnings of the Christian Identity movement as well as anti-abortion violence in the U.S., violent Jewish extremism in Israel, Hamas suicide bombings, and the 2001 attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Finally, the course will explore the role of religion and religious groups in the ongoing Global Justice Movement as it works to democratize the current state of corporate globalization. The primary objective of the course is to address the question: what is it about religion that predisposes it to motivating and promoting social movement activism in ways that differentiate it from similar secular movements.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: One Theology and Religious Studies course.

This course invites students to explore the journey of their own lives through a close, critical reading of the narratives of ancient and modern writers in the genre of spiritual autobiography. Readings will engage authors of diverse backgrounds through an examination of the personal, historical, ethical and religious values that inform their lives.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: One Theology and Religious Studies course.

Spirituality is unique to each individual. Contemporary approaches to spirituality frequently examine how humans encounter the holy in ritualistic acts and traditions in daily life. Participation and observation of sports can be described for some people and communities as a system of belief and practice. This course will examine the experience of the athlete and of the fan and how organized sports functions as a vernacular religious system.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

An examination of major thinkers, movements and topics in Christian theologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our study will address local and global reflections on liberation, gender, the arts, spirituality, the sciences, ecumenism and interfaith dynamics.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Arranged on an individual basis with the permission of the instructor.

Offered fall/spring semester. (1-3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

An intensive study of selected topics in Religious Studies conducted in a seminar format.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Supervised work experience related to Religious Studies. Credits determined by the breadth and duration of the internship project.

Offered fall/spring semester. (1-3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course will introduce students to the Roman Catholic Church through a study of the experience of Black Catholic communities. This course will study the history of various Black communities in relation to the Catholic Church, and the many gifts Black Catholic experience brings to the greater Roman Catholic Church. This includes the African American Catholic experience, the African Catholic experience, and other Black communities around the world.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

What does it mean to be “Church” in the scope of the Modern World? The Second Vatican Council established a new vision for the world. In light of the Second Vatican Council, this course will look at the true meaning of “Church”: the hierarchy, the role of the laity, and what it means to serve a diverse world.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

This course examines the development and key elements of the Catholic Social Justice tradition. Tracing Catholic revelation, reason, tradition, and experience, this course will approach key issues of contemporary concern including peace and violence, hunger, racism, the dignity of work, care for creation, and other critical issues.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Course descriptions coming soon

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Course descriptions coming soon

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Course descriptions coming soon

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None

Course description coming soon.

Offered fall/spring semester. (3 Credits).

*Easily add a minor: This course can be applied toward more than one requirement.