Course Number:

Credit Hours:

4

Course Title:

Seminar: Theories and Methods in Religious Studies

Course Description:

Focuses on the history of the study of religion as it developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Examines readings from a wide range of foundational thinkers and contemporary scholarship to illustrate the roots of religious studies and the state of the field today. Designed to simultaneously acknowledge the interdisciplinary nature of religious studies by asking students to read in several methodological schools while allowing each student to pursue a particular school in more depth. Includes theorists from anthropology, comparative method, cultural studies, hermeneutics, history of religions, mythology, phenomenology, philosophy of religion, ritual and performance studies, sociology, psychology, and visual theology. Offers an opportunity for students to see the ways religious studies methodologies speak to each other and how they might be used to examine particular religious phenomena.