Religious Studies Information

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Departmental Statement:

The Religious Studies Program at Utah State University is the first such degree program in the Intermountain West. On its way to approval by the university's Institutional Board of Trustees on April 8, 2005, in addition to thorough internal planning, Utah State University consulted many well known Religious Studies scholars. As a result, THE USU Religious Studies Program was designed to provide a neutral place in which to discuss and research religion, provide cultural literacy about religion, and prepare students for careers in fields that work with and for religious groups and organizations.

Religious Studies focuses on issues that involve values, ethics, power and morality, and their institutional and individual expression in all cultures. Religious Studies graduates are trained to grapple with the problems of colliding belief systems, and are aware of ways in which conflict and good intentions can serve the interests of powerful institutions. In particular, Religious Studies teaches the critical evaluation of competing claims and methods of resolving these.

Teaching about religion--not proselytizing for and denigrating any religion--Religious Studies asks a set of critically significant questions, some of which include:

How do religious ideals create behavioral logic among believers?

How does a new religion make its way into the world, bringing with it new understandings of truth and new understandings of reality?

What happens as an innovative religious movement either turns into or fails to develop into a new religious tradition?

What part of a tradition's literature becomes sanctified as scripture, and by what process does this happen?

How critical to the preservation of a faith tradition are its founder(s), early leaders, and those who first believe?

To what extent do new religions flourish because of the particular time and place in which they are introduced to the world?

How do traditions expand beyond the culture in which their formation occurred in order to become world religions?

When and how to economic, social, or scientific changes alter religions, and how do traditional religions shape and adapt to the alterations?

Students will learn appropriate ways to reach reasoned conclusions, based upon research, to these sorts of questions. It is expected that students completing the Religious Studies major will understand the influence upon culture and the influence of culture upon religion; analyze the influence of religious values systems on individuals; apply appropriate methods of research and argumentation to questions concerning religion and culture; communicate their findings in clear well-reasoned writing; and express cultural literacy concerning the major religions of the world.

Like all degrees in the Liberal Arts, Religious Studies provides broad preparation for understanding and functioning effectively in the complex modern world. It prepares students to understand the nuances of cultural communication. A degree in Religious Studies provides an avenue into the world of human interaction, and provides potential employment in virtually any professional pursuit.

Charles Prebish, Redd Chair and Director
Philip Barlow, Arrington Chair
Norm Jones, Department Chair - History


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