Department of Religion Studies

Department Chair: Associate Professor William “Chip” Gruen
Associate Professor: Pettit
Assistant Professors: Cooperman, Nash, Takahashi
Senior Lecturer: Albert
Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow: Parikh

The work of the Religion Studies Department of Muhlenberg College is the academic investigation of religious traditions in their thought and practice. Faculty and students study cultural and intellectual responses to basic questions of life and meaning. Our discipline, exploring essential aspects of human experience, is inherently cross-cultural, multidisciplinary, and analytical. Its geography is global; its chronology extends from antiquity to the present. We analyze texts, beliefs, rituals, arts, communities, cultures, and their integration into coherent worldviews. Our methodologies as well as our content interact with disciplines spanning the liberal arts curriculum from the humanities to the social sciences to the sciences. For those with particular interest in Asian or Jewish Studies, programs are available. (See Asian Studies Minor and Jewish Studies, A.B. , Jewish Studies Minor for more information.)

Special Programs

Honors Program

Students who wish to complete the Honors Thesis in Religion Studies must have a 3.50 grade point average in departmental courses and a 3.30 grade point average overall. The project will normally be undertaken in either semester of the senior year. A written proposal for this project must be approved by a faculty member in Religion Studies in the semester prior to the one in which the thesis will be completed. The proposal must consist of a working thesis, a detailed description of the project, and a preliminary bibliography. In consultation with the student’s advisor, the student will also establish a three person Project Committee. The culmination of the project will be a presentation for faculty and students at the end of the semester. Religion Studies faculty will determine whether Honors will be awarded upon completion of the project and presentation. The Honors Thesis does not take the place of the Culminating Undergraduate Experience (CUE), the Advance Seminar in the Study of Religion.

Programs

Major

Religion Studies Major

Minor

Religion Studies Minor

Courses

Religion Studies