Welcome to the Department of Religious Studies!

You have chosen a liberal arts college for your education, in part, because you want to acquire a broad educational perspective and you are interested in questions of value and meaning. Religious Studies is an excellent liberal arts major.

Religion in its various forms has been and continues to be an important aspect of human life in both its personal and social dimensions. Religion emerges with the very beginnings of human consciousness as exhibited in grave sites and cave paintings. It has been part of all societies and cultures past and present, and today is important in contemporary politics, global economics, and personal psychology. Religion has been an inspiration for peacemaking and social progress and has been a force for violent conflict and social regression. In studying religion, we see a central aspect ofwhat constitutes our societies, cultures, humanity, and personhood.

The study of religion at The College of Wooster proscribes no particular religious perspective or tradition, but explores the broad dimensions of the many forms of human religiosity. Religion asks questions of meaning, purpose, and value. Many of the fundamental debates of our society (abortion,euthanasia, sexuality, political and economic goals and objectives) are debates about fundamental ways of viewing the world and their related systems of value.

Religious Studies is an interdisciplinary department that provides the perfect environment for cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural exploration and communication. Your coursework and Independent Study (I.S.) projectsi n Religious Studies will invite you to untangle the sophisticated and many-faceted phenomena called "religion" in human life and cultures.

Studying religion involves using many different sources, including accounts of the human response to transcendence, ritual expressions of devotion, and textual traditions that account for and explore the mysteries of life, death, and afterlife. In the classroom and in your independent work, the department's faculty and students will help you to examine the impact that religious inquiry, inquisitiveness, institutions, insight, and involvement has upon the individual, communities, and society at large. George Bernard Shaw once said, "There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it," but we challenge you to discover that there are not only many religions but there are many forms and interpretations of these religions for you to analyze and discover. There are also many different kinds of scholars of religion, each providing his/her own insights and interpretations.

The Department of Religious Studies invites you to join the ranks of scholars of religion. We want you to envision your coursework and I.S. not simply as proof of your mastery of method, or of your cogent command of the existing literature on any given topic. While these are worthy goals, we want to push you further. We want to show you the excitement that comes from being an original thinker, to contribute something that will be valuable to our society and to our greater collective knowledge and wisdom. You will be joined in this quest by an enthusiatic group of faculty and fellow majors/minors who will accompany you through the reading, writing, researching, reflecting, and conversation that the academic study of religion requires and elicits. In the end, we have no doubt that your hard work will serve as a gateway to new possibilities that will affect both you and the wider community throughout the course of your life.