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- Religion can inspire and provoke, unite and polarize. It is the primary expression of humanity's quest to find meaning and purpose. Understanding this phenomenon helps us explore the most basic questions of our existence. From politics and art to science and war, the study of religion opens a gateway to understanding the world around us.
religiousstudies.stanford.edu/undergraduate/why-study-religionWhy study religion? | Religious Studies - Stanford University
By studying different religious doctrines, rituals, stories, and scriptures, we can also come to understand how different communities of believers—past and present, East and West—have used their religious traditions to shape, sustain, transform themselves.
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Internships are a great way to explore career paths and gain...
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As a major source of inspiration and meaning in human...
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New book co-edited by Van Engen examines emotion in...
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Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion . Instructors:...
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Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Chair in Law and Religion,...
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Heavenly Merchandize offers a critical reexamination of...
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Want to grapple with profound ethical and theological questions? Or learn about the ideas, people, and rituals that shape religion? Begin with our gateway course Religion Around the Globe. Or try Is Stanford a Religion?, which examines how the university's culture resembles a religion through its myths, rituals, and taboos, or The Religious Life of...
Our Exploring series introduces the world's great religious traditions, like Exploring Zen Buddhism, Exploring the New Testament or Exploring Islamic Mysticism. Follow up with courses that examine how religion relates to essential aspects of culture, gender, politics, and identity, such as Buddhist Philosophy, the Language of Islam, or Malcom X and...
From exploring sacred sites around the world to participating in lively events on campus, there are myriad opportunities for enhancing your understanding of religion's role in history and society. In addition to events supported by the department, we also work closely with several affiliated centers.Read more about our affiliates.
Jun 20, 2024 · By studying religion, we don't study the divine; we study ourselves. By studying religious traditions, religious belief, and religious diversity, we find ourselves in the center of a robust inter-disciplinary approach that prepares us to think deeply about life's biggest questions.
Students learn critical thought and analysis applied to a variety of issues across cultures and through time. The world’s religions provide thoughtful models of how people have dealt with the fundamental questions of human life: death and suffering, and the meaning and purpose of life, for example.
Religion is a key mechanism for the transmission of cultural memory and tradition, but it is also a site of profound human creativity. The study of religion offers an extraordinary window into how human beings give structure to their personal identities, their communities, and their understandings of the cosmos around them.
Why Major in the Study of Religion? UCR’s major and minor in the Study of Religion not only leads students through a close examination of the world’s major religious traditions, but also offers sustained training in research methods and theories from across the humanities and social sciences.
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Study of religion, the intellectual academic attempt to understand the various aspects of religion. It emerged during the 19th century, when the approaches of history, philology, literary criticism, and various social sciences were used to examine the history, origins, and functions of religion.
