Department of Religious Studies
Undergraduate degrees: B.A., B.S.
Undergraduate minor
The UO Department of Religious Studies does not promote the viewpoint of any religious group. It focuses on the history and philosophy of eastern and western religions through an examination of original, sacred texts, rituals, beliefs, and subgroups.
Experience the World with a New Understanding
In today’s increasingly globalized world, the importance of cultivating a deeper understanding of our international community is more critical than ever before. The Department of Religious Studies is committed to this concept. Whether learning about Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, not only will you come away with a rich understanding of the region where the religion began and the people who continue to practice it today, but you also will learn how the religion migrated and transformed with societies over time.
As a student, you’ll take 44 credits in religious studies courses. Eight of those must be in world religions and 28 must be in upper-division courses. Through these courses you’ll learn skills like analytical reading of texts, making strong arguments, and writing well.
World-renowned scholars will help guide you on a path that broadens your understanding of the world. “The distinctiveness of the program is that we are all experts in foundational traditions. We are historians of religion as opposed to modernists,” says Daniel Falk, the head of the department.
Falk says that students have gone on to graduate studies at Yale, Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge. Students become museum curators, social workers, business professionals, and attorneys. “Religious studies combines the type of things that are good about any liberal arts degree. If anything, it’s one of the best because it’s so interdisciplinary.” As an added bonus, he says, a religious studies degree makes people interesting. “The material is important to people and emotional. People become able to step into another’s world view.
Sample Courses
- Introduction to Islam looks into religious tradition up to the present. Pre-Pre–Islamic Arabia, the Prophet MuhammedMohammed, the pillars of Islam, ethics and piety, Sunnithe Sunni-Shiite divide, reform and reform and renewal movementsmovements are included
- Japanese Religions covers early Shinto and its developments, Japanese Buddhism, transformation of Daoism and Confucianism, medieval Shinto, religion in the Tokugawa period, Nationalistic Shinto, folk religion, and new religions
- Jeesus and the Gospels considers early evidence for Jesus, including canonical and noncanonical gospels, in light of critical scholarship and historical reconstructions
- Dark Self, East and West offers a comparative examination of selfhood in Eastern and Western religious thought and cultural contexts. It focuses on dark side or problematic dimensions of Buddhist, Christian, Daoist, Jewish, and other thought
- Mysticism looks at the experiential or mystical dimensions of the three major Abrahamic faiths. It explores the original writings of men and women from each spiritual tradition
Points of Interest
- Courses in the Department of Religious Studies focus on the history and philosophy of religions including their origins, sacred texts, rituals and practices, beliefs, and subgroups
- The Religious religious studies department focuses on an understanding of the role of religion in different world cultures, as well as in history
- Every year, the department presents the Ira E. Gaston Lecture in Christianity as well as the Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Asian Religion
- Religious studies majors receive broad training for any humanitarian profession
- The department’s eight regular faculty members specialize in Judaic, Christian, and Chinese religions as well as Japanese Buddhism and the Hebrew language
- The department offers students a degree with honors for completion of a thesis project
Practical Learning
Study-abroad programs offered through the University of Oregon provide a great opportunity for students to expand their worldview and become acquainted firsthand with the religion and culture of their choice. Visit the Eastern Orthodox churches of Russia, Buddhist temples in Thailand, or the cathedrals of Europe. University staff members can help you design a program that focuses on your specific area of interest.
Other students land internships with religiously affiliated organizations in the community or pursue individual research projects with the guidance of a professor. Become a volunteer and make a difference while you add to your classroom learning.
Interdisciplinary Opportunities
The religious studies program incorporates classes taught by faculty members from the English, history, sociology, international studies, and geography departments. Many religion courses also are cross-referenced with philosophy, history, classics, and the humanities.
A religious studies major or minor provides added insight into almost any humanities or social sciences discipline. How does the political climate in the Middle East shape the development of Islam? What can archaeology tell us about the Essenes and early Christianity? Learn how to meld insights from different disciplines and make new connections across academic boundaries.
Student Work
Scott Gibbs entered the UO as a presidential scholar and will attend the University of Chicago Divinity School. He plans to complete a Ph.D. in Islamic mysticism and do comparative work in Jewish and Islamic mysticism. Gibbs said the religious studies program has been a continued inspiration. He especially enjoyed Deborah Green’s Hebrew poetry class. “There were many times that I left her class on the verge of tears because of her ability to convey the heavy emotion and feeling of the texts we were reading—to, above all, remind us and make us feel that these were not dead words but the living records of lives in which we too also live.”
Theresa Lyons enrolled in the religious studies program because, “I like philosophy, history, and international studies, and religious studies often combines those three pretty well.” Lyons was an intern at ELAW, the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, where she translated e-mail dialogues from English to Spanish. She plans to go to graduate school for religious studies or philosophy, and learn Arabic well enough to become a translator. Of her religious studies experience, Lyons says, “every professor I’ve had is interested in hearing what students have to say and in setting aside time for discussion even in large lecture classes.”
Selected Faculty Work
Associate Professor Stephen Shoemaker teaches courses on the Christian traditions. His primary interests lie in the ancient and early medieval Christian traditions. He is the author of a number of studies on early Christian traditions about Mary (especially in apocrypha), including The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption, a study of the earliest traditions of the end of Mary’s life. Shoemaker has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and is working on a book titled The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad’s Life in Christian and Early Islamic Sources.
Associate Professor Daniel Falk’s research focuses on early Judaism and early Christianity. He is an internationally recognized expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which he is involved in translating and reconstructing. Falk is the author of Daily, Sabbath, and Festival Prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Over the years, he has won numerous awards, grants, and other recognition for his teaching and scholarship.
Assistant Professor Frederick Colby specializes in Arabic narratives on a central story in the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, the night journey (isra) and the ascension (mi’raj). Colby is the author of Narrating Muhammad’s Night Journey: Tracing the Development of the Ibn ‘Abbas Ascension Discourse.
Career Opportunities
The UO religious studies major provides a foundations for a number of professional callings including social work, counseling, nursing, law, and religious vocations. Many students continue their religious studies in graduate programs. Become a hospital chaplain. Sit on the interdenominational board of your local community. Cover religion as a journalist. There will be a variety of ways to use your newfound knowledge as you enter the workplace.
Contact Information
(541) 346-4971
(541) 346-4118 fax
Program banner photo credit: Paul Trafford