GREL 108: Introduction to Religious Studies

Course Description

What is religion? Who does religion, and how does it happen? How do we study religion across history and in the modern world, and how have other scholars of religion studied this phenomenon? This course introduces students to the field of Religious Studies as it has been practiced historically and as it is practiced today, with a particular focus on the study of religion in the modern world. By critically reading excerpts from classic theorists of religion alongside recent case studies, students in the course will learn about a wide variety of methodologies in the study of religion. By engaging students in some of the major issues in the field today, this course will prepare them for upper-division courses in the major. Students are strongly encouraged to take this course early in their major (during the first two years) before taking upper division courses.