Department of Religion
The Department of Religion provides students with an opportunity to study a wide range of religious traditions from around the globe and across time. The study of religion offers an excellent cross-cultural grounding in the humanities and social sciences, as it is a deeply interdisciplinary field. Course offerings include introductions to religion as an element of human society and to the field of academic religious studies; courses focused on specific religious traditions; and explorations of comparative themes. Learning about religion with depth and sophistication enhances students’ understanding of the world around them.
Religion majors focus on how religion serves as a fundamental mode of human meaning-making. The study of religion offers critical insight into social, political, philosophical, cosmological, historical, and aesthetic facets of existence, past and present, often sidelined in other fields. Students interested in international affairs, for example, would find a major or minor in religion helpful for understanding the influence of long-standing ideological tensions on contemporary events, while students interested in the health sciences would find a major or minor in religion provides an understanding of the moral complexity of technology and the medical and health sciences.
In addition to the major and minor in religion, the department also offers a minor in Religion in Science & Medicine, which may be of particular interest to STEM majors.
Coursework in religion builds students’ skill in deep reading and analysis, careful observation, open-minded engagement with diverse ideas and ways of knowing, and communication strategies. This makes the study not only personally rewarding, but useful for a wide range of careers, including law, journalism, medicine and health sciences, social work, and professional service in religious institutions.
We encourage religion majors to study abroad through the Boston University Study Abroad and internship programs, expanding their classroom learning through experience of new environments and cultures.
