Religious Studies
Questions? Contact Dr. Marge Lynd, 292-2559, or lynd.1@osu.edu; or the religious studies program coordinators, Dr. Hugh B. Urban, urban.41@osu.edu and Dr. Tanya E. Erzen erzen.2@osu.edu.
About
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, religion continues to be a major force shaping cultural, political, and ethical debates around the world. Religion is a critical part of the way we understand the relationship between the individual and society, the role of spiritual authority in the political sphere, and the connections between religious commitment and national identity in the current moment.The Religious Studies concentration offers a uniquely comparative, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary way to study the beliefs, practices, histories, and texts of the world’s religious communities. Unlike most conventional departments of Religion at other major universities, Religious Studies at OSU is situated in an explicitly cross-disciplinary program. Rather than studying religion in isolation, we examine religion through the insights and methods of literary studies, ethnography, historiography, social analysis, and cultural comparison. We also view religion as inextricably intertwined with race, class, gender, and ethnicity, among other categories of affiliation and identification.
In our approach to the study of religion, we strive to maintain a careful balance between sympathetic respect and critical analysis. At the same time, our classes invite students to reflect on the category of religion itself, exploring the inter-relations between knowledge and power in our own academic discourse about the category of "religion." In our teaching, research projects, and public programming, we promote engaged intellectual inquiry into the rich diversity of religious institutions, rituals, ideas, and communities both past and present.
We have the faculty resources to train students in all the major religions of the world, including ancient Greek and Roman traditions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism as well as a variety of Indigenous traditions and New Religious Movements. We also provide critical courses in the major theoretical approaches for interpreting the plurality of religious claims in our own increasingly inter-connected but often violent historical moment. Students who have completed the Comparative Studies degree with a concentration in religious studies have gone on to some of the most prestigious graduate programs in the country, as well as to a wide range of non-academic employment. .
