In any given year, there are about 15 students majoring in religious studies, which allows each major ample opportunity to work closely with faculty members. As a religious studies major, you are required to take Introduction to Religious Studies and the Seminar in Methodology. Both courses are designed to introduce you broadly to important concepts and theories and to give you a comparative and multi-traditional background in the study of religions.

You are free to choose from a variety of courses to complete the remaining seven courses for the religious studies major. Courses are offered in four major areas – Christianity, Islam, religions of South and West Asia, and religions of East Asia – and you must take at least two courses in two of the four areas.

As a junior or senior, you will have the opportunity to supplement your course offerings by taking a tutorial or an independent study in an area that interests you; this can also become an Honors Project in which you write a thesis that is orally defended before a panel of three faculty members.

Past topics include:
* Justin Ritzinger, "Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save the World"
* Paul Lamb, "The Land of Milk and Honey: The Changing Conception of a Promised Land in the Abrahamic Tradition"
* Laura Scholl, "Dostoevsky's Underground Man: An Embodiment of Despair and Offense"
* Colin Good, "Perceived Obsolescence: Secularization and the 'Decline' of Religion"
* Katharine Wahl, "The Representations of Sacrifice in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke"
* Manaswi Roy, "Understanding the Johannine Gospel"
* Karen DeVries, "Church Universal and Triumphant: A Misunderstood Religious Movement"
* Stacey Woldt, "Contradiction and Affirmation: An Investigation of Christian Women's Martyrdom in Antiquity"

The minor in religious studies comprises five courses: the Introduction to Religious Studies; two courses in an area of your choosing, one course in an additional area, and one seminar-level course. The minor in religious studies particularly complements major programs in Art History, History, English, and East Asian Languages and Cultures.

Interdisciplinary areas:

Gender Studies encourages you to examine such varied issues as the images of men and women in literature and the arts, the psychology of gender identity, sex roles in the family and in society from the Middle Ages to the present, and the biology of human reproduction from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The program includes courses such as Women in Asian Religions; Classical Mythology; Family in Cross-Cultural Perspective; and Gender in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The interdisciplinary area in Biomedical Ethics addresses moral and ethical issues in the biological sciences and health care economics. Course work in this area is a combination of biology, religious studies, and economics.

In International Studies, scholars from anthropology, economics, foreign languages, government, and history work together to study the dynamic relationship among the many different cultures of the world. As a student in this area, you can take courses such as Economic Development and Social Change, East Asian Religious Traditions, and Latin American Civilization.