Religious Studies overview
In this large and growing area of the Faculty’s teaching provision students are exposed to a wide and often interdisciplinary set of methods used to understand major manifestations of religiosity around the world. Disciplines applied include anthropology, ethnology, and psychology, as well as more traditional descriptive and analytical approaches to the origins, history, and key texts and scriptures of world religions.
The specific topics and focus of teaching may shift from year to year, but there is a historic focus on the study of phenomena such as fundamentalism, religious experience, religious law, and the challenges posed by modernisation to various religious cultures. In addition students have the opportunity to consider current controversies in ‘comparative religion’, and the difficulties raised by religious diversity in the context of the theologies of selected faith traditions.
Papers in the undergraduate Tripos in the area of Religious Studies include:
- First year: A6, A7
- Second year: B9, B12, B14, B15, B16
- Third year: C8, C9, C10, C19, C22
The study of world religions is reinforced by language courses at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels in Hebrew, Sanskrit and Arabic.
See our Religious Studies specialists, who include teaching staff, researchers, affiliated lecturers, and graduate students.