Studies of Religions and Spirituality
Division VI Chairperson: D. Huck
Department Chairperson: D. Smith
Faculty in Studies of Religions and Spirituality: M.R. Anibueze, P. Burrows, and D. Smith
Website: http://www.berea.edu/rel/
Courses: REL Courses
Course Sequencing Table: Studies of Religions and Spirituality
Entrance to the Major Information: Progression for Studies of Religions and Spirituality B.A.
Major/Minor Requirements: Studies for Religions and Spirituality B.A.; Studies for Religions and Spirituality Minor
The Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality examines the religious phenomena of human culture, life, experience, and history. The Department studies how religious and spiritual communities and traditions have emerged as vital aspects of human cultures and have also shaped those cultures. Rather than advocating a religion or any particular religious perspective, academic studies of religions and spirituality at Berea College describe and analyze the diversity of religious experience, traditions, communities, and issues. Academic studies of religions and spiritualities explore forms in and through which humans have both articulated and responded to their most profound and persistent questions about the universe, human nature, the human condition, personal and social morality, human community, ultimate or sacred reality, and religious ways of knowing. The Department investigates ways in which humans have expressed or exercised the spiritual dimension of human life institutionally, socially, politically, psychologically, economically, ritually, morally, rhetorically, textually, intellectually, aesthetically, and personally. Acknowledging both the multi-disciplinary and the interdisciplinary requirements for this field of study, those who teach in the Department both employ and rely upon a wide variety of disciplinary approaches in studies of religious and spiritual phenomena. The faculty of the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality studies religious phenomena, including the major religious traditions and communities of the world, with historiographical, linguistic and literary, social-scientific, anthropological, philosophical, and theological methods of analysis and interpretation. As a result of the multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary character of such studies, the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality cross-lists selected courses from its curriculum in a few other academic areas of study as well.
Academic studies of religion and spiritualities enable students to explore many different human perspectives on the world, human life, and ultimate human concerns that appear within diverse cultures, across all historical periods, and through multiple traditions. The Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality provides several interrelated opportunities for students: (1) to cultivate understanding of religion or religious experience as a primary and enduring human response to and expression of the human condition; (2) to encounter many of the intellectual, practical, and theoretical issues and questions that attend the appearance of religions in human life and communities; (3) to acquire knowledge of diverse historical and contemporary religious communities, traditions, ideas, and phenomena, as well as knowledge of academic methods for the study of religions; (4) to examine some of the classic texts in both human spiritual history and academic studies of religions; (5) to develop descriptive, analytical, hermeneutical, critical, and constructive skills for studies of religious phenomena; (6) to sharpen abilities to communicate critically, yet constructively, through engagement with the religious or spiritual practices and ideas of other people and their communities; and (7) to develop or to enhance appreciation for the complexities and possibilities of academic studies of religions and spiritualities.
The faculty of the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality has designed the curriculum for students with interest in interdisciplinary (historiographical, philosophical, theological, sociological, psychological, anthropological, aesthetic, literary-critical, cultural) approaches to studies of religions and spiritualities. Students who focus their studies in other fields and disciplines (e.g., Art and Art History, Asian Studies, Child and Family Studies, Economics and Business, Education Studies, English, History, Nursing, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Peace and Social Justice Studies, Sociology, Sustainability and Environmental Studies, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, among other potential areas of study) may profitably study the religious dimensions of those other bodies of human knowledge either through individual courses that contribute to their majors or minors, or by taking an additional major or minor in academic studies of religions and spiritualities.
As a result, courses in studies of religions and spiritualty become occasions for students to discover, to examine, and to understand the major features of various religious and spiritual communities and traditions of the world: institutions, social organization and polity, leadership, moral systems, practices, rituals, sacred texts, and doctrines. Through its curriculum, the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality offers both a major and a minor as basic foundations or backgrounds for graduate studies in several other or related fields for students who have interests in a variety of careers or vocations (as examples., ministry of various kinds, teaching, journalism, politics, law, social work, business, and medicine). The Department also offers introductory courses to students with other majors to encourage the exploration of religions and spiritualities in all of their diversity as a support for studies in many other fields of knowledge as well.
Educational Goals and Student Learning Objectives for Studies of Religions and Spirituality
Students who pursue academic studies of religions and spirituality at Berea College will learn and will develop well-informed, rigorously-critical, creatively-constructive, and responsibly-engaged approaches to thinking, talking, and writing about religions and spiritualities by attaining several educational goals and corresponding student-learning outcomes or objectives. The courses of the departmental curriculum and several additional courses from the larger curriculum of the College correlate directly to each one of the educational goals and their corresponding student-learning outcomes or objectives, thereby enabling students to achieve the learning outcomes or objectives for each educational goal and to develop competence in academic studies of religions and spirituality at Berea College.
Educational Goal 1: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the historical development and contexts of specific spiritual and religious communities, traditions, or movements, with careful attention to the origin and evolution of their social organization and institutions, distinctive experiences and emotions, moral codes and practices, rituals and spiritual disciplines, sacred narratives and texts, art and architecture, as well as beliefs and doctrines.
Student Learning Outcome 1.1: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the experiential or emotional dimension of religions and spiritualities, through acquisition of knowledge about different forms of religious experience, as well as basic religious issues, questions, and concerns that arise in human experience and emerge as human expressions of and responses to the human condition.
Student Learning Outcome 1.2: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the ritual dimension of religions and spiritualities, acquiring knowledge about forms of worship and ceremonies in several religious communities and traditions.
Student Learning Outcome 1.3: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the mythic or narrative dimension of religions and spiritualities, acquiring knowledge about both several classic sacred texts from human religious history and the histories of their interpretation.
Educational Goal 2: Students will encounter and will examine religious, moral, aesthetic, social, economic, philosophical, and political questions, problems, or issues that either emerge from the cultural contexts of spiritual or religious communities, experience, thought, and practice, or occur as spiritual and religious questions or issues within more expansive cultural frames of reference.
Student Learning Outcome 2.1: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the social, political, and institutional dimension of religions and spiritualities, acquiring knowledge, on the one hand, about organization, structures, forms of authority and governance within specific religious communities, and, on the other hand, about interactions of religious communities with their larger cultural contexts in terms of their social, political, and institutional features and dynamics.
Student Learning Outcome 2.2: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the material dimension of religions and spiritualities, acquiring knowledge about the various ways in which religious or spiritual communities and individuals express their experience of sacred or ultimate reality through the arts, architecture, music, drama, and other cultural expressions.
Educational Goal 3: Students will consider normative questions, problems, and issues, as well as constructive solutions and proposals, about the existence and character of sacred or ultimate reality, the world and universe, and the nature and conduct of human life that emerge from spiritual and religious experience, communities, and traditions.
Student Learning Outcome 3.1: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the doctrinal or philosophical dimension of religions and spiritualities, acquiring knowledge about basic normative beliefs, teachings, and doctrines in specific forms of religious experience and communities, on the one hand, and about the systematic and organized exposition and expression of their meaning by religious or spiritual individuals and communities, on the other hand.
Student Learning Outcome 3.2: Students will acquire and will demonstrate knowledge about the moral, legal, and ethical dimension of religions and spiritualities, acquiring knowledge about basic normative moral beliefs, practices, and teachings in specific religious or spiritual systems and communities, on the one hand, and about the systematic and organized exposition and expression of their meaning by religious or spiritual individuals and communities, on the other hand.