Why should you, a first year college student, care about the subject of religion? In a society which measures us largely by our abilities and accomplishments, religion and religious questions frequently get pushed to the margins and dismissed as impractical or boring (at the least) or as positively dangerous or delusional (at the most). Religious fanatics crowd the headlines and the electronic media, while elsewhere many sincere searchers ask very anguishing questions about where God is and what God is in a world which all too often tramples on the good and rewards the wicked. Why should you bother studying religion and why study it now? In reality, there are few occasions in your life when so much changes at one time as when you begin college. You get a new address, new friends, new ideas, and oftentimes new goals and perspectives--all while being on your own in ways you probably have never been before. And whether you think of it in these terms or not, it is the case that the questions you will inevitably be asking about your own life and world are the same questions that virtually every religion also addresses to the individual: who am I? where am I going? and how do I get there? Studying religious texts and positions in college, then, allows you to listen and learn at the very time of your life when these questions become especially compelling by becoming your own. The goal of this class is to develop a worldview.

So, we shall study religion by asking these questions and examining various religious themes which exhibit answers to them (faith, human nature, goodness, evil, revelation, and salvation). Along the way, you should acquire skills in reading and interpreting texts, and in speaking and writing about what you have read. Note: Use will be made of computer assisted instruction (visit the course's home page). Students interested in this class should have basic web skills or be willing to learn.





NOTE: For a list of online resources for "Introducing Religious Studies," click here.