Prof. Marty writes: "Religion gets to be studied because it is practical. On the domestic political scene, one need hardly elaborate on the practicality of understanding religion in the form of the putative Catholic vote, the various Christian coalitions, ever-changing Jewish interests, or what African American pastors are thinking. Advertisers blunder when they try to sell a project while being insensitive to the religious sensibilities of potential customers. Marketers include religious data when planning where to sell: hog butchers of the world, to take an obvious case, do not target Jewish communities.

"In intimate personal relations, such as providing medical care, promoting support groups in struggles against addiction, or making sense of the person to whom one is married, some understanding of religious impulses and religion is practical. Even the widespread religious indifference and ignorance in much of the culture demands study: if people abandon religion or are abandoned by it, academics get to study what takes its place. Something will."

All this to say that just about anything you're interested in will have some religious component, and studying that component will help you make better sense of your world. For example, one can't know history or literature or sociology or political science without attending to how religious themes and values enter into these disciplines. Nor are sciences like biology and physics immune from religious elements. Recent developments in biology like cloning and reproductive technologies raise enormous ethical and theological issues. Recent advances in physics and cosmology have those in these disciplines asking fundamentally theological questions. Moreover, good doctors attend to the religious sensibilities of their patients, particularly at times of critical or end-of-life care. And on top of all these things are the personal and interpersonal dimensions of how studying religion helps us better understand ourselves and those around us.