Fields of Study
American Religious History
American Religious History (ARH)
is one of the four “tracks” that students can follow
to obtain graduate degrees in Religion at FSU. Faculty and students
in this area of study investigate the ways religious belief and
practice figure in the historical construction of various aspects
of American culture. Students pursing this area of study fulfill
specific degree requirements in ARH under the supervision of the
Department’s team of historians of American religion—Professors
John Corrigan, Amanda Porterfield, Amy Koehlinger, and Sarah Irving.
Faculty
Related
University Resources
[Back to Top]
Religion,
Ethics, and Philosophy
The
program in religion, ethics, and philosophy is designed to train
scholars in (1) the philosophical and theoretical analysis of
religious phenomena; (2) modern and historic expressions of religious
thought, particularly in Europe and North America; (3) comparative
analysis of the religious, philosophical, and ethical traditions
of Europe and North America with those of the Middle East, South
and East Asia; (4) historical and contemporary literature related
to political ethics, the justification and conduct of war, the
nature and scope of human rights discourse, and issues in ethics
and the life sciences. To this end, students concentrating in
religion, ethics, and philosophy take courses dealing with theory
and method in the study of religion, hermeneutics, philosophy
of religion, modern and historic expressions of religious thought,
religious and philosophical ethics, and other topics related to
the overall goals of the program. While the Department of Religion
offers a rich variety of courses in this area, students are also
encouraged, in consultation with area faculty, to take courses
across the University. The Departments of Philosophy, Sociology,
Classics, History, English, and Modern Languages are particularly
relevant, as are the programs in Humanities and American and Florida
Studies and in the College of Law.
Faculty
Related
University Resources
[Back to Top]
Religions
of Asia
The Department
of Religion supports a growing and dynamic program of research
and teaching in Religions of Asia, with a special focus on Hinduism
and Buddhism in South Asia and Buddhism in Tibet and the Himalayas.
The program promotes interdisciplinary study at the B.A., M.A.,
and Ph.D. levels. Members of the Asian Religion faculty are also
affiliated with the University’s program in Asian Studies
in the College of Social Sciences, and work closely with academic
members from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to facilitate
and advance multi-disciplinary and technologically progressive
approaches to the study of Asia, past and present, within a broader
global context.
Faculty
Related
University Resources
[Back to Top]
Religions
of Western Antiquity
Religions
of Western Antiquity studies the religions of the Mediterranean
world and western Asia up to the rise of Islam. Although encompassing
a wide range of subjects from religion in ancient Egypt to religions
of the Graeco-Roman world through late antiquity, most of the
courses in this area deal with ancient Judaism and early Christianity,
including close studies of the literary, historical, and sociological
dimensions of the diverse texts considered authoritative by a
number of different Jewish and Christian communities. This means
that in addition to acquiring the intensive philological and historical
training necessary to do research in the area, students will be
expected to be firmly grounded in the methods of the historical-critical
study of the Bible as they developed over the past two centuries
and to have an understanding of the history of interpretation
of the Bible in the ancient and medieval periods. Students in
this area will work closely with Professors Goff, Kelley, Levenson,
and Tigchelaar in the Religion Department, and will take advantage
of the close links we have to the Classics and Philosophy Departments.
Students entering the PhD program are expected to have training
in the methods of Religious Studies and are encouraged to do some
of their work in other departmental areas.
Faculty
Related
University Resources
[Back
to Top]
