An education to prepare you for life

Our Religious Studies students are equipped to understand our diverse and rapidly changing world while learning much about themselves. This comparative field of study imbues students with the ability to assess diverse actions, traditions, and values. The knowledge and habits of mind learned in Religious Studies remain relevant forever, as key to a life of conscious choice and thoughtful, multi-cultural engagement.

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Understand the world differently

Religious Studies courses help you examine your core values, both objectively and in terms of personal experience. In our classes, you will explore how people make sense of the world and enhance your global cultural knowledge as you engage in a wide variety of topics from barbecue to baseball, magic to mindfulness, and sexuality to the sacred.

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See what’s happening at IU Religious Studies

Learn more about recent faculty, graduate student, and alumni activities.

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McLeod Publishes Book on Martial Arts

Prof. Alexus McLeod’s Myth and Identity in the Martial Arts: Creating the Dragon is a study of the role of myth and ideology in the formation of social identity,

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White People Doing Black Religion

Prof. Paul Christopher Johnson will be giving a talk “White People Doing Black Religion: Notes on Appropriation and Abjection,” on Friday, Nov. 15 at 5pm in Wylie Hall 005. Please join us!

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In Memoriam: Emeritus Prof. David H. Smith

Prof. Emeritus, David H. Smith, died in his sleep on Saturday, October 5th, 2024. He was hired at Indiana University in 1967, where he helped to launch the Religious Studies department. He was a key player in establishing the department’s undergraduate major, master’s degree, and doctoral program.

Manring Discusses Bengal

Prof. Rebecca Manring chaired “Language, Authority, Religion and Resistance: Vernacular Trends in Pre-Modern Bengal,” a panel at the 52nd Annual Conference on South Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Brown Delivers Cushwa Center Lecture

Prof. Candy Brown delivered the 2024–25 Cushwa Center Lecture, “Francis S. MacNutt and the Globalization of Charismatic Christianity,” at the University of Notre Dame.

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Sullivan Lectures in Ferrara

Prof. Winnifred Sullivan gave a recent lecture “Legalizing Religion, American Style,” on the legal regulation of religion in the U.S. to the law faculty at the University of Ferrara in Ferrara, Italy.

A community of support

Our department is home to an incredible community of teachers and students ready to support your intellectual and personal pursuits. We are innovative and open-minded researchers who welcome unconventional ideas to help us better understand the role religion plays in culture and society.

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Being Human

The study of religion broadens and deepens your understanding of the diverse richness and mystery that attends being human. Our faculty is engaged in research through the LUCE-funded Being Human project to learn more about what it means to be human in our rapidly changing world.

Learn about the Being Human project