It is increasingly clear that we cannot fully understand ourselves or other people and cultures without some knowledge of religious diversity. Religion is an extraordinarily exciting way to study the world. Our faculty is immersed in religious traditions from a variety of perspectives—from Asia to Africa, to Europe and the Americas, from antiquity to the present.
All of our faculty are engaged with inquiry into the role religion plays in culture and society. Some use history as the primary discipline to explore how particular religions originated and developed. Others focus on ethics or philosophy, bringing religious texts and practices to bear on questions of both abiding and immediate interest. Some are ethnographers or anthropologists, analyzing how communities use religious beliefs and rituals to create meaning. Most combine these ways of thinking in innovative ways. Religious Studies research spans the social and natural sciences, humanities, business, and the arts.
Richard Nance is putting finishing touches on a book (with the working title The Logic of Explication) that offers the first translation into English of an influential Buddhist text on the practice of scriptural commentary.
Read about Professor Nance's research
Laura’s current book project is provisionally titled, Scriptural Affordances: Literary Use and Value in the Postexilic Prophets. It uses one small and largely overlooked book in the biblical prophetic corpus—the book of Haggai—as a site to stage major questions about the status of biblical and religious studies as humanistic disciplines and about the value of ancient texts, writ large.
Read about Professor Carlson Hasler's research
Winni’s forthcoming book, Making a King: Joan of Arc’s Political Theology, argues that Joan of Arc was a serious political thinker who enacted a vernacular political theology on behalf of the people.
Read about Professor Sullivan’s research
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