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Program Codes:
BARLST
Bachelor of Arts
Program Mission Statement
The academic study of religion is a central component to the humanities curriculum of Mercyhurst University. Through diverse course offerings, the Religious Studies department cultivates understanding of the human experience. It provides students with a breadth of knowledge within the field and essential skills for full participation in a globalized world. Students will cultivate reflective and critical thinking skills through the study of religion’s broad impact on human life and society.
They will also develop communication, argumentation, and research skills as well as cultural awareness and creative and critical problem-solving abilities for managing diverse environments. Students in the religious studies department are engaged in campus and community life and have opportunities to present at academic conferences. Graduates have gone on to work in ministry and service organizations, the arts, health professions, social work, business, and intelligence positions.
The Religious Studies department is rooted in its Catholic origins and committed to the classical critical inquiry of the Catholic intellectual tradition. It is simultaneously defined by a spirit of intellectual openness that welcomes students of diverse faith traditions, or none at all. The structure of the curriculum allows students to explore their own interests: academically, professionally, and personally.
Some students might wish to focus their major or minor in the cross-cultural study of religion, for example. The department offers a broad major and minor in Religious Studies, but also a concentration and an additional minor in Religion and Society for students who are more interested in the historical, social, and contemporary issues of religion. At the same time, the department also supports students wishing to pursue deeper studies in the Catholic tradition by making specific courses available for the Catholic Studies minor.
Religious Studies is organized into three principal areas:
Catholic Studies Interdisciplinary Minor
CST 100 Exploring Catholicism - 3 credits
CST Any other CST course - 3 credits
RLST Any RLST course - 3 credits
Interdisciplinary Studies (Choose 1 of the following):
FREN 135 Religion, Politics and Drama in 17th Century France - 3 credits
DANC 175 Liturgical Dance - 3 credits
POLI 201 Catholic Social and Political Thought - 3 credits
ECON 250 Economics of Poverty - 3 credits
PHIL 270 Foundations of Catholic Philosophy - 3 credits
ENG 354 Catholic Literary Imagination - 3 credits
Upon completing the Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies, graduates will:
The department offers a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies, consisting of ten (10) courses, and a Religious Studies minor, consisting of six (6). A 2.5 GPA is required of all seeking a major or minor from this department. The study of a foreign language is highly encouraged for all students in this major.
A Religious Studies major requires:
A minimum of ten (10) courses in RLST (One [1] CST from the RLST curriculum list can count for an RLST major):
A Religious Studies minor requires:
A minimum of six (6) courses in RLST (One [1] CST from the RLST curriculum list can count for an RLST minor):
Students also minoring in Catholic Studies may double count one (1) course between their RLST and CST programs (thus a minimum of fifteen [15] unique courses for the RLST major + CST minor and a minimum of eleven [11] unique courses for an RLST minor + CST minor).
Traditions, Texts, and History
The desert mothers and fathers were ascetic Christians whose religious practice-involving the discipline of the body in order to attend to spiritual growth-exerted a profound influence on the development of ancient Christianity. By providing students with exposure to these historically significant figures this course allows students to explore different modalities of Christian being and helps them to contextualize renunciant practices still being practiced today.
This course examines the impact of significant Christian thinkers on Western culture. As we will see, the development of a Western Christian heritage was neither monolithic nor predetermined. It is rather the historical result of argument and debate among a plurality of voices throughout the centuries. We will explore the influence these voices have on the way various contemporary Christians groups conceptualize theology and authority.
An historical and thematic introduction to Hinduism which will examine its array of beliefs and morals, myths and rituals, philosophies and poetry, gurus and teachers, gods and goddesses. Particular attention will be given to developments in Hinduism including the host of philosophical, historical, social and political contexts that have generated plural expressions of Hinduism in India and have contributed to a more global expression of Hinduism worldwide.
An introduction to the various world views encompassed under the rubric of Buddhism. This course surveys religious, philosophical and ritual developments in the history of Buddhism, beginning in the Indian context and extending throughout Asia and even into the West. The nature of reality, human community, suffering and liberation articulated in various versions of Buddhism will be primary themes for study.
Stories about "the end" have been employed by various cultures as a means to use language to reflect upon, critique, and explain current events. This course compares different visions of the end by investigating the diverse ancient and contemporary cultural contexts out of which these imagined endings emerge.
Pluralism, Comparison, and Society
Film has become the dominant medium of popular cultural expression in the contemporary era, and as such offers a vital space where the re-contextualization and re-interpretation of religious themes can be studied. Understanding the use and presence of religious ideas and symbols in film allows perspective on how traditional religious themes are imagined and challenged through contemporary experience.
A survey of religious beliefs and practices in an American context. This course examines various expressions of American religiosity and aims to contextualize, understand, and analyze the variety and plurality of the American religious landscape.
Issues surrounding death and dying are both deeply personal and central to the human experience. This course is designed to explore ideological frameworks around death and relate them to concrete issues. The course is designed in two parts. The first part engages ideas found across the globe related to death and dying. The second part of the course examine practical and ethical considerations.
This course will approach a wide variety of contemporary folklore, legends, and mythology through the methodologies and theories of Religious Studies. Folklore, legends, and mythology are sometimes in agreement with established religious traditions. Other times they represent breaks with mainstream doctrines. These three categories draw attention to visions of what is possible in both life and death, according to peculiar of the way things really are.
100 OR 200 Level RLST or CST course
Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics
This course is an exploration of the origins, historical development, and contemporary doctrine and theology of the Christian Church that would evolve into Roman Catholicism. Particular emphasis will be placed on the theology of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-1965) and contemporary ecclesiologies relevant to the church’s structure today as well as examining future trends in church anthropology.
Course explores moral issues both personal and social, in light of Christian Scriptures, tradition and human experience. A Roman Catholic perspective on these issues is emphasized.
This course examines various traditions of Indian philosophy, specifically the "orthodox" schools (the so-called "six views") and their Buddhist counterpoints. Our concern will be the methods, presuppositions, arguments, and goals in Indian reflection on the nature of the human person (philosophical anthropology), the nature of reality (metaphysics), and the nature and process of knowing (epistemology). The goals of this course include showing the traditions of systematic, critical thinking in India and highlighting, where appropriate, their significant parallels to Western philosophical thought.
An analysis of the intellectual challenges to religious belief since the Enlightenment to the present day with a special emphasis on postmodern philosophy and the theological responses to the postmodern critique.
100 or 200 level RLST or CST course
An examination of key texts, historical movements, and ideas pertaining to the relationship between "religion" and "the environment." Several religious traditions are considered, including: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Native American religions.
100 or 200 level RLST or CST course
A study of the significance of mystical experience in the world’s religions. What is the meaning of particularly vivid, intense religious experiences reported by sages, saints, and seers in the faith traditions of the world? This course will examine classic analyses of mysticism, the nature, context, and conditions of mystical experience, the “perennial philosophy,” the scope of ineffability, and the cognitive merit of mystical experience.
100 or 200 level RLST or CST course
In the face of oppression, people of faith and people of good will have argued for a principled world of peace and justice for all. This course examines how it is that oppressed people and groups have grounded the pursuit of peace and justice in terms of social and spiritual liberation. This course will explore global and domestic cases of oppression, which may include: imperialism and exile, racism and civil rights, sexism and homophobia. Diverse religious responses to oppression may include: Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu views.
100 or 200 level RLST or CST course
At the end of two years, each major student’s progress is reviewed to determine continuation in the program. Special attention is paid to an ongoing commitment to intellectual growth and to the maintenance of the 2.5 GPA minimum requirement. A formal request for delay of this review into the third year requires special permission from the department chair.
