“If you know only your own religion, you don’t even know your own religion.”
Diana Eck
Before we start, let’s try to understand why we should study religion. Religion intersects many aspects of human science — anthropology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy — and thus a variety of approaches and methods contribute to our understanding of the discipline.
Religious Studies defines a related and complementary program of study, one that locates human efforts to understand being and meaning within a particular time and place—an undertaking that is inherently interdisciplinary and contextual. By providing a lens through which to understand context and specifically by exploring how place and time contribute to and shape the character of the ontological and metaphysical questions people have asked for millennia.
While religion has often been a source of “good” and “peace” within society, it has also been a source of conflict, aggression and violence. As a liberal arts discipline, religion cannot be immune to critique. It is important for students of religion to go beyond memorization of a specific religion’s teaching by acknowledging and debating religion’s influence on behavior and morality and by trying to understand why religion’s influence can be a source of ill as well as good. Such an approach to the study of religion contributes to students’ ability to think critically and ultimately achieve a nuanced understanding of the cosmopolitan world they inhabit.
The study of religion is so important because religion’s roots flourish in every corner of every culture and, in turn, helps shaping diverse beliefs and practices. Thus every human endeavor—whether social, political, cultural, historical, textual or scientific—has been influenced to a greater or lesser degree by religious sensitivity.
Study of world religions provides students with a critical method of inquiry to addressing questions of their lives. Awareness of religion’s impact on humanity certainly helps clarify many global issues that currently threaten pluralism and diversity. It is education’s role to prepare today's students for tomorrow's world, a world where human ethics and morality are shaped in large part by religious values.
In this globalized world human beings are brought closer than it never happened in our history. Our neighbors could be from India, Europe or Africa and their religious view could be different from that of yours. Hence any knowledge of different religious cultures could help us with communication skills to encounter the “others” to best, and most respectively and ethically.
Religious Studies defines a related and complementary program of study, one that locates human efforts to understand being and meaning within a particular time and place—an undertaking that is inherently interdisciplinary and contextual. By providing a lens through which to understand context and specifically by exploring how place and time contribute to and shape the character of the ontological and metaphysical questions people have asked for millennia.
While religion has often been a source of “good” and “peace” within society, it has also been a source of conflict, aggression and violence. As a liberal arts discipline, religion cannot be immune to critique. It is important for students of religion to go beyond memorization of a specific religion’s teaching by acknowledging and debating religion’s influence on behavior and morality and by trying to understand why religion’s influence can be a source of ill as well as good. Such an approach to the study of religion contributes to students’ ability to think critically and ultimately achieve a nuanced understanding of the cosmopolitan world they inhabit.
The study of religion is so important because religion’s roots flourish in every corner of every culture and, in turn, helps shaping diverse beliefs and practices. Thus every human endeavor—whether social, political, cultural, historical, textual or scientific—has been influenced to a greater or lesser degree by religious sensitivity.
Study of world religions provides students with a critical method of inquiry to addressing questions of their lives. Awareness of religion’s impact on humanity certainly helps clarify many global issues that currently threaten pluralism and diversity. It is education’s role to prepare today's students for tomorrow's world, a world where human ethics and morality are shaped in large part by religious values.
In this globalized world human beings are brought closer than it never happened in our history. Our neighbors could be from India, Europe or Africa and their religious view could be different from that of yours. Hence any knowledge of different religious cultures could help us with communication skills to encounter the “others” to best, and most respectively and ethically.
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