Doctoral program

Minor Area of Concentration: World Religions and World Church

 

The Church recognizes that religions found everywhere propose ‘ways,’ comprised of teachings, rules of life, and sacred rituals.  “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.” (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, paragraph 2).  The Church “regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth,” reflect the Truth.  Indeed, the Church encourages her members to “recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral” found among other religions through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions (ibid.).

To provide the intellectual foundations for engaging the religions of the world from within a Christian theological paradigm, whether as a grounding for more advanced study of their history and theology or for purposes of inter-religious engagement, the Department of Theology offers a minor concentration in “World Religions and World Church.”  The minor allows graduate students the opportunity to study the ideas and practices of non-Christian religions as well as the ways in which Christianity has become inculturated in contexts shaped largely by non-Christian religious traditions.  The minor in “World Religions and World Church” works in conjunction with any of the five major areas of doctoral concentration.  It involves both coursework and the preparation of topics for candidacy exams.

The minor requires a course that introduces a student to the diverse methods developed to study religion in the modern university, ranging from various social sciences (e.g., sociology, psychology, and anthropology) to assorted hermeneutical approaches (e.g., critical studies, literary theories, and performance theory).  The student takes an additional three courses that either study another world religion or considers Christianity as it has become inculturated in contexts characterized by religious and/or cultural pluralism.  Finally, the student prepares three topics for his or her candidacy exams under the direction of one of the faculty of the Department currently teaching in this field.

Besides enriching the student’s work in his or her major area of concentration, the minor in “World Religions and World Church” should prepare the successful graduate to offer basic courses on methods used in the study of religions, as well as courses in the study of selected world religions.