School:Religious Studies

 Welcome to the School of Religious Studies 

part of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies and the School of Theology The School of Religious Studies is for multi-disciplinary and secular study of religion.

Religious Studies, also known as the study of religion, is an academic field devoted to research into religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives. While Theology attempts to understand the transcendent or supernatural according to traditional religious accounts, religious studies takes a more scientific and objective approach independent of any particular religious viewpoint. Religious Studies thus draws upon multiple academic disciplines and methodologies including anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history of religion.

The School of Religious Studies works in close cooperation with the School of Theology.

Areas of Study
Currently the School of Religious Studies is composed of the following areas of studies.

 Faculty of Western Religions 
 * Abrahamic Religions
 * Judaism
 * Christianity
 * Islam
 * Baháʼí
 * Others
 * Iranian Religions
 * Zoroastrianism
 * Yazidism

 Faculty of Eastern Religions 
 * East Asian
 * Taoism
 * Shinto
 * Indian
 * Hinduism
 * Buddhism
 * Sikhism
 * Others

 Faculty of Indigenous Religions 
 * Maori
 * Native American
 * Tibeto-Burmese
 * African
 * Ethnic

 Faculty of New Movement Religions 
 * Jediism
 * Neoshamanism
 * Scientology
 * Spiritualism
 * Modern Paganism
 * Druidry
 * Heathenry
 * Wicca

 Faculty of Historic Religions 
 * Pre-historic
 * Inca
 * Germanic
 * Mesopotamian
 * Sumerian/Babylonian
 * Mithraism
 * Semitic

''If a religion you are looking for is not listed, check in the Faculty links above. Secular and Irreligious groups are not listed here.''

Core Curriculum
In order to form a basic understanding of religious studies, it is recommended that students visit the following courses below. After which it would benefit students and researchers to further thier studies by exploring the wikimedia resources below before considering a specialised Area of Study.

Core Courses
 * Religious Studies
 * History of Religion
 * Anthropology of Religion
 * Sociology of Religion
 * Psychology of Religion

Methodology Courses
 * Phenomenology of Religion
 * Historical Methodology

Introductory Courses
 * Western Religions
 * Eastern Religions
 * Indigenous Religions
 * Ethnic Religions
 * New Religious Movement

Courses
Active

Planned
 * Introduction to Religions Studies
 * Methods in the Study of Religion
 * History of Religion
 * Sociology of Religion
 * Philosophy of Religion


 * Introduction to Western Religions
 * Introduction to Eastern Religions
 * Introduction to Indigenous Religions
 * Introduction to New Movement Religions

Requested

Wikimedia Resources

 * Religious Studies article at Wikipedia
 * Related Religion textbooks at Wikibooks
 * Religious Studies media at Wikimedia Commons

School news

 * 9 September 2006 - Original Division (under Theology) founded!
 * 4 August 2022 - Division updated to School of Religious Studies!

Things you can do!

 * Clean up Religion topics through research.
 * Link 'Area of Study' titles above to existing 'Religion pages'.
 * Replace Core Curriculum source knowledge with actual courses.
 * Create new Courses of study!

Active participants
The histories of Wikiversity pages indicate who the active participants are. If you are an active participant in this division, you can list your name here (this can help small divisions grow and the participants communicate better; for large divisions a list of active participants is not needed).

Inactive participants

 * SotanScholar (discuss • contribs)

As a learner
Are you new to Wikiversity or the School of Religious Studies? You have come across an important resource in the development of interactive Open Educational Resources. You are welcome here as a student browsing for resources to use in your studies. You may like to to sign up for a specific course. Either way you can use this area of cyberspace to keep notes while you study - but remember, they are open for other people to read! (You can create pages linked to your user page by adding "/subspacename" after your username when starting a new page). Please also use the discussion pages to give feed back about courses whether you like them or were disappointed. We also encourage more active involvement. You can help in the development of courses, adding to the bibliography, putting in links to wikipedia (use "w:" at the beginning of the box), correcting typos etc. If you are a newcomer, please see this quick tour to help you familiarise yourself with wikiversity.

As a teacher/facilitator
We also encourage teachers to use wikiversity as a place to develop and share their teaching materials. For more general information, please look here.

As a researcher
In addition to Wikiversity's learning mission in various educational sectors, Wikiversity also hosts research. Please see Portal:Research for more information.

As part of a Learning Community
We also function as a learning community, sharing general maintenance tasks, discussing problems that arise and developing collaborative projects We keep a special page of things that need to be done for people who just want to jump in!


 * Get involved!

Have any questions? Leave them on the School's talk page, or contact one of the active particpants.