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The Study of Religion is one of the most relevant and vibrant disciplines of study in the Arts. Our discipline deals broadly with the ways that people are religious in the world, as well as the ways that religion can operate as a force for a range of social and political changes. Our courses offer multi-disciplinary inquiries into how religion is defined, and the ways that the boundaries of religions are negotiated and lived, historically and in the present. Saint Mary’s Department for the Study of Religion is home to a diverse faculty, and our course offerings include explorations of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Indigenous Spirituality and New Religious Movements. Beyond a traditions-based approach, our courses negotiate how religion impacts popular culture, migration, globalization, politics, and gender and sexuality. Students in this program will develop skills in critically reading various kinds of texts (scripture, film, historical material, etc.) as well as how to conduct field research on living religions.
Courses in the Study of Religion program are a useful addition to any program, providing students with an understanding of religious diversity and issues that cross many disciplines, from Anthropology and Business to History and Political Science, Development and Environmental Studies to the Sciences. First year students seeking an elective may take any Religion course at the 1000 or 2000 level. Students who have completed 30 credit hours of university course work in any discipline may register for 3000 level courses in Religion.
Religion courses at the 1000, 2000 or 3000 level satisfy a humanities requirement in the Arts Faculty; non-Commerce electives in the Sobey School of Business and the humanities requirements in the Faculty of Science.
The Religion program offers courses with three areas of focus: traditions, issues, and methodologies. Traditions based courses introduce and explore aspects of various religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, the religious traditions of Vietnam, China and Japan, New Religious Movements, and Indigenous spiritual traditions. Courses with a focus on issues explore how these issues relate to religion and include religious diversity in Canada, love, death, violence, film, law, globalization, neoliberalism, gender and sexuality, childhood, ethics, development, and migration. Methodological courses provide the tools necessary for exploring traditions and issues deeply. They focus on the critical reading of texts (including scripture and film), and how to study living religions through field work (ethnography, participant observation and interviewing).
The Bachelor of Arts (BA) is a well-established, foundational degree and requires the requirements listed below alongside general graduation requirements.
Students majoring in Religion must fulfill the equivalent of thirty-nine (39) credit hours in Religion courses. Normally, these will be distributed as follows:
Field Research Methods and the course designated as fulfilling the textual analysis course requirement cannot also count towards other requirements.
An overall grade point average of 2.00 must be maintained in the courses counted toward the major.
A Minor in Religion provides the opportunity for students engaged in a one-hundred and twenty (120) credit hour undergraduate degree to specialize in the area of Religion. The Concentration in Religion is for students undertaking the ninety (90) credit hour program. The requirements for both are the same, and are as follows:
An overall grade point average of 2.00 must be maintained in the twenty-four (24) credit hours.
In a Religion minor or concentration, students must complete at least twelve (12) of the twenty-four (24) required credit hours at Saint Mary’s.
An honours student must complete sixty (60) credit hours in Religion courses which include:
Admission to an honours program normally requires Department approval no later than when a student has completed sixty (60) credit hours. In addition to the Faculty of Arts requirements for honours, a minimum grade point average of 3.00 in Religion courses is required for admission to, and continuation in, the honours program.
Students completing a minor, a concentration, a major or honours must have their Religion courses approved by the undergraduate advisor on an annual basis. With renumbered or restructured courses, students are advised that they are not eligible to take a course for credit if they already have a credit for a comparable course, even if that course was taken at a different level.
Notes: With renumbered or restructured courses, students are advised that they are not eligible to take a course for credit if they already have a credit for a comparable course, even if that course was taken at a different level.
Course Groupings for Majors
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