Department of Philosophy

Minor in Religious Studies

The minor in Religious Studies is an interdisciplinary program that draws from faculty and courses from several departments. It is designed to provide a framework for systematic academic study of religion. Students who meet the program requirements gain an understanding of some of the main ideas found in the world's religions and learn how a variety of academic disciplines approach the objective study of religion from diverse perspectives. The program is useful to students who are personally interested in learning more about religion as a part of their general education as well as to those students who plan careers which are religiously oriented.

Check out this article on "Religious Studies Revival."

 

 

Requirements

21 credit hours required, distributed as follows:

  • 6 credit hours from Group A.
  • 9 credit hours from exactly three of the Groups B, C, D, and E. Courses listed as "Related Courses" may not be used to satisfy this requirement.
  • 6 additional credit hours from any of the groups used to satisfy the above requirements. At most 3 of these hours may be from courses listed as "Related Courses" for those groups.

Note: No more than 9 hours from a student's major field of study may be used to satisfy the requirements of the minor.

Contact Information

For more information, you may contact:

Dr. Daniel Breyer
Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Program Director
Phone: (309) 438-5954
Email: dbreyer@ilstu.edu

 

Course Groups

Group A

  • HIS 270: World Religions/World Views
  • IDS 254: Religions and Cultures (with advisor approval)*
  • PHI 224: Meaning and Religious Belief
  • SOC 268: Sociology of Religion

Group B

  • ENG 250: Literature of the Bible I
  • ENG 251: Literature of the Bible II
  • PHI 222: Philosophy and Christian Theology

Related Courses:

  • ART 367: Greek Art
  • ART 369: History of Medieval Architecture
  • ART 377: Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture
  • HIS 223: The Middle Ages 1100-1500
  • HIS 225: The Reformation
  • HIS 351: Ancient Near East

Group C

  • HIS 271: Islamic Civilization
  • HIS 378: Islam

Related Courses:

  • HIS 104.04: History of MIddle East
  • IDS 121.02: Texts and Contexts: Islamic Art and Culture

Group D

  • HIS 269: History of Japanese Religions
  • PHI 207: Indian Philosophy
  • PHI 208: Buddhist Philosophy

Related Courses:

  • HIS 104.02: History of East-Asia
  • HIS 275: History of Japanese Civilization
  • HIS 276: History of Chinese Civilization

Group E

  • ART 275: World Arts (with advisor approval)*
  • LAN 106: Myth and Meaning
  • IDS 121.14: Texts and Contexts: Witchcraft and Magic

Additional Courses for Various Groups

Specific offerings of the following courses may sometimes be placed into one of the above Groups by the Religious Studies Advisor, depending on topic.

 

  • ENG 352: Selected Figures in World Literature
  • IDS 121: Texts and Contexts
  • IDS 203: Nations and Narrations
  • HIS 307: Selected Topics in Non-Western History

* Topics in ART 275 and IDS 254 may vary. See the Religious Studies Advisor to verify that a specific offering of these courses will count in the course Group listed above.