Basic information and advice for new students
- Profile and structure of the ‘Interfaculty Program for the Study of Religion’
- Overview of the degree program
- Examination and Degree Regulations
- Language requirement for the BA in Religious Studies
Profile and structure of the ‘Interfaculty Program for the Study of Religion’
Content and aims
The BA degree program for the Study of Religion provides an overview of academic methods and focuses on the scholarly analysis of different belief systems and their relationship to other cultural spheres. Different areas of specialization develop out of the students' own particular interests, the language they decide to learn, the courses they choose to attend, and possibly a period of study abroad.
At every stage of the degree program students will be encouraged to reflect on the history of the study of religions and the concepts and terminology that provide a theoretical framework for the analysis and objectification of cultural manifestations and cultural transformation processes.
The ‘Interfaculty Program for the Study of Religion’ aims to give students:
- a basic knowledge of the most useful theories and methods required for the study of religion;
- a broad overview of religious traditions and currents;
- an idea of the breadth, the fields of specialization and the interdisciplinary character of the Study of Religion;
- the opportunity to shape their own individual, historical and methodological area of specialization;
- competence in the analysis of different ideologies and worldviews.
Students will acquire a deep and sustained ability to describe, analyze and interpret religious doctrines and practices from different perspectives in cultural contexts (academic competence). They will learn to identify conflict and consensus topics in religions and to talk about them using objective criteria (interreligious and social competence), and they will gain the ability to present and explain complex facts in order to facilitate interreligious dialog (communicative competence).
Discipline-specific skills and knowledge
Students will learn to recognize, analyze, describe and explain ‘religious’ elements and ‘religion’ in social processes, and to take into account both outsider and insider views. They will think about how religion is communicated, with the main focus on texts, but without neglecting other forms of expression, such as images, dance, music, objects, body techniques, etc. They will learn to distinguish between ‘religious’ and ‘scientific’ forms of interpretation, and to recognize historical interdependencies[ak6] between religion, science and the humanities. Religion will be presented and described as an empirically observable fact, expression, practice, etc. By the end of their BA program, students will have acquired the specific ability to relate empirical data and factual knowledge of cultural complexities to the original context and to understand religion as a constitutive element of cultural dynamics.
Cross-disciplinary skills and knowledge
Depending on their chosen area of specialization and career plans, students will be required to learn a non-European, an ancient European or a modern European source language, thus broadening the usual academic language repertoire. During the degree program, students will be introduced to different aspects of various topics, and will be encouraged to discuss them and relate them to each other. This gives students practice in researching, structuring, condensing and evaluating knowledge and information. From the beginning, all teaching formats require and encourage networked interdisciplinary thinking. In addition the students will learn to use different methodological approaches for studying complex cultural phenomena. They will thus be enabled to formulate particular and general statements and at the same time to produce soundly based overall descriptions. By enquiring into the history of the study of religions, its theories and conceptualizations and its methodological pluralism, and by reflecting on interdisciplinary research approaches, students will learn to assess and classify discourses, approaches, ideas and propositions, and will be ideally qualified for fields of employment that involve cooperation between different professions.
Intercultural and social competence
Through historical, systematic and comparative studies of different societies and different eras, students will acquire a critical, non-evaluative attitude to ‘foreignness and otherness’. Processes of exchange, understanding and communication will be initiated, analyzed and supported. A respectful, cooperative approach to others that is at the same time critical and objective will be encouraged and developed in university and non-university contexts, with methodological and individual training in critical ability and self-reflection. Students will thus acquire the ability to grasp complex relationships, to analyze them and describe them in theoretical terms, and to arrive independently at scientifically sound judgements from a cultural studies perspective
Research competence
Students will learn to find, collect, assess and analyze different sources of information on any given topic. During the orientation phase they will be acquainted with various media in the virtual seminar ‘Orientation Knowledge of Religions’; advanced training to develop this competence will be offered in the compulsory elective module ‘Research Training’.
Communicative competence
Through the different didactic formats of the courses, students will become familiar with different communication frameworks, and different forms, paths and rules of communication: teaching in seminar form challenges and encourages students to enter into debate with each other and with their teachers; in the virtual seminar, students practice goal-oriented communication without face-to-face contact. Research projects in small groups give students training in discussion and consensus-building with the other members of the group; they will be required to present their own work and to develop effective media and presentation skills, and they will have plenty of opportunities to practice rhetorical skills, presentation techniques, and the preparing of complex information to make it clearly comprehensible.
Overview of the degree program
|
Semester |
Modules |
ECTS- |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
P 1 Basic introduction to theory and methods in the Study of Religion A |
12 |
|
2 |
P 3 Basic introduction to theory and methods in the Study of Religion B |
6 |
|
3 |
P 5 History and transformation of religious traditions |
12 |
|
4 |
P 7 Religions in their literary traditions |
9 |
|
5 |
P 9 The Study of Religion and society |
6 |
|
6 |
P 10/II Interdisciplinary research approaches and current topics |
12 |
Total in major subject |
120 |
Examination and Degree Regulations (Prüfungs- und Studienordnung, PStO)
Language requirement for the BA in the Study of Religion
The Examination and Degree Regulations require that in the course of your degree program you earn 12 ECTS points by learning a language.
The aim is for you to learn a language that is related to the religious traditions in which you are most interested and on which you would like to focus in your third and fourth semesters.
In principle you can choose any language with the exception of English.
Example: If you are especially interested in Buddhism, then you could learn Sanskrit or Pali as a source language, or a modern language spoken in a country with Buddhist traditions, such as Thai.
! If you are considering going on to take a master's degree in the Study of Religion, we strongly recommend that you learn a non-European source language, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit or Chinese!
If you have learned a language outside school at a recognized language institution, this can be accepted as fulfillment of the regulations (in the first semester!) and/or you can improve your knowledge of this language. In such a case, please consult the curriculum advisor.