Welcome to the Program For The Study of Religion

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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There are no upcoming events at this time. Check back later for information about events we schedule for the 2008-2009 academic year!


PROGRAM NEWS

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Congratulations to Ian Clausen and Michael Mrozinsky, who have both been awarded the Hoffman Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Religious Studies for 2008.

Congratulations to Matt Tedeschi, Jeff Peyton, and Marianne Howe, who have all been awarded the Religious Studies Excellence in Undergraduate Studies Award for 2008.

Congratulations to our faculty and graduate students who have been recognized for excellent teaching for Fall 2007!

Professor Rajeshwari Pandharipande has been selected as a Distinguished Teacher/Scholar at the U of I, beginning in the academic year 2008-2009.

Congratulations to Justin Doran, a major in the Program for the Study of Religion, who has received a Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship to study Method and Theory in the PhD program in Religious Studies at the University of California at Riverside beginning in Fall 2008.

Professor Wayne Pitard has become Director of the Spurlock Museum. In addition, his book, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume 2: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary on KTU 1.3-1.4, will be forthcoming from Brill in 2009.

Professor Jonathan Ebel's book, Faith in the Fight: Religion and the American Soldier in the First World War, will be forthcoming from Princeton University Press.

Congratulations to Ian Clausen, a major in the Program for the Study of Religion, who is U of I's first Marshall Scholarship recipient in a decade.

Professor Jonathan Ebel wins Faculty Fellowship from the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities for 2007-2008.

Professors Richard Layton and Walter Feinberg receive support from the Spencer Foundation for their project "Current Initiatives to Teach Courses on Religion in Public Schools: Visions of American Citizenship Education."

Professor Wayne Pitard receives Alumni Discretionary Award and becomes NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellow.

U. of I., USC students collaborating on unique archaeology project

NEW BOOKS FROM RELIGIOUS STUDIES FACULTY

A warm word of welcome! We invite you to explore our web site and to learn about our programs of study, courses, public events, faculty, and much more besides.

Students in our courses learn about the history, concepts, beliefs, practices, rituals, artifacts, and so on, of traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the tradition of the ancient Hebrews.

Our students are expected to understand how these religious traditions reflect the social contexts in which they emerged, and in turn how the traditions affect and transform the societies in which they flourish. And our students are required to acquire and to deploy the methods of many humanistic and social science disciplines in the course of their studies.

Whether for good or for ill, religion will have a central place in human affairs for the foreseeable future. Public expressions of religious identity will continue to serve as a way to give voice to ethnic and cultural differences. The world's religions show no signs of blending into one super-religion. Nor is religion going to yield to science. Instead religious differences, struggles among religious groups, and the involvement of religious identities, allegiances, and perspectives in all aspects of human affairs probably will persist into the distant future. For these and many other reasons the rigorous study of religion will remain as important as it has ever been.

Needless to say, the academic study of religion does not aim to promote (or to challenge) any particular perspective on religious matters. Drawing upon many methodologies it engages in the bold and challenging project of attempting to understand religion objectively and in all of its dimensions.

Robert McKim
Director

Secondary Content

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