Religion
Photo: Theo Beers
The major in religion allows concentrators the opportunity to study diverse cultures, texts, and ideologies. The interdisciplinary nature of the department and its faculty, whose backgrounds and research interests in the study of religion include history, anthropology, philosophy, literature, politics, and ethics, means that we tend to attract a diverse group of majors. Despite a range of interests and approaches, the department has a strong sense of community and collegiality that is actively fostered by faculty, staff, and students, both undergraduate and graduate. Religion majors, like most liberal arts concentrators at Princeton, follow many different paths after graduation. Most go into careers such as law, medicine, business, advertising, journalism, politics, teaching, foreign affairs, publishing, and creative writing. Some choose to take a year or more off and spend their time working for social service programs such as Teach for America and the Peace Corps. A few go on to graduate school in religion, history, literature, philosophy, area studies, and anthropology. A small number of our graduates enter seminaries and rabbinical schools. We see the diversity of our majors' interests and the many paths they choose after graduation as evidence that the major in religion teaches skills of thinking, communicating, and understanding.
What Students Say
• What is religion?
• What can you learn from it?
• What is it like being a religion major?
• What are common misconceptions about religion majors?
• What kind of internships and international experiences have religion majors had?
• How will religion majors save the world?
• Why would anyone want to date a religion major?
What is religion?
• What can you learn from it?
• What is it like being a religion major?
• What are common misconceptions about religion majors?
• What kind of internships and international experiences have religion majors had?
• How will religion majors save the world?
• Why would anyone want to date a religion major?
What is religion?
If you become a religion major, you will soon learn that there is no simple answer to this question. Should religion be thought about based on what it is (a criterion that generates definitions that range from “the only source of truth” to “pure lies”)? Or should it be thought about in terms of how it is experienced by people who do (and do not) consider themselves religious (a basis for definition that yields similarly diverse understandings)? Perhaps a more important question for potential majors, however, is “What is the study of religion?” The answers to this question are equally varied. The study of religion is the study of humanity, and the study of human thought. It is also the study of anthropology. It is the study of history, philosophy, art, sociology, and literature. The study of religion is a way of using disciplines across the liberal arts to better understand religion, a phenomenon that forms an important part of our world.
Religion has been an almost constant presence in human history, and thus the study of religion is a largely comprehensive window into the humanities at large. Students of religion consider questions such as how people and societies organize themselves, how people believe and what they believe in, and what human beings value and have valued across history. Religion majors and scholars approach these ideas from different disciplines as well as different perspectives within each discipline. The result is a vibrant intellectual environment and community of people with similar interests but myriad approaches.
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What can you learn from it?As a religion major, you can learn how to understand people with whom you may initially appear to have nothing in common. You can learn to research cultures that existed millennia ago as well as those that exist today. You can learn to frame questions that are both sensitive and effective. You can learn to respond to questions that have troubled the world’s greatest philosophers. Religion can also become a lens through which to view other disciplines. Most importantly, you can learn that your colloquium is worth 40 percent of your junior independent work grade. Seriously. Don’t blow it off.
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What is it like being a religion major?
Another common misconception is that religion majors are either all intensely religious and dismissive of those who wish to ask the "hard questions" or all intensely atheistic and dismissive of those who are willing and eager to maintain their faith in this modern age. This is simply not true. In my experience, the religion department is composed of some of the most tolerant personalities on campus. From the students to the professors, personal religious beliefs are surprisingly varied (I've spoken to Buddhists and Christian Scientists) and seminars never feel like forums in which participants are unable to speak their minds. Open minds are not lacking in this department and, in fact, are the reason why it is so rewarding to be a Religion concentrator.
Amazing. We get to know our fellow majors through our junior colloquium, other tiny classes, hanging out in the department lounge, and awesome student-planned departmental events. We get great attention from professors who usually advise no more than three undergrads at a time. And, for the indecisive amongst us, we get to use the resources of any discipline that strikes our fancy when doing our independent work. Hooray for being interdisciplinary!
Religion really is a very congenial department. Majors are friends with majors, faculty members you've never even had a class with not only know your name, but the topic of your independent work (and want to suggest some extra sources). Even the grad students are incredibly nice and want to help you and hear all about your thesis topic/lack of thesis topic/post-graduation plans/lack of post-graduation plans.
Everyone being so friendly doesn't just make for a great social atmosphere, but a great intellectual atmosphere as well. Religion majors talk to each other about independent work and Dean's Date papers, lend books to each other, and even proofread each other's papers. Older religion majors are always happy to help younger ones, whether it's with citation format questions or finding a couch to crash on while visiting grad schools.
Having only one JP allows you to really study a topic that interests you, and helps you realize that a thesis isn't as daunting as you might initially think! The colloquium is a wonderful way to meet other majors in the department and learn research techniques that actually will help with your JP and thesis. And even if your JP adviser seems to specialize in a field that has nothing to do with your topic or interests, don't worry — all the professors know a tremendous amount about everything, and you can always ask another professor for his or her input as well.
This misconception doesn’t really exist at Princeton (or amongst other parts of the educated world for that matter), but most of us still go through this conversation at least every few weeks:
Them: “Where do you go to school?”
Us: “New Jersey.”
Them: “What school?”
Us (modestly): “Princeton.”
Them: “Cool. What do you study?”
Us (proudly): “Religion.”
Them: “Oh, so you’re going to be a priest (/minister/rabbi/imam/other religious leader).”
Us: “No, actually I’m planning to become a lawyer (/doctor/teacher/investment banker/public relations specialist/management consultant/ski bum).”
That’s right. Most religion majors don’t choose a career that has much to do with religion. Like any other A.B. program at Princeton, the Department of Religion teaches us how to think critically and creatively. Once we learn to do that, we can do anything.
Some religion majors go into careers in academia, in religion or other humanities subjects (literary theory, political theory, anthropology, social sciences, history, anything). Plenty go off to more lucrative careers in law, consulting, banking, and business. Some are teachers, writers, publishers, artists, actors, and generally fascinating people. One now lives in a yurt (seriously).
Even our professors joke about what we're supposed to tell people when they ask us what we study, and we all have our own stories about how we convinced our parents that it was OK to major in religion. There are plenty of misconceptions, and plenty of different ways to answer the question. But most of us are so happy that we are majoring in religion that the real problem when we're asked what we study is getting us to stop smiling about it.
One major has spent two summers at Princeton in Beijing, another summer helping litigants without lawyers in London, and a semester studying secularization in Seville. Other majors have worked at the French National Assembly for a summer, or spent two months on a pilgrimage in Spain (funded by Princeton!). Majors have watched avant-garde films on mountaintops in Arcadia, Greece and done humanitarian work everywhere from South Africa to the Bronx. Majors have also been successful at landing internships at banks, consulting firms, and other corporate firms — you don't have to be a Woody Woo major to get those jobs!
There is a lot of financial support for religion majors doing research for independent projects through the Center for the Study of Religion and other offices throughout the university. Thesis and JP research takes majors from the beaches of the Caribbean (no kidding) to the streets of Cairo to the mountains of Tibet, not to mention all over the United States and Europe visiting archives, sacred buildings, and historical sites.
Being a Religion major gives you a unique perspective on the world, and often makes you really stand out when applying for internships and fellowships. Many majors spend the year after graduation abroad, whether through a Princeton in [Continent] program or on various other fellowships around the world.
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We’ve read countless eschatological texts, so we know all about the end of the world. Or do we? Should we be concerned about the Second Coming or the Hour? Will the rapture come before or after the tribulation? In any event, it’s pretty much impossible to convince supernatural forces not to end the world once they’ve made up their minds to do it, so the only thing we can think to do is save every person in the world. It may be tricky for Princeton’s twenty-odd religion majors to save several billion people (especially since we all study different religions), but we’re up to the challenge.
Anytime you pick up a newspaper these days, you can't help but read at least one headline that has to do with religion. War and peace are both so often based in religious ideas, so who better than a religion major to sort everything out? Besides learning enough about the religious bases for conflict to fill the op-ed pages for decades, we learn about compassion, the good, and even the miraculous as part of our required curriculum. Who better to save the world?
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We think the better question is, “Why would anyone NOT want to date a religion major?” We have a great pad. (The south wing of 1879 Hall is warm and welcoming and includes a comfy lounge with great coffee that is frequented by talkative professors.) We’re always cheerful. (It’s impossible for undergrad administrator Kerry Smith’s smiles not to rub off on everyone who sees her.) And we’re great at making clever conversation. (You kind of have to be when you attend as many seminars as we do.)