Department of Religion

The major in religion allows concentrators the opportunity to study diverse cultures, peoples, texts, and ideologies. Some examples are African-American religions, the literature of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, the Gnostic gospels, ancient Israel, modern Jewish thought, history and contemporary American religion, philosophy of religion, religious and philosophical ethics, political thought, gender and the body in American religions, and the roles of women in contemporary Muslim societies. Department requirements are designed to introduce the students to at least four major world religious traditions of the past and present and to various approaches to the study of religion. We also expect our students to gain depth of knowledge in a chosen area through their independent work, as well as through coursework.

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 majors who are a diverse group. 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. The department lounge in 1879 Hall is a communal space that is at the center of the department.

One unusual feature of the concentration in religion is the plan for independent work in the junior year. First-semester juniors do not write a junior paper. Instead they participate in a required colloquium that culminates in a workshop on research and writing and a 10-page research paper. The colloquium is a noncredit fifth course. The grade for the colloquium is factored into the final grade for the junior independent work. In addition to the intellectual experience of the colloquium, most students find that it prepares them for future independent work and fosters a strong sense of group identity and support among the junior majors.

The department welcomes study abroad, but does require those students who study abroad in the fall of their junior year and miss the required colloquium to write a fall junior paper.

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.