The Department of Religious Studies is housed on the third floor of Rutledge College on the historic Horseshoe, the tree-shaded site of the University's original campus, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rutledge College is the oldest building of the University and contains the University chapel as well as honor student residences. The USC campus is located in the heart of Columbia's business district and just a few blocks from the South Carolina State House.
Departmental status was awarded in 1949. The undergraduate major was established in 1968 and the master's degree in 1988.
Steve Lynn chairs a faculty of seven full-time members who teach courses in the areas of World Religions, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion and Culture, African American Religious Experience. The full-time faculty is augmented by part-time instructors, adjunct faculty, and associate faculty, distributed across a range of disciplines. Religious Studies Faculty Associates enrich the department through research and teaching in the areas of History, Anthropology, Political Science, English, Comparative Literature, and Philosophy.
All members of the department teach regularly in the distinguished South Carolina Honors College; several courses every semester are offered in the Honors College.
The department publishes an annual newsletter and sponsors Partners in Dialogue, an interfaith community service project. The Encyclopedia of Hinduism project has been housed on campus under the department's auspices for the past ten years.
The department sponsors a variety of special events including three distinguished visiting lectureships: the Solomon Tenenbaum Lectureship in Jewish Studies, the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Lectureship series, and the Nadine Beacham and Charleton F. Hall Sr. Lectureship in New Testament and Early Christianity. It also sponsors the Annual Rudolph C. Barnes Sr. Symposium on Law and Morality, held in conjunction with the Law School, and special programs associated with interfaith activities in the Columbia area.
