MA Program Overview
Master of Arts in Religious Studies
The Master of Arts program of study offers the substantial preparation required for admission to internationally recognized doctoral programs in Religious Studies. Students become acquainted with the intellectual history of Religious Studies and its closely related disciplines, learn to think critically about the academic study of religion with reference to new and innovative theoretical perspectives, develop a competence in one or two religious traditions and establish the linguistic skills necessary for original research. Applications are welcome from students who do not intend to pursue advanced graduate training in Religious Studies. Our graduates have found the Master of Arts in Religious Studies valuable to professional careers in law, public policy, social work, journalism, counseling and ministry.
In addition to the departmental faculty, students are encouraged to work with Religious Studies Faculty Associates from a variety of departments at the University of South Carolina and from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
Areas of Specialization
Students select a single area of specialization and one or two religious traditions as the focus of their work. Each area of specialization emphasizes a different set of problems in the academic study of religion and distinctive methods appropriate to research. Since students interested in a variety of religious traditions may choose to work in the same area of specialization, conversations among students and between students and their instructor place each religious tradition within a comparative perspective. In addition to their primary area of specialization, students take additional course work in one or two of the other areas of specialization.
Texts and Traditions: The study of texts (including oral and visual texts) in the life of specific religious communities. Such study may include attention to the literary and rhetorical features of such texts, to the relationship between such features and the function of texts within communities of practice, and to the use of texts as evidence in historical analysis.
Theology and Religious Thought: The study of the doctrines, cosmologies, spiritual practices, visions and ethics of religious traditions. This includes attention to the historical development and philosophical and cultural contexts of theological reflection within specific religions, as well as the examination of their foundational principles. Work undertaken within this area may be comparative in nature.
Religion and Society: The study of religious institutions, practices, and experiences in relation to other cultural forms within contemporary or historical societies. A variety of social and psychological perspectives, including those attentive to gender, race, class, modernization and globalization, are used to illuminate such relationships. Study may include the analysis and criticism of literary and other arts as forms of religious expression and the analysis of the role played by religious institutions, practices, and experiences in social transformation and political resistance.
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