Religious Studies
Religious Studies at Bethel
Religious
Studies seeks to educate the student in the religions as a component of
the mission of the college. To accomplish this, students pursuing
Religious Studies will:
- Study non-Christian religions so as to gain an understanding of religion and its diversity in North America and today's world.
- Understand religion as an academic discipline taught by faculty from a variety disciplines including history of religions, theology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and sociology.
- Engage, where appropriate, normative questions dealing with the conflicting truth-claims of the religions.
- Cultivate
the attitudes and values necessary to respond in civil and responsible
ways as evangelicals to the common challenges facing all religions in
an age of ethical individualism, moral degeneracy, inter-religious
conflict and religious oppression.
The
religious studies minor, new to Bethel in 2001, is a broadly based
interdisciplinary program designed to complement other academic
pursuits and responds to Bethel's commitment to understand diversity,
specifically the burgeoning religious diversity of our times. The
context of the program is the evangelical Christian liberal arts
environment which seeks to foster an appreciation for the complexity of
the human religious phenomenon, to develop the capacity to critically
evaluate religious traditions and worldviews, and to cultivate the
skills necessary to engage responsibly as evangelical Christians in
religiously plural societies. The goal is to prepare Bethel graduates
for careers that require professionalism in understanding religions in
fields such as higher education, ministry, health professions,
religious news journalism, social work, political science, and
international relations.