In keeping with the overall mission of Brevard College, the major in Religious Studies promotes an open-minded appreciation for the varied practices and beliefs of the Hebrew and Christian traditions as well as other religious and philosophical traditions. Students who graduate with a major in this discipline will be well-equipped to do the following:
1. understand the nature and significance of the beliefs and practices of various religious traditions;
2. articulate and defend personal positions on major questions of meaning and value, informed by insights from philosophical and religious traditions;
3. read and analyze primary and secondary source materials in philosophy and religious studies;
4. write with clarity and appropriate use of discipline-related documentation;
5. enter into graduate study in religion and/or related disciplines and/or lead productive professional lives.
With the assistance of their academic advisors, Religious Studies majors select the courses most appropriate to their intellectual interests and vocational aspirations from the options within distribution areas common to all majors (scriptural analysis; historical studies; philosophy, theology, and ethics; studies in religious diversity).
Majors may further individualize their programs of study by selecting restricted elective courses within a personally-designed focus area (such as philosophy, diversity studies, biblical archaeology, etc.). Whether they choose to focus their study in this fashion or to sample more broadly, all majors complete a senior research methodologies seminar, a major portfolio, and a senior project or thesis.