Fields of Study

American Religious History
History and Ethnography of Religions
Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy
Religions of Western Antiquity

American Religious History

American Religious History (ARH) is one of the four “tracks” that students can follow to obtain graduate degrees in Religion at FSU. Faculty and students in this area of study investigate the ways religious belief and practice figure in the historical construction of various aspects of American culture. Students pursing this area of study fulfill specific degree requirements in ARH under the supervision of the Department’s team of historians of American religion—Professors John Corrigan, Sonia Hazard, Laura McTighe, and Michael McVicar.

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History and Ethnography of Religions

The mission of the M.A./Ph.D. concentration in History and Ethnography of Religions (HER) is to provide interdisciplinary training in the study of religion and in the historical and anthropological study of specific religious traditions covered by HER faculty. Students in the program pursue specialized work in the social and cultural histories, rituals, practices, literatures, philosophies, and languages of individual religious traditions. 

Programs:

  • Religions of Africa & the Carribean
    • African Indigenous Religions
    • African Initiated Churches
    • Afro-Caribbean religions (Candomble, Ifá, Lukumi, Obeah, Vodou)
    • Asian religions in the Black Atlantic (Baha'i, Buddhism, Hinduism)
    • Christianity, Islam, and Judaism
    • New religious movements
  • Religions of Asia 
    • Buddhism
    • Hinduism
    • Shinto
    • Religious traditions of Central, East, South, and Southeast Asia (including India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam)
  • Religions of Western Europe & the Mediterranean
    • Christianity and Judaism (medieval and early modern)
    • Islam

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Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy

The program in religion, ethics, and philosophy is designed to train scholars in (1) the philosophical and theoretical analysis of religious phenomena; (2) modern and historic expressions of religious thought, particularly in Europe and North America; (3) comparative analysis of the religious, philosophical, and ethical traditions of Europe and North America with those of the Middle East, South and East Asia; (4) historical and contemporary literature related to political ethics, the justification and conduct of war, the nature and scope of human rights discourse, and issues in ethics and the life sciences. To this end, students concentrating in religion, ethics, and philosophy take courses dealing with theory and method in the study of religion, hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, modern and historic expressions of religious thought, religious and philosophical ethics, and other topics related to the overall goals of the program. While the Department of Religion offers a rich variety of courses in this area, students are also encouraged, in consultation with area faculty, to take courses across the University. The Departments of Philosophy, Sociology, Classics, History, English, and Modern Languages are particularly relevant, as are the programs in Humanities and American and Florida Studies and in the College of Law.

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Religions of Western Antiquity

Religions of Western Antiquity studies the religions of the Mediterranean world and western Asia up to the rise of Islam. Although encompassing a wide range of subjects from religion in ancient Egypt to religions of the Graeco-Roman world through late antiquity, most of the courses in this area deal with ancient Judaism and early Christianity, including close studies of the literary, historical, and sociological dimensions of the diverse texts considered authoritative by a number of different Jewish and Christian communities. This means that in addition to acquiring the intensive philological and historical training necessary to do research in the area, students will be expected to be firmly grounded in the methods of the historical-critical study of the Bible as they developed over the past two centuries and to have an understanding of the history of interpretation of the Bible in the ancient and medieval periods. Students in this area will work closely with Professors Goff, Kelley, Levenson, and Durdin in the Religion Department, and will take advantage of the close links we have to the Classics and Philosophy Departments. Students entering the PhD program are expected to have training in the methods of Religious Studies and are encouraged to do some of their work in other departmental areas.

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