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The Temple Department of Religion was created in 1961, one
of the first Religion departments to be organized at a public university.
Although we evolved out of what was a theology department in a private Baptist
college, the department has always seen itself as distinct from seminaries and
religion departments in religiously based institutions. The program was always
global in its scope, and included a diverse range of religion scholars from most
of the world's major religious traditions. The department has always been fueled
by the wisdom that if you know only one religion, you really don't know any, and
by the notion that scholars who are also engaged in religious cultures are in
the best position to teach about them, emphasizing the study of world religions
and the dialogue among them.
Doctoral students come from every religious tradition
imaginable (and from many countries around the world) with the goal of
understanding religious traditions other than the ones in which they were raised
and deepening their understanding of their own through critical analysis. The
graduates of our department are some of the leading scholars of religion both in
the United States and abroad. Our graduates get excellent positions because they
are equipped to teach about the religions of the world in any university or
seminary setting. Our great strength as a department is providing students,
graduate and undergraduate alike, with a broad background about many religious
traditions, and a heightened awareness of the way religion functions in American
society--most critical in the global situation in which we find ourselves today.
Since the mid 1990s we have begun to focus more extensively
on the undergraduate curriculum, and have increased our course offerings and the
number of our majors exponentially. Our newly revised Masters program has
attracted some highly qualified local high school teachers and people from the
general public who are interested in understanding the role religion plays in
our ever-changing society.
The
department has been strengthened over the years by
connections with other universities in our region and around the globe. We have
had a vital exchange program with the University
of Tübingen, and are now involved in developing a relationship with Gadjah
Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Our students also continue to
benefit from our consortial agreements
with the Department
of Religious Studies at the University
of Pennsylvania and area seminaries. Faculty and graduate student exchanges
have brought a unique perspective to our program.
The department is the home of Jewish
Studies and the center for Islamic Studies at the University. We also make
significant contributions to Women's Studies, Asian Studies, and the
Intellectual Heritage Program and have a strong cooperative relationship with
the Department of
Greek, Hebrew and Roman Classics and the Master
of Liberal Arts Program. The department also houses the Journal of
Ecumenical Studies, which supports our efforts towards inter-religious
conversation.
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