Religious Studies Concentration, Professor Paul Dietrich, Advisor

Religion has been taught as an academic discipline at the University of Montana since 1924.  Located within the Global Humanities and Religions Program, the study of religion is pursued in the University in an interdisciplinary setting that offers opportunities for exploration and discovery in many areas of the humanities, art, and sciences.  Our Religious Studies courses emphasize the scholarly analysis and interpretation of the history, literature, beliefs, myths, symbols, rituals, ethical and legal codes, and communities and institutions of the world's religious traditions.

We investigate how the world's religions address enduring human questions and influence responses to daily problems, and we explore how religious traditions shape lives and societies, from the emergence of the earliest civilizations to 21st-century global conflicts.  Our students engage ideas about the good life and death, suffering and happiness, war and peace, revelation and salvation, God, mysticism, and religious experience. The curriculum is designed to provide students with a broad and deep understanding of religion as a field of human activity and inquiry. Students acquire the skills necessary to investigate specific religious traditions in historical depth and to understand the forms, expressions, and roles of religion in the world today.