Study the religious dimension of cultures historically and globally.
As a Religious Studies major or minor, take an academic journey of acquiring awareness and understanding of religious dimensions, traditions and their significance across cultures and historical periods.
You’ll examine religion through various vantage points by taking both a broad range of interdisciplinary courses and making focused, critical inquiries into particular historic religious traditions, geographical areas, philosophical and critical approaches, and thematic and comparative studies.
Courses at any of the 5Cs are open to you and advanced students may, with permission, enroll in master’s level courses in their area of specialization at Claremont Graduate University.
What You’ll Study
- Four courses in a concentration
- Three courses outside your concentration
- A senior seminar and senior thesis
- Language study appropriate to your concentration recommended
Learning at Pomona
Studying the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Rachel Marandett '20 constructed a method to apply Holocaust discourse to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., traveling to Czech Republic and Morocco, and working with the NGO Genocide Watch.
Studying Abroad in Israel
Talia Ivry '21 spent her summer in Israel learning about Abrahamic religions, and participated in an archaeological dig in Akko.
Religion in Politics
Renee Susanto '21 spent the summer in Indonesia, where she studied the role of religion in Indonesian politics and the connection between ethnic and religious minorities.
In an academic context like Pomona, religious studies is not about indoctrination or theology, but about exploring the effects of religion on people, institutions, and thoughts, both historically and at the present moment. In other words, in religious studies classes, you’ll never ponder the question ‘Does God exist?’ but rather, ‘If God exists, why do people suffer?’ (in Professor Darryl Smith’s Problem of Evil class), or ‘How has belief in God shaped our world?