BA Religious Studies (With Foundation Year)
About this course
Religious Studies is a discipline that takes seriously some of the most fundamental questions human beings ask: about the nature of the sacred, the meaning of life and death, the foundations of moral obligation, and the ways in which communities build shared identities and practices around belief. It is not a confessional subject; it does not require or assume religious belief. Instead, it brings the tools of history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and textual scholarship to bear on the world's religious traditions, asking how they developed, what they teach, how they function in society, and how they have shaped and been shaped by culture, politics, and science. At Liverpool Hope University, this four-year full-time programme begins with a foundation year that provides a broad introduction to the methods and questions of the discipline before you move into the full degree. You will engage with the major world religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and with the philosophical questions that cut across them: the existence of God, the problem of evil, the ethics of religious life, and the relationship between faith and reason. The programme also covers the sociology and anthropology of religion, exploring how religious communities organise themselves and how religious change happens over time. A sandwich year and work placement are built into the programme, connecting your academic studies to professional contexts in which understanding religion and belief is genuinely relevant, including education, the charity sector, journalism, interfaith work, and public policy. A year abroad is also available, broadening your perspective further. Graduates pursue careers in education, religious leadership, social work, community development, journalism, the civil service, and interfaith and charitable organisations. Many go on to postgraduate study in theology, religious ethics, philosophy of religion, or related fields. Religious Studies develops a kind of careful, open-minded engagement with different worldviews that is increasingly valuable in diverse societies.
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