| Field of Study: | Religion/Religious Studies
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| Description: | It is perhaps obvious that, in an increasingly multicultural environment, understanding the world’s religious traditions is more than ever required for us even to understand our new friends and neighbours. But the study of World Religions also helps us to understand ourselves and our own religious traditions, and there is wisdom in the dictum of all comparative studies: “She who knows only one, knows none.” The impulse to religion appears to be a universal characteristic of the human species, and studying the various forms this impulse has taken throughout history and across the globe is perhaps the most fascinating study one can undertake. You need not be religious yourself to engage in this enterprise, nor need you worry that your own religious tradition, if you have one, will be undermined. King’s University College is certainly a proud Roman Catholic institution, but here all religious traditions are treated with equal respect and, in the World Religions and Culture Program, treated with equal interest.
But the study of World Religions & Cultures is also highly practical. In an ever-shrinking world, we constantly find ourselves surrounded by peoples of different religions and cultures, many of whom we simply do not understand. And a lack of understanding often leads to tragic consequences, as is made evident every night on the evening news. Before you can change the world for the better, however, you first need to understand it. On its own, or combined with other fields such as Psychology, Sociology, or Social Work, a study of the religions and cultures of the globe is an essential ingredient in bringing positive change to the world.
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