[Above] Indigenous ceremonial leaders sing sacred songs at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota to block construction of the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline through Anishinaabe/Ojibwe treaty land and sacred sites. MSU Religion professor Mark Clatterbuck was there to support the resistance effort and to document the movement for an upcoming book. Undergraduate students are playing key roles in the research project.
Photo credit: Dave Parry (June 2021)
Religion is ever-present in today’s world. Nationally, we see everything from carefully argued Supreme Court decisions about religious freedom to political debates over the role of religion in matters related to family cohesion, sexuality, and social justice. Globally, religion is a major force in politics and thus is a dominant theme in both major news outlets and social media.
A degree in Religion provides students with broad cultural literacy and top-notch critical thinking skills.
Montclair State is one of the few public universities in New Jersey that offers a Religion major. The major gives students a grounding in many different aspects of the study of religion, while allowing them to choose electives in the areas that interest them most. Religion students have an opportunity to explore the field of Religion and many enroll in a concluding seminar with other students majoring or minoring in Religion. Religion students also have the option to take an Engaged Learning Project course, doing applied work on campus or in the community for credit towards the major. All Religion students are encouraged to investigate the religious cultures of peoples around the world and to experiment with different methods of interpreting religious texts and cultures.
We offer (1) a Religion major, (2) a Religion major with a teacher certification options (both K-6 and BA/MAT in Special Ed), (3) a Religion BA/MBA, (4) a minor in Religion, (5) a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies, (6) and a minor in Jewish American Studies.
Nationally, Religion majors perform exceptionally well on standardized tests for professional and post-graduate study, including being in the top three performers on the Verbal and Analytical Writing sections of the GRE for graduate school and in overall scores for the LSAT for law school. Our graduates have gone on to careers in education, social services, business and law among other areas.
[At left: Dr. Mark Clatterbuck outlining concepts of good/evil in an “Understanding Religion” class.]
Our faculty in Religion have expertise in religion, society, and culture; religion and politics; religious ethics; and religious texts. Our curriculum covers each of the major religious traditions in today’s world and explores a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of religion and spirituality in societies, past and present. Our students study the impact of religion on world politics or the role of women in religious history. They can also learn the fine points of interpreting religious texts, like the Qur’an or the Bhagavad Gita or they can examine the philosophies of Buddhism, Daoism, or any of the world’s religious traditions.