Religion

Department Head: Jeff Kosky; koskyj@wlu.edu; 540-458-8180

Academic Division: The College

The Religion Department is dedicated to the academic study of religion as a complex and dynamic phenomenon deeply interwoven with other aspects of life and culture. It is an integral part of the liberal arts curriculum of the University. The department’s goals are:

To teach about the world’s religious traditions, introducing students to the thought, beliefs, institutions, symbolic expressions, worship, and social and moral implications of these traditions, and to illuminate their interaction with other social and cultural forms, including other religious traditions;
To introduce students to the various methods employed in religious studies: historical, philosophical and theological, sociological and psychological, textual, hermeneutical and aesthetic, and comparative;
To provide a place for addressing big questions of value, meaning, and human cares and for assessing the ways these are addressed in religious communities;
To encourage students to think about religious ways of life tolerantly, sympathetically, and yet critically.

HONORS: An Honors Program in religion is offered for qualified students; see department head for details.

NOTE: The religion courses are numbered according to the following scheme. Within the 100, 200 and 300 levels, the last two digits indicate the following groupings:

00-29 Introductions, Methods and Issues
30-49 Asian
50-69 Christian
70-89 Islam, Judaism, American Indian Religions
90-99 Topics

Offerings

Religion, B.A.

Religion minor

Faculty

First date is the year in which the faculty member began service as regular faculty at the University. Second date is the year of appointment to the present rank.

Kameliya Atanasova, Ph.D.—(2017)-2017
Assistant Professor of Islamic Religion and History
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Alexandra R. Brown, Ph.D.—(1987)-2001
Fletcher Otey Thomas Professor of Bible
Ph.D., Columbia University

Emily Filler, Ph.D.—(2020)-2020
Assistant Professor of Religion
Ph.D., University of Virginia

Jeffrey L. Kosky, Ph.D.—(2003)-2013
Professor of Religion
Ph.D., University of Chicago Divinity School

Timothy Lubin, Ph.D.—(1997)-2009
Jessie Ball duPont Professor of Religion and Adjunct Professor of Law
Ph.D., Columbia University