The Program in Religion at Hunter College is the oldest, largest and most comprehensive program of religious studies in the City University. It is an interdisciplinary program under the direction of an inter-departmental coordinating committee.
The program consists of a series of core courses taught by specialists in the field, augmented by other religion courses offered by faculty in 8 participating departments or divisions: Anthropology, Africana, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Chinese, Classics, Hebrew, History, Philosophy and Sociology. The program is divided into four categories of courses: Introduction to the field of religion (basic introductory courses); Theoretical studies in religion (courses focusing on different methodological approaches to the study of religion); Issues in religion (courses dealing with religious experience, faith, ethics, religion and the arts); and Religious traditions (courses in major religious traditions).
The program offers a major, minor, and over eighty courses, including several courses in aspects of each of the major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) as well as in the traditional religions of Africa, Oceania and the Americas; courses in various methodological approaches to the study of religions; and courses in specific issues (such as faith and disbelief, mysticism, myth and ritual, religious experience, the problem of evil, the meaning of love and sex, and the meaning of death) that are fundamental to all religions.
