An Overview of the Discipline

Religion is a major source of inspiration, meaning, and controversy in human culture. It informs how people think and behave and is thus arguably a powerful force across the globe. Religious practices unite people across different generations, places, and cultures. Inquiry into the religions inspires an understanding of history, the arts, politics, and even the sciences.

Religious Studies seeks to study and elucidate the nature of religion as a human phenomenon. Its study spans both ancient and modern cultures around the world resulting in a wide range of sub-disciplines within the field. Religious Studies combines a variety of methodologies including textual, historical, literary, social scientific, philosophical, and art-historical approaches.

Sub-Disciplines in Religious Studies:

• American Religions
• Ancient Judaism and Christianity
• Asian Religions
• Buddhist Studies
• Christianity
• Islam
• Late Antiquity
• Manuscript Studies
• Material and Visual Culture
• Medieval and Early Modern Christianity
• Medieval and Early Modern Judaism
• The Sociology of Religion

Writing in the Discipline

Goals

The goal of writing in Religious Studies depends upon the sub-discipline. For example, sociologists of religion aim to disseminate information about cultural phenomenon and thus write for audiences that are less specialized. However, many text-based sub-disciplines of Religious Studies write for a specialized audience of scholars. Dr. Talya Fishman, a scholar of Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Culture, describes her writing as an inquiry into certain aspects of Jewish culture. In focusing on a specific text, she examines the historical, regional and cultural circumstances that shaped its formation. She notes that she is attracted to "riddles" -- and attempts to draw connections between areas of specialized research, so as to provide less-specialized readers with a broad historical picture. In turn, Dr. E. Ann Matter studies the history of Medieval Christianity, perceiving her role as "filling in gaps" in research where there is not much information on a certain topic, period, or idea. She engages different scholarly pieces in a dialogue. Ultimately, the goal of writing in the field of Religious Studies is to generate new ideas and disseminate information in an effort to inspire a dialogue and enlighten others.

Reasoning

Writing in Religious Studies employs both explanatory and justificatory reasoning, varing across sub-disciplines. Dr. Matter’s writing typically involves a synthesis of sources with the main purpose to argue for a particular position. By contrast, scholars in the sociology of religion conduct studies and administer questionnaires, using explanatory reasoning to present their findings.

Evidence

Religious Studies scholars may use data or texts as their main form of evidence, depending on their sub-discipline. In her study of Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Culture, Dr. Fishman draws on texts, images and performances that are attested to in historical, legal and literary sources, in order to reconstruct cultural assumptions that may be alien to our contemporary sensibilities. Scholars in text-based fields are likely to work with both primary texts (e.g., The Bible) and secondary texts written by other scholars on the topic. In contrast, sociologists of religion generally use data as their evidence, drawn from studies based on questionnaires and survey responses.

Authorship

Work in this discipline may be either single-authored or multi-authored. In the text-based sub-disciplines, scholars are more likely to produce single-authored work. By contrast, the publications of data-based sub-disciplines are often multi-authored.

Writing Tips

Important Criteria for Student Writing

Students are advised to pay careful attention to their reasoning and evidence. Writing should demonstrate both ingenuity as well as a mastery of concepts taught in the courses. Clarity and coherence are important, as is organization. Students are expected to follow the specific citation practices of scholarship in Religious Studies, which depends on the sub-discipline and the professor’s preference.

Common Errors

Dr. Matter notes that a significant error in student writing occurs when no counterargument is provided to test the writer’s proposition. As a result, students often do not anticipate or appreciate their audience’s beliefs and responses, and the strength of a student's arguments and reasoning is compromised.

Style

Dr. Matter also notes that "students do grammatical contortions to avoid first person" and this in turn leads to the use of passive voice when active voice is preferred in this discipline. She attributes this misconception to the fact that in some other disciplines students are not encouraged to write in the first person when engaging with scholarship. Additionally, she speculates that students may be reluctant to assert such authority when engaging with the work of experts in the discipline.

Genre

Student Assignments

At the undergraduate level, student assignments generally include blog posts about readings, responses to other students' posts, short papers, and term papers. While professors do not expect students to engage in extensive scholarly research, they should anticipate term papers that demand a combination of basic research and the writer's own ideas. Most assignments look for a student to go beyond simple summaries of texts and be able to analyze and synthesize the materials. Graduate students in the discipline are expected to generate research-based writing generated by their own ideas. They are ultimately expected to contribute to the scholarship of their field.

Scholarly Writing

Academic Audience

• Journal Articles
• Scholarly Books

General Audience

• Blogs
• Trade Press Books
• Television Broadcasts

Additional Resources

The Religious Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania

© 2013-2014 The University of Pennsylvania

Meet the Professors

Department Faculty

Dr. E. Ann Matter

Dr. Matter teaches and studies the history of Medieval Christianity. In her academic pursuits, she is especially concerned with the history of spirituality and devotion, the interpretation of the Bible, and the roles of women during the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods. She focuses particularly on text studies in Italian and the Latin tradition. More...

Associated Faculty

Dr. Talya Fishman

Dr. Fishman teaches and studies Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Culture with a particular interest in law, philosophy, and experiential ritual performance. In her study of the formation and reformation of Medieval Jewish Subcultures, Dr. Fishman focuses on how Jewish practices and culture are affected by and affect their majority culture. More...