Religious Studies

To understand the modern world, and the many challenges it faces, it is necessary to understand religion. Religion is at the heart of many issues we face today: extremism, climate change, and inequalities of race, gender and class. Our qualifications and our research are based on the broad theme of “Religion and Global Challenges: Past, Present, and Futures”. We delve into religious activities and ideas, historic and contemporary, and look at how they relate to other aspects of social and cultural life to better understand the fundamental role religion has played, and continues to play, in shaping the world. Our main three strands of teaching and research are: 

• Religion, the body, and inequalities.
• Religion, conflict, and peace.
• Religion, environments, and justice.

We are passionate about contributing to religious literacy and religion and worldviews education in wider society. To this end we provide accessible and free resources, including short courses, animations and interactive films, for school teachers, lecturers in Further Education, journalists, and other professionals, through our Religion, Belief and Worldviews OpenLearn Hub.

Our academics

Our religious studies department is comprised of historians, ethnographers and sociologists of religion, each bringing their own unique perspective to the subject. Our academics specialise in a wide range of areas, including religion and nationalism; global evangelical, Pentecostal, and charismatic Christianities; religious literacy; religion and education; intersections between religion, health, and healing; religion and conspiracy theories; religion and climate activism; Indigenous knowledges; as well as studies of ‘non-religion’ and the secular. 

Our research

Our academic team undertakes cutting-edge research on a range of topics relating to religion and global challenges. Our current major research projects include Religious Toleration and Peace (RETOPEA), which promotes youth engagement with religious diversity in the past and present; Democracy, Disinformation and Religion, a cross-disciplinary study of religion’s role in information dynamics; and New Religiosity and the Digital Study of Eudaimonia, which develops the world’s largest open-access dataset on contemporary religious movements.

How we work with others

Many members of our department hold leadership roles in national and international scholarly associations, including the British Association for the Study of Religions, European Association for the Study of Religions, American Academy of Religion, Ecclesiastical History Society, Folklore Society, Yoga Research Network, and TRS UK.

Find out more

• Read more about studying with us and why Religious Studies graduates are so employable.
• For an introduction to our approach, try our free Tasters on OpenLearn, or enrol on our MOOC, Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity.

Take a look at our regularly updated blog, Religion and global challenges: past, present and futures , which covers our recent research projects and opinions on topical discussion points.