MA Religion And Society

Study the anthropological and sociological aspects of religion.

This course looks at religion from anthropological and sociological perspectives. Durham has particular strengths in the study of Mormonism, death, dying and disposal, religion and emotion, religion/faith and globalisation, religion and politics, contemporary evangelicalism and post-evangelicalism, and religion and generational change. It also boasts the Centre for Death and Life Studies and the Project for Spirituality, Theology and Health.

Course Structure

• Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion – core module
• Three optional modules
• Dissertation.

Core modules:

• Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion
• Dissertation.

Examples of optional modules:

Optional modules in previous years have included 2-3 choices from:

• Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion
• Theology, Ethics and Medicine
• Literature and Religion
• Christian Northumbria 600-750
• Ecclesiology and Ethnography
• Religion in the Neo-Liberal Age.

Plus up to 1 choice from:

• Advanced Hebrew Texts
• Advanced Aramaic
• Middle Egyptian
• The Bible and Hermeneutics
• The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament
• Paul and his Interpreters
• Gospels and Canon
• Patristic Exegesis
• Patristic Ecclesiology
• England’s Religious Revolution 1640-1660
• Liturgy and Sacramentality
• Classic Texts in Christian Theology
• Conceiving Change in Contemporary Catholicism
• Christian Gender
• Principles of Theological Ethics
• Catholic Social Thought
• Doctrine of Creation
• The Thought of Thomas Aquinas in Context
• Selected modules from the MA in Theology and Ministry course
• Level 3 undergraduate module, or any Level 1–2 language module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion, taken in conjunction with the designated Extended Study in Theology & Religion module
• 30 credits from another Board of Studies (including appropriate credit-bearing language modules offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study).