Bachelor of Arts in Religion
Greenville, USA
DURATION
4 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Aug 2025
TUITION FEES
USD 36,364 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* additional fees apply for international students: services fee $1000 | medical insurance $1600
Introduction
A Thiel College religion major will gain a vast understanding of Christianity and all other world religions. The Thiel liberal arts curriculum prepares our religion majors for a wide range of professions, not just a career in ordained ministry. You will learn about the diversity and the unity of the world's religions with engaging courses focusing on subjects like Hebrew, Greek, psychology of religion, and sociology of religion. Thiel College is affiliated with The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States.
Major Features
- Comprehend the nature of religion by understanding the various methods of studying religion.
- Conceive the reality of “the ultimate” or God in relation to both inherited ideas of the past and the concerns of contemporary society.
- Appreciate the unity and diversity of the pluralistic heritage of the world’s religions; and understand the different approaches to relating Christianity to other world religions.
- Understand various hermeneutical methodologies and be able to apply hermeneutical principles in interpreting Jewish and Christian scriptures.
Program Outcome
Upon graduation with a religion major from Thiel College, a student will demonstrate:
- familiarity with the biblical writings of the Jewish and Christian traditions and with scholarly approaches to interpreting these and other religious texts;
- the ability to interpret the nature of religious experience, Christian and otherwise, with a level of sophistication appropriate to an undergraduate scholar of religion;
- knowledge of the key persons, works, and movements from the history of Christianity; and
- a mature understanding of the interrelatedness of religion and culture.
Curriculum
Major Requirements
Students majoring in religion must fulfill the following minimum requirements.
Thirty-one credit hours in religion including:
- REL 110 Introduction to Religion
- REL 120 Interpreting the Jewish and Christian Scriptures
- REL 190 World Religions
The following two courses, ordinarily taken in the senior year:
- REL 330 Readings in Religious Studies
- REL 340 Readings in Theology
A maximum of three credit hours of:
- REL 380 Cooperative Education or
- REL 390 Independent Study
may be applied toward the major.
One of the following, preferably in the first year:
- PHIL 127 Introduction to Philosophy
- PHIL 147 Introduction to the History of Philosophy: Socrates to Aquinas
- PHIL 157 Introduction to the History of Philosophy: Descartes to Sartre
Career Opportunities
Graduates of Thiel College's religion program have gone on to distinguished graduate school programs and have worked in a variety of different occupations.
Thiel graduates have studied at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and Vanderbilt University Divinity School among others. Alumni have also sought employment in fields such as teacher, insurance agent, retail manager, and nonprofit administrator!
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Scholarship Opportunities
Thiel College offers scholarships to students for reasons such as academic success, community service or involvement, exemplary leadership, and more! The scholarships available to religion majors are:
- The William F. Behringer Scholarship for Religious Studies
- Edith Binkley Scholarship
- Walter and Gertrude Bradley Scholarship
- The Michael Robert and Laura Belle Bretsnyder Scholarship Fund
- Louis E. Creighton Scholarship
- The Rev. Dr. Luther E. and Ruth (Potts) Fackler Scholarship
- Virgil, Clara, and Paul Fackler and Marian R. Moore Scholarship Fund
- Graf/Obenauf Scholarship
- Ellwood and Sara Hauser Scholarship
- The Rev. Dr. Kenneth R. May Scholarship Fund
- Mister Rogers Scholarship
- Rev. E. Stewart Proper and William Stewart Proper Memorial Scholarship Fund
- The Rev. Dr. Elmer and Dorothy Cooke Ortner Memorial Scholarship
- Edward k. Rogers and Jane Holden Rogers Scholarship
- The Rev. and Mrs. Everett R. Smail Pre-Seminary Scholarship Fund
- The Betty Harter Spence ’37 Endowed Scholarship Fund
- Rev. Robert E. Wolff Scholarship Fund
- The Rev. Harry B. Wood Jr. ’47 and Margaret Kohler Wood ’46 Endowed Scholarship Fund
Program Tuition Fee
English Language Requirements
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