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2024-2025 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog

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Religious Studies Minor

The REL program is part of the Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies Department (IRIS), located in the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies. With a curriculum grounded in the liberal arts, the religious studies curriculum offers a broad spectrum of courses that foster an understanding of religious issues, encourage critical thinking and exploration of religion, and address religion in relation to broad historical, political, cultural, and philosophical themes.

Religion is arguably one of the most significant forces in human life. Whether you are pursuing a career in a professional field like business, nursing, allied health sciences, education, or engineering, or if you are thinking about pursuing graduate study in the humanities or social sciences, religious studies provides transferrable skills and deepens understanding of the human experience, culture, and traditions both past and present. Students who are already majoring in another field may choose to complement their studies and bolster their dossiers by pursuing a minor in religious studies.

Website: gvsu.edu/rel

Requirements for a Minor (19 credit hours)

Core Courses (10 credits)

Students must complete the following courses (nine credits):

Elective Course Options (9 credits)

Students can also use courses in the Alliance and Conflict sequence from the Meijer Honors College (which includes HNR 151, HNR 152, HNR 153, and HNR 154) or one of the following upper-division honors courses to meet the elective requirement within the REL minor. Those upper-division courses include:

  • HNR 350 - Textual Tease (3 credits)
  • HNR 350 - Prophetic Critique in the Modern World (3 credits)
  • HNR 350 - The Terror of Monotheism (3 credits)

Religious Studies Program Description

Click here for the program description.



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