Religious Studies

If you are curious about how people make meaning of the world, how beliefs shape cultures, or how religion influences history, politics, ethics, and everyday life, Religious Studies gives you the tools to explore those questions critically and creatively.

At the University of Regina, Religious Studies invites you to examine religious traditions and ideas from around the world while building strong research, writing, and analytical skills. You will graduate with a global perspective and flexible abilities that prepare you for a wide range of careers and further study.

What is Religious Studies?

Religious Studies is the academic study of religious traditions, texts, practices, and cultural expressions across time and place. In this program, you explore religions in globabl contexts using historical, social scientific, and humanistic approaches.

Rather than promoting personal belief or judging religious traditions, Religious Studies helps you analyze religion as a powerful force in human history and contemporary society. Understanding religion is essential in today’s interconnected world, where belief systems continue to shape culture, conflict, ethics, and identity.

Religious Studies at the University of Regina is known for innovative and engaging courses that challenge expectations about what the field can be. Some courses even explore topics like pop culture, monsters, and the supernatural, and have received national media attention.

Below are some of the courses you may take as part of this program.

RLST 201 – Ghosts, Monsters and Demons

This class explores cross-cultural practices, representations, and beliefs concerning various kinds of monsters, ghosts, and demons. Focus will be on what these different entities have in common (as well as where they differ), with a view to sketching out shared human perspectives on the monstrous, the fearful, and the uncanny.

RLST 209 – Japenese Religions

The course provides an overview of the major religious traditions of Japan from earliest times to the modern era: Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity and the New Religions. Topics to be explored include religion and the state, Buddhist-Shinto interaction, "this worldly" material benefits, pilgrimage and popular culture.

RLST 268 – Cults or New Religious Movements

This course examines beliefs and practices of some emerging new religions including New Age, Wicca, Neo-paganism, Scientology, Unification Church, UFO groups, Solar Temple, Transcendental Meditation and Soka Gakai. The emphasis will be upon the historical roots and teachings of new religions, and issues related to their popularity and interpretation.

RLST 230 – Religion, Spirituality and Health

An exploration of beliefs and practices regarding health, disease, healing and mortality in a variety of religious traditions, and how these affect individual and community health. Includes an examination of empirical studies of religion and health outcomes and concludes with the implications for health care policy and practice. 

RLST 290AP – Sex and Sexualities in Religion

Religious teachings on sexual practices, desires and orientations have regulated social norms and notions of morality. Examining a number of religious traditions, historical moments and current religious, feminist and queer movements, this course invites students to discern tropes and potentiality within the larger discourse of personal agency and social power. 

RLST 322 – Origins of Modern Antisemitism and the Holocaust

The religious and cultural roots of antisemitism and its manifestations in Western civilization: the rise of racist and political antisemitism in Europe; seminal issues in the history of the Holocaust; an analysis of the various political and cultural responses to the events of this period.