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Graduate Program

The Department of Religion is launching a Master’s Degree program and a graduate...

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Graduate Program Information

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The Religious Studies Master's Degree and Certificate Program at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey offers students an intensive immersion in the discipline with a focus on Religious Pluralism in America. The program focuses on three complementary areas:

Religions in America: We offer courses in the history of American religions, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christianities in America, Buddhism in America, Islam in America, religions in the Asian-American diaspora, religion and society in America, new religious movements in America, etc.
Religion and Conflict: Religion and violence: just war theories, jihad, religious terrorisms, religious heresy, crusades, and comparative apocalypticism, etc.
Contemplative Studies: Contemplative studies in the secular age: scientific inquires into contemplation, psychological approach to meditation, religious healing, love in mystical traditions, the nature of self in contemplative traditions, etc.

M.A. Program

Certificate Programs

Dual Degree
(4 plus 1) Program

This innovative program addresses several pressing needs of our post-9/11 world in critically studying core components of religion, from its most sublime aspects—such as contemplation—to its most horrifying aspects—such as violence—across historical and cultural boundaries. We examine the historical genealogies of these components as well as their contemporary reincarnations within the context of religious modernity and secularism.

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. Students in the M.A. program will be exposed to the primary interpretive models that have developed in the western study of religion since the Enlightenment, including historical, sociological, political, philosophical, psychological, and scientific perspectives on the phenomenon of religion. In addition, they will study the universe of meaning internal to a particular religious tradition including its primary texts, liturgy, theology, soteriology, ethics, hermeneutics, conceptual framework, and epistemology. Working closely with a world-class faculty, students will attain an in-depth understanding of the indigenous contexts within which the world's major religions arose and appreciate their transformations within the American context. The three departmental foci can help students to conceptualize a particular idea or practice within the context of one religious tradition or across religious traditions within the American contexts; the former helps a student better understand the influence of and the influence on the greater intellectual, political, social, and cultural contexts from within which a religion develops, while the latter enables the student to appreciate the common as well as the divergent historical forces and cultural contexts that have influenced the synchronic and diachronic trajectories of religious traditions.

Students with a particular interest can pursue a Certificate in one of the three areas of focus:

Religions in America
Religion and Conflict
Contemplative Studies

Students whose course works do not fall under one particular area can pursue a more general Certificate in Religious Studies

Qualified students in the B.A. program in Religious Studies at Rutgers can apply to the M.A. program in their junior year. We will conduct several information sessions about this 4+1 program for our majors during the spring semester. Please contact Susan Rosario for details.( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

The master's degree program addresses several pressing needs of the post-9/11 world by critically studying core components of religion from its most sublime aspects, such as contemplation, to its most horrifying aspects, such as violence, across historical and cultural boundaries.

The program is designed for:

Students looking for a "bridge" M.A. program to doctoral studies
Current and prospective teachers
Students preparing for professional careers in law, social work, journalism, counseling, medicine, civil service, politics and ministry
Yoga teachers and devotees
Students seeking personal enrichment