Undergraduate Program

College of Arts and Sciences and Religious Studies Program Undergraduate Admission Requirements

A minimum of 26 credit hours; 23 credit hours must be in courses acceptable toward graduation.

A cumulative grade point average of at least 2.00 on all work.

  • Transfer students must have a 2.00 transfer GPA.
  • Continuing UNM students must have a 2.00 institutional GPA.

Demonstrated academic achievement by satisfying the following:

  • Completion of the University Writing and Speaking Core.
  • Completion of the University Mathematics Core.
  • Completion of the University Foreign Language Core.

Completion of Religious Studies Program admission course work with grades of "C" or better:

  • RELG 263.
  • RELG 264.

Major Study Requirements

The major requires 33 credit hours in Religious Studies, of which at least 18 must be at the upper-division level. Required are 230 or 231, 232, 263, 264, 452 (the capstone course). In addition to the required courses, the student must also take at least one other course in each of the four distributional areas: Asian Religions, Western Religions, Sacred Texts and Religion in America.

In order to provide flexibility of scheduling, the “Asian Religions” distributional requirements (263 and another Asian religions course) and the “Western Religions” distributional requirements (264 and another Western religions course) may also be met by appropriate pairs of general courses that together cover Asian and Western religions respectively. Thus, for example, the “Asian Religions” requirements may also be met by taking two courses, one in Hinduism and one in Buddhism; and the “Western Religions” requirements may also be met by taking two courses that cover the major Western traditions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity or Islam).

Classes in Religious Studies are divided among the four distributional areas (classes offered under topics course numbers 247, 347 and *447 are assigned to one of these areas as appropriate). The courses for each area are:

  1. Asian Religions: 107, *438, 453.
  2. Western Religions: 326, 327, 361, 365, 475.
  3. Sacred Texts: 103, 230, 231, *463.
  4. Religion in America: 303, 441.

List of distributional courses is not exhaustive. Topics and seminar courses may also apply.

Dual Major Requirements

Students may combine a major in Religious Studies with another major. For students with such dual majors, the total number of credit hours required for the Religious Studies major is reduced from 33 to 30, while the other requirements for the major remain the same.


Minor Study Requirements

The Religious Studies minor requires 18 credit hours, of which at least 9 must be in courses with a RELG prefix.


Additional Information

With the permission of the Director of the Religious Studies Program, a student may include among courses for a major or minor a limited number of courses in such languages as Classical Chinese, Classical or Biblical Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic and Sanskrit, when these courses include a study of religious texts and are integrated with a program of advanced studies of sacred texts.

Religious Studies undergraduate courses count with Group II (Humanities) in the Arts and Sciences group requirements.


Departmental Honors

Students wishing to work for Honors in Religious Studies should contact the Director of the Religious Studies Program during their junior year. Honors students sign up for two consecutive semesters of RELG 497, in which they prepare an Honors thesis under the direction of a committee.


Courses

RELG 103. Introduction to the Bible. (3)



RELG 107. Living World Religions. (3)



RELG 230. Hebrew Scriptures. (3)



RELG 232. Christian Scriptures. (3)



RELG 247. Studies in Religions. (3 to a maximum of 12 Δ)



RELG 263. Eastern Religions. (3)



RELG 264. Western Religions. (3)



RELG 303. Black Liberation and Religion [Introduction to Black Liberation and Religion]. (3)



RELG 310. Introduction to Jewish Thought. (3)



RELG 312. Introduction to Islam. (3)



RELG 313. Islamic Fundamentalism. (3)



RELG 314. Islamic Mysticism. (3)



RELG 320. Magic in Ancient Religion. (3)



RELG 321. Apocalypse in the Ancient World. (3)



RELG 322. Sexuality and the Bible. (3)



RELG 326. History of Christianity to 1517. (3)



RELG 327. History of Christianity, 1517 to Present. (3)



RELG 335. Goddesses and Gods of India. (3)



RELG 343. Catholic Saints in North America. (3)



RELG 344. Growing up Catholic in America. (3)



RELG 345. Religion(s) in the American West. (3)



RELG 346. Religion in New Mexico. (3)



RELG 347. Topics in Religious Studies. (3 to a maximum of 21 Δ)



RELG 350. Religion and Literature. (3)



RELG 351. Catholicism in America. (3)



RELG 355. Atheism: Trends and Critiques. (3)



RELG 357. Religion and Gender. (3)



RELG 361. Modern Christian Thought. (3)



RELG 365. Philosophy of Religion. (3)



RELG *434. South Asian Mystical Traditions. (3)



RELG *438. Indian Buddhist Philosophy. (3)



RELG 441. Religion in American History. (3)



RELG *447. Seminar in Religious Studies. (1-3, may be repeated 3 times Δ)



RELG 452. Theories of Religion. (3)



RELG 453. Asian Studies Thesis. (3)



RELG *463. Seminar in Biblical Studies. (3 to a maximum of 6 Δ)



RELG *475. Dante in Translation. (3)



RELG 497. Independent Studies. (1-3, may be repeated 2 times Δ)



RELG 507. Teaching World Religions. (3)



RELG 547. Advanced Seminar in Religious Studies. (3 to a maximum of 6 Δ)



RELG 551. M.A. Problems. (1-6 to a maximum of 12 Δ)



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