The Department of Religious Studies carries unique responsibilities in light of Elmhurst University’s historic origins and contemporary mission. Established in 1871 by the German Evangelical Synod of the Northwest to educate the church’s youth to become pastors and teachers, Elmhurst University has grown into a comprehensive and nationally recognized educational institution that fosters the integration of intellectual development, personal integrity and early professional preparation. And still today, the University maintains a healthy relationship with the United Church of Christ.

Drawing on its rich and living heritage, the Department of Religious Studies continues to affirm religion’s historic importance in all civilizations, to study the variety of ways that culture and religion are mutually influential, and to examine the world’s great religions as irreplaceable expressions of human culture and ultimate reality. To this end, the academic study of religion will of necessity be carried out with critical thought, the best contemporary scholarship, and free and open inquiry without religious indoctrination.

Mission Statement

The Department of Religious Studies is a vital expression of the mission, core values and educational goals of Elmhurst University. The department is a diverse and caring community of scholars—professors and students—who together are willingly driven by curiosity, personal and social concerns, critical inquiry and intellectual integrity to study all things religious in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

The department recognizes that each student who decides to major in religious studies is unique, possessing different strengths, experiences, preferences and goals. The department, therefore, places ultimate decision-making in the hands of the students, with personal academic advising from a full-time professor, and provides a variety of ways for students to begin their study—for example, in literature, scriptures, theology, ethics, spirituality, science, mysticism or world religions. As students’ progress through their university career, they may also choose to study religion within short-term courses in India, Israel, Palestine or South Africa.

Although students will inevitably start at different places and have different career and education goals, the department helps its students integrate their courses into their overall program of liberal and professional education through five learning outcomes.

Students who choose to major in religious studies at Elmhurst University will:

• Comprehend significant aspects of religion through the critical examination of classical primary texts and related artifacts

• Examine historic and contemporary expressions of religion with intellectual integrity and spiritual sensitivity

• Analyze the nature and importance of one’s own convictions about faith, meaning and values while at the same time respecting the commitments of others

• Examine the religious basis for, and be committed to, personal integrity, benevolent service and social justice

• Describe central characteristics of our multicultural, interdependent and global human family