Department of Theology & Religion | BA Religion, Society and Culture (with Foundation Year)

BA Religion, Society & Culture (with Foundation Year) at Durham University

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Come and join us on a journey of self-discovery and explore the very heart of society, belief, politics and the arts.

This degree will equip you with the skills to understand religion and its power to shape the human condition. You will engage with the role of religion in a wide range of contexts, including Politics, Literature, Bioethics and War.

Theoretical perspectives are applied to a variety of specialist topics – from Fundamentalism in the USA to Sacred Landscapes in Northern India, The Role of Islam in Modern Britain, Pentecostalism in Sub-Saharan Africa and Death Rites Across the Globe. Urgent current ethical questions are studied and you will be encouraged to arrive at well-informed and reflective positions on topics such as the Environmental Crisis, End-of-Life Issues, Poverty and Warfare.

The course enables you to better understand the world we live in, and to explore the forces that shape our own attitudes, hopes and fears. In turn, it will empower you to go out into the world to make a difference for the common good. You can also apply to add a placement year or a year abroad  to your degree, increasing the course from three years to four.

In the first year, modules are intended to provide the foundational understanding and skills necessary for work in Theology and the Study of Religion.

In the second year, there is a much greater choice of modules to allow you to pursue your own interests within Theology & Religion by building on the understanding and abilities you have begun to develop in the first year.

The third year includes a dissertation that allows a deep, independently driven, exploration of a topic of your choice.

Our degrees are designed to give you a strong and broad foundation of subject-specific knowledge as well as transferable skills and personal qualities developed during your studies: thinking clearly, writing well, presenting arguments, analysing texts, assessing evidence, solving problems, pursuing and organising research. These skills are highly valued across many sectors.

Our graduates readily find employment in fields such as education, social work, politics, journalism, business management, banking, the clergy, the performing arts and the charity sector. A significant number also progress onto higher-level study, such as postgraduate study in Theology & Religion or professional qualifications in Law and Education.

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