Release date: Oct. 31, 2002
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

Emory Embraces Study of Religion From All Disciplines, Perspectives

When Emory University received a $3.2 million grant two years ago to establish the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion (CISR), many faculty saw it as confirmation of what they already knew: The study of religion is pursued differently here.

Part of the difference is that religion is one of a handful of major themes that suffuses Emory’s research. In numbers alone, some 300 faculty on campus—only a third of them religion or theology faculty—have a scholarly interest in the study of religion.

The other difference is that religion as an object of study is bubbling up everywhere at Emory, from interdisciplinary ventures such as the CISR, to a new Ph.D. program in practical theology and religious practice, supported by a $10 million grant from The Lilly Endowment. Other initiatives, for example in the growing field of science and religion, also are flourishing.

"What we have is a buzz about Emory and the study of religion," says Gary Laderman, associate professor of religion and associate director of the university’s Graduate Division of Religion (GDR), which has been rated one of the top five in the country.

Part of that buzz stems from the diversity of approaches to religious studies that Emory has been able to embrace. "We seem to come together in ways that are unusual in most institutions that have a college, graduate school and theology school," says Russell E. Richey, dean of Emory’s Candler School of Theology, which was awarded the Lilly grant.

The Candler faculty's strong relationship with the GDR was a key advantage for Emory in securing the grant. Craig Dykstra, vice president for religion programs at Lilly, says the university is "well-poised to play a leadership role in constructing a new model for doctoral training in theology and religious practices."

Building bridges between different academic ventures is never easy, says John Witte, Robitscher Professor of Law and director of CISR. "It's very difficult to do at a university, where knowledge is often built on a silo method of scholarship."

Laurie Patton, a scholar of Hinduism and department of religion chairwoman, agrees that the tension among different intellectual approaches exists at Emory, "but we live with that tension as constructive," she says. "We find ways to incorporate those conversations in our work."

More than that, the religion faculty has tried to make collegiality an intellectual virtue, says Patton. What boosts that collegiality is a diverse mix of scholars in all five major religious traditions, "so that in the department, there is no one majority voice." Most religion faculty also are invested in interdisciplinary ventures at the university, such as women's studies, African American studies, Middle Eastern or Asian studies.

But if the study of religion at Emory is broad, it is also deep. The university already offered Ph.D. degrees in seven specialty areas before the Lilly grant added an eighth. Those specialties include both Western and non-Western traditions. "Most universities teach about Islam from a historical or political perspective," says Gordon Newby, professor of Middle Eastern studies. "Emory is one of the few places that has a strong Islamic studies program in the context of a Ph.D. in religious studies."

As the seminary and religious studies programs have evolved, other initiatives have brought faculty and students into the study of religion from many other disciplines. The university has been examining religion and society for some two decades through its law and religion program, which offers joint degrees at the master's and doctoral levels. The program’s best-known feature has been its broad research agenda—funded with some $4 million in the last 10 years—drawing top scholars to its multi-year projects on themes such as religious human rights and proselytism in emerging democracies.

More recently, the religion department's Working Group on Religion and Conflict is collaborating with Emory's Violence Studies Program and the political science department to sponsor symposia and new classroom curricula.

Also within the last decade, Emory added a graduate program in Jewish studies and founded a Jewish studies institute, which draws upon its well-known cadre of Jewish scholars in the GDR and in Middle Eastern studies. The institute, directed by renowned Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, recently received a $5 million gift from the Arthur Blank Foundation and became the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies.

Other initiatives, such as the Center on Myth and Ritual in American Life (MARIAL) at Emory, incorporate religion as part of a broader research scope. MARIAL conducts research on middle-class, dual-income families. Inevitably, those studies include investigations of religious rituals that help shape family life.

But the progression has been far from haphazard. "We've found ways of drawing on the traditional strengths of Emory, demonstrated through work with The Carter Center, our law and religion program, and joint professional degree programs such as religion and business," says Witte.

"Our new initiatives are an indication of the inevitable growth of new scholarship and interest in religion," says Witte. "And the philanthropic world has seen its value."

Diane Winston, program director for religion at The Pew Charitable Trusts, which funds CISR, confirms Witte's assessment. "It's our hope that centers such as the one at Emory will do work that enables not just campus communities, but the public at large, to see how religion works in society."

"In some ways, we proceed as the way opens intellectually," says Patton. "Sometimes that can be seen as opportunism; at other times, it's the wise way to go forward."

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