Religious Studies offers students opportunities to explore the patterns and dimensions of the many different religious traditions of the world from the perspectives of the academic study of religion. The courses are designed to help students develop basic understandings of the many ways in which religions shape personal views of the world, create and sustain the communities in which we live, and interact with politics, economics, literature and the arts, and other structures of society. Through this curriculum, students are provided the skills that will allow them to understand religions as a part of the study of human history and traditional and nontraditional values.