Religions address some of the most interesting and compelling questions in human life:
- What is the nature of the world, of time and reality?
- What is the true nature of human beings?
- Why are we here, and how should we then live?
- Who are we as a people, and who do we want to be?
The study of religion explores human understandings of these key issues from diverse places and cultures as they develop across changing circumstances and in encounter with each other. A key feature of the identities of individuals and communities, religions have tremendous power and impact on our personal lives and our local, national and global communities. With their divergent worldviews, moral codes, and conceptions of the life’s meaning and purpose and the crucial roles religion plays in history, politics, law, the arts and so much more, understanding religion and developing interreligious literacy is an essential requirement for living productive and ethical lives as global citizens in our world today.
