Religion

Overview

At the Religion program of Earlham College, you will join students from many backgrounds. They share an open, inquiring mind, a sympathetic interest in the beliefs of others, and a desire to grow individually and to better the world through a deeper understanding of the power of religion in both individual and public life.

Our faculty members are accomplished scholars. Michael Birkel recently published Qur’an In Conversation to wide acclaim, and James Logan published “Hip Hop, (Everywhere) Ferguson & the Socio-Religious Challenge.”

You will have faculty-student collaborative research opportunities. In a project entitled “Breath, Spirit, Flute, Meditation,” a group practiced mindful breathing, listening, composing, and performing with the flute. 

Highlights

Students in “Religion and Psychology: Mapping Selves” are studying intersections among neuroscience, cognitive sociology, and religious experience and creating visual and sound maps of their brain/mind from multiple perspectives.

Earlham offers off-campus programs that include study of religious traditions in China, France, Japan, Jordan, Northern Ireland and Spain.

Nearly two-thirds of our students go on to graduate school within six years of graduation.

Among the many careers our alumni pursue are social work, law, conflict resolution, counseling psychology, food production and policy, and entrepreneurship in the arts.

Outcomes

Our majors have gone on to Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Brandeis, Claremont, Union Theological Seminary in New York, the Graduate Theological Union, Starr King, Iliff, Candler and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Others have worked throughout the country and the world for social service agencies sponsored by religious bodies, often dedicating themselves to conflict resolution.

Some students seek graduate school preparation for careers in secondary or university teaching, and a number become counselors for religious and public service agencies.

Still others have gone into such diverse fields as the arts, medicine, public health, business, publishing, public relations and law.