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127-448: The journal was established as a scholarly but not fully peer-reviewed publication in 1996 by Fritz Muntean and Diana Tracy with the subtitle A New Journal of Neopagan Thought . In 2001 the production of the journal was put on hiatus, as Muntean stepped down as editor, to be replaced by Clifton when it resumed publication, this time as a fully peer-reviewed academic publication and with its current subtitle. The idea for The Pomegranate

254-668: A 15-day sit-in at the college's administration building in a protest over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies. After continued turmoil, a university committee in 1967 issued what became known as the Kalven Report. The report, a two-page statement of the university's policy in "social and political action," declared that "To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures." The report has since been used to justify decisions such as

381-481: A copy of every book and journal published by the University of Chicago Press at no cost. The agreement provided that either party could terminate the affiliation on proper notice. Several University of Chicago professors disliked the program, as it involved uncompensated additional labor on their part, and they believed it cheapened the academic reputation of the university. The program was ended by 1910. In 1929,

508-649: A dozen scholarly organizations and committees were formed by 1983, and a scholarly quarterly, the Journal of Law and Religion first published that year and the Ecclesiastical Law Journal opened in 1999. Many departments and centers have been created around the world during the last decades. As of 2012, major Law and Religion organizations in the U.S. included 500 law professors, 450 political scientists, and specialists in numerous other fields such as history and religious studies. Between 1985 and 2010,

635-472: A grand reading room for the university library and prevents the need for an off-campus book depository. The site of Chicago Pile-1 is a National Historic Landmark and is marked by the Henry Moore sculpture Nuclear Energy . Robie House , a Frank Lloyd Wright building acquired by the university in 1963, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as a National Historic Landmark, as is room 405 of

762-521: A key, essential element which all religions share, which can be used to define "religion" as a category, and which must be necessary in order for something to be classified as a "religion". There are two forms of monothetic definition; the first are substantive , seeking to identify a specific core as being at the heart of religion, such as a belief in a God or gods, or an emphasis on power. The second are functional , seeking to define "religion" in terms of what it does for humans, for instance defining it by

889-533: A large study space and an automated book storage and retrieval system. The John Crerar Library contains more than 1.4 million volumes in the biological, medical and physical sciences and collections in general science and the philosophy and history of science, medicine, and technology. The university also operates a number of special libraries, including the D'Angelo Law Library, the Social Service Administration Library, and

1016-693: A location on the University of Chicago campus. Since 1983, the University of Chicago has maintained the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project , a mathematics program used in urban primary and secondary schools. The university runs a program called the Council on Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which administers interdisciplinary workshops to provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present scholarly work in progress. The university also operates

1143-464: A major figure in sociology , he has no doubt influenced later sociologists of religion. Émile Durkheim also holds continuing influence as one of the fathers of sociology. He explored Protestant and Catholic attitudes and doctrines regarding suicide in his work Suicide . In 1912, he published his most memorable work on religion, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life . Interest in

1270-519: A major role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools of thought in various fields. Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory produced the world's first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Chicago Pile-1 beneath the viewing stands of

1397-509: A means to engage in cross-cultural studies. In doing so, we can take the beliefs, symbols, rituals etc. of the other from within their own perspective, rather than imposing ours on them. Another earlier scholar who employs the phenomenological method for studying religion is Gerardus van der Leeuw . In his Religion in Essence and Manifestation (1933), he outlines what a phenomenology of religion should look like: The subjectivity inherent to

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1524-646: A member of the Baptist clergy who believed that a great university should maintain the study of faith as a central focus. To fulfill this commitment, he brought the Baptist seminary that had begun as an independent school "alongside" the Old University of Chicago and separated from the old school decades earlier to Morgan Park. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first professional school at

1651-437: A method which is more complex and claims rather more for itself than did Chantepie’s mere cataloguing of facts." (Partridge) Husserl argued that the foundation of knowledge is consciousness . He recognized "how easy it is for prior beliefs and interpretations to unconsciously influence one’s thinking, Husserl’s phenomenological method sought to shelve all these presuppositions and interpretations." (Partridge) Husserl introduced

1778-611: A nearby particle physics laboratory, as well as a stake in the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico . Faculty and students at the adjacent Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago collaborate with the university. In 2013, the university formed an affiliation with the formerly independent Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. The National Opinion Research Center maintains an office at

1905-447: A new field by Eboo Patel , Jennifer Howe Peace, and Noah Silverman. There are many approaches to the study of sacred texts. One of these approaches is to interpret the text as a literary object. Metaphor, thematic elements, and the nature and motivations of the characters are of interest in this approach. An example of this approach is God: A Biography , by Jack Miles . The temporal lobe has been of interest which has been termed

2032-639: A new school could go by the name of the city. In 1890, the American Baptist Education Society incorporated a new University of Chicago as a coeducational institution, using $ 400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $ 600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller , and land donated by Marshall Field . While the Rockefeller donation provided money for academic operations and long-term endowment, it

2159-472: A peer review structure for the papers which it published. The journal is abstracted and indexed in Religious and Theological Abstracts , Arts & Humanities Citation Index , Current Contents /Arts & Humanities, and Academic Search Premier and other EBSCO databases . Religious studies Religious studies , also known as the study of religion , is the scientific study of religion . There

2286-400: A phenomenon or phenomena from a neutral standpoint, instead of with our own particular attitudes. In performing this reduction, whatever phenomenon or phenomena we approach are understood in themselves, rather than from our own perspectives. In the field of religious studies, a contemporary advocate of the phenomenological method is Ninian Smart. He suggests that we should perform the epoche as

2413-498: A philosophical method by Edmund Husserl , who is considered to be its founder. In the context of Phenomenology of religion however, the term was first used by Pierre Daniel Chantepie de la Saussaye in his work "Lehrbuch der Religiongeschichte" (1887). Chantepie's phenomenology catalogued observable characteristics of religion much like a zoologist would categorize animals or an entomologist would categorize insects. In part due to Husserl's influence, "phenomenology" came to "refer to

2540-428: A structure for the analysis of religious phenomena. Phenomenology is "arguably the most influential approach to the study of religion in the twentieth century." (Partridge) The term is first found in the title of the work of the influential philosopher of German Idealism , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , entitled The Phenomenology of Spirit . Phenomenology had been practiced long before its being made explicit as

2667-478: A theological project which actually imposes views onto the people it aims to survey. Their areas of research overlap heavily with postcolonial studies . In 1998, Jonathan Z. Smith wrote a chapter in Critical Terms for Religious Studies which traced the history of the term religion and argued that the contemporary understanding of world religions is a modern Christian and European term, with its roots in

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2794-415: Is Katherine Baicker since March 2023. The current president of the University of Chicago is chemist Paul Alivisatos , who assumed the role on September 1, 2021. Robert Zimmer , the previous president, transitioned into the new role of chancellor of the university. The university's endowment was the 12th largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2013 and as of 2020

2921-483: Is "open to many approaches", and thus it "does not require either a distinctive method or a distinctive explanation to be worthy of disciplinary status." Different scholars operating in the field have different interests and intentions; some for instance seek to defend religion, while others seek to explain it away, and others wish to use religion as an example with which to prove a theory of their own. Some scholars of religious studies are interested in primarily studying

3048-599: Is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois , United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side , near the shore of Lake Michigan about 7 miles (11 km) from the Loop . The university is composed of the undergraduate College of the University of Chicago and four graduate research divisions: Biological Science, Humanities, Physical Science, and Social Science, which also include various organized institutes. In addition,

3175-418: Is concerned with the psychological principles operative in religious communities and practitioners. William James 's The Varieties of Religious Experience analyzed personal experience as contrasted with the social phenomenon of religion. Some issues of concern to the psychologist of religions are the psychological nature of religious conversion , the making of religious decisions, religion and happiness , and

3302-478: Is contrasted by the average of 47% from the richest countries, with incomes over $ 25,000 (with the United States breaking the trend by reporting at 65%). Social scientists have suggested that religion plays a functional role (helping people cope) in poorer nations. The history of religions is not concerned with theological claims apart from their historical significance. Some topics of this discipline are

3429-407: Is expanding to include many topics and scholars. Western philosophy of religion, as the basic ancestor of modern religious studies, is differentiated from theology and the many Eastern philosophical traditions by generally being written from a third party perspective. The scholar need not be a believer. Theology stands in contrast to the philosophy of religion and religious studies in that, generally,

3556-745: Is no consensus on what qualifies as religion and its definition is highly contested. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing empirical , historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives. While theology attempts to understand the transcendent or supernatural according to traditional religious accounts, religious studies takes a more scientific and objective approach, independent of any particular religious viewpoint. Religious studies thus draws upon multiple academic disciplines and methodologies including anthropology , sociology , psychology , philosophy , and history of religion . Religious studies originated in 19th-century Europe , when scholarly and historical analysis of

3683-408: Is the analysis of religions and their various communities of adherents using the functions of particular religious phenomena to interpret the structure of religious communities and their beliefs. The approach was introduced by British anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown . A major criticism of functionalism is that it lends itself to teleological explanations. An example of a functionalist approach

3810-467: Is the largest gift in the university's history and the largest gift ever to any business school. In 2009, planning or construction on several new buildings, half of which cost $ 100 million or more, was underway. Since 2011, major construction projects have included the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, a ten-story medical research center, and further additions to the medical campus of

3937-476: Is understanding the dietary restrictions contained in the Pentateuch as having the function of promoting health or providing social identity ( i.e. a sense of belonging though common practice). Lived religion is the ethnographic and holistic framework for understanding the beliefs, practices, and everyday experiences of religious and spiritual persons in religious studies. The name lived religion comes from

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4064-512: Is useful in appreciating and understanding sectarian tensions and religious violence . The term " religion " originated from the Latin noun religio , that was nominalized from one of three verbs: relegere (to turn to constantly/observe conscientiously); religare (to bind oneself [back]); and reeligere (to choose again). Because of these three different potential meanings, an etymological analysis alone does not resolve

4191-484: The American Academy of Religion . Muntean eventually decided to move on from his work as editor of The Pomegranate , leaving that position to be occupied by Clifton. Together, Muntean and Clifton searched for a new publisher, in 2003 eventually signing an agreement with Equinox Publishing. Under Clifton's control, the journal's subtitle was changed to The International Journal of Pagan Studies and it adopted

4318-717: The George Herbert Jones Laboratory , where Glenn T. Seaborg and his team were the first to isolate plutonium. Hitchcock Hall , an undergraduate dormitory, is on the National Register of Historic Places . The campus is soon to be the home of the Obama Presidential Center , the Presidential Library for the 44th president of the United States with expected completion in 2026. The Obamas settled in

4445-690: The Great Depression . Nonetheless, in 1933, Hutchins proposed an unsuccessful plan to merge the University of Chicago and Northwestern University . During World War II, the university's Metallurgical Laboratory made ground-breaking contributions to the Manhattan Project . The university was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by Enrico Fermi in 1942. The university did not provide standard oversight of Bruno Bettelheim and his tenure as director of

4572-767: The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought . The university contains eight professional schools: the University of Chicago Law School , the Pritzker School of Medicine , the Booth School of Business , the University of Chicago Divinity School , the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy , the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration , the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies (which offers non-degree courses and certificates as well as degree programs) and

4699-528: The Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children from 1944 to 1973. In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the university became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park , which profoundly affected both the neighborhood's architecture and street plan. During this period

4826-798: The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering . The Law School is accredited by the American Bar Association , the Divinity School is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada , and Pritzker is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education . The university runs a number of academic institutions and programs apart from its undergraduate and postgraduate schools. It operates

4953-685: The Treatise on the Religious and Philosophical Sects (1127 CE), written by the Muslim scholar Muhammad al-Shahrastani . Peter the Venerable , also working in the twelfth century, studied Islam and made possible a Latin translation of the Qur'an . Notwithstanding the long interest in the study of religion, the academic discipline Religious Studies is relatively new. Christopher Partridge notes that

5080-693: The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (a private day school for K-12 students and day care ), and a public charter school with four campuses on the South Side of Chicago administered by the university's Urban Education Institute. In addition, the Hyde Park Day School, a school for students with learning disabilities, and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School , a residential treatment program for those with behavioral and emotional problems, maintains

5207-517: The University of Chicago Medical Center . In 2014 the university launched the public phase of a $ 4.5 billion fundraising campaign. In September 2015, the university received $ 100 million from The Pearson Family Foundation to establish The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Pearson Global Forum at the Harris School of Public Policy . In 2019,

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5334-843: The University of Chicago Press , and the University of Chicago Medical Center , and oversees several laboratories, including Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) , Argonne National Laboratory , and the Marine Biological Laboratory . The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission . The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (April–June). Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter for approximately nine weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in late May. After its foundation in

5461-537: The University of Chicago Press , the largest university press in the United States. The University of Chicago Library system encompasses six libraries that contain a total of 11 million volumes, the 9th most among library systems in the United States. The university's main library is the Regenstein Library , which contains one of the largest collections of print volumes in the United States. The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library , built in 2011, houses

5588-416: The historicity of religious figures, events, and the evolution of doctrinal matters. Interreligious studies is an emerging academic field that is focused on interactions among religious groups, including but not limited to interfaith dialogue . Journals and interdisiplinary organizing efforts grew especially in the 2010s. A pivotal anthology for the field is Interreligious/interfaith studies: Defining

5715-490: The "God center" of the brain. (Ramachandran, ch. 9) Neurological findings in regard to religious experience is not a widely accepted discipline within religious studies. Scientific investigators have used a SPECTscanner to analyze the brain activity of both Christian contemplatives and Buddhist meditators, finding them to be quite similar. The "origin of religion" refers to the emergence of religious behavior in prehistory , before written records. The psychology of religion

5842-498: The "first professorships were established as recently as the final quarter of the nineteenth century." In the nineteenth century, the study of religion was done through the eyes of science. Max Müller was the first professor of comparative philology at Oxford University , a chair created especially for him. In his Introduction to the Science of Religion (1873) he wrote that it is "the duty of those who have devoted their life to

5969-464: The (Western) philosophy of religion are the existence of God , belief and rationality, cosmology , and logical inferences of logical consistency from sacred texts. Although philosophy has long been used in evaluation of religious claims ( e.g. Augustine and Pelagius 's debate concerning original sin), the rise of scholasticism in the eleventh century, which represented "the search for order in intellectual life" (Russell, 170), more fully integrated

6096-526: The 1890s, the university, fearful that its vast resources would injure smaller schools by drawing away good students, affiliated with several regional colleges and universities: Des Moines College , Kalamazoo College , Butler University , and Stetson University . In 1896, the university affiliated with Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Under the terms of the affiliation, the schools were required to have courses of study comparable to those at

6223-601: The 1980s led to cut backs affecting religious studies departments." (Partridge) Later in the decade, religious studies began to pick up as a result of integrating religious studies with other disciplines and forming programs of study that mixed the discipline with more utilitarian study. Philosophy of religion uses philosophical tools to evaluate religious claims and doctrines. Western philosophy has traditionally been employed by English speaking scholars. (Some other cultures have their own philosophical traditions including Indian , Muslim , and Jewish .) Common issues considered by

6350-548: The 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois). After the 1940s, the campus's Gothic style began to give way to modern styles. In 1955, Eero Saarinen was contracted to develop a second master plan, which led to the construction of buildings both north and south of

6477-601: The Bible had flourished, as Hindu and Buddhist sacred texts were first being translated into European languages. Early influential scholars included Friedrich Max Müller in England and Cornelis Petrus Tiele in the Netherlands. However, Max Müller was a philologist, not a professor of religion; Cornelis Tiele was. Today, religious studies is an academic discipline practiced by scholars worldwide. In its early years, it

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6604-684: The Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill . Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004, produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003), the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001), South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital, and other construction, expansions, and restorations. In 2011, the university completed the glass dome-shaped Joe and Rika Mansueto Library , which provides

6731-587: The Eckhart Library for mathematics and computer science. Harper Memorial Library is now a reading and study room. According to the National Science Foundation , University of Chicago spent $ 423.9 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 60th in the nation. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and

6858-679: The European colonial expansion of the sixteenth century. Timothy Fitzgerald argued in 2000 that the comparative religion of the twentieth century in fact disguised a theological agenda which distorts the practices of societies outside the Western world and interprets them according to Christian norms. Fitzgerald argues that this theological agenda has not been overcome by more recent efforts in religious studies to move beyond comparative religion. University of Chicago The University of Chicago ( UChicago , Chicago , U of C , or UChi )

6985-471: The French tradition of sociology of religion "la religion vécue". The concept of lived religion was popularized in the late twentieth century by religious study scholars like Robert A. Orsi and David Hall . The study of lived religion has come to include a wide range of subject areas as a means of exploring and emphasizing what a religious person does and what they believe. Today, the field of lived religion

7112-469: The Hyde Park campus and is affiliated with multiple academic centers and institutes. The University of Chicago has been the site of some important experiments and academic movements. In economics, the university has played an important role in shaping ideas about the free market and is the namesake of the Chicago school of economics , the school of economic thought supported by Milton Friedman and other economists. The university's sociology department

7239-641: The Law . The university has an extensive record of producing successful business leaders and billionaires. The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 academic majors and 33 minors. The college's academics are divided into five divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division,

7366-563: The Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge , Holabird & Roche , and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford. (Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower , and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall , replicates Christ Church Hall. ) In celebration of

7493-583: The Midway, including the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (a complex designed by Saarinen); a series of arts buildings; a building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the university's School of Social Service Administration, a building which is to become the home of the Harris School of Public Policy by Edward Durrell Stone , and the Regenstein Library , the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch of

7620-422: The Old University of Chicago are recognized as alumni of the University of Chicago. William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and the Hyde Park campus opened for classes on October 1, 1892. Harper worked on building up the faculty and in two years he had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents. Harper was an accomplished scholar ( Semiticist ) and

7747-658: The Social Sciences Collegiate Division, the Humanities Collegiate Division, and the New Collegiate Division. The first four are sections within their corresponding graduate divisions, while the New Collegiate Division administers interdisciplinary majors and studies which do not fit in one of the other four divisions. Undergraduate students are required to take a distribution of courses to satisfy

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7874-449: The United States. The university's students, faculty, and staff has included 101 Nobel laureates . The university's faculty members and alumni also include 10 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 52 MacArthur Fellows , 26 Marshall Scholars , 54 Rhodes Scholars , 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists , 29 living billionaire graduates, and 8 Olympic medalists . The first University of Chicago

8001-491: The University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the University of Chicago Medical Center ) finished construction and enrolled their first medical students. Also, the philosophy oriented Committee on Social Thought , an institution distinctive of the university, was created. Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through

8128-576: The University of Chicago announced plans to establish the Milton Friedman Institute , which attracted both support and controversy from faculty members and students. The institute would cost around $ 200 million and occupy the buildings of the Chicago Theological Seminary . During the same year, investor David G. Booth donated $ 300 million to the university's Booth School of Business , which

8255-604: The University of Chicago are known for their demanding standards, heavy workload and academic difficulty; according to Uni in the USA , "Among the academic cream of American universities – Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and the University of Chicago – it is UChicago that can most convincingly claim to provide the most rigorous, intense learning experience." The university graduate schools and committees are divided into four divisions: Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences, and eight professional schools. In

8382-476: The University of Chicago consists of 217 acres (87.8 ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn , approximately eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Chicago . The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance , a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition . In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of

8509-467: The University of Chicago. Harper recruited acclaimed Yale baseball and football player Amos Alonzo Stagg from the Young Men's Christian Association training school at Springfield to coach the school's football program. Stagg was given a position on the faculty, the first such athletic position in the United States. While coaching at the university, Stagg invented the numbered football jersey and

8636-461: The University of Chicago. A student or faculty member of an affiliated school was entitled to free tuition at the University of Chicago, and Chicago students were eligible to attend an affiliated school on the same terms and receive credit for their work. The University of Chicago also agreed to provide affiliated schools with books and scientific apparatus and supplies at cost; special instructors and lecturers without cost except for travel expenses; and

8763-461: The Western philosophical tradition (with the introduction of translations of Aristotle ) in religious study. There is some amount of overlap between subcategories of religious studies and the discipline itself. Religious studies seeks to study religious phenomena as a whole, rather than be limited to the approaches of its subcategories. The anthropology of religion is principally concerned with

8890-472: The ambiguity of defining religion, since each verb points to a different understanding of what religion is. During the Middle Ages , the term "religious" was used as a noun to describe someone who had joined a monastic order (a "religious"). Throughout the history of religious studies, there have been many attempts to define the term "religion". Many of these have been monothetic , seeking to determine

9017-483: The argument that it exists to assuage fear of death, unite a community, or reinforce the control of one group over another. Other forms of definition are polythetic , producing a list of characteristics that are common to religion. In this definition there is no one characteristic that need to be common in every form of religion. Causing further complications is the fact that there are various secular world views, such as nationalism and Marxism , which bear many of

9144-476: The ashes, a reference to the fire and foreclosure of the Old University of Chicago. A single stone from the rubble of the original Douglas Hall on 34th Place was set into the wall of the Classics Building. The dean of the college and University of Chicago and professor of history John Boyer has argued that the University of Chicago has "a plausible genealogy as a pre–Civil War institution". Alumni from

9271-790: The autumn quarter of 2022, the university enrolled 10,546 graduate students on degree-seeking courses: 569 in the Biological Sciences Division, 612 in the Humanities Division, 2,103 in the Physical Sciences Division, 972 in the Social Sciences Division, and 6,290 in the professional schools (including the Graham School). The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including

9398-575: The board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory) Adolphus Clay Bartlett and Leon Mandel, who funded the construction of the gymnasium and assembly hall, and George C. Walker of the Walker Museum, a relative of Cobb who encouraged his inaugural donation for facilities. The new university acknowledged its predecessor. The university's coat of arms has a phoenix rising from

9525-514: The common basic human needs that religion fulfills. The cultural anthropology of religion is principally concerned with the cultural aspects of religion. Of primary concern to the cultural anthropologist of religions are rituals, beliefs, religious art, and practices of piety. Gallup surveys have found that the world's poorest countries may be the most religious. Of those countries with average per-capita incomes under $ 2000, 95% reported that religion played an important role in their daily lives. This

9652-787: The downtown Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs. In fall 2010, the university opened a center in Beijing, near Renmin University 's campus in Haidian District . The most recent additions are a center in New Delhi , India, which opened in 2014, and a center in Hong Kong which opened in 2018. In 2024,

9779-557: The earliest academic institutions where Religious Studies was presented as a distinct subject was University College Ibadan, now the University of Ibadan , where Geoffrey Parrinder was appointed as lecturer in Religious Studies in 1949. In the 1960s and 1970s, the term "religious studies" became common and interest in the field increased. New departments were founded and influential journals of religious studies were initiated (for example, Religious Studies and Religion ). In

9906-453: The exceptionally wealthy U.S. is so inefficient that it is experiencing a much higher degree of societal distress than are less religious, less wealthy prosperous democracies. Conversely, how do the latter achieve superior societal health while having little in the way of the religious values or institutions?" Vogel reports that in the 1970s a new "law and religion" approach has progressively built its own contribution to religious studies. Over

10033-497: The family, and human rights. Moving beyond Christianity, scholars have looked at law and religion interrelations in law and religion in the Muslim Middle East, and pagan Rome. The earliest serious writing on the interface between religion and cinema appeared in the work of film critics like Jean Epstein in the 1920s. The subject has grown in popularity with students and is cited as having particular relevance given

10160-588: The field saw the publication of some 750 books and 5000 scholarly articles. Scholars are not only focused on strictly legal issues about religious freedom or non establishment but also on the study of religions as they are qualified through judicial discourses or legal understanding on religious phenomena. Exponents look at canon law, natural law, and state law, often in comparative perspective. Specialists have explored themes in western history regarding Christianity and justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love. Common topics on interest include marriage and

10287-425: The forthright and critical examination of Neopagan beliefs and practices". From 1996 to 2001, Muntean published 18 issues of The Pomegranate on a quarterly basis, gaining a growing readership as time went on, particularly after Muntean and Tracy introduced the journal to the assembled members at the third Nature Religions Scholars Network (NRSN), a group which met in conjunction with the annual San Francisco meeting of

10414-504: The forward to Approaches to the Study of Religion , Ninian Smart wrote that "in the English-speaking world [religious studies] basically dates from the 1960s, although before then there were such fields as 'the comparative study of religion', the 'history of religion', the 'sociology of religion' and so on ..." In the 1980s, in both Britain and America , "the decrease in student applications and diminishing resources in

10541-399: The general study of religion dates back to at least Hecataeus of Miletus ( c.  550 BCE  – c.  476 BCE ) and Herodotus ( c.  484 BCE  – c.  425 BCE ). Later, during the Middle Ages , Islamic scholars such as Ibn Hazm (d. 1064 CE) studied Persian , Jewish , Christian , and Indian religions , among others. The first history of religion was

10668-457: The global top 10 for eleven consecutive years (from 2012 to 2022). The university's law and business schools rank among the top three professional schools in the United States. The business school is currently ranked first in the US by US News & World Report and first in the world by The Economist , while the law school is ranked third by US News & World Report and first by Above

10795-540: The huddle. Stagg is the namesake of the university's Stagg Field . The business school was founded in 1898, and the law school was founded in 1902. Harper died in 1906 and was replaced by a succession of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929. During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East. In

10922-660: The late 19th century, the University of Chicago quickly became established as one of the wealthiest and, according to Henry S. Webber, one of the most prestigious universities in America. To elevate higher education standards and practices, the university was a founder of the Association of American Universities in 1900. According to Jonathan R. Cole , universities such as Chicago leveraged endowments to fund research, attracting accomplished faculty and producing academic advancements, leading to sustained growth and maintenance of their institutional profile such that Chicago has been among

11049-473: The most beautiful college campuses in the United States. The first buildings of the campus, which make up what is now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a master plan conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb . The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles , each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle. The buildings of

11176-531: The most distinguished research universities in the US for more than a century. The university is described by the Encyclopedia Britannica as "one of the United States' most outstanding universities". ARWU has consistently placed the University of Chicago among the top 10 universities in the world, and the 2021 QS World University Rankings placed the university in 9th place worldwide. THE World University Rankings has ranked it among

11303-504: The number of required courses from 21 to 15. When The New York Times , The Economist , and other major news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy played a role in Sonnenschein's decision to resign in 2000. From the mid-2000s, the university began a number of multimillion-dollar expansion projects. In 2008,

11430-399: The people" - the idea that religion has become a way for people to deal with their problems. At least one comprehensive study refutes this idea. Research has found that secular democracies like France or Scandinavia outperform more theistic democracies on various measures of societal health. The authors explains, "Pressing questions include the reasons, whether theistic or non-theistic, that

11557-484: The peoples that we study by means of this category have no equivalent term or concept at all". There is, for instance, no word for "religion" in languages like Sanskrit . Religious studies became a field in its own right in The Netherlands by promulgating the so called 'duplex ordo' law in 1876. Before that, several key intellectual figures explored religion from a variety of perspectives. One of these figures

11684-427: The pervasiveness of film in modern culture. Approaches to the study of religion and film differ among scholars; functionalist approaches for instance view film as a site in which religion is manifested, while theological approaches examine film as a reflection of God's presence in all things. A number of methodologies are used in Religious Studies. Methodologies are hermeneutics , or interpretive models, that provide

11811-545: The phenomenological study of religion makes complete and comprehensive understanding highly difficult. However, phenomenologists aim to separate their formal study of religion from their own theological worldview and to eliminate, as far as possible, any personal biases (e.g., a Christian phenomenologist would avoid studying Hinduism through the lens of Christianity). There are a number of both theoretical and methodological attitudes common among phenomenologists: source Many scholars of religious studies argued that phenomenology

11938-523: The practices, historical backgrounds, developments, universal themes and roles of religion in society. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history. The sociology of religion is distinguished from the philosophy of religion in that it does not set out to assess the validity of religious beliefs, though the process of comparing multiple conflicting dogmas may require what Peter L. Berger has described as inherent "methodological atheism". Whereas

12065-416: The president are the provost, fourteen vice presidents (including the chief financial officer, chief investment officer , and vice president for campus life and student services), the directors of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab , the secretary of the university, and the student ombudsperson . As of May 2022, the current chairman of the board of trustees is David Rubenstein . The current provost

12192-401: The psychological factors in evaluating religious claims. Sigmund Freud was another figure in the field of psychology and religion. He used his psychoanalytic theory to explain religious beliefs, practices, and rituals, in order to justify the role of religion in the development of human culture. The sociology of religion concerns the dialectical relationship between religion and society ;

12319-403: The purpose of the discipline as to provide "training and practice ... in directing and conducting inquiry regarding the subject of religion". At the same time, Capps stated that its other purpose was to use "prescribed modes and techniques of inquiry to make the subject of religion intelligible." Religious studies scholar Robert A. Segal characterised the discipline as "a subject matter" that

12446-530: The religion to which they belong. Other scholars take a more unbiased approach and broadly examine the historical interrelationships among all major religious ideologies through history, focusing on shared similarities rather than differences. Scholars of religion have argued that a study of the subject is useful for individuals because it will provide them with knowledge that is pertinent in inter-personal and professional contexts within an increasingly globalized world . It has also been argued that studying religion

12573-553: The religious commitments. However, many contemporary scholars of theology do not assume such a dichotomy. Instead, scholars now understand theology as a methodology in the study of religion, an approach that focuses on the religious content of any community they might study. This includes the study of their beliefs, literatures, stories and practices. Scholars, such as Jonathan Z. Smith , Timothy Fitzgerald, Talal Asad , Tomoko Masuzawa , Geoffrey A. Oddie, Richard E. King , and Russell T. McCutcheon , have criticized religious studies as

12700-496: The same characteristics that are commonly associated with religion, but which rarely consider themselves to be religious. Conversely, other scholars of religious studies have argued that the discipline should reject the term "religion" altogether and cease trying to define it. In this perspective, "religion" is argued to be a Western concept that has been forced upon other cultures in an act of intellectual imperialism. According to scholar of religion Russell T. McCutcheon , "many of

12827-428: The scholar is first and foremost a believer employing both logic and scripture as evidence. Theology according to this understanding fits with the definition which Anselm of Canterbury gave to it in the eleventh century, credo ut intelligam , or faith seeking understanding (literally, "I believe so that I may understand"). The theologian was traditionally seen as having the task of making intelligible, or clarifying,

12954-428: The second half of the twentieth century the study of religion had emerged as a prominent and important field of academic enquiry." He cites the growing distrust of the empiricism of the nineteenth century and the growing interest in non-Christian religions and spirituality coupled with convergence of the work of social scientists and that of scholars of religion as factors involved in the rise of Religious Studies. One of

13081-408: The sociology of religion broadly differs from theology in assuming the invalidity of the supernatural, theorists tend to acknowledge socio-cultural reification of religious practise. The sociology of religion also deals with how religion impacts society regarding the positive and negatives of what happens when religion is mixed with society. Theorist such as Marx states that "religion is the opium of

13208-426: The student movement. In 1978, history scholar Hanna Holborn Gray , then the provost and acting president of Yale University , became president of the University of Chicago, a position she held for 15 years. She was the first woman in the United States to hold the presidency of a major university. In 1999, then-President Hugo Sonnenschein announced plans to relax the university's famed core curriculum , reducing

13335-485: The study of the principal religions of the world in their original documents, and who value and reverence it in whatever form it may present itself, to take possession of this new territory in the name of true science." Many of the key scholars who helped to establish the study of religion did not regard themselves as scholars of religious studies, but rather as theologians, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and historians. Partridge writes that "by

13462-454: The term "eidetic vision" to describe the ability to observe without "prior beliefs and interpretations" influencing understanding and perception. His other main conceptual contribution is the idea of the epoche : setting aside metaphysical questions and observing phenomena in and of themselves, without any bias or commitments on the part of the investigator. The epoche, also known as phenomenological reduction or bracketing, involves approaching

13589-456: The university agreed to pay $ 13.5 million to settle a lawsuit that it and other universities conspired to limit financial aid to students. The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the College , four divisions of graduate research, seven professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies . The university also contains a library system,

13716-444: The university created its first school in three decades, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering . On April 29, 2024, students at the University of Chicago set up an encampment on the university's main quad as a part of the nationwide movement in support of Palestine at institutions of higher learning across the country. The encampment was cleared by the University of Chicago Police Department on May 7. The main campus of

13843-623: The university includes eight professional schools, which also house academic research: the Booth School of Business ; Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice ; Divinity School ; Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies ; Harris School of Public Policy ; Law School ; Pritzker School of Medicine ; and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering . The university has additional campuses and centers in London, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, and Hong Kong, as well as in downtown Chicago. University of Chicago scholars have played

13970-537: The university opened the John W. Boyer Center in Paris, designed by architectural firm Studio Gang and nearly tripling the size of the Center in Paris which had opened in 2003. The university is governed by a board of trustees. The board of trustees oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 55 members including the university president. Directly beneath

14097-426: The university's Stagg Field . Advances in chemistry led to the "radiocarbon revolution" in the carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university research efforts include administration of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory , as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory . The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press , the largest university press in

14224-818: The university's Hyde Park neighborhood where they raised their children and where Barack Obama began his political career. Michelle Obama served as an administrator at the university and founded the university's Community Service Center. In November 2021, a university graduate was robbed and fatally shot on a sidewalk in a residential area in Hyde Park near campus; a total of three University of Chicago students were killed by gunfire incidents in 2021. These incidents prompted student protests and an open letter to university leadership signed by more than 300 faculty members. The university also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The university's Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Hong Kong , London , and

14351-518: The university's fifth president, 30-year-old legal philosophy scholar Robert Maynard Hutchins , took office. The university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. Hutchins reformed the undergraduate college's liberal-arts curriculum known as the Common Core, organized the university's graduate work into four divisions, and eliminated varsity football from the university in an attempt to emphasize academics over athletics. During his term,

14478-522: The university's general education requirements, commonly known as the Core Curriculum. In 2012–2013, the Core classes at Chicago were limited to 17 courses, and are generally led by a full-time professor (as opposed to a teaching assistant ). As of the 2013–2014 school year, 15 courses and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the Core. Undergraduate courses at

14605-531: The university's refusal to divest from South Africa in the 1980s and Darfur in the late 2000s. In 1969, more than 400 students, angry about the dismissal of a popular professor, Marlene Dixon , occupied the Administration Building for two weeks. After the sit-in ended, when Dixon turned down a one-year reappointment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended, the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during

14732-467: The university, like Shimer College and 10 others, adopted an early entrant program that allowed very young students to attend college; also, students enrolled at Shimer were enabled to transfer automatically to the University of Chicago after their second year, having taken comparable or identical examinations and courses. The university experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962 when then-freshman Bernie Sanders helped lead

14859-433: The university, to notify the university early of any contemplated faculty appointments or dismissals, to make no faculty appointment without the university's approval, and to send copies of examinations for suggestions. The University of Chicago agreed to confer a degree on any graduating senior from an affiliated school who made a grade of A for all four years, and on any other graduate who took twelve weeks additional study at

14986-546: The university—and a number of National Resource Centers , including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies . Chicago also operates or is affiliated with several research institutions apart from the university proper. The university manages Argonne National Laboratory , part of the United States Department of Energy 's national laboratory system, and co-manages Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) ,

15113-426: Was "the distinctive method of the discipline". In 2006, the phenomenologist of religion Thomas Ryba noted that this approach to the study of religion had "entered a period of dormancy". Phenomenological approaches were largely taxonomical, with Robert A. Segal stating that it amounted to "no more than data gathering" alongside "the classification of the data gathered". Functionalism , in regard to religious studies,

15240-723: Was a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation from 1946 through June 29, 2016, when the group's name was changed to the Big Ten Academic Alliance . The University of Chicago is not a member of the rebranded consortium, but will continue to be a collaborator. The university operates more than 140 research centers and institutes on campus. Among these are the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa —a museum and research center for Near Eastern studies owned and operated by

15367-415: Was founded by a small group of Baptist educators in 1856 through a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas . It closed in 1886 after years of financial struggle and a final annus horribilis in which the campus was badly damaged by fire and the school was foreclosed on by its creditors. Several years later, its trustees elected to change the school's name to the " Old University of Chicago " so that

15494-505: Was initially developed by Fritz Muntean, a graduate student in religious studies at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who started the venture with his friend Diana Tracy, who was then living in Oregon in the United States. Initially naming their work The Pomegranate: A New Journal of Neopagan Thought , the stated intention of the publication was to "provide a scholarly venue for

15621-465: Was known as " comparative religion " or the science of religion and, in the United States , there are those who today also know the field as the "History of religion" (associated with methodological traditions traced to the University of Chicago in general, and in particular Mircea Eliade , from the late 1950s through to the late 1980s). The religious studies scholar Walter Capps described

15748-446: Was stipulated that such money could not be used for buildings. The Hyde Park campus was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans such as Silas B. Cobb , who provided the funds for the campus's first building, Cobb Lecture Hall , and matched Marshall Field's pledge of $ 100,000. Other early benefactors included businessmen Charles L. Hutchinson (trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons ), Martin A. Ryerson (president of

15875-566: Was the famous pragmatist William James . His 1902 Gifford lectures and book The Varieties of Religious Experience examined religion from a psychological-philosophical perspective and is still influential today. His essay The Will to Believe defends the rationality of faith. Max Weber studied religion from an economic perspective in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–1905), his most famous work. As

16002-533: Was the first independent sociology department in the United States and gave birth to the Chicago school of sociology . In physics, the university was the site of the Chicago Pile-1 (the first controlled, self-sustaining human-made nuclear chain reaction, part of the Manhattan Project ), of Robert Millikan 's oil-drop experiment that calculated the charge of the electron, and of the development of radiocarbon dating by Willard F. Libby in 1947. The chemical experiment that tested how life originated on early Earth,

16129-418: Was valued at $ 10 billion. Since 2016, the university's board of trustees has resisted pressure from students and faculty to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies. Part of former university President Zimmer's financial plan for the university was an increase in accumulation of debt to finance large building projects. This drew both support and criticism from many in the university community. In 2023

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