Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Religious Studies' website at Whittier College.

Whittier College, as you probably know, has deep Quaker roots, and while the institution is now thoroughly secular, our Quaker values of tolerance, equality, and social justice permeate the academic and co-curricular community. These values shape the form and content of the Religious Studies program and its offerings.

Our academic program does not claim loyalty to any particular faith but rather we understand the study of religion in its many varieties to be an important component of a liberal arts education. Religion plays increasingly significant and complex roles in both domestic and global affairs. Religions are dynamic institutions that serve to orient individuals to meaningful lives in a rapidly changing world at the same time as they are transnational forces which effect the global environment. Our department helps students to analyze and understand the impact that religions have in contemporary society at the individual, social and global levels.

The department also believes that religious difference is one of the most fundamental forms of diversity in our society, and hence one of the most crucial arenas for the development of understanding and acceptance of one another. Our courses are designed to help students engage in conversation and experience with beliefs, practices, and values unlike their own.

Marilyn Gottschall
Department Chair