Religion and Society

Entry requirements

The standard entry requirement is a BA (Honours) degree (UK 2:1 or equivalent, for example, a GPA of 3.7 on a 4.0 scale) in Theology, Religious Studies or a related discipline.

The three principal exceptions to this rule are as follows:

• Graduates of anthropology, sociology, psychology and other related programmes
• Graduates of other disciplines who have studied at undergraduate or equivalent level in one or more of the areas in which they hope to work, through their first degrees, through training for the ministry of the churches, and so on
• Students from overseas universities who have successfully reached a point in their theological studies comparable with completion of a British BA at the standard noted above - for example, on the German model, passing the Zwischenprüfung or Kolloquium and two semesters at the Hauptseminar level.

The University will contact the referees named in your application directly. Please ensure that your referees are able to provide a reference in a timely fashion. If you are also applying for a Durham MA bursary, please ensure that your referees understand that their references will be used both for admission and for a very competitive funding process.

Months of entry

October

Course content

This course looks at religion from anthropological and sociological perspectives. Durham has particular strengths in the study of Mormonism, death, dying and disposal, religion and emotion, religion/faith and globalisation, religion and politics, contemporary evangelicalism and post-evangelicalism, and religion and generational change. It also boasts the Centre for Death and Life Studies.

• Three optional modules
• Dissertation.

Core modules:

• Researching Religion and Belief: Reflexivity, Ethics and Identity
• Qualitative Methods in Social Science
• Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion
• Dissertation.

Examples of optional modules:

Optional modules in previous years have included 2-3 choices from:

• Literature and Religion
• Christian Northumbria 600-750
• Ecclesiology and Ethnography
• Religion in the Neo-Liberal Age
• Christian Fundamentalism and the Modern World
• Theology, Nature and Environment
• Module from the level 3 modules in the Dept of Theology and Religion supplemented with the Extended Study in Theology and Religion module..

Plus up to 1 choice from:

• Advanced Hebrew Texts
• Advanced Aramaic
• Middle Egyptian
• The Bible and Hermeneutics
• The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament
• Paul and his Interpreters
• Gospels and Canon
• Patristic Exegesis
• Patristic Ecclesiology
• England's Religious Revolution 1640-1660
• Liturgy and Sacramentality
• Classic Texts in Christian Theology
• Conceiving Change in Contemporary Catholicism
• Christian Gender
• Principles of Theological Ethics
• Catholic Social Thought
• Doctrine of Creation
• The Thought of Thomas Aquinas in Context
• Selected modules from the MA in Theology and Ministry course
• Level 3 undergraduate module, or any Level 1–2 language module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion, taken in conjunction with the designated Extended Study in Theology & Religion module
• 30 credits from another Board of Studies (including appropriate credit-bearing language modules offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study).

Information for international students

If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take a pre-Masters pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre.

Fees and funding

For further information see the course listing.