General Information

For information about Division-wide requirements, visit the Virtual Red Book. For the SPR qualifying examination reading lists, visit the Green Book. For past SPR examination questions, visit the Past Examination Archive.

Some credit hours are earned from required courses and yet do not count toward the total required for the degree. The table below explains how credits count.

Abbreviations

DRTS: Division of Religious and Theological Studies
R&S: Religion & Science
MA: Master of Arts
PB-PhD: Post-Bachelors PhD
PM-PhD: Post-Masters PhD
N/A: Not Applicable

Contents

Summary
Coursework
Research Competency
Lab Placement
Qualifying Examinations
Dissertation
Timeline
Prerequisites
Managing Your Budget

The MA requires demonstrated competency in one language (see below for details) plus 32 credits of coursework, including two of the four DRTS 4-credit courses in Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Religion (see Track IV: Religion & Science at the DRTS site). There are no other requirements.

The post-Masters PhD degree requires 40 credits, and the post-Bachelors PhD 64 credits of coursework. The doctoral programs have four required classes, as follows.

• Every DRTS student (including every Religion & Science student) must take two of the four DRTS 4-credit courses in Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Religion. These courses prepares give students a solid background in the academic study of religion and also help prepare students to teach the "Religion 101" course in a college or university context.
• Every doctoral student in the Religion & Science program must take a one-semester, 4-credit proseminar in Science, Philosophy, and Religion (STH TT921). This course introduces students both to the main issues of concern at the intersection of science, philosophy, and religion and to the most important literatures for studying those issues.
• Every doctoral student in the Religion & Science program must take a year-long course in science literacy (STH TT871; a maximum of 4 credits count toward the total credit requirement for post-masters PhD students; others can count up to 8 credits, 4 credits per semester). This course aims to prepare people to read science, religion and science, and philosophy of science literature. This course covers the biological and the physical sciences and involves extensive mathematics training and remedial work as needed. It also covered boundary questions bearing on ethics, religion, and philosophy that arise within the sciences.
• Every doctoral student in the Religion & Science program must take two religion courses: Core Texts and Motifs West and Core Texts and Motifs East (RN723, RN724). Each of these courses contributes a maximum of 2 credits toward the total credit requirement for post-masters PhD students; others can count up to 4 credits per semester. This course is a requirement for students in some other DRTS tracks as well. The point of the sequence is to provide Religion & Science students with enough background in the sacred texts and fundamental ideas of other religions that their reflections can achieve a significant degree of cross-cultural sophistication.

The Track 4 Faculty recommends that doctoral students consider three other courses (or types of courses) as vital preparation for qualifying examinations:

• Philosophy of Science with Prof. Alisa Bokulich,
• History of Religion & Science with Prof. Jon Roberts, and
• Philosophical Cosmology with Prof. Robert Neville.

Religion & Science PhD students (but not MA students) also need to demonstrate competence in a basic science-related skill such as mathematics, computer programming, neural modeling, or logic, depending on the specialization. For example, a student specializing in certain aspects of the biological sciences may need the ability to understand computer programming just to understand what is at stake in such research as computer models of protein folding and the like. Someone working in physics would usually need competence in mathematics. A student working in ecology would probably need expertise in environmental modeling software.

During the placement (and continuing afterwards, optionally), the student takes on the insider-outsider role of being involved in the work of the lab in basic ways while trying to interpret that work for those both inside and outside the laboratory context.

Each student is assigned an advisor within the lab. Within the Religion & Science program, a cooperative learning arrangement is adopted whereby people in lab placements meet regularly as a group with Religion & Science faculty. Students should register for the Lab Placement Seminar while they are in a Lab Placement. The aim of these meetings is to discuss how to interpret what is going on in their labs in relation to their growing mastery of the history and philosophy of science, and with their growing understanding of the humanities.

This requirement cultivates practical expertise in observation and interpretation of the social setting of research science. It furnishes the student with an ideal context within which to reflect upon the more abstract studies of their program. And the training provided is an indispensable part of understanding the practical character of modern scientific research.

After coursework, Religion & Science PhD students must take four written qualifying examinations and one oral examination.

• The first covers Philosophy of Religion, treating major themes
  in the philosophical and theological study of religion.
• The second covers Philosophy and History of Science, treating debates in philosophy of science and the history of science, with particular attention to the history of interactions between sciences and religions.
• The third covers Religion and Science, treating the core literature of the religion and science field.
• The fourth exam, a multidisciplinary specialty exam, is customized to treat the literature surrounding the student’s multidisciplinary research specialty (e.g. cosmology and theistic creation, ecology and Buddhist ideas of nature, cognitive science and religion, theology and biomedicine, etc.).
• The oral examination is an oral review of all of the qualifying examinations with some attention to the student’s intended path of dissertation research.