Religious Studies: Exposing Students to New Perspectives

St. Lawrence University offers 74 majors and 41 minors, including Religious Studies. Professors and students say that religious studies could brighten emotional well-being on campus through exposure of contrasting perspectives in the world.  

As daily life at university can be hard on so many people, the question arises of if there are places inside academia that can help these struggles. The courses in religious studies seem to be a place for help. Religious studies professor Mark MacWilliams thinks this is definitely the case saying, “these courses are connected to everything else.” 

Although many students do not directly connect with topics in religious studies, there seems to still be room for application. “I’m taking a course right now, and personally, certain aspects resonate with me more than others. I don’t strongly affiliate with Buddhism, but I find myself thinking about it,” mentioned Oona Tracy ’25, who is taking Buddhism Traditions.  

There seems to be a misconception around connecting with religious studies courses, such as students must be a part of a certain religion in order to succeed. Professor MacWilliams thinks the opposite. “The course gives rise to thought about ourselves, especially how students can be their own experts,” he said. MacWilliams advocates for the idea that content is not the driving force in the class, instead it is the process to “allow students to think differently than they did because a life unexamined isn’t a life worth living.” 

“While taking part and wanting to learn about the ideologies of different ways of life, I can be seen as helpful to students on campus. I’ve tried to implement things in my day, like trying to meditate 10 minutes per day, I feel like it helps my mental health,” stated Ben Graham, ’24, also in Buddhist Traditions. The religious studies classes available seem to both help students with how they act as people as well as what happens around them. “While learning more about the depths of Buddhism and their practises and ideologies I think it makes it easier for me to recognise certain things in my life like karma and practises like meditation,” said Tracy.  

With the notion that embracing a different way of life could be valuable, surely the inclusion of more religious studies classes would raise social standards and emotional well-being on campus. “Just having a more well-rounded idea of different people’s standpoints and how people view the world differently, I think that there’s kind of like no harm in that,” stated Tracy. Being a young adult creates struggles everywhere on campus. Although “there’s no course here that teaches ways to be human, I think our courses offer examples of how some people have tried to do that,” said MacWilliams.  

The process of wanting to understand people who are different to yourself seems to naturally comes with advantages. “I think that it would just creates a more well-rounded, accepting and understanding social environment,” said Tracy.  

The priorities of religious studies do not seem to only revolve around content, but also of learning and appreciating a new school of thought. “Content is important, but that is not the only reason I teach, it’s also about teaching ways for students to learn something about themselves, humanity, and inquiry,” he said. 

MacWilliams believes that the religious studies courses offered at SLU can impact students positively. “The role of a university to me is to teach students techniques that help prepare them for life post-graduation,” said MacWilliams.  

With this, some of the various students who have studied the material in religious studies courses also think that it could be enriching for students “I think students can benefit from this, any student, just in the way that they are going to learn things about other people’s ways of life, and that might open them up to some new ideas of their own,” said Graham.