About
- Introduction
- Mission Statement
- What else does the department offer?
Department Scope
- Gender and Religion
- African Religion
- Islam
- Christianity
- Judaism
- Religion and Public Health in Africa and Internationally
- Comparative Religion
News and guest seminars
31. January from 1-2 pm in the LS5.67 Religious Studies Seminar Room, level 5, Leslie Social Sciences Building:
SAID FERJANI - advisor to
the current Prime Minister of Tunisia, Hamadi Jebali; and founding member of
the Islamic Al-Nahda Party. He is a spokesperson and member of the
constitutional council and political bureau of the party.
Mr Ferjani spent 23 years in exile in the UK before his return to Tunisia.
Outside of Al-Nahda, Mr Ferjani is a founding trustee of Families Relief, a
UK-registered charity for relief work in Tunisia. He is also a founding
member of the human rights group, Tunisian International Association for the
Support of Political Prisoners.
FORTHCOMING
9. February from 1-2 pm in the LS5.67 Religious Studies Seminar Room, level 5, Leslie Social Sciences Building:
Dr Traci West - hosted by Religious Studies and SAFFI - presentation on the global movement to end gender-based violence against women and girls focusing on how religion and racism impact this struggle
15. February from 1-2 pm in the CAS Gallery, Oppenheimer Institute on Upper campus:
Ambassador Dr. Al-Alawi (Embassy of Iraq in Pretoria) will be giving a talk -
22. February from 1-2 pm in the LS5.67 Religious Studies Seminar Room, level 5, Leslie Social Sciences Building:
Postgraduate Welcome party
(keep checking for further news)
ABOUT RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Introduction to Religious Studies
Religion has been central to human history and the diversity of civilisations and remains a formative and pervasive aspect of human culture and experience. The need to understand religion has never been more pressing than it is today, and at the University of Cape Town we are concerned with studying all aspects of religion, particularly in contemporary African society.
Religious Studies takes as its subject all religions and their interaction with other aspects of life, intellectual, political and artistic. It is essentially pluralistic: committed to no particular faith but endeavouring to understand each religion in its own terms, using the tools of textual, historical, sociological and philosophical analysis.
Religion has been studied at the University of Cape Town since 1967. Grown from humble beginnings, the Department today is home to four journals, three Institutes, and has consistently maintained a post-graduate enrolment of around 70 students. The Department has made important contributions to South African society, including playing a central role in designing a new curriculum for religious education in schools.
Graduates from our department have gone on to make significant contributions to South Africa’s social and political transformation, among them Philip Dexter, formerly Executive Director of NEDLAC; N. Barney Pityana, Vice-Chancellor of UNISA; Darrel Wratten, founder and director of the Consumer Information Agency (CIA); Jannie Hofmeyer, Founder and Director of Research Surveys; and Ruben Richards, head of the Scorpions Unit in the Western Cape.
The Department of Religious Studies is located in Room 5.40, Leslie Social Science Building at the heart of the University's Upper Campus.
Mission Statement
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town is committed to research and teaching which will contribute to public life in our local, regional, national and continental context. The Department is dedicated to:
- An open, plural, intercultural, and interdisciplinary study of religion in all its forms
- The in-depth study of African religious traditions
- The creative and critical analysis of religion as a force in personal, social, economic and political life
- The promotion of quality education and research in the study of religion as a vital contribution to the transformation and development of South Africa
The mission statement is implemented through degree programmes that focus on the broad theme of religion, culture and identity. The Department offers a systematic study of religion in public life, its meaning and significance in South Africa in particular and Africa in general. The broad theme reflects the various research projects of the faculty members and institutes presently housed in the Department. In the first instance, the theme is explored in core courses team-taught by faculty members. These core courses provide the thematic, methodological and theoretical foundations for all students who choose to pursue degrees in the Department of Religious Studies. Additional courses continue this focus within the established areas of specialisation: African Studies, Christian Studies, Comparative Studies, and Islamic Studies.
What else does the Religious Studies Department Offer?
The Department has links with many international institutions and offers opportunities for student exchange with various universities, including the University of Uppsala (Sweden), Birmingham University (UK), Nairobi University (Kenya) and Emory University (U.S.A.) The Clough Travel Scholarship offers students the opportunity to travel and study Eastern religion in an Asian country of their choice. As a student, you can gain valuable work and research experience with any of our research institutes and the opportunity to work with academic staff on various exciting research projects. As part of our commitment to creating a learning environment that is creative and stimulating, the Department hosts regular seminars delivered by staff members and visiting scholars.
Department Scope
Gender and Religion
Since religious traditions have influenced social reality throughout history, and still do so today, gender-sensitive analysis is essential for tracing the impact of religion on understandings of gender difference – historically and currently, globally and locally – in relation to customs, traditions, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. In religious studies, it is vital to explore the roles these understandings of gender difference play in determining differences in status and experience between women and men, according to both religious and societal life contexts. The importance of maintaining scholarship located at the intersection of religious studies and gender studies is fully recognized in this department, with some lecturers focusing their research and teaching interests in this field. Courses addressing religion and gender are offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with each course examining issues of gender and sexuality from the perspectives of a variety of religious traditions.
African Religion
Teaching and research in the Department is undertaken with regards to various aspects of African Traditional Religion (ATR), including African resources such as: values, myths, rituals, morals, and philosophy. Special attention is given to continuities and changes in the indigenous religions of Africa as well as to Pentecostalism as a significant socio-political phenomenon in Africa. As part of its commitment to understanding the role of religion on the socio-political landscape of South Africa, through both teaching and research, members of our Department such as Dr Sibusiso Masondo, explore how African religion and politics are historically intertwined.
Islam
We offer postgraduate students a stimulating teaching and research program devoted to Islamic studies and contemporary Islam in Africa. For example, this year we are fortunate enough to have, as a visiting scholar, Professor Ebrahim Moosa from Duke University who is a leading scholar on Islamic law and contemporary Muslim Ethics and a founding member of the CCI. Prof Moosa will be teaching a Postgraduate course entitled Debating Muslim Ethics during the second semester. Initiated by Dr Abdulkader Tayob, two new research projects have been undertaken by the Department, one of which focuses on the emergence of Islamic trends and movements in different regions in Africa with the other focussing on the 20th century Muslim intellectual tradition in different cultural regions of the world.
Christianity
Creative and critical reflection on Christianity, with special attention to Christianity in South Africa, has long been one of the strengths of the department. Professor Jim Cochrane, who was awarded the DDiv honoris causa from the Chicago Theological Seminary, and has supervised postgraduate research in Christian Studies, with special attention to hermeneutics, critical theory, social ethics, and changing religious dynamics under globalization, has retired at the end of 2011. Dr Sibusiso Masondo focuses on African Christianity, the process of Christian conversion, and the religious life of African Initiated Churches. Professor Charles Wanamaker specializes in early Christianity, supervising postgraduate research in the socio-rhetorical analysis of the writings of Paul and other topics in the language and literature of the New Testament.
Judaism
Dr Louis Blond specializes in Jewish thought and European philsophy.
Religion and Public Health in Africa and Internationally
IRHAP aims to continue ARHAP's work to develop a systematic knowledge base of religious health assets in sub-Saharan Africa and more widely, to assist in aligning and enhancing the work of both religious health leaders and public policy makers in their collaborative effort to meet the challenges of ill-health, and to promote sustainable health, especially for those who live in poverty or under marginal conditions.
The IRHAP Advisory Board, associates and wider network includes scholars from many congruent disciplines in South and Southern Africa, Africa more widely, Europe, the USA and, increasingly, the Asian region, with some connections to Latin America beginning. Its work is now recognized not only within the academy, but also by major agencies such as the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNPFA, the World Bank, the Global Fund to fight HIV, TB and Malaria, and several others, as well as several major international religious institutions engaged in healthcare.
Its current activity includes, inter alia, work on community health systems strengthening (linked to re-engineering primary health care), helping in the extension of models for palliative care models in community partnerships, male peace and safety in the context of high levels of male interpersonal violence, a joint learning initiative on religion and development, support for a hospital based Congregational Health Network in Memphis, transdisciplinary 'literacy' on the interface between religion and public health, and a continuing support of mapping and assessment of religious (and community) health assets by other groups elsewhere. For more details, see www.irhap.uct.ac.za.
The Popular and the Postcolonial – Studies in Comparative Religion
As one of the few departments of Religious Studies in the country, we continue to be at the forefront of teaching and research in the history of religions in South Africa as well as exploring the interface between religion and politics, social change, and popular culture. Some of the themes tackled in the department from a comparative perspective include religion and colonialism, sacred space, spirituality and media, neo-shamanism, and religion and ecology. Supervision in this area is provided by Professor David Chidester, two-time winner of the American Academy of Religion’s Award for Excellence in Religious Studies, who has written extensively on religion in South Africa, North America, and a globalizing world.
Department of Religious Studies, University of Cape Town
