UWA Handbook 2025

Minor Overview

About this minor

Studying religious practices and beliefs of different cultures, within a variety of historical contexts, is both an important intellectual exercise and crucial for understanding human societies in full context. The Religion in History minor is devoted to the critical study of multiple religious traditions, primarily in historical perspective, from the ancient Mediterranean world through the European Middle Ages and into modernity. It is concerned with examining the histories of specific religions (e.g. Greek and Roman religious traditions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as well as Buddhism) and their legacies, as well as contact with religious traditions in ancient Egypt and Persia in antiquity, and in Asia and the Americas in the early modern and modern periods. It is also concerned with how religion shaped then-contemporary and subsequent thought on a wide range of issues, such as the nature of the divine, ethics, social issues, gender, the environment, and the meaning of life. While it focuses on religious traditions that emerged in the ancient Mediterranean world and developed and changed in European societies thereafter, it also examines the role of religion in colonial encounters, for example the re-interpretation of Christianity by indigenous and enslaved peoples in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Topics investigated may include religion and society; the history of specific religious traditions; religion in relation to imperialism and colonisation, and to indigenous societies and slavery; gender and religion; religion and science in historical perspective; and religion and politics. For students taking a minor which shares units with their other unit sets (majors or minors): in order for minors to be recognised on academic and graduation documents, students may only have a maximum of one unit overlapping between their unit sets. For students completing this minor in 2025, please contact your advising Student Office for substitution arrangements for HIST2345 which is unavailable.

Outcomes

Students are able to (1) demonstrate knowledge about multiple religious traditions in their historical contexts, from the ancient world to the present day; (2) demonstrate a comprehension of the significance for particular societies of religious practices and beliefs; and (3) apply a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledges and methods to the study of religion.

Units