In the next few months I will be finishing my BS at COSC, and looking ahead I would like to continue my education in the area of religion. I have no desire to earn a MDIV, to become a minister, or to teach. My only purpose in continuing on is to get some well rounded knowledge of various world religions. While I could take various courses from different schools, I feel a systematic program would make more sense. My own church is UU, so I am not looking to follow a particular theology, and the only requirement is that study be online. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. Tom
I'm probably beginning to sound like a broken record, because I say this every time somebody asks this type of question . . . but Lampeter offers a fair number of it's MA courses by distance learning http://www.lamp.ac.uk/trs/Postgraduate/taught_degrees.htm Angela
Nations University Check out Nations University. http://www.nationsu.org/ They have a Masters Degree Program that is entirely free. I have seen several favorable posts in other forums. It is affilated someway with the Church of Christ. Although they are not accredited, in some cases, their credit is transferable http://www.lipscomb.edu/.
I think the unitarian would be a fish out of water at a Church of Christ school, and I dont mean just the difference on instrumental music! I am also interested in this question. I have studied the different faiths, especially "alternative religions" informally for years. I would love to get 18 graduate hours so I could teach a world religions class at one of the two community colleges in town. Pipe dream maybe. I do not know if the classes from Wales would suffice or not?! Brian
Don't Meadville-Lombard and Starr King offer some distance learning programs? You might want to look at the various schools accredited by TRACS and see if anything interests you. Take care.
There aren't a whole lot of options. For one thing, broad survey treatments in religious studies are more common at the bachelor's level, and students tend to specialize in particular traditions and problems in graduate programs. And DL religious education tends to be weighted towards conservative protestant evangelicals, who apparently see DL as an alternative to B&M programs with broader design. I agree with Angela Gilham that the University of Wales - Lampeter's DL masters programs in religion seem like your best bet. Most of them are kind of fascinating. There's a broad world religion survey MA that seems to be designed to prepare religion teachers for British secondary schools (where religious education is part of the curriculum). Since this is a graduate program, I suppose that it would qualify somebody to teach world religions at an American community college, though you might need a credential evaluation to convert 'modules' to 'semester hours'. http://www.lamp.ac.uk/trs/Postgraduate/MA_worlds_religions.htm I like the MA in Religious Experience and the MA in Indic Traditions too. It's less clear that you can do them entirely by DL though. Personally, I'd be very leery of a TRACS program if I wanted to study world religions, comparative religion, philosophy or psychology of religion or any particular non-Christian tradition. TRACS requires that all of its accredited schools have a Biblical basis and that they only hire Christian faculty. Most have very conservative statements of faith that teachers must adhere to (Biblical inerrancy etc.)
What a difference a 150 plus years can make! your average Unitarian(pagan, wiccan, agnostic, liberal xian, non-theist, deist, or whatever) would probably feel a bit uncomfortable, possibly, with the religious views of Church of Christ instructors .............
Well, not exactly the AUC. The AUC is theistic but not necessarily Christian. Channing, Ballou, and others were decidedly Christian. The AUC is a vast improvement, however, over the UUA.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I briefly looked at both NationsUniversity and the University of Wales and will revisit them again. I think each is a possibility, although with Nations I may indeed be a "fish out of water", although this UU is a sometimes conservative liberal. Tom
Starr King Take a look at : http://www.sksm.edu/conted/online_learning.php Not exactly inexpensive but offering look worth your while. I wish they would offer certificates or degree on-line, as many can't afford to move to Berkeley. My observations about being a good UU... it costs a lot... your time, your money, etc. But I think that is the point! I would like to see a more inward looking church (Plato-ish) that was not so idnetified with radical protest and the materil world (Aristotle-ish), but at least UU churches are open and welcoming to everyone. I will look at Unity, but they have a rep for being more "new age" than the UUs.
Actually, I've often wondered what the early UUs would think of the current UUs. Probably no more drastic than the average citizen of that day looking at what was acceptable in society today. Tom
quote: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My observations about being a good UU... it costs a lot... your time, your money, etc. But I think that is the point! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to somewhat disagree. I have litte to offer financially other than the weekly offering. As far as time goes, I don't contribute any more than many of my friends who are Episcopalian, or Baptist do with their own churchs in working at soup kitchens or Habitat. Within my church I do see a high percentage of members involved in helping the homeless, the poor, the dying etc. I'm not certain how that relates to other churchs or other UU congregations, and not that it matters. I think the importance is that we stay involved. Tom
