University of Alabama’s Department of Religious Studies

In my spare time, I like to fake like I’m gonna go back to college, even though we all know that I probably won’t. If I was though, I would go whole hog and do a comparative religious studies program. There’s a lot of fancy-pants universities that have programs like this, but they always come off as being really fuddy-duddy based on their websites.

Last night though, I found a wonderful exception to this rule: the University of Alabama’s Department of Religious Studies. As far as I remember, I actually came across it while looking for an essay on the sociology of religion from Durkheim or Ricoeur or somebody. I don’t think I found it, but what I found instead leads me to believe that this site (and maybe even the department) is run by somebody after my own heart.

The writing is actually informative, unlike so many college department descriptions. Not only is it informative, it’s well-written and clear and interesting. And the best part? The best part is that for a variety of the course in their program, you can not only read the course descriptions, you can also download PDF’s of the syllabus, and you can even download PDF’s of all the essays which they use as the basis for the course. Which is fucking awesome, because the essays they are using are really diverse, and a lot of them I’ve not seen anywhere else.

OH WAIT! Just as I was about to applaud them for how they are taking such a progressive open attitude towards the free distribution of knowledge, I discover that these essays are all password protected. What a cocktease! Damn. I was seriously just about to launch into this big diatribe about how I’m so against when people try to restrict information. And that the best way to create interest in something is to allow everyone free unfettered access to it. So much for them being an example of that.

Oh well. Even still though, it’s probably the most compelling site I’ve seen so far for any religious studies or mythology program in the country (and even outside the country).


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This entry was written by Tim Boucher, posted on November 17, 2004 at 11:23 pm.

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