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Dr. Bryan S. Rennie
Chair of the Department of Religion, History, Philosophy, and Classics
Vira I. Heinz Professor of Religion
Co-ordinator of the Heinz Lecture Series at Westminster College:
Religion and the Religions
Co-organizer of:
The North American Undergraduate Conference in Religion and Philosophy (2009)
Vice-President and Program Chair
The North American Association for the Study of Religion
2009 Annual Conference Program
Most recent book:

Religion, Terror, and Violence: Religious Studies Perspectives.
New York, NY and Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2008.
Curriculum Vitae | Brief Biographical Details | Current Research | Courses Taught

 
Ph.D. from

Scotland
 Spring 2009:
My office hours will be 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. every day.
I can also be reached by telephone or e-mail and am available at other times by appointment.
Telephone: 724 946 7151.
My only e-mail address is brennie@westminster.edu
 
Why Study Religion?
 
"I am proud to be involved in a profession, religious studies, which has taken seriously the phenomenological method, banning the ideological or theological determination of descriptive or historical truth." (Ninian Smart, Dimensions of the Sacred, p. 177).
 
I teach both philosophy and religious studies, having majored in philosophy as a method for the study of religion. My doctoral work concentrated on theory and method in the study of religion and convinced me that philosophy cannot be adequate as a method for the study of religion without a thorough grasp of the history of religion, just as the history of religion is incomplete without critical philosophical understanding. The History of Religion, like Art History, requires both criticism and content. My publications on the historian of religions, Mircea Eliade, have attracted an international audience and my book from the State University of New York Press, Reconstructing Eliade: Making Sense of Religion, was reviewed, generally favourably, in many of the leading journals in the field. (See reviews.)
Courses Taught:

This semester (Spring 2009):

All Courses:

  • Inquiry 101 - The First-Year Program, Fall Semester
  • Inquiry 102 - The First-Year Program, Spring Semester
  • Phi 101 - Problems of Philosophy
  • Phi 102 - Practical Logic
  • Phi 104 - Philosophy of Art and Beauty
  • Phi 202 - Foundations of Modern Philosophy
  • Phi 212 - Philosophy of Science
  • Phi 218 - Philosophy of Mind
  • Phi 297 - The Wisdoms of the World
  • Rel 101 - Understanding the Bible
  • Rel 111 - Understanding Religious Experience and Expression
  • Rel 116 - Religions of the Near East
  • Rel 117 - Religions of India
  • Rel 118 - Religions of China
  • Rel 122 - Religion and the Arts
  • Rel 311 - Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
Westminster College homepage Westminster College,
Academics Admissions/Financial Aid Development & Alumni Relations Athletics Calendar Computing
Curriculum Directories  Library  News & Publications  Religion & the Religions  Student Services

brennie@westminster.edu