Program Highlights
This program combines a scholarly focus with a broad range of approaches and concerns. It deals with theology, doctrine, and religious institutions but also places religion in its social context and historical perspective. Topics treated in the range of courses offered include religious belief and popular practices; lay piety and religious enthusiasm; religious reform and evangelization; ritual and mysticism; secularization and tolerance; and the relationship between religion, on the one hand, and science and politics on the other.
Faculty
The faculty of the Department of History is particularly strong in both aspects of this program,
with a number of professors who study religion and whose chronological focus is the late medieval
and early modern period. The program also draws upon the participation of members of Catholic
University’s distinguished School of Theology & Religious Studies. Faculty teaching in the program include:
Ronald Calinger (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
Research Specialty: Religion and Science; Religion and the Enlightenment
Publications: Vita Mathematica: Historical Research and Integration with Teaching (Washington, DC:
Mathematical Association of America, 1996) Classics of Mathematics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1995)
Thomas Cohen (Ph.D., Stanford University)
Research Specialty: Religion in the Iberian World; Politics and Religion; Missionaries
in the New World
Publications: The Fire of Tongues: António Vieria and the Missionary Church in Brazil and Portugal
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998)
Rev. Jacques Grès-Gayer (D. Hist., Sorbonne; D. Theol., Inst. Catholique de Paris)
Research Specialty: Theology and Spirituality; Jansenism and Society
Publications: Paris-Cantorbéry 1717-1720: le dossier d’un premier oecumensim (Paris: Beauchesne,
1989); Théologie et pourvoir en Sorbonne: la Faculté de théologie de Paris et la bulle Unigenitus, 1714-1721
(Paris: Klincksieck, 1991)
Katherine Jansen (Ph.D., Princeton University)
Research Specialty: Late Medieval Religious Culture; Medieval Italy; Women and Gender
Publications: The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
Nelson H. Minnich (Ph.D., Harvard University)
Research Specialty: Christian Humanism; Reformation and Counter-Reformation
Publications: The Catholic Reformation: Council, Churchmen, Controversies (Aldershot, Hampshire/
Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1993); The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17): Studies on its Membership,
Diplomacy and Proposals for Reform (Aldershot, Hampshire/Brookfield VT: Variorum, 1993);
Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 84: Controversies with Alberto Pio, ed. Nelson H. Minnich (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005)
L. R. Poos (Ph.D., Cambridge University)
Research Specialty: Religion and the Law; The English Reformation
Publications: A Rural Society after the Black Death: Essex 1350-1525 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
Local Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in Late-Medieval England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
James Riley (Ph.D., Tulane University)
Research Specialty: Religion in the Hispanic World
Publications: Haciendados Jesuitas en Mexico: La Administracion de los Bines Immeubles del Colegio Maximo de San Pedro y San
Pablo de la Cuidad de Mexico, 1687-1767 (Mexico: Sep-Setentas, 1976)
Degree Requirements
The requirements for the Religion and Society Program follow the general outline of those for the regular M.A. in History. Students are expected to complete a minimum of 30 credit-hours of coursework (10 courses), including History 601 (Historical Methodology).
In addition, students must complete two seminars and six colloquia or reading courses. Both seminars and at least three of the colloquia must be courses designated as part of the program on Religion and Society. The M.A. thesis is optional, and students may elect to write one or not based upon their interests and through consultation with pertinent faculty. If a student does write a thesis, two of the colloquia are replaced by two semesters of thesis direction (6 credit hours).
M.A. students must submit evidence of proficiency in one foreign language. This can be accomplished by passing a reading-comprehension examination administered by CUA by passing a reading-comprehension course in one of the university’s language departments, or in some cases, by showing evidence of prior qualification in a graduate program at another university. (Note: Basic grammar courses do not count toward the 30 credit-hour minimum for the M.A.)
An M.A. student in the program must complete a written comprehensive examination consisting of two four-hour examinations taken on consecutive days.
Courses
The following courses offered by the Departments of History and Theology and Religious Studies are included in the program of study for an M.A. in Religion and Society:
History 601: History and Historical Analysis
History 609: Medieval Civilization II
History 612: The Reformation
History 613: The Renaissance
History 628: Culture and Science during Europe’s 18th Century Enlightenment
History 654: Religion & Society in Early America
History 679: Latin Hagiography of the Later Middle Ages
History 681: Politics and Religion in Early Modern Europe
History 684: Religion and Society in Colonial Latin America
History 832: Seminar on the Renaissance and Reformation
History 833: Seminar on Issues in Renaissance Religion
History 839: Seminar on Early Modern European Society
TRS 525A: The Catholic Reformation, 1400-1540
TRS 525B: The Counter Reformation, 1540-1615
TRS 623A: The Roman Catholic Missionary Experience of the 16th Century
TRS 623B: The Renewal of Religious Life in the Catholic Church of the 15th and 16th Centuries
TRS 728C: Colloquium on the Council of Trent
TRS 825H: Seminar on Jansenism
Applications
Students interested in the Religion and Society Program must meet the general requirements for admission to
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The Catholic University of America.
