Study of Christianity and Culture Minor

The undergraduate minor in the study of Christianity and culture is an interdisciplinary curriculum in the humanities, arts, and social sciences that aims to refine students’ understanding of the cultural, social, and political influence of Christianity.

Requirements 

In addition to the program requirements listed below, students must:

  • take at least nine hours of their minor "core" requirements at UNC–Chapel Hill
  • earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.000 in the minor core requirements. Some programs may require higher standards for minor or specific courses.

For more information, please consult the degree requirements section of the catalog.

Requirements
The minor requires the completion of five courses, including at least one course from each of the following categories.
Core course:3-9
IDEAs in Action General Education logo Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions H
IDEAs in Action General Education logo Global Christianity
IDEAs in Action General Education logo Varieties of Early Christianity H
Christian Cultures
IDEAs in Action General Education logo Medieval and Renaissance Christian Cultures
IDEAs in Action General Education logo The Protestant Tradition H
Ancient, medieval, or early modern Christianity (see list below)3-9
Christianity in the modern world (see list below)3-9
Total Hours15
H

Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

Courses must be taken from at least two different departments, and at least one must be numbered 200 or above.

Students may also petition the Minor Faculty Advisory Committee for permission to count toward their minor requirements other potentially appropriate UNC–Chapel Hill courses, independent study courses, transfer courses, or study abroad courses.

Students also are encouraged to take language courses that relate to the minor in the study of Christianity and culture — such as Latin, Greek, or Hebrew — but language courses do not fulfill minor course requirements.

Although this minor is housed in the Department of Religious Studies, the director of Christianity and culture is responsible for advising all students who minor in the study of Christianity and culture.

Ancient, Medieval, or Early Modern Christianity

ARTH 264Medieval Art in Western Europe3
ARTH 290Special Topics in Art History3
ARTH 365Late Medieval Art3
CLAR/JWST/RELI 110IDEAs in Action General Education logo The Archaeology of Palestine in the New Testament Period3
CLAS 259Pagans and Christians3
ENGL 223IDEAs in Action General Education logo Chaucer H3
ENGL 224IDEAs in Action General Education logo Survey of Medieval English Literature, excluding Chaucer H3
ENGL 227IDEAs in Action General Education logo Literature of the Earlier Renaissance H3
ENGL 228Literature of the Later Renaissance H3
GSLL/RELI 218Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages3
HIST 106IDEAs in Action General Education logo Ancient History3
HIST 107IDEAs in Action General Education logo Medieval History3
HIST 177HHonors Seminar in Early European History3
HIST 428The Later Roman Empire, 193 CE-378 CE3
HIST 431The Medieval Church3
HIST 452The Renaissance: Italy, Birthplace of the Renaissance, 1300-15503
HIST/RELI 454The Reformation3
ITAL 357Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio in English3
PHIL 215IDEAs in Action General Education logo Medieval Philosophy3
RELI 62IDEAs in Action General Education logo First-Year Seminar: A History of Heresy: Christian Dissent from the Gnostics to the Pentecostals3
RELI 70IDEAs in Action General Education logo First-Year Seminar: Jesus in Scholarship and Film3
RELI 104IDEAs in Action General Education logo Introduction to the New Testament H3
RELI 114IDEAs in Action General Education logo Early Christian Worship, Ritual, and Bodies3
RELI 163IDEAs in Action General Education logo Critical Issues in Western Religious Thought3
RELI 164IDEAs in Action General Education logo Heresy and Inquisition: Religion, Ethics, Marginalization3
RELI 201IDEAs in Action General Education logo Ancient Biblical Interpretation H3
RELI 207IDEAs in Action General Education logo Jesus in the Early Christian Gospels3
RELI 208IDEAs in Action General Education logo The Birth of Christianity3
RELI 209IDEAs in Action General Education logo Varieties of Early Christianity H3
RELI 217IDEAs in Action General Education logo Gnosticism H3
RELI 218Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages3
RELI 244IDEAs in Action General Education logo Gender and Sexuality in Western Christianity H3
RELI 266IDEAs in Action General Education logo Medieval and Renaissance Christian Cultures3
RELI 314IDEAs in Action General Education logo Memory and the Historical Jesus H3
RELI 315Religious Frauds: Lies, Forgeries, and Fake News H3
RELI 366Medieval Religious Texts3
RELI 367The Art of Devotion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe3
RELI 371Women Mystics3
RELI 413IDEAs in Action General Education logo Biblical Coptic and Early Egyptian Monasticism3
RELI 454The Reformation3
RELI 515IDEAs in Action General Education logo Cultural Histories of the New Testament H3
RELI 564IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion, Race, and Inquisition in the Spanish Empire3
RELI 603IDEAs in Action General Education logo The Bible and Its Translation3
RELI 607Problems in Early Christian Literature and History H3
RELI 608The Messiah and the Apocalypse3
RELI 609IDEAs in Action General Education logo Christianity and Greco-Roman Culture3
RELI 610Readings in the Apostolic Fathers3
RELI 614IDEAs in Action General Education logo The Cult of Saints: Narratives, Materialities, Practices3
RELI/GERM 227IDEAs in Action General Education logo Luther and the Bible3
RELI/WGST 362IDEAs in Action General Education logo Mary in the Christian Tradition H3
RELI 368/WGST 370IDEAs in Action General Education logo Race, Sexuality, and Disability in the History of Western Christianity H3
RELI 665/WGST 664Body and Suffering in Christian Mysticism3
H

Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

Christianity in the Modern World

AAAD 159The History of the Black Church and Social Change3
AAAD 210African Belief Systems: Religion and Philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa3
AAAD 286IDEAs in Action General Education logo The African Diaspora in the Colonial Americas, 1450-18003
ANTH/FOLK/RELI 342African-American Religious Experience3
PHIL 134/RELI 126IDEAs in Action General Education logo Reason, Faith, and God: Philosophy of Western Religion H3
RELI 72IDEAs in Action General Education logo First-Year Seminar: Apocalypse Now? Messianic Movements in America3
RELI 125IDEAs in Action General Education logo Heaven and Hell3
RELI 138IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religious Freedom3
RELI 140IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion in America H3
RELI 141IDEAs in Action General Education logo African American Religions H3
RELI 142IDEAs in Action General Education logo Catholicism in America3
RELI 151IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion in Latin America3
RELI 161IDEAs in Action General Education logo Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions H3
RELI 162IDEAs in Action General Education logo Catholicism Today: An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church3
RELI 215IDEAs in Action General Education logo Eastern Christian Cultures: Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe3
RELI 225Christian Cultures3
RELI 236IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religious Things3
RELI 241Messianic Movements in American History3
RELI 242IDEAs in Action General Education logo New Religious Movements in America3
RELI 245Latina/o Religions in the United States-Mexico Borderlands H3
RELI 332IDEAs in Action General Education logo The Protestant Tradition H3
RELI 338IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion in American Law3
RELI 340Liberal Tradition in American Religion3
RELI 352IDEAs in Action General Education logo Anthropology of Christianity3
RELI 365IDEAs in Action General Education logo Studies in Christian Theologies and Theologians3
RELI 421IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion and Science3
RELI 424IDEAs in Action General Education logo Gender Theory and the Study of Religion3
RELI 441IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion in Early America H3
RELI 443Evangelicalism in Contemporary America H3
RELI 446Christian-Jewish Relations throughout the Ages3
RELI 448IDEAs in Action General Education logo Native and Christian: Indigenous Engagements with Christianity3
RELI 540Mormonism and the American Experience3
RELI 541IDEAs in Action General Education logo Evangelicalism from a Global Perspective H3
RELI 542Religion and the Counterculture H3
RELI 662Advanced Seminar in Contemporary Catholicism3
RELI/SOCI 429IDEAs in Action General Education logo Religion and Society3
RELI/WGST 244IDEAs in Action General Education logo Gender and Sexuality in Western Christianity H3
RELI/WGST 371Women Mystics3
SOCI 290Special Topics in Sociology 13
H

Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

1

With permission, based on topic. 

See the program page here for special opportunities.

Department of Religious Studies

Visit Program Website

125 Carolina Hall, CB# 3225

(919) 962-5666

Associate Professor

Evyatar Marienberg

evyatarm@unc.edu

Chair

Barbara Ambros

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Brandon Bayne

bayne@unc.edu

Student Services Manager, Registrar

Myra Quick

quick@unc.edu