Critical Thinking Begins at Home: On Making a Shift in the Study of Religion

Abstract

Using as the starting point experiences gained at the University of Alabama, this paper discusses the context and goals of developing and implementing what Tim Fitzgerald and others have called a critical study of religion program (both undergraduate and graduate) within a modern research university – an initiative that played a key role in our department’s successful reinvention, one that has been taking place over the past twenty years.