Study of Religion MSt

This course offers an intensive training in research in the study of religions. It enables you to study two major religions, and to explore the nature of religion itself, at an advanced level. You can select your special subjects from the following five religious traditions currently covered by the faculty: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. In many cases, you will study the early doctrines and practices of religious traditions in their historical contexts, engaging with primary source texts in English translation, but you may also opt to study the modern variations of a particular religion, or a set of religious practices or institutions in the contemporary world. The Oxford tutorial system applies to post-graduate study in this course, so you are encouraged to develop your particular interests in conversation with your tutors. Each of these traditions has an internationally-recognised research centre, institute, or outstanding cluster of scholars in Oxford. This typically means that you are not only taught by specialists in your chosen tradition, but also have access to a variety of specialist libraries and collections. Students who leave the University of Oxford with graduate degrees in theology enter a variety of careers all around the world. Over half of those who gain an MSt or MPhil proceed to further, usually doctoral, study. Most of the others secure employment as, for example, school teachers, civil servants, parliamentary research assistants or staff members of (or researchers at) non-governmental organizations that work on issues pertaining to religion in public life.