Minor Requirements | The Study of Christianity and Culture | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The undergraduate minor in the Study of Christianity and Culture at UNC is an interdisciplinary minor curriculum in the social sciences and humanities aimed at developing understanding of Christian religious traditions and their influences in history and society. To fulfill the minor, in addition to the program requirements listed below, students must:

take at least nine hours of their minor course requirements at UNC-Chapel Hill
earn a minimum of 12 hours of C or better in the minor (some minors require more)

The minor requires completion of five (5) different courses, including at least one course from each of the following categories (core course, ancient/medieval/early modern Christianity, and Christianity in the modern world):

At least one core course:

RELI 161: Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions (H)
RELI 167: Global Christianity
RELI 209: Varieties of Early Christianity (H)
RELI 225: Christian Cultures
RELI 266: Medieval and Renaissance Christian Cultures
RELI 332: The Protestant Tradition (H)

Note: “(H)” indicates that an Honors version of the course is available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the non-honors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

At least one course in ancient, medieval, or early modern Christianity:

ARTH 264: Medieval Art in Western Europe
ARTH 290: Special Topics in Art History
ARTH 362: Early Christian Art and Modern Responses
ARTH 365: Late Medieval Art
CLAR 246: History of Early Christian and Byzantine Art
CLAR/JWST/RELI 110: The Archaeology of Palestine in the New Testament Period
CLAS 259: Pagans and Christians in the Age of Constantine
ENGL 223: Chaucer (H)
ENGL 224: Survey of Medieval English Literature, excluding Chaucer (H)
ENGL 227: Literature of the Earlier Renaissance (H)
ENGL 228: Literature of the Later Renaissance (H)
GSLL/RELI 218: Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages
HIST 106: Ancient History
HIST 107: Medieval History
HIST 177H: Honors Seminar in Early European History
HIST 428: The Later Roman Empire, 193 CE-378 CE
HIST 431: The Medieval Church
HIST 452: The Renaissance: Italy, Birthplace of the Renaissance, 1300-1550
HIST/RELI 454: The Reformation
ITAL 357: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio in English
PHIL 215: Medieval Philosophy
RELI 062: FYS: A History of Heresy: Christian Dissent from the Gnostics to the Pentecostals
RELI 070: FYS: Jesus in Scholarship and Film
RELI 104: Introduction to the New Testament (H)
RELI 114: Early Christian Worship, Ritual, and Bodies
RELI 163: Critical Issues in Western Religious Thought
RELI 164: Heresy and Inquisition: Religion, Ethics, Marginalization
RELI 201: Ancient Biblical Interpretation (H)
RELI 207: Jesus in the Early Christian Gospels
RELI 208: The Birth of Christianity
RELI 209: Varieties of Early Christianity (H)
RELI 217: Gnosticism (H)
RELI 218: Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages
RELI 227: Luther and the Bible
RELI 244: Gender and Sexuality in the Western Christianity (H)
RELI 266: Medieval and Renaissance Christian Cultures
RELI 314: Memory and the Historical Jesus (H)
RELI 315: Religious Frauds: Lies, Forgeries, and Fake News (H)
RELI 362: Mary in the Christian Tradition
RELI 366: Medieval Religious Texts
RELI 367: The Art of Devotion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
RELI 368: Race, Sexuality, and Disability in the History of Western Christianity (H)
RELI 413: Biblical Coptic and Early Egyptian Monasticism
RELI 454: The Reformation
RELI 515: Cultural Histories of the New Testament
RELI 603: The Bible and Its Translation
RELI 607: Problems in Early Christian Literature and History (H)
RELI 608: The Messiah and the Apocalypse
RELI 609: Christianity and Greco-Roman Culture
RELI 610: Readings in the Apostolic Fathers
RELI 614: The Cult of Saints: Narratives, Materialities, Practices
RELI 665: Body and Suffering in Christian Mysticism
RELI 668: Religion and the Spanish Inquisition: Abrahamic Traditions, Indigenous Religions, and Empire
RELI 234/SOCI 140: Historical Sociology of Christianity
RELI/WGST 362: Mary in the Christian Tradition (H)
RELI 665/WGST 664: Body and Suffering in Christian Mysticism

At least one course on Christianity in the Modern World:

AAAD 159: The History of the Black Church and Social Change
AAAD 210: African Belief Systems: Religion and Philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa
AAAD 286: The African Diaspora in the Colonial Americas, 1450-1800
ANTH/FOLK/RELI 342: African-American Religious Experience
ARTH 352: Religious Architecture and Visual Culture in Latin America
PHIL 134/RELI 126: Reason, Faith, and God: Philosophy of Western Religion (H)
RELI 072: FYS: Apocalypse Now? Messianic Movements in America
RELI 125: Heaven and Hell
RELI 138: Religious Freedom
RELI 140: Religion in America (H)
RELI 141: African American Religions (H)
RELI 142: Catholicism in America
RELI 151: Religion in Latin America
RELI 161: Introduction to the History of Christian Traditions (H)
RELI 162: Catholicism Today: An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church
RELI 215: Eastern Christian Cultures: Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe
RELI 225: Christian Cultures
RELI 236: Religious Things
RELI 241: Messianic Movements in American History
RELI 242: New Religious Movements in America
RELI 245: Latina/o Religions in the United States-Mexico Borderlands (H)
RELI 332: The Protestant Tradition (H)
RELI 338: Religion in American Law
RELI 340: Liberal Tradition in American Religion
RELI 352: Anthropology of Christianity
RELI 365: Studies in Christian Theologies and Theologians
RELI 421: Religion and Science
RELI 424: Gender Theory and the Study of Religion
RELI 441: Religion in Early America (H)
RELI 443: Evangelicalism in Contemporary America (H)
RELI 446: Christian-Jewish Relations throughout the Ages
RELI 448: Native and Christian: Indigenous Engagements with Christianity
RELI 540: Mormonism and the American Experience
RELI 541: Evangelicalism from a Global Perspective
RELI 542: Religion and the Counterculture
RELI 662: Advanced Seminar in Contemporary Catholicism
RELI/SOCI 429: Religion and Society
RELI/WGST 244: Gender and Sexuality in Western Christianity (H)
RELI/WGST 371: Women Mystics
SOCI 290: Special Topics in Sociology

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.