Why Study Religion?

School starts in just a few weeks, so I thought that I would start posting some ideas for the first few weeks of  religion class.  In World Religions, we will begin trying to understand why we study religion. I ask students to read two short essays, one from the Academy of Religion, simply called “Why Study Religion?” and another by James Carroll, called “Why Religion Still Matters.” Carroll is a Boston Globe columnist and former Catholic priest. We discuss both essays and come up with a list of reasons why we study religion and why it still matters.