MA Religious Experience

The MA Religious Experience is a pathway to the MA The Study of Religions at the University. The programme brings together modules in a variety of religious traditions around a 40 credit core course on Religious Experience written by Peggy Morgan, former Director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre based in the Lampeter campus.

The MA programme is designed to provide the opportunity for students to study religious experience in depth from a number of perspectives, examining both the phenomenology of religious experience and explanations of it. It is intended as a forum in which religious experience is explored and understood, which takes seriously both ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ accounts, and which questions and critically examines the categories ‘spirituality’, ‘mysticism’ and ‘religious experience’.

The MA programme is also designed to enable students to examine some of the world’s religions in terms of their doctrines and practices in relation to religious experience.

The course structure

The MA consists of two parts. The first part is the module element, and the second part is the dissertation.

  • The module element involves the successful completion of six modules, two of which you can choose from our (expanding) list of options. For each chosen module, you will be assessed on the basis of a 5,000-word essay or equivalent.
  • The dissertation, part 2 of the MA, is a piece of original research, 20,000 words in length, on an aspect of religious experience that may be of interest to you. The topic for the dissertation needs to be formally agreed with the programme director before students embark on their research.
  • You can enrol for the MA either as a part-time or full-time student.
  • For full-time students, the module part of the MA is a one-year programme, with a further year in which to write-up the dissertation.
  • Part-time students usually take about two to three years to complete the module elements and a further two years to complete the dissertation.

Modules

Compulsory Core Modules

TRDL7038                  Study Skills for Theology and Religious Studies

TRDL7039                  Theory and Methodology in the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions

TRDL7056                  Religious Experience Core Course

Optional Modules (20 credits each)

TRDL7062                  Islam Today

TRDL7057                  Religion, Spirituality and Secularisation

TRDL7044                  Studying Religion on the Internet

TRDL7045                  Empirical Research Methods

TRDL7046                  Independent Study

TRDL7004                  Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard and the Philosophy of Mind

Awards available

  • MA (180 credits)
  • PG Diploma (120 credits)
  • PG Certificate (60 credits)

Study mode

  • Full-time
  • Part-time

Programme delivery

  • Lampeter Campus
  • Distance learning

Start dates

  • October
  • February

Contact Details

For further information on this programme, contact the Programme Director:

Dr Bettina E. Schmidt
School of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED
Wales, UK

Telephone +44(0)1570 424912
Email: b.schmidt@trinitysaintdavid.ac.uk