In 2024, Drake University announced the cutting of the religion major. To continue religious education at Drake, a new religious and interfaith studies minor was established this fall.
Timothy Knepper, a philosophy professor, led the way towards creating the minor.
“The Provost [Sue Mattison], Dean [Jerry Parker] and the faculty senate budget committee decided that it wasn’t worth it to keep the major since the numbers were so low, but there was an understanding that we could stick with a minor,” Knepper said. “Due to the name change, the minor finally got approved in May, so now it’s the religious and interfaith studies minor.”
The minor consists of two tracks that students can choose from: religious studies and interfaith studies. The religious studies track starts with REL 003: Comparative Religions, and the interfaith studies track begins with REL 004: Religions of Des Moines and Interfaith Leadership. The interfaith program also relies on various partnerships with Des Moines religious organizations.
“I have a number of community partners for the programming, like the Des Moines Area Religious Council and the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa,” Knepper said. “I know dozens of people in religious communities here, especially non-Christian ones. We’ll work with students to find a practicum or internship experience that would make sense for them.”
While religion majors across the country have been seeing their numbers decrease, religion courses at Drake fill up quickly, according to Knepper. While religious courses at Drake have been growing, many sociologists once believed the end of religion was beginning.
“50 years ago, the secularization theory was very prominent, that we would see the demise of religion,” Knepper said. “That didn’t happen, and there’s been an increase of what I call non-institutionalized religiosity, people who are spiritual and vaguely religious, but not a part of organized religion. With the rise of religion impacting politics, if you study politics, eventually you’re going to butt up against religion.”
Due to politics becoming increasingly influenced by religion, Knepper believes the interfaith track is more important than ever.
“With the rise of intolerance we’re seeing in the world today, the world needs more interfaith leaders,” Knepper said. “It’s important to be able to bring people who have religious differences together, so not only is it important that we have this minor, but this type of education is important for the health and well-being of the world.”
Drake has an interfaith group on campus that hosts a range of events and attends different religious sites around Des Moines. Interfaith president Gracie Hines plans to add the interfaith studies minor to her curriculum.
“Having the new religious and interfaith studies minor gives students the chance to learn how different traditions and worldviews shape people’s lives and values,” Hines said in an email interview. “It also helps build understanding across differences, which is so needed in today’s world.”
Hines hopes that the minor helps bring new attention to Interfaith.
“Our organization is very similar to the minor side of it, but we tend to do a lot more activities with people throughout the Des Moines community,” Hines said. “Interfaith has been a smaller group for a couple of years since the pandemic, so we are hoping to bring back a lot more students to our organization because it’s such an important topic.”
