Study of Religions

This programme is taught in Czech.

The criteria for admission for studies are the results of the written Field of Study Examination. Applicants may also be admitted based on other criteria, see Admission without the Entrance Examination. The Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University disregards the results of SCIO National Comparative Examinations.

You can file your e-applications for studies from 1 November to 28 February.
Field of Study Examinations will be held from 15 April to 21 April.
The date and time of the examination will be stated in the electronic invitation for the examination, which will be uploaded to your e-application. The faculty will not be sending paper invitations. Applicants applying for the major study plan and minor study plan in a combined study must comply with the conditions for admission into both plans.

Learning Potential Test (TSP)

For admission for studies in this degree programme, you do not need to take the TSP.

Field of Study Examination

This examination is only in Czech. It is intended to check the applicants’ knowledge of the given field of study. It is done in the form of a written test.

Basic description of the Field of Study Examination:

The field of study test has three parts:

• reading comprehension of a short English text (20 points)
• multiple choice questions (40 points)
• 5 open questions (40 points)

The applicants are expected to have general knowledge of European history, general cultural knowledge, and basic knowledge of the most important texts of European religious traditions, mainly the Bible.

Sample question: Buddhism is a religion which originated from:
a) Tibet
b) India
c) China
d) Japan

Admission without the entrance examination

You may be exempt from the entrance examination based on at least one of the following criteria:

1. participation in a national round of Students’ Professional Activities (SOČ) in the field of philosophy, political studies, and other humanities;
2. secondary school results from profile subjects of Czech (Slovak) language, history, basics of social sciences and a foreign language of the applicant’s choice.

Secondary school results may be applied for an exemption from the entrance examination by those applicants whose average grade was 1.5 or higher in each of the four profile subjects. The total average result in all subjects is not taken into consideration. Secondary school seminars are also disregarded. The average grade of each profile subject is calculated based on the results of the last four years of study in the following way: the mid-year grade is calculated from the final year, whereas the final grades are calculated from the previous three years. It is also necessary that applicants have studied each of the profile subjects for at least two years during the last four years.
Enter your grades in your e-application. Then print the grades out and let your secondary school certify them with a stamp and a signature. Upload the scan of the certified grades into your e-application. You can also upload officially certified school reports or any other documents certifying your school results.
Please upload the officially certified documents directly to your e-application in the section Application for the Exemption from the Entrance Examination no later than 28 February.

For the entrance examination:

• Jaromír Schön, Občanský a společenskovědní základ. Náboženství, Kralice na Hané: Computer Media 2012.
• Bible. Písmo svaté Starého a Nového zákona, český ekumenický překlad, Praha: Česká biblická společnost 1985.

Further recommended literature:

• Bělka, Luboš - Fujda, Milan - Kubovčáková, Zuzana, Náboženství světa II: východní tradice, Brno: Masarykova univerzita 2014. (dostupné online)
• Filipský, Jan, Encyklopedie indické mytologie: postavy indických bájí a letopisů, Praha: Libri 1998.
• Horyna, Břetislav a Helena Pavlincová, Judaismus-Křesťanství-Islám, Olomouc: nakladatelství Olomouc, 2003.
• Chalupa, Aleš a kol., Náboženství světa I: západní tradice, Brno: Masarykova univerzita 2014. (dostupné online)
• Kropáček, Luboš, Duchovní cesty islámu, Praha: Vyšehrad, 6. vyd. 2018.
• Schubert, Kurt, Židovské náboženství v proměnách věků: zdroje, teologie, filosofie, mystika, vyd. 3., rev. Praha: Vyšehrad, 2010.

• Total number of points in the Field of Study Examination: 100
• Limit for successfully passing the Field of Study Examination: 60

Points are not deducted for incorrect answers.

The three-year Bachelor’s degree study programme in the Study of Religions pro-vides a comprehensive overview of the main religious traditions of the past and pre-sent, and the fundamentals of the theory, methodology, and history of the discipline. In addition, the main study plan enables students to acquire basic knowledge of a se-lected source language. The study plan also includes practical training in writing and presentation skills as well as in the selection of methods of historical, comparative, sociological, anthropological, and psychological research into religion. This practical training places an emphasis on identifying relevant sources of information, the devel-opment of analytical skills, the formulation of coherent and well-founded attitudes to phenomena of human culture both orally and in writing, creative thinking, and the adoption of an interdisciplinary mind-set. Attention is also paid to the development of skills necessary for the application of the study of religions in social practice.

The curriculum is organized on the basis of a credit system, offering individual choices concerning the study programme timeline and thematic modifications accord-ing to the individual area of interest. Type A/compulsory courses cover the main reli-gious traditions of the world, an introduction to the discipline and its transformations, and practically oriented methodological training. The vast range of optional courses on offer further develop and enrich the programme.

This study programme is suitable for graduates of all types of high schools who are interested in the dynamics of religion and in its functioning in both historical and con-temporary societies. The study programme provides a high-quality Bachelor’s degree education in the humanities and the social sciences provided by an internationally well-recognized department. The programme’s graduates are qualified for positions requiring analytical skills and orientation in the religious, cultural, and ethnic contexts of functioning and changing human societies.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• understand the basic social scientific assumptions and approaches in the study of human culture
• characterize the major religious traditions of the world
• search for information in various resources and both evaluate and synthesise it
• make correct use of the basic terminology of the most important religious traditions and of their historical and social scientific study
• differentiate and use various basic methods of data collection in humanities and the social sciences
• analyse different types of resources from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities
• write formally and factually correct texts on phenomena of human culture using relevant resources
• consider phenomena of human culture from a global and interdisciplinary perspective
• apply social scientific and humanities-based approaches and knowledge in professional activity as well as in the personal understanding of human behaviour

Graduates are qualified for positions requiring critical thinking and cross-cultural adaptability. They usually work in teaching, journalism, administration, specialized sectors of the tourist industry, non-governmental organizations, the media, project writing in both the public and private sectors, companies focusing on the develop-ment of games and on leisure activities, and start-ups requiring creative thinking. They can offer employers strong analytical skills, creative thinking, presentation skills, flexibility, intercultural orientation, familiarity with the assumptions and meth-ods of several disciplines within the humanities and the social sciences, the skill of writing original texts that are both formally and factually correct, the capacity to think in global and interdisciplinary terms, and the ability methodically to pursue complex, demanding, and long-term projects.

The study programme does not involve required practical training.

The Bachelor’s thesis in the Study of Religions involves the ability to formulate and pursue a project involving basic or applied research with the help of a super-visor. There are three Bachelor’s thesis seminars, which result gradualy in (1) a structured and annotated bibliography, excerpts from literature, and a summary of the intended topic, (2) a research project proposal, (3) a finalized text. Stu-dents choose the topic from topic lists published by individual supervisors or propose and gradually specify their own topic.

The length of the Bachelor’s thesis is 70, 000 to 80, 000 characters (ca. 40-45 standard pages). The thesis compulsory contains: Czech and English summary (1,800 characters each, including spaces, i. e. around 30 lines); and list of key words in Czech and English. These parts of the thesis are also submitted separately to the relevant IS MU files.

Obligatory parts of the thesis are: title page with the name of the university, faculty, and department; title of the thesis; name of the student; name of the supervisor; seat of the university (Brno) and year of submission; statement of originality; table of contents; bibliographic references throughout the text; list of sources and literature. The work must be paginated. It is not necessary to physically hand in the work. Submit the electronic version to the thesis archive in IS.

After completion of the Bachelor’s studies, graduates can continue further studies in the Master’s degree programme in the Study of Religions or any other Master’s degree programme (after satisfying the admission requirements).