Religious Roots of Europe: Law and Religion in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

This course explores the relationship between law and religion in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. You follow the development of these traditions from antiquity to the present and learn how each religion has formed its own legal ideas and practices.

The course consists of three modules and begins by looking at what “law” and “religion” actually mean, and how these concepts are understood in both legal and religious studies. In the second module, you move into the long late Antiquity (0–1000 CE), when the three religions emerged and interacted with each other as well as with Greco Roman thought and legal systems. Finally in the third module, you study specific places and contemporary cases where religion and law meet: at home, in places of worship, within the state, and in courts of law.

This last module may also include an extended field trip abroad.

Course literature

The course literature listed may be updated up to eight weeks before the course begins.

The course is partly offered online and uses digital tools, which means you need regular access to a computer and internet. The teaching includes lectures, digital activities, as well as a so-called compact seminar over 3-5 full days on campus.

The course may also include an optional study trip abroad. If you participate in this trip, you cover your travel costs and meals, while the department covers accomodations and excursions.

Throughout the course, you complete compulsory written or oral assignments in addition to a final written exam.

This course gives you a strong foundation for continued studies in religion, law, or humanities. You develop skills in analysis, interpretation, and understanding of how legal and religious ideas shape societies. Such knowledge is valuable in fields like cultural studies, public sector work, international organisations, or further academic research.

This course can be studied as a component of the Master's programme Religious Roots of Europe (120 credits). It can also be studied as a freestanding course, and shares its three modules with the 15 credits course ”Law and Religion in Judaism, Christianity and Islam” (CTRR17) in which a fourth module is added.

Prerequisites

To be admitted to the course, the student must have a Bachelor's degree specialising in theology, religious studies, classical philology, classical archaeology, history, law or equivalent.

Selection criteria

Seats are allocated according to: ECTS (HPAV): 100 %.

Tuition fees for non-EU/EEA citizens

Citizens of countries outside:

• The European Union (EU)
• The European Economic Area (EEA) and
• Switzerland

are required to pay tuition fees. You pay an instalment of the tuition fee in advance of each
semester.

Tuition fees, payments and exemptions

Full programme/course tuition fee: SEK 22,500
First payment: SEK 22,500

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Note that you may also need to pay an application fee, or provide proof of exemption.

Application fee

No tuition fees for citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland

There are no tuition fees for citizens of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.