The study of Religion, Philosophy & Ethics at Trinity School assists students in developing literacy in cultural, philosophical, and religious worldviews, in addition to helping them formulate their own personal ethical positions and existential identities. Seminar-style classes allow for a safe and stimulating environment in which students are challenged to share their perspectives on the human condition.

Upper School students enroll into at least one Religion, Philosophy & Ethics seminar as a requirement for graduation. Taken in either the junior or senior year, these college-level courses offer students an opportunity to study world religions or ethics. Recent religion seminars have included Religious Phenomenology, Literature in Asian Religions, and Sin & Redemption. Some of these seminars approach religion as a lived experience, and others follow historical or comparative theological models. The department’s ethics seminars encourage a deep critical engagement with a host of socially relevant ethical issues from violence to bioethics.

The unifying mission of the department is to examine how individuals and groups construct and experience meaningful worldviews. Whether the topic is animal research, religious conversion, or mystical experience, students explore an array of questions and themes by entering into conversations with classic and contemporary texts. These conversations span traditional disciplinary boundaries and draw upon knowledge from other courses and disciplines.

An Upper School student will leave a Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Seminar with an exposure to at least two world religions and familiarity with a specific methodological approach. Students leave the department’s seminars with much more than an introduction to the disciplines of Religion and Philosophy. They leave with an interdisciplinary language for thinking about what it means to be a questioning person in a pluralistic world.

Graduation Requirement: 1 semester