Studying religion gave me the skills needed to be an attorney

NAME: Noah Dwyer 
CLASS YEAR: 2017
WARTBURG MAJOR: Religion
CURRENT ROLE: Attorney

WHY DID YOU CHOSE TO STUDY RELIGION: I wanted to dive into topics that had a large impact on my life for myself. I wanted to better understand the faith tradition I was a part of and to grow as a person. 

HOW DID YOUR RELIGION MAJOR PREPARE YOU FOR YOUR CURRENT ROLE: The study of religion made me a better reader and writer as well as a more thorough critical thinker. Being trained in detailed examination of a text as well as critical analysis of what words mean and how people use them has been crucial to my development and career. Not only that, but ministry oriented classes and activities helped me to learn to be a better listener, to appreciate people’s inner lives in a deeper way, and to focus on what matters in peoples’ lives. 

WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT STUDYING RELIGION: I found the language and history aspects of the study of religion particularly interesting. Learning koine (biblical era) Greek as well as Hebrew was fascinating, and diving into the cultures and stories of worlds so unlike our own gave me new perspectives. 

HOW DID THE EXPERIENCE SHAPE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE WORLD:  My professors were excellent at refusing to let me sit complacently in my own beliefs. Why I thought something to be the case was what mattered. I learned to critically examine my own thoughts and to look for the foundations of what and why people believe what they do. This helped me see the depth of worldviews I otherwise might have struggled with as I learned to push myself to understand others and the foundations for their points of view.

HOW DID THE FACULTY HELP YOU GROW AS AN INDIVIDUAL AND IN YOUR VIEWS: More than anything, my study with the faculty in the religion department taught me how to think. Professors, it seemed to me, were not as interested in what you ended up believing as how you achieved the result. I learned to be more thorough, to explore ideas that I was uncomfortable with, to entertain the idea that I might be wrong, not to rush to conclusions, and to better sympathize with others’ points of view. These lessons have been crucial to my further development both personally and in my career, and I would not trade them for anything.