BACHELOR OF ARTS HONOURS RELIGION LEADERSHIP AND SOCIETY (HRLS)

Module Code	Module Name	Description
HRLS100	Introduction to Christian Leadership and Social Transformation	This module enables students to explore the interface between leadership theory and practice; and to appreciate varied leadership models from a broad socio-economic context. The module notes that whenever societies have experienced sustainable development the processes has always been triggered by good and transformative leadership styles that prioritize and promote human and socio-economic transformation guided by sound administrative policies and clear developmental visions and strategies. The drive to innovate and industrialise must be centered on transformative leadership models.
HRLS101	ntroduction to Religious Texts and Development	This module enables students to deepen their knowledge about cultures, religions, politics and development from a broad historical epoch, religio-cultural contexts and geo-political environments. Religious Texts embody language, metaphors and idioms through which religious communities think and talk about visions of development and social development. Despite the pervasive spread of secularization in the world today, non-western societies continue to highly value religious beliefs in ways that have implications for socio-economic transformation. The module will enable students to refine and contextualize their ideas about religion, language, society, development and social-transformation.
HCDP100	Introduction to Psychology (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences)
HRLS103	Religion and Society	This module explores the nature of the Christian Faith, its efficacy and role in the development of any society. The module interrogates the central beliefs and values of the Christian faith within and among human cultures and civilizations from varied social and religious perspectives. The module examines key beliefs and values of African, European, Asian, Meso-American civilizations that have greatly influenced the world. Topics will include its impact in human history and development (societal and intellectual) in areas such as human rights, art, architecture and philosophy, which areas are important for national development.
HRLS104	Cross Cultural studies and Homiletics	This module introduces learners to a critical appreciation of Cross-cultural Studies and Homiletics within a broader context of social formation, transformation, integration and reconciliation. The module is built around practical issues of public speaking, critical thinking in decoding scriptural texts and the application of the same to authentic contexts. Furthermore, the modules explores cross-cultural and feminists realities in and of textual interpretations.
HRLS105	Religious Texts and Social Order	This module explores the role of various religious texts (some of the oldest manuscripts in the world) in the development of human society. Insights from these revered religious texts have and continue to serve several purposes, like providing answers to spiritual mysteries, offering emotional comfort and creating a place for social interaction (pilgrimages). The module demonstrates how insights drawn from these ancient documents can be instrumental in the maintenance of social cohesion and order, aspects which are critical in setting the foundation for progressive innovation and development. Therefore, the module makes an introspection of how various civilisations developed and solved various communal challenges. The module capacitates learners with the ability to use these religious texts to map out answers for contemporary problems and challenges facing the society today.
HRLS200	Religion, Social Justice and Human Rights	The module focuses on the interface between religion, social justice and human rights. Religion has been seen as a double edged sword that is, promoting or suppressing social justice and human rights. Activists of human rights movements have seen religion as a stumbling block to the promotion of social justice while on the other hand religious practitioners have seen human rights as corrupting religion. The module explores how religion interacts with human rights in areas of social justice, social action, and gender equity. In the module, issues such as the relationship between Christianity and social action, the Hebrew bible and social justice, Jesus and justice, and religion and gender equity are interrogated. It is cross-disciplinary module that brings together experts from faculties of law and humanities. The promotion of human rights creates a safe space for innovation and industrialization. Here, religious tenets are examined in order to establish how they impact on human rights. At the completion of the module, students should be in a position to understand human rights and how they interact with religion in the context of innovation and development.
HRLS202	Religion, Peace and African Renaissance	The module introduces students to religion in the context of African renaissance. The African Renaissance is the concept that African people and nations shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. Therefore. this module demonstrates how Religion has the potential to cause peace and tranquility, elements that are critical in the drive to innovate and develop the African continent. The module further explores the role of religion in peace building particularly in the context of a cascade of conflicts in Africa. The module demonstrates how the positive side of Religion can be harnessed for peace and reconciliation in society, aspects that are very critical in causing innovation and development.
HRLS201	Religion, Health and Well-being	The module deals with a very important aspect of people’s lives. It explores the role played by religion in the health and wellbeing of a nation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) discerns four dimensions of health, namely physical, social, mental, and spiritual health. Having religious beliefs may have both positive and negative impacts on health and morbidity. From this perspective, this module explores the most contemporary modes of religious and spiritual thought with particular emphasis on their relevance to current health related challenges in society. Taking an eclectic approach to the study of human values, health, and emotional welfare, this module interrogates the importance of mental and physical health in relation to innovation and development. The module is designed to empower students with the capacity to utilize religious knowledge in dealing with people affected by Disability, HIV/Aids pandemic, Cancer among other challenges. In essence, the module examines the contribution of religion to issues relating to health and wellbeing in the context of development
HRLS203	Religion, Conflict Management and Resolution	This module dialogues with the role of African Traditional Religion/s, African Christianity, Biblical models, Theology and Politics in managing sustainable peace, justice and harmony in Africa and uses Zimbabwe as a Case Study. The module is premised on the understanding that although Zimbabwe has witnessed episodes of political violence due to tribal or ethnic differences and intra-party fighting, no major steps have been taken to ensure non-violent atmosphere. The Political leadership and civic organizations have in the forefront in calling for non-violence to calm the situation but with very little success. The module notes that the involvement of Traditional Religious Leaders, Church Leaders and theologians has not been accorded adequate space in the efforts for non-violence and peace. This module discusses the role of traditional and African Cristian practitioners and theologians as powerful resources in the prevention of violence and conflict and attainment of sustainable peace and harmony in society, which aspects are critical in the realization of innovation and development.
HRLS204	Religion and Politics	This Module examines the interface between Religion and Politics in human and social development. The Module makes it clear that the relationship between religion and politics is as old as human existence and that this complex relationship continues to be an important theme in contemporary studies and human societies. The modules reveals that the importance of this topic is premised on the fact that Religions often make strong claims on people’s allegiance which have a fundamental effect in social development and growth. The module examines how the interface between religion and politics affects development and innovation.
HRLS205	Multi-Culturalism and Human Development	This module brings together a cluster of courses that explore the phenomena of Religion and culture in human development and of greater interest being the challenge of cultural plurality in the African context which presents real challenges in the subject of development. Issues of class, race and intolerance in general and of religious intolerance in particular are examined towards entrenching an understanding of the role and place of Religion in the question of cultural relativism, problems of cultural difference, class and race issues, issues of Colonialism and decolonisation of the mind. Furthermore, issues of Cultural separatism, Cultural confrontation and Cultural assimilation (the ‘melting pot’) are addressed through this module. The overall goal of this cluster of courses is to strive towards an objective philosophy of culture and the phenomenon of religion in the context of development.
HRLS300	Christian History and Thought	Cognisant of the fact that history informs the present and future, this modules examines the role that Christianity has played in aiding the development of civilisations. The module examines the growth and impact of Christianity at the centre of human life. The module deals with the ways in which Christianity as a worldwide major religion and civilization has impacted and continues to impact on the discourse of innovation and development.
HRLS301	The Bible and Society	The module is designed to deepen the learners understanding of various Biblical Themes. By focusing on selected themes, the module seeks to understand the importance of the teachings of the Biblical text, closely investigating their origins, development and deployment in the shaping of Israelite religious history. The aim of this module is twofold: First, it allows students to move away from engaging the Biblical text as simply a collection of books to engaging it as a combination of questions and answers to critical human existential challenges. Second, the module capacitates students to engage with the Bible in the light of its continued relevance in addressing contemporary challenges that impede on innovation and development in society. As such, the module focuses on issues to do with political violence, governance, social justice, gender struggles, Environmental issues, democracy and Human rights in the context of Biblical insights regarding these.
HRLS302	Classical Thinking and Social Transformation	This module introduces students to the Graeco-Roman world as an influencing factor in the birth and growth of Christianity. The module has, as its thrust a deliberate direction towards understanding Christianity from the power and influence of Greek and Roman civilizations. Central to the module, therefore, is the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and history as a way of locating how these civilisations influenced the development of Christianity and the development of civilizations in particular. It is also inescapable that Graeco-Roman intellectual discourse, social life and politics would have a huge bearing in the art and theology of the Christian Church.
HRLS305	Christianity in Africa	This module is basically a methodological appreciation of the story of African Christianity. The module looks at ways and means through which Christianity in Africa, as a one of the major religion and civilisation, has contributed and continues to contribute to development and innovation. It is basically a historiographic course that deals with how the subject matter of Christianity has been approached in the context of development in Africa
HRLS306	Theology and Contemporary Issues	This Module introduces learners to greater appreciation of how Theology has influenced societies and how it can influence social change and innovative developmental discourses in our contemporary landscape. The module interrogates the link between Theology and Human Development in ways and means that help students to apply critical theological thinking on contemporary issues that tend to polarize society and those issues that are unique to the era of postmodernity. Such issues relate to the intersection of Theology and Health (Global Pandemics), Theology and Gender, Theology and Science, Theology and Death, Theology and Entrepreneurship amongst others.
HRLS307	Religious Texts and Social Justice	In any given context, innovation and development must be premised upon the idea of social justice. As such, this module explores how religious texts espouse the idea of social justice, which idea is central to the drive to establish a just society. It is cross-disciplinary module that brings together experts from faculties of law and humanities with the view of demonstrating that the idea of social justice creates a safe space for innovation and industrialization
HRLS370	Work-Related Learning	Students shall engage on activities whose cumulative effect is to satisfy requirements for industrial attachment. They go into communities and map (document) heritage resources in those communities. The record will be used by investors, rural and town planners. Students are expected to come up with databases of the heritage recorded with an articulation of its value/significance to the community documented. These will be presented in the form of a seminar with the final submission being a written report.
HRLS400	Comparative Methodologies in the Study of Religion	This Module deals with various comparative methodologies of used in the study of religion. Religion will be understood in a more general sense. The module will introduce students to approaches of studying religions that the module covers, and these include all Asiatic, African and Chinese religions with a view to promote interreligious dialogue and minimize conflict
HRLS 401	Religion, Culture and Gender	The module, deals with selected themes in the context of religion, culture and gender. It examines the historical and methodological issues in the study of religion and gender. This enables the students to understand what has been done and where we are in terms of methodologies used to understand the issues gender in religious studies. This is followed by unveiling how African traditional religion, culture are related with gender. An additional religion (Christianity) is also of major concern in this module. The highlight of the module is an exploration of a variety of contemporary themes in the study of religion and gender such as sexuality, music, higher education, amongst a lot more. The last part of the module is also an aspect of community outreach
HRLS402	Research Methodology	This module discusses basic information about research methods used for academic and professional inquiry of information, practices, texts and technologies with a view to achieve knowledge and understanding of the significance of Religion, Society and Development. It offers an overview of the different approaches such as Theological, Historical, Anthropological, Psychological, Sociological, Comparative, Phenomenological, Hermeneutical etc), with considerations to the challenges involved in social scientific research. It also examines the applications, strengths and criticisms of these approaches in academic studies. It also examines both the qualitative and quantitative methods and allows an understanding of research methods such as interviews,ethnographies, surveys and experiments, internet etc. The module will discuss mixed method approaches, case studies, participatory and user-centred research. The module also introduces students to techniques of community outreach programs, field research and writing dissertations
HRLS404	Theology and Environmental Stewardship	The environmental issues are topical in the global politics and economy and more particularly in the discourse of innovation and development. No meaningful discussion on sustainable development goals can take place without discussing environmental issues particularly the subject of global warming. This module tackles an important aspect of the environmental stewardship. It interrogates the response of the theologian on climate change vis-à-vis good stewardship. The module further interrogates how secularization has impacted negatively on the environment in particular bad business practices. The module compliments the faculty of geography and environmental sciences in giving the theological and religious input of the environment. Experts from the areas of geography and ecology can core teach some topics on ecology and environment while experts from theology give the theological input. Therefore, it is a cross-disciplinary module
HRLS405	Religion, Culture and Heritage	The module examines relationships between religion, culture, and identity. It seeks to analyze heritage preservation and representation, investigate faith, spirituality, and social change and reflect on intercultural dialogue and understanding.
HRLS460	Dissertation	Students are given an opportunity to carry out an academic research project on a topic of their choice as a way of showing their innovative understanding and application of issues they have studied. With the guidance from a member of the academic staff as supervisor, the learners plan and design an independent research project.