Religion matters. It obviously influences individuals who worship Krishna or Jesus or the Buddha, but it also shapes societies, influences elections, impacts health and medical care, and even moves militaries around the globe. Whether you are religious or not, you can’t understand the world without knowing something about the religious beliefs, rituals, and organizations that, for better or for worse, make history and shape culture. In BU’s Department of Religion, we study all those things in an effort to better understand the past and to make sense of the world around us today.