Religious Studies

The fifth-grade religious studies program is rooted in Goal One of Sacred Heart education: to educate to a personal and active faith in God. Students explore their images of God and discover how their ideas of God are similar regardless of their faith traditions. They examine how God is revealed to people, including through the creation of the world and through the life and teachings of Jesus. They also learn the history of the Society of the Sacred Heart and deepen their understanding of the Goals and Criteria of Sacred Heart education. Students learn about foundational beliefs of the Catholic faith, and they are encouraged to consider how their beliefs affect the moral decisions they make each day.

Through the study of the sacraments, the Liturgy of the Mass and prayer, students learn how Catholics celebrate the continuing presence of God in their lives. They read scripture, prepare community prayer experiences and celebrate the liturgical seasons of the church. Through individual and group activities, students are encouraged to grow in their understanding of their relationships with God and with one another.

Please note that this is a two-period, cocurricular class.

This integrated course fulfills both the social studies and religious studies requirements for the 9th grade year. Developing a nuanced understanding of different cultures means developing religious literacy; these are intertwined, fundamental elements of these two disciplines. Students will examine multiple perspectives as they deepen their understanding of the world around them, past and present. By bringing two subjects together, students have the opportunity to build a framework to analyze the religious and social justice dimensions of social, political, and cultural life and to apply these skills to global issues such as human rights, the environment, and world health.

Students will engage in the study of world religions as a key component of understanding our global world and developing greater perspective-taking. In this course we also seek to examine and critique our own lenses, recognizing that Forest Ridge is a Sacred Heart School in a U.S. context, and to explore the diverse ideas that shape our increasingly interconnected global community. Skills developed include understanding human geography, textual analysis and interpretation, inquiry, discussion, research and writing, and personal reflection.

Students will engage in case studies, seminar discussions, creative and real-world writing assignments, Model UN, and other debates. Students who transfer into Forest Ridge after 9th grade must complete a Global Cultures module.

In this integrated English and religious studies course, students will explore how the Bible provides what critic Northrop Frye calls the “mythological framing of culture” to build a foundation for understanding a wide variety of texts and genres within American literature. Because religious and Christian values are embedded within the American story, we will encounter Biblical narratives, archetypes, and motifs both through scripture itself and through more contemporary literary forms, and we will develop a Biblical literacy to provide a depth of understanding and access to references and common interpretations of western culture. In the second semester, students will focus on the implications of narrative choices by using the lenses of race, class, and gender theory to look at contemporary American culture and the ways in which Catholic concepts shape individuals’ understandings and interactions with the world around them.

Year-long

Sophomore year is rooted in Goal Four of Sacred Heart education: the building of community as a Christian value. Sophomore year begins with an intimate study of Hebrew Scriptures as the founding experience and narrative of Christian values and community inherited through the Jewish context of its most influential members: Jesus, the Apostles, and Paul. With the Incarnation and the Trinity as the central focus, students will examine the earliest communal attempts at living out the teachings of Jesus. With a foundation in the beliefs, challenges, and models of the earliest Christian Church communities, students will analyze the past and contemporary life of the Catholic Church to identify the ways in which the teachings and Paschal Mystery of Christ is lived and proclaimed. Students will explore the dynamic and diverse nature of humanity, encounter the ways this same nature shapes Christian communities, and face the current realities and impacts of people who gather as communities founded by Jesus. This course is required for students who transfer into Forest Ridge in grades 11 and 12.

Prerequisite: None 
Grade level: 10
Credit earned: 1.0 Religious Studies

This course is offered every other school year. It will be offered in the 2022-2023 school year. 

Our world desperately needs leaders who embody what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Using the work of Brene Brown in Dare to Lead and the ‘Goals and Criteria’ that underpin the philosophy of the Network of Sacred Heart Schools and the Society of the Sacred Heart as a foundation for study, students will explore and deepen their personal leadership styles and learn about different models of leadership. Rooted in kinship, and informed by their study and personal growth, students will actively engage in service to their Forest Ridge community.

Many of the greatest masterpieces known to humankind were created out of a desire to understand, celebrate, and share an understanding or connection to the divine. Throughout the semester, students will both study the various eras of Christian art (Early Christian, Celtic, Baroque, etc.), as well as produce their own piece of art for each unit. We will focus on themes such as art as sacramentals, sacred space and architecture, as well as sacred symbolism seen throughout history. Students may earn credit for either a Fine Arts or Religious Studies class.

One Semester

This course is offered every other school year. It will be offered next in the 2023-24 school year. 

Indigenous voices are present across our world, both historically and today. This course is part of our commitment to centering those voices that have been historically marginalized and oppressed. Students explore the past and present of indigenous peoples through a social justice lens, challenging Western concepts of "knowledge," "history," and "religion." Students will study communities around the globe, as well as those living and fighting for recognition in our own nation and region. Themes of origin, spirituality, language, legal structures, resistance, and reparations guide our inquiry, and students investigate personal and institutional opportunities for reconciliation today.

One Semester
This course is offered every other school year. It will be offered next in the 2023-24 school year. 

Women In Religion gives students an opportunity to focus on the role women have played in religions across time and cultures. Students will examine the ways various religions interact with gender in their devotional beliefs, case studies focusing on women who have played important roles in religious communities and movements, and religious experiences of women in the contemporary world. With a focus on gender equality and social justice, the course will center texts of contemporary women’s theological scholarship in conversation with their own spiritual traditions. We will ask hard questions about the ways structures of power within religious institutions impact women, how women have resisted those structures, and why women continue to stay in religions that have oppressed them throughout history.

One Semester
This course is offered every other school year. It will be offered next in the 2022-23 school year. 

Social ethics investigates the moral dimensions of social structures and systems. This course will focus on the Catholic social ethics tradition and provide students with a broad but detailed introduction to classical theories of ethics, the relationship between theology and ethics, and contemporary ethical questions and frameworks. Students will apply these principles and frameworks to case studies in economics, politics, ecology, and conflict. Students will also be encouraged to examine their own moral beliefs in light of the course material.