This article argues the importance of including religion in the curriculum of undergraduate studies. Religion is, at its nexus, an ideology, a belief system that reverberates through literature and history. Such knowledge in itself is invaluable for students, introducing them to the difference between ideology and fact and to how ideology becomes intertwined with politics, economics, and other social forces. Introduced to such concepts, students begin to gain a more informed vision of religion which affords them the opportunity to engage (...) in more complex, synthetic interdisciplinary studies in a way that better mirrors our world. They become engaged in critical thinking that takes them beyond their own personal belief systems. (shrink)