The Department of Sociology offers courses leading to a specialized Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. It seeks to educate students about the social world and those disciplines that have historically sought to apply humanistic and scientific principles to describe and explain human behavior at all levels, from an unapologetically Christian point of view.

In fulfilling this mission, we are fully committed to the following goals. First, we strive to offer exceptional majors and minors in Sociology by providing professional instruction and well-designed curricula, which thoroughly ground our students in the facts, theories, and methods of these respective disciplines, in a manner that is intellectually excellent, practical, critical, and glorifying to God. Second, we foster interdisciplinary scholarship and cooperation within the social sciences that maximize the quality of individual and collective efforts inside, as well as outside, the classroom, and which ultimately rests upon philosophical premises consistent with Biblical truth. Third, we seek to promote the advancement of individual, economic, civil and religious liberty, morality, and responsibility through the content of our courses and other professional work, and through the character and ideals we model for, and inculcate in, our students.

CURRICULA

The Sociology program of Grove City College rests upon the belief that the study of social relationships and social organization, under-girded by a Christian worldview, is essential for all who are committed to shaping our nation upon the ideals and institutions of a free society. Our department, consequently, prepares students (majors and non-majors) for careers in public policy, graduate study and professional research, criminal justice, or the helping professions.

Although we use the basic sociological theories in our teaching, we analyze their premises and conclusions in light of our Christian presuppositions. While we believe in the value of careful, thorough, empirically-based research, we attempt to be guided in our research by biblical principles as they apply to the subjects under investigation.

In sum, we seek to help develop a Christian mind, to use the principles and methods of sociology to examine and understand the world (especially the group of behaviors, institutional structures, and social forces that so deeply affect the lives of individuals), and to serve God and others faithfully and creatively in contemporary society.